Setting aside the religious studies aspect of the class and also the main focus of community, one of the most influential parts of class has been learning about the history of the personal computer. I am not tech-savvy, I'm a disgrace to my generation, haha. Needless to say, I learned A LOT about the evolution of computers and the marketing war that was occurring between Microsoft and Apple. And I can see evidence of this everywhere now - watching commercials for the Surface Tablet, which is just like an iPad, then seeing the Microsoft logo flash at the very end. Or seeing an ad for Bing, thinking "oh, that already exists, it's called Google" then seeing yet another Microsoft logo displayed on the screen.
In addition, reading Steve Jobs' biography really instilled an appreciation for the motivation and creativity behind all these gadgets. I used to have a strong aversion to iPhones and Macs, solely based on the cost. But now I can see the artistic side along with the efficiency and practicality. And it does make sense, things that are well made do cost more. (Although I will always argue that my $350 PC is doing a dec job compared to a $1,000 Mac).
It was a bit of stretch to relate the communities of Apple and Microsoft to religious communities, but it is evident that the end goals share similarities. I think that studying online communities on social media forums really tied in well. First learning the background of personal computers and the creation of such platforms was a helpful segway into how communities and lifestyle enclaves form themselves from said creations. It's made me reevaluate the different social medias that I personally use. It's always given me more respect for such platforms - I used to be biased in thinking that such things were too egocentric and/or narcissistic. But it's amazing how fluid and unifying such sites are. There are hundreds of millions of people on facebook worldwide. That's nuts.
So overall, this class offered insight into a world that I was not too familiar with. I can't tell you how many Apple, Jobs, Zuckerberg, etc. conversations I've gotten into in Andrew's Commons/ the cafe. This is a field that I previously would never have been able to talk about, due to lack of knowledge. Literally 10 minutes ago I corrected a friend on a mistake he made about Steve Wozniak. Ha.
It seems like one thing you are saying here is that you can now see some of the repeating patterns in other tech issues besides the ones we studied. And that is valuable. I was curious to see what you would say because you made some good points in class that seemed to point toward being suspicious of technology (it's darker side), but it is neat here to see you thinking broadly about the issues of technology.
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