Author Archives: mbordage

What the hell is Google actually doing to me??

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The unavoidable elephant in the room these days is that Google is deeply ingrained into all of our lives, with most humans using one or more of its services everyday. For awhile I’ve been hearing various opinions on the still growing media monolith, many of which have been unfavorable, but some that lauded the company for its innovative work in technology. And while these opinions may differ depending on the service or technology being critiqued, all of these seem to be asking the bigger question, what exactly is Google doing to our lives?

 

Google can sometimes seems as comfortable and familiar as one’s own skin, giving us the freedom to search for whatever information we want and allowing us to collaborate with others from our own home via their cloud services. Other times we hear about features that can actually frighten us a little bit, namely Google diagnosing your ailments via a few search queries. The way I see it, we can handle the inevitable rise of Google in two ways.

  1. We can succumb to Google in their rise to total media/technology domination. Let their powers dictate our lives and become nothing more than an accessory organ to their greater system.

or…

2. We can watch Google as it grows, take advantage of tools and                 services it provides while keeping ourselves informed about                   how to use these tools properly so they don’t use us.

Google is not an evil company per se. You could take isolated incidents from their career and push it whatever way you want. I’d like to think that at the end of the day they are an honest company who does want to help the world grow and expand, but understandably so, efforts of that magnitude always leads to some errors. So when I read articles like “Is Google Making us Stupid” or any article about a new service like self diagnosing, I immediately look at the advantages and disadvantages.

Yes. Google will make us stupid if we rely to heavily on it. When every question can be answered on a whim, it takes away the challenge of deduction. However, if used right Google provides the most comprehensive reference manual the world has to offer, and a resource like that is priceless. You could look at it like caffeine. We function well without it, and while we use it we seem to get a boost in activity and productivity. But be wary, for it will quickly become something to be relied upon, an addiction where you will wonder how you ever functioned normally without it. This could be the world we are heading to, but we could also take advantage of what were given with out abusing it. If google is treated in a respectful way we have much to gain from it, but ignoring those advantages because google is streamlining and simplifying processes is ignorant of our modern age. Google like any tool can be abused or utilized properly, and it is up to us to work hard and manage our usage of Google so that we stay as operators.

Amazon, the ever growing beast

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If you were to ask me about Amazon four years ago I would’ve told you it’s an incredibly convenient way to shop online for all your needs, whether they are basic necessities or luxury items, Amazon has it all.

As I watched Amazon grow into a partnership between them and UMass I began to do a little research into their company to see what was really going on behind the scenes. It was not hard to discover that there company was less of a big strong online bookstore and more like a giant manipulative media octopus that had one of its many tentacles in a vast range of media forms. Amazon is a company that does a lot of good and makes the world much more convenient for everybody, but at what cost do we take for our convenience?

Over the years Amazon has grown to be a company that has acquired many other companies while integrating them and their services into their own corporate structure. By doing this they have found a place for themselves among the media/internet giants like facebook and google. You could imagine the ease of use when a company like Amazon streamlines a variety of content to work on the same platform. Those who are already familiar with Amazon’s shopping services will be able to easily hop over to Amazon’s streaming service, and then enjoy a book via the Amazon branded Kindle e-reader. All these products and services are provided by a company you can trust from previous usage both in terms of accessibility, and capability. Amazon’s sheer scope of technology and media has allowed them to make groundbreaking products and services that has allowed them to grow and keep growing after many years.

However convenient it may be, the dark side of Amazon is lurking just around the corner. Being such a big all encompassing media company, they have stretched themselves horizontally over all different forms and services, therefore making themselves an authoritative power over media matters. If you think about Amazon in the context of UMass, it is troubling to consider the influence they may have over our education.

By becoming a provider of text books and other services to students, Amazon becomes responsible for the knowledge base that can be accessed, therefore placing them in a very powerful state. They hurt the small book store businesses that get their profits from students while limiting the books to what is available with them, sometimes forcing teachers to publish books on Amazon with awful pay rates. It is without a doubt that Amazon’s involvement with UMass is convenient but does draw some harm to the system. UMass is such a large conglomerate of media that their power and influence must be kept in check, just like with any business. We want to keep it so that Amazon does not dictate how we are to live our lives, but merely assist us in doing so.

How I wrote off podcasts, and then repented

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When I was in my first year of college I gave podcasts a try, thinking that it would be a cool and interesting way to get information. I realize now that I went about it all wrong, causing me to write off podcasts as a lame dying media form before I even knew what they had to offer. Though I can’t remember which one I had chosen, the first podcast I chose to listen to did not intrigue me at all, in fact I can remember thinking that they would be a great way to fall asleep (I feel the same way now but for very different reasons 😉   ).

I learned this year that podcasting was a form of information dissemination and a platform for discourse that had options for every mind, no matter what you chose to look for. Through my exploration of podcasts I was able to discover that there was programming for all, representing the culture of people of color, the LGBTQ community, academics, gamers, comedians, and much much more. Immediately I regretted the time I thought podcasts were boring, rambling voices who  were too into hearing themselves talk.

Listening to podcasts I gained valuable insights and commentary on topics that I had been underexposed to. Podcasting grants you the opportunity to hear from an esteemed individual on a subject that would not normally have touched your everyday life.

Aside from the educational offerings, podcasting also gives one a network of like minded individuals to connect with. If we take TWiB as an example, Elon James White has created a popular podcasting syndicate for people of color and more specifically black people. He established a community that gets the voices of Black Americans heard without the adulterating powers of mass media. Black people all across the United States can connect and identify with the many show hosts, giving a positive image to identify with and establishing a strong supportive community.

