Wasik Questions

https://drive.google.com/a/une.edu/file/d/0B3TIS1NpPjC1ZkVudllfaFUzdmM/view?usp=sharing

(Image of notes in text)

1. I found this section to be pretty interesting. How Wasik talked about bandwagons raised some interesting points for me. When he says, “popularity can immediately be factored into how choices are presented to us” (483), it raises an interesting question: is this a good thing? If we just choose things to like because of what others like, how does that reflect on our values of self and individuality. Also, if we just always “bandwagon,” how may that affect how we find purpose and meaning? Wasik goes on to give an example of how people in an experiment showed this exact problem when asked to download and rate music. People just basically followed the bandwagon and downloaded what was popular in their group of testees. I thought that this experiment was a very useful one in showing this “bandwagon effect.” How may this bandwagon effect change how we find purpose, if it can change other things we “like” or at least think we do? May it be possible that some people think they’ve found their true purpose, only for them to be just following another bandwagon? Although this section brought up ideas against bandwagoning, it also showed some positives of it. It helps us know what to do/what to get, as well as helping us communicate with others, which are two very valid, reasonable ideas for bandwagoning.
2. Bill Wasik used the internet to extend himself to bring people together to do something in common, ultimately finding purpose. Wasik thought of this idea from pure boredom, and using the internet created a series of flash-mobs throughout New York as well as inspiring others around the world. As well as directly using this technology as his tool, he also used it in a more indirect way. He used the bandwagon effect that he talks about so much in his piece, “My Crowd Experiment: The Mob Project,” to get this idea of flash-mobs to spread, connecting even more people. Wasik even says this himself, saying that, “The Mob Project was a self-conscious bandwagon – advertised itself as a bandwagon, as a joke about conformity, and it lampooned bandwagons in doing so” (484). This shows the power of technology in achieving your purpose. Wasik used an idea spawned from boredom to create something much more, which wouldn’t have been able to be done without technology.
3. I think that Bill Wasik is pursuing his purpose in this essay. Wasik showed that with technology, you can achieve your purpose. As well as this purpose, I feel like another purpose of the essay was to help Wasik demonstrate the power of bandwagoning. Throughout the piece, Wasik talks about bandwagoning almost consistently in some way. If not directly, he is by explaining his “self-conscious bandwagon” (484), the Mob Project. The quote where Wasik describes the project in this way (also the quote I used in the previous answer) seemed like it was trying to show his purpose to joke about conformity and lampoon bandwagons (484). I believe that Wasik achieves his purposes in this paper. He directly came out and got me thinking about bandwagoning: the possible bad as well as good things that may come out of it. Wasik also successfully shows that he pursued his purpose through technology. By showing what a giant success the Mob Project was, it showed that you can find purpose through the use of technology. A simple experiment that came from boredom helped him find his purpose, so it shows that it’s very possible.