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Cognitive Surplus

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In this day and age, individuals advocate a spirit which is to get together to help these helpless people and they appeal to own a same world. Shirky calls it surplus, and he gives the meaning of cognitive surplus, which is “it represents the ability of the world's population to volunteer and to contribute and collaborate on large, sometimes global, projects” (Shirky). Individuals are willing to do the things benefit to others and the world, and they are trying to use the social media as a platform to propagate their information and belief. Aftering reading the chapters in “Cogntive Surplus” and watching a TED Talk which Shirky gives to people, I get some new idea of social media, and understand more how the cognitive surplus will change people’s…show more content…
Internet plays an important role to collect people all over the world. People in social media present their opinion freely in several aspects, such as political, economics, entertainment, even their life experience. Clay Shirky mentions the example of Ushahidi. There is violence in Kenya after its election in 2007. At that time, the government announces a blackout of social media. People in Kenya cannot get the information about what happened in their country and where is the violence. Thus, there are two programmers lunch Ushahidi, which can locate the place of violence and let the public know. When people realize the Ushahidi are useful in their life, Ushahidi becomes a public platform to transmit the current event and uses in people’s daily life. People like to invent new things in order to make their life easier. People are not only concern to maximize their self-interest. People pay more attention on the society and eager to make contribution to this world. The cognitive surplus makes people selfless to the…show more content…
The social media makes people not alone, and they can find people who have the same interests like them. They can stand for themselves on social media. When they share their own opinions, they might influence and change others’ behavior and also communicate with others. People regard cognitive surplus as a new lifestyle, people utilize it to create a new community which to satisfy their life demands. The world cannot be perfect, and in everyone’s eyes, the world is different. The cognitive surplus is the tool to help these different people get in touch with each other. People realize the greatness of social media because it does not limits people’s possibilities. People cannot be professional at everything, but they can have their spare time life, which to do the things that like without chasing any return. Thus, the cognitive will satisfy people’s desire, and give everybody an opportunity to achieve their own value. These people’s contribution is undoubtedly to make the world get better. People will appreciate to live in this information community. Due to the development of social media, individuals can discover their talents and understand their self-worth. Therefore, people are positively through the cognitive surplus to change the
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