My Final Video Blog

Favorite Concept

There were so many interesting concepts that we learned about in this course. However, my favorite would have to be the Uses and Gratifications theory. For one thing, I enjoyed reading that article. I thought that the study that was conducted was very interesting and insightful. The idea of the Uses and Gratifications theory is that people use mass media and other forms of communication to fulfill their needs and wants. The theory looks at people’s motives to communicate and the consequences of such behavior. I just find this theory very interesting. The article proposed that people use social networking sites to “experience selective, efficient, and immediate contact with others for the (mediated) interpersonal communication satisfaction and as an ongoing way to seek the approval and support of other people.” I think that they are absolutely right. Social networking sites are great places for people to enhance relationships. There is a level of immediacy that motivates people to use social networking sites. Before reading this article I hadn’t really thought about Uses and Gratifications theory. I remember learning about it a while ago but this article really helped me understand it. It also related the concept to social media, which I found very interesting.

Interesting Readings

I have really enjoyed this course material. The readings were so interesting and I learned a lot from them. I found the Second Life article to be incredibly interesting. Avatars are something that I have wondered about for a while now. This article talked a little bit about Second Life and the culture of it. It kept my interest and I think that is why I liked it. I also liked the Be who you want to be article. I thought a lot of the concepts that Ellis talked about were very interesting. She pointed out that Facebook is different than other interactions online because we are ourselves. We use our own names and our own pictures. I also liked the point she made about users selecting their profile pictures. She said that was a way of communicating because the user chooses based on how they believe others will respond. That really made sense to me. The last article I enjoyed was The End of Books. I just found the hypertext concept very interesting. I am a huge advocate of books and don’t think that I will ever convert to reading electronically, however it was interesting to learn about another viewpoint.

Facebook Cyberstalking

When reading the article Facebook Prank Backfires on Two Preteen Girls I was shocked. Two girls aged 11 and 12 obtained the Facebook password of a classmate and posted sexually explicit content on her profile. The girls are being charged with cyberstalking and first-degree computer trespassing. I thought with all of the publicity about cyberbullying, kids would know better than to attack other kids online. However, what I am surprised by most is how young these girls are. They must be in sixth grade. It makes me sad that even young girls feel they must bully others.

The article doesn’t talk about how Facebook played into the girls being charged. This is the first case I have heard about with cyberbullying using Facebook as the medium. A few years back, Myspace was a popular cyberbullying site.

I am glad that these girls will be taught a lesson. However, in the end they are just kids. One has to consider how much punishment is too much. I think that the parents of these girls also need to reassess their parenting style because at 11 and 12, kids should not be hacking into another person’s social media site to post inappropriate information. I guess in the age of the Internet, being 12 is a lot different than when I was that age.

If you would like to check out the article you can find it here: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-prank-backfires-on-two-preteen-girls-2011-04

The World-Wide Web

I found The World-Wide Web article very interesting. I still find it so fascinating that the Internet became popular not that long ago. This article was written in 1994 and the World-Wide Web has come so far since then. First of all, we don’t even refer to it as the World-Wide Web anymore. Secondly, the Internet has grown larger than I think anyone anticipated. I for one don’t know what I would do without Google, let alone the Internet.

This article discussed a few main ideas. The first one talks about what the World-Wide Web is. When the article talked about Gopher and WAIS, I had never heard of those Internet services before. The World-Wide Web definitely outlasted them.

The article also talked about where W3 is going. I find this interesting because of course we already know where it went. However, the Internet is still growing and expanding so I think it will be interesting to see where we go from here.

I am not the most technologically savvy person so I liked learning about what some of the Internet lingo meant. The term that I found most interesting was HTML. I had no idea that it meant Hypertext Markup Language. Overall, the article was very informative. I feel like I understand the evolution of the Internet a little bit more now.

A Virtual Death and A Real Dilemma

I found A Virtual Death and A Real Dilemma a very interesting article. I still can’t believe that someone would make up a virtual cancer patient. We all know that the web is place where we can take on different identities, but in my opinion, adopting the identity of a terminally ill teenager just seems wrong.

The article brings up some interesting ideas about online communities. The article states, “in online and offline contexts alike, the true test of a community is not how it manages during times of harmony, but how it confronts crisis.” I find this very interesting. It is very true. You can also tell a person’s character based upon how they react in adverse situations.

I learned about assessment signals and conventional signals. Assessment signals are difficult to fake and can usually be considered trustworthy sources, whereas conventional signals are much easier to fake and therefore have less credibility.

