Response toDuhigg’s
“How Companies Learn Your Secrets”
Even though it is a well known fact that when you use your
discount card, or you sign up for email with a store, they are collecting
personal information about you and your spending habits in order to sell you
more stuff, it is still off putting to read an article that so eloquent
explains the process of this, the commonality and the justification behind it.
The goal behind the companies gathering information is so
they can make more money. I have to ask myself, why is it we are so willing to
offer our personal information up so freely just to save $0.12 on Charmin
toilet paper? I’m extremely guilty of this, but I grew up in an age that I
wasn’t as sensitive to keeping my information private. I shop online, to my
mother’s dismay. I put in my credit card information and willingly offer up my
email so that I can get my receipt for my purchase.
Statisticians are the new magicians, using their tricks to
make us believe we’ve decided to shop at Target by choice, when really, it was
probably a result of some researcher learning our habits and figuring out how
to use those habitual actions to lure us through the front doors of the store.
Reading through this article, was like having the magic
turned off, even if just for a moment. Duhigg describes a lab where scientists
have miniature operating tables and spend all day studying the habits of rats.
The scientists begin to observe that, “As the path became more automatic – as
it became habit – the rats started thinking less and less” (3). This quote
reminds me of my first point to this point, which was that though we know what
these companies are doing, we don’t really think about it. Every store has a
discount or membership card. Every store wants your email so you will be the
first one to know about their amazing sale.
The example of the father that found out his daughter was
pregnant because of Target sending her coupons for maternity clothes and baby
paraphernalia was disconcerting. Because our brains are so complex, and we can
make almost any behavior that we repeat, a habit, provided that we have the
sequence of cue, routine then reward, researchers and therefore the large
conglomerates they work for are able to know our deepest secrets.
But the nice thing this article highlights about habits is
that we can take control of our habits the way researchers do just by paying
attention to our own tendencies and urges.
Response to Agre’s Surveillance and Capture
With the onset of the mass use of technology, it became more
and more plausible that our own trusted computers are actually keeping record
of what we are doing in our daily lives. So it is no longer science fiction
that the government or whomever wishes to gather information is able to do so
using your own technology against you. If the surveillance model is linked to
the political action of the time, then the capture model is closely related to
the emergence of technology.
The article goes on to state that basically, there are
always going to be two sides to a coin. We have those that see the vast
benefits computing has added to our lives, then there are those that see how
computing and technology have made it easier for those that are in control, to
control us. I’m of the belief that in all things that have the potential to
morph a society, there will come the good and the bad. But what we should do,
is educated ourselves so at least at that point when I’m shopping online and
putting in all of my personal information, I am aware of the risk of my
computer capturing my information and someone else being able to access it.
I've attached a video of me showing the brochure to my 6th Grade Reading, Writing and Publishing Class. It is one of the ways I will be using new media to not only give my students information, but to also model for them how they will use new media to demonstrate their learning of different concepts throughout the year.
It may seem a bit incongruous to begin a book whose ultimate
concern is the future of information with a portrait of Theodore Vail, the
greatest monopolist in the history of the information industries, basking in
the glories of the nations’ most vital communications network under his
absolute control.
Yet when we look carefully at the twentieth century, we soon find that the Internet wasn't the first information technology supposed to have changed everything forever.
Page 169
The basic story of the Internet’s early development has been
told many times; but our specific concern is to understand what was the same
and what was different about this network as compared with radio, television,
and the telephone system.
Page 318
If this book demonstrates one thing it is that, over the
long haul, competition in the information industries has been the exception,
monopoly the rule. Apart from brief periods of openness created by new
inventions or antitrust breakups, the story is mostly one of dominant firms.
There is strong reason to believe that there is nothing new under the sun, that
the great universal network is as disposed to monopoly as its predecessors.
Page 320
If only there were some way of enjoying the short-term
benefits of monopoly without the long-term oppression. This is precisely what
the Separation Principle aims to make possible.
