Here Comes Everybody

The news is slow. All news hits Twitter, Facebook, and other social media websites before any of the news companies report acknowledgement of it. The raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound that led to his death was reported on twitter as it was happening. The raid happened around 3 pm our time, and most news companies weren't reporting it until 11 pm. Clay Shirky, the author of "Here Comes Everybody," mentioned that the internet allowed for a change to be made, in the past there has been the idea of filter, then publish, now it's turned into publish, then filter.

It's super easy to publish now and because it's free anyone can publish anything they want. People are everywhere and they can report news far more quickly than any professional. Everything gets published now rather than what just the news people want to be published. Twitter and Facebook cover everything that all news agencies cover and there is the problem of over-crowding. Everyone paying attention to Twitter or Facebook can filter the news to decide for themselves what is important, however, they have to search through a larger amount of data before they find what they are looking for. Another problem is that there are those who use this ability to freely publish anything to their advantage and try to sabotage others. Wikipedia allows for anyone to publish any type of facts they want. Luckily there are more people out there trying to do good, and they quickly squash those looking for personal short-term gain by removing or adding to those posts for the well-being of society.

Using what we're given

I've spent a good deal of time trying to think of new technologies that only have foul uses, and I've failed to think of even one. Photography and cinematography are used for pornography, however they are also used to create beautiful photos of landscapes or movies that help teach lessons from the scriptures. Computers are powerful devices from which many uses are found, and as long as we find the right uses, such as working on family history or doing research on the Internet, they can be powerful tools for good. Our world is improving and growing; new technologies are created literally every day. There are always going to be ways to use these new technologies for evil, but we should focus on how we can use them for good.

Open Source

Open source projects are utterly amazing. I'm used to group projects where there's always a straggler who has to be carried along. The straggler's work always has to be double and triple checked and usually with extensive fixes. With open source programs, the world is the group and the project is nothing in comparison. It would seem that there should be a large probability that at least a few people will screw it up and write some really terrible code; however, experience has proven otherwise. I'm only experienced in school work, and, when looking at the population, there are plenty of people who just don't know how to code. When those who code poorly are forced onto a team, people have to make up for their performance. In open source, no one is forced into anything, and everyone contributes as they see fit. People don't want to code what they don't know how to code, and when people who can code want to code, things like Linux are born.

Family is Forever

I love my family. They are awesome and have made me who I am today; being raised in a home with eleven siblings and a mother and father who love me really helped shape my life. My parents taught me that there's no such thing as bad people, just good people making bad decisions; because of them I want to believe that everyone can change, and given proper motivation and opportunity they will. Now that I'm older and have moved away, I try to stay in contact with them so that I don't lose that relationship I have with them. I want to make that relationship last as long as possible, and through technology we have today like Facebook, email, and cell phones, I can. I was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the main reason why I continued in the faith was because it was at this church that I learned I can be with my family forever. The thought only gets better because I also learned I will not only be able to spend eternity with them, but I will be able to spend eternity with the entirety of my family tree. Now that I'm married and sealed to my wife, I will be able to spend eternity with her family as well. I've learned about life from my siblings, parents, and grandparents. They've taught me so much, and because I will be able to be with my family forever, even after this life I will be able to hear about the lives of all my ancestors, and the thought brings me so much joy.

Arrrrrrrrg!

Piracy is definitely one of those things that's greatly frowned upon in my family. It's been frowned upon in my family since the time it first became big. My parents never allowed it, and now I don't allow it. Other than the fact that it is wrong to steal from people, I'm deathly afraid of those companies who will go to great lengths to make sure that people suffer for their wrong doings. So afraid of them actually that I've avoided them all together, and rarely listen to any kind of new music. I'm content with my Beach Boys CDs that I've transferred to my computer, and I'll be content for many more years until those companies seem less scary, and more wanting of my money. Don't get me wrong, I know they want my money, they just don't know how to get it yet, and when enough people stop buying stuff from them, the power will return to the consumer, where it's actually been the whole time anyways.