Being a part of an online community takes trust. The story about Kaycee Swenson should be used as a lesson to not believe everything you read online. However, I don’t think that people should not believe anything they read. I think that just being cautious is the safest way to go about conducting yourself and getting involved on the Internet.

Facebook is a Helpful Tool for the Elderly

I found this article incredibly interesting. My grandmother has Alzheimer’s so memory loss is a common topic in my household. I find it very interesting that using Facebook can possibly stave off memory loss. I guess this makes sense because when you are stimulating your brain and keeping it engaged, it should work better. This article stated that in a study, the elderly people using Facebook demonstrated better cognition and were more on the ball.

Something that I found very interesting is that over 1.5 million seniors have a Facebook profile. I find this statistic very surprising. My grandfather can’t even input new numbers into his cell phone. With all of this new technology, I think it is great that people are finding ways to keep the elderly more engaged. I also think social networking sites are a great tool for the elderly to stay in touch with family members that may not live close. In any event, if the elderly are willing to try Facebook, and even gain something from it health wise, I think we should all encourage our grandparents to consider it.

If you would like to read the article you can find it here: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-helps-stave-off-memory-loss-in-elderly-2011-04

The End of Books

I found The End of Books, very interesting. I am one of those people that is fighting against getting a Kindle. I like reading books the old fashion way. I like the way turning the page feels. I love going to the book store and seeing what new books are on display. Sadly, I think that the old way of reading is on its way out the door. Technology has come along and made reading paper novels a thing of the past. Bookstores are filing for bankruptcy because people can now download books onto their personal reading devices.

This article addresses something similar to what I am talking about. The article talks about hypertext. The way it is explained is that people can go in and change the story as they go along. I had never heard of this before. I think that it is an interesting concept, however, not something that I would want to do. I found the example about all the different bartenders interesting, if not a little disturbing.

I guess hypertext is a way for people to really let their imaginations run wild. It is a very interesting idea and something that I might try once, however I am not sure how much I would enjoy it. I think I will stick to the plain old paperback books that I have grown up with.

Blogging: self presentation and privacy

I enjoyed reading the article Blogging: self presentation and privacy. Privacy is something that I am always aware of when writing anything whether that is a blog post or simply an email. At a very young age, my mom told me to never write something down that I didn’t want around forever. With the Internet, even if you try to delete something, once it is out there, it may never truly be deleted.

This article talks about the issue of privacy while blogging. The article stated that there were three types of privacy: informational, accessibility, and expressive. I found expressive to be the most interesting because it talks about how when people know they don’t have any privacy they behave differently. They don’t share as much about themselves. While blogging, I fall into this privacy category. I try to provide personal details, however not too much. I am constantly thinking about who has access to what I am saying. Like one of the participants stated, it’s possible for employers to read what you write. We can relate this back to Facebook. When I was working on journal 4, I learned that some companies look at Facebook profiles when deciding on potential employees. With the Internet making everyone so accessible, it is important to always be aware of what you write down because you never know who is going to read it.

Facebook Terror Alerts

If you would like to check out the article, you can find it here: http://www.allfacebook.com/government-to-issue-terror-alerts-on-facebook-2011-04

Personal Dynamic Media

I enjoyed reading Personal Dynamic Media. I thought a lot of the information was interesting. Something I really enjoyed is the fact that this article was written in 1977 yet some of the things they predicted actually came true. In fact, the picture of the mock-up or a future Dynabook looks a lot like the iPad. I also enjoyed reading about their expectations. They were excited about font changes, and what looks like paint shop. I remember using old computers when I was in elementary school, and they did minimal things. I think they had a couple games but not much.

I learned that computers have really come a long way in a relatively short period of time. It is hard for me to understand, just because my life has become so reliant on computers and the Internet, however, there was a time when things were not quite so easy. Lastly, Kay and Goldberg wrote that they were worried about the Dynabook collapsing under the weight of trying to be too many different tools for too many people. I found this amusing. Computers today do much more than what they wrote about. This article was written just over 30 years ago, it is hard to imagine what technology will become in the next 30 years.

Navigating Technomedia

I really enjoyed reading Navigating Technomedia. I found the material very interesting. I also liked that McLuhan and Licklider popped up again. I think one of the main points in the article is that “increasing affordability of technology as a great stepping stone toward progress, democracy, and unity.” I think this is a great point. With more people being able to afford technology the population is able to advance at similar speeds. Also, keeping in touch with people far away becomes much easier. Thomas Friedman pointed out that he saw “the Internet as a media technology upon which a global and democratic collective conscience could be built.”

