Blog assignment 2 (ENGAT2)

How would you measure success?

If you ask this question you’ll find that some people measure it by how much money they earn. Some might say it’s by the career path they’ve chosen. Some people might even say that they measure it by the state of their health. It feels like the majority of people nowadays measure it by their materialistic possessions such as art, jewelry, and the amount of cars that they own or the size of their house.

At a younger age I can recall measuring success in terms of how many friends I had. If I was liked or disliked.

If you search for this question on-line you’ll get thousands of hits. My eyes went sore from browsing through the first few pages. The reason wasn’t sleep deprivation or a low quality computer screen. The reason for my sore eyes was that it seemed that everyone had an opinion on what/how I should be doing in order to be successful. Books, seminars, courses, meditation and even organic foods are just a few of the ways to attempt improvement of your success according to some of the results on-line.

Now, the right to different opinions in all honor, but it feels like something has gone missing from the earlier stages of one’s life. As I mentioned two paragraphs earlier I could recall measuring success as a child by the amount of friends I had. This makes me reflect upon exactly what it was that could cause a person to be liked/disliked. Personality. Something that came from the inside. So why is it that so many people, for some reason, start measuring success with things that come “from the outside”?

It is my humble opinion that success is measured individually and should only be decided by oneself. If you feel successful, who is to say that you aren’t? I guess it’s up to what type of scale you use. It’s different for everyone.

So I ask you – how would you measure success?

Blog assignment 1 (ENGAT2)

One of the many things that i think about from time to time is privacy. Usually my thoughts revolve around the ever-decreasing amount of privacy we are left with from day to day. The reasons vary greatly. Some reasons for giving up privacy are said to be for more advanced and “intelligent” programs. Other reasons are said to be for our own "security”.

During the coming 5 year period I believe one will still notice, given that there is a keen level of observance, the small steps taken in the direction of less privacy in return for more "security” and “more suitable” programs. It is my understanding that since the changes are so small they are barely noticed, if even noticed at all. 

The following 40-45 years will most definitely, in my opinion, have shown great changes and will probably have reached a state where privacy is a privilege and not a right. I think it privacy will still be available, only to a great cost. Only then, when we have lost it, will we realize its true value and maybe try to regain our rights in return for slightly “dumbed down” programs and processes. 

These thoughts of mine are based on what I constantly run into and read/hear from different news sources. The small changes in societal trends on what is considered ok, the tiny bits of information that keep being asked of one when registering a product or an account anywhere, the databases containing personal data that are being sold behind the curtains. All these small and, to many, unnoticeable changes that keep pushing the limit of what people allow to be acceptable parts of their privacy being public. All these, and many more, reasons are what makes me think that we soon won’t have any privacy left in the future.