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MIKE GILLIAM: Hi. I'm Mike Gilliam. Science & U starts now.
♪ [Theme Music] ♪
MIKE GILLIAM: I'm Mike Gilliam. The internet is changing our
lives in ways we never could have imagined, especially in
the ways that we get our news and entertainment.
That's ahead on Science & U.
MAGALIE LAGUERRE-WILKINSON: I'm Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson.
The internet is an amazing tool, but when seeking medical
advice it's like any other tool. You have to know
how to use it. That's ahead on Science & U.
ERNABEL DEMILLO: Hey, I'm Ernabel DeMillo. I'm inside The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, so next time you come visit here
don't forget your smart phone. I'll explain why
coming up on Science & U.
LISA BETH KOVETZ: I'm Lisa Beth Kovetz and I am sick of
creepers so I am building a portal and heading to the
nether. A translation of that sentence is coming up with
a look at Minecraft ahead on Science & U.
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: I'm Carol Anne Riddell. In our high tech
world is the low tech art of face-to-face conversation
getting lost? A closer look at the internet and social skills
ahead on Science & U.
GRANT GREENBERG: This tiny chip can help you track down
a missing pet. I'm Grant Greenberg and that's
ahead on Science & U.
MIKE GILLIAM: When it comes to technology, the internet
has certainly changed our lives and that's very evident when we
look at the ways we get our entertainment and our news.
Use of the internet has exploded.
ANTONI PIZA: I use the internet every morning to
read newspapers and to check out the news.
BOB CAMPBELL: A lot of movie watching through Netflix.
We use it as our primary source for finding out about
current events, news, sports, things of that sort.
RACHEL RAMIREZ: I use it for entertainment,
for social media purposes.
MIKE GILLIAM: When you say entertainment,
what do you mean?
RACHEL RAMIREZ: YouTube.
DMITRY KIPER: Yeah, I don't have a TV. I haven't had a TV
in like ten years so if I want to watch TV it's on my laptop.
MIKE GILLIAM: You can see just about everything online.
Brenden Koerner is a Contributing Editor for Wired
Magazine and has an up-close look at the seismic technology
shift that has brought the internet into seemingly every
corner of our lives.
BRENDEN KOERNER: I think you can argue that it's basically
the most fundamental and revolutionary change to human
society over the past 15-20 years.
MIKE GILLIAM: Guys in my office say they start their day online.
MALE 1: First think in the morning I boot up my
computer. I usually check my email, log onto Twitter.
I'll usually check ESPN. I'll check out Facebook
occasionally. Head to CNN sometimes to see what their
headlines are, anything breaking news. But usually
Twitter keeps me on top of things and if anything actually
happens in the world I can see it through here.
MIKE GILLIAM: Wired Magazine's Koerner says for many
Facebook and Twitter are their first sources for
news and information.
BRENDEN KOERNER: It's a new way of obtaining your news
because you get it from so many different streams and it's
coming from trusted sources, your friends who are filtering
in and out what they think is important. So I feel for a
lot of people it's a much more immediate way to get news
and information than going to traditional newspaper website,
as some people still do, of course. But it's a way you know
you're going to get the information and data that's
important to people that you care about and that you trust.
MIKE GILLIAM: Same thing with Twitter?
BRENDEN KOERNER: Very much so -- and I'm the kind of person
who checks Twitter first thing in the morning and it's the
same thing. It's a constant feed of information and I
know that the people I follow are people whose judgment and
curatorial abilities I trust to give me the most
important information.
MIKE GILLIAM: Technology has changed the dissemination
of news and Koerner says more changes are on the way.
Where do you see news going as far as the internet is
concerned in the next say five years? Do you think that it
will be more driven by social media or do you think that there
will be a change in the way the newspapers, the magazines
handle their content?
BRENDEN KOERNER: Well, you see right now there's an
integration of the two in a lot of ways. You see traditional
news organizations getting much smarter and more proactive
about the way they deal with social media and handle it
and understanding that the way to get their content circulated
among people is to leverage social media to their advantage.