Finally, what about the individual user, empowered as never
before since the computer revolution? In an age ruled by individual choice how
is it that we could be in danger of such an unprecedented takeover of
information? Do we in fact seem to embrace, even celebrate, information
empires?
Questions to discuss:
Who holds the master switch? (Who is the person in yellow on the cover?)
Why do we exclude information from the discussions and frustrations about monopolies?
Is the internet any different from the other forms of information technology, i.e. telephone, radio?
What can we learn from the cycles of information empires?
A response to Ritter’s The Economics of Authorship
I believe that the idea of the student seeing him or herself
as the author, thus taking responsibility and pride in their work, is essential
to getting students to feel some moral obligation to produce work that
demonstrates their own originality and complexities of thought around a topic.
It is easy to believe that most students plagiarize out of
sheer laziness and lack of motivation, but isn’t it more plausible to believe
that a truly lazy student wouldn’t care enough to go through the trouble of
finding a paper to purchase. Then it is a natural assumption that most students
that purchase papers from paper mills and other sites putting a price tag on
someone’s writing are actually being driven by their desire to succeed at any
cost and unable to see how they themselves could author a paper that would be
able to gain them that success.
It would then appear to me as an educator, that while
addressing issues of buying someone else’s work, I must then too address their
desire to succeed. It is that desire that I can help them repurpose in a way
that would lead them to the conclusion that they are capable of ensuring their
own success using skills perhaps they don’t feel they have and they may need
additional work around.
In my opinion, though I haven’t had this experience with a
student yet, this is an opportunity to encourage and motivate a student that
already appears to view their success as a priority.
With the advent of new media and the easy access of writing
then publishing writing for a legitimate audience, facebook, twitter, etc., our
students are already authors and all we have to do as educators is illuminate
this point for them and then help them to see that if they are already
publishing hundreds if not thousands of words a day, then they can also write a
thousand word essay given the opportunity to practice the skill over time
without fear of being ridiculed and or humiliated.
I am not a teacher that marks up my students’ papers. Though
I deal with younger students, 11 or 12 year olds mostly, I feel that it is
imperative that I encourage, not discourage. Writing is a wholly personal
experience, or it should be. Even academic essays are personal when a writer
has put their own critical thoughts, observations and interpretations on paper.
It is a vulnerability that some students feel teachers have not been empathetic
or sympathetic towards.
Ritter uses a quote by Ed White that states some educators might not be aware of the complex and multitudes of reasons a student would purchase a paper instead of completing the assignment themselves. Something I hear a lot of educators say is that students are
not motivated to succeed. I go by the philosophy that even the student that
consistently puts their head down on their desk and rarely turns in homework is
indeed motivated, but in a different way than what we are use to recognizing as
motivation. This is where I feel a lot of educators may fall short. We need to
put the focus on open communication, and some students are going to resist in
ways that frustrate us, but we have to help them see themselves in a way
perhaps they never have before. It takes more time and who has more time? In a
perfect world, we’d be able to reach every single student that sits in our
class. Perhaps this is an idealistic view of what education should be. But I’d
rather be the ideal than the alternative.
The process for determining a topic for my object box was
one of both discovery and excitement. I was thrilled by the opportunity to
piece together different media representations of a topic I have invested a lot
of emotion. I am an avid reader of young adult literature and a consumer of the
different types of media available in this genre. I have even determined this
is a genre I’m most comfortable writing creatively. The thought of taking the
most recent and most popular forms of media in this genre was intriguing for
numerous reasons.
What I began to realize was the most necessary for me to illustrate
through the objects, was the lack of diversity in this genre of media, though I
could have ventured into many other genres and proved this same point. This
genre is especially important to me and my students. I spent most of last year
having heated debates about if Team Edward or Team Jacob was better. For the
record, I’m Team Edward.
The point I began to try and make in my box is that my
diverse population of students is so emotionally involved in this genre, yet
for the most part, they have a very limited amount of characters that remotely
represent the diversity that makes up our country. Through the process of
researching I discovered what I already knew to be true. There are a lot of
hostile, racist patrons of this genre that will not be happy until there is no
one that would be considered the “other” described on the pages of the latest
young adult novel or being represented in movies or television series.
