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.