Difference between revisions of "325--2011--Week 11 Questions/Comments"
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I found Fern van Bramer's winning essay, "How Electricity Effects Economy in the Home and Adds to the Happiness of the Family" to be a fascinating piece of propaganda. It frankly surprises me that Commonwealth Edison chose as their winning essay a piece that so blatantly catered not only to electricity but also to Commonwealth Edison itself. This essay was also interesting because of what it portrayed about gender and family roles: if a man ends up in a saloon, pool room, or dance hall, it is the wife who is at fault. In choosing not to expend the additional money to buy brighter electric lighting, the wife is telling her husband that she does not want the home to be a warm, welcoming place filled with smiling children, and she does not want to have more energy when he comes home because she had the aid of her electricity all day. This parallels print advertisements of the period, which portray wives as being horrible members of the family if they fail to [... fill in the blank]. The saccharine oversimplification of the essay is a fascinating example of a cultivated response--no doubt Fern van Bramer would have different ideas of economy were she not applying for a prize given out by Commonwealth Edison. | I found Fern van Bramer's winning essay, "How Electricity Effects Economy in the Home and Adds to the Happiness of the Family" to be a fascinating piece of propaganda. It frankly surprises me that Commonwealth Edison chose as their winning essay a piece that so blatantly catered not only to electricity but also to Commonwealth Edison itself. This essay was also interesting because of what it portrayed about gender and family roles: if a man ends up in a saloon, pool room, or dance hall, it is the wife who is at fault. In choosing not to expend the additional money to buy brighter electric lighting, the wife is telling her husband that she does not want the home to be a warm, welcoming place filled with smiling children, and she does not want to have more energy when he comes home because she had the aid of her electricity all day. This parallels print advertisements of the period, which portray wives as being horrible members of the family if they fail to [... fill in the blank]. The saccharine oversimplification of the essay is a fascinating example of a cultivated response--no doubt Fern van Bramer would have different ideas of economy were she not applying for a prize given out by Commonwealth Edison. | ||
--Nicole Steck | --Nicole Steck | ||
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| + | Reading this article of how the radio and telegraphy industry was driven by amatures reminds me very heavily of modern day computer technology. Broadcasting technology was pioneered by amatures; very intelligent people who were able to explore telegraphy to their heart's content thanks to the lack of regulation and relative ease with which they could attain resources to continue their experimentations. Thier lack of organization actually allowed many different people to develop many different patterns of thought and thus led to many different and innovative (as well as useless) designs which shaped broadcasting. This is in sharp contrast to the end of the article which shows that, while teaching people how to assemble a radio in the fastest way, it does not encourage innovation which then does not improve the industry. This is fine for commerical success, but again, it does nothing to improve the product. Also, putting regulations on independent broadcasting stations also hampered creativity and innovation, though it did prevent wild and unchecked implimentatoin of radios, such as individuals who interfered with Navy and Army channels. | ||
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| + | Getting back to how this relates to modern tech; we have access to ubiquitous technology which can be obtained by just about anyone and provided you are very intelligent and at least know someone who has access to better tech than you do, you can help develop new and innovative pieces of computer software or hardware. This has led to many independent people developing new technologies and programs, as well as file sharing networks, independent repair shops and so on. Of course, the internet being what it is, this is almost impossible to regulate (unlike radio broadcasting, which allowed supervisors to trace a communication to a physical location), though many officials try, leading to misshaps just like those interfering with Naval broadcasting. Hackers lead to things like Wikileaks or identity theft. Though it is because technologically minded people have easy access to poorly-regulated equipment and processes, they are able to drive the industry forward by leaps and bounds every year (especially when hired by companies who see their talent and pull them out of their garages). - Scott | ||
