HACKERS, GOOD OR NOT GOOD

What to think about a hacker? Are they doing good works, or are they a risk to national security? In our world today hackers are at the front of controversy. WikiLeaks is a group that wants to bring confidential documents to the public eye.

The hacker group, Anonymous, has been at the front of controversies as well. Anonymous, like WikiLeaks, wants to show the public how easy it is for someone to hack into accounts, and they want to expose things to the public. Is this an issue of national security? Are their intentions good? Maybe, maybe not.

Our founding fathers believed in a check-and-balance system. It is apart of our constitution. People keeping a check on the government is not an issue; however; in America, we elect officials to do that. Sometimes our representatives may not do a good job, or they may not be the most credible people for the job. A group like Anonymous wants to take the responsibility. They want transparency in America. They contradict this thought. If you are going to bring something to light, why not, in the words of coach Herm Edwards, put your name on it? Why not own up to the discoveries? Not as group, but as a man or woman. They want transparency, yet they hide behind a mask. They are the vigilante to America, like Batman is to Gotham City. Sometimes we do not need the vigilante. The vigilante does not always win.

Digital Age

In today’s world, we live in the era of iTunes. This site, application, place, etc. gives us a platform to download music legally and at a cheap price. iTunes is where the Digital Music age has taken us.

After every American Idol performance, Ryan Seacrest will announce that all the performances will be available on iTunes. When John Cena is running down to the ring on a WWE-televised event, an advertisement will pop up in the corner of the screen. The advertisement says you can download John Cena’s theme song at iTunes.

Twelve years ago, Napster was where the digital music age kicked off. However, Napster was illegally downloading and sharing music. In Lehman’s terms, Napster was not paying any artist for their songs being shared or downloaded, unlike iTunes which will charge people $1.99 for a song or video.

The band, Metallica, sued Napster in 2001, which in the fall of 2001, Napster was forced to shutdown. It was a victory for Metallica, who was at the front of not being paid for their music being shared.

After Napster, you had your Kazaa, Bearshare, and other music-download websites that eventually got the boot like Napster. iTunes offers the same thing Napster did, but it’s legal. iTunes is convenient. If you have an IPhone, then you more than likely have an iTunes application on the phone. We have a store in our own phone.

iTunes is here to stay. Until some other company comes along and really competes against them, they will dominate the music-industry as far as sales. CDs are fading out. No one wants to pay $15 for a CD anymore. You can get an entire album on iTunes for $10-$13. You can buy songs individually, so you don’t have to deal with the songs you don’t want. Like I said before, iTunes is convenient for us the consumer.

The only question left is what’s next for the music industry? How long will the artists stay with iTunes? My answer: As long as they’re getting paid for their music, iTunes will stick around for a long time.

Nostalgia

Wow! Kids, how thoughtful they were to Turkle. I nearly laughed when I read the kids talking about the old days. I laugh at myself when I say the old days.

However, the kids brought up great points about distractions (mainly cell phones). Some of the kids felt neglected by their parents use of a cell phone. I can understand their feeling, however, we had to learn that our parents had to accept our use of a cell phone, or technology in general. I can recount numerous times where I was distracted by the cell phone with my mom, or with my dad. Looking back on it, the cell phone should have been off, or left in the car.

In my opinion though, technology, or a cell phone is not to blame completely on an adult, or a kid multi-tasking. Have you seen the people who do their make-up while they are driving? Have you seen people read the paper and drive? It’s scary to think about. Neither one of those has anything to do with technology. So people get lost in non-technological things.

People do not write letters anymore. Writing is a lost art. It is a lost interpersonal skill as well. How can we find the art of writing again? Will we compromise our technology? Our society is one that wants responses, so can we develop the patience to wait for a letter? I think I will write a letter to someone just to surprise them.

Not only is writing a letter a lost art, but talking to people face-to-face and over the phone are lost art. People do not like to talk over the phone. Turkle said some of the students gave the reason of ‘ackwardness’ as to why they do not talk on the phone. How is it ackward to talk on a phone? Certain subjects can be ackward, but not just because it is over the phone. Talking on the phone can help these young people with their verbal skills. They should talk on the phone more often.

So my last question, what has happened to our communication? Are the barriers our doing? I say yes, but I also say no. However, we can overcome the barriers. People just have to put in the effort to get past the barriers. Sometimes you have to step outside the comfort zone.