Jenny Lee Paiva

Professional Writer/Public Relations

[oliviavgauvin]

Google Glass sounds like something out of a dream. But it is not as “available” as it might seem to be, and is out of the question for most people. Most people, that is, who could use technology to create civic value. Google glass is cool, but we need technology that is more affordable and…

[justbeachyjenny]

Wow-that is one incredible blog. Nice work!

"A major corporation like Google should create its own civic value, by making its value-producing technology available to all who can use it productively.  And, according to Shirky, this is just about everyone."  

"Valuable technology" is a very subjective term.  Google should surely create civic value making tools for productivity with easy access for all.  But diffusing Google Glass into our social culture causes chaos between those who embrace tech and those who fear it.

Google had an agenda to settle that conflict.

Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus and activist for a collective virtual revolution offers insight to the logic behind Google’s agenda from the start. Google’s Explorer Program gave those who want new tech tools a chance to invest in the possibilities.

Those who can propose new uses of the new technology, Shirky claims, then negotiate with traditionalists about how to take advantage of the new, while preserving the best of the old.” (Shirky, 209) He explains the benefit for Google to create an opportunity for more radical users to persuade traditionaliststo see the same social value.

Negotiated Transition, as Shirky describes it, gives those who see Google Glass as a tool rather than a threat, a chance to take their $1500 device and prove its power.

People want to show off things they care about.  To share the excitement with those who may feel scared seeing them sporting shades of glass. Radicals are the perfect promotion.  

Google Glass is now “available for anyone to buy” thanks to those radical tech lovers who took out their wallets and became walking promotional products, wearing Google Glasses and teaching traditionalists how to see through their view—Literally.

Work Cited:

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators. New York: Penguin, 2010. Print.

[justbeachyjenny]

Google Glass: Faithful Friend or Fearful Foe

Social change creates both fear of the unknown and delight in new possibilities. Google Glass has power to transform modern culture into chaos or secure faith in a new social order.

Diffusing Glass into our lives requires us to choose whether we wish to accept and embrace new tech tools or fear and doubt the security of modern communication.

Celebrant’s vs Skeptics

Google Glass in beta mode promotes compromising conflicting views.  Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus describes the approach as a “Negotiated Transition.”  

New forms of communication integrated in society demand a certain sense or social order, he claims.  Google giving anyone access to Glass puts the real power to persuade in the hands of the celebrants who walk around wearing Google Glass. (209)

Josh Lowensohn writes in his article, Google Glass Now on Sale to All in US, but still in Beta, that Google is getting Glass in the hands of as many people as possible.  Celebrants who embrace the possibility of a new tech tool have a voice promoting the diffusion of glass into modern culture.

Google benefits from beta “trial periods” since they settle the fear of Skeptics with privacy concerns. Celebrants teach skeptics how to protect their old system and see benefits to using this new tool.

Skeptics doubt new forms of communication and Celebrants secure faith. Major new possibilities always create some re-structuring of society, because both the arrival of a new way to communicate and the ending of old constraints alter our connective tissue,”Shirky claims. ( 208)  Google wants glass in the hands of both parties to ensure trust and security in their powerful product.

Powerful Possibilities vs Fearful Doubt

Google Glass success in becoming a stable tool shaping social culture thrives on balanced beliefs.  Diffusing Glass into the fabric of our lives requires negotiation between those who imagine opportunity and those who fear change.

Pamela Lund, author of Massively Networked and celebrant of modern tech, believes that imagining the opportunity is the key to “creating new frameworks that are just right for the word we want to live in.” (Lund, 19) 

What dreams may come of this is really up to how you view and use this new tool.

Do you think glass is innovative or infiltrative?  For Lund, those who can imagine the benefits can help shape a new social fabric by promoting the possibilities with a $1500 purchase.

However, Skeptics like Robert McChesney, author of Digital Disconnect, fear that Google Glass in the hands of all is not only powerful enough to create a new social system, but has even turned skeptics into celebrants. 

