Interesting Readings/Concepts

After reviewing some of the readings we were assigned this semester I think that I especially enjoyed/appreciated the readings on facebook and creating your own identities online. So with that said, I found the concepts like uses and gratification, process gratification, and content gratification. These readings stood out from the rest, for me, simply because I use facebook all of the time and consider myself to be Internet savy. I think at the back of my mind, I always knew that I posted certain pictures and comments for particular reasons but to have the reading really point what I was doing out to me and define it was very interesting (I hope that made sense). I guess, it was interesting to see that there was even a communication concept for what I was doing, because I had no idea that it was that big of a deal. These readings also made me become more aware of how I was representing myself on and off line and how others were portraying themselves as well.

What I have learned/Favorite/Least Favorite/Improvement

Like Professor Perez, I am actually a bit sad that this class is coming to an end. Comm 131 New Media/You Media was my first ever online class and I have to say that it has also been one of my favorites. What I like about this class was how easy it was to follow and I really appreciated the interactivity between both the students and classmates and students and professor that was achieved through blogging. Having blogging as your weekly assignment was great! It was actually really fun and easy to use. I also really enjoyed going onto the class blogspot and reading over Professor Perez’s overviews and summaries of each of our readings. Not only were they insightful and straight to the point but they sure beat being stuck in a classroom listening to a lecture for an hour and a 15 minutes. One last thing that I definitely appreciated about the class and about our instructor was how easy to reach Professor Perez was and how quick she was to respond to our questions, concerns, emails, etc. I think my least favorite thing about the class (and I think this could go for any online class or pretty much any class in general) was how it could be so easy for a student to forget a due date or to turn in something on time. I think with online classes you really have to read posts and directions thoroughly or you could potentially miss a very important note or detail. This is something I learned early on this semester. And it was a mistake I definitely tried not to make again. I think one way to improve this, would be to have more reminders posted, but then again what was done in class should have been enough and it really is on the student. Lastly, I really really enjoyed the content of the class. New Media/You Media is something I really enjoyed learning about and a topic that I have found that I am actually pretty interested in. I loved learning about different ways to communicate and interact on line and the affects and results that come along with it. I also found the evolution of media to be interesting and the whole creating/finding your identity online interesting as well. Overall, awesome class! And I would definitely take another online class with Professor Perez again!

The World Wide Web

“The World Wide Web” was basically a break down of just that, the World Wide Web. Some may have found this article not too interesting as a majority of it was spent defining Web lingo (making it come off more as a science book than anything else), but it’s break down of the lingo is what I appreciated most about the article and I found myself really trying to understand the in’s and out’s of the online world.

Before this article, I always wondered what HTTP and HTML did, but always just brushed it off and just generalized them as just being somethine that makes the World Wide Web work. And I’m glad that I am now able to identify each part as it’s own entity. From what I understand the Web is basically a pool of human knowledge (something I found to be quite obvious). The Universal Resource Identifiers (URL) is plain and simple: the address for informations, webpages, blogs, etc. The HTTP indicates the address space, and defines the interpretation of the rest of the URL. And the HTML is used for the transmission of basic things like text, menus, and other online information.

Now, aside from all the terminology one other point from the article that I found interesting was how it stated that emails are the most used internet service. It then went on to state that such technologies like the television and video game consoles are giving the email a run for it’s money. This is something that I completely agree with as now you can do so much more with the television and video games.. you can search the net, call someone, video chat… all our technologies can be compiled in one console. Very interesting.

Will and Kate take over the Internet

I’m sure many of you have heard, read tweets/statuses, and seen on the news talk about the Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton. It was an event for the decades. And according to CNN Tech it was the sixth-biggest Web event ever.

According to John D. Sutter’s article entitled “Will + Kate = sixth-biggest Web event ever” the global Internet traffic generated by the royal wedding peaked at 5.3 million page views per minute at about 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, beating out President Obama’s election on November 2008 which only received about 4.3 million page views per minute.

Millions tuned in both on and offline to catch a glimpse of the spectacular wedding. The royal family themselves even live-streamed the event from their own personal youtube account. So many were able to watch the event in real time and if not they were able to watch video clippings of the event online as well. The wedding was even a trending topic on sites like twitter, “#royalwedding”, where people were able to comment and keep track of Will and Kate’s every move.