At the same time, I think there's a real appetite for what
traditional news organizations bring to the tables, which is
the expertise of reporting, information gathering and
storytelling. So I think there's going to be an amalgamation of
those two forces, traditional news gathering and also social
media, to be something very, very powerful.
MIKE GILLIAM: The internet is also driving changes in the
field of entertainment, including the
streaming of content.
BRENDEN KOERNER: It's funny to think that when Netflix
launched their whole model was mail you DVDs through
the US Postal Service. Obviously, that already seems
archaic just a few years down the line. Certainly streaming
of entertainment, streaming of content is the future.
You can see all the major media players and tech players
trying to get it into space-- people like Google--
trying to get people to stream to TV. So that's going to be
the big trend for the next couple of years is abandoning
physical storage of entertainment strictly in
favor of streaming content.
MIKE GILLIAM: And that is allowing people to view content
on their own terms.
MALE 1: For our generation we can have our TV on one side,
we could be typing on the other side so we look stuff up.
MIKE GILLIAM: They can also binge watch TV, viewing a whole
season of a show in just a few days instead of checking
in week after week. Actors and Producers are also
taking their content directly to viewers on YouTube. Soap
opera star Michelle Stafford left The Young and The
Restless and now has her own comedy series on YouTube.
She even addressed the massive change in her first episode.
BRENDEN KOERNER: You're seeing it a lot. Obviously there
is no filter or conduit, there's no middle man if you want
to do that. It's really streaming your own creativity
to the end user and you can gain a very large following.
And obviously on YouTube you can monetize through ads,
so if you can get a big enough of a following to watch your
installments you can actually make pretty
good money doing it.
MIKE GILLIAM: But there's more. eBay has an app that
allows viewers to purchase things that they see in their
shows, like a toaster on the kitchen counter.
BRENDEN KOERNER: This has to do with the integration of
the internet and TV, which is really the next great trend
and you see Google trying to take advantage of this by
making this dongle that lets you stream anything from
your laptop to your TV screen. They want people basically
to be interacting with their TV programming through the
internet at the same time for exactly that reason,
it increases the monetization opportunities for companies.
If you see a product you can buy it instantly. That's certainly
the direction things are going right now in TV entertainment.
MIKE GILLIAM: Which way are they trying to drive people,
the entertainers? Are they trying to drive them to the
internet or are they trying to take them from the internet
and drive them back to TV?
BRENDEN KOERNER: Well, I think this is why we're trying
to connect the two. You don't want them to be separate
entities anymore, you want them to be a combination,
all one thing balled up together.
MIKE GILLIAM: Do you think that the internet will spell
the death of cable TV?
BRENDEN KOERNER: I think it's going to be very problematic
for cable TV. I think it's going to increase the demands for
a la carte programming. I think people no longer will be
confined to these bundles where they only want two or three
channels but they get 500 others they never want to watch.
It's going to create great pressure from consumers and
that's going to filter up as people are becoming law
makers that are in their 20s now are going to become law
makers in their 30s and 40s and they're going to understand
consumer gripes about the current situation, with the
monopolistic way that the cable industry is structured.
So I think that's certainly going to be something the
cable industry will have to respond to. One of the big
things that has been talked about is unbundling. I think the
other problem for them is will someone like Netflix become a
viable competitor in the cable space. We certainly see Netflix
going to original programming, a lot of services-- Amazon going
to original programming as well, trying to get people to
cut the cord on cable in favor on using Amazon or Netflix
exclusively. That's going to be a major challenge
for cable providers.
MIKE GILLIAM: We've gotten to the point now where we've
got three iPads in the house, a big screen TV, a desktop
back there. Where is all of this going to go in the
next five years?
BRENDEN KOERNER: Well I think it's exciting. I think
it's going to give people more of an outlet for their
creativity and to express themselves and to interact
with one another and people they maybe would never meet
otherwise in life. And I think that's really powerful and good
for society as a whole.
MIKE GILLIAM: What do you think it means though for news
and entertainment?
BRENDEN KOERNER: Well I think it's going to be challenging
but I have no doubt that people are going to still want to be
entertained, are still going to want to know about the
world around them, so I really have a lot of faith that
organizations will figure out a way to make it work.
