Program or Be Programmed: Chapters 6-10 Response
In the latter half of his book Program or Be Programmed, Douglas Rushkoff continues presenting the reader with the inherent biases of digital technology and how they can be reworked as a positive thing. The final principles discussed are identity, sociability, fact, and openness. Finally, above all else, it is important that we are aware of all of these biases and simultaneously understand the nuances of programming so that we do not become the programs ourselves.
Out of the remaining biases in these final chapters, I found the ideas and implications behind fact to be the most interesting and applicable to my online experience. Particularly, the comparison between the internet and a bazaar has me thinking about how I navigate this marketplace of ideas and products. Unlike generations before me, the internet is truly my one stop shop for most everything I need on a day to day basis. Aside from the products and the commercial side of the internet, the internet truly works as a marketplace of ideas, and the ideas that I have consumed from the internet have been detrimental in shaping the way that I think and the ways in which I act in the real world.
The final chapter, "Purpose", also brings up an interesting point about the upbringing of a generation of users rather than programmers. Even though I like to think that I am fairly educated on how to navigate in a digital space, I realize now that this is solely from the perspective of a user rather than someone who dictates how I navigate as a programmer; my digital success has been the culmination of behaving in the ways in which programs have guided me to. Apart from learning how to code or program applications, do you think there is a way to become less of a program yourself?
Rushkoff, Douglas, and Leland Purvis. Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. Soft Skull Press, 2011.
Out of the remaining biases in these final chapters, I found the ideas and implications behind fact to be the most interesting and applicable to my online experience. Particularly, the comparison between the internet and a bazaar has me thinking about how I navigate this marketplace of ideas and products. Unlike generations before me, the internet is truly my one stop shop for most everything I need on a day to day basis. Aside from the products and the commercial side of the internet, the internet truly works as a marketplace of ideas, and the ideas that I have consumed from the internet have been detrimental in shaping the way that I think and the ways in which I act in the real world.
The final chapter, "Purpose", also brings up an interesting point about the upbringing of a generation of users rather than programmers. Even though I like to think that I am fairly educated on how to navigate in a digital space, I realize now that this is solely from the perspective of a user rather than someone who dictates how I navigate as a programmer; my digital success has been the culmination of behaving in the ways in which programs have guided me to. Apart from learning how to code or program applications, do you think there is a way to become less of a program yourself?
Rushkoff, Douglas, and Leland Purvis. Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. Soft Skull Press, 2011.
Your comment about how you behave is by how programs have guided you was an interesting point. I think teaching kids how to program should become a part of their curriculum. I know I wish I was taught programming at a younger age.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your comment about the internet being a "one stop shop for most everything I need on a day to day basis." Everything is being programmed nowadays and I think that it is a great thing, but also quite complicated. I think that with programming it can become much simpler, yet advanced.
ReplyDelete