He warns that “because the celebrants are the loudest and most publicized Internet observers, (in this case those willing to spend $1500 to explore Glass opportunities) they have power to persuade skeptics to accept “the world beyond all recognition.”(5)

I am a celebrant and a skeptic. I see how Google glass in the hands of all can be a dangerous threat to social privacy and a tool for tackling the fear and doubt causing skeptics to lose hope for innovation.

 I’d rather dream of a bright future through Glass than live without a view.

Works Cited Lowensohn, Josh. “Google Glass Now on Sale to All in US, but Still in Beta.” The Verge. Vox Media, Inc., 13 May 2014. Web. 14 May 2014. Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators. New York: Penguin, 2010. Print.

Lund, Pamela. Massively Networked: How the Convergence of Social Media and Technology Is Changing Your Life. San Francisco: PLI Media, 2012. Print.

McChesney, Robert W. Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet against Democracy. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

[justbeachyjenny]

Civil Warning: Liberty Lost

Virtual networks govern our lives and relationships. We the people see our freedom shifting power. We are losing control.  It’s time we take action, restore rights, and protect privacy.  Let's keep democracy alive in a world shaped by corporate control.

                           It’s time for a revolution.

Liberty and justice are dying freedoms that once gave citizens power to govern.  We have lost the right to that power because we blindly agree to corporate controlled terms. We give our consent to use the network.

Click here——>Give up your freedom.

Do you take the time to read the terms & conditions before clicking “Accept?”  Robert McChesney, author of Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Tuning the Internet Against Democracy, said the average user would take 12 hours reading consent terms! (McChesney)

 Confession: I never read them through either. 

Take back your freedom.

When we blindly agree to the terms of social networks and public platforms, we give up liberty and power.  We become public products of the market, stripped of privacy and robbed of rights.

We need to unveil private sectors who block access and impose on our freedoms.

Rebecca MacKinnon, author of Consent of the Networked: The WorldWide Struggle for Internet Freedom, explains how even our relationships, whether personal or political, depend on the network to survive.  

We are limited and controlled by the network.  And we allow corporate access.

“Google and Facebook are just two companies whose products and services have created a new, globally networked public sphere that is largely shaped, built, owned and operated by the private sector.” (MacKinnon,9)

Digital platforms, services and devices create a vulnerable gap between citizen and government. (MacKinnon)

As a result, private sectors gain power to govern, with our blind consent.  MacKinnon warns that our love of modern tech means less time to really consider the risk of abandoning those rights. 

Freedom won't exist beyond the printed pages of history.  We must create a new set of “virtual values” to govern the web.

It’s time to WAKE UP and give power back to the people.

Keep Democracy Alive

Facebook has made our private lives public. Google tracks your every tap. Security threats make daily headlines. People are waking up as fast as mutual Facebook friends became public.  (It was in the fine print)

That’s not liberty. It’s corporate control.

 Change requires a new social system: A Revolution

“Many people around the world are concerned that the internet and telecommunications have gained far too much power over citizen’s lives, in ways that are insufficiently transparent or accountable to public interest.” (MacKinnon, 10)  

We have laws declaring our independence. But what laws govern the virtual world?  How can ‘we the people’ restore democracy while plugged in?

Stay Conscious Creators of Digital Change

Nick Murray, blogger and advocate for restoring democracy suggests,“Just as with any revolution, the digital revolution is dependent upon active citizenship. Certainly in the United States we must recognize the responsibility to hold our governments and ourselves accountable. It is embedded in our Constitution.”   

Let’s put power back in the hands of the people.  Let democracy become OUR product and our means to liberty and justice for all.

Works Cited: 

MacKinnon, Rebecca. Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom. New York: Basic Books, 2012. Print.

McChesney, Robert W. Digital Disconnect. New York: New, 2013. Print.

Murray, Nick. “An Experiment in Social Media.” Web log post. No Neutrality: Picking Sides on the Internet. N.p., Apr.-May 2014. Web. 06 May 2014.

[ckoala19]

Body image is an important focus for many people. Everyone wants to look their very best without the hassles of diet and exercise. We want to be picture perfect.