MIKE GILLIAM: Wow, with all the changes that the internet
has driven over just the last few years, one can only imagine
what the future holds. I'm Mike Gilliam for Science & U.
MAGALIE LAGUERRE-WILKINSON: I'm Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson.
The internet is an amazing tool but you have to know
how to use it when seeking medical advice.
We've become a nation of do-it-yourself doctors.
The PEW Research Center reports some
80% of internet users turn to the web for health
advice and there's plenty of it. We search for
symptoms and relief from the common cold, arthritis and
stiff joints, back pain, breathing problems, allergies,
flu. You name it and you'll likely find it. But where is the
information coming from? Is the site accurate or are
they selling something? The Medical Library Association
offers simple guidelines to keep in mind when seeking
advice on medical websites. Can you easily identify the
site sponsor? Sponsorship helps establish the site as
respected and dependable. Does the site list advisory
board members or consultants? This will offer further insight
on the credibility of the published information.
The site should be updated frequently with the date of the
latest revision clearly posted. The medical information
should be presented in a clear manner and presented as fact
not opinion. Dr. Maxim Schulimovich, Attending
Physician at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, says despite
instant access to digital health information, it's important
for the consumer to understand when they're
reading advertising copy.
MAGALIE LAGUERRE-WILKINSON: So Doctor, when you're
looking for a proper medical website, what should a
patient look for?
MAXIN SHULIMOVICH D.O.: Look for the websites that end in .gov,
.org, and not .com. The reasons are basically that the .gov and
.org websites are not likely to be for profit. They are
maintained by physicians often and are meant to teach
not meant to sell you a product.
MAGALIE LAGUERRE-WILKINSON: What is your biggest challenge as a
physician with a patient who comes in and says before I tell
you anything this is what I know I have because the
internet told me?
MAXIN SHULIMOVICH D.O.: The challenge is to deal with
an overwhelmed patient who has received so much
information that they really are not very well informed.
MAGALIE LAGUERRE-WILKINSON: And a misinformed health
seeker could become entangled in a detrimental cycle of
fear, panic and self-diagnosis. For a person who's a
hypochondriac by nature, is self-diagnosis a dangerous
way to do so on the internet?
MAXIN SHULIMOVICH D.O.: For a hypochondriac this is an
absolute time-suck in a way. A lot of the for-profit websites
do create a sense of panic, of hysteria even over a lot
of what usually are benign symptoms. For a hypochondriac
it is especially dangerous. I also think that it's unrealistic
to expect the patients not to use the internet because
it is so easy and it's so vast.
MAGALIE LAGUERRE-WILKINSON: You're obviously not saying
don't go to these sites ever. But what is the happy medium?
Is it to use it in conjunction with a physician?
MAXIN SHULIMOVICH D.O.: I do think so. Come prepared.
Come with questions. Come open minded and with questions.
MAGALIE LAGUERRE-WILKINSON: Dr. Shulimovich believes that
all of us should be as informed as we can be about health
issues, but answers found on the internet should be taken
with a grain of salt.
Even if you think you've found the answer to your
symptoms, always seek the advice of a doctor.
I'm Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson for Science & U.
ERNABEL DEMILLO: Hey, I'm Ernabel Demillo. I'm inside
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, surrounded by history.
So what role does Facebook and Instagram have at this place?
Well, let's just ask the museum's first Chief Digital
Officer. Sree Sreenivasan, a veteran Journalist, Educator
and Social Media Guru, was tapped recently by The Met's
CEO Tom Campbell to lead the museum's social, mobile and
online strategy. So Edgar Degas, welcome to the world of Twitter,
Facebook and Instagram. Museums all over the world,
large and small, are going digital to reach out to a
larger audience and to make their collections accessible to
all. Museums initially used social media to advertise
exhibits or upcoming events. Now they are using technology
in a more interactive way, from virtual exhibits to user
generated content. Sreenivasan, well-known for his work as
a digital journalist, said it made sense for a journalist,
a storyteller, to make this transition to the art world.
SREE SREENIVASAN: The opportunity to work in the
digital space, to continue to tell stories. If we have
hundreds of thousands of pieces of art then each one of them
can tell a story. We want that story told to as many
people as possible.
