Karl Marx Estranged Labour: Connection to Apple's outsourcing to China

    I am a self-proclaimed Apple geek. I have gone through several iPods; on my second MacBook, and looking forward to the day when I can afford the latest Apple innovation, the iPad. My loyalty to the brand is based on my satisfaction with customer service. No other computer compares to the product's durability, features, and adaptability. I am not alone in my appreciation for Mac products, an article published on CNN's, Fortune, website reported that Apple is projected to have a growth rate of 25-30% through each year to 2015 (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/23/piper-jaffray-apple-earnings-set-grow-25-30-per-year-through-2015/?section=magazines_fortune). The retail value of my MacBook was a little over $1,000, a price millions of people pay per year for, one of many, on the line of Apple products. 

In 2006, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, earned a report $646 million dollars in compensation from Apple (http://www.marvquin.com/blog/ceo-salaries-and-executive-compensation-defined). In the article, “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 Karl Marx Estranged Labour”, the author explains the relationship between a production and laborer.  In his theory he criticizes capitalism which is defined as an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit. In the interest of capitalism many companies resort to outsourcing, which, in this case, is acquiring a product or service from foreign countries such as China. 

Foxconn Technology Group, which manufactures Apple Inc.’s iPad,  is expanding in cities throughout China. A recent businessweek article reported that Foxconn, an employee owned business, is expect to expand from 100 to 500 stores by the end of the year. The organization is also expecting to hire 400 personnel to accommodate the expansion. As companies in China grow to keep up with the demand for Apple's iPad, and with all the prosperity Apple products have brought to the corporation and corporate heads, there are many workers who are victims of harsh, minimum pay, working conditions. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-20/foxconn-hiring-workers-to-expand-chinese-employee-run-stores.html

China is infamously known for "sweatshop labor conditions" in workplaces (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05sweatshop.html). The manufacturing process of an Apple product may have taken place in labor industries as described above. According to Marx’s theory, people are estranged from products they helped produced. Many of the Chinese workers, though work countless hours perfecting a popular product such as the iPad, are making less than what is needed to support a family. According to Marx "wages are only a necessary consequence of the estrangement of labour." Though people are paid wages for their services it is only a means to brainwashing people out of their attachment or entitlement to the product they are making. Many workers, though responsible for the existence of Apple products, most would never be able to afford the retail value. In the United States, companies capitalize on the practice of outsourcing for the benefit of avoiding labor laws.  Here we have minimum wages laws but in countries like China, people are making maybe a dollar-a-day for long work hours while CEO’s here in the US makes millions of dollars per year. The people working countries without laws protecting them have no way of escaping. Some have taken their own lives due to harsh working conditions. I wonder if Mr. Job ever considered suicide because of work? 

How Fast is Too Fast?

In Tiziana Terranova's essay, "Free Labor Producing Culture For the Digital Economy" she discusses a lot about how many of the work done over the internet and for the digital economy is overshadowed. Terranova also discusses how in order to even put up a website you need to constantly be updating that website if not weekly, daily. But then there also comes with that the need for the most recent up to date software in order to update your website. Along with that you need people who are willing to do all of these things such as programers, designers, and workers who in turn are up to date on everything going on in the internet world. Terranova states that the rate of production has become so fast that it is hard to stay up to date when everything is changing so fast. It is almost as though you just start to be accustomed to the newest software then an even newer version of that comes out and then you have to learn that one even faster in order to stay up to date.

This reminds me of Facebook and how it is constantly changing and being updated on a regular basis. Since I have joined Facebook in 2007, it has changed and been updated more times than I can count. Facebook was started by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and since then has become one of the top social networking sites of this generation. Not only just a social networking site, it has become the newest and most relevant form of communication among this generation as well. As Terranova points out in her essay, "the sustainability of the Internet as a medium depends on massive amounts of labor" (page 16). This being said, she is right. If Facebook and other technologies, specifically the internet did not have constant labor and people updating software and websites on a day to day basis, it would not succeed. People like change, they need to be constantly updated and they want the newest and most reliable form of any type of technology. However people tend to forget that there are actual people behind these constant updates working harder and harder everyday in order for the rest of the population to be updated daily with the newest and most modified form of technology.

