"The Internship"

I’m feeling lucky is the story of an employee at Google who was there in the founding stages of the company. While Edward’s experience was a crazy roller coaster ride, now Google is the world’s most successful company, and the competition to work for the company is cutthroat. A recent movie, “The Internship” explores the effect technology has had on the older generation that did not grow up surrounded by smart technology.  Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are two “middle-aged” men that work selling watches to corporate companies. However, they lose their jobs, because now orders are placed through the internet. They realize that their degrees in business are futile without knowledge of technology. On a whim, they apply for a non-paid internship with Google. Even though they have zero experience with technology, Google takes a chance and hires the energetic, innovative, yet technologically challenged men. In the end, Google comes off to be a company where the honest, hardworking, and out-of-the box thinkers are rewarded, and that even if one is incredibly smart, if they are self-centered or backstabbing, they are not wanted by Google. This is similar to what Steve Jobs was looking for in his Apple employees (except Jobs was much more rude and crass in his approach). Not a stuffed-shirt, obsessive about technology, but someone that believes that Google can change the world. In my Apple, Google, Facebook class, the prediction of technology surpassing human intelligence has come up very often, and most of us struggle with this idea. However, the movie “The Internship” says Google products and company is a people-person company. They want the best for their customers and are creating programs that are making their lives easier. Google creates fun products for fun people and is continually making itself more user friendly and accessible.

The 10 Commandments of Google

Douglas Edwards gives his fly-on-the-wall perspective of Google as it was just rising as one of the biggest search engines and internet companies. It is a story of both the development of Google and an autobiographical account of Edwards insecurities in his role in the company. Google as a company thrived and survived because it constantly adapts to meet the needs of the consumer. In this way, religion is also an entity that has survived for thousands of years because of its ability to give people answers to life’s most difficult questions. Google and religion function in the same way. While there is nothing about Google that is driven by religion, it acts as a platform to access religion. One can look to Google to help one find the answer life’s most important questions like “is there a God” or “why do bad things happen to good people” the same way the one can find those answers in the Bible or religious texts. Each religion abides by certain principles and values that guide their believers own morals. Values such as “thou shalt not murder” or “thou shalt not steal” are principles guide the development of religion. Google has its own set of values like “quality over revenue” (Edwards, 67) and interface that is “supernaturally easy to use” (58).

Edward's biggest claim to fame within Google is the "Ten things we know to be true." It is a set of 10 principles that outlined the company and standards to always hold themselves up to. Their is the unmistakable parallel between the "Ten things we know to be true" and the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" similarly Google wants to be the primary search engine; there can be the existence of other search engines, but they will be below Google. "You can make money without doing evil"- Google takes this to mean that their ultimate objective is not to take advantage of the Google user, but to provide them with honest search results and an uninhibited experience. Similarly the Ten Commandments outlines several moral demands that otherwise if committed, would be evil.

Of course, there is one significant discrepancy in the 10 Commandments and the "ten things we know to be true." This being that the second commandment is commanding us to not worship idols. This begs the question, is our worship and dependency on Google breaking this commandment?

Regardless of this both the Ten Commandments and the "ten things we know to be true" have principles that guide religion and Google as a platform for the Self. Both allow us to gain knowledge and model our views, morals, and actions based on that information.

A moment of reflection on relationships and technology

Many of my closest relationships are relationships of long distance. I went to sleep away camp for many years meaning some of my dearest friends live far away, I went to arts boarding school my senior year of high school, I go to school over 1,000 miles away from home, and my boyfriend is from England. Needless to say, technology plays an integral role in my everyday routine as it allows me to stay connected to the most important people in my life. Just today for example, I FaceTimed my best friend Maddie who goes to University of Illinois, I called my mom, texted my brother, and Skyped my boyfriend (the fact that these applications have become verbs is amazing).  I am constantly looking for the newest app that will give me the illusion of closeness to these people.  I even have a special app that is meant for long distance relationships (Couple), showing that there are tons of other people like me that rely on innovative technology that appeal to a specific demographic. The apps like Couple or Viber or Whatsapp understand the role of technology in connecting people with one another and are thus able to thrive. Some people might believe that technology disconnects us from the people around us and causing us to ignore the in-personal relationships in front of us. However, I know that technology has allowed me to APPRECIATE my in-person relationships because I have realized with time how virtual relationships are not comparable to being with the people you love. 