This is a great example of just how far the Internet has come in terms of live streaming video and being able to receive your news online through websites and blogs. The interest in the royal wedding online does show how the Internet is changing the way people look for and consume information.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/04/29/royal.wedding.internet.traffic/index.html

Virtual Death

When I first began reading the article I thought that this was a great way to utilize the Internet. I thought, “Thanks to community media like blogging this ill little girl and her family are able to reach out and inspire thousands across the world while at the same time receive support in return”. And then I came to find out that it was a hoax. I wasn’t just surprised, I was disturbed. I mean we all know about liars, but this?

One quote that stood at for me came at the beginning of the article: “The Internet did not create grifters… If anything, the net has just changed the dynamics of the game” (p.200). After reading that I thought about the final paper I did for this class. My topic was community media (specifically blogging) and how community media allows any individual to basically create, share, or follow whatever content they so choose on the Internet without the constraints of web publishing. The Internet really has changed the game, we now face the job of deciphering what to believe not only off line but over the web as well.

This article also reminded me of our first few reading for this class on how SNS and new media allows us to create our own identities. One idea that the article touched on that I found especially interesting is how people are able to “authenticate” these false identities and realities online through web links, pictures, and other web-friendly signals. The article stated, “A conventional signal can be given the appearance of an assessment signal by faking the appropriate signifiers and the malleablility of signifiers in a digital environment like the web makes it difficult to establish one signifier as more authentic”.

The Internet makes it easier to lie, doesn’t it?

Would You Sign My Kindle?

“Would You Sign My Kindle” by Stephanie Rosenbloom is an article from the New York Times- Tech World link that I found relevant to the “The End of Books” reading that was assigned this week. In the article Stephanie Rosenbloom asks her readers a question many fans may or may not have wondered with recent advancements in technology: Why isn’t there a way to have autographs done through technology?

Rosenbloom then goes on to reveal that there is in fact a new program called “Autography” that will allow it’s users to do just that. Autography is an online app for both the Ipad and EReader created by T.J. Waters and Robert Barrett. Autography ebook “signing” works by having a reader pose with the author for a photograph, which will be taken by an iPad camera or any external camera. The image will then be sent to any EReader, like Kindle, and then the author uses a stylus to scrawl a digital message below the photo.

I thought that this article was relevant to “The End of Books” because with this new app there really will be no reason (well, besides support) for a fan to carry or buy an actual physical book of from their favorite author because now they can have their Ebooks signed. Ebooks not only work as a compact and more efficient library but can now double as a autograph book. Interesting.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/fashion/14NOTICED.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy

Karen McCullagh’s “Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy” basically discusses the new media concept of blog sites and the privacy issues that go along with blogging. While writing the article McCullagh conducted a survey from a pool of bloggers. The survey touched on such topics as how open bloggers are online, how comfortable they are online, and what they do to maintain privacy.

In the article “privacy” is defined in three different ways: 1) The right to be left alone, 2) The claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated to others, and lastly 3) privacy protects against conduct that is demeaning to individuality.

McCallagh also writes on DeCew’s thoughts on privacy and how he believes privacy is a complex of 3 related clusters of claims that concern information about oneself, physical access to oneself and decision making and activity that provide one with the independence to create their self-identity through self expression and interpersonal relationships. The three clusters are: 1) informational privacy which centers on the notion of control over ones personal information, 2) accessibility privacy which protects against traditional privacy violations, and lastly 3) expressive privacy which concerns an individuals ability to freely choose, act, self-express and socially interact.

I, myself, am a blogger. I own and use a blog that is more like a personal journal. And I thought it was interesting when McCullagh listed the information that she considered needs to be kept private on blogs: information regarding others, emotions, sex/relationships, arguments, financial information, work, healthcare information, and other information like illegal activity, and political and religious beliefs.

When I first started blogging I actually touched on many of the subjects listed above.. but only because I knew who was following me (friends and family) and did not mind if they knew these particular things, but as my following broadened to people I do not know I am now very conscious of what I share and post.

The End of Books

I really enjoyed and appreciated that Robert Coover’s “The End of Books” was fairly short and very to the point. It made for an easy and interesting read. This chapter focused on the concept of hypertext, which is term coined by populist Ted Nelson over a century ago used to describe the writing done in the nonlinear or nonsequential space made possible by the computer.

Prior to reading “The End of Books” I was pretty familiar with the concept of both reading and writing works through cyberspace and by using technology. But through the reading I learned the exact term for the concept. I also learned that unlike print text hypertext provides multiple paths between text segments now often called “lexias”, hypertext presents a radically divergent technology that is both interactive and polyvocal and lastly, I learned that hypertext frees the reader from domination of the author and that the reader and writer are said to become both co-learners and co-writers.

