Blog 4: Gleick 125-143

Gleick writes early in the chapter that in 1849, "already railroad time was telegraphic time" (125). Why was this so? How did the invention of railroads lead to time zones? What are the implications of differences in the velocity and magnitude of transporting information and transporting things? Are those differences today getting larger or smaller, and what do you see as the effects of that trend? Find at least one Web link that supports your opinion and quote it and link to it in your blog post.

Gleick first writes about how railroad time was initially similar to telegraphic time. Telegraphic time is represented by the transfer and receiving of information through long systems of wires. The railroad is similar to this because of the idea that telegraphs carried information while railroads carry people and things. Time zones initially came about because people used to follow the time by where high noon was. So in different places across the world high noon was at different points in the day. This allowed the railroad to travel along with only taking a couple of hours. Condensing the travel time helped in aiding the time zones to be permanent. Time zones helped train travel because when they had to travel to places that were further it made scheduling (arrivals and departures) more accurate/easier to plan.

Today the difference in velocity, magnitude, and transporting information and things has increased. I believe that they way that we get information has increased. Now we have access to many different ways of getting information and things. Since the internet people can move information easily, but not all of this information is exactly good information. In my Sociology 430 class we discussed the way that news has changed due to social networks and news sites. People use social networks to share information then that information gets passed on to their friends. Just because we have access to the information and things easier but the problem with this today is the type of information that is getting passed around. Just in the last couple years a dozen celebrities "died" when in real life they didn't.

This is a link to an article on Forbes.com written by Ryan Holmes who owns a social media management system with five million users. Ryan states that "in the nine short years since Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com, social media has evolved from dorm room toy to boardroom tool. Last year, 73 percent of Fortune 500 companies were active on Twitter, while more than 80 percent of executives believed social media engagement led to increased sales." This may seem normal to us growing up surrounded by new social medias being developed every day. Having companies attached to social networking gets there things and information out there for ht world to see. This seems to be increasing the velocity in which information and things can be distributed. The speed at which information is being uploaded and distributed is increasing dramatically over the years more and more information (good or bad) is being digested by people on social media and just the internet in general.