Twitter- Blog #8

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service utilizing instant messaging, SMS or a web interface. According to Gladwell, Twitter is " the platforms of social media are built around the weak ties. Twitter is a way of following (or being followed by) people you may never have met." Twitter itself is kind of a human interaction, but not on physical level obviously. Through a virtual connection it creates a service of building strong ties without being face-to-face. Face to face contact is not the only way of communication anymore, with social networks like Twitter we are able to follow certain news through mobile and computers that we may not see on television. For example, some of my friends didn't hear about the disaster in Japan, until they saw tweets and links to pictures of Japan. It's amazing how we have a television, yet we decide to use our mobile tools to find out the news in the world.

Twitter co-exists along more structured social networks such as Facebook which has the ability of creating its own status and being able to respond to other people statuses. This particular social network allows people to follow the status quo of things because its what almost everyone is doing; therefore Twitter promotes this revolutionary change of this new tool provided by Twitter. If they make a newer version of Twitter the only thing they could probably add would be video statuses where you can record yourself making a status. But in my opinion, it would just be an extra piece to the puzzle, and anything added to Twitter would not be a more effective version of the Twitter they have now.

Blogs- Blog #7

"They archive our thoughts, and feelings and interests." If they have access to the internet anyone can blog. These blogs  are used to show people's different opinions and views on subjects which can be seen around the world. Blogs can posted on a site presented in video and words. A video blog is more intriguing to me because they allow you to see the visual images and movement behind the words. You get to see the kind of person telling you his opinion. For example, Kev Jumba is a one- million subscribed You Tuber who makes a lot of blogs relating to his relationship with his dad, comedy, interviews, and more. One of the famous people on Youtube based off his blog because touches upon different topics in his life and relates it to a specific audience. The key word here is "relate" because he allows his audience to be in the perspective of blog maker since we can "relate" to the issue or the topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBwFqudGac8

The expansion on blogs exist in many communities because collectively each person gives a different view and opinion on what they want to express. Since blogs give you the freedom of speech, its sort of like a diary, but you allow other people to see it and you don't have an emotional or personal attachment to a blog. The reason for that is because a blog is usually not just about the person, but if it is then that person will probably would not get a lot of views on Youtube like KevJumba. In conclusion, the importance of a blog helps us come together as a society to learn about what each person has on their mind and what they have to say.

Information Overload- Blog #6

Information can be processed through many ways from text and pictures to videos. Information like to give out information because they believe they have some perception of themselves. Although, others are narcissistic since we live in an individual culture. Facebook for instance, shows one person telling everyone on his profile they have more accomplishments and talents on their biography to prove they are better. They want people to react and create comments to gain status from the information being presented by the individual. So people are doing what their culture is telling them what to do because presenting information in that way is socially "acceptable". 

The way we receive information can either be enough information or not enough information. With the tools today such as, Google we should be able to find any kind of information, but it doesn't give us other professional published perspectives like books do. When reading hard copy texts for informations we see pictures and lots of pages written and edited by scholars who go into detailed and specifics about the information needed. Whereas, when presented information online we usually find a lot of information, but for me the information is always too much and doesn't specify, rather it generalizes. Sometimes the online videos helps me visualize my information in a better way because I'm more of a visual person. Whereas, it would not work for people who are not visual people. But when general typed out information is presented such as, Readings for university I am not able to take in all the information, than I do from a book. 

Catfish Documentary- Blog #5

This documentary gave me ideas of how easy, yet how risky it can be to separate truth from fiction.This story is an example of how one unfortunate man’s Reality becomes a victim of someone else’s attempt to submerge themselves into the world of the real. Nev was a victim of this because Angela was someone who he thought was a potential mate for him, but step by step he found out that Angela was not who she said she was. To skip through the summary,  Angela used Facebook to get his attention, by creating multiple fake profiles, but who are actually real people. With an unexpected ending, Nev showed me that the internet, especially social networks like Facebook can be used for good and bad purposes. The intention of Angela was to meet someone as if it was an online dating service. Although, the bad purpose was to lie to Nev, who took the online relationship seriously. 

