"How Obama Really did it"

     Social networking has become an essential part in communicating with other people. Obama's social networking site known as MyBO was very helpful in Barrack Obama's campaign as it helped raises millions of dollars in a single month and help communicate with people to help spread the importance of voting. It is the fastest and efficient way to reach out to a large amount of people at once. Barrack Obama used these social networks to interact with people who really weren't politically active. He definitely capitalized on the use of technology as shown by him becoming president of the United States.
     "Americans are more able to access media-rich content online: 55 percent have broadband Internet connections at home."( Most people these days use some form of social network or the internet as the world is becoming more technological. Many of the 2008 candidates also had websites and used social networks for their campaign. However, Obama and his team put these social network technologies at the center of his campaign. According to the article he, created the ultimate online political machine. Operations like this are needed to get millions of people to vote for you. In fact, technology is probably needed for anyone to get known. Look at all of the viral videos we see now. Without this sort of technology we wouldn't know about any of the things that we see on social media. You could even say that we need it to keep up with the rest of society and know what is going on in the world around us. Barrack Obama took full advantage of this and it resulted in a positive outcome.

PBS Presentation

     Based on the PBS Presentation, there seems to be positive and negative effects of the internet and social networking. Teenagers these days, seem to be living their lives mainly on the internet and social media. It is the newest form of communication and now one of the most used ones through social networks such as Facebook. People no longer need to go outside to communicate with others. There has been a revolution in people trying to create a new version of themselves, in classrooms, social life, in private life bullying and child predator cases. All of these topics have been transformed through the use of the internet and social media.
     Through social media, people can create themselves a new identity, especially since no one knows who's really behind the screen. If they are bullied or lonely at school and outside life, they can go on social media and create a new life for themselves. This could give teenagers a boost in confidence in their lives. In classrooms, computers are being used more often because it seems to be one of the only ways that a student can learn because they are so accustomed to it by focusing on it for most of their day. There is also a clear generation gap between the teachers and students because in some cases, the students know more about the computers than the teacher does. Older people are not used to the transformation of technology because they did not grow up with it the way teenagers are now. Anyways, while these students are practically living their lives online, it leaves room for dangerous things such as cyber bullying or child predators. People seem to be more "tough" or "mean" when they are behind a screen. There are many fights and arguments that break out during social media because it seems to create a public private life for students where all of your private information can be seen by everyone. Finally, it has the dangers of child predators because while thinking that you are communicating with those your age as well as your friends you can be talking to someone who is much older and has negative intentions for you.
     The way people have grown up has definitely changed over the years. Things used to be more private and personal. However, now those private things are seen on social media where everyone can seen them because it is now a definition of who a person is. You're considered cool based off of how many likes or how many friends you have on Facebook, not your personality in person. Social media and the internet has definitely created a social technological gap between older generations and present generations. 

Beware online "Filter Bubbles"

         The internet was created so it could connect people and bring people together. However, based on the information and issues raised in this PBS presentation, it has not been doing the job it was created to do. Instead of bringing people together, it has separated us to only be involved with ideas that are similar to ours, which limits ideas and does not give us the other perspectives in this world. The internet is deciding for us what we should pay attention to and editing out the things that they believe that we should not pay attention to. Eli Pariser provided a great example of this occurrence when he explained how the ideas from the conservatives were removed because most of the links that he clicked on were links from liberals. How can you have a better understanding of this country if you're only subject to your own opinions? 

          This needs to change because we can't improve as a country or society if every person is only limited to their own ideas. This country was built off of concepts such as cultural diffusion which is the concept of the spreading of ideas and cultural beliefs from place to another. It should not be decided for us what we should see and what we should not see. Eli Pariser references that we are only introduced to the ideas that are relevant to us. However, we need to be introduced to the ideas that are not only relevant, but uncomfortable, challenging, and show us other points of views. He also pointed out that there should be a balance of searches similar to your own ideas and searches that express ideas that are different from your own. This balance, would cause people to me more understanding of others ideas, teach the other perspectives of society and diminish ignorance in only believing and being accustomed to your own ideas.
          Compared to the article "Clive Thompson on High-Bandwidth Buddies", Thompson calls the idea of spending too much time on the ideas that we already believe in, "homophilly." Thompson mainly focuses on the sharing of ideas with people and not over the internet. He suggest that the ideas of homophilly can actually improve the diversity of the information that we receive. It is stated that though we may get information from people who share different ideas, this doesn't occur frequently enough for it to have an effect because we don't normally interact with these people. According to the article, there is a higher chance of someone who shares your ideas to tell you something surprising and unexpected than you talking with a person who does not share your ideas.