FEED & Brave New World Review

Part One - Resist the Feed:

1. Link: ugly, tall like Lincoln, wealthy, happy go lucky, competitive.
2. Meg: crazy, insane, super
DA DA DA: like blah blah blah, same old same old, boring
Unit: buddy, or friend
3. Like Our Culture: instant connectedness almost sickeningly close to ours, the control of thought through advertisements, or even the molding of personal belief through things, and the hunger for things or materialism, the importance of having rather than being.
4. Not Like Our Culture: the literal control of all personal choices made by corporations, the lack of nature's existence, and the idea that you are plugged into the consumer market, literally fused to media.
5. Themes: the destruction of self, the importance of choice, the nature of corporate greed.

Part Two - Brave New World:

(1) The thesis of this article is that the nature of the human condition is one that requires a certain standard of social interaction, however the new terms in which we define our social connectedness has removed personal interaction and has created a climate of intense personal scrutiny in a privacy less forum.

(2)Ambient awareness describes the social attitudes within the new technology of instant social connectedness. It basically identifies the emotional interactions with others based on a similar model of peer by peer social codes, and relies on the constant influx of personal expression through non-personal means to define ones social "circle," which in today's current climate could be called a social "black hole."The idea that one must adhere to the new media, or otherwise be left out of close multi-personal relationships, creates a system of pressure for acceptance and conformity, as well as a carelessness for ones own privacy even down to the most mundane day to day life experience.
I can relate, in that I once had a Facebook account, and I checked it once every 5 hours, and I cared very much at how my page looked, what my pictures might say about me, what people were discussing on large Facebook forums. But I came to a point, when I looked at my friends list, and realized only about 20 of the 500 were actually close with me, and the others were social media connections, Facebook started to make me feel alienated from reality. I felt that by creating a Facebook, and giving into that world, I was creating a somewhat false reality, and that I was furthering a standard of inconsequential experience and connections in my own reality, my own world.
(3) Thompson makes reference to the idea of privacy being a necessary tool in this new world of instant media, and I agree wholeheartedly. I think that in order for social media to exist and to expand properly, it must be regulated by its users, in terms of what one wishes to have broadcast and who they want to see it.
Thompson also made reference to the ideas of connections which are not close and that are merely internet acquaintances, can be used as incredibly powerful tools for self promotion and personal success. I believe that having the ability to connect oneself and use that connection to create a niche market or to further ones career can be very beneficial. However, it also is something I don't agree with fully, because within this social tool, there is a great deal of room for exploitation. As we read in "Feed" the nature of the machine, or the corporate world, is for greed, and I believe that we are not far from corporations creating fake users to pump promotions and commercials to the public.
Also I do not agree that the social media connects a person to thyself, and that only through personal interaction, and not screen to screen contact, can one grow socially. If you leave yourself only the friends you have on the internet, where would you be if it all went down. Alone.