Da Google Eeevil? (New Media)

Da Google seems to have a major effect on our lives in the United States. I'm part of a writing group on Facebook, and a recent comment thread was about the overuse of people commenting to Google something, as not everyone lives in the US or other countries that have relatively easy access to internet and can just "Google it". What this brings us to is the question of whether Da Google is good or bad in the long run.

I think it's a mixed bag, weighted slightly on the negative side. On one hand, the access to information that Da Google provides is largely unrivaled, on the other hand, Da Google can't index all websites, and there's no scholarly checks and balances, so any website, regardless of credibility, can appear on someone's search results. These search results and other data, which are remembered as standard in most search engines, can be collected and stored, and if they are misused or put into the wrong hands, they can be a serious breach in privacy. Overall, use of Da Google is something that's convenient, but that convenience should regularly be re-evaluated, weighted against any disadvantages.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Media And Terror Attacks (New Media)

Just recently, ISIS claimed responsibility for the recent bombings of churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, without providing direct evidence that ISIS members carried out the attacks. In the immediate aftermath of the bombings, the Sri Lankan government took an interesting action while details were still being sorted out. They shut down many internet services, under the stated purpose of  preventing the spread of false details about the attacks. This received praise from other countries, while many Sri Lankans had to rely on the few unblocked government channels to find out the status of friends, family, etc. This leads to an interesting ethical dilemma. Was such a choice a proportional response, or an overreaction? I believe that the answer has shades of both. On one hand, baseless speculation by third parties would be prevented from reaching people and giving a false impression of the actual situation. On the other hand, the blocking of communication between those worried fo...
Read more

Writing (Badly) In The Past

I recently looked over some stuff I had written a few years ago. It was called Earth War, and I had planned to make it the first in a trilogy, Conflict: Earth was the working title for the series. It was to follow the perspective of two individual characters and one group. The two individuals were Sergeant John Armstrong of the New York National Guard and Lieutenant John Aron of the New York Air National Guard. The group were patrol officers Andy Harris and Michael Warren of the New York Police Department. Each party’s actions would affect each other and drive the story along. Even if it didn’t seem like it, eventually all the threads would be revealed. I thought it was an interesting concept, and I got pretty far, all things considered. I even wrote supplementary material to flesh out latter parts of the trilogy. I decided to look back on them, to see what I needed to change, and would I could let be. To say reading through made me cringe would be an understatement. It was terribl...
Read more

Poem For and Inspired by Emily

Image
            I wrote this poem at my friends wake in around 15 minutes. I think it is pretty good for having been written in such a short period of time, and I thought it decent enough to post.                    Emily Quiet, silent still of night. Lying there in the light. Thursday morning, coming soon, world wakes up to the gloom. One will not, I'm sad to say, live to see the coming day. Though she will be gone, from the world we know, the end of the seed He hath sewn. No pain nor suffering she will know, as to Heaven she will go. One day we will meet her there, though we don't know when or where. Until then we must say, that on her dying day, though our Hearts wounded there, and give us such a scare, we shall never never never forget, one who taught us how to live. Rest in peace, a shooting star, to remind us who we are. That what we say and wh...
Read more