Posts Tagged news
Got Ideas?
Posted by annaldavis in Cyberculture, Social Media on September 7, 2011
“Mass Idea Abortion Threatens Global Future.” That was my first title for this post. But during revision it seemed a bit dramatic and sensationalistic, like something we might read on the cover of a tabloid, right next to a photo of the three-headed alien in Lady Gaga’s dressing room.
Lady Gaga. Now there’s an original idea, right? We watched her hatch out of an egg, wear slabs of meat, and dress like a man in a temporary gender switch for the MTV Video Music Awards. I don’t know where I’ve seen anyone quite like her… oh, wait. I’m having flashbacks now. Yes… I think I remember something similar about some obscure pop star from the 80’s. Well, nevermind. I guess Lady Gaga isn’t so original after all.
Seriously, where are all the new ideas? Where’s the ingenuity? What happened to thinking outside the box (of commercialism, consumerism, you name it)?
Some say that we live in a “post-idea” world. It’s all been done, and you can read about it from any device with an internet connection. We are drowning in information, like those hoarders featured on A&E. We need help, and cloud-based service providers have a solution. The Cloud is like The Container Store for digital chaos.
But we’re only organizing it, storing it away in a virtual box. There’s no time (or desire) to process that information by actually thinking.
In an article titled “The Elusive Big Idea,” professor and journalist Neal Gabler wrote, “Ideas are too airy, too impractical, too much work for too little reward. Few talk ideas. Everyone talks information, usually personal information. Where are you going? What are you doing? Who are you seeing? These are today’s big questions.”
Gabler goes on to explain that social networking sites play a big role in our mental laziness.
“It is certainly no accident that the post-idea world has sprung up alongside the social networking world. Even though there are sites and blogs dedicated to ideas, the most popular sites on the Web are basically information exchanges, designed to feed the insatiable information hunger, though this is hardly the kind of information that generates ideas,” Gabler said.
I like that wording: “the insatiable information hunger.” Reminds me of the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. Yum… info. Need info now… CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
So what’s the big deal anyway? Who cares if we can’t think deeply for ourselves? What difference does it make that our collective minds overflow with the minor details of celebrity gossip and distant friends-of-a-friend-of-a-friend?
If you’re destined to remain the average American consumer, plodding through life from one new product to another, keeping track of the decades via TMZ, just hoping your retirement fund stays intact so you can quit work and watch Glee on a flatscreen, then no problem. But then again…
What if you actually have something original to offer? What if there’s an idea inside of you, something that can change even a corner of our world for the better, an idea whose time has come, ready to be hatched?
Oops, I almost forgot – Lady Gaga already did the hatching thing. Oh well. Guess I’ll just go read more about it online, maybe I’ll chat with my peeps and see what they thought of her latest recent photo shoot (did you hear? She didn’t wear any makeup! None at all! Can you believe it?).
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
(Quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, civil rights advocate, international author / speaker, and ranked in the top ten of Gallup’s List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.)
What Writers Should Know about The Cloud
Posted by annaldavis in Cyberculture, Tips and Ideas, Writing on August 26, 2011
Are you in the cloud? Here’s a hint: if you can access it from anywhere, wirelessly sync across different devices, or share with another user via a web browser… then you’re in the cloud. This includes Facebook, GoogleDocs, Google-anything, Yahoo-anything, WordPress, Blogspot, Evernote, Twitter – the list goes on and on.
Convenience and “security” are key selling points for the cloud. Since quitting Facebook, I’ve had more time to learn about other web tools. I briefly signed up with Evernote, a cloud-based notetaking app that enabled me to access my notes from anywhere. I could start a note from my phone, and later on my PC I could pick up right where I left off — that easy. No saving or file transfer or anything. I could even grab links and bits of the web, attach pictures, and everything was arranged in a very user-friendly format. It was great, but then I started wondering: where, exactly, does all that information go? When Evernote autosaves, where does it save to?
I did some research, talked with an expert, and looked at the facts. Here’s what I found out:
Cloud-based apps save data to the web server. Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to delete (not just deactivate) a Facebook account? That’s because your Facebook page is stored on the Facebook web server indefinitely, whether you like it or not. When I type something in Evernote (or Producteev, or whatever), the app autosaves to the web server. If I have second thoughts and delete that info, I’m trusting the app to delete it from the server as well. But how would I even know? Anything you have ever sent, received, or stored on a cloud-based application most likely still exists somewhere in cyberspace, filed away on a web server.
The Cloud lacks privacy and safety. People love cloud-based apps because nothing gets lost. While this is a top selling point, it’s also a huge risk. Hackers have become increasingly sophisticated and organized, all while the rest of us grow more comfortable online and more willing to sacrifice privacy for convenience. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves – leaving sensitive information on the web is no different from leaving your wallet and notebook on a busy train at rush hour. Maybe someone honest will find it and keep it safe. But maybe not. Anything stored in the cloud can also be subject to federal subpoena, even without your knowledge. This is fine if you write about celebrities or fashion. But what if you write investigative, hard-hitting, or politically controversial material? Should you trust the cloud with your notes, your thoughts, your location, and your sources?
While channel-surfing the other day, my husband and I finally decided on the 1993 movie “The Pelican Brief,” based on the book by John Grisham (which I’ve read several times). The premise is that a law student and a reporter work together to reveal a huge government cover-up related to the death of two Supreme Court justices. I’ve posted the trailer below. If you ever have a chance to watch the full movie, you’ll laugh at the low-tech research and reporting methods – pay phones (seen any of those lately?), library card catalog, VHS recordings, phone tapping. But even back then, investigate research and writing were risky.
Now there is even more risk.
So here’s the bottom line: writers, tread lightly on the cloud. It’s an amazing tool for publishing and networking, but not really safe for idea harvesting, data-storage, or notekeeping.
And yes, after only two days of use, I deleted my new Evernote account. (But is it really deleted? Or still out there somewhere? The world may never know.)
On Our Own Heads
Posted by annaldavis in Cyberculture on April 12, 2011
Today officials announced that the Japan nuclear crisis has matched Chernobyl in severity. Not surprising, really – I think we’ve all been expecting this news as we’ve watched the natural earthquake and tsunami disaster unfold into a man-made nuclear one.
In some ways Japan’s crisis reminds me of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The hurricane itself was among the strongest and most deadly in history. But who can forget what happened in New Orleans, when the levee failed and flooded 80% of the city? Looting, rioting, violence, a poorly designed levee system, and a flawed government response made this disaster much worse.
Like New Orleans, Japan faces two stages of this disaster — The first stage is a completely natural event that insurance policies call an “act of God.” The second stage is man-made.
But we can’t blame the Japanese, not really. Had humans not abused fossil fuels to the extent that we even need nuclear power plants, this might not have happened. Better yet, if humans weren’t so greedy and arrogant in their need for control and profit, the world as a whole would use less energy and perhaps this might not have happened.
In Obadiah 1:15 we read that “The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.”
Unfortunately, nuclear fallout fits the bill quite literally. Radioactive particles in the air descend on surfaces and remain there, invisible cancer-causing toxins just waiting to mutate DNA. But it’s not just about the environment.
It’s about the heart.
Nuclear reactors were first used in the military, as a way to conquer. To win. As we saw in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, winning comes at great cost. Nuclear weapons are the ultimate war-time trump card.
But nuclear energy doesn’t have to be all bad. Now we use nuclear energy as an environmentally-friendly way to sustain our way of living. To sustain our increasingly indulgent, technology-driven, competitive lifestyle. To conquer and win – in the home, in business, in the stock market, and in world politics.
How is that any different?
As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.