Social Networking and the Network Economy

Social networking is a tool of communicating, information gathering, and information sharing that has rapidly and fundamentally changed the way we interact with one another. Beyond that, social networking has had a profound impact on business, and by extension the economy. In Darin Barney’s, “Network Economy,” he discusses network technologies and their impact on our global economy, and questions whether these technologies have in fact created a new economy. Network technologies, and more specifically, social networking, have become as Barney puts it, “instrumental to our global economy.”

At the beginning of 2011 it was announced that Goldman Sachs invested $500 million into Facebook, raising Facebook’s estimated valuation to $50 billion. Facebook generates some revenue from advertising, but a majority of their valuation comes from the wealth of information they have on their consumers. This information, and gathering of said information, has helped reshape and redefine our global economy. In order for a brand to remain globally competitive they have to put resources into maintaining a Facebook page and an overall online presence. Failure to do so will result in their failure to stay relevant.

Facebook’s success is a prime example of how network technologies have changed our economy, and helped shape a new economy of information. Information, demographics, statistics, etc, are at the core of advertising and Facebook’s collection of information is remarkably valuable. So valuable in fact, that in a Time Magazine’s Person of the Year profile of Mark Zuckerberg they talk about the Director of the FBI dropping by the offices to say hi. The reality though is that Facebook has such a deep and complete database of information that the FBI is trying to find a way to utilize it.

The success of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are examples that our global economy can no longer be measured monetarily. In this day, with our growing network economy, the importance and value of information is just as imperative as money.

Network Economy without Politics?

I firmly believe that there is certain logic behind Darin Barney's arrangement of chapters in his book about the network society, and the one we have read for today, the Network Economy, is only one of the many topics that he will talk about. However, I still question an approach to analyze the “network economy” without considering the power relation, or the reification of it –politics, governance, educational institutions, etc. –in the society under scrutiny.

Darin Barney’s chapter has mentioned two different opinions on how the network technology will affect the employment (92-94). One is that the digital technology is a threat to the employment market because “digital technology is deeply implicated in, for example, the mobility of production operations and capital, a type of “flow” that often washes away employment in its wake” (92). Another opinion argues that from global statistics, the rise of network technology has resulted in a rise of the service sector’s employment (such as business, social, commercial, entertainment, leisure and personal services). While I do agree that both opinions are factors that influence the employment market, I propose a necessity to consider how the employment market and the government would react to such influences. After all, it is unfair to only assume that the technology side always takes the lead.

First of all, the government of a network society will take measures to better accommodate to the “network economy”, balancing the technology use as well as promoting career training of its workforce to adapt the need for information-oriented jobs. The news comes that Obama is going to meet with CEOs of the leading technology companies to discuss and learn how to ensure high-speed technological innovations while increase employment.

Education is another possible source of response to the affected job market. More and more programs targeting at increasing technology and information savvy become in par with the innovation pace. If we picture the industrial revolution with a consequence of the “management of materials” and “standardized manufacture work”, the “information revolution” might result in the “management of mind/ideas” and “formatted information generation labor”.

While Barney has articulated his composite theory consisting of essence, design, situation, and use of certain technology in the previous reading, his chapter of “network economy” does not implies a comprehensive analysis to the dynamics between technology and a society’s possible response/resolution to it.

Network Economy

The chapter “Network Economy” by Darian Barney was a very interesting read. Darian explains that the physical labor that we are used to in the job force is ending and we are turning towards an information society. Darian says that what is more important in the job markets is the information and knowledge that one already has. Potential employers are no longer looking at what one is capable of doing with their hands but rather what kind of information they possess. Also, Darian explains that it is becoming more common for individuals to switch jobs more and more frequently. My parents have been working at the same job since they graduated. They have never thought about switching jobs and enjoy the work they are doing. But today, this is not common. Today workers will switch jobs more than they have in the past and this is a factor of changing to the information evolution.
The idea that one will change careers more frequently than they have in the past was very interesting and scary for me to think about. While growing up I always imagined going to the same job day after day after graduation, like my parents did. Now, it is acceptable, and almost expected that one switch jobs. Because information and technology is always changing, workers too have to be able to change and adjust with their jobs. We have to become more skilled workers and this allows for us to learn more information, changing our interests.

