Your are being stalked. Not even kidding.

            As Internet users, nothing more, nothing less, we are stalked. And not only by a few miscellaneous sites, but by hundreds of sites by the time your day is over. By the time I publish this post, dozens of sites will be tracking me without my consent. Gary Kovacs brings to the attention of his audience, and all TED viewers, that we are being stalked without even knowing it. In his talk, “Tracking the trackers,” he tells us that before he has finished breakfast, on any given morning, already 25 sites have tracked him, and he has navigated to a total of four. He points out that not only is he irritated by the fact that he is being followed without permission, but that his 9-year-old is also being tracked. He is no longer just an irritated person, he is an enraged parent. It is not O.K. to have young children being tracked without permission from the trackers. Kovacs states that privacy is not the price to pay for Internet use, and I agree one hundred percent. Why can’t I go online and check my e-mail for a minute and a half without being stalked? That isn’t all right with me, and it shouldn’t be with anyone else. So what matters? What matters is the fact that on their own free will, websites can invade our personal lives, and have access to private information. Kovacs rightly points out that we need to fix that insanely huge problem. The first thing we need to do is make people aware. I had no idea going in to this that during the time I spend writing this online, several sites could decide to follow me and have my information at their fingertips. People need to take action against this for the privacy and safety of all of us.

            Gary Kovacs does a very nice job presenting his idea. His speech differs from the others I have watched because unlike many I have seen, his topic is absolutely negative and even scary. He had to figure out how to bring light to this topic without scaring the life, or the Internet use, out of his listeners. He did this by getting all the negatives out of the way first, and ending with a solution. The audience is reassured that the world won’t end because of this, but it could be so much safer if the problem was solved. Kovacs visuals are different than any others I've seen. They are simple, single color symbols to show what he is talking about. He has one other visual and this is very effective for this talk. The only other visual is the demonstration of *Collusion. Kovacs speaks passionately, and tells a personal story that audience members can connect to. He talks about his daughter, and any time you talk about fathers and daughters, you can melt the hearts of anyone. Especially when that father is scared because his daughter is not protected. Simply by checking her e-mail, or playing her favorite games, she is in danger of being tracked. Telling this story helps the audience put the problem in perspective and realize that trackers are following whomever they want, no matter the age. This need stop, and we are the ones who need to stop it.

*To find out how many sites track you, you can download Collusion in fire fox. You would be surprised.

Dave Eggers TED blog #6

             Dave Eggers inspired me. He pointed out an aspect of schools that connected to me personally, and that is the lack of personal interaction and assistance in schools globally. The ratio of teachers to students is just too off to give students the amount of individual attention they deserve. In my experience, since there is only one teacher per class, the teacher is occupies with people who are struggling way more than me. The point is, though, that I still struggle, and am sometimes left unattended. I have experienced the blood drain out of each of my arms as I constantly switch off raising them in hopes of being helped. This happened more early on than now in high school, but still, it happened. Eggers not only presented the problem, but also a solution. The odd ratio needs to be reset closer to 1:1 not 1:35. Eggers also points out that we are the ones responsible for doing this, and in his TED wish, calls for each of us to take action, and to do something about his huge issue at a local school, because even a couple hours a month can be transformative to a child’s education in reading and writing.

            Egger’s speech was the first TED talk I watched where I was a little bit concerned with how much the distractions took away form his talk. All of the uh’s and um’s that I heard made it hard to focus at times. He also seemed very nervous about his speech, especially at the beginning with his uncomfortable joke. Once an audience member can get past these little glitches, though, they will see how absolutely passionate Eggers is about his topic. He smiles, and uses emphasis in his voice to bring more light on a subject or statement. He uses his hands and facial expressions to help the audience feel what they should be feeling. However, his visuals are not limited to just him physically. He brings up pictures and websites to give the eyes of the audience something to do while the ears are still listening. These techniques make his speech more effective.

            So there is still a problem. Too many kids are not getting the individual attention they need and that is causing poorer grades in reading and writing. Eggers’ tells the audience stories of people who decided to do something about this issue, and how successful the results are showing.

To check out the website produced out of this, click here. This, as well as his TED wish (see below), 

inspires action towards the cause. I, for one, wanted to jump up and first go shop at the pirate store he talks about, but then secondly, to find out what I can do as one little freshman in high school to help out, because this is an idea worth spreading, and a problem worth fixing. 

