We started off the year learning about how new communication technologies aren’t just blogs, social media, and google. Instead, we found out that new communication technologies have been around since the industrial revolution. Technologies have improved to fit the need of humans. Technology was used as a mean to control all areas of production, distribution, and consumption of manufactured goods. We’ve expanded into communication technologies because of humans trying to fulfill their need to socialize with other humans. The difference between these technologies is that communication technologies have coded information being exchanged.
After learning about the difference between technologies, we learned about how humans crave knowledge. In the previous paragraph, I talked about how communication technologies have information in them. The reason for communication technologies like social media, google, and blogs have taken off is because of humans wanting information. Humans want to learn and share information and those technologies can quickly get humans their information they need. Tools like social media allow for quick information being shared as Facebook and Twitter allow users to share information with other users to spread knowledge.
The participatory culture that technology creates ties in with spreading knowledge. People share information with each other what we produce for financial reasons or for personal gratification. We share the information because not everybody knows everything and as humans we want to learn about knowledge. For example, when I use social media I try not to share information unless I feel it’s important to me. When I share something, I want people to see that I found a piece of information interesting to share to the world.
There’s another reason why I don’t share information constantly on social media is because we learned about Cambridge Analytica. We watched the video of the company explaining how they helped Ted Cruz out in the election by using data from Facebook. I don’t have anything to hide, but I don’t want my information being used by advertisers trying to sell me something. Facebook having the information be leaked is part of the participatory culture that I talked about in the last paragraph. Cambridge Analytica understands many people participate in social media and they want to gain information like the rest of us.
The last thing we learned about in NCT was globalization. After the Berlin Wall fell, people were able to connect to other people a lot easier. Using open-sourcing, outsourcing, offshoring, supply chaining, and insourcing are ways to share information. The reason why globalization has become so popular is how easy it to connect with people around the world. People want to inform other people and globalization has made it easier for people to share knowledge.