Strength and Weakness of the Web

I believe that most of the greatest strengths and the greatest weaknesses of the web both stem from the same causes; these causes being ease of use, dehumanization, privacy, and likely others that I cannot currently think of. The internet's strengths are obviously that it's open to everyone, and gives everyone equal say, but at the expense of the human element.

To illustrate this, just think of how much easier it is to express your opinions to someone via e-mail compared to in person. You're allowed more time to think and put your thoughts into organization, but isn't it often the case that you find yourself saying things you would never say in person. This is where dehumanization's involved. Without the person your speaking to being present, you are less inclined to consider their feelings and response.

The chapter on remediation in the textbook makes me a bit more optimistic. If it's true (which I think the author's correct) that new media is always established upon and with other media, you have to sort of re-examine the art of the different types of media that have led to the present. Using the above example again, perhaps the art of e-mail, on a long enough time scale, will cause the art of letter writing to be studied and developed again, a skill I think has been long lost. And of course the internet is much more than e-mail, but the same idea can be applied to most or all of its features.

To try and summarize, I think the internet will fit in wonderfully with other media if people have a sort of renassaince in the field of communication (as Bolter and Grusin assert), and re-learn what it means to speak effectively and creatively. And just to put it out there, I think this would happen a lot more quickly if everyone stopped using emoticons, yes?

Good website, bad website

Based just upon their content, visual appeal, and navagability, here is an example of a good website and a bad website.



The Good:

Metacritic. When I'm trying to decide if I want to spend 7 something to watch a movie or wait for it to come out on dvd, metacritic is a trusted companion. The purpose of the site is to compile reviews on various types of media, and give an average of the scores. Other sites do the same thing, but this one's my favorite for a reason I know not what. It may be because of the easy on the eyes blue background or something (nice segue into visual appeal, right). As for navagability, I think the site excells. Despite how much content it contains, it's never overwhelming, and it's always pretty easy to find what you're looking for. My only problem is that the search engine requires that you basically type the title of the movie you're looking for perfectly or you won't recieve results.



The Bad:

Moir. Really, who can forget the headache/vomit inducing site that is moir. I really have no idea what the website's for, but does it really matter? You don't go to moir for information, you go for the fantasia-esque light show that occurs when rolling over the links. I guess it scores points for navagability in that it does have links. But I don't think there is any subject matter or content that you could put on the site to justify the design.

"Epic" Media

After watching the fictional future of the Epic movie and Michael Wesch's Web 2.0, the only thing I'm worried about is that I'll never really be able to imitate Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau.

Ignoring the bizarre omnipotent god sort of thing going on in the epic movie, I don't think there was anything spectacular or out of the ordinary in either. It's evident that technology is going to make media increasingly personalized and easier to obtain, which is primarily what I got out of them. The battles over becoming the next leader in news is what I'm most interested in. While I don't think that network news will ever get booted off the throne, or that the NY Times will get surpassed by any other written source, they'll definitely lose some viewers/subscribers, and have find new and more creative ways to relay information. But they've got so much revenue and popularity that I don't think any other source poses a serious threat.

As for the mergers between Amazon, Google, Ebay, Microsoft, etc., that were speculated about, I know I'm ignorant about how the corporate world works, and so I can't say if any of it is realistic or not. I just know that merging companies means the combining of ideas and products, and who wouldn't like the technological equivalent to the swiss army knife?

But really...if there's a day when you can't go out into nature without being found then I think we really need to rethink this whole technology thing.

Podcast

Here's a link to a podcast that I enjoy: Real Time with Bill Maher.
Bill's show is on HBO every Friday night, but if you don't have HBO, you can get the show for free on i-Tunes. If you're not familiar with Bill, he's a political comedian/pundit, and every week he'll debate with three guests, and usually have an interview via satallite. Bill himself is very liberal socially and economically (though, oddly, I believe he's registered as an independet), but his guests usually come from different sides of the political spectrum, sometimes resulting in heated exchanges. Good stuff if you enjoy watching people bicker over politics. And as a disclaimer, if you are a person who is easily offended by, let's say, jokes about religion, then you may not want to watch. If you like jokes about religion, then check out information about Bill's upcoming documentary Religulous. And no, I'm not being paid by Bill for these plugs.