Final Paper

Mormonism and Technology by amandajazz

Technology and Religion

Back in the day Religion was more "you must attend church if you are a true christian." Now days it is a little different, or a lot different. Technology and religion seem to depend on each other in some sense. Now that may be a little contradicting for some religions. Some religions, like Catholicism, have always had the "do not get caught up in materialistic things" idea about them. However, that seems to be changing along with technology. Most, most being almost all, churches across the globe use some form of technology to promote, educate, or recruit. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Web sites, Dating sites, etc. I am doing my paper on Mormonism and how the Mormon religion gets its word and information out to people through technology. (broad explanation) So I decided to search for Mormon twitter account and 10 different accounts showed up, was I surprised, not even a little bit. As I have been researching, I have noticed that unlike some religions, Mormonism portrays itself in the 2000's very well. What I mean by that is, they have a lot of modern ways of connecting with people to educate them on Mormonism, for example, on Mormon.org they offer a free Book of Mormon. Anyone who is newly looking into Mormonism will just at this first hand. 

This is just a small example of now technology and religions collide now a days but it is interesting to see all the religions out there on the web and how they are utilizing Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites to interest users. 

Paper idea

For my paper I was thinking about writing on Mormonism (or a specific religion) and talk about the different ways that religion is promoting and/or recruiting using technology. For example, web site pages, Twitter accounts, Instagram accounts, blogs etc. Is this the route we are supposed to be going for our papers? 

Web URL

http://jazz2208.neocities.org

Windows will Shut Down Facebook Messenger?

I found this article that Windows will shut down Facebook Messenger and it caught my attention instantly. Even though this article, and the message provided by Facebook does not provide much information, it is still interesting as to why the app will be shutting down for Windows users. The message provided by Facebook is the screen shot below.

I hope more information on this issue will be provided before or prior to the shut down. The article states that the news of the shut down comes three days after a statement had been made that Facebook and Windows were working together to make Facebook Messenger accessible to Windows users and not just Android and Apple users. 

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/02/26/facebook-messenger-windows-will-shut-march-3/#!xKp0n

"Generation Why?"

This article was very interesting to me for a number of reasons, but one that stood out to me the most was the idea of people living behind a Facebook wall. The argument between why Facebook was created and what it is actually doing to us is the articles major concern. Facebook was created to connect people and give basic information about each other to stay connected. That sounds great on paper, but the reality of it is there are so many other ways of staying connected with people and being actual real life friends with people that sitting behind a computer and saying you're staying in touch with them. I thought it was interesting that the article also said that Zuckerberg thinks personal trivia is what "friendship" is. That suggestion may have single handedly changed my perspective on Facebook.

I was an avid Facebook user back when I was in high school (2006-2010) when it was very easy to use and a new thing so every body was using it. I loved it at first, but then it got old, quick. As soon as new features were added I stopped using it all together. There was always a lot of hype about Facebook in school such as Who was where, with who? or Who was dating who? or Who broke up for the 6th time? That is when I started to realize how much Facebook was controlling and/or ruining real life relationships. Teens were overly using this site and essentially ruining their real life friendships, which was super sad to me.

I cannot say I completely agree with the article in the fact that I believe the initial concept of Facebook was great, but the way we turned it around and started using it to basically "creep" on people and "stay in touch" with them through a computer really made me not want to use it anymore. I say "stay in touch" because do we really stay in touch with people, or do we just look at their information provided, pictures, and where they are working and say we are keeping in touch with them? http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/generation-why/?pagination=false

Google: For the choosing self

Google completely caters to the choosing self. One of the many things Google does extremely well is that they make the user feel special as they use Google. For example, on my birthday, the Google title was customized into a birthday font and when I moved my curser over the title, "Happy Birthday Amanda" popped up in a little window. As a Google user, I thought this was awesome, and it made me think about the extra miles Google actually does go to insure a positive experience for Google users.  

Not only does Google customize pages, they also customize searches for the user based on their past search history. Google is the most used search engine for these obvious reasons. 

Community on the Web

Google: The Role of a Medium

When we talked about Google as a medium, the explanation I got out of the discussion was that Google is a medium because it connects us with our end results. We go on Google for information that is interesting to us, Google as a company, filters us to web searches that we would be interested in based on our past browsing history, and instantly we are connected with the best possible results for our search. Without Google, it would be extremely time consuming to go and find books from the library that interest us or give us the results we are looking for. Google connects us with anything and everything on the web, that is how it serves as a great medium. However, although it does serve us as a great medium, I question how the way we rely on Google for everything is a good or bad thing.

Twitter Community

When thinking about online community sites, Twitter was the first site to come to my mind. When you first log onto the twitter site, trends are presented right away. Trends seem to link people for twitter. For example, if you click on one of the trending topics you can see all the people who are also interested in that topic and who has been commenting on that topic. This allows for people, who have never met before, to discuss, argue, or agree on the topic.

These trends that are displayed can be personalized to fill the views wants/interests which also is very helpful for creating community between similar people. Twitter is a social site that creates opportunity for people with similar interests to get connected on interesting topics and discuss. Whereas, without twitter, it would be difficult for these people to link up to discuss these important topics.

iDrive: "Virtual marketplace of the future?"

http://www.worldcarfans.com/114012369195/bmw-testing-in-car-ads-based-on-your-location-and-destination


BMW has started testing in-car ads on a prototype model based on the drivers' location and destination. The in-car advertisements can be customized to the drivers' preferences or needs while driving to his or her destination. This program also has the capability to advertise different things such as available parking closest to the car.

