I surprised myself with these statistics, though I also feel that somehow I didn't get all of my radio hours clocked due to being in the tractor a lot on the particular week I was graphing. This was the week we harvested our corn with the silage chopper.
It was an intriguing assingment. It made me think and wonder - how do other people, who may or may not be less active or less busy. And, how many people break up there work day on the internet, spending time on facebook, or some other social media sites? I am not sure yet whether to be worried or optimistic about the answers to these questions. I'm currently doing research for another presentation in this class, focusing on the effects of social media on society. I already have read a lot about how video games affect the youth of today - violence, sexuality exploitation, changing social norms. And in my media class we are discussing how it's all about the advertising or selling dollar. It's all about making the consumer think they have wanted the product, as my econ class is telling me. The movie Middle Men did a good job of demonstrating how a multi-billion dollar industry can revolutionize and take over a technology, and how it's turned around the world in different ways. If you take the fact that it was adult entertainment out of the equation, it really was impressive the way a few people revolutionized an industry, and have now set the standard for selling non-pornographic material. Amazon, Ebay, very nearly every dot com website out there - has everything they now owe to that industry. Not only do companies benefit, but consumers have benefited not only from anonymity, but also the ease of ordering. And who can forget that Fedex and UPS have benefitted too! It's sadly all about the physical materials, the books and the toys, the nooks and the traveling joys! We can venture around the world and purchase what we need thanks to the credit card. We can also complete transactions back home while we explore new lands, mobilize armies with the push of the button - it's all very big, in so many ways. And it touches us all in so many ways. The thing to think about is not how it will positively or negatively impact our world, though. I think these are important things to consider and talk about and discuss, however - what we have to do is to use these new ways of living to our advantage, and to make the world a better place. We have to come to these resolutions and move past wondering if we are doing the right thing by using the internet. We already have it embedded in our everyday life. Now we have to use it for good, to transmit knowledge that will help us live more economically and environmentally soundly. Today there is a need to pay attention to all the different happenings in the world, to be up on the news, to advocate people to express their intelligent opinions and ideas that they have. Only now, with our super-connectivity can we truly begin to have a global world where people can convene and come together sharing the best of the best. "when an elderly scientist says that something is possible, it most likely is. When that scientist says something is impossible, he probably is wrong." This paraphrasing comes from the first chapter of "Physics of the Impossible," a book that presents in a scientific fashion the science behind star trek and other science fiction movies and television shows. I feel that this statement covers what I have just stated so well. While we have many people telling us what is possible, with the internet we now have the chance to make the impossible, possible.
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