Corporate Image

We live in a corporate world that focuses on the “ideal” body type. It looks to modify commercials,...

[justbeachyjenny]

Selfie Decoys Exposed: No Filter

Selfies. Who created such a term?  We did. 

We signed up for the social network and we control our own content. It’s a shameless surplus of self- promoting illusions.  We try to fit in and feel good in by sharing fake versions of ourselves. It’s time we real-lies. 

Designer Decoys

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  You’ve heard it before.  So why is it that we (most of us including me) seem to rely on others to approve of how we look? To validate our image? To make us feel worthy?

In Denial? 

Your last Instagram selfie filter is not what you really look like.  It’s who you designed yourself to be.  A decoy version of your true self.  If we felt content in the way we look all naturale’ then we won’t need an Instagram filter to fix unique “flaws.”

“To Thine Own Self Be True”  Why do you think some people use the hashtag “#Nofilter”? Because that’s how we let people know that our photo is our true self. You know, the unfiltered version of us.

#No edits.  Think about it….

The fact that we let others know that we are being “virtually real” means that we should expect that all photos are filtered. Fake illusions.  We have an innate desire to feel wanted.  Connected.  So we participate in a fantasy world of a fake self image.  

We are all trying to define ourselves in this new surplus of public expression. And we want to stand out in some public way.  To be “liked.”  Noticed.

Author of Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky, claims that we are trying to figure out just how we fit in. 

“We collectively, aren’t just the source of the surplus; we are also the people designing its use, by our participation and by the things we expect of one another as we wrestle together with our new connectedness.” (Shirky, 29)

Dr. Seuss has the best advice:  “There is no one alive who is Youer than You.’

Work Cited:

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity And Generosity In A Connected Age. 1st ed. New York: The Penguin Press HC, 2010. Print.

[katyiskelly]

As of yesterday, the Justice Department fights for the right to warrantlessly search suspect’s cells on the spot. The feds wish to obtain data quickly and efficiently, serving as a means to incriminate suspects. Andy Greenberg writes, “rather than risk letting the suspect or his associates…

[justbeachyjenny]

Warrantless Cell Phone Searches…

Seems like legit access to personal data in a digital world.  Where did we lose our right to privacy?

Protect your privacy-delete your data.  But don’t forget to lock your mailbox and burn all your mail while you’re at it.

Mail boxes hold the same evidence found in cell phone records.  How come they’re protected by strict privacy laws?  

Funny how our “Justice System” can invade our cell privacy despite servers promise to protect our rights under the “privacy policy”  Seems fair to also include mail audits, right?

While cell searches are indeed useful to solve crime (phone records are alibis for everyone.)  There’s much benefit in warrants granted to collect data that can lead to justice. 

But let's consider digital mail vs. postal privacy laws

Why is it legal to search cell phones but illegal to open mail on our personal property-without a warrant?

Postal Service Privacy Prevails

Laws govern delivery, safety and privacy of mail. But digital data has no clear laws protecting our privacy. Cell phone searches aren’t subject to just cause yet postal service is protected.

 “If existing institutions and mechanisms are inadequate to constrain the abuse of power across globally interconnected digital networks, political innovation must catch up to technological innovation.” (MacKinnon, Consent of the Networked: The World Wide Struggle for Internet Freedom. (14)

Kill switches are modern examples of politics  "catching up" with modern privacy laws.  It’s not a tool protecting us, but bypassing privacy controls for easy data access.  

Keep your data secure- right in your mailbox.

Work Cited: 

MacKinnon, Rebecca. Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom. New York: Basic Books, 2012. Print.

[justbeachyjenny]

Cell Phone, Selfie, & Social Media Addicts

A touching 2 minute video about the sad reality of why we are not living in the moment.

Cell Phone Addiction is a sad truth.  People walk around like zombies glued to their phones.  Many confess to using a cell during sex, driving, work and other awkward times and places. It’s about time we live in the moment and toss our cell aside.

