Smart Mobs - Chapters 1-3

In the first chapter, Rheingold discusses how the teens of Tokyo are using text messaging as a way to achieve social independence. He refers to them as “the thumb tribe,” since they are always texting their friends using their thumbs. Texting made it possible for young people to have freedom and privacy. The unexpected success of texting was a sign that people were using communication technology for social purposes. In Stockholm, there are more mobile phones than anywhere and they have a very strong mobile industry. For example, botfighters. According to “Smart Mobs,” botfighters take advantage of location-sensing technologies involving mobile phones. Players sign up on a Web site, create a “bot,” name it, and arm it with guns, shields, batteries, and detectors. When their mobile telephones are on, the players receive SMS messages about the geographic distance of other players. The game is a different kind of social communication. Mobile phone and texting are changing ways of life in unexpected ways. People rely on their mobile phones and texting so much now-a-days. I wonder how long people would be able to survive without using their phone or texting someone. I wonder if they would go nuts or be ok with it. These people seem to really need their mobile phones.


In the second chapter, Rheingold discusses how identity, reputations, boundaries, inducements for commitment, and punishment for free riders seem to be common critical resources all groups need in order to keep their members cooperatively engaged. These are the social processes most likely to be affected by technology that enables people to monitor reputations, reward cooperation, and punish defection. The internet and the computer would not exist today without collaborative enterprises where cooperation was essential. The internet was initially designed by hackers to be a way to create better technologies. This chapter showed how people cooperated together to create new technology. I didn’t understand this chapter as well as the others, but this is what I was able to bring out of it.

In the third chapter, Rheingold discusses peer to peer networks. Napster, one of the previous peer to peer networks, enabled people to trade music by sharing their computer memory. Most of the peer to peer technology was created for fun. The social system for sharing resources was as revolutionary as the application of peer to peer technology to distributed file sharing. The Recording Industry Association of America had to close down Napster because of copyright laws, but there were already more peer to peer programs out there. These peer to peer technologies and social contracts are reconverging with the computing devices and the mobile devices that are embedded in the environment. This chapter made it clear how technology has expanded.

First Blog

Hi, my name is Whitney and I am a junior at SUNY Cortland. I am originally from Long Island, but I recently moved to Manhattan. I like to go out and party as much as I possibly can and have a good time with my friends. I love the New York Yankees and I never miss a game.

-Whitney