SOC 3116 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Garry Kasparov, Canadian Content, Media Play
27 Jun 2018
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SOC 3116
May 9, 2018
Are you a good multitasker? (movie about Blackberry)
- They defined it as a grapping task switched. To go from one to another thin quickly.
- Argument: we make many more errors when we do that.
- People spend 40 mins at a time on each subject, do a better job rather than those who
try doing everything quickly.
To what does inattentional blindness refer? (movie about Blackberry)
- Being oblivious to your surroundings. (talking on a phone while driving/they think
they’re paying attention, but in fact they are missing a lot). Lack of awareness to extent
in which we do not understand what is happening around us.
- The challenge is that we are losing the capacity to focus (deep-thinking). We’re not
aware of the consequences that may occur. But we may think about some great human
achievements.
- Discipline, attention, determination, focus.
- Theory of relative: what took Einstein to develop this theory.
- Appreciate that those achievements do not actually come about while you’re surfing the
web.
- The idea of the “Eureka Moment” – it is a misrepresentation about how great ideas
were created.
All technologies are assumptions that influences how we behave.
Not additive, but accumulative (ecological). (Technologies) It means that technology and
technological change is a keen to a glass of water and a drop of dye. (Glass of water that is dyed
red) Change affects everything, it integrates into the environment. We can’t distinguish or
remove, we can’t move backwards. Once the change happened, it is very difficult to undo.
(Adoption of technologies)
Technology is not God given, we create it. That speaks with relationship that we have with
technology that is passive. There are some things that we can’t affect. The weather, when it
rains we put on boots and get an umbrella. We have to adapt to the weather, because we can’t
change it. But technology is not like the weather. We create it, and our relationship with it
needs to be different. If we misperceived technology as God given, we are going to have a far
less favorable relationship with technology and its outcome. Technology isn’t created in the
Heavens, but by people who make decisions.
Chapter 1 introduces us to a range of issues. One of the important things is between distinction
between mass and social media. (key distinction – interactive). Traditional media (one-way
communication). They also focus on what is termed some digital natives. (idea that someone
who was born when the internet already existed, the world they know is a world with the web)
Digital immigrant (the idea being that generations that were born earlier, experienced the
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world before the internet, and then introduced to the world of the web) This period will
eventually end.
Digital native vs. digital immigrant (Remember)
Language online: when the internet went mainstream the vast majority of content was in
English. There was a moment there when many people thought that this is the moment when
everyone loses their language and starts to speak English. English is still dominant language
online (27% in in the web). Amount of English online relatively decreased. Other languages are
getting stronger.
CHAPTER 2
Early reforms of media (1995): newspapers and magazines (1440s)
Gutenberg’s press (1440s) Johannes Gutenberg (mechanical, not electronic)
Gutenberg press receives more attention because we are originated in Europe, Germany, but
also because Gutenberg was a goldsmith (worked with metal). He created a thing that could
printing newspapers. That revolutionized that particular concept. He brought together a
number of different factors in his press that made it take off.
What the change was? (innovation)
Explosion of literature.
Religion, who has the ability to take advantage of this position.
The book is the only copy, and if you want more copies you have to write it up again.
Reproduction took place on a scale of 1 to 1.
Gutenberg press changed that ratio. It was revolutionary that it did not have to be
copied one after the other.
Prior to the Gutenberg press there was dramatically less literature. Mostly religious and
orientation. Bible and other religious texts were produced by the people who dedicated
their lives to make more copies of the bible.
Only the wealthy had the means to produce written materials.
From a single city in Germany, this machine has spread into more than 250 cities in
Europe by the end of the 15th century.
First newspaper in 1605. Strasbourg, France.
Scientific revolution, the ability to transfer information.
In this regard printing press was the first step in making knowledge more accessible to
the general public.
Books are being produced and becomes the commercial enterprise, we see the first
signs of copywrite laws.
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We also see the emergence of expressions of concern about how the printing press was
availing the information that was not correct. (like the Internet today/fake news)
Fake news – disinformation, information that is employed intentionally. (knowingly that
it is wrong)
Up until 1760s the evolution of the printing press changes, but in its essence, it does not
change. Same idea built upon. 1760s: Industrial revolution. Steam power led to the
revolution. Prior to steam power, all power came from humans, animal or water. That is
why it was so important.
Steam power introduces this idea of production (boil water). Turning something is the
revolution. With that revolution it had an impact on all sorts of things (trains and etc.)
As this form of media began to flourish, we see the emergence of another new technology. If
the printing press was a first mechanical ICT, what was the first electronical? The telegraph
(1830s). For most of us, the telegraph does not seem like all that incredible technology, but it
functions based on pretty primitive feature – it relies upon spark. You can have point A and
point B, and you string a wire between these points and you get a spark. You can do it in point A
and receive that spar in point B. The method that was developed to communicate in this way
was called – Morse code. Samuel Morse was able to transmit a symbol for the first time in
1848. (first telegram – distance 3 km) Morse code consists of dots and dashes. (SOS is a Morse
code) Innovations embodied in the Telegraph, arguable are greater than the internet.
Let’s asses the innovations of the Telegraph:
Immediacy. A message with the Telegraph could be transmitted immediately. It is spent
in the speed of light.
How quickly a message was communicated. It was communicated as quickly as you
could imagine.
Over any distance the message could be sent. The distance no longer mattered.
This form of communication is interactable like the internet (2 way).
Western Union connected all the telegraph lines. By connecting these networks, they
get access to every other network that is connected.
Trying to get the news quickly affecting the quality. All of this is to underscore the significance
of the telegraph.
1st telegram – 1848.
Western Union – 1850s (buys out the networks, not all, but a lot).
By 1862 we have both coasts of North America connected (network is complete).
By 1902 with the advance of submarine cables we have a global network.
Submarine cables were problematic.
Tons of problems, very expensive ventures.
1876, Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
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Document Summary
Are you a good multitasker? (movie about blackberry) They defined it as a grapping task switched. To go from one to another thin quickly. Argument: we make many more errors when we do that. People spend 40 mins at a time on each subject, do a better job rather than those who try doing everything quickly. To what does inattentional blindness refer? (movie about blackberry) Being oblivious to your surroundings. (talking on a phone while driving/they think they"re paying attention, but in fact they are missing a lot). Lack of awareness to extent in which we do not understand what is happening around us. The challenge is that we are losing the capacity to focus (deep-thinking). We"re not aware of the consequences that may occur. But we may think about some great human achievements. Theory of relative: what took einstein to develop this theory. Appreciate that those achievements do not actually come about while you"re surfing the web.