Freedom in the Network Economy

Darin Barney’s “Network Economy” claims the rise of the network society has provided the structure for a global informational economy. Digital networks, he claims has transformed the industrial model of capitalism into an ‘informational’ model. The globalized informational economy has its own distinct characteristics, however, it holds the same logic of capitalism of an industrial economy.The change from a hierarchical to decentralized operational management is one of the important changes in practice in the informational species of capitalism.

Economic globalization has emerged from network technologies and refers to the multi-national organization of capitalist firms and their operations. Barney states this kind of economic model is neo-liberal since market agents are increasingly free of regulatory constraint and states lose their interventionist and redistributive options. We have seen this neo-liberal model challenged in current news. In response to the desire to increase government control and censorship, along with the increase of big companies extracting information about us online, a new network technology will soon be released that will decentralize the internet so “big brother,” or governments and big companies, will not be able to watch every search term we type online. This may pose some challenges to big companies who depend on online advertising.

The Freedom Box would decentralize information and power by simply plugging a small device into the wall. This small device could change the course and practice of our network society by providing liberty and freedom to those using it and further limiting control of our government. Eben Moglen, innovator of the Freedom Box, claims, “Everything we know about technology tells us that the current forms of social network communication, despite political value, are dangerous to use. They are too centralized; they are too vulnerable for state retaliation and control.” I would like to see the day when we are assured our online liberties and not vulnerable to the control of large databases, such as Facebook.

Network Economy

In the chapter "Network Economy" written by Darin Barney, one quote that he uses really sticks out to me. He quotes, "The argument is clear: in this new information economy we work primarily with our minds rather than with our hands... In this new economy it is ideas that count, knowledge that is the important resource," (pg. 77). In today’s world, knowledge is both a tool and a product. It has become much more important to show what information we possess then what work we can do with our hands. This brings interesting implications to our job market. To promote ourselves to most potential employers we advertise our knowledge and experience more so then what we do physically. Since technology is always changing and evolving we must continually evaluate our knowledge base and add new skills to stay current and competitive. Not only do we continually increase and change our knowledge and skills to fit the current market but we are also changing careers and jobs more now than ever before. I believe it could be because we now have more access to information and the ability to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills needed for career changes.

Mind Vs. Hand

In Darin Barney's "Network Economy", he discusses a lot about the new economy and the toll it is going to have on a lot of people that are used to older ways of working. The idea that today it is all about knowledge and getting information through technology, where as before it was all about hands on and not having to have to use your head as much as long as you were skilled enough to perform a certain task. Barney also stresses the importance that within this new economy it is ideas that count and we use technology to gain knowledge which in itself is an important resource. This reminds me a lot of how today we rely so much on technology that we fail to use our "skills" to get certain things done. Machines have taken over factories and companies no longer need actual people to build things, just to run the machines.
The constant battle between human intelligence and artifical intelligence is still ongoing and with technology constantly surrounding humans on a day to day basis. Not only does it surround us and have an impact on everything we do in life these days, it seems almost as though there is no way of going through a day without using at least some form of technology. Not only this, but also technology has made it difficult for many people to find jobs since many companies rely on technology to do all of the work. Barney discusses networks and unemployment and how technology has made it so there is a displacement of human labour. For people that have grown up in a society where they rely on technology and use it everyday as a means to get by, this idea really does not phase them too much. However for people such as older generations who relyed soley on their own knowledge and skills in order to get jobs this can be a problem if they are looking for a new job or what not. Technology has become such a huge part of everyone's lives that it is hard to picture life without it anymore, however when will technology completly take over is a whole other question that brings about a lot of fears with many people.

