The Facebook Effect pgs 107-214

The second part of The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick tells how facebook functioned in the earlier days as it was becoming a company.  Throughout this whole section Kirkpatrick keeps mentioning different offers facebook was getting from various companies trying to buy facebook.  He also makes sure to include various accounts of people not wanting to work for facebook because it was being viewed as a childish company.  These two points are brought up throughout this section while discussing additions and changes to the page and how the users react to them.

During this section of the book the photo section of facebook was added.  This increased facebook's popularity tremendously, because it made it possible to see what people had recently been doing especially since the photos were kept in chronological order.  This allowed facebook to grow the same way as which technology grows.  Technopoly and Computers both show how development and growth in something are capable of happening unfiltered due to people's desire to be included or in the know of something new.  Zuckerberg also avoided the danger  that goes along with people's interest in something new.  He did this by how he introduced new groups into the page.  This was done by only letting high school kids in if they were invited by someone who was already in facebook.  Also changes were made to the site to make it seem less childish before adults were allowed to join.  If facebook was instantly opened to everyone then Zuckerberg would have lost control of how people used the page and due to people always wanting something new facebook would quickly have become obsolete from people losing interest.

American culture is greatly effected by how facebook is run and what facebook is.  The fact that our everyday interactions have become a way for people to make money shows the interests of our culture as a whole.  This is that if there is a way to make money off of something that people are doing someone will try to.  Once again the idea of how people are being thrown into the industry younger because of how quickly the industry grows comes up because the older generation of companies can not understand why Zuckerberg will not take the offers he had been getting for his company.  Since he was young facebook was run differently and had more ideals then to just make the most profit (which is why facebook is still strong today) thus making a different way for a company to be run in America.  The popularity of facebook has also made it possible for facebook itself to effect American culture.  Since Zuckerberg has been opposed to allowing people to have two profiles, it has forced work life and social life to be integrated for many Americans.  This of course also leads to new cultural problems people have to deal with.

The Facebook Effect pgs 1-106

The first part of The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick goes through the beginning stages of facebook of how Mark Zuckerberg originally got the ideas for facebook and how he worked with his friends to begin to make facebook what it is today.  The book makes sure to present Zuckerberg and his friends as young college students who live a common college lifestyle.  Kirkpatrick also makes sure to point out all the mistakes the young creators of facebook made along the way.

Kirkpatrick points out that facebook's founders were young and made legal mistakes along the way not only because it makes the book more interesting, but because it shows how young the technology and computer industry have become.  Books such as Computers and videos we have watched in class describe how since technology advances so fast so do people.  This means that like older technology people can easily become obsolete in the industry.  In Kirkpatrick's book, Zuckerberg is described as having the capability of creating programs that people enjoy using.  It seems that all the network pages that Zuckerberg created before facebook people also liked using as well.  The reason why Zuckerberg had this capability was because he was young and he knew what other people his age would enjoy using.  Zuckerberg also when asked in the earlier stages why he was making this site, his answer was that he did it for fun not profit.  This is probably why facebook is as successful as it is today and also why it ran into a good amount of legal problems.  Since it was for fun, Zuckerberg did not sell his site to the first bidder and remains in control of the company, thus allowing the site to keep its aesthetic that people have come to enjoy using.  The legal troubles come in, because when one is not trying to make money off of something one usually does not worry about others trying to take credit (in other words money) for what one has made.

The way this effects American culture is that these new technologies are forcing people to enter this marketing world at a young age.  They have the technology knowledge and fresh minds that allows them to do well, but lack business experiences which opens them up to be taken advantage of.  Once again our laws and education practices are not really keeping up with technology.  In order to fix this problem two things can be done, we must hold back on accepting new technologies right when they come out, or we must be willing to update our old system of learning and rules to change faster with the time.  For some reason our culture is willing to accept new technology blindly, but is unwilling to change outdated ways of life.