I think another main point would be when the article talked about the invention of the motion-picture camera. I found it incredibly interesting that the first film was about workers leaving a factory. I don’t think most people would go see a film like that now. However, in its time, I am sure that was groundbreaking technology.

Lastly, I think the overall main point of the article is that technology is ever changing. Now that we have become dependent on broadcast some new technology will undoubtedly start making an impact in the next few years. It also seems that even though most technology is built off of previous technology, once the new technology is introduced, the previous technology is soon forgotten. We are seeing this with newspapers a little bit now. Not that newspaper print is the most advanced technology, however, now that people use the Internet to find out their news, newspapers are having a hard time staying in business. I think the advance of technology is very interesting and I am excited to see where we go from here.

More Than Half of U.S. Adults Use Facebook!

If you would like to read the article, you can find it here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110325/ts_alt_afp/lifestyleusitinternetfacebook;_ylt=Amiouwg1IgDbUXvVZTTJ4Xx5Hrd_;_ylu=X3oDMTM1dGp2bm0zBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDExMDMyNS9saWZlc3R5bGV1c2l0aW50ZXJuZXRmYWNlYm9vawRwb3MDMTYEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDbW9yZXRoYW5oYWxm

From Computer Power and Human Reason

I really enjoyed reading the article From Computer Power and Human Reason. I found it very interesting. I particularly liked the part about ELIZA playing doctor. The conversation that was included was very insightful. I wouldn’t think that someone would open up to a machine, but I guess that is what happened. The other example was when Weizenbaum talked about how his secretary was talking to ELIZA and then asked him to leave the room. I thought that was pretty funny.

I think one of the main ideas is that people become attached to technology. The article talks about people forming emotional bonds with machines such as cars and musical instruments. I can totally relate to this. For example, people are super protective of their cars, computers, and cell phones.

Another main idea from the article is on page 372. It talks about man’s reliance on machines. The author talks about how men can explain the computer’s intellectual feats only by bringing to bear the single analogy available to them: their model of their own capacity to think.

This whole article, and ELIZA in particular, reminded me of the computer that was on Jeopardy. The computer could think and answer questions similar to ELIZA. However, I think ELIZA was a much less advanced machine than the one on Jeopardy. It just shows you how far technology can go.

Second Life

I really enjoyed reading the Second Life article. I have heard of Second Life before on various TV shows like the Office and CSI: NY but didn’t really know a lot about it. This article really gave me a good idea about what Second Life was about. What caught my attention the most in this article is that it’s possible to buy body parts. I could not believe that. I also found it interesting that gender stereotypes are the same in Second Life as they are in real life. However, it seems that Second Life is much more sexually based than real life.

When thinking about Second Life, I would think that it would be easy to adapt. However, the article taught me that it took awhile to get adjusted. The authors talked about how they felt fearful about joining this new world. One even avoided having conversations with other avatars. All in all, it seems that Second Life is almost like real life on steroids. Stereotypes are everywhere, the avatars can teleport, and the whole environment is sexually charged. I think that if I were to join Second Life, it would be helpful to learn about it first so I am not caught completely off guard. This article was definitely helpful in providing some insight into Second Life.

Stolen Ring on Facebook

I came across a very interesting article today on All Facebook. The article is about how a young couple is in trouble with the law because of a stolen engagement ring. The girl posted a picture of the ring on her Facebook page saying how much she loved her boyfriend. Her cousin ended up recognizing the ring. It turns out, the ring was stolen along with some other items from his friend’s house. He told some friends and one of the friends told the police.

Now the couple is facing criminal charges for theft. It just goes to show, you should be careful what you post because you never know who is going to see it. Obviously, it is a good thing that they got caught however this can apply to anything. I remember a while ago, I was reading an article about a woman who had a friend traveling in Europe. The friend saw a picture of the woman with her family in a store window. It turns out, this store found the picture on either Myspace of Facebook. Social media sites are great tools however they definitely have some down sides.

If you would like to check out the article you can find it here: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-picture-of-diamond-ring-lands-couple-in-jail-2011-03

The Technology and the Society

I enjoyed reading The Technology and the Society. I thought that it was a very interesting article. I think one of the main ideas is that television has altered our world. I think that is a true statement. Just think how much our lives revolve around TV. Most people watch TV to get entertainment and to find out information. Advertisers use TV to attract consumers and sports use TV to gain viewership and more fans. If you think about it, how often do you watch TV? I have at least one TV show a night that I “can’t miss”.