One thing that I found incredibly interesting is how hypertexts uses such things like the change in font size or style to represent a change in character or mood/attitude in writings. I myself enjoy writing fiction and use this as a tool as well. I also found it interesting how writers and non-fiction writers in general are now able to self publish their own works online through such sites as Intermedia.

9 Reasons Why You're Addicted to Facebook

Via All Facebook Link



http://www.allfacebook.com/nin-reasons-why-youre-hooked-on-facebook-2011-04

Navigating Technomedia

Sam Han’s Navigating Technomedia was a fairly easy read that focused on the three eras of media (Mechanical, Electric, and Broadcast) and each of their histories. Through the reading I learned that the mechanical era is defined by print and being able to lock words in space. I learned that the electric era is defined by the invention of the telegraph and how telegraphy proposed the possibility of written communication no longer being bound by physical space (as did the invention of the telephone during this time). And I also learned that the broadcast era helped to mass distribute information through such things as the radio.

One of the more interesting facts that I learned through Navigating Technomedia is that while these three eras are very different they all need one another to exist and to be effective. Technomedia is defined by interoperability between devices and medias do not replace one another but instead they work within each other. Technologies of the past and the future incorporate one another.

The idea of technomedia and how it incorporates technologies and does not replace them reminds me of the evolution of the cellular phone and how different the cell phone is now as compared to cell phones of let’s say 5 or so years ago. I recently broke my smart phone and had to revert to an old cell phone of my father’s. The cell phone I am using now as a replacement phone isn’t that old at all, it was probably release in 2004 or 2005 but the differences in this flip phone when compared to the my smart phone are obvious. In just five years the cell phone went from simple graphics and just being able to send out receive calls and text to today’s phone which incorporates the internet, a camera/video camera, and an mp3 player among other things. By the cell phone picking up the qualities of a camera or iPod it still did not replace them it is just incorporating them. And it’s funny to think that now a “standard” cellular phone is not one that is just used for a phone conversation but instead it is one that call send texts, search the internet, take photographs, and play music.

Personal Dynamic Media

Through Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg’s essay “Personal Dynamic Media” I learned that the idea of today’s standard notebook/laptop was brought on by the desire to make computers more useful and available to everyday people of all ages. I also found it quite surprising that this idea was being formulated in as early as the 1970’s.

“Personal Dynamic Media” discusses the Dynabook which was basically the beginnings of a laptop. The Dynabooks goal was to be able to meet all and any needs of it’s user from storing files, to reading books, and even making art and music. By reading the article I learned that the Dynabook was successful in achieving these great ambitions. The notebook had an animation program called SHAZAM as well as a music program called TWANG. The Dynabook was also able to store and manipulate files and information, and read books.

I found this read to be incredibly interesting, especially since the essay included many pictures. While reading the article I couldn’t help but notice how the Dynabooks programs like SHAZAM and TWANG are very similar to programs we have today like Microsofts Paint and Apple’s GarageBand. I was amazed at how far we have come in technology in just 30 or so years. I loved seeing the beginnings of what is now a laptop and how it has progressed so much.

Second Life

Delia Dumitrica and Georgia Gaden’s “Second Life” very much reminded me of Suely Fragoso and Nisia Rosario’s “Just Like Me Only Better” in that they both touched on the subject of Avatars and life online in a virtual world. One of the main differences I noticed between the two articles was that while Fragoso and Rosario’s reading spoke on identity in Second Life, Dumitricia and Gadens paper discussed gender and gender roles in Second Life.

The reading opened with discussing how Second Life is now not only a game but is always used in universities and all around the world to showcase virtual versions of famous landmarks and countries. But I what really interested me was their autoethnographic study in Second Life and how the two writers discovered just how gendered and sexualized Second Life could be.

The two writers wrote that upon first entering Second Life they felt scared and ashamed to be a woman in the virtual world. Gaden professes asking herself, “Should I be a woman? This world is unknown to me as a woman. I suddenly feel afraid and vulnerable.”

The writers also mention how one of the first things they noticed in Second Life was the way the other Avatars looked. Both male and female Avatars had gender perfected bodies. The males had six-packs and pectorals while the femails had big breasts, slim waists and long legs. I was also disturbed by Figure 1 of the article which showed a snapshot of the game. The snapshot was a picture of a very sexualized advertisement that was supposedly by a virtual shopping center.