I could have included so many images, clips and various forms
of media to depict the lack of diversity most lovers of this genre may not give
very much thought to. And if the thought is had, there is a sense of
hopelessness and inevitable acceptance, as the task of diversifying media seems
too daunting. I know that I became incredibly overwhelmed after sifting through
media that truly did not seem apologetic in any way for, or even try to
explain, the lack of diversity.
I have such a love for this genre and see the beauty in the
stories that are already being told, my only hope is that the artists that are
creating this body of work will soon realize that they should want to include
the vastness of ethnicities that represent their fans.
Though if I’m being honest, that is not my only hope. I
don’t have much faith in any type of change happening in the near future. Unfortunately,
I am a realist, I believe that a lot of people are complacent with the status
quo, and then there are those like in the article I included in my box about
the Avengers, that hold so tightly to the America of the distant past that was
90% Caucasian, they will defame any story that doesn’t have the hero or heroine
casted as the traditional fair-skinned actor. They will even go so far as the
fans in the article about The Hunger Games, to cast a shadow of insufficiency
on an actor or actress in a secondary role solely based on the color of their skin.
I also included images of Obama because a good percentage of
our nation would love to believe that we are in a post-racial society, but that
is so far from the truth. I feel it is my responsibility as an instructor to
keep these issues relevant and encourage my students to be creators of their
own media. It may be the only way they will get the representation that is only fair.
There is this common perception that colorful flowers are beautiful. As Americans, we are a society of people who value diversity in so many things from diversifying investments to learning multiple languages to become more competitive in the global market. Then the question becomes, why is it we lack diversity in the one area that should be a true indication of the country in which we live?
According to Bolter and Grusin in the book, Remediation Understanding New Media, "...we see ourselves today in and through our available media" (231). If this is the case, how should the lack of minorities in mainstream media affect the self-image and the self-worth of many young, easily malleable minds in this country?
Natalie Walker sings the lyrics, "I am colorblind. Coffee black and egg white. Pull me out from inside. I am ready. I am ready. I am ready. I am," in a song I listen to almost daily. The lyrics are accompanied by an evocative stream of instruments. This song originally appeared in the 1999 movie, "Cruel Intentions." The reality of this statement is that, though we profess to be color blind, it is impossible to not see someone for who and what they really are. Noticing someone's color does not mean you are a racist; it means you have eyes. Without this acknowledgment, we will continue to allow so many races excluded from the media that define our country; books, films, television and cartoons.
A lot of people still have the same dream that Martin Luther King had; that all men are treated as equals and we will "sit down together at the table of brotherhood" and no one is "judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." There is a growing majority of Americans that are still waiting to have this dream actualized. Hearing the power and veracity in which he delivers this speech is still enough to make the hairs on my arms stand up. The idea of what this society could be if only everyone was viewed with equal importance is limitless. Do little girls with darker skin not deserve to see themselves as beautiful? Do little boys with the same skin not deserve to see themselves as heroes?
I've heard the phrase, post-racial society, used to refer to the US now that we have a black president. The image of this picture elicits the idea of that utopian society. It is an image that alludes to the duality of his heritage. His face looking up to all the possibilities of our country. The linguistic message of progress is proven true by his candidacy then later election as our first black president. It truly is a step in the right direction, but the struggle to view all races as equal has not ceased to exist with this one act of progression.
The quotations in the picture read, "Don't say a word! We must respect his culture!" The response is, "So would that be a fungal or viral culture?" The cartoon has hidden questions within it which are obvious upon further analysis of the different levels of complexity in the drawing. The people in the background can barely be seen, yet it is their words that help to ground the picture in it's true linguistic meaning. The largest part of the cartoon is a man that looks extremely angry wearing a confederate flag and boasting a swastika tattoo. Is racism synonymous with hate? Do we have to respect someone's culture of ignorance, therefore respecting their right to hate? Should we endure in silence and accept that there will be racists in this world that will continue to impede our progress as a diverse country? The last part of the character's question that is in the background, fungal or viral, relates to the way in which closet racists, with the advent of the internet, are able to voice their defamatory rhetoric with virtual anonymity on the world wide web making an impact on our media culture in a way that doesn't have to directly affect their daily lives.
