Personalizing The Internet

      When you searched for something on the internet you got results from various sources. However this is not how it works anymore. Now there are algorithm being used by Google and Facebook as well as other companies that show you results based on your previous searches. This means that if two people type in the same search on Google they will get different results. Although be have amazing access to information and still be stuck in a bubble.

      This "personalizing" of the internet introduce many problems. The first being that we are being cut off from contrasting ideas. When you only receive news from one perspective you develop opinions with out being properly informed. An example of this is the number of republicans who think the planet is beginning to warm dropped from 49% to 29% , and the number of democrats jumped from 60% to 70% in nine years. Most likely because they were presented scientific information that the computer registered as relevant to them. Instead of allowing people to open themselves up to more opinions the internet not pushes people to stick to one side of an argument without considering the other. The computer determines what is relevant to us mainly by what we click on first. This method based on relevance alone is not a very good way to filter information. Other things like importance should be taken in to consideration.
     Information like where you've been, your age and where you shop are also important. This is because companies are now using targeted ads. Advertisement is much more effective when presented to someone who may already be interested.
     The idea behind the opposition of personalizing the internet is that weak ties are more useful than strong ties. However there is a counter argument defending personalizing of the internet saying that strong close ties is more effective in getting you information you want faster. This is because with a personalized internet the information you want i presented to you in a larger amount. However that alone will not make you well informed.

Obama Campaign's Use of Social Networking

      The Obama campaign gained an advantage over both Clinton's and McCain's by effectively using social networking. Unlike campaigns before this 55% of Americans had broadband internet connections at home. Other campaigns also used web tools but did not make them a central part of the campaign. The Obama campaign even hired Chris Hughes who was a co-founder of Facebook to help design mybarakobama.com. The website made it easy to manage and organize large number of supporters as well as set up events.

      Clintons campaign used social networking well but did not focus on new media at first. In the beginning they focused more on large donations. Seeing the campaign receive checks for millions of dollars makes people who would give smaller donations feel like their money is not needed. however the Obama campaign made 48% of its funds in donations less that $200 while the Clinton campaign made 33% in small donations. Clinton focused on the baby boomers demographic and told people to visit her website. However the Obama website was constantly putting links to media made by the supporters. A music video set to an Obama speech got over 10 million views on YouTube.

      Then there was McCain whos site was poorly made and did not attract new users very well. McCain tried to use the internet while targeting and older generation. most people under 25 don't even use emails any more. The Obama campaign used text messages with valuable information in less than 160 characters whereas the McCain campaign didn't use and SMS strategy at all.
      Using these strategies the Obama campaign was able to dominate Facebook, Myspace, and overall website traffic. These methods were able to get an extra 1 million people voting. This is ground breaking and is expected to get more people to vote in the future.

Issues Raise by PBS

        The presentations focused heavily on the fact that the internet was a place where children can do anything they wanted but not be monitored even though they are still at home. The internet was hard for parents to adapt to because this was the first generation to grow up with the internet. Kids no longer needed to open up to their parents when they have a world of strangers who they can share their problems with.
        The next issue was that teachers didn't know how to adapt to the technology. Students would find ways around doing work. The internet allows the students to do things faster and with that in mind they go online and look for other sources. Some teacher try keep things the old way by making students do work in class. Other teachers choose to change what they consider cheating and alter thing grading taking into consideration that online sources will be used.
       Social networking made it possible for people to live entirely different lives online. The example of a girl name Jessica was given. Jessica was not able to fit in with the rest of the crowd in real life so she turned to the internet. Online she was Autumn Edows and she was very popular. The downside to being popular on line is that although it isn't real life there are predators online as well. The things that are put on the internet are not always viewed by only the people you intended to view it.
      The issue that had the greatest impact on me was online bullying. Kids are bullied at school and when they go home they go online where the bullying continues. In school someone could notice and interfere with bullying. However on the internet it less likely to be reported since parents don't know much about what their children are doing online.