Digital Media Presentation
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I found this topic really interesting because it fascinates me how much technology interacts with our daily lives. This concept of 'harnessing collective intelligence' basically shows how much information there is about us out there and how web user activity is stored, used and then resold to us in a format that actually encourages us to buy more things in doing so feeding the entire process all over again. It's nuts, but at the same time incredibly genius.
I personally love those bits that come up on Amazon, 'people who brought this item also viewed' its great for when your trying to find a present for someone or just looking for new music. Basically we like it because it makes out lives easier, yet an even lazier way to shop- related objects to out tastes are rounded up and put in front of us! I also find the statistics which some up '90% of people buy the item featured on this page', now it is even easier to make decisions on which is the best product based on number of sales.
On Amazon I find these little collective intelligence quirks useful, however the same format is now being used on most e-mail and social networking sites to try and target us with specific adds based on the content of our e-mails. This is beginning to feel slightly big brotherish and in a bad way. You start thinking, who is doing this? who owns this information? who might they be passing it on to? and most importantly what else do they know?
The concept of collective intelligence is very closely linked with the idea that all of our internet usage leaves a shadow which websites, like Amazon reuse in potentially friendly ways to boost their sales. However one must be aware that if Amazon can do this all sites must be doing the same and this poses concerns about the safety of our personal information. Credit card companies can monitor what we buy and where, this is how Tesco club card works. They record what you usually buy, and when you go online to do your shopping your 'favourites' are listed there for you. Now this sounds handy but at the same time kind of creepy
Essentially everything we do, purchase, browse, online leaves a shadow, this information is stored somewhere. In this constantly online, connected world we live in personal information is literally hanging around 'the cloud' and who knows what could potentially happen? This is not a new phenomenon however. Interestingly I happened to watch a relatively old movie called 'NET' starring Sandra Bullock made in 1995 which surrounds this concept. Sandra Bullocks character is attacked by such internet giants who manage to find out everything about her and change her identity, forge legal documents etc as a form of blackmail destroying her life through the information they were able to access with a virus online.
But what can we do? stop using the internet? everything happens online these days, even things which used to be optional like your end of year tax return (I found this out from my parents) has to be done online now. Government files have to be exchanged online. This could all be potentially dangerous one day, or perfectly harmless and nothing but a case of paranoia. But we'll never really know what happens to our information once it has been exposed to the internet and 'the cloud'.
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