Week 3: Thing 5

So I hate Walmart because it makes us a culture without culture. It robs us of the chance to shop at Borders for a book or a record store for a new CD. We can also get our hair done, buy a big mac, and put tires on our car. However, I think monopolies on information is a good thing. There is no reason that I would ever travel to Flickr to look at pictures when I can just use the photo application on Facebook. Facebook allows me to do "one stop shopping". I can "blog", comment, post pictures, look at friends pictures (which is maybe not as enlightening as looking at pictures from people I don't know) but it is surely more practical. I want to see where my friends have been and what they see, not what a random person on Flickr sees. There is value in seeing other people's art, and for that I'm thankful. Without the internet and places like Flickr, there would be no way for us to see other people's art. However, I think it's a good thing that a website like Facebook is around to provide us with "one" website we can go to for information, updates, and pictures. The one function of Flickr I do like is the mapping feature which allows us to see pictures of say, the pyramids, if we want. It should be more integrated with google earth/maps to allow us to click on any location and "see" what others have seen there. Again, they may have their own map, but to spice it with a project like google earth is even better.