It’s obvious that Second Life was created by and for men aka pigs.

Apple Sales May Be Affected by Current Events in Japan

Miguel Helft article Some Worry That Success of Apple is Tied to Japan From the New York Times link discusses how the recent tragedies in Japan are affecting the stock market, more specifically Apple Sales. The recent occurrences in Japan have understandably halted most, if not all, factory production for numerous companies in the country including Apple and many car brands.

The release of Apples new IPad 2 coincided with the horrific tsunami in Japan and as of now the demand for the IPad is significantly high while production remains in short supply. While it is still uncertain if the Apples shortage on the product is related to Japan’s current events, it is quite a possibility. Helft states in the article that “Apple’s supply chain in Japan will not affect finished products for weeks” but that “some investors fear that Apple’s challenges in meeting demand for a product like the iPad 2 will simply get worse in the months to come as some critical components are delayed.

For now, Apple solution seems to be to restock stores with the product in small amounts. For instance, in New York’s meatpacking district only the first 20 people were able to buy an iPad and in another Apple store at the Mall of America in Minneapolis only 6 were allowed to be sold.

We’ll have to wait and see how long this solution will last.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/technology/23apple.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Free Computer Power and Human Reason

Joseph Weizenbaum’s “Free Computer Power and Human Reason” discusses the first ever conversation computer program, ELIZA, which was able to parody as a Rogerian doctor by running on a set of scripts called DOCTORS. The creation of ELIZA brought many concerns, one being that people who see the computer as able to assume the intimate and human role of the psychotherapist are unable to draw the boundaries between the proper use of computer technology and computer applications that should be used with caution or not at all. I believe that the main worry at the time was developing computer technology so much that it could blur the line between man and machine and that the main point of the reading was to state/reiterate that there are important differences between man and machines as thinkers.

I found it interesting that even back in the 1960s where technology was a fairly new concept and very limited (compared to today) many still found it scary to think about how technology could potentially take over the world. And if you fast forward to the now, technology has pretty much taken over.. if not the world then our lives. I don’t believe we have yet founded a technology similar to ELIZA that can produce human feelings and thoughts, but technology has taken over in that we have become so dependent on such things as our laptops and smart phones.

Tsunami Updates

I am sure by now, most of you have heard about, read about, and watched footage of the massive earthquake in Japan that is now causing tsunami warnings all around the world. I, myself, hadn’t heard the horrific news until I came home around 1 in the morning yesterday to a flood of status updates on the matter on both my Facebook and Twitter accounts. And I’m not too sure, as sad as it sounds, if I would have even known had it not been for the Facebook updates commanding me to turn on the TV to CNN. Facebook is serving as a giant discussion forum with people around the world. It's almost as though we are all in the same room together sharing our thoughts on this current event, but in reality we're all coming from different parts of the world. It's quite amazing.

The article “Tsunami Posts Flood Facebook, Dozen Per Second” from the All Facebook link discusses how not only are people using Facebook to keep updated on the news and share their views but a great amount of the posting on Facebook are coming from people who are directly in the center of all the chaos. People of Japan who do not have phones or phones that are currently working are also utilizing Facebook to send word out to friends and loved ones.

I myself know of several people who are currently in Japan and social networking sites like Facebook are proving themselves to be extremely helpful in both keep up with the news and keeping in contact with them.

The Technology and The Society

One term discussed in “Technology and the Society” that caught my eye is technological determinism, which is the theory that societies technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values. From what I have seen and experienced so far, I find this theory to be quite true. I remember being just a kid in the 90s when Ellen Degeneres first came out as gay on her television show “Ellen”. I also remember the big “hoopla” that occurred because of it. Now fast forward 10 or so years into the new millennium and topics like “coming out” or gay relationships really aren’t that big of a deal anymore. It’s almost becoming as normal as a heterosexual relationship being portrayed on television (as it should be). I can name you at least three cable television shows that now have both gay characters and gay subject matter, and I think that by portraying these topics and characters on mainstream television we are in fact affecting our societies structure as well as cultural values. Kid’s growing up today are learning that being gay is okay by seeing it on TV. I guess in this case, it wasn’t necessarily the new technology that brought on this social change but the subject matter brought through our Television screens.

