Piracy and Us

          Free is always better. No matter what was free, it is always in demand if it is free. Music is probably the first and easiest piece of memory to pirate. Napster was the first streaming site that ended up shutting down. But this does not mean it stopped piracy. Youtube, a worldwide sensation, has also been sued by the entertainment industry for its users uploading information that is not theirs to upload. Youtube, who was acquired by Google, luckily did not have to close like Napster. But what is piracy? And do we do it unknowingly?

         

         Piracy nowadays is a very serious offense, but we all do it. And we all do it knowingly. Many a times my friends will download a torrent, program, movie, or music without paying for it and they will send it to anyone they know that would like it too. This causes a huge problem for the entertainment industry and anything that is digitized. Just in computer programming class the other day, we learned that if we got good enough at programming, we could go into a program that needs a cd key to run and disable it so it runs without one. This would be major piracy. Of course having it to ourselves would not cause that much of a commotion, but the real problem is that we can’t keep such things to ourselves. We post it online; we transfer it through USBs. Because somewhere out there, someone will want the same thing we want and we, being relatively nice people, will post it online and give it to him or her.

        

         Piracy of movies and music make the entertainment industry lose billions. That is why they are trying so hard to stop it from happening. But is it really our fault as consumers? Should we be fined for downloading music or movies? From a personal perspective, I at first did not believe it is wrong for us to download music or movies or software. But after much thought, how comfortable would I be with other people taking my stuff without my consent especially intellectual property? From a business perspective, piracy is horrible. It is downright stealing. It is a crime and those who do it should be finned and repeat offenders should be put in jail! But is that practical? Definitely not, entertainment companies can’t throw their viewers and loyal fans in jail. Then they wouldn’t be making money either.

         

         So should we or should we not download things? That is to our own discretion. Nowadays, bands and celebrities try their best to ask their loyal fans not to pirate their music or shows. But sometimes spending a couple cents on a song or hundreds of dollars for a software program just isn’t what we want to do. But before you decide to go online and pirate it, think about whether or not we would like it if it was our intellectual property at stake. Would you fight to protect your ownership rights? So next time before you hit download, just pause and think about it.

Technology and Family and Me

          I would have never thought I was addicted to texting or any type of social media network or game. And if I was addicted, I thought I could easily peel myself away from the screen of my phone or laptop, but sadly I was terribly wrong. When my phone broke during the last week of winter quarter, my days seemed endless. My hands felt empty. I craved to send out one successful text message. I even texted people in hopes that my phone would magically begin to work. In the end, I caved and bought an iPhone4. Am I proud of it? Not really.

In my house we have three desktop computers, three laptops, and an iPad. The iPad was definitely an unnecessary purchase. All we’ve done with the iPad is download games that now take up most of my parents’ time at home. My dad, who used to never play games, now plays games for at least three hours every night now. And their conversations all are about who did better in their game. My mom also sometimes declines to make dinner now. The iPad has definitely changed our lives. Now on Friday nights when I go home, we don’t eat dinner till nine and they bicker about who gets to play with the iPad. Our lives have been revolutionized. For the good and the bad.

           

          Technology has connected our family. We email each other and even Skype each other. We call each other day and night just to make sure we are all okay. Advancement in communication technology has allowed my family to connect with our relatives overseas. All in all, we are more connected with everyone. Parents nowadays also want to get into social media. My mom has asked to join Facebook, but I have been hesitant to sign up for her due to privacy issues and her prying into my personal life. But lots of teens are hesitant about sharing their social network pages with their parents. Plus, if my parents found Facebook as fascinating as the iPad, they would be on it for hours on end.

          

          Does technology ever affect family life? For my family, it definitely does. We talk about what we do everyday. So if technology dictated our day, then we talk about it. We now rarely buy the newspaper; we just read it online. My father watches Chinese shows on a software called PPS. Our family doesn’t even use the television if we are not tuning into a live show. This is how much technology has revolutionized our lives.

         

          I do feel sad about some things. I miss the days that the three of us lounged in the living room and watched television. But since we live in the middle of Silicon Valley, it is kind of hard to limit our contact with technology. In the future, I hope that as a family, we can concentrate less on technology and more on ourselves. Technology can never be separated from us, but hopefully we are less addicted and less reliant on it. 

My Media Diet

The week of May 14^th to 18^th

Monday:

Computer – at least 7 hours

Studied for Management 80 midterm using powerpoints for at least 4 hours. Another hour of watching Fringe on Hulu. Last few hours spend on programming homework.

