No13. The knowledge society

The knowledge society is a very nice slogan. Yes, I mean a "slogan" and not a concept or a idea. If we use the definiton of knowledge as prestened by Plato as: "justified true belief" than the modern society has got more to do with skills than knowledge.

First of all, our goal (by our I mean a typical user of a computer based on my private observations)is not to understand the way the modern devices work but how to work with them. Who actually, apart from the ones often called geeks, want's to understand how does uploading photos to facebook work? And how many want to know how to upload them?

What is more, the school system and curriculum is more and more about gaining habits than knowledge. You do not have to know how you solve the math task, what you are actually calculating, just remember that if you see that kind of a equation you press button no2 on your complicated calculator than you put the x number and just press enter.

We say that everything that children learn should be useful and practical. That is why children read less novels, poetry or have fewer history classes. Why should they know who was Cleopatra? What for? Does she even have a facebook site (she has, just checked)? But SKILLS in COMPUTERS "are" essential.


Even if one gains knowledge it is not about science nor literature but more about Paris Hilton in many cases.

So maybe it is like professor Tasaka says, that there is a paradox in naming the current state of society the knowledge society?

No12. ICT and social ethics of privacy

It's not hard to find the descriptions of the treaths to one's privacy in the Internet. Every once in a while the media show the examples of identity stealing, cyber-bulling and e-stalking. But on the other side ICT and neglecting pricacy allows the social control on a informal level to an extent unknown before. The days of wasting time in front of the good old telly are almost gone, now one can waste time on Facebook, MySpace or any other social network. But in order to play that game you have to fallow rules such as: show yourself, comment, engage. And allow other's to react and they WILL do react with no mercy when you break the rules of society.

And I do not mean the gossip way, i mean that our current village as it happened in prabobly every village people know a lot about their neighbours and they use the knowledge to be sure that every thing is "as it should be"

So, you are 9 years old girl and want to have a nice photo for your profile on Nasza-Klasa (Polish Facebook-like network) or a photoblog? That's great, take a nice one with a pet or your dad. Privacy threat's? Let your parent's decide. But be prepared that if you break the rules that are regarded as important in Poland not only the press is going to be all over you but also your peer-e-comrades. Not to leave it without a proof. Imagine a 9 y.o. girl who goes into an oven (THAT OVEN) in a concentration camp gets a photo, posts it and gets a comment "sweet photo" from a friend. Shocking? 3...2...1...

It happened.

The forums where full of anger, sarcasm and judgemental comments. And in my opinion in that case the lack of privacy of an indyvidual allowed the society to react towards deviation.

The matters regarding taking care of the children, being a "bad" or a good parent are very developed in every developed society. That's why the people react to such a behaviour as commented on the demotivator:



Mother of the year

Maybe there would be no comment, no social reaction if the privacy settings were set high.

The norms of the society one lives in may be not accepted by other societies (i love my cliches). That is why a person who is non-normative, like this young guy bellow must be prepared for heavy criticism:



Such like this (not so heavy):






Also you can find comments on various forums, like this one for PC geeks




Luntek touches matters of gender roles and the acceptance of the society towards crossing the normative behaviour. However, if you want to see the strongest social reaction watch this movie and read the comments (in Polish once again).




Strong isn't it? I am not saying that social control is always good nor needed in an obejctiv way. However from the point of view of the society as a whole and not single units the lack of privacy allows to control, comment and moderate the unwanted behaviours.

Still, I think that social control via ICT should be analized in a more metholodical way. Maybe we, once again living in a village (this time global), will become a "tribe" which members use the social control in order to survive and keep balance? Not by gestures, not by banishing but by commenting and banning?

No.11 ICT and national mourning

Mouring is a term connected not only to psychological phenomena but also to customs and habits created by different cultres. Every civlization, and every tribe had it's own way with dealing with the death of the people important to the group. Whether it was a king, a chiefmen, a pope or a sage the culture determined how to deal with the tragedy. Much is said about the cultural dimensions of ICT in regards to multiculturalism, the democaracy and so on. This time I was able to see the way ICT is connected to the phenomena as old as mankind - grief and death, death and grief.

My previous post regarding the National Tragedy in Poland had a rather emotional than cognitive approach. I decided to write one of my posts about the reaction of the people on the crash and further events in the Internet and show that it is the most democratic medium nowadays.



In Poland the most popular messenger is a Polish program called Gadu Gadu. One can set a status regarding his emotions, or whatever he or she feels like it. After the crash in Smolensk the status of the majority of people (in my contacts at least) dealt with the current situation. There were once like “I can’t believe it” or “Tragedy”. However, very soon the owner of the service decided to earn some money from the recent events. In Gadu Gadu if you send a premium sms you can pick one of the graphic status (extra paid). Very soon some people decided to choose the one with “National Mourning”


However, unlike the Polish TV the Internet allowed all kind of emotions to be let out. And so one could see a status like “What’s all the fuzz about. They have a back up copy of the president”.
Now for my favorite medium, which is Facebook. Very soon after the crash groups and sites of the tragedy were created. Every comment that I have seen was rather balanced and full of reflection. But after the decision about choosing the Wawel castle as the place of the President’s funeral all hell broke loose.
The Wawel Castle in Cracow is the national pantheon in Poland, and president Kaczyński was not the most popular politician. Due to the Polish tradition that you shouldn’t talk bad things about a dead person no one in the TV, no matter public or private had the guts to say that Kaczyński was not a hero in the eyes of many Poles.
However, Facebook users seemed not to care about the political correctness and several “No to Kaczyński on Wawel” groups were created. More than 30000 people joined the group within few hours. They organized protests in the real world and had to be acknowledged by the media. Not only in Poland. All over the World.



ICT allowed something that was unthinkable few years ago, when the Pope John Paul II died. Back than with social networks being just emerging in the TV you could only hear praises and simply propaganda claiming that everyone in Poland was mourning. It was several months later that some people said that the parts of the interviews that claimed the Pope to be controversial were cut out of the tapes. Now Internet makes the society more pluralistic and even if you find the group “I didn’t cry after the Pope” something not proper you have to acknowledge it’s existence.

The Polish Tragedy and ICT

The things are rather emotional right now in Poland. I think most of you know why. I do not want to focus on the grief itself nor the names nor the prognosis for the state. This blog is for ICT. And belive me it is a cyber-mourning.

When I woke up on Saturday and saw the news I picked up my mobile and tried to call my dear ones. It took my some time, the lines were dead. Too many people. To much calls. To much shock.

I turned on my computer and logged to Facebook. Everything worked there. Chat window.
"Tragedy", "Have you heard?", "I can't believe it". Those were the first lines, both in and out-comming...

Check the news, turn on communicators.

And than...

The most popular Polish Celeb-Gossip site:

http://www.pudelek.pl/artykul/24051/katastrofa_prezydenckiego_samolotu_lech_kaczynski_nie_zyje/

"Gossping is front of such a tragedy is not proper"


Polish "demotivators" are full of uploads regarding the tragedy. One of them states "My mother asked me if I heard, I said yes, I've seen the demotivators"

Facebook

[*]

Mourning groups (and "I am irritated when people show their grief in the Internet" group)

Tragedy Sites (Wanna become a fan? Or maybe just click on the "I like it" button)...

Added movies.

[*] [*]

Seen the photos.

Commented on some conspiracy theories (The russians did it, the secret service is to blame). Mourners and morons.

(*)

The status, the comments the digital candels.

The discussions - Will they open the stock on Monday? The quotes, the links to news sites...

Signs of the time...


Still I wish I could be in the crowd in Warsaw.

And not youtube it...