Difference between revisions of "325--2011--Week 13 Questions/Comments"
From McClurken Wiki
| Line 19: | Line 19: | ||
I found Andrew Ross’s point about “technoliteracy” and the use of scary “illness” words to describe a virus very interesting. Whenever people hear the word “virus” in relation to a computer, there is always that instant of panic when you think, what if my computer gets a virus? How will I do all my papers? What about all of my files and pictures and music? As someone who has had a virus, I can say that it was somewhat scary that my computer had been taken over by some unknown virus/program. When it happened I called Norton Security and they were able to track it down and said that my entire system had to be deleted then reinstalled (forgive my ignorance of the proper computer terms). So I paid Norton $100 to “cure” my computer. I went from fear of this virus to anger at whatever hacker or program took over my computer. I could not help but think, why do people create viruses? Do they really have nothing better to do with their time? But back to Ross…. He claims, “While I am not comfortable with the ‘paranoid’ labeling, I would argue that such narratives do little to discourage paranoia” (343). Would people really be as afraid of viruses had society not incorporated panic into the image of a virus?—Samantha W. | I found Andrew Ross’s point about “technoliteracy” and the use of scary “illness” words to describe a virus very interesting. Whenever people hear the word “virus” in relation to a computer, there is always that instant of panic when you think, what if my computer gets a virus? How will I do all my papers? What about all of my files and pictures and music? As someone who has had a virus, I can say that it was somewhat scary that my computer had been taken over by some unknown virus/program. When it happened I called Norton Security and they were able to track it down and said that my entire system had to be deleted then reinstalled (forgive my ignorance of the proper computer terms). So I paid Norton $100 to “cure” my computer. I went from fear of this virus to anger at whatever hacker or program took over my computer. I could not help but think, why do people create viruses? Do they really have nothing better to do with their time? But back to Ross…. He claims, “While I am not comfortable with the ‘paranoid’ labeling, I would argue that such narratives do little to discourage paranoia” (343). Would people really be as afraid of viruses had society not incorporated panic into the image of a virus?—Samantha W. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | At first, I was a bit confused by this slideshow; it would seem as if computers and other machinery are being donated by Europe and the United States in order to “reduce the digital divide,” but it certainly doesn’t appear that the citizens of Ghana are using these donations in the way in which they were intended. Instead, the citizens of Ghana have decided that they would rather tear the machines apart, and extract copper, brass, and aluminum. My question is this: When the United States and Europe decided to make these donations did they honestly think that the citizens of Ghana were going to know how to use computers? Or did they know that the people were only going to want to tear the computers apart for their materials? Considering the U.S. and Europe intended to “reduce the digital divide,” this leads me to believe that they thought poor countries like Ghana would welcome the donations with open arms, and immediately begin their journey in becoming technologically savvy like the rest of the civilized world. This, in my opinion, is completely ridiculous. You cannot simply drop off a bunch of a bunch of old computers in a very poor country and expect the citizens to be able to use them. It almost seems as if the United States and Europe were only donating all of these old machines because they had no other place to put them, and could improve their image a little bit by acting philanthropic. Again, it is hard for me to believe that the U.S. and Europe didn't know what the citizens were really going to do with all of the machines, and so I wonder why the "hope for reducing the digital divide" statement was made in the first place. ~Kevin Gottschalk | ||