In light of my new found adoration for podcasting, I have chosen a few podcasts in particular that I really enjoy. On NPR I like to listen to All Songs Considered, a promotional platform that looks at artists forthcoming music and offers reviews/criticism/analysis. I also like to listen to a podcast called Liner Notes, a program which picks a jazz icon to examine while looking at their place in history.

Though my adventures into the podcasting world are still a bit cursory I hope to continue looking for more content that serves my interests. I’m looking to listen to some podcasts about computers and technology as well as a podcast about philosophy.

After looking into podcasting and making one of my own, I am much more appreciative of the form and hope to continue profiting from such a rich type of media.

Originality in the age of Memes and Mashups

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It is without a doubt that our current culture is dominated by memes and mashups. The internet has provided a platform for the sharing of data which inevitably lends itself to the participatory nature of today’s creative economy. We have seen a rise in the popularity of mashups, a trend that continues itself in modern popular dance music with sampling. Nowadays much of our culture pays homage to the creativity of years past in a way that is respectful of the works of master artists but also raises questions about how we may be losing the scope of our creative potential.

When it comes to music I have always been critical of the quality of pop songs coming out in our time. America’s top 40 is littered with corporate puppet divas, uninspired electronic artists, and unoriginal country crossover wanna-be cowboys. I feel nostalgia for a time I was never in when I hear the mellifluous sounds of motown, or the gut busting attitudes of rock and roll. This was music that was bringing new concepts to work, re imagining the elements of blues to create new song forms, fresh chord progressions, and unprecedented arrangements.

In our modern age the tools for production are allowing music to be created without the practice that it took in years past to make something happen. The routes to creative success are more or less pre-established and easy to follow, making production of creative content a streamlined process that is formulaic. When we look at online photo memes we see the combination of disparate elements into new content but even this is an applied formula. No matter what an online photo meme contains it always has some form of text and picture, giving it a pre-ordained form. We also see a lot of picture recycling as well as reusing the messages originally attached to the aforementioned pictures. Sampling and mashups follow a similar path in the sense that they take already existing elements and follow a formula to re imagine the content, however I feel that while this does create a new spin to something already there, the end creative result falls flat.

 

Sampling does have exceptions. The creative use of samples will make a voice a new instrument, for example, turning a vocal line into a percussive effect. This I believe is a visionary usage of a pre-existing element, but mashups and memes tend to miss that mark. If we are to think forward, one can imagine a trend of remixing that leads us to less and less original ideas. Obviously one can mashup a mashup, but how long can we ride that idea until it is redundant?

Memes eventually fall out of popularity when we see the same idea recurring week after week just as songs get old when we’ve heard them out too many times. There is always a need for new content, and not just remixed old content that is labeled as new. I believe that the tools today to be creative are sometimes stifling. When it is easy to create content people don’t strive as hard to push the limit. The more you have invested in a craft the more you are going to try to work it for whatever it’s worth, and today the accessibility provides a platform for  lot of quick visitors so to speak. Many get into the arts and practice crafts, toss around  few old ideas, but stop when it is time to produce truly original works. I believe that is always necessary to be pushing the boundaries of art, because creative stagnation is not an option. I do fear that it will become more common as we look towards a future of recycled ideas.

MeTube Youtube WeAllTube (what youtube means to me)

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Youtube has provided me with more than the founders could have ever planned for when they began their company and service. I have used Youtube in a number of ways, most prominently in trying to discover and listen to music. Included in my playlist is a video from a concert that was the year of my birth. This was an experience I would never had been able to see and hear if it were not for the digital archives of youtube, to which I also owe the pleasure of viewing a “tiny desk” concert provided by NPR. I believe the coolest part of youtube and its provisions of music are the live concerts and events that you can see vicariously through the eye of the camera.

In addition to music I also enjoy using youtube as an educational tool. In my playlist I have multiple videos that offer lessons on diverse concepts and crafts. I’m a self taught musician, but if I had to attribute my training to somewhere it would undoubtedly be the internet and more specifically youtube. Many of my adolescent days were spent watching videos on how to play guitar and eventually when I grew older, mandolin. Whether it had been a basic lesson in strumming rhythms or learning more advance jazz scales I could find nearly everything I needed on youtube. I’ve included a lecture from Leonard Bernstein which has been one of the most inspiring and interesting lectures I’ve ever seen. Aside from music I also enjoy watching videos that teach different concepts that touch upon a number of fields. Two videos on my playlist are from some of my favorite video series on youtube, those series are 8-bit philosophy and RSA animate. I love to hear the experts explain with ease the concepts that may be abstract and difficult to grasp in a textbook. The way they explain the material is digestible and by incorporating the multiple levels of media the clarity comes through even more. The interpretive visual aspect is something that, at least for me, is incredibly enlightening and strongly reinforces the concept at hand.

Then of course there is the delightful world of comedy. While youtube for me primarily serves as a platform for searching and discovering music and cool ideas I, like nearly everyone else, love to spend some time to have a good chuckle. I’ve included a view videos that I’ve thought were funny for their satire and parody. I enjoy the fact that youtube conglomerates multiple comedy groups on one platform so you can view them all conveniently. It makes watching college humor videos followed by SNL videos followed by random cat videos so much easier.

Some other uses that I have for youtube are for previewing games and products I might want to purchase. I enjoy watching a good speed run happen as well as viewing normal gameplay of games I used to have or hope to have.

Finally on my list I have a video that I created for a class last year. And while this is but a small dent in the youtube community I hope to become a greater contributor in the community as I try and create more digital projects like the one featured in my playlist.