I was really intrigued by this article not because of the advancement in technology, but the more efficient way they plan to implement it for us to use. This article brought me to think about all the road trips I have taken and how much of a hassle it was to find a gas station, or a restaurant with just road signs. Even using the latest Garmin GPS was a hassle because you had to type the information in yourself or click on certain buttons to get the results you wanted. With this new iDrive technology, all of the button pushing is done for you by the iDrive recognizing your location and bringing up customized ads that suit your preferences. 

Although this technology seems great and is possibly going to become a major want or need in a vehicle, I wonder the accessibility. I can only imagine the pricing on these cars once this technology is installed. (As if a BMW isn't expensive enough already). Another flaw I can see with this technology is the feeling of intrusion on decision making or technological pressure to follow its suggestions. All in all, I think the idea of this new technology is great and could become very useful in the future. 

Jewel: An American Success Story

http://www.mtv.com/artists/jewel/biography/

When we discussed the ideas brought forth by Bellah in class the first thing that came to my mind was the idea of "The American Dream." It is obvious that Oprah is among the greatest, if not the greatest, success story in America. From rags to riches, the idea of the American Dream starts with a goal, and the road to reach that goal is usually difficult. Although Oprah's story is amazing, I wanted to do my blog on someone from a different background, a musician. 

Singer/songwriter Jewel grew up in Alaska with her musically inclined family with little money.  After her parents divorce, Jewel lived with her father. He and Jewel did small musical gigs together to earn a living. Once Jewel was on her own, she lived in her car on the west coast and began picking up small gigs whenever she could just to get by. Coffee houses and small restaurants were Jewel's stage. It was during this hard time that Jewel discovered herself. She realized that although she had close to nothing, the music she played not only helped her financially, but also brought her a new self recognition internally. She could have gone and gotten her education, found a job, and started a living that way. Finding herself through  her music and pursuing her happiness is how she lived her real American Dream, in doing something she loves. 

In class we also discussed the idea of two languages. The first language being your self or your individualism and the second language being things that describe you or that express your self. I think in Jewel's case, she found her first language through her second language. She is a musician which defines her self, but eventually being a musician became her self or individualism when she chose the road she did, to achieve what she did, in her own way to pursue her self happiness. 

Kopimism, Sweden's Pirate Religion, Begins to Plunder America

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/04/20/kopimism-swedens-pirate-religion-begins-to-plunder-america

I came upon this article when browsing for a topic having to do with religion and technology. This article was very interesting to me not only because of the main idea behind Kopimism but also that the U.S. is adapting the religion. Although I am not sure if I truly would ever pursue or believe in such a thing, it was very interesting to say the least.

The basic idea behind Kopimism is to be able to copy and share things over the internet without permission from its original source. It states that not only downloading things illegally such as movies, music, and document should be the free will of the person but also that the legal regulations of such things should be changed. Seeing as the religion was first established in Sweden, which says to have the most laxest copyright laws in the world, it amazes me that such ideas have adapted in the U.S.

This article also got me thinking about when we talked about the relationship between Job's ideas and religion and making it your own. The founders of this religion have sort of made up this religion to have some sort of protection for making things their own. Things being to have the ability to copyright items or download things illegally and having the fall back of saying it is a religion they are practicing and that they should have the right to do so.

I think the article is a major grasp for the topic we talked about with thinking freely within a religion and coming up with independent ideas. Needless to say, the article was interesting and brought forth a lot of questions about just how far can a religion go to bend or break laws enforced worldwide.

Fall 1968 Whole Earth Catalog

Looking through the Fall 1968 edition of Whole Earth Catalog, I was not only amazed by the nature of the items in the catalog but also by the variety of the items.

One section that made me think of Jobs and his ideas was the section about intelligent life in the universe. This part of the catalog talked about communication with other non-human beings in the universe. This reminded me of Jobs because during this time period the thought of other life on different planets or even communicating with them was not so realistic. One would question the existence of other beings or if proof did shed light on other existence's the question of how to communicate with them would be obsured given the technology then. Relating back to Jobs, his thoughts and ideas of all of these new technologies or portable computers would raise questions as well. There is a quote in this section saying " The existence of more than one universe is impossible, by definition." This quote indicates that the public and even many scientists were convinced that no other universes, just like not many people, if any at all were convinced the possibility of a personal computer was managable until Jobs brought forth the ideas and proof that it was possible. 

Another thing this section made me think about was the religious aspect of it. In some religions, what you are taught is what you know. For example, being a Catholic is strictly defined as being given a set of things to follow and following them to the best of your abilities. This whole idea of other life forms or even communicating with them is way outside the box and most likely frowned upon to even raise the "what if" question. The whole idea of evolving in not only science but also in the independant mind may have been looked down upon from a religious aspect when it comes to the tradition of things. 

All in all, the Whole Earth Catalog seems to me to be kind of a direct link to new scientific ideas for the average human, not just scientists. The new ideas and items available in the catalog relate to Job's ideas to change technology and encourage more ideas to be brought to the table. Thinking freely and outside the box is encouraged with this catalog and raises questions that may not have ever been brought to the publics attention before.        

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs Stanford speech

I am not exactly sure what I am supposed to be posting about Steve Job's speech but what I took from it was the point that he was trying to make to the students about if you do not go outside the box and go with what you love that new opportunities may never present themselves in your life. He also states in his speech the idea of one door closing to open another. Throughout his whole speech her talks about three points in his life where he succeeded, but not without failure first.