ERNABEL DEMILLO: The Met does a great job telling these stories
digitally, taking advantage of multimedia technology
from blogs to social media and videos. One of the media team's
latest project is 82nd and Fifth, where art lovers and
historians can actually hear from the curators. The Met is
not the only museum using social media and technology to
expand its reach beyond museum walls. There is the Museum
of Modern Art and its popular multimedia page. The Brooklyn
Museum's Instagram page has more than 55,000
followers and almost half a million Twitter followers.
Can't make it to the Philadelphia Murals Arts
Program? No worries, it's all online. And you don't need a
passport to visit the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam.
You can discover Anne Frank's hiding places in this
interactive tour created by the museum's digital team.
There is tech giant Google also helping to preserve and
digitize art and history through its Google Cultural Institute.
Google has partnered with hundreds of museums and
cultural institutions around the world, bringing some of
the art world's most treasured collections alive and
connecting it with a digital audience. But some wonder if
technology will keep people from experiencing the art and
history in person. Sreenavasan believes it will have the
opposite effect. He calls it a virtuous circle.
You see on your Instagram page, on your Twitter feed or
maybe on Facebook and you think one day I hope to travel
and be able to see that in person because the experience
is definitely different from seeing it digitally and
also seeing it in person?
SREE SREENIVASAN: Sure, some people have asked me actually
if you make the online experience so good will people
then want to even bother to come. I think that what
people will say is gee, the online experience is so good,
imagine how much better it will be in person.
Even at a time when there's so much technology, when there's
so much digital stuff all around us, I'm finding that people
want to have physical experiences, they want to go,
they want to get as close to things as possible,
they want to experience it themselves.
ERNABEL DEMILLO: In fact, The Met, like many other
museums, encourages user generated content. The Met
wants people to take pictures and post their photos
online, even selfies.
SREE SREENIVASAN: We wired the entire museum for Wi-Fi
and there's free Wi-Fi wherever you are in the building.
And that's all part of this idea to connect with people the
way they want to connect and encouraging them to
capture what they're seeing and then share and tell their
stories to their friends.
ERNABEL DEMILLO: So next time you visit The Met, don't forget
your smart phone. I'm Ernabel Demillo for Science & U.
LISA BETH KOVETZ: Hi, I'm Lisa Beth Kovetz for Science
& U. If you've got kids, you've got video games. A national
study found that the average American kid plays video
games for 13.2 hours per week. A lot of that time has been
gobbled up by a game called Minecraft. Minecraft was created
by Swedish game programmer Notch Persson. The game was
released to the public in 2009. As of the end of 2013
with no advertising at all, the game has sold over 33
million copies across all platforms. Now all those
creepers and mobs from Minecraft are invading middle school
classrooms. I'm here with Michael DeMinico, a 6th and
7th grade teacher at Quest to Learn, a New York City
Public School affectionately nicknamed the video game
school. Michael's class is called Sports for the Mind.
It covers game design and media arts.
MICHAEL DEMINICO: Today we're lucky. We are using
Minecraft in class.
MALE STUDENT 1: Yeah!
LISA BETH KOVETZ: For the uninitiated, what is Minecraft?
MICHAEL DEMINICO: Minecraft is a procedurally generated
sandbox game. What I mean by that is when the kids start
playing they will go through this three-dimensional world
and the algorithm that is this world starts creating things at
random. It's really open to any kind of interpretation, which I
think that's why the kids like it. It's completely open-ended.
LISA BETH KOVETZ: So what's the point of Minecraft?
I took that question to an expert.
AUBREY TARMU: I suppose in the creative mode it's to
build something beautiful or something you're proud of.
LISA BETH KOVETZ: What do you like about Minecraft?
AUBREY TARMU: Probably the sense of accomplishment
after building something ridiculous.
LISA BETH KOVETZ: What is it about the game that made it
appropriate for a 6th grade class?
MICHAEL DEMINICO: A lot of the students have a strong
understanding of how to use the application because they use
it all the time. So they took their knowledge of Minecraft
and they started designing through Minecraft Ancient
Greece and Ancient Roman temples. Those temples really
pop and get life in Minecraft. The program is really fantastic
and really allows them to have to create very
beautiful buildings.
