Computer Culture Has Evolved - Essay Example

?Ideas change Computer culture has evolved greatly in the past decade. Several scholars have tried to explain these changes on their books and other scholarly writings. One of such scholars is Sherry Turkle. This scholar has written several books related to evolution of computer technology. Her latest book is All Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each other. In this book, one of his findings is that currently computer technology no longer wait for humans to project meaning onto them (Turkle 2). Computer technology has currently started to reveal its meaning to individuals without their awareness. A phone reveals itself that it can assist an individual to pass information to a person in a far distance without walking the distance to meet that individual. According to Turkle (3), networked devices that came with computer technology provide machine-mediated relationship. This is what Turkle’s latest book ‘All Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other’ reveals. Currently individuals relate mostly through phone calls, phone messaging, and internet services as compared to person-to-person relationship. Turkle accounts this changing to the evolution in the computer technology. The evolution in computer technology has resulted to introduction of technology that acts as a human being. As a result, communication and socialization via the technology has become more convenient and effective than direct communication and socialization between individuals. Therefore, computer technology has resulted to machine mediated relationship between individuals. Another finding of Turkle in her new book is that computer technology has become more seductive (Turkle 3). Computer technology has come with features that are both captivating and enticing. The features promote interaction and interconnection between individuals. Moreover, this feature majority of the social problems that people are encountering in the society. This has made the technology to be attractive and seductive thus attracting individuals of different ages and backgrounds. The reason for this is that technology promises individuals more convenience in their different aspects of life. As a result, individuals have started to expect more from the technology compared to what they expect from each other. The above findings of the other are different from her findings in the past revealed by her previous books. One of her past findings was that individuals view computers as some sort of alive beings that affect their life (Turkle 2). The findings tried to reveal what computers used to do to individuals in the various aspects of their lives. It also tried to reveal how the computer technology has influenced the people’s ways of living. This is very different from what the findings of this author’s current book show. However, there is some sort of a relationship between the author’s finding revealed by one of her previous books and the findings revealed by her current book. This is because both finding reveal that computer technology has a great impact on the people’s ways of living. Another past finding of the author as revealed by her previous books was that individuals forge new identity in an online space (Turkle 2). According to this finding, the identity individuals reveal in an online space is different from the identity they reveal in a one-on-one interaction. This finding suggested that technology play a different role from a one-on-one interaction. Therefore, the two cannot be substitutes of each other. This contrasts the findings on the current book of this author that indicate that technology interaction and person-to-person interaction are related with technology interaction becoming more preferred than the person-to-person interaction. Moreover, the finding from previous works of this author reveals that individuals rarely provide their full information in an online setting. This reveals technology as independent from other forms of interaction and communication. However, this is different from what the findings of the current book reveal. Who did it? The evolution of digitech culture can be associated with several business leaders. Some of them are Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. However, Steve Jobs can be said to have higher responsibility for the evolution in the culture when compared to all the other business leaders. According to Brashares (10), Steve Jobs started electronic counting machine as a small kid. This increased his passion for electronics especially computers. As a result, he co-founded the Apple with his friend Steve Wozniak. The company co-founded by Steve Job has become one of the companies that play a very great role in the evolution of the digitech culture. This is because the company produced the earliest personal computers that formed the bases of the digitech culture. Therefore, Steve Jobs is greatly responsible for the starting of this form of a culture. Moreover, under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple has invented several new technologies. The technologies invented by Apple Company under the leadership of Steve Jobs have played a very great role in the evolution of the digitech culture. This is because they have always been coming with new characteristics aimed at improving individual’s digital lifestyle. The new characteristics make them to have more and greater capabilities thus resulting to an evolution in the digitech culture. Success of a company is always associated with the leadership of the company. Therefore, invention made by Apple Company under the leadership of Steve Jobs can be associated with Steve Jobs. This reveals that Steve Jobs has played a very great responsibility in the evolution of the digitech culture. Steve Jobs had formed several other companies. His companies dealt with computers, computer accessories, or computer platforms. Each of these companies became successful in its respective industry under the leadership of Steve Jobs. This was mainly through new inventions and production of high quality products and