With new technologies continuously expanding, I can only imagine what the future may hold for our society. The internet itself creates an enormous platform of endless possibilities: entertainment, creativity, convenience, new found relationships, and so much more. What seemed completely impossible to do has become possible with time and motivation. Technologies that are existent today only allow new technologies to form.
Social websites have given long lost friends the chance to find their reconnection and gave families the chance to keep in touch even if they are thousands of miles apart. It, however gives people the chance to intrude in their private lives, when they are oblivious to the fact that what they put on the internet has been owned by the internet. The picture to the left shows two examples, and which is one, the flow of information can easily be distributed whether it is true or false, and two, that once you are subscribed to any website, your information is prone to publicity.
On the other hand, what I noticed on this Election of 2012, a year that most of my peers were for the first time, allowed to vote, that the political race has captured us especially on the internet. With my twitter feeds filled with #TeamObama and only a few who were actually #TeamRomney, I was happy to know that the internet can allow us to voice our opinions, especially on topics that matter. My generation was actually participating in politics rather than paying attention to the silly trends or a bunch of everyday nonsense. Tweets of women's rights, gay marriage rights, and young college students screaming they don't want to borrow their parents money to pay for college provided me with justified entertainment. And the tweeters who knew nothing of politics, they definitely learned when they saw their timeline, and Instagram was filled with edited comical pictures that entertained its users as well. In Jenkins, "Photoshop for Democracy", he writes: "Citizens are taking media into their own hands, producing new works made up of fragments of political and popular culture. And people are circulating them well beyond their immediate circle of friends as a way to both share a good laugh and exchange thoughts about pressing issues." In example of some edited photos of the presidential debate, we have President Obama in a custom "CD Album cover" called "#2Termz" after President Obama was announced as the winner of the election of 2012.
In Jane's article, "Why I Love Bees?" the question: “How can people and computers be connected so that—collectively—they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers have ever done before?” is asked, and as a response, she writes: "According to Professor Thomas J. Malone, director of the center, the stakes of this question are high. “New technologies are now making it possible to organize groups in very new ways, in ways that have never been possible before in the history of humanity…. better ways to organize businesses, to conduct science, to run governments, and--perhaps most importantly--to help solve the problems we face as society and as a planet.”
What will become of this advanced world of technologies? They say robots will fill our cities as we leave the responsibilities to technological creations rather than doing what we as humans have the capabilities to do. Our generation has become entirely too lazy as there are apps that do everything for us. We shall respect the elderly for being successful and getting through school without the technologies and informational websites, whereas our generation is drastically dependent on it. But, on a positive realm, the massive information that we obtain from internet databases, websites, and even games, only put more educational value unto our brains. For what we have available now to us should be appreciated because it should make us smarter, not dumber. If you want to learn how to do something, Google it. If words alone cannot teach you, YouTube it, and see how it is done. Ultimately, we live in a generation that everything and anything is possible.
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