Self-consuming social media has become a lifestyle.  We see a beautiful sunset-we grab our phone to snap a scenic shot.  Heading out to dinner?  Check in on your cell phone.  Time to unwrap presents? Smile for the camera!  Dressed to impress? Snap a selfie!

We are living through a screen.  It’s similar to reality TV.  An illusion that we are important and part of something other than what we live and experience. We are not preserving memories.  We are losing moments that will only exist in our virtual reality.

Real-time or Fake Reality?

Are we really living in the moment if we don’t experienced it first hand?  I would argue that we never really pay much attention to present time because our focus is on capturing the moment, not feeling it.

Feelings are what separate humans from machines.  So then, we are truly a part of our device.  Addicted & Attached. 

According to Clay Shirky, advocate for a positive social media revolution and author of Cognitive Surplus,

“One function of the market…is to provide platforms for us to engage in the things we value doing outside the market…” (Shirky, 60)

Social media sharing creates feelings of unity.  It’s a false reality- a market and distraction from real life events.   If social platforms are used to engage in things we value doing when we are unplugged, then why are we always trying to capture the moment only to turn around and share it on social media? 

We have lost the value in our lives beyond the screen.  Take a look at this video and see if you are guilty of the sad reality of cell phone, selfie, and social media addiction.  

*Confession*  I'm guilty.   You know.... I just had to share that!

 Works Cited:

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity And Generosity In A Connected Age. 1st ed. New York: The Penguin Press HC, 2010. Print.

http://www.thinkinghumanity.com/2013/08/after-i-saw-this-i-put-down-my-phone-and-didn-t-pick-it-up-for-the-rest-of-the-day.html

[katyiskelly]

Brisk growth of technology creates a narrow and fearful view of the world we live in because of personal outlooks. Shifting that view from isolation to communal allows for a more beneficial and hopeful view of the world through the Internet.

Optimism Begins Communally

One of my last blogs...

[oliviavgauvin]

Unbiased journalism gives access to news we need to make informed decisions. “Journalism” by special-interest humanitarian groups is biased and may not count as journalism. It is advocacy. Advocacy creates public and civic value by promoting human rights issues of the internet age. The ability to...

[justbeachyjenny]

Journalism Reborn: Objective View

[shannonenl368]

Tons of web devices are being used to get students actively engaged in scholarly pursuits. Whether it’s online talks or smart blogging, high schools and colleges alike are latching onto these methods to get students involved.

But what effect does this process have on schooling and the web as a...

[allisonhanna8]

With smartphones in hand, we are always plugged into the digital media network. Our actions shape the future. We can engage as helpless individuals, or as powerful participants who create civic value.

Escape marketing media’s domination

Sometimes it feels like the media dominates our lives....

[justbeachyjenny]

Social Media: Hope in Humanity

TV programs once consuming free time have become our new social system.  Smart devices keep us caught in the net.  There’s hope if you can use media as a tool and lead by example.

Unite and connect.  Create social change within the network.

Unity vs. Isolation

T.V was not intended for socializing but rather filling free time.  We consume programs often in silence. Social media  gets us actively posting and sharing interests. Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus and advocate for social change believes, 

 ”We want to be connected to each other, a desire that the social surrogate of television deflects, but one that our use of social media actually engages.” (14)

Web networks replaced TV programs robbing our free time. We can use media to nurture our modern desire to connect. 

Social Unity

If we co-exist there’s hope for a healthy future in using virtual tools to organize activism for a shared cause. We must participate to create social change.  Free time spent on social media could be used for a cause more valuable to social change than shameless self-promotion. (guilty)  

Modern tech is the new ‘fabric of our lives.’“The wiring of humanity lets us treat free time as a shared global resource, and lets us design new kinds of participation and sharing that take advantages of those resources.”(Shirky 27)

We can co-exist and use our surplus of social tools to organize and cultivate relationships that work in unity for a shared cause and then change is possible. 

Public Posting Power

In my previous Tumbler Blog post, I shared my concerns for abuse in child media marketing.  I quoted Michael Robb, director at the Early Learning Environment Center, who suggests parents treat media like a learning tool. Posting and sharing is a powerful tool if used to connect and awaken.