Networking

The chapter out of Darian Barney's book about the "Network Economy" displays an interesting look at the future of economies and international relations. The reading makes it clear that the traditional economy based on physical labor and security through the ability to do that labor is coming to an end. As society progresses, an economy based on the trading and selling of knowledge becomes a greater force and source of the job market and jobs. No longer are we to look for a job that could last us decades until retirement, but the search is based more on the short-term than the long-term. The average person will have more jobs overall than their predecessors.

Similarly, the search for jobs is now an international affair. Our competition is no longer limited to the city we exist in but often to anybody with a steady internet connection and phone line. It is likely too early to accurately predict what the outcomes of this will be, are we going to lose our quality of life while others improve, or are we both going to improve? Or neither? The world consistently becomes a smaller place and this simultaneously creates greater competition among people.

The Long History of the Information Revolution

In the chapter The Long History of the Information Revolution in the book Times of Technoculture by Kevin Robins and Frank Webster, the authors say early on about new incoming technology, "this new development will similarly extend human mental capacity to a degree which we can now only dimly envisage." This reminded me much of the work of Marshall McLuhan and his theories that incoming and changing technologies can become extensions of man and actually enhance the physical functions of the human body and extends the efficiency and capabilities of the human mind. Examples of this can range from simple to complex. A simple example is one like glasses are extensions of man in that they extend the natural ability of the eyes of someone wearing them. Had that technology not existed and not been present, their ability to see would be worse.

The authors also compared current times to what is known as the industrial revolution. In that time, rapidly changing and advancing technologies changed all parts of the nation, and extended parts of human existence. People no longer had to rely on natural strength and power, but were aided and extended by the help of efficient machines that could take some of the labor out of jobs.

While reading this chapter and thinking more about McLuhan's theories, I thought about his most popular belief that "the medium is the message," and that the most phenomenal part of new technologies is not the content, but the technology itself and the relationships and discourses it allows for. An example McLuhan used in teaching was that the technology of the lightbulb. He said how the lightbulb itself has no content, but by being present itself, it illuminates an area and creates a completely new environment that could not exist without the technology. This reminded me of the riots and organizations and gatherings of people due to social networking technologies like twitter and facebook that have been going on today in Egypt and the middle east. The phenomenal part of the technology and its use, isn't so much the content that is in the messages that people are sending to one another, but the fact that due to social networking sites like these, people can now gather and create environments that would have been otherwise impossible to create and organize due to physical and legal barriers. So technology like twitter and facebook has created a new plain and environment for people to communicate with one another, as well as extended their physical attributes like their voices and physical presence.

Network Economy and Older Adults

I agree with the author that globalization and capitalism have really changed a lot of things. People like my dad, a 32 year employee of UPS, are going to have a harder and harder time of re-integrating during retirement. Most of these people need jobs just to keep them busy, but with a world more dependent on technology and globalization it is going to be very difficult for them to succeed.
The author talked about Karl Marx. I found this interesting since Marx said that men should not do meaningless or unimportant work. He was alluding to an idea that people should never be just the objects of labor. With technology becoming more and more advanced and people regularly changing fields and becoming more educated is this not what will be occurring? Think about it this way - machines do the majority of our work these days. This brings me to my next issue.
The author stated "It is undeniable that many people experience non-standard work arrangements as empowering and liberating." I don't entirely disagree with this, but these are some of the same people that wanted to challenge the status quo of the workplace being somewhere else and failed. They got us in a lot of trouble by sitting at home, speculating, and racking up huge debts. President Bush acknowledged this in a speech while he was in his second term. Technology is good and using it to better the workplace is great, but just because it is a liberating and empowering experience doesn't mean it is successful. How may of these people, after being their own boss, can successfully integrate back into the mainstream workforce now and get the economy going again?