Another main idea is that “an increased awareness of mobility and change, not just as abstractions but as lived experiences, led to a major redefinition in practice and then in theory of the function and process of social communication.” This is so true. The article states “but in a period of great mobility, with new separations of families and with internal and external migrations, it became more centrally necessary as a form of maintaining, over distance and through time, certain personal connections.” If you think about Facebook that is exactly what it is used for. Facebook is used to share pictures, and information with people that you don’t see on a regular basis, or even with people you do. I know that I joined Facebook for this very reason, to share pictures and information with my friend who moved to Oregon.

Just Like Me Only Better

I thought the whole article Just Like Me Only Better, was very interesting. This kind of reminds me of when we were talking about how people represent themselves on Facebook. Of course people are going to create idealized versions of themselves. People go to Second Life to escape their real life so why shouldn’t they be able to be who they want. I thought it was interesting that this study focused on nationality and ethnicity and found that the Caucasian features were the most common. I could have guessed that women would make themselves more slender with larger breasts and more feminine features. It was also predictable that the men made themselves more muscular. I liked that the authors pointed out the one large black woman. I like that she stayed true to herself. She must really be secure with who she is. I think that this would be an interesting study to look into further. I feel that the information was limited and if more avatars/ people were observed, there would be some very interesting data.

NFL Tweets

You can find the article here: http://techland.time.com/2011/02/22/nfl-players-twitter-use-expresses-discontent-in-real-time/

By the way, I am not sure why the video screen is so big. I am still trying to figure out this whole vlogging thing :)

Uses and Gratification Theory

I really enjoyed reading the article about uses and gratification theory. I found it very interesting. I remember learning about uses and gratification theory before however, I had forgotten about what the theory actually said. The article defines it as a psychological communication perspective that focuses on how individuals use media and other forms of communication to fulfill their wants and needs.

I think that SNS are a great source to examine the uses and gratification theory. As we have been discussing, people use SNS to connect with people and represent themselves how they want to be seen. The Wollfradt and Doll Internet Motivation scale states there are three underlying motives for using the Internet: information, interpersonal communication, and entertainment. SNS can achieve all three motives. People use SNS to gain information about others; they can use it for interpersonal communication and for entertainment.

I really liked some of the responses the authors got from their study. I liked that people admitted that it is convenient to have conversations via SNS. It allows you time to think about your responses instead of needing to answer instantaneously. The participants also talked about how they liked to look at other people’s profiles but felt uncomfortable when others looked at theirs. The participants were using SNS to gain information however they did not like sharing some of their information with others.

All in all, it was a very interesting article. I would be interested to see what a larger study would show.

Community Media

I really enjoyed reading the article “Community Media.” I support the idea from Stephen Coleman that the issue of representation isn’t that we want to talk to our politicians directly but we want them to know what it feels like to be us. I think that is a great point. So often, it seems, politicians feel so far away from us. Of course we vote them into office but once in office, they always seem to be removed from the people. Just think about it, once senators and representatives are voted in, they move from their home state to Washington DC and they are, not only geographically further away from those they represent but their thought processes seem to change as well. They aren’t working at the fast food restaurant or the grocery store around the corner. The people don’t want to sit down with their politician and talk about ideas but they do want to feel communication isn’t just a one way street from the politicians to the people.

I think that community media is a good thing because, like the article said, it shows us that not every person thinks the same way. The article states that we may not want to know the people who think differently than us. However, if we are exposed to their thoughts and opinions on a regular basis, ‘we might be less surprised by the world.”

My First Vlog

Sorry about the quality of the video, I'm not sure what it is so fuzzy. I hope everyone is having a good term so far.

Egypt Turns Off Internet

I have been fascinated with the protests that went on in Egypt. The Internet and social networking played such a key role and was in the spotlight for much of the protests. Even now, after the President resigned, we are still hearing about the connection with the Internet. The protests were fueled largely from Twitter and other social networking sites. That is how people decided where to meet along with other things. Another big Internet story is how the Egyptian government turned off the Internet. This is an incredible feat that could not have been easy. We have all heard the stories about censorship in China and other places but I have never heard about the Internet being almost entirely shut off to an entire country. That is exactly what happened in Egypt. The Internet was down for five days before being restored.

This article basically talks about how perplexed engineers were that this happened and that they are trying to figure out how the government did it. It also talks about how this might spark similar governments to do the same thing in times of unrest.