TED blog #7 Paul Gilding

            Paul Gilding delivered an intensely motivating TED talk called, “The earth is full.” The way he did that was by mastering the “what you say,” as well as the “how you say it,” part of a speech. If anyone tries to deliver a speech with imperfections in either of these categories, the speech is as good as dead. Gilding effectively moved, and used his body language and facial expressions to convey his message. In the middle of his speech, he decided to emphasize one sense, hearing, by cutting out another one altogether, sight. The lights went completely black and without their visual aid to help them, the audience had to use the only helpful sense left, hearing, to understand what Gilding was saying. This emphasized the listening of the audience and made them think really hard about what he was trying to say. Gilding had very smooth transitions to different points, and concluded with a very dramatic, very inspiring lasting impression.

            What Gilding spoke about in his speech was the basic fact that the earth is full. He points out that we have too much stuff for the amount of space, just like Graham Hill spoke about in his TED talk. The astounding fact is that we need 1.5 earths to sustain the economy we have in 1 earth right now. This means, if something doesn’t change, our economy and earth will be unsustainable. This means it will stop and die out. We can’t imagine an earth without an economy, so this is very concerning. Gilding says it is absolutely possible to do this; the problem is, we are heading in the wrong direction faster and faster every year. It seems pretty obvious, what with the 50 years of scientific warnings and dangerous looking data analysis, that we would turn things around; however, we are taking this matter so lightly that many people are not even aware there is a problem. Gilding points out that the sooner we start, the easier it will be to head in the correct direction. This is nothing we are not capable of, but we need to change how we think and feel about his situation in order to deal with it properly. Gilding says it will take every entrepreneur, every artist, every scientist, mother, and father, etc., to change the world, and he is 100% correct. So start now.

            I would like to model my speech after Gilding’s speech because he had a topic he was passionate about like me, and took his case to a point where action was inspired in the audience. That is what I want my audience to do. I want them to take away a simple idea, but an idea that could change the world.

Graham Hill TED talk Blog #5

           Graham Hill, in his TED talk, “Less stuff, more happiness,” tells us that we have three times the amount of space we had fifty years ago. You would think we’d be much happier. But unfortunately, no, this wasn’t the case. With strange results, like Daniel Pinks Motivation 2.0, we still have more stuff than space. This leads to debt, huge environmental footprints, and our happiness “flat lines.” Hill asks the audience to think of places with not a whole lot of stuff. For example, places like college dorms, hotel rooms, and campsites have very little extra room. He says we tend to experience not only more freedom in places like these, but also more time. His point is, by eliminating so much excess stuff, we will save money, lessen that environmental footprint, and most importantly, be happier. Our world can be a better place by fixing problems like these, and that matters.

            Hill opens up his speech by sitting on his only prop. A brown, cardboard box sat unopened and this captured the audience’s attention and curiosity. 

This box remained unopened the entire time until Hill explained its significance at the end of his talk. He refers to a symbol more than once during his speech. It is a less than sign, followed by and equal to sign, and then a more than sign. This was the theme of his talk. Less equals more. He shares am example of a 400 square foot area where he lived instead of a 650 square foot, and that immediately saved him over a thousand dollars. One thing I would have liked to see is a story. Daniel Pink talks about the significance of story in his book, “A Whole New Mind.” 

This would have made Hill’s talk even better. As he concludes his talk, he assigns three tasks for the audience. These are to edit ruthlessly, think small, and look for multifunctional stuff. This leaves the audience with a way to “do” something about what they have learned.

            I chose Hill’s TED talk because it was about the length of the ones our English class will be giving. It demonstrated a way to condense and deliver the key points without just spewing facts for 5 minutes. Hill shows how to gain the audiences attention, and keep it for those few minutes. He made good use of the short time he had, which is something each and every one of us needs to figure out how to do in order for our talk to excel. 

Clay Shirkey TED talk #4

            Clay Shirky effectively shares his interesting ideas through his TED talk, “How cognitive surplus changes the world.” He defines cognitive surplus as the ability of the world to volunteer, contribute, and collaborate on large and sometimes global projects. He says it is made up of the worlds free time, (1 trillion hours/year), and the way we like to create and to share. Shirky says it’s motivation, and the modern tools that allow this motivation to be joined up in large scale efforts, that are the new design resource. This means that by experimenting with cognitive surplus, we are capable of great and vast improvements in science, literacy, artistic and political areas. He uses an example of a girl in Kenya who had so much information to put online that she desperately needed a way to automate it. As a society who yearns to design, create, and contribute to large, sometimes global projects, we fixed that problem and what was created impacted people globally within three years. If in three years, a website can make a global impact using cognitive surplus, just imagine what we can achieve in the next fifty.

