Thanksgiving is not just one day of the year!!

Freedom of speech is one of those things in life that people will continue to take for granted until it is no longer present. Only when our freedom approaches a point of no return will our society remember what was once found. For example, some people do not appreciate the sun on a day to day basis because they “know” that it will be in the same place every single day no matter what they do. What the general public must understand is that our freedom of speech is being hindered in a number of different ways. Currently there are two forces that are filtering speech on the internet. There are the private companies and then there is the government. According to Lessig, these private filters that are in fact subsidized by the government are blocking content beyond the purpose of regulating speech. In addition to filtering “too much”, people are also unable to regulate these filters because they are created and sold by private companies. People are blind when this occurs because people are not notified when information is filtered by private companies. That is why I feel people should make sure their rights remain in tact on a day to day basis, because as soon as businesses/government find a way to slowly censor society more and more I promise that they will choose to do just that. So remember be thankful for your freedom of speech everyday, because without speech who are you?

I’m happy with my life, I don’t need a second one

I listened to the clip on “talk of the nation” where they discussed virtual worlds, including the very popular one called Second Life. To be honest I find this whole concept of virtual worlds kind of creepy and weird. I mean why would someone rather sit by themselves at home on their computer and do the things they want to do on this game, when they should be out in the real world doing the things that make me happy. Are these just all the people who are too afraid to go for what they want in real life? I was really surprised to how serious people take it as well. In the clip they talk about how one can better learn about how people behave and interact by observing the avatars online. I have trouble believing the fact that therapists, who go to school and work very hard for their degrees, can learn more and become better at their profession in any way from this game. Yes there are real people controlling these characters but they are not real people! How can we be certain that the way the avatars behave is the same exact way the people controlling them behave? I also feel that people take their relationships and interactions a little too serious as well. I mean you cant take it too personal if someone is mean to you on a game. People get married who are actually married in real life, and this causes complications in their marriage. This just all seems like a little much for me. I can see how it can be an interesting game and I am not trying to step on anyone’s toes, but I feel that people are taking it a little too serious.

Virtual Worlds of Warcraft

When it comes to living in a virtual world, there is one game that comes to mind for me: World of Warcraft. It holds the record for highest subscriber base of any MMORPG (11 million players), and just recently its expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, broke the record for fastest selling computer game, selling 2.8 million copies in 24 hours. Needless to say, the game is pretty popular. In fact, the game is so popular that people are able to make real money using the game's economy. There are hundreds of companies in China that hire young people to do what is called "gold farming". They put time into procuring valuable items which they sell at "auction houses" in the game for gold, the in-game currency. This gold can then be sold to players for real currency. In some cases, people can make more money by "gold farming" than they would be able to make otherwise. Even though they are not doing "real" work in the "real" world, they are paid for their efforts. They are, in a way, breaking down the barriers between the virtual and real world. Not only can you spend most of your time having fun in a virtual world, you can actually make a living there as well. As the information age progresses and more and more people become connected through virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, I believe that these "virtual jobs with real pay" can only increase in number. Is it that odd for people to be able to make money playing games? According to modern times, no: athletes are able to make almost obscene amounts of money by just "playing a game". There are even people out there that compete in competitive video game tournaments with real money as prizes. Slowly but surely, virtual worlds are becoming more prominent in our society. Is it that strange for people to make money in these virtual worlds like they would in the real world?

Second Life?

Do you ever wonder that life could be very perfect? Or, do you ever wonder if you could change what you do not like about yourself into something that you eagerly dying for? I wish I could but I doubt it. But you can definitely change it in the virtual world called Second Life. Basically, Second Life is an internet-based virtual world. You can create an “avatar”, in which it represents yourself in Second Life, or also called as alter ego. Through this virtual world, the users could interact with each other or to make it easier, this virtual world resembles the real world. Second Life also has its own currency which calls as “Linden Dollar”. The Linden Dollar can be used as we use money in real world, where we could buy goods, land, services and also trading goods with other users. The users can get the Linden Dollar by exchanging their US Dollar to Linden Dollar and using it in Second Life. These might sound interesting right?
However, what if you spend hours a day to be in the Second Life, become addicted to it and consider it as your real life? I think that this is scary. Just like in the handout that Prof Perry gave in the class about a woman divorcing with his husband after he found out that she is married with her in-world boyfriend in Second Life. Then, the woman met up with her virtual “husband” and realized that she did not really want that guy. If we think rationally, why should she choose to have relationship in the virtual world? For me, everything in the virtual world is unreal. We should not expect that anyone in the virtual world in better than the one that we met in real world. These people who obsessed with this virtual world, they should wake up from sleep, that virtual world is nonsense and they should just live out their own lives as the way it should be.