Television – at least half an hour

Browsing the food channel and the travel channel.

Reading – roughly 3 hour

Going through chapters for management 80 test simultaneously with computer use.

Tuesday:

Computer – at least 7 hours

Studying for Buddhism for 4 hours. 

Television – at least half an hour

Browsing travel channel and Animal planet.

Reading – roughly 2 hours

Reading Buddhism for test and statistics for test.

Wednesday:

Computer – at least 7 hours

Debugging programming homework for 3 hours. Played League of Legends for 3 hours. Went on youtube to look at videos and surfed Facebook.

Television – at least half an hour

Animal planet.

Thursday:

Computer – roughly 8 hours

Went on youtube to watch random videos of adorable animals. Watched Modern Family and Outsourced on Youtube. Wrote a computer program in C for OMIS 30 which took up roughly 5 hours. Played league of legends at night for at least 3 hours.

Television – at least half an hour

Travel Channel Bizarre Foods

Friday:

Computer – less than 5 hours

Watched Hulu and caught up on shows like Bones and House. Surfed the web and chatted with friends. Watching Hulu probably took up a good 4 hours. The last hour was periodic checking of Facebook and chatting.

Television – at least half an hour

Random Asian dramas.

I am definitely ashamed that the only reading that I do is for if I need to take a test the next day or for class. I wish I had more time for just recreational reading. From my media diet, you can see that the websites such as Hulu have decreased the importance of television in my life.

I think my media diet is like any other college student except for the decrease of Facebook use or sites such as myspace or blogger. The normal college teen does not have the time to sit in front of a television on most nights to watch. What everyone also has in common is some for of chatting going on simultaneously while doing homework or studying for a test. I think we are all guilty of believing we are great at multitasking.

As a society, I believe we are moving towards watching things online. We read actual books less and less. We are more accustomed to digital versions that are not susceptible to weather or spillage. Living in the Silicon Valley is much different than living anywhere else in the world. We try to get the newest gadgets and best technology. People here are very tech savvy. And being one of the residents here, I feel compelled to use all the different social networks to be able to keep up with everyone else. I think most people feel that way.

I would like to change my diet in the future to read more without having to be compelled by midterms and finals. I don’t think that watching and reading news on a computer inhibits my ability to understand it. I would like to spend less time on the computer though. So hopefully in the future I can accomplish that. 

Required Blog 3: Technology and Social Interaction

Being able to talk to your friend half way across the world and staying connected with old friends is something that we may all want to do but not have the time to do. With the introduction of social networks, it has been made easy and accessible. We can chat with friends who are on vacation and browse through silly photos. But are we too addicted to our online relationships and browsers than real tangible relationships?

Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc. are all great social networks that connect people together. But these sites along with dating sites, Craigslist, ROPGs, etc. are taking people away from the world. We often joke around about those gamers who are locked in their parents’ basement who only have relationships with their tiny graphical characters and their pixilated friends. But they are just like those who are addicted to Facebook. These people are not doing anything wrong. They are doing what marketers want them to do. They are intended to make people want to stay online, just like in any other industry. But these social networks have become too addicting and sometimes even dangerous. They start taking away time that these individuals could be spending making meaningful deep connections with the people around them and replacing it with chat windows and abbreviated words. Children are going online at younger and younger ages and they are getting attached to mini forms of social networks like Penguin Club and the online world on Build a Bear factory.

I personally do not think one person can have a solid relationship with someone on the Internet. As human beings, we learn by using all of our senses. We see the facial expressions and the body language. We learn about people through seeing through someone and learning about their habits. We cannot do that through a chat window. Sitting in front of a computer also leads to health problems. Obesity, back pain, high blood pressure, bad eyesight, etc. are all things that can occur due to immobility for extended periods of time. Children are maturing way faster than they should. Social networking sites and other sites are a danger to them. News of cyber bullying or such things prove this as do other news. We as a community should be careful about not only what we put on the Internet and whether we should decide to trust those we meet.

As a society, we should try to captivate the individual to want to go out and meet people. Social networks are tools that help us keep in contact with those who are far away and to meet new people. But they are not there to dominate our lives. We rely on technology today so much that it may seem that we may not survive without it. A day without checking up with friends may let us feel out of the look. But in reality, if we take the time to set up a meeting, it will help us improve with our social life in the real world. Our government and community should try to help us and protect us from virtual reality. 