The Egyptians were saying they realized how much they relied on the Internet. It certainly makes you think about how important the Internet is to us.

If you would like to read the article you can find it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/technology/16internet.html?_r=3&pagewanted=3&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1297926014-k2hfcE9nXov5K4ZAobQT7g

The Medium is the Message

I had a hard time reading this article. I found myself getting lost a couple of times because there was a lot of information to absorb. I did enjoy reading the article though. I found McLuhan’s ideas interesting. He stated that electric light was a medium. I had never thought of that before. I guess it makes sense. McLuhan stated that it “eliminates time and space factors in human association.”

I have always only thought of media as television, newspaper and radio. I guess there is so much more that can be included. In the case of light, McLuhan looks at it as a medium even though it does not contain content.

Later in the article McLuhan said, “Before the electric speed and total field, it was not obvious that the medium is the message.” He goes on to say that the content was the message. People would ask what a painting was about but they never thought to ask what a melody, a house, or a dress were about. I found this very interesting. I would never think to ask what a house is about. In my opinion, a house is just a house. McLuhan has an interesting way of thinking. I still don’t completely understand all of his ideas but I think that he has some interesting points.

Consequences of Online Social Networking

I really enjoyed reading Consequences of Online Social Networking Behavior. The authors chose interesting aspects to look into. I thought it was very interesting that the higher the users self-esteem the fewer social network friends they have. I didn’t understand this at first but after thinking about it, the user probably only has friends that he/she has met in person. There is nothing wrong with people “friending” strangers online but for the people with over one thousand friends, I think it is a little excessive.

Another interesting finding was that gender plays a role in the amount of social network friends a person has. I guess that makes sense because out of my friends, I only know of girls who are obsessed with Facebook. They are also the ones with the outrageous number of friends.

For me, I don’t like to friend people that I haven’t met. I will occasionally do it but not often. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule. There must be some guys out there who are constantly on Facebook, “friending” anyone they can find, but like I said, that is the exception.

U.N. Ambassador Hosts Town Hall Meeting on Twitter

Political officials use town hall meetings as a way of hearing what the public has to say. I have heard of town hall meetings that take place in person, or even on the phone. However, after reading US ambassador to UN hosts town hall at Twitter HQ I found out that some hold town hall meetings online. This definitely brings these long standing meetings into the twenty first century. Ambassador Susan Rice took questions via twitter from around the world. I think that this is a great tool for politicians and government officials to interact with a large group of people from a lot of different places. The Internet definitely makes things more convenient. She also discussed the fact that social media had an impact on the recent uprising in Egypt. Social media is a very powerful tool and I think that the popularity of it has definitely exceeded expectations.

You can find the article here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110210/ap_on_hi_te/us_un_ambassador_twitter;_ylt=ArSu0rEGi8u6Saf3VmN1_yojtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTJ1Z3N1YTM3BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMjEwL3VzX3VuX2FtYmFzc2Fkb3JfdHdpdHRlcgRwb3MDMTQEc2VjA3luX2FydGljbGVfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawNmdWxsbmJzcHN0b3I-

The Quality of Online Social Relationships

I found the findings from the article The Quality of Online Social Relationships very interesting. The findings were not surprising to me at all. The study looked at the closeness of relationships and how that related to communication habits. They examined three different modes of communication: face-to-face, phone, and email. Not surprisingly, the researchers discovered that face-to-face communication was used more with closer relationships. I found this very interesting because I totally agree with it. I love email because of its convenience, but when talking to people that I am close to, I prefer talking on the phone or in person.

I think the finding about how email is as good as talking on the telephone and in person for getting schoolwork done was very interesting. I completely agree. I think that email is a very useful tool for schoolwork. Email makes group work so much easier. Instead of always meeting with your group, you can just send a mass email to everyone in your group and the information only needs to be sent once.

Another important finding was that respondents didn’t feel as close to their Internet partner as they did to their non-Internet partner. This makes sense because when meeting with someone in person you have a whole other dimension of a relationship. People are able to see nonverbal communication and sometimes that can be more important than the words coming out of someone’s mouth.

Man-Computer Symbiosis

I really enjoyed reading Man-Computer Symbiosis. There was a lot of interesting information that I had never heard before. I am someone who refuses to let technology take over my life. I won’t pay bills online for that very reason. I do think that computers are useful but I think that we are becoming a little too reliant on them. In section 1.2 the author talks about “mechanical extension” where mechanical parts of systems were used as extensions of man. However, now when we look at things, man is there to help out the system as opposed to being helped by it.