Entering a conversation

Earlier on the semester, we were exposed to Graff and Birkenstein’s idea about ‘They say/Isay’. They promote people to enter a 'conversation' through writings. A new way of 'They say/I say' is now happening in the Internet, see youtube for an example. People broadcast their opinion in the form of video, and other people see these videos and they’ll response either through written comments or video response. I am surprised to see that a single video can generate thousands of response. And they are not just crappy or 'unintellectual' responses, but a lot of people are actually thinking about the issue and put their effort to express their own thoughts about the matter being discussed. With the Internet, it is possible to add our own opinion, argue and interact not only with the person (who first came up with the idea), but also with anyone who would love to engage in this new this new type of conversation. Everyone benefit from this process. People who publish the idea learn to receive criticisms from people who saw the content. The readers can get insights from different perspective instead of limiting it to just one source. This eventually leads to a better understanding and being well-informed. And this can be achieved by being exposed to a wide variety of viewpoints. I think it is good when people do not see the differences among them as a threat. Instead of being frightened or paranoid, they try to learn about what makes people different and treat others with respect.

Dude can you hear that? No? Something must be wrong with me.

Do you remember your mom telling you to turn down your music? Well what if you could listen to your music louder than ever, and you would be the only person that could hear it? Well I guess you are right you do have an iPod and a pair of headphones, but that is not really the same. There is this new thing that the military created that enables them to control sounds and direct it toward and individual within range. They can control is so well that not one person can hear the sound except the person that it is directed toward. So instead of getting tasered and dying like everyone else that you hear about, you can settle with just getting your ear drums blown. Sounds like a good deal right? Well, no. You see the thing here is that people who create this technology don’t just use it when the time is right. They continue to perfect it until they can use it for situations other than crowd control. Lessig even says that there are a lot of technological issues that we can not keep up with. Something like this might be used unethically. In fact further research and innovation made this product capable of reading thoughts. What if you were just walking around thinking about some new venture or product that you wanted to start, and someone just decided hey I am going to use this new technology and steal that guy’s ideas? I don’t know if your brain thinks like that, but hey I’ll know shortly right after I get my hands on this new technology. I mean listening in on phone conversations is one thing, but what the hell are you suppose to do when someone is listening to your thoughts? WTF!!! I personally believe that my thoughts are my most important property that I own. My thoughts make me who I am, and I for one do not want anyone swimming around in my head. It is like in Minority Report when Tom Cruise is walking around in the shopping mall, and all the ads are directed right at Mr. Cruise. This is similar to what would occur if this technology went public. Businesses would want to use it for marketing purposes whereas the government would want to use it for protection purposes. Businesses would be able to be more effective when marketing and advertising to consumers. They would know exactly what you liked and didn’t like because they would be in your head. This is something that makes sense, but what if people began using this technology for reasons other than marketing? Again that is why Lessig stresses the fact that technology is developing so fast, society can not keep up with it.

Mom get off the phone!!!!

Don’t you remember the days when you had that girl in your fifth grade class that would always call your home and your mom would pick up? Well I do. Man, did I have a crush on her. My mom would giggle and hand me the phone, and I would always always turn red. I felt so weird talking on the phone with the girl, because I could never tell if my mom was listening to our conversation on the other line. Now that I am older my mom is not the problem. I wish she was the problem because now that I am old enough I can tell her to get a life (she is sooo annoying). Now I really have no idea who is listening in on my phone conversations. Is there someone recording my conversations? Is there someone listening at all times? Did I say something that is going to get me in trouble? These are just a few of the things that I think about when I am on the phone. Sometimes I feel like I can’t even talk about action movies with my friends on the phone, because all we talk about is how much we love to see things blow up. The point that I am trying to reach here is that I love my privacy!! Privacy is something that every person should have the right too. If I do not have privacy, or “alone time”, I do not feel like a human being. Instead I feel like I am just a little fish swimming in the open sea where anyone that wants to run into me can because there are no barriers just like phone lines. Phones have been tracked, traced, and tapped for years now, and I just can’t get over it. I am no longer comfortable sharing my thoughts with anyone on the phone. If you want to talk to me, we can meet face to face. I just wish I was 4 again, so I could worry less about invasion of privacy and more about getting my pee in the toilet.