Technology Overrunning Our Lives?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gGXylVz6KI

This is a scene from the movie He's Just Not That Into You. It may be my favorite scene in all the movies. The actress is complaining about all the different types of technologies she is waiting to get rejected by. In the end she wishes that time could go back to just having one answering machine with one simple tape.

Is technology really making things complicated? I believe yes and no. When the communication via smartphones just started out, all the different types of social networking tools were not in sync, so that caused a lot of problem. But now that they are roughly in sync, life is made easier for the tech savvy. But this definitely takes away from the face to face conversing skills we have with others. We lose the skill to be eloquent and make statements without using abbreviations like 'omg' or 'lol'. Our essays become littered with them. Technology has brought about many changes, but it also has lowered our cognitive skills. We think in terms of 180 characters or less. And we are sucked into staring into our gadgets all the time.

It is not bad that we have these technological advancements. Social sites such as linkedin and Facebook allow us to reconnect with friends and find potential employers and employees. But all good things have a dark side. How we regulate it, is the key to success. We cannot let technology overrun our lives, but we cannot live without it. At the end of the day, it is up to us to choose whether we let technology get the better of us.

Technology and Us

This post should be first, but since I had already posted my first post, I won't remove it. This blog is all about us and technology. I am currently enrolled into SOCI 149. We learn all about technology and innovation. It is amazing how during our first class when we had to define innovation, the class seemed confused about how it should be defined. It was the same for the word sociology. This class takes what we take for granted and teach us the pros and cons of today's technology.

Prompt 2 Social Networks and Privacy

          In recent times, social networks have come under fire about their privacy settings. Sites like Facebook have been in the spotlight. As the Internet because readily more available to everyone, we have to become more aware of who may be reading what we are posting.

Facebook is great, and so are all the other social networking sites, but just like entering our credit or debit cards onto the World Wide Web, there is a fear that there is someone out there might be stealing our identity. As an average college student, I check my Facebook at least ten times a day, not counting the times I check it on my phone. So the total number of times that I check is around twenty to thirty times a day depending on how many times my phone will alert me of a new comment or posting. Twitter is least used by me and I have not even heard of FourSquare yet. There are other better-known social networking tools, such as LinkedIn, Youtube, or RenRen, an Asian version of Facebook.

The trend of excessively checking social networks is mostly viewed in a negative light. Some friends have sworn off Facebook for lent and it is as addicting as games. It takes time and energy away from things we should be doing and paying attention to. Being so engrossed into Facebook or any other type of social networking site can tend estrange us from the rest of the world. When my friends and I are addicted to any type of online role-playing games, we can spend countless hours, sleepless nights, and money to achieve something in the fantasy online world.

I have not regretted anything that I have posted or tweeted on these sites; however, this does not apply to everyone. Celebrities and people of all professions have posted things that they have regretted. One example is the policeman in the following news article from New York Times who listed his profession as “human waste disposal.” Another example is the recent Youtube post by a UCLA student expressing some rude remarks about Asian Americans. We should always remember that everything we post, whether it is in text or pictures, would never be able to be completely taken off the Internet.

Posting anything on the Internet is a risk. Small things, like favorite color or birth date, may someday be used against us. “Computer scientists and policy experts say that such seemingly innocuous bits of self-revelation can increasingly be collected and reassembled by computers to help create a picture of a person’s identity, sometimes down to the Social Security number” says Steve Lohr, a journalist of New York Times reports. Therefore, I do worry about the pieces of information that Facebook or any other type of social network site may ask from me. I have personally had my information taken and used maliciously. It occurred when my mother received multiple calls from a mysterious speaker, informing her that I was pregnant when I was not. They had my number and my insurance carrier right, which worried my mother. I, on the other hand, called Kaiser and was furious with how my information could have been leaked (since Facebook would not ask about insurance carriers). In the end, they filed a report and that was the end of it. That acted as a wake up call for me to be more careful. In another incident, my friend showed me a website that had my address and my phone number and who my parents were and known associates listed. There was no way to take it down. The process of taking it down was absolutely confusing as well. 

From my personal experiences, I have learned that we have to be very careful with what we post or what information we give out. Our personal information can be spread around the world with a click of a button. Social networks are now more careful with our information, but we are the ones who will suffer the most if we cannot keep ourselves safe on the World Wide Web.

Sources used: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/technology/17privacy.html

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/facebook-facelifts-its-privacy-policy/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/us/07police.html?_r=1&ref=socialnetworking