Ted Talk Response #4( Clay Shirky)

I think Clay Shirky's message was very important. Cognitive Surplus is society using each others free time to create something good. Everyone has a different talent and everyone has different motivations that can help each other. I think we need to move towards the fact that society needs to do things from intristic motivation, doing things because we want to. We have always had motivation now we just need to use todays amazing technology to increase what we achieve. I also liked when he was talking about how even if something is stupidly creative, it is still creative and better then doing nothing. I found it so interesting how at the daycares, the late arrivals increased as the fine increased to, you wouldn't think this would happen but because the guilt from the parents was removed and they knew they were paying for the extra time, they kept coming late. Something that I am very passionate about is realizing that everyone has a talent and that we can build off of each other. He talked about designing things for generosity and intristic motivation not just to get a reward. I think our society is not "celebrating" our free time wisely. We put people down and focus on competition instead of working off of each other like in the website Ushihdi. We see this even in school, its all about who gets the best grades and the most recognition but what school is really for is to fill our children to knowledge and change the world when they get the chance to. We all have creativity we just need to switch our potential from communal to civic. I liked how he backed up all of his info with graphs and pictures but that was not the whole point and the audience didn't get away from what he was trying to say. I believe, along with him that society can grow together through our amazing technology and are drive to change and create, not to be rewarded and gain for only ourselves. His presentation style drew you in and made you focus, however I think he did skip around a little bit. His eye contact, hand movements and his pacing made him seem very invested in what he was saying. His voice was a little monotoned though. His idea of cognitive surplus was hard to grasp but important. I think you need to really pay attention or go back to watch it again to really get it. I don't think a Ted talk should be like this because you need to reach out to the people and tell them what matters and get them to understand. With the amazing things going on in our world and the ability to create cognitive surplus, this is what separates our society from those in 1984 and Little Brother. By using these ideas we can change what some are predicting our future. I think the ideas Clay Shirky has are complex but worth listening too.