Wikipedia's take on Polygamy in North America

Auditing a wikipedia page was a very informative experience.  The first step was probably the hardest for my group, which was finding a wikipedia page worthy of having us audit.  Ideas that were thrown around were cloning, the neutron bomb,  and cassette culture.  These were either taken by another group, to short, and not controversial enough respectively.  I then suggested we audit the page for the band Gorgoroth which had pictures of crucified people on stage during their performance.  This was instantly deemed too controversial to do (probably for the best).  In the end we pretty much failed in finding our own topic and the professor gave us polygamy in North America.

At the first glance of the article, it was obvious that this article was just going to be about the most publicized and popular case of polygamy in North America which is that of the Mormon religion.  The first statement of the article made it seem that polygamy only happened with a male with multiple wives, which by the definition of polygamy is not the case.  If for some reason polygamy only occurs this way and not with any other combination of partners in North America, this should have been stated in the article.  The next obvious focus of the article was that most of the time was going to be spent on the United States.  Once again if for some reason less polygamy is practiced in the other two countries of North America this should have been stated.  These two problems with the article showed that it was too focused on one topic and did not look at the big picture of what the page was supposed to be about.

When it came to the references, we checked the validity by seeing what they were used to cite in the article and then see what they actually had to say in the article.  Most of the references had something wrong with them.  All of the extreme religious sites were used to prove statistical information instead of showing an opinion (usually an extreme one).  All of the good resources seemed to be used poorly.  For instance four very objective articles from reliable sources on genetic mutations were used to cite one sentence that did not have to do with the subject they were on.  The page barely even mentioned inbreeding which shows that a lot of the information was watered down.  By doing this individual statements were not biased, but on a whole the page was biased because of this emission of facts.  From reading the resources I got a very different picture of polygamy in North America then from just reading the wikipedia page.  Therefore the wikipedia page for polygamy in North America makes a very horrible scholarly source, but I guess is a good source if you only want to know information for small talk.

Like many of the wikipedia references for polygamy in North America I will sign off by saying "GLORY TO GOD" (luckily this doesn't discredit me in the eyes of wikipedia)

Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America pgs 187-281

The last part of Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America by Giles Slade discusses how the invention of computer chips has effected obsolescence, how weapons have planned obsolescence, how cell phones have effected obsolescence, and finally discusses the effects and how to deal with all these used electronics.  Slade goes through each of these technologies showing how once a new technology is introduced it eventually will leave the old devices using the old technology obsolete.  He then explains how this "e-waste" will keep on building and how unforeseen resource limitation are starting to present a problem.

The invention of the computer chip was the the beginning of technology obsolescence as we know it today.  The invention of the chip lead to forcing physical computing systems into obsolescence, such as the slide rule.  This does not seem to be that big of a deal, the extreme obsolescence came out once the personal computer started to be introduced to mainstream society.  When buying a computer, the two things one must balance out are cost and life-span of the computer.  It seems as if the cheaper the chips become in computers the easier it is for people to leave them obsolete, therefore allowing the life-span of a computer to shrink drastically without the consumer caring.  Slade shows this once apple released a personal computer that people seemed to buy just for one application that is offered.  The reason why this computer was also so attractive to the consumer was that it was not going to become obsolete instantly.  Now that the price for computers is dropping this life span is not as important.  The cell phone throws in an interesting element into things becoming obsolete, because cell phones have become another accessory to our everyday appearance.  Slade points out that cell phones have become like shoes, in the sense that most people are starting to have more than one pair.  It has become very common for people to have two cell phones, one for work and one for personal use.  They are also like shoes in the sense that they have become part of fashion.  Most people want to have clothes that are in fashion, for the same reason why people want phones that are current.  The actual reason is very unclear, but most people would not have it any other way than to be up to date.  This attitude leads to tremendous amounts of waste for obvious reasons.  In order to deal with the waste is a technology that can not be developed fast enough.  It is hard enough for the resources used to make electronics to be found since most people never thought certain types of metals used in these devices would ever be needed.  With all this time worrying about how to continue making these products and where is it possible to obtain the resources, how to get rid of the obsolete devices seems to be the last idea on the company's mind.  

When it comes to American culture it is clear to see how we are effected.  These technologies have become so current that they have entered this dark category we call "fashion."  Since our culture has taught us that "fashion" is so important no one bothers looking at the negative repercussions because being unfashionable is bad enough.