Pictures just as this one appear in the homes of nearly every little girl in this country. As a little girl, I fell in love with Disney's princesses. The idea that they weren't meant for me didn't emerge until much later. If you look at the positioning of this picture, there is clearly a hierarchy in play. The diverse princesses are off to the side drawn in the background it would appear to the rest of the princesses. What kind of self-worth does this then attach to little girls that are represented by the darker skinned princesses. We could even venture to say that the fair-skinned princesses with dark or red hair have even been cast off to the side, while the blond hair blue-eyed princess holds steady to her position of importance in the center. So many people cling tightly to this hierarchy that it is impossible to separate the intentions of this picture from the clear implications of its effects.
We have the media to credit with our universal ideals of beauty. Marilyn Monroe is one of those iconic stars that has been immortalized for her contributions to our definition of beauty. In this picture, the symmetry of her face is evident and her beauty therefore confirmed. She has a crown on her head that gives the viewer of the image the sense that she is held as royalty in the hearts of many people.
Goodreads boasts themselves as the largest site for recommendations about books. I searched for the best books for young adults. If you view the list you will find that there is not a single minority writer in the first 40 books listed (could be the first 100, but I stopped looking), nor are there any minority characters casted as the hero or heroines in those books. This screams the necessity of more minority writers and more writers in general that are willing to say, yes my book will sell with a person of color as my main character.
This is a clip of Stephenie Meyer, the Twilight creator, explaining how the Twilight phenomena began. She discusses how it all started with a dream. It is my belief that if only we are willing to take that first step of writing that dream, idea, rambling down, we too can have this kind of success. Though I read each of the four books in the series multiple times, I never once felt like there was a character that I myself could have been. She continued to describe the vampires and even Bella, her main character, as being pale. I have to wonder what the emphasis on having pale skin has on the fans that will never be able to describe themselves in this way. It is not that every author has to have a character that represents every culture, but it would be nice to see a greater number of the best selling books in this genre have main characters that are described in different ways from the traditional, pale, blonde hair blue-eyed beauty, though Bella has dark hair and dark eyes. Credit should be given to Stephenie for including a Native American major character, Jacob, played by Taylor Lautner.
How to Look Like a Twilight Vampire This site gives a step-by-step explanation of how to turn yourself into a vampire. One of the instructions is to apply makeup that is two shades lighter than your natural skin. Vampires are seen as these superior beings in the Twilight series; these superhuman, extremely beautiful people that have these exceptional abilities. If you have to be lighter skinned in order to be considered a vampire, how does that affect darker skinned fans that wish to be like their favorite characters?
Another mainstream phenomena in young adult literature is the Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins. Suzanne did not choose to make her main characters minorities, but she did include two characters in her story that were described as having darker skin. The below video is a trailer of the movie that very closely follows the books. The movie came out earlier this year and has devoted fans comparable to the fans of Twilight and Harry Potter.
Rue, the young dark skinned bird-like girl, dies in the first book and is seen only in minor ways throughout the other two books. Still, there were many fans that were upset by such a pivotal character being played by a black actress. The above link is the CNN article that covers this story. Though the article itself is engaging, what I found to be most interesting were some of the comments about the article. The user, Cat Nippy, states, "You're right. I see so many comments from people in these forums that make me think about how miserable it must be to go through life with their thoughts, attitudes, and egos. Must be like shooting yourself in the foot all day long, because hatred, fear, and envy hurt the person who holds onto them much worse tha[n] the people they are aimed against."
This is an interview with the beautiful actress that plays Rue. I have to wonder how people's unfounded and misguided hatred of her affects her view of herself? She is so young and reminds me a lot of my students. In this interview you get to see how excited she is about the movie and how complementary she is of her fellow cast mates. For the record, she is of mixed heritage.
