Social Software

The readings can be found below:

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Points touched on in readings/ Brief summary:

“Here comes everybody” – Clay Shirky:

Collective action, group function and the affect on society, viral growth, social visibility, judgment, public scrutiny, online power, transfer of capabilities formerly only found by professionals to the hands of the public, global publishing cost. These are some of the points Shirky hit on in the first chapter of “Here Comes Everybody”. In the first chapter, Shirky explains how we are all now a large connected entity. The power of the collective now lies in the hands of the public, never further than a click away. The ability to reach out and touch the lives of thousands, offer advice, seek help, and share upon the interests of others are all things that every one of us now has access to thanks to the World Wide Web. Shirky demonstrates that we hold a new power in the palms of our hands, the ability to connect and tap into the minds of many.

“Backspace to the future: The Dislike Club Part 1” – Benjamin Walker:

One night while sitting at home, drinking beers on the couch and browsing twitter, Benjamin Walker decided to create the website “tilde.club”. He posted a tweet that offering people shell accounts upon request, shortly to find out that the whole idea was going viral. Many people made “tilde” sites and posted things from ASCII art to retro web code. Benjamin wanted people to “Not feel like they were under siege when they were expressing themselves”. Walker goes on to point out that inhabitants of the 21st century have a newfound focus… “The screen in my hand”, which makes it “impossible to get lost” in todays world. Modern social media has created a vicious social media loop, where people are constantly browsing between various social media pages instead of enjoying their real lives. It’s been “15 years of signing up!” and “staring at screens” says Walker in his blog. At the end of the blog, Walker thinks about creating incentives to help people “like the disliking”.

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Discussion Questions:

1. How has socialization changed since the assimilation of social media/ the internet into our daily lives?

2. What are the pros and cons of this “new” way of socializing?

3. How do you think modern methods of socializing will affect the youth of the twenty first century?

4. Does social media change how we interact offline? How?

5. How has being connected helped give power to groups?

6. Clay Shirky hinted that the internet could behave as a sort of pseudo army. What do you think?

7. Has the internet created an “I want everything, and I want it now” society? How does this influence social interactions?

8. Do you agree or disagree on the points touched on in the readings? Why or why not?