Easy access to information can help parents unveil illegal child ad targeting  and raise awareness to help others see the value in leading by example-Taking Action.

We can create social and cultural change by using our time on the web as opportunity to teach kids how to use media rather than be consumed by it.

Start Small

Social awareness or change won’t happen overnight. But parents can use the web to connect to other parents who have the same concerns.  The key is to find those who care about an issue like child abuse in advertising.

Groups of parents who are willing to go beyond the virtual world and take action can create change born inside the network.  Parents who care have access to social platforms to connect and take leadership action organizing change, one step at a time.

Kids or Parents in the lead?

Clay Shirky believes kids today seem to have a better grasp than adults. If a four –year- old knows TV doesn’t include them, unlike a device, they already know the concept of consumers vs. participants.  They are detached from TV programs and crave activity.  A solution for change

Youth of Our Nation

Kids are exposed to media and it’s getting harder to protect them.  They don’t even know a life without it.  The benefit? They assume that media includes the possibilities are open to everyone. When kids sit in front of a TV screen they have zero access to valuable tools and become products not producers. (Shirky 213)

Awareness is just a small step up the ladder to social change.  And it’s refreshing as a mom to have a little hope that perhaps even kids are waking up and taking the lead. 

Works Cited:

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity And Generosity In A Connected Age. 1st ed. New York: The Penguin Press HC, 2010. Print.

Paiva, Jenny Lee. “Modern Marketing: Child Abuse.” N. p., n.d.

[vegancupcakecommander-deactivat]

[justbeachyjenny]

Talk For A Change!

Conscious Evolution

Modern culture is distracted by the World Wide Web.  TV and social media consume our free time.  We have become puppets on the strings of mass media conditioning. 

We need each other. While many believe in the power of one, power and freedom exist in communal unity.

Whether you CARE is key to freedom and peace in society.

Individual recognition is what many of us seek in self-promotion.  After all, the web has created an entire public sphere for anyone to express themselves. 

Solo saviors like Edward Snowden are soldiers of truth.  Despite our obsession with individual gain, there is a real need for civic and communal unity.  We can create change only with an awareness that there is an issue.

But a shift in consciousness cannot thrive on awareness alone….

We need collective consciousness.  People coming together for a shared cause.  We have all the tools to reach the masses.  We can organize and plan activism in groups.  No ONE person is an exception.

                               As long as we CARE!

Participate to Emancipate

Civic support creates change.  Nonprofits are like-minded people-WHO CARE-coming together in groups, whether large or small.  And for a shared cause.  Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators believes,

 “Civic value rarely comes from sudden conversations; nor does it bubble up from individual actions.  It comes, instead, from the work of groups, small groups at first that grow in size and importance, the pattern of collaborative circles, communities and practice, and many other group action.” (186)

So the next time you’re concerned about privacy, or that your favorite app now costs money, or your leaders are brutally killing innocent civilians…

Talk for a Change! Use social media and the web as tools to unite. 

“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” -Howard Zinn

Works Cited:

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity And Generosity In A Connected Age. 1st ed. New York: The Penguin Press HC, 2010. Print.

http://www.social-consciousness.com/2013/01/the-evolution-of-consciousness.html

[thenickmurrayblog]

Tweet Responsibly. Blog Consciously. Make Facebook Face Facts.

Use twitter to engage in society to make it better. Tweet for change. Not just for fun.

In his book Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky writes that “with personal sharing, most or all of the value goes to the participants…attempts at...

[justbeachyjenny]

I like this post because it offers hope for choice and change within the digital world that sustains us. 

Tweet Tweet:  Sign Me Up!

I never tweeted before this web writing course.  I felt the time I work and scroll around on Facebook was enough social media time.  But I admit that Twitter has changed my mind. 

It’s a useful scholarly research tool.  Not just a shortcut detour distraction from Facebook.