The movie, Freedom Writers, is based on a true story of a teacher that inspired her students in an urban school to become writers and change their lives. Of course this is a movie that I find to be relevant for my own students and encouraging to me as an educator. In this clip, one of the hispanic characters is in a toy store. She says that in America, a little girl is viewed as important for her beauty as the camera shows a white barbie on the shelf. The shot moves on to a brown skin barbie as she says that an Aztec princess is regarded for the way in which she fights for the people she cares for. This speaks directly to the unspoken, but very known, norm of the universal definition of beauty is not minority women.
The Avengers - "A Bunch of White Guys Saving the World? Can't have that! I felt it was essential to include the above article for several reasons, for one, it is written by a person that is obviously feeling disenfranchised by the audacity of some fans and critics of the Marvel comics to complain that there are only white super heroes. The writer of this article states at one point, the comics were written during a time where the country was 90% white and the comics should not have to include other ethnicities. "Now, however, we live in an era when the white majority that made America a land that every individual on the planet wishes to migrate to is under assault—by the very institutionsthat white people created." This writer's assertions are so misguided and unfounded, that it is hard to believe there are a lot of people that think how he does. Again, I have to wonder about the perception of my students while they view this movie that was at the top of the box office for many weeks. The article is filled with reasons why the movie does not need to be represented by a more diverse cast of actors. I was taken aback by the comments that were mostly in support of this writer's opinions. The user, Jefferson, laminated, "These libtards who complain that DC and Marvel movies are too White, would never criticize Tyler Perry movies for being too Black."
In this poster of the movie, Samuel Jackson, the only minority character in a somewhat major role, is seen bigger than all the other characters though his part is actually quite minimal. He is the director of the espionage agency, SHIELD. The visual aspects of this picture would suggest that there is a level of equality and that Samuel is seen as one of the heroes, the head of the heroes even, but the movie nor the comics lives up to this suggested interpretation.
IMDb is the website that houses the greatest amount of information about actors, actresses, movies and all things Hollywood. Upon viewing this site, it is obvious that there are only a handful of minority actors that are considered among the top in Hollywood. The images of all the actors present several visual issues. The obvious lack of minority representation in Hollywood is so blatantly displayed. Yet this is an issue we do not hear very much about in the media. Should young people not be able to see themselves as actors or actresses? How has this continued to be the way of things?
Why do fans have to go to websites like Essence, or do a search for the most beautiful asian or hispanic actresses in order to discover that yes, there are actually young actresses that are not white, currently acting and successful in the film and television industries that are considered beautiful and successful.
Spike Lee is a director and filmmaker that has centered his body of work around the messages he tries to portray. He, like many of his time period, knew of the effects his creations would have on the community to which he is a member, the black community. In this clip Lee is explaining why he thinks the Tyler Perry films and television shows are "coonery and buffoonery." It is important to acknowledge Tyler Perry's success as both a bad and good thing for the black community and for black people's standing in Hollywood. He single handedly is responsible for making roles that cast black actors and actresses as the lead. However, he is also responsible for the way he is portraying his actors and actresses as being, as Spike Lee describes it, buffoons. Lee goes on to say that we vote with our money and time. This is reminiscent of some of the statements Tim Wu makes in the book, Master Switch, when he raises the question of monopolies and how we, as the patrons, have the power to change the monopolies, but we have to change our choices first. It is obvious that Tyler Perry has the market on African American media, it is what he is choosing to do with it that is alarming.
This is a People Magazine article where it gives the percentages of African American presence in Hollywood and what percentage of the people that make decisions in Hollywood are African American. This is the basis for my entire box. I hope to illicit an anger within my students to get them to become the creators and the decision makers if they ever want anything to change.