Network Economy

Towards the end of the article “Network Economy,” it mentions how in recent years people with at least a two year college degree will change jobs seven time and revamp their skill and knowledge three times in their forty-three year work life. This new phenomenon has done away with what our parents were used to which is having a “steady job.” In the past people would work at one job and stay there practically their whole life. If they did not stay at the same job they would stay in the similar area or work.
In present day the ever changing technology contributes to our changing of jobs. As we grow in life and in knowledge we learn new things that interest us. I like how the reading described our current state as a way of “lifelong learning.” Now days no one is ever really happy with their jobs unless they have a chance to advance in the work place. I think the current state of the industry requires skilled workers for jobs because we have to be smart and be able to learn on the fly. Currently most jobs need specific skills and requirements. I think as technology has come along, so have we. We have become smarter and can now do many different jobs within our life time. 

A New Branch of Capitalism

In the era of Fordism, Capitalism was shaped by production and resources. Industrialization was booming with many jobs for unskilled workers. In our time period, Capitalism is shaped by the circulation and application of knowledge. This branch of Capitalism has come to be known as the “New Economy,” “Post-Industrial Economy” or according to Darin Barney, “Network Economy.” Although our socioeconomic system has remained the same, new tactics for businesses have emerged from Informationalism. For one thing, globalization has become bigger, better and stronger. “Electronic connections links companies though all parts of the world though a rapid response/ mutual adjustment system.” Our telecommunications is stronger so that we can do more business. Although there are still restrictions on the economy, technology is still finding ways to break them.

Before, the Industrialized Revolution would take workers who were unskilled, so they could teach them how to do the manufacturing jobs and pay them less since they had less experience and knowledge. Now, we want our workers to have more knowledge to do the technological work. This is creating a “digital divide” between the people who don’t know anything about technology to the very skillful ones. These disadvantages are all over the world: Countries who have no access to information or regions of, for instance the United States, living in poorer areas. Castell calls this “Black holes of informational capitalism” which is the “fourth world of global informational society.”

Another disadvantage is that technology is taking away jobs from people. This may be an old myth because the service sector has risen and people are finding more jobs. The network enterprise model is a huge part of the “New Economy” where instead, traditional hierarchy businesses are now interdependent, self-managing teams. This model also allows smaller firms for niche markets, as we have seen recently through Internet tracking ads on social networking sites. The “New Economy” allows the firm to move to more profitable areas and employees now have more incentives for doing their jobs. Overall, the “New Economy” is now a central part of Capitalism.

An Online Revolution

Darin Barney in his piece “Network Economy” writes about the network society and just how it reinforces a reciprocal relationship between people and technology. Barney refers to Ronald Deibert, an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, who writes about the dynamics of network technology in the global economy. Deibert says that though the principles of technological determinism are certainly observed, the technology requires a much more complex network of cooperation and ideological similarity in order to function and serve. I love this correlation because it doesn’t take too much from the humanistic or technological side of the spectrum, rather it incorporates both sides fairly equally.

The way I read Barney’s argument is that the technology to support say, FedEx is greatly needed in order to move as much freight as they do in a single day. However, that technology is dictated by a rigid power structure that is developed and maintained by management through business strategies that have developed over time within our national institutions. So the technology that has evolved has only done so after an ideological perspective has taken shape. This is an entirely different argument than say people who argue that the revolutions in North Africa could not have evolved without the help of Twitter and Facebook. Barney argues that the relationship between technology and humans is more reciprocal, while people arguing for Facebook and Twitter would say that it was the technology that developed the ideals of the nation. I really support Barney and Deibert’s perspective more than the other.

Posted by: Mike Anderson

Educating an Advanced Society

The “Network Economy” by Darin Barney holds several key ideas in relation to Karl Marx’s ideas of the capitalist economy. Karl Marx believed, “constant revolutionizing of the means of production- was, in fact definitive of advanced industrial economies”. As the industrial revolution advanced, technologies advanced, and communication technologies were a key innovation to the advancement of business. Labor also went from manual to knowledge based labor. Today, instead of just going to school to learn the basic mathematics, reading, science, and geography people go onto further their education with courses focused around the new communication technologies. This course being a perfect example.

