#4 Clay Shirky

Clay Shirky TED Talk Response:


After watching Clay Shirky's TED Talk, I started to think about the impact of media and technology on the world.  I realized that I spend a lot of time using this technology every day whether it is watching TV or texting or using the internet and Shirky's talk helped me to realize how technology and media will change the world.  He explained how there are two types of media: one with websites and software that will create a better world and the other that will not.  He started off by saying how a blog that started in Africa ended up being a global project to share information with the public and used it as an example of a beneficial website.  This is edited by the public using testimonies to share information with the public.  I thought that it was similar to Wikipedia- an information source that uses the free time of people to spread ideas and knowledge around the world.  These people used their free time to spread their knowledge, which made me wonder why the rest of us could not contribute to this 'grand idea' instead of spending their free time watching TV or playing Angry Birds.  I am not saying that doing that for a half and hour is going to end the world, I am just saying that there are so many more things we could direct our free time towards.  Shirky's idea of changing the world by using our free time to spread knowledge is similar to Dan Pink's idea of doing things because we love to do it rather than being motivated by some materialistic object or as an order from your boss.  This could impact education by learning for the sake of learning rather than learning to get an A.  This idea could change the world because it is an eye-opener to do things for the joy of spreading your knowledge of the world and using the technology and the media that society has developed.

Shirky had a formal presentation and used a powerpoint to support his ideas.  However, I found that his talk was confusing because he didn't connect all of his ideas and, in order to understand them, I had to read the transcript to his talk.  Shirky did capture my attention with his opening story about a Kenyan who blogged about the ethnic violence that followed the elections.  I was able to connect it to the violence in Egypt with Mubarak and the media "blackout".  I could use some of his tactics of presenting his idea in my own TED Talk such as stories and a powerpoint.  However, I will make sure that my presentation is easy to understand.