Black Mirrors

     I loved this show and hated it at the same time. Contradiction? Totally, but I honestly have no other way to explain this show to those who have both seen it and not seen it. In this British show, it shows the relationship that people have with technology but in a more over exaggerated manner.
     In the first episode, we learn of a princess being captured and being held hostage. The only way for her to go free is if the Prime Minister engages in a sexual act with a pig on live national television. He does. And if that wasn't gross enough, he does it even after the princess has been released unharmed but no one knew she was because everyone was glued to the TV to watch him.
     In the second episode, we see of a man trapped in this seemingly future world. They bike to earn points that are then used as currency to buy things like food and gifts for others, along with using points to skip ads that show up on their screens. 
     The third episode is essentially the book Feed. In this episode, people have microchips behind their ear and through that they have access to all of their memories. They have the ability to replay their memories over and over and essentially live through them. 
     The thing that I liked about this show was that it is extremely well done. I feel as each episode was masterfully pieced together and filmed phenomenally well. Now, onto the things that I hated. Believe me, I didn't hate anything about the actual quality of the show. I think I hated more how it made me feel. I would end each episode with a feeling of anger. I don't know if the lack of conclusion on the episodes which left me wanting to know more. I think that because I didn't have a sense of what happened next, I was left to imagine what I thought and I honestly didn't like what I was thinking. Watching these episodes made me unsettled because unfortunately, I think this is the way that we are going with technology. 50 years ago no one would have believed that we would essentially have handheld computers that let us access anything and everything at our fingertips or have self-driving cars that parallel park for you, but yet we do. As much as we would like to believe that we would never live in a world where we would have a chip implanted in us to access information that is the way that we are moving. I think it is scary to think that in our lifetime, all of these scenarios are totally possible. 

Geek Heresy: Introduction and Chapter 1

     When I was reading, I often found myself questioning opportunity as a whole. In the text, Toyama says "talent is universal, opportunity is not". This quote was used to basically explain that the internet is now our opportunity and because of this, it creates a divide between the "haves" and the "have nots", in terms of people with access to internet.
     As a soon to be college graduate looking for employment, this shocked me a little bit. I don't think that I have ever thought of the internet as giving me opportunity in the job sense until now, mainly because the internet has always played a pivotal role within my life. While stepping back and looking at the past though, I can see the difference. As college grads, my parents relied on newspaper ads and word of mouth to find employment, it wasn't just a quick Google search away. While thinking about it, it almost evened the playing field, where even the people that were not as directly connected to the internet, had the same opportunity as other people. I think the internet definitely has changed the idea of opportunity, especially in terms of the job market. I think if anything it makes it a lot more competitive because more and more people have access to these job openings. I think it also makes opportunities such as jobs hard to come by, because those without have to work that much harder to find them.
     I think that one thing that we need to remember going forward is that the Internet, in a way, makes people lazy. We need to find a balance between "doing the dirty work" while also having essentially endless opportunities. We also really need to find a way to bridge the divide between those with Internet and those without.