Author Archives: Tanner

Panic! at the Hospital

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I believe that in our capitalist society it is just a matter of time before Google is giving each and every person medical advice, I made this idea apparent in class but I think that it could use a bit of building upon here. This is of course all built upon the article shared on the Twitter page. The article touches upon the ethical side of false positives in Google’s model of giving out information, but I can’t look at this idea as something that companies would shy away from. Admitting that I am very biased against large corporations and their complete lack of morals, I think that pharmaceutical companies would thrive on the idea of false positives. It serves a high profit margin to have an overabundance of people coming in and getting tested, as you are able to charge each of these people through the nose. Even if only one out of ten people ends up being a positive, false or otherwise, that person then becomes a cash cow that can be returned to time and time again, until they’re dead or cured.

“You have to consider, the number of false positives you get could be enormous…” the article says about this topic, which I can’t imagine companies trying to avoid. The only thing the companies would need to worry about is losing customer loyalty, which is negated by the idea of Google making medical predictions. If this is the case then a basic structure of our society becomes one that at it’s core creates panic. Everyone could be as upset by the fact that Google is making twenty false positives, but the second everyone sees the article of someone’s life being saved by the technology it plants the idea of “that could be me”. In essence this would force everyone to buy into a system that has a small chance of saving their life, but a larger chance of being a financial burden. If this were to become common practice it would create a nation of hypochondriacs that would feed into itself until that ideology became the norm.

Even with my so obviously biased opinion I am forced to look at the other side of the ethical question; are the lives saved by this technology enough to make up for the economic strain that is put on the society? It is all a matter of the scale with which you look at things. On the small scale most people are willing to take any measure to ensure their loved ones live as long as possible, and if this technology were to save someone close to you there is no way you would be against it. But on the grand scale would it make life extremely more difficult for future generations, as the economy would be ravaged by massive influx of income into the medical sector that largely feeds into very few pockets. Personally I think the well being of many outdoes the lives of the few, so I advocate for this technology to not be integrated, but it seems an unfortunate unavoidably.

Content (Out of?) Control

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Reed Hastings was very happy to talk about so many aspects of his company, especially the original content that it is producing. I am someone who has thoroughly enjoyed much of the content that Netflix has produced, and am able to appreciate what they bring to the table. Netflix produces television that doesn’t feel as much of the need to stick to the traditional style that has become expected of our entertainment, but with this comes some additional mature content that isn’t quite so widespread in the ‘mainstream media’. With out rightly violent shows like Daredevil forgoing the stylized stage combat that most broadcast television sticks with and much more sexual content becoming widespread through their programming, is it time to take a look at a new system of rating content? Netflix has complete control over what they produce, so they don’t have any sort of rating agency to report to, so should they give some sort of internalized system to tell the intensity of their shows?

Control has become more and more integrated into the media that we consume. Television, video games, and music all have some sort of warning system to advise parents in particular that content might not be suitable for children, and this is what comes to mind for the hole in Netflix’s system. There are sections that are marked specifically for children, but the age range for this is somewhere between 1-10, while the filters to disable mature content are far too generalized to be anything more than a nuisance. Not to mention that these controls are far from perfect, when you can simply switch users to watch whatever you want, it hardly seems like more than a slight hurdle to overcome. I am all for the desensitization of our youth, but I think that it should be done in some sort of outright discussion rather than giggling behind mom and dad’s back. Not a great metaphor for what I’m trying to say but, really my point is that if everything else is so clearly classified by what is in the media, why shouldn’t Netflix be subjected to the same, or some similar procedure?

Also a question is what is too much for these more mature themes. At what point do we lose plot, character, and the more artistic aspects of the show simply because ‘sex sells’? The line between smut and art is a fine one that should be explored, but not overly shoved into the faces of consumers. I, for instance, had no idea about the plentiful sex scenes that were to be had in “Orange is the New Black” when I started watching it, and some sort of warning along the way towards these would have been appreciated. This being said, it’s hard to argue with the positive response these programs have received. Shows that break these near prudish expectations wow the public and continue to bring in viewers for the programs. Why change the system when clearly it hasn’t been doing any harm?

Barbershop Backdrop

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When reading the article “The Podcast ‘‘Chitlin’ Circuit’’: Black Podcasters, Alternative Media, and Audio Enclaves” I was struck by the mention of the barbershop being brought into the listeners homes, and how well equipped a podcast is to deal with this. This made me think of the movie that was recently released, which is appropriately named, “Barbershop: the Next Cut”. With this contrast of mediums, I had to wonder how important the medium is to the reception of the product. While I admit that as a very white individual, I am hardly the target audience for these pieces, but I hadn’t heard much of anything about the podcasting circuit that focuses on the black community. In this same vein though, I haven’t heard much in the way of amazing success for this genre of movie either. This seems to be due to the severe pay difference between the two mediums. It costs certainly more to produce a movie than it does a podcast, and this pay difference has a direct effect on the quantity of media that is produced, and when the idea is to create a sort of home space that can be shared among individuals, being able to return to the environment is important. As well as the fact that in the long term, there isn’t much technological replacement that really has to happen, microphones won’t be changing dramatically in the foreseeable future. This means that there is just one up front payment for podcasts, as opposed to sets, costumes, and actors for film.

With movies like the barbershop series paling in comparison to other movies popping on the scene at the same time, like “the Jungle Book”, there also becomes an issue of the system feeding itself. The fact that these movies that don’t bring in the same sort of viewership that the bigger box office hits do makes them less likely to be produced, which means that they need to be wary of being eliminated from the system all together. This is a problem that plagues the industry in representation as well. Since movies that star white men do so great on the monetary side of things what reason is there for changing the system? It becomes a conveyor belt that only speeds up the process for the homogeneous bleaching of the cinematic industry.

