Unlearning...

Epilogue: What have you had to “unlearn” (i.e. that only phones are for having conversations) in the past 10 years due to technological change?

I think that the biggest example out there is that only phones are for having conversations. This idea has been completely 'unlearned' in almost anyones mind. Today, there are so many different ways of communicating with people that phones sometimes are on the bottom of the list. Twitter, Facebook, Instant Messaging, Text Messaging and even video chatting allow people to connect with one another almost anywhere and at the touch of a button. Along with this is the way that news is delivered. Instead of watching TV for the 5 o'clock news, people can quickly log online and search for any news that they want.

Another thing that I have had to 'unlearn' is using technology during school. In middle school, we all learned the dewey decimal system. Although I never fully grasped the system anyways, it really is unnecessary to know anymore. By looking on the computer you can find almost any resource you need.

Consumer Review Sites...

Many online merchants today, such as eBay and Amazon, use rating systems empowered by its customers. Is this adequate for determining which products to buy, or which users to trust? Cite examples from these two merchants that support your opinion (whether it is good enough, or inadequate).

I think that the rating systems that are empowered by customers are great sources of information for consumers who are looking to purchase a product. For consumers to read a product review, they can figure out why or why not the product is a good selection and if someone had a really good or really bad experience with the product. Consumers really are the best judges of the products because they are the ones that take the product into their home setting and test it there. Although, I would be hesitant to buy a product with only 1 or 2 reviews.

Pool Speakers - I was looking to buy these over the summer and didn't because they all got very poor reviews. This specific one only has one review but after looking at a couple of different versions, I got the feeling that these speakers were not worth the money.

UGGS - Just by searching for UGGS on ebay, you can see that they are a very popular product because of the abundance of them!

Wise Crowds

James Surowiecki’s book mentioned in this chapter outlines four elements to create a so-called “wise crowd,” one that can make decisions better than experts. These include “diversity of opinion” and “independence.” Since social groups online seem to form crowds of many like-minded people, what caution would you give someone using information they find from a socialized website or resource?

Information found from these "wise crowds" can be very useful because most likely the group is very knowledgeable about the subject. But, if everyone in the group has the same opinion about the subject, the information could become very biased. For example, in a group about universities across the US in which it allows people to post about their own school, for the most part, the posts are going to be from people who all go to or went to that school and had positive experiences. This information could become extremely biased because in reality, these students have not gone to another school to compare theirs too. The main idea is that there is a tying factor to everyone in these "wise crowds" and that tying factor probably doesn't allow for much room to express strong opinions which are contrary to those of the group. Even if a group member did have an opposing opinion, there is a slim chance of them bringing it up because of the fear that the group would look down on them.

Failure

Think back to your experiences in middle and high school. How many opportunities were you given to experiment and “fail” in solving a problem? How could a school work today where students were regularly offered such opportunities?

In middle school and high school, students are constantly assigned tasks in which we could experiment with and either succeed or fail at. These tasks mostly were ones with greater success rates than others, but it was up to the student to fail or to ‘not fail’. The problem with many of these tasks was that students have to succeed in order to succeed at school. There was no option for failure and even if the student started to slip, a teacher would be right there to help.

I think that if today, there were schools that regularly offered students these opportunities; the students would come out of school with a slightly greater education. It would be much more productive in a higher education but to prepare students for that, upper levels of high school could implement these programs too. It would teach students how to succeed for themselves and not just to get a good grade in a class. Student’s would probably take longer (more failures) before they adjusted to this system but if picked up upon, it could be very beneficial to students.

FOAF-Style Networks & the Professional Benefits

What professional benefits do you see by investing time into a FOAF-style network?

The six degrees of separation is something that always sparks an interest in both parties. The book describes this ‘six degrees of separation’ theory as not completely random. It begins with homophily (the grouping of like with like). In other words, the six degrees of separation is not a probability taken from the whole world. It is more distinct and selective. Where you work, live, travel to, attend school all are places where you are more likely to meet someone who knows one of your friends.

Friend of a Friend Networks can be extremely beneficial in social networking as long as professionally networking, only if implemented correctly. ‘’Tools that rely on FOAF networking work better when they augment human social choices rather than trying to replace them” (pg 220). One main benefit that can be gained by investing in FOAF-style network is if you know someone and their work ethics, work style, etc., their friends are more likely to have those characteristics as well. If you can trust someone, there is a higher chance that you can trust their friends as well.

Print Media & Online Media

While younger people today may not make distinctions between online and real-world friends according to Shirky, do you make distinctions between online vs. print media? Why or why not? Is there an advantage to one or the other?

The younger people today have grown up completely with the online world. Our age (current college students) were probably the intermediate generation in which our computer and internet knowledge didn't expand until middle or high-school, yet the younger people have started on the internet at a much younger age. Because of their age, they are probably much more susceptible to the dangers of the internet and the people on the internet.

Although today we are completely computer savvy, I don't think that our generation can make distinctions between print media and online because they all technically come from the same source. Almost any article you find in print media can be found online. The slight advantage of using online media is that it is much cheaper and much more easily accessible, which is why most print media outlets are leaning towards online media sources as well.

The Prisoner's Dilemma & Online Auctions..

Considering the Prisoner’s Dilemma in this chapter, provide your own insight on how sites such as eBay “work” for most participants of this popular online auction site. Do they really work? Or is there too much risk?

A big part of the prisoners dilemma is having knowledge of what the other person will act on. For example, if a buyer on EBay knows the history of the other bidder and/or seller, then they may act differently than if they didn't know anything about them. Although there is still a big risk of the unknown, sites like Ebay allow users to research each other before they make transactions. In the end, it comes down to trust. If you research a buyer or seller and can honestly trust them enough to make an online transaction, most people would do it.

An interesting tool which I think people use to make themselves look more trustful are returns. If someone is looking at something on an online site and is unsure about it, they are much more likely to purchase that item if the item can be returned. The return policy ensures trust among sellers and buyers.

Online auction sites always do have slight risk but I think as they become more popular, people are becoming more and more trustworthy of the sites themselves and the people on them.