Employment has definitely changed since the industrial revolution also, instead of going off to work in a factory producing products; there are hundreds of thousands of companies that solely exist because of communication technology. I feel like I am a perfect example of the network economy. I am a Communication Studies major, therefore most of my classes involve some aspect of online media or social networking. I also take entrepreneurial classes that involve talking about online marketing strategies. The jobs that I am applying for are at global advertising companies that would not exist today without communication technologies, advancement in education developed for educating society on these technologies, and the ever growing capitalist economy.

As the network economy sometimes can be blamed for a rise in unemployment, you have to remember all of the jobs it has provided also. The field of Communication Studies would not exist today without the network revolution and the information society.

Information Revolution

"Each comes to depend on the continuous, normalized, and increasingly centralized surveillance and monitoring of subject populations..." Is this quote for the Time of the Technoculture really true? It is scary to think that we as a collective population are growing more and more ok with the idea that being watched is normal. The internet as we have discussed in class, is monitoring pretty much every key stroke we type into the search bar, and we can hardly walk into a store with out thinking 'big brother' isn't somewhere watching. From the increase in traffic cameras in the sky to being installed on lights- even getting a ticket is now easier than ever.
Every time a crime happens, it seems that we rely on store, or building, or even outside surveillance to show us the situation that occurred. We are giving the authoritative resources of storage and control of information to a higher stranger. However, like the book states, these are the possibilities that we are given in exchange for new developed technologies.
Giddens identified one field that is using surveillance as control which is economic analysis. This idea reminded me of the book: Who Elected the Bankers by Louis W. Pauly (which of course google now has me recorded for searching for the pdf of this book online). The book begins to take issue with the idea of a global economy, and dealing with the fear that would be created by this.
Seeing these ideas in print make me worried to think about what the economy might soon become because of people becoming normalized to the idea of surveillance.

Times of the Technoculture

In the first paragraph of Chapter 5 in the book called Times of the Technoculture, Kevin Robins and Frank Webster state, “The new information and communications technologies are changing not just entertainment and leisure pursuits but, potentially, all spheres of society.” I like everything about this quote except the word POTENTIALLY. In my opinion, new information and communications technologies ARE changing all spheres of society. Robins and Webster list work and education as two spheres in society that are changing because of the advancements we have seen in technology. I will now talk about these two topics and how much they have changed over a short period of time.

First, the business world, specifically communication in the workplace has changed dramatically because of recent advancements in technology. Back in the day nobody had cell phones, let alone a cell phone given to them by the company they worked for. I remember when I was in grade school my father had a phone in his car that had a wire and it was sitting in a holder that was built into the floor underneath the radio. It did not have text messaging, internet connection, email, a GPS system, applications, or anything else current phones have. Today, many businesspeople are given a Blackberry, I Phone, or Droid so they can be reached at any time of the day and at any location by their employer or fellow employees. These cell phones are equipped with everything imaginable so businesspeople can conduct day-to-day activities quicker and more efficiently. Instantaneous communication is key because the business world is very fast paced and competitive, and if you can not be reached or you have difficult contacting someone else, you could cause severe harm to the company you are working for and potentially be looked down upon by your superiors.

Second, education has changed significantly, and Robins and Webster specifically mention distance learning as a benefit from the new information and communications technologies. Personally, I have taken two online classes (Management and Marketing) for my Business Studies degree and I have absolutely loved both classes because it was so easy to use. All I had to do was login to the class website, read the schedule for the week, and complete all of my assignments, quizzes, tests, or group projects online. You may be wondering how students would be able to work on a group project together without ever meeting each other in person. Well, my online class enabled us to use a web cam, as well as email and discussion boards so we would be able to talk about the project and make group decisions quickly and efficiently. We all had different work and school schedules during the summer and had a lot going on, but we managed to balance our work and school lives to successfully complete our project. Communicating with the teacher was also very easy. She posted a video every Sunday night to inform us what to do each week, and she always told us to email or text/call her if we had any questions or concerns. The technology I experienced with my online classes was terrific, and I am very thankful for the opportunities that were presented to me the past two summers.

