Author: Shayla B.

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The MP3 serves as a medium for audio files to be compressed and more easily distributed. The MP3 is what makes streaming services like Tidal, Spotify and Apple Music possible. These streaming services don’t actually hold unlimited amounts of space for the audio data files, the files have to be efficient enough to be held and transported throughout the cloud. These services are useful for consumers because it allows us to be able to have access to our music files without having to physically store them on our devices. The consumption of music is a booming industry. It has become so central to almost every aspect of our lives. We can’t even imagine our phones without having the music app down at the bottom.

The MP3 was designed to maximize the portability of audio files, but unintentionally the MP3 has revolutionized the music industry. Artists are no longer selling physical albums and records like they use to. Everything these days is about how many times their songs get streamed or how many times it get viewed or listened to on YouTube. But one artist in particular is fighting the streaming industry. Pop singer Taylor Swift has removed her music from the Spotify platform. She states that the service devalues her music; she believes consumers should pay appropriately for her music. So while listening to music and access to music may be getting easier for consumers, some artists fell as though their sales are being hurt because of such streaming services. How do we decide what’s more important? Access and portability? Or artist profit? But with these advances in technology there are new ways for musicians like Taylor Swift to be profitable. While physical albums may not be as central as they use to be, advances in technology have offered social media as tools for increasing profit for entertainers.

 

Posted from Course Blogs by Shayla B.

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Reaction GIF

 

Reaction GIFs are looped videos of an emotional response to something vague and therefor can be applied to various contexts. The most popular reaction GIFs exhibit some form of extreme emotion. The first image is a good example of a useful reaction GIF because it’s displaying a clear emotion, shock. This is juxtaposed by the second GIF because the woman in the GIF isn’t exhibiting any useful emotion that will likely be applied to an online context, therefor making it a counter GIF. The counter GIF fades in from a black screen, making viewers anticipate some form of emotion, but instead they are presented with a blank stare and fades back to black.

 

Sports GIF

 

Sports GIFs are about building up anticipation and seeing a heightened action follow. Sports GIFs usually take memorable sports moments and preserve them so that can be watched and rewatched. The above example shows Kyrie and DeAndre teaming up to complete a high energy duo-dunk. While the second example showcases Lebron seemingly going in for a dunk but then the scene gets cut off. The second GIF is a counter to sports GIFs because it does not showcase any memorable moment. We are lured in by what seems to be a great moment but are let down when the GIF restarts.

 

Fandom GIF

 

 

Fandom GIFs are representations of iconic moments in films and television. They are a single action that represents an entire scene, but most importantly they are meaningful scenes for fans.The first GIF is an iconic scene from the Harry Potter franchise with two main characters present in the scene. From the second-long clip you can tell what number movie in the franchise its from and what are the moments around that one action, leading up to the scene and following it. While in the second GIF you don’t see any of the protagonists and may not remember the events surrounding that particular moment. Without the tag saying that it is a scene from Harry Potter a fan may not even be able to pick that out, thus making it a counter fandom GIF.

Posted from Course Blogs by Shayla B.

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Roberts’ article on Commercial Content Moderation makes the point how there is so much content online that it makes it difficult for reviewers to sift through them and uncover inappropriate content. They majorly rely on the content that has been flagged to find inappropriate content; material is posted, flagged and only then is it removed. This means that only content that someone else has flagged and reported are likely to be removed.

What flagged content assumes is that it was flagged by a user. But of course communities of people with the same ideas will converge on ideas and will not think their contents are inappropriate. What do we do about content that is not flagged that is still inappropriate? When we rely on users to flag content we are relying the social norms that dictate what is appropriate versus what isn’t.

The image above is a snippet from the Instagram page of a group of women who call themselves Taz’s Angels. They frequently post images of themselves half naked or doing acts that are inappropriate. But why hasn’t there been tons of people flagging their images and videos as being inappropriate and boarder line pornographic? Society has accepted these women and the content of there pages. Why are pages like these so openly accepted but pornography sites are so taboo?

The people who visit these pages most likely go to specifically see these types of images and will not report them and those who would report them are not in the circles to find such pages. Therefor pages and sites with inappropriate content are majorly visited by people who want to find them and therefor will not likely report its inappropriate content. How do we make new policies and systems that address these issues?

Posted from Course Blogs by Shayla B.

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It seems that since the beginning of modern technology people have believed the purpose of these technological innovations were to connect us with other people. Therefore, it should be no surprise that technology had been used like we use it now as a method of romance or dating. The second chapter in the novel, When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking about Electric Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century (1988) writes of how, “New forms of technology created unprecedented opportunities not only for courting, but for infidelity” (70). We have always had this understanding that the technological innovations we have developed put us in a private sphere, privy to only us, when in fact it does the opposite. So it should be no surprise that people use technology as a medium to accomplish private and intimate things like dating and infidelity because individuals feel as if they are anonymous and protected behind the technological mediums they use. Even today we use Google’s search engine to ask things we may not necessarily feel comfortable asking another person. On a more extreme level, people even make fake social media profiles to talk to other people they feel they have no chance with in “real life”.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have now developed apps and websites intended to make dating more transparent. By having users create profiles and listing their hobbies, likes and dislikes, dating is supposed to have become more easy. But we have to ask ourselves the question of whether or not technology actually brings us closer to other people because it in fact eliminates a whole human element of face to face contact some would beg is necessary to create and maintain relationships.

Posted from Course Blogs by Shayla B.

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In both the novel and “Building the Star Trek Computer”, we can observe the common theme of humanity fearing the capabilities of artificial intelligence. We don’t seem to want the technology to reach its full potential; we want the technology to serve as assistants to humans rather than independently functioning organisms. In Finn’s article, it was mentioned on several occasions how the goal of smart computers are to be “intelligent assistants”. Scientists wanted programs like Siri to merely respond to human queries and not initiate any activity. In fact Apple didn’t present Siri to the public with all of the technology’s capabilities.

This can be similarly seen throughout Neuromancer. In fact there is an entire division of law enforcement devoted to shutting down artificial intelligence that become too intelligent; once the AI starts to act on its on free will the Turring Police come to erase it.

Based on the ideals discussed in Neuromancer and the article, technology should be a mere extension of human capability and needs. Technology is to be secondary to human and never more than that. In fact, one of the main anxieties the novel focuses on is the fear of artificial intelligence becoming to powerful. We have this understanding that technology cannot precede the abilities of the person who programmed it, but we would we do when that day does come? Is the Neuromancer story an accurate prediction to how society will react to artificial intelligence with its own free will?

 

Posted from Course Blogs by Shayla B.