I found this posting from Google Reader's recommended items, as I was trying to figure out how Google Buzz works. Since Google has already linked my Gmail contacts to Google Buzz and people can automatically follow me unless I block them, I was able to see Marc's shared items on his Google Reader through Buzz. As a result, more than trial using Google Buzz, I also become a user of Google Reader.
When most of my friends back in Taiwan say "WOW it's so cool" to new technologies, I usually say "OMG isn't it scary?!" The illustration above (from SMBC) explicitly explains how people of different backgrounds or positions can think and act differently. I feel I am wandering in between these people, watching and observing them.
New media becomes even harder to define because our world is now dominated by technicians who strive to make monetary profits and take a big bite of the market pie by offering the newer and the 'better.' Scholars are running after them, reflecting on old theories while building innovative critics for the new phenomenon. It is always a touching moment when an inspiring article successfully pulls me out of the system/protocol which controls me, thus I am able to contemplate on the technological/societal problems which have been neglected due to my ignorance.
However at the mean time, it is also true that I wish to apply new technologies to make an influence, mostly for the environmental network which I am involved with. The knowledge of new media and technologies definitely offers me an advantage when working for digital campaigns, yet sometimes I feel struggled when we have to implement and encourage the use of new technologies in order to reach our audience.
This is something I've been thinking about these days-- a challenge between critics and actions, technologies and environmentalism.
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南加州生活 Living in SoCal (2)