Another social change that I can think of that was and continues to be brought on by new technologies is our new sense of openness and our needs for immediacy when it comes to what we say and share on social networking sites and how long it takes to send out and receive messages. Just from reflecting on how much our society has changed and grown in the past 10 years from these technological advances makes me wonder what new changes are to come in the future.

As stated in the introduction of this article: “It is often said that television has altered our world.” And in fact, it has.

Just Like Me Only Better

“Just Like Me Only Better” was a fun read. I especially enjoyed the article because I’m a bit familiar with Second Life (due to seeing a documentary on it: MTV’s True Life) and it was nice to read up on some background information about MUVE’s and the logistics of it. The article definitely reminded me of social networking sites and how people can pick and choose how they represent themselves on those sites. On sites like Facebook, you create your persona more through your comments, statuses, and pictures. But on MUVE’s you represent yourself through your “digital body” aka your Avatar.

What I found most interesting about “Just Like Me Only Better” was that despite the variation in nationalities and ethnicities in the Avatars, most Avatar’s characteristics seem to follow a contemporary Caucasian pattern of beauty. And that although the Avatars looked similar to their users in terms of skin color, and hair texture they differed in that their facial characters we’re made to look more Caucasian and their bodies were built to be more perfect (slender, tall, muscular, etc.)

These leads into the articles discussion on one’s “3 bodies”: 1) the physical self; 2) the digital self; and lastly, 3) the imagined self. The readings on this slightly confused me, but correct me if I am wrong, the digital self is what represents one’s imagined self or the mental construct that the individual makes of his/her own body.

Overall great read! And now, I must go find all my old Sim’s discs…

Boy Diagnosed through Community Media

article: http://www.allfacebook.com/u-k-doctor-diagnoses-boy-with-leukemia-via-facebook-2011-03

Uses and Gratification

            Like I had with “Community Media”, I really enjoyed “Use and Gratification” because it was just so relatable to my own life. As I read through the chapter I found myself mentally check marking off all of it’s main points and categorizing them as: things I recognize other people do, things that I do myself, and things that I did not even realize I did until the reading. It was quite entertaining.

            The article mostly touched on things that I was already familiar with because I am a frequent user of SNS. Yes, I use SNS for entertainment, and to gather information, and to relax, and for immediacy, etc., etc. And yes, I find SNS to be very convenient because it allows me to pretty much do anything I need to do: message, chat, make announcements, share ideas, and “stalk” all on one website. haha.

And while I knew most of these things, I did find one point that caught my eye: process of gratification which is defined as the performance of the activity like creating content on ones profile. I, myself, do find it gratifying as well as enjoyable to mess around with my Facebook profile, Twitter account, and Tumblr blog. Not only is it fun to know that people are going to see what I post and exciting to wait to see if anyone replies to what I post but it’s interesting to construct how I want to present myself to the public. And that kind of relates to a point that was made by Dye at the very beginning on the reading: “new medium has created a new generation of individuals whose identities are define by their connections and the content they produce online”.   

Thank God for social networking sites!

Community Media

I actually found “Community Media” to be a very interesting read as I was able to relate it to my own life and what I experience on an everyday basis from being apart of so many community networks. Some of the more interesting points I learned from the chapter was that community media does not represent politics or beliefs but instead represents the individual and the community and that people are learning to participate in the media to a point where it has become normalized. In my Comm 181P class: Internet Communication we just had a discussion on how people have become to comfortable with being open with themselves on social networking sites and online in general. Being open on the internet and through media has become so normal for this generation. And I found it interesting how this reading and the discussion I had in that class sort of relate. Advances in digital technology has raised a generation that is comfortable with being open online and it has also raised a generation that knows to utilize community media to represent themselves to the world.

The most interesting point to me was how the reading stated that community media is not just “do it yourself” but instead it is “do it yourself your way”. Today, we have so many options for people to “do it themselves their way”. We have Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and Youtube.

I know on a daily basis I see friends and peers on Facebook posting up links about current events that they find interesting. And not only do they just share the link but they add headlines to it stating how they feel about the subject. And on Twitter my newsfeed fills up with peoples thoughts on the conclusion of a sports game, or on who got voted off of a television show. 

Redbox and Netflix

In Ben Patterson’s Yahoo New’s article “Redbox May Take Aim at Netflix with Subscription Video Service” we are informed that Redbox is now in the works for having an online streaming library very similar to that of Netflix. As of now, Redbox is a dollar a day video rental vending machine that is owned by the company, Coinstar. While the movie rental options in it’s vending machine form is of little variety, upgrading to streaming video would allow Redbox frequenters a new library featuring hundreds of choices.