Twitter Encyclopedia

Books with volumes of information used to sit on a shelf in my house.  I would have to sit down and take time to read outdated yet credible  print when I needed answers.  Now, I can Google any questions and watch videos or choose from hundreds of articles and find the most useful.  Right from my phone. 

But Google chooses for me. 

It’s invasive.  Call me old school but I’d rather not ask a search engine that’s tracking me to locate information and answer questions.  I want facts and I don’t always want to be led to a sponsor paying Google to sell me out for ad sales. 

So Twitter is a digital endless encyclopedia.  And it’s available 24/7.

Personalized Service

Twitter gives us access to choose.  If I want scholarly facts-I’m going to search credible sources at my liberty.  Instead of archaic quotes and facts sitting on my shelf collecting dust, I can pick a modern author backed by peer review and proper citation.  Twitter lets me filter my facts. 

Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators, believes Twitter is a valuable tool because,

“The world is becoming well provisioned with resources of personal and communal value, value mainly created by the participants.”(185) 

Shirky's wisdom pretty much planted the seed that cooked my Twitter famine.

Feed Me Twitter

I’m grateful for Twitter.  I have more space on my shelf for storing pictures of all the fun I have in the time I save researching on Twitter.  Choosing what updated credible facts to enrich my life is super easy to search.  And share! 

Stay educated and emancipated with Twitter, my friends.

Works Cited:

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity And Generosity In A Connected Age. 1st ed. New York: The Penguin Press HC, 2010. Print.

[justbeachyjenny]

What if you could live forever?

Fountain of Youth

Advanced Tech has redefined human life.  Many people worry that humans have become cyborgs. But a small group of scientists embrace the surplus of networked information.  And their ideas are keeping humans from going extinct.

Immortal Humans?                                         

Scientist Dr. Bill Andrews and Molly Sheridan research radical life extension. Their 2014 award winning film, “Immoralist” documents their personal journey to the fountain of youth. 

Based on Sigmund Freud’s Terror Management Theory, the film proves that “we tell ourselves lies to manage the terror of death.”  

We lie to ourselves to deny death?

Social psychology proves that humans deny aging and dread death.  But could this research even be possible without easy access to data via the Internet?  Would this small group of scientists gain credit for their study without the public sphere as the medium to inform us?

Internet Creates Opportunity

It’s no secret that we are all connected via social platforms.  But are we aware of the opportunity for social change? And, what if we turn our fear of death into prospect for longer life?

We have the creative means to match ideas and experiments. Why not use it?

Social Change is on the Rise

Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus, claims:

“The low cost of experimentation and the huge base of potential users mean that someone with an idea that would require dozens (or thousands) of participants can now try, at remarkably low costs, without needing to ask anyone for permission.” (184)

Life expansion started as an idea born of human fear.  The idea is now a scientific fact in motion. These big ideas will create big change.

What about issues like Jail Time and Marriage?

There's so many questions to consider. I’m sure your mind is racing.  If “life” is no longer measured in years, then we must create a new social system.

Imagine if you lived to experience life?  And not in fear of death? 

Dr. Bill Andrews and Molly Sheridan suggest that unity and equality will prevail:

 “Perhaps families will return to more communal based social units, living in communities of interbreeding mothers and fathers who collectively raise hundreds of children and thousands of grandchildren–small, familial townships. Those who remain monogamous for thousands of years could turn into the hallowed equivalent of living saints. Respected, but antiquated.”

Works Cited:

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity And Generosity In A Connected Age. 1st ed. New York: The Penguin Press HC, 2010. Print.

http://goo.gl/UpPKvH

[shannonenl368]

Companies are using brain games to attract and keep social media users interested in marketed items.

Robert McChesney, author of Digital Disconnect and professor at the University of Illinois, says “What people are exposed to significantly shapes what they will demand.” (76)

So as you are...

[cohenmax93-deactivated20150804]

Companies only thrive when they invent and use new inventions, but what they make will cause the end of capitalism. Robots will replace workers and 3D printers in your homes will replace stores.

Capitalism Breeds Invention

Companies can only survive when they invent. The fact is if they don’t...