4th Quarter Blogging

There were two blogs which I thought were well done this quarter: the one about Facebook, and the one about Mr. Bolos' "TV Tokenism" talk. They were both well done, but for different reasons. I thought that my interpretation and ideas of the TV Tokenism lecture were well thought out, however, the actually writing is not that great. And I thought that my connection of Facebook and privacy to our class was well done, as well as the use of the actual text. Using quotes from the article to explain the question I posed at the end.

I'll be honest I did not do a great job of blogging this quarter, I sort of forgot about it during the junior theme and with everything else going on, but I'm not going to rush more together now.

"a white judge on Law and Order..."

During Mr. Bolos' "TV Tokenism" presentation, the 30 Rock clip was not only really funny, but really true and sort of weird to think about. The clip was about how the black characters were saying because there is a black man as president, and there was a "white judge on Law and Order" racism was okay again. In class Friday if you all remember we talked about why a black man is always "best-dressed" or the chief of something, so 30 Rock is poking fun at how this is changing, that a black man wasn't the authority figure. During class this year we talked about reparations and people wondered whether we have done enough to make amends for slavery and other racist activity.

Mr. Bolos showed us that this TV Tokenism is still very much there. When I though about racisim is back, I wonder if that could mean is racism gone. Because we have a black president for the first time, is that like saying the playing field is even; that now we can make fun of black people like we poke fun at white boys who can't jump? However, there are still racist people and programs like affirmative action which make it impossible to ignore the remaining separation between blacks and whites.

I wonder if it will it ever truly be even? It is that even possible or ethical to call it even after slavery and the prosecutions of minorities?

Hooked on Facebook

Throughout the year during class the topic of privacy has come up a few times. When we were looking at laws as well as in the Perilous Projects. In a Time magazine article they talk about how Facebook is "redefining privacy". There are almost 500 million people on Facebook today, and people are starting to get more and more skeptical wanting more privacy on the site. Many people are realizing how scary it is that people can see your pictures, know your relationship status and basically know anything that you're willing to put up. People are "friending" old college or high school friends, and for us at New Trier many people will accept a friend request from someone they barely know just because they are in the same NT network. Because of this, people who you barely know are seeing all these details of your life.

In the article they talk about how they want Facebook to crack down on their privacy modes. I think, especially as a teenage girl in a world full of some creeps, that's definitly a good idea. But right now you can hide everything from people who are not your friends. I think that should be enough. If you friend someone that should be like the invitation to stalk you basically, and it should mean that your okay with them looking at all your stuff.

But that is stuff we all know, and sometimes forget. This is where the article gets into how it's redefining privacy. Although everything thinks its a little weird at times how many people can see into your life, because of Facebook enough people are becoming accustom to this openness. The author Dan Flecther says, "Facebook did not invent social networking, but the company has fine-tuned it into a science". Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is not only breaking social networking down to a science he is trying to make the world more open.

Now some argue whether is it good to have a more open world. Do you agree with Zuckerberg? If not:
"Want to stop that trend? The onus, as always, is on you to pull your information. Starve the beast dead. None of Facebook's vision, be it for fostering peace and harmony or for generating ad revenue, is possible without our feeding in our thoughts and preferences" (Feltcher)