Through the looking glass

This weeks readings were something that hit home to a lot of concerns that many people, such as myself, have about big data and online personalization of web space/interface.

To think that there are companies and people who choose what you should and shouldn't see online based on your 'likes' or clicks on different web spaces and even your interface that you use is something that I'm sure many people don't want to dwell on.

In the article The Big Data Divide, it brought a lot of  that home for me. It is crazy to think that someone can choose you for a job based on which web browser you use, let alone HOW they know which one you use. I like what Adrejevic quotes in his article from Weinberger "in the era of big data, the smartest person in the room IS the room." I think that this brings it to light that computers are more than just devices we use to communicate.

In the article by Aaron Hess he also touches on this aspect. He uses a quote by David Gunkel who argues this point. " Communication theory positions computers and other digital technology as part of the channel that send the message, rather than as an inherent part of the message itself." I do agree that the computer/phone/tablet/etc is more than just the technology we use to form our messages but it also changes the way we communicate our message based on which platform we are on.

I really like when Hess discusses how the media and technology are extensions of our selves. He says "As extensions of ourselves, media accentuate the physical and experiential form of the human body - television extends our sights while radio extends our hearing."

The Hess article was definitely my favorite this week. I like when he discusses Sherry Turkle's work and how she connects the nature of identity. "the nature of identity is a larger cultural context which is the story of the eroding boundaries between the real and virtual, the animate and inanimate, the unitary and the multiple self, which is occurring both in advanced scientific fields of research and in the patterns of everyday life."

I believe that our online identities are a little like Alice in Through the Looking Glass. We see potential in what we can be, and we let our imaginations have more of a home in the virtual world than they might in the "real" world. We can see ourselves and see how we have built this other self which still remains a part of us. I really think that is one of the better topics to focus on in this scary navigation of  big data and personalization of the web.

Something noteworthy to giggle about: I also thought that it was hilarious in the Fernback piece the people trying to fight for Facebook to stop invading their privacy were using Facebook to organize it...