LISA BETH KOVETZ: So it's kind of like what we used to make
out of sugar cubes except we were limited by how
many cubes your mother would let you use. In Minecraft you're
only limited by your imagination.
MICHAEL DEMINICO: Yeah, so the way the game works
is that while you're mining or digging you gain inventory,
be it wood or types of stone, and you can use that stone
or wood or whatever it happens to be to create these
buildings, these homes or whatever the kids want to
create or whatever you want to create at the time.
LISA BETH KOVETZ: In a video game universe full of
beautiful images, Minecraft is made up of grossly pixelated
cubes so you've got wonder. Why do kids like those
cubes so much?
MICHAEL DEMINICO: It evens the playing field. It really
does even the playing field. We're all working with the same
cube. Right? So if we're all working with the same
cube, how could I make my cubes better than yours or
how could I make my cubes good for me?
LISA BETH KOVETZ: And that impulse to build something
fantastic has always been a part of childhood.
Minecraft and games like it are the cultural descendants of
blocks and Lincoln Logs and Lego. But because it's in the
digital world, the resources are infinitely acquirable and
the terrain is limitless and there's nothing to clean up
when you're done. This has been Lisa Beth Kovetz
for Science & U.
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: I'm Carol Anne Riddell. There's no
question the internet has changed our world and
enhanced our lives, but what about social skills? Is today's
high tech generation getting enough low tech
face-to-face time?
DANI DAVIS: Do you want something to drink?
Do you want some water?
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: An afterschool snack and a chance
to catch up with her daughter, Nina -- mom, Dani Davis is
a big believer in the age-old art of conversation.
But like a lot of parents, she worries about that getting lost
in today's technology consumed world.
DANI DAVIS: And then you see parents getting frustrated with
their children at the holidays because they didn't walk up
to Uncle Irving and shake his hand and look him in the eye
and say "how are you, it's so nice to see you." They haven't
been taught to do that. They don't have the repetitive
energy around conversation and communicating in person.
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: So just how connected are today's
kids? According to a survey by the Pew Research Center,
some 95% of teens ages 12-17 are online, 81% of online teens
use some kind of social media and 78% have cell phones.
Kirsten Cullen Sharma is a Neuropsychologist at NYU
Langone's Child Study Center.
DR. KIRSTEN CULLEN SHARMA: If kids are using technology and
that's at the expense of personal interactions then we
know that they're not getting as much practice with social
interactions. So people talk about social skills and social
skills development. That's such a hot topic nowadays. The word
skill is so important because it's just like anything else,
in order to get good at it, you need to have a lot of practice.
A huge part of social communication is understanding
peoples' facial expressions, understanding their tone of
voice and really being able to respond immediately to what
somebody's saying to you. The way that we communicate
through technology is just very different than interpersonally.
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: Dr. Cullen Sharma explains research
studying the potential impact of technology on the brain is
a big area of interest right now. But she points out there
are things about brain development we already know.
DR. KIRSTEN CULLEN SHARMA: The main part of the brain
that is responsible for making decisions and making
judgment is that prefrontal area. We know it's not
completely developed until our mid-20s. We really want
to work with parents on how they structure the use of technology
and the use of media because, again, with that part of
the prefrontal area with children still developing until
their mid-20s, we can't always rely on them to make decisions
for themselves or to make the best judgment about how much
is too much or when to stop.
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: Of course, technology has its
benefits, whether that's as a learning tool or simply a way
for parents and kids to stay in touch. Dani says part of the
balance in her home is device downtime for
everyone, including adults.
DANI DAVIS: If I want to make sure this behavior's happening,
I need to model it. I need to model hey when everybody's
home and everybody's around we are together, this is our time
to be together. This is not our time to be checking in on our
devices and our computers and checking out what's going
on outside of home.
NINA HOWLAND: She says just put it down, it's family time.
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: Family time.
NINA HOWLAND: Family time.
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: And that's important?
NINA HOWLAND: Yes.
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: Do you think it's important even
though I'll bet it might bug you at some moments?
NINA HOWLAND: Yes. Yes.