Where the counterculture Met the new Economy

While reading the article “Where the counterculture Met the new Economy,” I couldn’t help but connect the Catalog to sites like E-bay, Amazon.com, and Craigslist. Though the Catalog did not physically offer you the product, it did have suggestions and product reviews of people who have used the item in the past. This is similar to our sites like E-bay because they too provide information about products and where to find them. The Catalog was a stepping stone for present day sites to become as successful as they are. In the Catalog and sites like Amazon, we feel like we are connected to other parts of the world and country. People giving advice on products seems like everyone is helping each other. “By the early 1970s, then, the Whole Earth Catalog had developed into a
publication that celebrated and exemplified the notion that geographically dispersed communities could be linked by the exchange of information in a context that was both communal and commercial.” The Catalog connected people in a way that no one had ever seen. It was like a modern day social network, it brought people together with a common interest. They were able to communicate long distances with people they have never met, but it was successful. The Catalog changed the lives of people who used it in the past and our modern day sites have forever changed the way people shop. The Catalog provided people with information about products they have never heard of or even thought they would ever need to use. It opened peoples eyes to a different way of life.

Social Network

In Fred Turner's, Where the Counterculture Met the New Economy article, its very interesting to see how technology advancement developed with the internet of intercommunication across the nation. The interactions on the internet of what we do today with facebook, twitter, ebay, amazon, ect, are everyday activities and normal to us. But the Well, along with the catalog had to be a drastic change in life for people in that time period. It’s interesting how people viewed it as “boundary objects” and “trading zones”. Is makes it seem like how you would describe interacting and trading in the ancient days. It would be interesting to hear more reaction of individuals of that time as this virtual community and forums were taking place. I wonder what some of the consequences were at the time of these interactive developments. We discuss the negative aspects of today’s technology in class. There were likely situations with the catalog similar to what we see with ebay scams today, along with interaction conflicts and disputes which facebook often stirs up. Either way it’s intriguing to see the beginning of the social network world. I believe the social theorists were correct when they thought the interconnection would become the new social order, as it influences us today and future.

Although many may try and compare this article to facebook and other social networking sites of today (as I myself did at first), the subject matter involving the Whole Earth Catalog and its transformation into WELL was derived from a much deeper understanding of the false sense of community that people were turning into. Not to say that WELL didn't evolve and turn itself into something it didn't know it was capable of in the first place, but the intentions were to provide a space where the individual could 'conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested.' The idea for this community didn't begin with the same intentions as Facebook or Twitter. It worked to provide knowledge and erase ignorance, without the pressure and judgments of any person higher or lower on the chain. Facebook allows users a 'freedom' of a certain globally shared domain that everyone we know and don't know is apart of. This 'freedom' allows us to work within the confines of a domain that encourages us to make more friends and stimulate social interaction while they simultaneously sell out our personal domains. Although I am not against facebook, it isn't something that has helped me gain knowledge, share opinions or feel comfortable within the equal confines of a community.
WELL seems to provide users with a stable space that promotes not self-promotion but self-improvement. This article referenced 1960's music festivals featuring iconic bands such as the Dead. While even the article seems to portray the band and their general following as hippies through certain quotes, the sense of community and following connected both the fans and the band members in an equal bond. Music festivals today seem to provide the same sense of community- no matter who you were before, everyone is in an equal space without any type of heirarchy or pressure, liberating its participants from the outside world. The band Phish does a good job in my eyes creating this equal space where a massive community has evolved, not only through festivals but through the internet. People are connected in a non threatening way where they not only converse about Phish but about topics that stimulate personal knowlege and growth. The article compared modern day WELL to a 'village' in which people could partake in both business and pleasure. This isn't the Whole Earth Catalog selling itself out to keep up, its simply providing an alternative way of looking at the way we go about life. Do we want to trod along and follow the dominant ideology- well in a way most of us do, yes. Should we look deeper into subjects that are outside of our realm of comfort? I think so.