I found the section about memory very interesting. I had no idea there were different kinds of memory. I have seen crime shows where they talk about recovering information off of hard drives even after it has been deleted but I didn’t know the inner workings of the computer. The article stated that the computer cannot erase indelible memory. With all of this information, it certainly should make people think twice about what they do on their computers.

Censorship in China

I decided to look at an article from The New York Times that talked about China cutting the public off from searching about Egypt. We all know that there is unrest in Egypt and we have all heard before that China has a tendency to censor anything that might be damaging to the government. China is reporting on the riots in Egypt but they are not allowing the citizens to learn about it through the Internet. Two of the nation’s biggest online portals blocked Egypt as a keyword search. China’s equivalent to Twitter also blocked Egypt as a keyword search.

The article states that since social networking sites have fueled the protests in Egypt, the Chinese government will no doubt further scrutinize those sites. Social networking sites allow people to express themselves and I think in America we take that privilege for granted. We experience little to no censorship. Even though the political unrest is taking place in Egypt, China still managed to capture the spotlight because of its continuous censorship issues.

You can find the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/world/asia/01beijing.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Evolution of Media

I found The Evolution of Media to be a very interesting article. I of course knew that we didn’t just get the Internet out of nowhere. It has been a long process that has made communicating over long distances a whole lot easier. I really enjoyed learning about the history of the written word. I also learned what some of the computer “lingo” actually stands for. For instance, I thought that a modem was a word, however, after reading the article I learned that modem stands for modulator-demodulator.

One of the main points I would like to address is that fact that people use email now because it is so immediate. Our society has gotten very spoiled in the fact that we don’t have to wait for what we now call “snail mail.” I think that writing letters is a lost art. I wish that I did it more often. I too am guilty of using email because it is easier than phoning someone, talking in person, or writing a letter.

Another main point is that the “growth and acceptance of the Internet has greatly benefited email.” Email could have been another passing fad but instead it became a great tool that is tremendously useful for personal and professional use. Email is not without a downside though. We have all received countless spam emails that we would prefer to not get but I guess that is just one of the sacrifices we have to make. Just like the author, I too try to keep my email address limited to only people I know. I actually have two email addresses, one I use for my actual emailing and the other I use when required to give an email address but don’t want to give it out.

The last main point I would like to discuss is the fact that through history we have tried to make communication more accessible to the masses. It began with writing on stones then we moved to paper. The telegraph came next but that form of communication was limited to the few who could interpret. We have now found a way to communicate quickly and easily and most everyone has access to it. Email seems to be the easiest way for people to communicate the written word. It is quick, easy, and inexpensive. I think that society has come a long way in perfecting the written word. I am excited to see where we go from here.

Be Who You Want to Be

I really enjoyed reading Be Who You Want to Be. I thought it was a very interesting article. I was one of those people who fought against joining Facebook for a very long time. My friend finally made one for me and I enjoyed looking at status updates and sharing photos but never became obsessed with it. Now, I probably go on Facebook once a month or so just to stay updated on what is going on in my friends’ lives.

I found it very interesting when the author talked about how our “Facebook identity is a choice, an object we choose to project.” I think that is absolutely true. We obviously want to be perceived as the best version of ourselves on Facebook. I also found what Tara Brabazon said to be very enlightening. She stated “the drip-drip-drip of micronews about ‘friends’ on Facebook is corroding our capacity to determine the important, relevant, and significant.” I think that is incredibly insightful. People post the most mundane information as status updates and people look at it as news. I don’t think people are confused about the difference of importance between “military build up in the Middle East” and “shoe shopping” but we might be on our way there.

Introductory Post

Hello Everyone,

I am a senior at SJSU and looking forward to graduating in May. I am a big sports fan and enjoy watching football, baseball, and hockey. My teams are the Philadelphia Eagles, the A's and the Sharks. I have lived in San Jose my whole life but enjoy traveling a lot. I haven't been to Europe yet, but that is definitely somewhere I would like to go soon. As some of you might have guessed from my display name, I am a big "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fan. I also enjoy watching The Office and Community. In my free time I just like to relax and hang out with family and friends.

Most of my communication experience has taken place at school. I am looking forward to an internship next month in Corporate Communications. I think after I am involved in that, I will have a better understanding of what communication is like in the real world.

Well, I think that is it for now. I look forward to working with all of you this term.