CAROL ANNE RIDDELL: Bottom line for a lot of parents,
moderation is key when it comes to kids and the internet,
technology with an old fashioned dose of grownup oversight.
I'm Carol Anne Riddell for Science & U.
GRANT GREENBERG: I'm Grant Greenberg for Science & U.
Let's say your pet is missing and his collar falls off.
Now a simple technology can help you get him back.
Stats show one in every three family pets will at some point
get lost. A hard fact not lost on Norman Mohi.
Mohi, a software entrepreneur, is a former Aerospace Engineer
whose company is developing a way to track a lost dog
through GPS technology. He calls it Cearch,
spelled with a C.
NORMAN MOHI: Cearch essentially is a software download on
the three major wireless platforms, such as iPhone,
Android, and Blackberry. Its purpose is to allow
mobile-to-mobile tracking between those devices.
GRANT GREENBERG: When a small pager is fitted to the dog's
collar, Mohi's software can track it well beyond a
simple dot on a map.
NORMAN MOHI: A traditional dot on a map may not be very,
very helpful in finding him. What Cearch does that is
different is that, in addition to the dot on the map, it has
a patented feature that points in the direction of the person
or in this case being a pet that you're looking for relative
to where you are and where you're facing and heading.
GRANT GREENBERG: Like a compass pointing north,
the arrow on display points directly to your lost dog and
measures an exact distance right over your phone.
NORMAN MOHI: Cearch, as a technology, will allow you to
find anyone or anything, including pets,
very easily, accurately.
GRANT GREENBERG: While Cearch is now undergoing
field tests, a proven way to recover your lost pet
is presently available at your local vet.
JENNIFER C. FEENEY, D.V.M.: What we're going to do is we're
going to inject this little microchip that's about the
size of a piece of rice under the skin in between her
shoulder blades. And hopefully we're going to do that without
her noticing, so we'll see how this goes. A little poke --
what was that, what was that? That was it. It takes a second
and a half. It's in already.
GRANT GREENBERG: A second and a half is all it takes to
ensure you're pet comes back home. We visited the Somerset
Veterinary Group in East Bridgewater, New Jersey,
to get a closer look.
JENNIFER C. FEENEY, D.V.M.: Basically a microchip is not
that much different than getting a routine vaccine.
The needle's a little bit bigger but not much and really they
don't mind very much getting chipped.
GRANT GREENBERG: Six to eight million pets a year enter
U.S. shelters. Many are lost family dogs or cats who ran
off or just got lost. But they can be happily reunited with
their families through the science of microchip
technology. Linda Block is with HomeAgain, a pet recovery
service who believes the most important gift you can
give your pet is a microchip.
LINDA BLOCK: It utilizes RFID technology- Radiofrequency
Identification. So it's basically just a radio wave
comes out of a reader and picks up a unique identifier
in the microchip.
GRANT GREENBERG: A scanner like this one will indicate the
presence of the chip containing your personal identification
code as registered in the database of the
recovery service.
LINDA BLOCK: In the database at a pet recovery service like
HomeAgain, that's where you would put your contact
information, your sister's contact information, your
mother's contact information, a photo, medical information,
behavior information that you would want whoever's
finding your pet to know to be able to take care of your pet.
So if your dog gets lost, any vet, animal control, shelter can
help find you and reunite you with your pet.
GRANT GREENBERG: Getting your pet chipped is smart and easy
on your budget. It's not painful, requires no anesthesia
or surgery, there's no hospital stay, there are no batteries,
it doesn't move around and it's permanent.
LINDA BLOCK: The average cost of implanting a microchip
by a veterinarian is approximately $40-$45.
Included in that is the registration of the microchip
and then there's an annual fee of $16.99. When you
register a microchip, you get lifetime registration
in our database.
JENNIFER C. FEENEY, D.V.M.: Every dog, every pet
should be chipped.
GRANT GREENBERG: A tiny chip or satellite tracking,
either way we can have our pets where they belong --
with us. I'm Grant Greenberg for Science & U.
MIKE GILLIAM: That's our show for today. Thanks for joining
us. I'm Mike Gilliam. See you next time on Science & U.
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