This article delineates the complexity of racial issues that surrounded the release of Disney's first film featuring a black princess. It was a long time coming, and even after so many years of excluding the African American race from its fairytales that essentially shape little girls everywhere's perception of happily ever after, Disney still hasn't produced an African American prince. What does this say about the value of a black male? How should my students view this? On one hand, it opens up a door that has also been a part of the forbidden, a black and white interracial couple. This is amazing because there are so many students that fit into this racial category. On the other hand, why is it that Disney hasn't decided to make a film that features a black prince?
Most of my students know who Raven Simone is, a former Disney star, but I would venture to say that even more know of the young actress pictured in this photo, China Ann McClain. She has a television show that appears on the Disney channel, but even before that, she was an actress on one of the Tyler Perry shows. She is a budding new actress that has multiple talents. It is an interesting contrast from the type of comedy she performed while with Tyler Perry versus the mainstream show she now has with Disney.
In this song, Selena Gomez begins by saying, "I wouldn't want to be anyone else?" That isn't a hard statement to believe knowing her success with first Disney and then her singing career. My students love her. Her pop style is appealing to younger audiences and the themes throughout her music are of absolute relevance to the age group that I teach. She is definitely a positive representation of the kind of person my students can be. I enjoy using her music to teach figurative language and discuss the positive messages that make up her music. In this song she says, "Who says you can't be in movies?" If I were able to talk to her I would respond, "Hollywood." If I am to look at the images in this box of objects, then I would have to accept that the large majority of the media being produced currently excludes, with no apologies, minorities.
Kid Blog is a website I plan to allow my students to use as much as possible. They will be able to set up their own blog, much live we've done in this class, and post regularly around chosen topics. I will be able to breach the topic of their online writer persona and themselves as writers. Kid Blog is essential in developing their sense of autonomy around the concepts they are learning in class and it will also chronicle their progression as writers over the course of the school year. It is my own fears around them putting things out into the world of internet that keeps me from letting them post without me first viewing what they plan to submit, but I see myself releasing that control as the year goes on and once they demonstrate their understanding of the importance of their online presence as an extension of their selves rather than a separate part that doesn't relate to their every day lives.
Teen Ink is a website that publishes young adult writing. I discovered this website during my second year of teaching when I was searching for student exemplars of writing as well as magazines my students can submit their original work. It is my belief that students need an authentic audience and purpose for writing to make it meaningful. This is one of the ways I've seen to encourage self discovery through writing. My students enjoy the opportunity to read writing that is authored by students just like them with the same problems they have. TEEN INK
This is one of the websites that is kid friendly and a safe place for my students to publish some of the videos we create throughout the year. After winning the Joan and Bert Berkley Excellence in Urban Education Grant from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, it was necessary for me to find multiple publishing opportunities for the variety of media my students will produce using the technology being purchased with the grant. The other ways in which my students will publish their videos are our school website, Teacher Tube and School Tube.
It is my goal to have my students create websites as one of their concluding projects. Though my students are young, I know that they will encounter situations in which they will be required to design a website in the near future. I feel that it is my responsibility as their Reading and Writing Teacher, to equip them with the skills necessary to communicate fluently and successfully online.
This is one of my concluding objects in my box for many reasons. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is that the creators of this website also felt the need to address the lack of diversity in young adult literature. They've offered a solution to this issue and that solution is to encourage readers to delve into the young adult books that do see the importance of having a diverse character play the lead. They've not only recognized the issue, but they've challenged all readers of young adult literature to diversify their reading. I'm so excited to participate in the challenge and get my students engaged in the challenge. Change will not happen until we demand it. If media is the metaphor, and the metaphor is the catalyst for the conversation of our culture, what is our culture saying about minorities that are as much a part of this country's history as anyone else?
I've just recently found this book at the bookstore and am excited to read it and add it to my classroom library as my first book in the Diversity in YA Fiction Challenge. I was so elated to see a dark brown skin male on the cover of a young adult fantasy novel, my favorite genre, I had to capture the moment.
5 Photo Story This is a website that explains and gives examples for the 5 Photo Story. I attended a writing workshop where I learned how to use this as a way to get students thinking about stories in a visual way and having to develop with limited perimeters a retelling of different stories.