services. Computers, computer accessories, and computer platform are the three most essential components of the digitech culture. Therefore, through introduction of these three companies, Steve Jobs played a very great role in the evolution of digitech culture. This makes him the most responsible person for the current state of the digitech culture. Companies started by Steve Jobs raised the competitiveness of the computer industry. Moreover, they raised the standards that were required by companies to remain competitive in the industry. As a result, other companies had to raise their level of inventions. Some of the companies that raised its levels of invention due to competition provided by companies started by Steve Jobs were IBM and Microsoft. The raising of the level of inventions by other companies in the computer industry has played a very great role in the evolution of the digitech culture. This is because the companies have been producing products that are tailored toward the digital needs of their customers much better than the ones they used to produce. This makes Steve Jobs to be a business leader who is greatly responsible for the current state of the digitech culture. Success of Steve Jobs in the computer industry motivated other business leaders to invest in the industry. This resulted to the evolution of other companies and business in the computer industry. Emergence of other companies in the industry led to introduction of new strategies that were aimed to encourage invention of digital-related products and services. One of the companies whose emergence could be somehow related to the success of Steve Jobs in the digital world is Amazon. Such companies have caused a very great evolution in the digitech culture to its current state. Therefore, this particular way makes Steve Jobs to be the most responsible individual for the current state of the digitech culture. Having 900 Million Users Does Not Give You Competitive Advantage Facebook is one of the most popular social networks in the world with the largest number of users. According to Schwerdtfeger (223), it has already managed to achieve an active established user base. The big number of users this social media has makes it to be the most preferred among the social networks. Individuals needing to improve their social lives through increasing the number of people they interact with go for Facebook as their first option. Moreover, individuals wanting to undertake social media marketing prefer Facebook to other social media. The preference of something by current and potential customer is proportion to the competitive advantage. Therefore, having more than nine thousand million users makes Facebook to have a competitive advantage compared to other social media networks in the internet. However, several other factors play part in influencing the competitiveness of an information technology rather than the number of users. One of such factors is user interface of the technology. This characteristic of a technology is identified as the ease in which the users are able to interact with the technology to achieve their goals. Majority of individuals who use Facebook encounters no difficulty when using the media. This is because Facebook is users friendly. As a result, its user friendly nature makes it to have a competitive advantage over other social media when it comes to social interaction especially among the youths. However, Facebook lack a competitive advantage among the people of older generation. This is because this category of people has interests that are addressed much better by other social networks. Therefore, having 900 million users does not give Facebook a competitive advantage in all the groups of the society. Another factor that influences the competitiveness of a social media is the purpose that the media is designed to handle. Facebook was mainly created to handle social interaction between individuals. This makes it to be well suited for casual interactions. As a result, Facebook has a competitive advantage when it comes to issues related to casual interaction of individuals. However, it is not well suited for non casual interactions like networking for job hunting. For this form of interaction, LinkedIn and Plaxo bear a greater competitive advantage despite having fewer users compared to the users on Facebook. Moreover, for issues like political and professional activities, Facebook is less competitive compared to twitter despite having a greater number of users than twitter. This reveals that having 900 million users does not make Facebook to have a competitive advantage over other social media networks. The users of a social media can be categorized according to several factors where age is one of them. Majority of social medias have users from a wide age bracket ranging from youngsters to elderly. Moreover, users can be categorized according to their distribution across the world. Some social media have users from only specific countries or regions. Such media networks are very competitive in the areas where they are found but less competitive across the world. Users of social media can also be categorized as producers or consumers. The social media that have categorized their users in this form have gained a very competitive advantage as a marketing tool. Other social media categorize their users as either employers or jobseekers. Such social media have become tools for job hunting and talent searching. As a result, they have gained a competitive advantage in their respective area of specialization. Therefore, having 900 million users by Facebook does not necessarily give it a competitive advantage over other social media networks. Works Cited Brashares, Ann. Steve Jobs: Think Different. New York, NY: The Millbrook Press, 2001. Print. Schwerdtfeger, Patrick. Marketing Shortcuts for Self-Employed: Leverage Resources, Establish Online Credibility and Crush Your Competition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Publishers Ltd, 2011. Print. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less from Each Other. New York, NY: Basic Books Ltd, 2011. Print. Read More