It’s Worth a Moment of Your Time…

In my short lived ventures around the internet, I found this little gem which provides a positive insight into the use of social networking and technology. A breath of fresh air in a world who is so afraid of that which is new, different, or puts us in a state of vulnerability.

Treatment of Life and Death in Videogames

I read this interesting article called Loss of Death: Suicide in Videogames. It was fascinating because it brings up the question of how we treat death in video games. The author (Ryan Kuo) poses the question:

The vignette raises questions about the way that games treat life and death — questions that still haven’t been answered. Does a surfeit of lives cheapen our notion of life, rendering it as easily dispensable as coins or bullets? Or is the cycle of life, death, and resurrection a rich platform for contemplation?

Kind of a big question isn’t it? What does the perception of having multiple lives in games have on the human psyche? Furthermore, what would happen if we took that vital piece of integrated gameplay out of gaming altogether?

Personally I think the removal of multiple lives from gaming would cause a kind of outcry in the gaming universe at first. I think perhaps a few gamers would enjoy the challenge of trying to survive without dying through the whole game…but they would be a minority in the gaming world. Such games, I feel, wouldn’t survive (pun intended).

Humans want to be allowed to make mistakes. They want to be redeemed of those mistakes. I think that is a great appeal for gamers. Gaming offers the do-over we don’t get in real life. That is why I game personally. Then again, I cannot really allow my feelings on the matter to be the standard for the gaming world.

Leave your thoughts below.

Turning The World….

I read a quote on Ello the other day that one of the writers I follow posted. I’m not sure if it was one of her own or from another source, but I found myself wondering about it a great deal.

“Many people, especially in technology say their productivity is changing the world, and this is irrefutable. But no one seems to know what they’re changing it into.”

Many commenters posted their thoughts, and much of it was about technology it’s self. I couldn’t understand that. Technology it’s self doesn’t have fully functioning rational consciousness…yet. So why is so much being said about technology when there are minds behind it? I decided to put my two cents in and commented:

This is precisely the point I had been trying to make in my computer ethics blog in college, and why I personally believe in the “design for good” movement. I think the use of technology and how to cause change in the world stems from the individual user and their choice, not necessarily the creator of said technology. Though I think the creator is the one who gets the ball rolling, it is the users who manipulate the technology’s usefulness and influence one another. Though, that is more or less dependent on the situation. Without context I get the implication that the quote speaks more on the unpredictability of the technology user to change the world and not necessarily the technology it’s self.

I think when it comes to technology we are too willing to blame situations on the device. Too often I hear parents ridicule their children about phone and computer use, but in the context of the technology. “I should get rid of that damn computer…” Kind of commentary is often times too common, but what it does is dissociates the user from the responsibility. It is not the computers fault that the individual spends so much time on it. It is the choice of the user to spend time on it, and in this particular case, it was someone’s failure to set appropriate boundaries for such use. Weather it be the parent or the child is another story entirely.

To take away the computer is far too extreme. It is useful. It is necessary as well. Technology use causes the world to turn. Most of our educational and work environments require the use of a computer for nearly everything now. Perhaps another case of people’s failure to set boundaries? Feel free to put your thoughts on that in comments below.

I must put a disclaimer as well. There are some technologies that are changing the world for very specific reasons. The above commentary I made speaks more on programs, games, social networks, internet use, apps etc. More socially oriented technology. There are technologies that are made for specific uses, like medical technology, where the goal is to change the medical field for whatever reason, and usually with a passionate cause and predicted out come. In those situations, the use of technology is entirely dependent on the proper functionality if the technology as well as the user, and the outcome is usually predictable because it is being made for a specific goal. That may seem obvious to mention, but I would rather mention it since occasionally, the technology has other outcomes as well that develop into another kind of technology altogether. Much of our popularly used tech was developed from military tech made public once it was found to have a variety of uses.

What are your thoughts on technology development and the quote above? I would love to hear perspectives.

#replacemovietitlewithebola

Yes, it was trending. The #replacemovietitlewithebola was becoming an epidemic (pun intended). Twitter blew up with comments from both sides, and I watched in amazement and awe as both sides Tweeted. I refrained from the posts (Though I thought How to Lose Ebola in Ten Days, How to Tame Your Ebola, and He’s Just Not That Into Ebola, were all pretty good). I was finding myself in a moral dilemma. Was I a bad person?

First off, I personally have issue with people who shame others over this kind of thing. If you have issue with these kinds of distasteful jokes, you should make an occupation of trolling social media combatting such behavior at all times. So before you go defending the horrific injustice of #replacemovietitlewithebola on Twitter, check your ethics first, and spend the rest of your life commenting on ALL the distasteful trends on Twitter. But, if you’re just one of those people who doesn’t like the #replacemovietitlewithebola trend? I see your disdain for the Ebola jokes, and rebuttal with the fat joke, the diabetes joke, and the Helen Keller joke.

