Psychology Of The Internet Essays (1967 words) - Social Psychology

Psychology Of The Internet Summary of the Book Today, the internet is a growing community. Millions of people from all over the world go "online" everyday to check email, research, shop, or even just interact with someone halfway around the world. As this community grows, so does the number of interactions between people. The Psychology of the Internet examines the psychology of new behavior produced by this novel method of human communication. It also delves into the business sector of the internet and how certain companies are using this medium to increase productivity within their companies and corporations. Analysis of the Book The book provides several examples of how the internet can affect the quality of an organization's production. When used in the appropriate manner, the internet can facilitate interaction between a group 24 hours a day and is only limited by the availability of a telephone line. The idea that a person must be in work and at his desk for production is becoming more obsolete as companies realize the potential of the internet. One impressive way the internet can help companies is the workgroups that can be formed internationally. A workgroup is a group of employees striving to achieve the same objective. In the traditional sense, these groups are formed in a room with notepads for each person to help them brainstorm and meetings at regular intervals until the project is complete. The internet revolution is changing all of that. The workgroups are no longer governed by the geographical positioning of its members. I found this particularly interesting because the idea of having a supervisor in Manila, a Research and Development team in Cebu, and a sales group in the United States is becoming more of a feasible possibility than ever before. The internet can also help employees overcome inhibitions that they may not be able to in person. This is due, in part, to the amount of social cues that are lost over a computer. In a chat room, for example, the two employees might know nothing about each other, other than the information they provide about themselves. Therefore, any type of social stereotypes (i.e. sexism, racism, bigotry) is less prevalent than if perceived in the real world. If the employees have never met, social irritations may not be as readily triggered than if in person. For example, if I am irritated by a person who stutters when he speaks, the chances that he will do so over the internet are relatively low. This allows me to concentrate solely on the task at hand and not be distracted by insignificant things. The book speaks of how the internet groups, in the absence of social cues and orders, had to find a group identity online. In other words, the lack of social cues also has its drawbacks. Even if the members of the workgroups concede personal information about themselves, such as their race or ethnicity, the other members might have no physical basis for the connection. So if I wanted to bond with a co-worker who was a Filipino in California, I would more likely do it in person than online. This is due to the lack of human contact and the perception that I am merely interacting with my computer and not a real person. With this in mind, workgroups must find new bases for forming group coherence. The book speaks of the studying of several different multinational workgroups. All were given the same objectives to be completed in a given amount of time. However, only a few of the groups completed the task while only one group did it in the allotted amount of time. The study showed that the groups that failed lacked consistent interaction. After the initial meeting, the members of the group did not log on regularly to converse with the group. Emails were exchanged intermittently among these groups as well. The book states that the main reason these groups failed was that the interaction, already reduced by the lack of human interaction on the computer, was limited to almost nothing. On the other hand, the group that fared the best was noted as having the most email interaction and regular group meetings. The members of the group also took it upon themselves to go beyond what was asked of them simply because they felt a great responsibility to the group as a whole. What caused this desire and cohesion within the group? According to the book, the group kept their personal lives out of the online chatting. Therefore, the members

