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Shirky - Godin; A review.

After viewing both video clips discussing technological and social media/information phenomena, I can say that I agree with both viewpoints of the speakers, Clay Shirky and Seth Godin.

Shirky's main motif of his speech revolved around the concept of the new "global, social, ubiquitous, and cheap" method of media transference and understanding as well as the shift from limited and repressed distributions of information to a more expedited and free dispersion of factual reality. Shirky's example of the Chinese media being beaten to the punch by Chinese citizens in regards to the Earthquake and the lack of proper safety protocol in school buildings was truly eye opening for me. The extreme quantities and delivery speeds of unrestricted, unregulated news via the public forced the hand of a system traditionally prone to regulation and restriction of any information deemed unfit for global scrutinizing. If censorship and control cannot be achieved, the only alternative is to cut off the source of the informational wildfire. Shirky's approach to delivering this information was to present his ideas in a more organized and semi-shock based style. He maintains audience connection through new truths and shifting ideas throughout many societies rather than a few.

Godin's speech was much more pop culture based and had a general air of traditional or historically revitalized presence. He uses humor to maintain a connection to his audience and many more eye-catching visual aides to re-establish the attention of those viewing - all while making a strong argument for his main point - the formation of "tribes" through technology and media. He argues that there is a trend shift from reclusive and independent thoughts among few to more universal and shared thoughts among many. People have a need to find others who share similar interests and technology as well as the Internet have provided a means for sharing ideas and finding one another.

Both speakers shared similar ideas in explaining how technology and media (especially through Internet-based tools) can be key catalysts in bringing about social and political change. Both men also focus on the idea that there is a seemingly inevitable shift of power from the traditional 'higher-ups' in society to the general public. In large enough numbers of a technologically oriented populous (Shirky) or groups of those who share similar ideas in "tribes" (Godin), there is great potential for change. Incidentally, both speakers were short on hair but great on knowledge and thinking outside of the box.

Some ideas that both speakers differed on involved the want for a social change in different groups of people and the want to lead and develop interest groups or tribes. Shirky focused more upon a general concept of a new wave of less controllable powers of an "e-independence" among many who wish to distribute information on an efficiently rapid scale whereas Godin expressed a supreme interest of those with similar viewpoints to create, lead, and effectively bring about social change in many different forms simply by having a group of people band together in whatever size or event.

Screen Capture

After taking my screen shot, I can safely say that I'm a very social person when it comes to the internet. I'd even go as far to say I'm even more social online than in person - which isn't exactly a "fun" realization to say the least. I don't feel too distraught though. In all honesty, I think that we all tend to have slightly higher social tendencies when it comes to technology in general. The internet gives everyone, from the socially inept to the "its time to talk to a random stranger because I can" folks, a chance to connect with others in a less direct yet more convenient way. I tend to be a bit of a talker in real life, but when it comes to communication through technology, I have more time to collect my thoughts and have in depth conversations with people I may not normally see too often. Among just about all of the social and cultural groups that people associate themselves with, the one unifying factor that all of them seem to have is the usage of the internet and, more specifically, communicative websites programs, and technology such as Facebook, Internet Messengers, E-mail, Text Messaging, etc. It is odd to think that not even 15 years ago we were just starting to shrink cell phone size, make the internet more of a common factor in businesses and households, and we still had pagers... do we still? The point is, we as a society are constantly furthering our investment in technological integration and communications and, even at this seemingly advanced point in our progress, we are nowhere near the final stages of overall development. I can't wait for the future; the present needs to hurry up already.

And now for something completely different... well, not really but it's fun to say anyway.

Composing just about anything in digital space is commonplace lately. From news to dispersion of media in its many forms to the development and commentaries on new thought processes, compositions are shifting from seemingly archaic forms (i.e. newspapers, magazines, letters) to more novel approaches in digital space. You are given a much greater amount of control in customization through the use of advanced personalized tools, you are given a more expedited process of transferring many compositions through modern technologies, and making mistakes seems to be a thing of the past - at least, the ability to fix mistakes is a much simpler process than in the old-school styles of composition.

We are able to better understand the digital composing process the same way we are better able to understand how to ride a bike or tell a joke (an actual good joke, that is) - we try, try, and try again until we get it. Me and many of my peers are quite at ease with digital composition because we have been immersed in it for the better part of our lives. In contrast, many of those in older generations are still "getting the hang of it" so to speak are being forced to shift from their original dynamic to a more current dynamic to keep up with the societal needs of today. When there arises a paradigm shift in society, as it has been shown throughout history, we as a community always meet the challenge of that shift and inevitably create another shift which we will almost surely adapt to.