Oh Trey Parker, only you could incorporate into a thirty minute episode the newest internet technologies that eventually save us from... the Brits? and Hillary Clinton's um... lets call it her bomb carrier. In the South Park episode titled "Snooze" Cartman is suspicious of a new student, Bahir, who is of middle eastern descent. Cartmen employs Kyle to check the new students background by using newer internet tools like myspace, facebook, mapquest, ebay, and blogging sites (link to scene). Kyle then teaches the CIA the newest way to find out about people online (CIA was using AOL), which inevitably uncovers the secret partnership of the British and Russians to take over America, and ends with the queen shooting herself in the head. It's South Park people, its gonna be ridiculous but as always, proves a damn good point.
The point is what Ms. Weisgerber told us the first day of class, that new internet technologies are changing the way people communicate and receive information. The South Park episode goes along with the fact that these technologies are so new that even the CIA didn't know! As we have learned about our class, its a very new course that is only apart of the curriculum in a handful of universities.
For me, alot of the stuff we are learning is completely new! I knew about wikis somewhat, but not the kind of impact they really have. And, she's right, blogging is addicting and I have found myself on the internet for hours reading different blogs about everything and anything interesting.
So watch the episode if you can, its pretty hilarious and somehow educational.
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This stuff is totally new to me as well. Some of it, like RSS feeds and myspace and youtube for marketing purposes, I dealt with at my internship, but the rest of it (wikis, etc.), were like foreign languages to me at first. The implications of this new internet seem so vast, that it really is mockable, and proper fodder for south park writers. It's only going to get more complex from here... so we'll see what south park has to say next.
You beat me to this one Christina. I thought about after I saw the episode but didn't react quick enough. The South Park writers are always truly up the times, from everything to Guitar Hero to Social Media. They hit it on the nose by poking fun of older adults who don't know about this stuff.
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