If Redbox does, in fact, follow through with their streaming video library they would be going up against the popular Netflix and Sonic Solutions (who is reportedly also in the works with the streaming video business). Who will prevail in sales in the end is still in the air. While right now, Redbox only charges one dollar a night for it’s video rentals this price is likely to change as they add streaming video to it’s features.

Redbox’s current competition, Netflix, has recently launched an 8-a-month streaming-only plan in the U.S. and Canada. We’ll have to wait and see how Redbox executives decide to price their streaming business, if and when, their plans for a streaming library follows through.

What’s really interesting is seeing how in just a matter of 10 years or less we have gone from having to go to a video rental store and renting our movies face-to-face, to now not even having to go to a video rental vending machine but instead simply pressing a button on your remote control or clicking your mouse and having your movie of choice stream directly to your screen. Developments in technology seems to be slowing chipping away at the need for an intermediary for business. Long gone are the days, where we needed to go to the store to buy things we need, for now we have online shopping. And it looks like  it’s going to be a farewell to a lot of our video rental stores seeing that now we can do that online as well too.

Article:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20110217/tc_yblog_technews/redbox-may-take-aim-at-netflix-with-subscription-video-service;_ylt=An0HE.q0atRdgQ1U8dsnIwsjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTRmb2hkYzVnBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX3RlY2huZXdzLzIwMTEwMjE3L3JlZGJveC1tYXktdGFrZS1haW0tYXQtbmV0ZmxpeC13aXRoLXN1YnNjcmlwdGlvbi12aWRlby1zZXJ2aWNlBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bl9hcnRpY2xlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDcmVkYm94bWF5dGFr

Message in a Bottle

To be honest, I found “Message in a Bottle” by Marshall McLuhan quite difficult to follow. Especially when he started referencing old movies and literature like Shakespeare. What helped though was Googling “The medium is the message” and looking it up on Wikipedia (see how dependent we have become on technology and the World Wide Web..haha!). But yes, Wikipedia’s summarized version of McLuhan’s text helped my understanding a bunch.

I spent a lot of time (embarrassingly enough) going over this particular line from the reading: “A light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, yet it is a medium that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped”. And what I got from this particular line, please correct me if I’m wrong (no, seriously.. please.) is that the medium is really the effect that the message has on it’s audience and not the content of the message itself.

From the article I also learned that it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. 

Consequences of Online Social Networking

Adam Acar’s “Antecedents and Consequences of Online Social Networking Behavior: The Case of Facebook” touched on what I believe are some pretty obvious topics. In the article Acar states that online social networks and real life social networks are significantly different in size. And that he believes that real life social networking should be significantly larger than online social networking since real life can include family members and people you actually interact with face-to-face. He also states that this should be the case because OSN’s are usually exclusive to students and those of a younger demographic.

I am not sure what year this article was written, but I am pretty sure his beliefs are slightly outdated. Online Social Networking sites like Myspace.com and Facebook.com are no longer used exclusively, but are now open to the public and being used by both older and younger people.

It seems like more and more often I am hearing friends joke around about how they just received a Facebook friend request from their mom or dad or aunt or uncle OR even grandparent. It’s pretty funny. I took have received such invites, I have even started receiving friend requests from my younger cousins (ages 10 and younger) which makes me question their need to be on Facebook or Myspace in the first place.

I also found it interesting that the article stated that any two strangers can be connected by 6 nodes and that any two members of an OSN can be connected to each other with an average of 4 nodes. This just goes to show you how many more people are starting to use online social networking sites. From grandparents to little brothers or sisters Facebook is taking over the world making the difference in size between real-life social networking and online social networking larger and larger. 

Social Media Accelerates Egypt's Revolution

I had heard about the situation in Egypt in passing for about the past month now. I would hear people speak of it in the halls, I would catch a glimpse of it on the news as I passed through the living room to leave my house, I would see headlines in the newspapers, but being that I am a full time student who holds two jobs, and tries to keep at least the most minimal amount of a social life, I never really had the time to sit down and really read about it or to sit down and really take the time to understand the news reports on CNN and Fox News (I know, I am a bit disappointed in myself as well). What was a big help through was being about to log onto the Internet on my smart phone. I could be in class or eating lunch and log on to Facebook or Twitter and see numerous status updates, comments, and blogs on friends and acquaintances thoughts on the Egyptian Revolution. These social networking sites helped keep me informed, as well as aided in the Egyptian Revolution itself.

