Facebook Commercial
First off, we talked about Facebook last class, and they have released a commercial, which has already sparked criticism and its own Internet meme site (http://arelikefb.tumblr.com).
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Now to the reading: As someone in the digital world, you hear words like Web 2.0 thrown around a lot. Gauntlett talked about the act of the Internet being a community, which it is. We have websites like Facebook that allow an interaction created by the user. I remember several years ago people talking about how we were losing that much needed human interaction because we were doing more things online. Instead of picking up the phone and calling a friend, we could just message them on AOL. Already we were becoming an attention economy, with sites like Xanga, where our once personal diaries became public.
What I find interesting about Gauntlett, is that he sees these online interactions just as crucial and healthy as a face to face interaction. While reading an interview with Gauntlett, he explained that it is the act of making a difference with our new found connections (whether online or offline) increase our overall happiness and well-being.
Gauntlett seems unrealistically optimistic about people on the web, and that users are trying to help people, the world, etc. He mentioned that Web 2.0 is like a community garden. I think he forgot that some people are weeds.
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