Technology, filter bubbles, and information safety

In general, these three articles holds neutral position between technology determinism and cultural determinism although small divergences exist.

“Cyberspace and the American Dream” encodes technology in social construction and highlights government’s roles in the process of adapting the society to the Knowledge era.“Critical Question for Big Data” is more inclined to the technological side, presenting 6 provocations due to the advent of new technology. In contrast, “The Reader-to-Leader Framework” emphasizes more on the subjective initiative of Internet users.

All of the articles are enlightening and some of viewpoints catch my mind.

The first one is about our roles of treating big data. To be more specific, it is related to our information safety. As the words in “Critical questions for big data”: Raw data is both an oxymoron and a bad idea and it should be cooked with care. Our current decisions would definitely shape the future. Nowadays, big data is overused by electronic business to know about our private information. It is easy to know our names, address, phone numbers, schools even interests and experience through big data. For instance, Wechat, the prevalent social media in China incorporates functions of ordering meals, online shopping, making appointments with doctors, which means it can collect most of the users' information they need in daily life. It can be a disaster if there is information leakage.

In the second place, it is important to consider the relationship of “Second Wave” and “Third Wave” to promote dynamic competition. Divergent benefits of different groups give birth to disputes and disagreements. The “Third Wave” beneficial owners grasped some benefits in the traditional industrial zone. Meanwhile, new forms pose threats to traditional concepts and trigger questions about original principles.

Thirdly, defining the boundary of property ownership of online contents is also a daunting challenge.In “Cyberspace and the American Dream”, authors point out this problem but haven’t given a clear definition and response. In fact, the problem is troublesome since it’s hard to distinguish profit and non-profit contents and allocate ownership between content makers and online platforms. It is also a problem of the marketplace. According to the author, our marketplace principles of the industrial age have been changed because of zero-cost products. Should we enable governments the right to create new rules? And how should we make new principles?

Lastly, a question about filter bubble emerges when I read the “Reader-to-Leader Framework.” The online world is both connected and loose. As for the social media platforms, Korean people get used to “Kakao Talk”, Chinese are in favor of Wechat while Americans love Facebook. Do different social platforms cause filter bubbles among the audience? And does the recommendation system of social media provide us more convenience or restrict more possibilities?