Google Dependency

Marshall McLuhan coined the expression “the medium is the message” because he wanted to stress the idea that the medium is even more important than the message it is carrying. A medium can be defined as “an agency or means of doing something.”

According to the Wikipedia page on Google Search, Google is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, handling more than three billion searches each day. That would average to mean in the USA, each person searches on google 19 times per day.

Google should therefore be considered a medium as it is a platform to acquire knowledge from. McLuhan would say that the fact that Google is handling more than three billion searches each day is more important than the content is being googled. The fact that we are relying on Google as a search engine and its role as a medium is what needs to be observed. Google Search can also be seen as “the intervening substance through which impressions are conveyed to the senses” which is another definition of medium. Google acts as a relay between the questions we have, and the information on the internet. It does not matter what we are googling whether that is “what is a medium?” or “Britney Spears” or “what is the meaning of life?” The complexity of the question or search is of no importance. It is important instead to understand Google as a medium and its fundamental role in our lives to find the answers to these questions the moment they come to our mind. It is a medium because it allows us to continue on with our day by providing us with the information we need. It has even helped me write this blog post!

Things I googled throughout this blog post:

The Minyan of JDate

The Queen of the Night- Renée Fleming sings a touchdown at the Super Bowl

Everyone has their own reason for watching the Super Bowl—to eat Subway sandwiches and gorge oneself on chips and dip while spending time with friends and family, to watch the million dollar commercials, or probably to actually watch the football. However, I will be tuning in to hear Renée Fleming, arguably the most acclaimed and renowned opera singer currently sing the national anthem before kickoff. This is the first time an opera singer has ever performed at the Super Bowl, showing the true celebrity factor of Renée’s opera success. I am interested to see what national audiences think of hearing The Star-Spangled Banner performed in an opera style. Will having millions of viewers hear a beautiful voice encourage more Americans to listen to classical music? While classical music used to be the most popular genre, it is now the genre that is most at threat for extinction. Opera has already tried to use technology to get more viewers and become more accessible. The Metropolitan Opera House does live broadcasts of their operas that stream live to movie theaters in the country. However, I believe bringing Renée Fleming into the homes of millions of Americans in the most watched event on television is the key to revitalizing the classical music and opera genres.

The Jewish Community Center- JDate

Match.com, eHarmony and OKCupid are just a few dating sites that aim to help their online subscribes find their soul mates to live happily ever after. For the purpose of my blog and narrated slide project, I have chosen to look at the dating website JDate- it is the perfect combination of technology and religion. Plus, my mom would probably eventually make a profile for me in a few years anyway...so now I have saved her the trouble and nagging. JDate specifically says that it is “one of the world’s greatest online communities” and “ We're very proud of our members: smart, attractive, successful people from all walks of life, all professions and all ages, living life to its fullest. They’re all looking to connect, network and find romance” JDate also promises that their community will be way better than the bar dating scene and it is the “modern way for Jewish people to find love.”

JDate aims to “strengthen the Jewish community” while still finding their subscriber the love of their life. This connects to the ideas of community and lifestyle enclave found in Bellah’s Habits of the Heart. Bellah would define community to be a group of people that are interdependent and share certain practices. In the case of JDate, the community is then the shared practice of the religion of Judaism and the shared cultural values and traditions.  Everyone on JDate (for the most part)  is part of this community already. However, these people seek something beyond that community and thus find themselves on JDate. They are looking for their social enclave--what Bellah says is formed when people who share some feature of private life like shared leisure activities, or shared career goals. People on JDate might already have the Jewish community but are looking for someone on the dating site to delve further into that community by finding a social enclave and then finally-the ONE. I look forward to my narrated slide show project where I can explore the concept of community on JDate further. Have to admit, JDate is convincing me, at least, that by subscribing, I might find my social enclave--the lox to my bagel, the noodle to my kugel, and the honey to my apples.