What we have learned during Digital Culture Course?

Technologies, the Internet, Video Games, World Wide Web, Copyright and Copyleft are just small piece of the topics we have covered during the Digital Cultures course. We have learned what the social networks are and how they might be dangerous if you provide too much personal information. We understood how we form our identity online when we choose our avatars, nick names and when we post links, change our status on Facebook or Twitter for example. 

We began to think to what extend the technology is part of our everyday lives and what impact it has on us and our perception of the world and how people create different technologies in order to change this perception of the world and even expand it.

Being a part of a generation that grows up surrounded by technology, we have started to think for the first time how exactly the the technologies have become what they are today, during what stages, forms and images they have gradually transformed.

We have learned to think critically about topics that we are not so familiar and make a research about them. We have looked at the subjects from different points of view in order to understand their nature.

We have had discussions about games ( Video and Board games). We have understood how we get involved in the process of playing a game, what tricks some players use to win or how games are divided in different categories. Even we have experienced what is to be part of a magic circle while playing a board game with other people from the course.

Personally, I have learned to be steady, responsible and write in the blog every week about the topic we have discussed during the lectures and seminars. Moreover, I have learned how to create my own place in the Web, where I can share with the others my opinion freely and let the others to comment.

Do we need the latest techlogogy?

Since we live in Western countries, we used to thing that the technologies, for example Television set, radio, phone, computer, the Internet, are something normal for a everyday life and we are so addicted to them that we can imagine a simple day without using a certain kind of technology. For a countries from the Eastern part of the world, or in other words the developing countries, such technological innovations are not so familiar and even something useless.

There are cultural differences between people all over the world and that is why different people adopt different technologies in various ways. Some more quickly than the others, some more easily and willingly learn how to use the new generation high technologies. Of course, we can expect from somebody, who hasn’t used a phone in his/her life, to start using the last IPhone for example. It is a time-consuming process which sometimes troubles people’s life more than it helps it.

We live in a new, globalised world. Because of the that globalisation there are certain brands such as McDonald's, Starbucks or Coca-Cola that try to expand their franchise along the whole world. In this way the spread their ideas, ideology and culture all over the world. That company politics may lead to a loss of cultural identity in the small and not so rich countries.

 

During 1970s the governments in some developing countries tried to base their farming on machines and chemicals. Unfortunately, most of the tractors broke down and there was a rise in the chemicals’s price which led to famine and despair. Since the farmers haven’t used such technologies before, they couldn’t even maintain them.

Another example that people can’t live without the latest technology is the Estonia’s first online national elections in 2007. From population of half a million, only 30,000 people could vote from their homes. They were well-off people from the elite, who could get even more power because they were able to get involved in the elections. In that way the voice of the ordinary citizens was not heard and neglected.

We cannot deny that technology is part of our lives and cannot stop the progress and the technological advance in that area , but also should be aware of the fact that people have lived happily centuries before the electricity and technologies.

For or Against CCTV

United Kingdom is one of the countries, where the street cameras or also known as CCTV (Closed-circuit television) are broadly used to control what is going on. This method of surveillance has its both advantages and disadvantages.

On one hand, it saves time and money. If there is a crime, the police officers need to check the recordings from a particular camera and see what have happened without the need to look for any evidence or witnesses. In this way it prevents from any human error and somebody being caught my mistake. 

It also makes people think what they are doing and responsible for their actions. When you know that somebody is watching you, you usually think before you do something especially if it is something illegal.

CCTV makes us feel safer. However, to gain security and safety we lose a bit of our privacy. There are people who don’t want to be recorded and watched.

 In order to be efficient the CCTV cameras should be watched by authorised people. Since there are so many cameras across the country it is impossible to track all of them. Also there have been several cases of people stocking other people without their knowing using CCTV cameras. ( BBC report)

 

Moreover, everything is computer-based technology and there is a possibility of information loss if there is a computer failure or crash.

As everything else, CCTV has its strengths and its weakness. Its efficiency depends on the way it is used and people who use it.