Just brilliant. Perhaps the only reason why I watch a BBC program is because of a particularly, tall, reckless, and moronic man named- Jeremy Clarkson. For those who don’t know much about cars or have little interest in all things four wheels you might as well skip this article- actually keep reading.

He has been called a, racist, homophobe, even a baboon, but for some reason the BBC wont let him go, and neither will I. The main host of the most watched show in the world, Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson’s provocateur attitude is most likely the only feature that appeals to his audience. However, this provocateur is a Journalist by heart.

Sadly I have most likely read all of Jeremy Clarkson’s car articles. But why? Unlike the majority of automotive journalist, Jeremy Clarkson gets it. When people read an article they don’t want to sit down and read some dry article where the reviewer explains how wide the door opens or how many empty boxes you can fit in the trunk. And that’s where Clarkson differentiates himself. You may not be a car buff but his car articles will still pull you in. For example, Clarkson’s article might be on the brand new Toyota Corolla, but the entire article will go on talking about a new toaster oven, and how it bakes bread, and then briefly compare the two at the end.

His style of writing is creative to say the least, his reviews are perhaps the only newspaper articles I prefer to follow online. However, he is not so much a mentor, rather an exemplar of new and creative journalism.Collection of Jeremy Clarkson Articles.

Though I’ve followed tech through the internet my entire life, I have always avoided becoming attached to a single writer. Crowd sourced tech news has always been my source of reading, and I feel that it provides a significantly more broad, less opinionated point of view. Starting out on less technical sites such as Gizmodo and Engadget (news submitted mostly by users, and ripped from other sources), I have progressed over the years as I have learned more about the field.

My next destination on the web was Reddit, a fully crowd sourced website which when utilized properly can provide an experience worth more than obnoxious memes one after the next. After tiring of the playful Reddit atmosphere leaking into its more serious subreddits, I have finally moved along to my current source for technology, YCombinator’s Hacker News.

Hacker News is based on Reddit’s open source web framework, and thus functions identically to Reddit (as far as post ratings and comments are concerned) as a crowd sourced news portal. Hosted by the Silicon Valley accelerator, YCombinator, Hacker News provides the nitty gritty tech details on not only the newest smartphones and laptops, but releases in the software world as well (new Javascript libraries, web frameworks, run-time algorithms, etc). This programmer centric mentality allows users to look deeper into the technical side of news stories in a way which cannot be found elsewhere on the internet.

While it’s taken some time stumbling across the web, I have finally found a news source which seems to suite my needs. Not only do I tremendously enjoy reading the content on Hacker News, I seldom feel like I’m wasting time browsing through posts like I previously would have on Reddit or Gizmodo/Engadget. Though everyone has their own methods for absorbing information, I will take crowd sourcing over an individual opinion any day of the week.

Unfortunately my technology sources are rather limited. Up until a few weeks ago, I would learn about technology through Stumble Upon and set the focus on Technology. Stumbling through pages of the internet I landed on www.lifehack.org/technology. I am not sure if this site is particularly useful for those who are tech-savvy, but for people like me – it’s incredibly practical. Most of the site’s articles consist of handy tricks like “7 Tricks to Make You A Spreadsheet Expert” or “12 Ways to Secure Your Smartphone”.  Almost all of their tech articles are full of information I did not know at all, and written in a language I can completely understand. The website is simple and allows me to scroll through the headlines and decide which one intrigues me most.

I like that the site allows me to apply their information to my real life, where I feel like I am actually learning something. Again, it’s probably completely useless to anyone that knows anything about tech.

They recently posted a video about the History of the Cellphone:

When thinking about people which impact my views on tech and provide me with endless information two individuals instantly come into mind. One of them would be Linus and the other Mike.

Linus works for NCIX over in Vancouver and does youtube videos about up and coming technology and computer hardware. As someone who is really interested in this, he is the first place I check for reviews on new and old products. I’ve gotten a keyboard because of him and even a laptop. His advice is brilliant and reviews very honest which makes me trust what he says. Linus also has over 700,000 subscribers on youtube so that must mean that there is some truth to what he is saying, right?

Here is a link to his website and here is the youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/LinusTechTips

http://linustechtips.com/main/

As for Mike, this is a different direction and towards gaming. Mike used to be one of the best raiders in the game known as World of Warcraft. He played for Method EU which is currently the best raiding guild in the entire world. He provides tons of information about the game and great guides on classes and anything else you can imagine. Beyond that; he provides a lot of hilarious stories and tales that people send him which allow me to get through work days and just have a good laugh. Here is a link to his youtube channel which I strongly recommend everyone who plays or has played WoW to check out and watch. Specifically the drama Fridays. They are really funny.

https://www.youtube.com/user/mikepreachwow

Over the course of Technology in Society 400 a reoccurring question has lingered in my mind; although technology has unleashed emancipative opportunities for humanity, have we neglected the negative consequently on users?  Sherry Turkle, a professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focus’ on adverse effects that are the result of societies dependency on technology.  Recently, after I watched Sherry Turtle’s Ted Talk, I began to follow her twitter feed and further understand her views toward technology and how, as a society, we should become aware of the damaging physiological effects technology has on humans.  Turkle’s Ted Talk specifically drew on societies impulse to constantly be connected to the social web, which, in turn, diminishes face-to-face interactions and relationship building with human beings.  This obsession with technology has ultimately brought society to a place where self-reflection and relating to others is highly difficult.  Turkle declares that people using these devices intensify their expectations from technology and less on each other.  During the duration of the Ted Talk, I found myself becoming concerned; Turkle was right, even movies like Her depict a future society that no longer yearns for social interactions but solely depends on the companionship they can maintain with artificial intelligence systems.  However, this companionship is a façade, which results in true loneliness.  Turtle demands for a shift in how people operate and depend on their cell phones, internet, social networking, etc. she believes that a growing number of adolescents have not developed interpersonal skills, this renders these individuals incapable of creating deeper connections with other humans.  Turkle encourages the reclaiming of our personal connections through talking; she yearns for us, as individuals, to understand our vulnerabilities and embrace our faults, not conceal them on Facebook by portraying an idyllic version of ourselves.

In my opinion, I completely agree with Sherry Turkle’s discourse around technology.  As an avid smartphone and Internet user I have noticed a change in my own behaviour and personal interactions.  I feel, increasingly more of a blasé attitude toward the physical society around me, even though people surround me, I admit, I am ultimately alone.  Technology has enveloped my conscious and the only way to escape is through the creation of new, deep, meaningful relations.