In Sam Gusten’s article “Social Media Sparked, Accelerated Egypt’s Revolutionary Fire” on Wired.com Gusten discuss just exactly how Facebook and Twitter made an impact on the Revolution. Social media expert and founder of PaidContent, Rafat Ali, states that “Facebook helped to organize the activists inside the country”, while “Twitter functioned to help get the message out to the broader world.

Ali also told Wired.com that social networking sites “act like an accelerant to conditions which already exist in the country. Twitter and Youtube serve as amplification for what’s happening on the ground. And they directly affect Western media coverage.” Through social networking sites like Facebook and  Twitter, world news is able to reach all across the world and affect the lives of even the most busiest of people, myself included.

Article: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/egypts-revolutionary-fire/

Quality of Online Relationships

“Quality of Online Relationships” compares electronic communication (communication done over the internet or through the telephone) to the more personal face-to-face conversation. And after examining the uses of the internet and analyzing surveys on which communication device people tend to use most, the article comes to the conclusion that the Internet is less effective than other forms of communication in creating and developing relationships and that online relationships are characterized by less communication and are weaker than offline relationships.

Seeing that the article is a little outdated as it was written in 2000 and it’s surveys and studies were conducted in the 1990’s, I have to say that the idea that Internet communication is less effective than other forms of communication may no longer be the case. The studies for this article were based on the only Internet communication we had back then, the email. While the email proves itself to be an essential and very useful part of our everyday lives, it’s functions are also very one dimensional. The email can only relay messages and information back and forth. While today we have online social networking sites, texting and instant messaging which can do a bit more than just relay messages. Through texting and instant messaging we can send messages in real time and through social networking sites we can get a feel of what the a person is all about through their profiles.

I do agree that nothing is more personal than getting know someone face-to-face. But I also think that Internet communication has proven itself to be extremely useful in helping develop the relationships we make with others. The Internet can and in my own personal experience has improved the quality of my relationships.

I have met people at school events or personal functions and exchanged numbers or facebook URLS and I found it helpful to get to know them through online networking first before getting to know them face to face. For me, it kind eases the process of breaking the ice in a face-to-face setting. 

Man-Computer Symbosis

When I first started reading “Man-Computer Symbosis” I neglected to notice the year of which this particular article was written. So as I continued with the reading I found myself thinking, “Don’t we have technology like this already?” and “This sounds really familiar”. Until finally, amidst all my confusion I decided to scroll back up to the beginning and scan for a date: 1960. Ahhhh, that makes complete sense!

I thought it was interesting to read an article written in 1960 on the hopes and expectations for technology coming from my standpoint in 2011, a time where we have not only have these predicted technologies but are exceeding all those past hopes and expectations.

Beforehand, I had never in my life heard of such a thing as “man-computer symbosis”: the cooperative interaction between men and electronic computer. Nor had I ever heard of the “mechanically extended man” where the human operator supplied the initiative, the direction, and the criterion and the computer machines would aid in the labor, and/or help man’s thinking process or problem solving. But as you can see, technology and computer intelligence has done far more than just that for mankind. Computer intelligence has especially aided the way we communicate (as we have learned in the past few readings).

1960 to 2011 is not that long of a time span if you really think about it. We’ve come along way in 50 years. And I am extremely curious to see where man and the computer take society in the next 50 years. 

Online Courses, Still Lacking That Third Dimension

So far in COMM 131P a few things have been brought to my attention: the use of the written letter has been overthrown by the use of the email, phone calls have been replaced by unlimited texting and IMs and finally our growing technological developments and advancements has brainwashed us with the insistent need for immediacy.

What could possibly be next?

In Randall Stross’ article Online Courses, Still Lacking That Third Dimension he brings up the very real idea that one day face-to-face classes could possibly be replaced with online classes. And not even your typical teacher teaches via email online classes at that, but instead by online classes that do not even require an instructor.

Stross even states that such online courses are already in the works, “The Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University, which has developed about 15 sophisticated online courses, mostly in the sciences, spent $500,000 to $1 million to write software for each.” And while online courses taught only by computer software are already available, no one, including Carnegie Mellon University is ready to put them to use.

