Response to "The Machine is Us/ing Us"

Question:

What do you think the title of the video means? How does Web 2.0 affect someone who is ready to enter the workforce? How does it affect people who are already in the workforce? What do you think it means when it says that we will have to rethink everything?

Answer:

I think that the title of the video, "The Machine is Us/ing Us" is extremely clever. The Internet is a collection of billions of facts, opinions, definitions, explanations, and questions that have all been mixed into a collasal concoction of a representation of "us." It is an unstoppable machine of information that grows larger and larger by the second. This growth is beneficial and undoubtedly expands our horizons greatly, but when something becomes so large and influential, it may become a force that begins to use us just as much as we use it. Society, in a way, is controlled by the Internet. Since society has become so based in technology and computers, the Internet has become a necessity to the people. In this way, we are no longer in control of the Web, the Web controls us. Without it, society would not operate as efficiently as it is able to today.

In regard to the workforce, Web 2.0 is of the utmost importance. Since everything is based so much on the Internet and information that is posted and obtained on the web, it is absolutely necessary for a person entering the workforce to be familiar with the Web. Those already in the workforce probably understand first-hand how important the Internet is to daily operations, questions, uncertainties, and progress. Without knowledge of the Web, a company or am employee will certainly be left behind in the fast-paced world of technological advance.

When the video says that we will have to rethink everything, I think that it means that the Internet has power that may be greater than we know. It has the power to expose things that we had not thought of before, and we have access to things that we may not have had otherwise. Because of this exposed mass of information, we may encounter things that will cause us to rethink anything and everything. Because the Web contains information about an unlimited number of issues, the issues that we may be forced to rethink are unlimited as well.