People are all upset about the #replacmovietitlewithebola and yet another trend #fatshamingweek is happening right now on Twitter and is more threatening towards an obvious epidemic. Obesity has claimed the lives of 18% of Americans each year and has been found to be one of the more consistent and harder to deal with epidemics in a nation full of fast food and big demands. The cure doesn’t come from a lab. How can you cure a disease that stems from a combination of DNA and the root of human will?

Also, look up how many Diabetic Memes there are online. I even gave you a link for the sake of ease. The most famous one being the Diabeetus Meme, featuring actor Wilford Brimley as Liberty Medical’s spokesperson. But while everyone is having a good laugh over those, Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the nation. Being a type one diabetic myself, these jokes do hit close to home…and some are meant to be hurtful. But, I am not offended by ignorance as often as some think I ought to be. Why should I expect a teenager in a McDonalds laughing about how it “smells like diabetes in here” to know about my disease when she does not have to live with it? What use is that information to her? Why should I cram it down her throat? People joke about things they don’t understand…sometimes because it is merely uncomfortable to not understand.

So these illnesses are not causing mass hysteria. I get that. Maybe they should be. But they are much more common and much more deadly than Ebola has been, and are much more enduring problems, which is even worse. I think just sitting in a food court at a local mall would probably give you a good view of the many people in that area that are willingly hurting themselves just from eating the food they are…either being diabetic or obese. Sure, these diseases kill over a longer term and Ebola is much faster and more intense, but what we must consider is the public view of such issues. They are issues, yes, but what is worse? Someone who dies knowing they are killing themselves willingly-ish or someone who dies by an illness that has mutated to kill and there is no cure? What is our priority? Who we can treat and save…or those who we can’t save?

We may fear what we do not know, but should we fear what we assume we know?

If those aren’t enough, Helen Keller was Deaf and Blind, and eventually learned how TO FREAKING SPEAK having nearly never hearing another human voice in her life! She became a world renown lecturer and political activist. What did you do with your life again? Post something on Twitter? Cool story bro. Tell it again.

Humans use humor as a coping skill to deal with things that are difficult. It actually has played a greater role in helping sustain people through difficult times…even in Nazi Germany Concentration Camps:

In Night, a memoir written by Elie Wiesel about his time in Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, the author discussed humor in the concentration camps and the macabre forms it took:

In Treblinka, where a day’s food was some stale bread and a cup of rotting soup, one prisoner cautions a fellow inmate against gluttony. “Hey Moshe, don’t overeat. Think of us who will have to carry you.”

The fact that humor persisted in and out of concentration camps during the Nazi era despite potentially harsh repercussions demonstrates the vital role it plays in human resilience and survival.

So we aren’t at war, or held captive, but we are scared. Scared enough that we find a need to cope with something that seems close to home and dangerous. Thankfully, humor and laughter in general,have many physical benefits that can help prevent you from getting sick…which may not save you from Ebola, but can certainly help you build your immune system from more common killers like the flu and other severe infections that have claimed more lives in their time of existence.

Seriously though, can we really be angry that people are being open about a mutual fear and concern? Yes, it may come out as distasteful humor, but the idea of sickness and death is a bit awkward. It will result in a little awkward expression. Immature? Maybe. Helpful to the human psyche? Yes. I find that when approaching touchy subjects, I would much rather approach it through humor, because it is either a choice of humor, or the devastating and difficult truth.

I find it important to remind others that human behavior isn’t meant to be perfect. It is meant to adapt for survival, and those adaptations may or may not be effective. So if making light of things we are afraid of makes us have less hysterical fear and more healthy caution…then why are we being so harsh?

Forgive this post being more subjective than objective, but this seems like an issue of perspective and opinion. Feel free to leave your thoughts below.

pantone fall 2014 report

Color is often determined by common fashion trends. The 2014 report is now out and available for all your design needs. I’m gunna go throw some confetti, drink a ton of coffee, and study it like a motherboarding text book.

dry ink designs

Well, it’s officially out – the Pantone Fall 2014 report!

 

Click here for the full report!

 

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Minimalism

A Must Have Resource: Louder Than Words

Screenshot from http://ogilvyaction.com/louderthanwords

Recently I was looking up interesting design and business marketing books on my iBooks app. I came across this little gem…and it became a cave of wonders (yes, that was a blatant Aladdin reference…don’t judge me I’m a 90’s kid). It was a campaign project produced by OgilvyAction that showcased some of the best of the best in “new approaches to the art of creating purchase behavior.” For a free iBook I was beyond impressed and  enjoyed every case study they threw at me. This book gives excellent out of the box insight for everything from using social media to dust (literally…like sand, dust, and dirt) to help change the purchasing behavior of a localized area…and in some cases some very difficult to reach cultural groups. Hats off to OgilvyAction for their collection of the best of the best, and I really hope you enjoy this free resource as much as I have. To read Louder Than Words please click here.