Summarizing Thus Far

I have learned a lot about Web 2.0 and its powers and consequences. It's amazing what we have created and how we have incorporated it right into our everyday lives. It seems like we have become totally blind to the power behind web 2.0, and how we are becoming more and more dependent on it. Leaving any data about you leaves this information shadow. We do it every day by signing up for accounts either on Facebook or twitter or somewhere else on the web. This information is no longer private. It is sent anywhere. It's almost like you lose apart of yourself to the web.

I am really starting to agree with the theory of "The machine is us and we are the machine". I find that there is a lot of power in this statement. We have the power to change web 2.0 if we don't like the direction or path it's taking. There is another side to the equation though. The web can change us, and it has. Very few people in this generation read. Almost anything you need to know, you could find it with a simple search on the web. It's all there. Everything is given to us. I believe this does dumb us down. It's not all bad though. Web 2.0 has broken boundaries that have never been broken before. The reach of Web 2.0 is amazing. No other invention in its time has done this. We can reach anyone instantaneously with the touch of a button. It's blurring boundaries.

Web 2.0 has given so much. The remix culture has been expanded beyond imagination. It has given us power that we could have never dreamed of with things like the telephone. Through reading Nancy Baym's book and Matt Mason’s book, you begin to better understand our relation with this machine that we have nursed into something far more powerful than maybe we would like it to be. Only time will tell what we will do with this machine, and what ways we will use it in the future.