Blog 2

The reading from the past few weeks was quite a bit more interesting than previous weeks. I really liked the variety of material we were given, it’s nice to get outside of the books and breach into some more up to date reading. There were several readings that really sparked my interests.

First off I had never really fully understood the WikiLeaks situation. I’ve heard a lot of buzz about it in the past and some people I know have said some pretty terrible things about Julian Assange but I never asked why. The “No Secrets” article was incredibly interesting and well written. It really painted a clear picture of Julian and the WikiLeaks. My opinion on the subject is mostly neutral, I don’t find that WikiLeaks is the most terrible thing in the world but I also find that some of the “Leaks” are somewhat unnecessary such as the various War Logs. I feel that society is probably better off without leaking because it’s not really doing a whole lot of good overall, at least in my opinion.

Another reading I found interesting was “5 Reasons Twitter Isn’t Actually Overthrowing Governments.” Cracked has always been an interesting site and I was glad to see it included in our reading. The article worked to dethrone social networking’s status as a great tool for organizing protests and other such things. It also detailed how social networking can cause incorrect information to spread like wildfire. I found this particularly interesting because it made me realize just how easy it is to say anything you want and broadcast it instantly to large amounts of people. I was shocked to find out that tweets have been used as valid sources of information. I had no idea that reporters were using Twitter to source “facts.” One specific example that blew my mind was how reports had been quoting tweets from protestors about the Egyptian protests, but some of the protesters weren’t even there. It’s funny that we’ve come to a point where we will put so much weight on something someone posts online. In this day in age we really need to be more judgmental with the information we read. It really makes me wonder how much of the information I read daily is actually accurate. I hope we do not lose our ability to judge the validity of information.

The material from the past few weeks has certainly altered how I look at information. I think we all become so used to reading information online that we don’t always step back and question its validity. I hope we continue to dive into material that I can so easily relate to my everyday life.