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.