Society Is a Conformist Environment with Technology Essay Example

Society Is a Conformist Environment with Technology Essay Example Society Is a Conformist Environment with Technology Paper Society Is a Conformist Environment with Technology Paper Essay Topic: The Hunger Games The population of modern day society will begin to enter a dark and drab environment where conformity is expected if we continue to rely on technology. With the use Of modern technology controlling lifes basic skills of communication and conducting relationships our basic social skills will be destroyed. With the media trying to model these skills from a screen that we sit in front of we wont be learning about and to debate, discuss or express emotion. What the media is teaching us and what we need to know are very different outcomes, People will be afraid to show emotion, contest n opinion or ask for help if we continue to rely on technology. As seen in the short story The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury all of our basic skills are being lost to technology. Society will become detached from others because of the overuse of technology and a conformist society will mean no originality, no creativity and no new ideas on how to make our world a better place. The unsaid rules of conformity that everybody seems to follow will lead to manufactured personality and negative effects of peer pressure. How long ill it be before people start to ask themselves if this is how they really want to live life? The exploitation of nature and humans is becoming more and more evident as time evolves. Having a social network in the current era is important as ever, in the work force it is not about what you know it is about who you know, most people will have contacts in their area of expertise who they lean on for advice and assistance but as time evolves having a profile online is just as important. When asking people in todays world, especially managers most will agree that they spend much of their time on their social media site like Faceable, Twitter and Mainstream, these sites have the potential to have a positive influence on society like staying in touch with family and friends overseas on Faceable or finding out what the latest news is on the other side of the world on Twitter, but the way people use these sites at the moment to cyber bully others and share personal information with strangers the users of these sites are vulnerable than ever to exploitation and corruption. The exploitation of humans must stop, as well as online and electronic, exploitation Of nature it is happening all around us. The depletion of natural resources, unsustainable extraction of non-renewable resources and fossil fuels, over-hunting of animals (hunt rabbits, wild birds, fish), intensive agriculture, deforestation, degradation of forest and water pollution and rising temperatures are pressuring the real-world water supply, these factors are making the earth harder to live in and harder to support. The exploitation of humans and nature is dangerous; the population must question whether this will have a positive effect for not only themselves but their children, grandchildren and generations of family to come. It wont be long before the world could be headed to living in a place like Pane in The Hunger Games where citizens are exploited by the government to and children must fight to the death for something as pointless as entertainment, work in districts run by the capitol and follow the level of status and hierarchy among the districts. Society should not accept this and fight against exploitation. The technological development in the world today is a strong as ever; new discoveries are being made each day from the latest idea on how to cure disease to finding a new way to illegally download hours of video, musical and software content. Technology is consuming valuable time and social lives of the general population. The negative effect the use of technology is having on society is extremely evident in The Hunger Games and the gap between who has the power of technology is highly apparent. It is clearly evident that sustaining and promoting technological development in The Hunger Games is an absolute priority for the government. Many things for the games in the film have been mastered by the use of technology. The arena the games are in is manmade, where the environment is planted and planned for the soul purpose of entertainment, the weather and genetically engineered wildlife is designed and made by the modern technology. All of the features are controlled by the governments game makers. This abusive and overuse of technology is where the current population is headed it keeps being used this way.

How can leaders lead when they don't know what to expect Essay

How can leaders lead when they don't know what to expect - Essay Example Similarly setting a firm goal for the organization is one of the few essentials that must be adhered in practicing successful leadership. It is in this context that leaders, to be effective in implementing successful strategies, must obtain a succinct understanding of what to expect from their followers and benefactors of their leadership practices (Kerr & Jermier, 1978). Focusing on this argumentive statement, the aim of the essay is to evaluate the significance leader’s ability to make accurate expectations when defining goals and implementing strategies likewise. In order to accomplish this particular aim, the essay emphasizes conducting a literature review to gain an in-depth knowledge about the factors that determine leadership success in the 21st century context, followed by a case example analysis in respect to the Affordable Care Act policy enforced by the US President Mr. Barack Obama. Based on the information obtained through these sections, a critical discussion has been conducted in this essay to derive a brief conclusion directly implying on the argument statement; i.e. â€Å"How can leaders lead when they don’t know what to expect?† The Concept and Role of Leadership in the 21st Century According to Kaiser & Hogan (2005), although leadership has remained a topic of interest for many years, and many researchers have contributed in the study of leadership, it still lacks a firm definition that can replicate its multidimensional features in an all-inclusive manner. According to Judge & et. al., (2002), it is because of the fact that leadership practices depend on situational contexts, where the qualities of the followers and the availability of resources play a vital role in determining overall leadership effectiveness also involving value-based philosophical attributes as major influences, defining the concept in a scientific way as similar to other societal concepts, becomes a major challenge. Nevertheless, almost all the expla nations derived in the current phenomenon focus on one common feature of successful leadership that the effectiveness of these practices depend on the leader’s ability to understand or decode the change needs and define their expectations accordingly (Judge & et. al., 2002). It is in this context that Fry (2003) argued leaders to be attending both the task oriented and social or emotional issues through the directive and supportive behaviors, which further raises complexities in understanding the ability of the resources available and decide upon their expectations thereon. According to the House (1996), the contingency theory emphasizes that an effective leadership approach must have a link between the leader’s behavior and the situational conditions that further determines their accuracy of expectations. Expanding the contingency theory, House (1996) further argued that the path-goal theory of leadership joins the participative and achievement oriented leader’ s behaviors with their directive and supportive behavioral needs to focus on the association amid performance-reward and explain the follower about the importance of such associations in order to perform