            Clay Shirky came about his TED talk with a more professional approach than other TED talks I have watched. There was little to no humor in his talk, but that certainly didn’t take away from it. He spoke matter-of-factly, dressed adequately, and made a clear impression on his audience. A connection I made was how he used the word automate like Daniel Pink talks about in his book, A Whole New Mind.” Shirky also talks about the media abundance, similarly to Pink. A technique Shirky used towards the beginning of his speech was repetition of an important fact to emphasize it. This was effective in making the audience take away what he meant for them to take away. Shirky does not pace back and forth, but he moves around and uses his hands to give another kind of visual instead of just pictures and maps. As an observant audience member, I noticed a few different things that I might incorporate into my personal TED talk. First off, I learned how to move around without pacing back and forth. Also, if I want my audience to take seriously a point I make, I might repeat it once or twice. Shirky delivered a powerful TED talk, and I hope to make mine just as powerful and effective.

Dan Pink TED talk blog response #3

Dan Pink’s TED talk, “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us,” expanded my knowledge about humans and how we are most motivated. I learned about the main theme of the talk which is the fact that most tasks that are given follow the pattern of “higher reward, better performance.” Strangely, though, once the task requires even basic cognitive abilities, the previous statement is no longer true. Pink explains why that is during his speech. I learned about a technique called sticks and carrots which represents the statement, higher reward, better performance. I took away from the talk a new style of speaking that is quite effective.

I say this speaking style is effective, and what I mean by that is it is effective for visual learners mostly. Because the speaker chooses to have the listeners attention focused on a white board and not a person, people who enjoy visuals will benefit most from this talk. I’m not saying other learners cannot learn at all from the TED talk, but it would be more difficult than for a visual learner.

Using purely visuals is Pink’s main style. He communicates to his audience by drawing his words almost exactly. He draws actual words as well as pictures to communicate his message to the audience. This makes Pink’s talk very easy to follow. The disadvantage is that if you stop paying full attention for even 10 seconds, you will be totally lost and swept up in the next diagrams he has moved to. Another style of Pinks’ is humor, but that humor is more scarce than Sir Ken Robinson. He scatters funny images during his stories, like the image of his professor when he introduced an idea like Wikipedia to her. That has brought me to his final evident style, which is storytelling. He has personal stories and non-personal stories, but if you look at the big picture, his entire speech is a story. His story even has pictures!

Pink’s message is an important one for everyone to know. It is to our benefit to know how we are motivated as humans collectively as well as how we are motivated individually. Pink definitely shared an idea worth spreading, and it’s our job, and your job now, to spread it.

Susan Cain-The Power of Introverts

Susan Cain’s TED Talk, “The Power of Introverts” inspired me to be proud of the kind of person I am. My personality has always conformed to the person I’m expected to be, not the person I am. After listening to Cain, I feel like I can express my inner introversion in a way that will make me just as successful as any extrovert. Cain begins by telling a story of her summer camp experience as a child. She was an introvert, who came from an introverted family, and expected camp to be just the same. Little did she know she was expected to be outgoing, and “R-O-W-D-I-E!” I resonated with her when she felt like she had to put away a way of life, and meet the expectations of her camp counselors and peers. Cain goes on to tell how she became a lawyer, instead of the writer she aspired to be.

The purpose of these examples in her own life was to show people “the power of introverts.” She wanted to make it known that introverts can be very successful and are critical to creativity and productivity. I feel like I can make a bigger change in the world after hearing Cain because I am no longer the outlier or the “different” person; no, I am a strong person with great potential who can make a difference just like Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and other famous introverts.

Cain had an effective way of speaking, but in a different way then Sir Ken Robinson. Although they both sprinkled humor throughout their speeches, Cain used her hands and facial expressions to emphasize points whereas Robinson tended to use his tone of voice. The audience knew when Cain was excited or when she was more serious because they could read her face like a book. She held the audiences attention by telling personal stories, as well as making references to famous people like Rosa Parks, Gandhi, and Dr. Seuss. Cain failed to make a huge lasting impression on her audience; however, she was able to wrap up her speech nicely by encouraging her listeners to follow three calls for action. She left them with a task, which was an effective way to close out because the audience can walk away knowing what they can do about their new knowledge.

Cain’s biggest points in her speech that she wanted to convey were as follows. Introverts are as equally important as extroverts. They have potential and are necessary to the flow of life. Next, we need to let introverts be introverts and respect them in institutions, school systems, and workplaces. Stop the constant demand for group work and collaboration. Not altogether, but relax a little bit. Finally, it is critical for us introverts to step up and show what we’ve got to show. Nobody knows our potential until we show it. So don't be afraid to step up, and certainly don't be afraid of failure, because you never know what you can do until you do it.