Reflections on artificial intelligence, technology, the internet, social media, and digital culture. These essays explore how technological change is reshaping education, creativity, communication, and everyday life. Also writing about hosting a personal webpage for over thirty years. www.rjgeib.com
‘Men have become the tools of their tools.” Henry David Thoreau So I have authored eight blog posts since I stopped posting to Twitter three months ago, and pretty much gave up all social media. Those eight essays cost me me many hours and much sweat to write. But they have also been enormously gratifying … Read more
Back in the early days of the Internet it was not uncommon to have a “personal webpage.” It was in this environment that I started my own. More than twenty years later the topography of the Internet has changed. Fewer persons use “computers” (desktop or laptop) to access online, and use their “mobile devices” (cell … Read more
Happy 20th birthday to my personal webpage! On October 9th of 1997 I started this online experiment. The date today is October 9th in 2016. Twenty years afters its inception my online presence still lives. And today I celebrate this fact. Over twenty years my work on rjgeib.com has waxed and waned, to be certain. … Read more
We approach the twentieth anniversary of my humble domain, rjgeib.com. It has been my creative home on the Internet. I have worked on it, then let it languish; its progress has mirrored that of my own life. My online life waxes and wanes, largely dependent on what is happening in my offline life. Extreme exertion … Read more
The main reason I enjoy Facebook, despite all the petty posts and sophomoric banter, is that I can keep tabs on my former students, to some degree. Christian P.? What college is he attending again? Megan L.? Is she still with the Italian boyfriend and working for the Red Cross in London? Facebook usually allows … Read more
Today I read yet another article about cord cutting, and how the business model for cable TV in the United States is changing. The idea that one must pay for many channels in which one has no interest in order to get the few one does. The cable companies are, they say, fighting a long rearguard … Read more
As I write this, it is the 19th anniversary of the birth of my webpage. I look back with fondness on the excitement and novelty at the dawn of the Internet circa 1996 when “early adopters” such as myself flocked to the World Wide Web to communicate and explore the artistic possibilities. To this day … Read more
A TALE OF TWO POSTS In the past few months, I have added two posts of note to my webpage. The first deals with reflections on my personal past, my professional present, and…. the future? The second deals with the last days of my friend, Chris Prewitt, and his sudden and tragic death. Not many … Read more
“Once Every Three Years…”Tedious and exhausting grunt work, not the less important for being so. An operating system will degrade over a few years, and there exists the unpleasant but necessary duty every three years or so of getting a clean start: the upgrade to the computer system. And so after almost a week of … Read more
NEONATAL FACEBOOK PAGE: A FULLY DIGITAL LITTLE GIRL“Born in March of 2007, my daughter Julia will lead a 21st century life.” CHANGE VS. CONTINUITY: A FATHER AND HIS DAUGHTER The other day I read yet another cover article about the “threat to privacy” we Americans supposedly suffer. In 2007 we enjoy over a decade of … Read more
Steve Jobs wants you to buy his new iPhone! The new Apple iPhone went on sale this morning, and customers camped out to be the first in line to buy one. I do not understand this. Someone please help me to understand. Why is this such a big deal? I cannot see it. As I … Read more