Misfit to Mainstream

In Fred Turner's article Where the Counterculture Met the New Economy, he talks about different ideas and inventions that start out as counterculture that are later packaged an evolved to fit mainstream media, and new economic practices. His article reminded me of a lot of different movements and ideas that started as pure that were later packaged and reshaped by the machine of society and turned into popular culture. An example he touches on, but doesn't necessarily address in the same way, is the hippie movement in the 1960's. What started as a small counter cultural movement in the periphery of the spectrum, was later packaged into a style and a particular fashion that ended up in many people's eyes defining the decade. The ideas of the first people in the movement started out pure, but was later mudded up and packaged into mainstream popular culture, through advertising and other social and economical means. I see the transformation from misfit to mainstream in movements and inventions like this as a change because of the fear that society has of counter culture and peripheral movements, that could create conflict in mainstream society. In today's age, it seems that counter cultural ideas and movements can more rapidly be transformed into artifacts of popular culture and of mainstream society, because of the ability to communicate online. Information accurate and inaccurate can be massively dispersed, and disseminated to all quarters of the globe through internet technologies, and now the huge popularity of social media technologies online. It is hard to find any artifact of our current culture that remains pure in it's ideas and remains uninfluenced by advertising and the popular culture machine.

Evolution of Social Networking

A community evolves when a group of people with a common interest come together. Today, communities can form in many different ways. Fred Turner discusses how a community was established by sharing their interests on paper (Whole Earth Catalog), and then moved their group on-line (WELL). This on-line group created our ideas of social networks. “In its pages, the Catalog both depicted the products of an emerging counterculture and linked the scattered members of that culture to another. In that sense, it became a ‘network forum’. That is, it offered a venue in which members of multiple geographically dispersed groups could communicate with one another and in doing so come to see themselves as members of a social network” (489). I believe that this was one of the key points in the reading because it describes the effects of changing a type of communication from paper to on-line. On-line allows people to have access to information at a quicker and easier pace. Consequently, the distribution of people’s ideas travels globally and at a faster rate.

Nowadays, social networking is discussed on a daily basis in classrooms, occupations, clubs, etc. So, what is the big talk about? Social networking has become huge because it now affords people the opportunity to stay connected for job opportunities, such as keeping in contact with people from all over and having easy access to resumes and occupation interests. Clubs can now use social networking to get their ideas/cause out to everyone at a faster/higher rate and also keep in contact with people worldwide comparing ideas and communicating with people with common interests. Classrooms discuss social networking to help inform people how this change from paper to on-line has affected our society. Teachers help students become aware of their possibilities through social networking.

As I was reading the article, a type of social networking that came to mind was Flickr. Flickr is an online photo management and sharing website that helps connect people with similar interests all over the world. Flickr creates an on-line social networking system by having different groups of various topics, and people posting pictures that show their idea of that particular topic. People are also allowed to comment in this group. For example, there is a group that is labeled purses. In this group people can upload their photos that portray what a purse is to them. While some people have fancy purses, others have a shopping bag as their purse. We can see the variety of purses and discuss what it means to them. There is also a beach party category. Here, some people post actual individuals dancing on the sand, while other people take pictures of different objects that resemble a beach party to them. Flickr helps create this community where people are able to share their ideas to a mass amount of people. People who have similar interests can now stay connected and discuss their ideas to a community at a fast rate.

Is the change from paper magazines to on-line social networking a good thing? I believe so. The main impact on society is that people can now create different types of community, meaning that they now have easier access to a bigger and more diverse community which allows for greater availability to an insurmountable amount of knowledge on topics recognized, but also the less understood. Now, it is easy to be involved in various communities. You do not have to limit yourself to belong to just one community. Today’s technology allows people to not only receive their information at a faster rate, but their community now can be globally which creates more ideas and more people informed. The knowledge to be shared is limitless.