One reason for this is that students cannot interact and do not receive vital feedback about their own progress that an instructor and classroom setting provides. And that online classes have the highest drop out rate. And this reason in particular was one of my main worries when registering for COMM 131P's online course. (I'm sure you can imagine my relief when I discovered that our Prof. was a blogger who has the tendency of being available on yahoo chat in the wee hours of the morning). 

Anyway back to the topic at hand:

But the need for teacher-student interaction could just be based on the subject being taught. For example in a math class of 600 students, you wouldn’t receive much one-on-one interaction anyway. So in this case a completely computerized online software could just work out.

We’ll have to wait and see where this idea takes itself in the next couple of years. 

ARTICLE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/business/06digi.html?_r=1&ref=technology 

The Evolution of Media

When I first began reading “The Evolution of Media” I didn’t really expect much from it and I certainly didn’t expect to be as interested in the reading as I had been. I figured that the evolution of media was pretty simple: we now have computers, cellular phones, and the World Wide Web and we once, well, didn’t.

But as I read on and as I took in the history of the letter and the printing press I found myself picturing what life would be like if I were not able to talk in real time through such conveniences like texting and AIM. And it sort of, in small words, blew my mind. And while I can picture how life would be like without my unlimited texting, I also know that I probably, in all honesty, wouldn’t survive. 

In this chapter the author points out that “writing in all forms was an important innovation for conquering distance and time” and that “space and time were conquered by the written word”. Hundreds of years ago people could only write stories and messages on stone tablets, the stone tables then evolved to papyrus paper, which was then followed by the typewriter and a little further down the road the word processor and so on and so forth. As our technologies advanced the gap in the distance and in the time became smaller and smaller. We used to have to wait days for a letter to come in the mail and now we can just hit send on our email account and our words arrive to it’s destination within seconds. Through the evolution of media the problem of distance and time is no longer relevant.

Which brings me to another important point brought up in this chapter: the need for immediacy. I think as a society and a culture we have definitely become way too spoiled by these technologies. We want quick responses, fast answers, and little waiting time. But unlike the author, I do not believe that through this evolution we have lost personalization and intimacy. “In a personal letter, the written word can be very intimate. People tend to express intimacies in a love letter that they would never express face-to-face,” this is still true for texting and email, it’s just now our intimate words arrive faster. J


-She's So Unusual

Be Who You Want to Be

I don’t think Kim Modolfsky could have picked a better title for her article on social networking and identity. “Be Who You Want to Be”, Facebook as well as many other social networking sites allow you to do just that: be exactly who you want to be or at least seem like it.

With sites like Myspace we were always posed with the question: “What or even who is real and isn’t?” as social networking sites like that allowed their users to present themselves in which ever way they pleased. They allowed things like false names and information. But as technology, internet communication and social networking as a whole has progressed and developed we are no longer questioning fact from fiction but instead we are presented with the task of deciphering between what is social and what is personal. How do we tell the difference between our social selves and our personal selves?

And the fact is we really can’t, can we? I completely agree with George Hebert Meade’s argument that our “self appears through social behavior or that identity affects the formation of personal identity” and his definitions of the “ME” (the social self) and the “I” (the response to the “me”, otherwise known as the personal self). We define who we are by looking at ourselves through other people’s eyes. We wonder and worry and are completely in engrossed in other’s perceptions of us. And as a result of this our personalities and characteristics are shaped by outsider’s perceptions.

-She's So Unusual :) 

Hello!

After reading the syllabus and discovering that our first assignment of the semester is to create a blog and, well, blog I am not only relieved but (embarassingly enough) excited for my first online course.

Last semester, I switched majors from English to Communication Studies. And while I still think English is a beautiful language, I've come to learn that I just do not care much for Medieval Literature and trying to decode works written in old English. I mean come on, really? Headache in the making here.

So why Communication Studies? Over the course of my college career (all 2.5 years of it) I have discovered that public speaking and relating to various audiences (of whatever demographic) is not only something I enjoy doing, and am interested in, but something I am apparently pretty good at as well. I found out this little piece of vital information about two semesters ago when I took Communications 101 with Professor David Terry. And Communication Studies has been on my mind ever since.

I have yet to pinpoint a career for my major. And while that's totally scary, it's also kind of fun too. I'm sorta just feeling my way through life. Ideally, I'd love to be a screenwriter or work back stage in production somewhere. And I am currently debating on whether I should minor in Radio-Television-Film or Creative Writing. We'll see. Whatever happens, happens. And if it doesn't.. I'll make it happen. You know?

HELLO...

COMM 131P!!!