After reading chapter five, there
are numerous things that stuck out to me. Some being how our society today has
such a large need for speed when it comes to anything related to technology and
the internet, second how much time we spend on the internet, and lastly how
much the internet is integrated into other media facets. What is crazy is how all of these ideas are related but can all be good or bad. Carr makes some very
interesting points throughout this section of the book and it is amazing how
what he says has become increasingly truer in the present day.
When Carr discusses the idea that
people in their 20s spend an average of 19 hours a week on the internet, I could
not help but think about how that number has risen from when this book written
(p 86). I feel like I am online 19 hours a day now, that is obviously not true,
but I’m sure there are actually people out there that actually are. This
article states that Americans spend 16 minutes out of every hour on a social media
site. That is incredible to think about that over a quarter of every hour is
wasted on simply social media, that is not even adding in email, texting, web
surfing, or other facets on the web. We
talked about the idea previously this semester of the “always on” logic where
people are constantly connected to the internet with smart phones and such.
What is truly amazing is that when Carr wrote this book, it was notable even
then that people’s usage on the web was extremely high. I think that the amount of time we spend online can be problematic to our society.
I cannot help but wonder what Carr
would say today when he sees the younger generations practically living off of
their phones. So many simple skills are being lost because of the advent of technology
being at your fingertips all the time. For instance the ability to read a map,
or calculate tip, or simply remembering phone numbers are all struggles now for
a lot of people because they rely on their phones instead of having this as common
knowledge. Hence, reading this section really made me self-reflect and see how
much I am online and how much I rely on my phone, and I found it very helpful
and insightful.
Another portion of this reading that
I found extremely interesting was the section where Carr discusses how TV shows
are incorporating more web content on them.
As soon as I read the introduction to this topic on page ninety-five I immediately
thought of Jimmy Fallon and then when I turned the page apparently Carr was
thinking the same thing because he referenced the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I watch Jimmy Fallon every night on
the Tonight Show and when he was on Late Show I would watch his show the
next day online because of how late it was on. Jimmy Fallon really understands that
in today’s society getting viewers is not all about getting people to watch at
11:35 pm, it is about getting followers on social media, having a huge fan base
on YouTube, and realizing that clips that can be uploaded online can become
more famous and add to his popularity rather than just trying to get
traditional viewers. I constantly find myself watching his clips on his website
or on YouTube and then sending them to friends or family. This constant spread
of communication and online world is an advantage the Jimmy Fallon, as well as
many other news and television outlets, see as an benefit in today’s world. Here
is a clip that was just posted on the Late
Night with Jimmy Fallon YouTube channel saying thank you for getting 3
million subscribers. This is just an example of how much the internet and
simple binary code has changed our society and how we go about different things
in our world today.
Overall, through both of these
points in the book it is evident how the internet has changed our world. I
think that this chapter of the book was very eye opening and showed how much
the internet can consume us, but also how beneficial it is in other aspects. I
cannot imagine my life without the internet anymore, and even though some
things are drawbacks, I am happy with my life and all of the possibilities that
are now imaginable because of technology and the internet.
Great post, Paige! It really is eye opening to me to read that article about how we spend 16 minutes of every hour on social media sites. Although it scares me, I believe it is 100% true thinking about my own experiences and the people I observe around me. For instance, when I wake up in the morning I usually check my email, then go right onto social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Ever since the beginning of this class, however, I've been catching myself doing this and trying to stop myself. I think, it anything actually important going to be on here? Probably not. Many people, I'm sure, ask themselves this questions as well but we all eventually spend countless amounts of hours on these sites throughout the day. Like we've mentioned in class discussion, it is habitual and hard to break out of this habit.
ReplyDeleteThanks you for your comment Tori! And I completely agree with you, I have the same ritual when I wake up in the morning, and I never really thought about how much time I spend on social media, but the statistic seems pretty accurate, which is actually kind of scary.
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ReplyDeleteHey Paige ... I enjoyed reading your post! Even though the entire school pretty much knows that I don't have social media, I completely agree with what you said. I do believe that we waste a lot of our time on these sites and I see/hear people talking about it too. It is a huge distraction and it is affecting how we interact with others, like you said. I believe we have to go back to the basics of how we used to communicate because that is the only way that we will break this habit. It is hard to fathom, but we will never know if it is possible if we don't at least make an attempt at it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Tyler. I agree that it would be nice to try and break the habit of social media, but I also agree that we will most likely never know a world without social media again.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you highlighting Jimmy Fallon as using the internet effectively. He almost writes his skits to go viral. The evolution of rap music, impressions, and various other programs really are able to transition well online. He is getting a larger audience base because people who do not stay up to watch him can still enjoy his content. If they are exposed to him online they are more likely to watch him on tv. He is doing the best of all the late night programming to reach people through the internet
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