Another aspect that I think of when addressing the podcast is the income of the listeners. It is an unfortunate aspect of our society that a large number of black citizens do not have the income necessary to live in this day and age. This is a factor because it is an expenditure to go and see the movies, with taking the time out of the day, driving there, and purchasing the movie tickets themselves, while podcasts cost very little with access to the internet, which more and more is becoming a necessity. Podcasts can be listened to while going about the day to day tasks that are needed to be done around the house, thus making it a much more natural fit for merging into the everyday life of people.

Who gets the kids? A digital reflection by Tanner Goldberg

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“A majority of gamers agree that “having a positive impact on society is important to me”—a full 21 percentage points higher than non-gamers.” -The New Face of Gamers

This is especially apparent in the situation of ara_gaming. This is a gaming channel that recently has gone under a change of management. Though most of the details are relatively vague, it is the general consensus that the woman who normally runs the channel has ownership of the channel and it’s associated Twitter account has lost both in a recent divorce. Many of her viewers were outraged when they tuned in to see a strange face on the screen. They demanded answers but the new woman claimed that she couldn’t share any of the details for legal reasons. The response to this was to start the hashtag aragate on twitter to try and get to the bottom of what exactly happened. A quick Twitter search for the hashtag reveals that not much has been discovered in the case, it does bring a few things to mind.

First is the fact that the Twitch community is very vocal. While this was stated in the article referenced above, I took that with more than a few grains of salt due to the fact that these statistics were requested by Twitch. But it makes sense that a community that has a core value in being the most technologically up  to date would be more than willing to be active in different social media circles. So an issue like this that directly affects the Twitch community would be a call to action that couldn’t be ignored. It is very unfortunate that there is so little reason for the people who have the answers to respond. The channel has enough popularity that it should be able to coast off of that for the forseeable future, unless there is a sudden drop in viewership, and it seems that the original channel holder is legally unable to respond. Thus the movement has come to a bit of a standstill

In addition to the questions as to what happened to the original gamer, there is also the response to the new face of the channel. While some people were content to stay and simply watch games get played, many decided that since it was no longer the original person, the channel was no longer worth watching. This begs the question of the loyalty of the individuals watching the channel. While many people watch channels for the mechanics or the strategy of the games, the personality of each channel is worth noting, and questioning. How much of the viewership of each channel is based purely on personality? Some argue that the personality is more important than the actual gameplay, examples being cited are things like the Playboy channel on Twitch (it’s real, and I only know that because of this assignment) where it doesn’t seem like gameplay is the primary focus. The same could be said for male run channels that are more about the interactions with those on the chat stream. This is not to discount either of these groups abilities as gamers or to make light of their accomplishments, but just to bring into question what makes a community on Twitch, the game or the gamer?

check it out: http://gamerant.com/twitch-streamer-loses-account-divorce-120/

YouTube, sure hope I’m posting this to the right textbox

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T-k43VoIGs&list=PLI9GLKBb5cXiVT63nCN8YzjlAV_gXf3I0

First and foremost of the things that I use YouTube for is Philip Defranco. While I’m sure that I make many interactions with YouTube in any given day, Philip Defranco’s channel is the only one that I actively seek out with regularity. The gist of his show is that he makes much more digestible news issues that interest him. While I acknowledge that this filtering system makes for a less than broad view of what is happening in the world today, his views are liberal enough and his personality is appealing enough that I feel satisfied with the spectrum of news he gives me. This is also said while keeping in mind that if it weren’t for this YouTube channel, I wouldn’t be watching the news at all. There is a certain appeal of being able to feel up to date on things of moderate importance to me all within an eight minute video, and the fact that it is delivered by a charismatic personality makes it that much more appealing.
Next up is music. While not proportional to movie trailers as far as the amount that I watch, I have as many up because of their importance to me. I listen to a lot of music in a day, but I am still not one of the people to get behind Spotify or Apple Music, which means that I purchase every song that I listen to. With this in mind, it becomes that much more important to listen to the song in its entirety, and thus YouTube is my primary tool for screening the music that I eventually purchase. Thus a primary use of this website for me is music.
Then comes probably my favorite use for YouTube, movie trailers. I am a huge cinephile and get super excited to see what the newest films to be coming out are. While this is an activity I thoroughly enjoy, there are only so many new movies or TV shows coming out that I am interested in, so there seems to be a limit to the amount of content available to me in this area. Also, due to the fact that I watch pretty much no television at this point these trailers become my primary way to find out about what new products are coming out both in television and video games.
With that wicked great Segway I move onto my next use of YouTube video game news. As someone who enjoys video games it is a big part of things to keep up to date with whatever the newest games to be released are. Without the usual commercials that come with television to inform me, I rely on YouTube. Typically I’m able to start at large video game conferences like E3 and then move on to other videos using the suggested links. Thus I feed back into this capitalist system.
Sitting in small categories of their own are comedy and instruction videos. Every once in a while I need to blindly kill time and my usual methods have been exhausted, which leads me to search in the sea of videos for things to waste my bland existence. Ever important but so often overlooked are instruction videos. I often find myself not knowing how to do a task, from programming to opening a jar, and YouTube has a video to show me what needs to be done. Really an excellent practical use of the service that I think is so taken for granted in our society is the wealth of knowledge for small problems.