To me the best part of the movie was when that guy at the end was explaining about the catfish in the boat with the cod and how they kept them on their toes. It kind of signified how Angela was sort of the person pulling the "cod" (Facebook) to catch the "catfish" (Nev). It really gave me the idea that people you just meet online are not the same people in person. When Nev and his brother did research on the songs she "Angela" was singing, and found out it was recordings from other artists it blew my mind how quick it took to find out that she lying. As soon as they saw the similarities of the songs, I knew right there that the girl was not who she said she was. All in all, this documentary showed me how social networking can lure people away from reality into a world where what you think is real, isn't always what it seems. 

Digital Media Blog Entry # 4

Topic: Simulation

In simulation, we see technology being in control of what the regular human being can do.
In our digital media class, we watched a video of a computer competing against other people in jeopardy. Basically, the computer was being engineered by other people controlling it.
So we wonder, do we have control of technology, or does technology have control of us? Right now, we don't have that kind of technology that is capable of controlling society or the way us humans think. Although, i fear that in the future, technology will be so advanced that everything we do involves technology, which takes us humans away from our own minds. Imagining that computers do all the work for us, there is no further point of our own intelligence If it ever came to the point where a computer or some type of enchanment of technology controls the world, we as humans need to look upon different ways of doing things in life. Unfortunatley, it may be the harder way of finding answers, but we as humans become to dependent on this technology to help us achieve something important.

Google has been our main source of finding answers sufficiently and quickly. Jensen mentions in an article that Google Earth. "It enchances a spatial and social experience," which demonstrates that the Internet is not a space, and it is distinct from the "real world". It creates physical, imaginary, and meditated experiences for social space users.

Digital Media Blog Entry #3

Topic: Virutality/Gaming

I find that through the addiction of living in a virtual world tends to take people from all different age groups away from the reality that we as humans are afraid of living in.

For example: When people create virtual images of themselves online, they create another identity for themselves and gives them the control to choose the physical features and formal characteristics of themselves that they don't have in reality.

Gaming:

With gaming, Henry Jenkins talked about the violence that can be seen in video games in general. Games such as Call of Duty requires you to kill people in a first-person perspective, which may influence children or teenagers to imitate what they see on screen to bring it to life. Violence in video games is probably not the only thing that is distracting the children, as the media is the source that decides the fate of video games status in society. For example, they can write reviews on video games with positive or negative comments that could reflect the opinion of people who buy and play the games they talk about. Another common idea towards gaming is that it creates another outlet of distraction, which makes it worse for society since we have digital media that already distracts the public already such as Facebook, Smart phones, etc.
 
Some positive looks on gaming is that it teaches you valuable learning habits such as working as a team and being able to figure out ways out of difficult situations. Games such as, World of Warcraft which is used by millions creates many social connections online that may allow people to meet others that share a common bond or goal through this game.

Blog #2

Based on our discussion, discuss your relationship to "Digital Wisdom". Are you developing the skills for digital wisdom or digital distraction? Are you controlling the interface, or is the interface controlling you?

Be sure to provide specific examples drawn from your own experiences with digital media/new information technology to develop your argument.

 

My relationship with "Digital Wisdom" is actual quite strong for the fact being I am always surrounded by digital artifcats such as my macbook and my iphone. Those tools of technology alone are both bringing me closer to the use of digital wisdom. I would have to say i am developing skills for both digital wisdom and distraction because it helps me to complete certain objectives in school and outside of my education. At the same time, it distracts me and takes me away from actually doing my school work because it is so addictive at times. I believe I am controlling the interface to the point where I am not using the internet or my phone 24/7. But, at the same time the interface could be controlling me, but I probably don't know it yet. It feels as if when i'm using outlets, such as Facebook, Youtube, etc. It keeps me aware of what is going on in my social world. Then again it takes away from any personal time you have for yourself for the more important things in life such as education. 

 

For instance, digitial distraction is capable of taking over a student at a university because in lectures you're really focused on whats in front of you on a screen, rather than the bigger slides of the powerpoint shown in class. We rather focus on a small screen, then a big screen because as digital natives we adapt to new ways of processing information. It might not be the old fashioned way, but as digital natives we are always looking for new ways to approach learning or for any use of technology. In a general sense, students in school tend to use their "Digital Wisdom" for social reasons because it is more "entertaining" and takes us away from the element of actually using this wisdom for good. Therefore; we get distracted no matter what, it just depends on what is distracting us, and what we are distracted from. For example, the prof posts information on Blackboard at this university, which gives us the ability to procrastinate and get distracted because Blackboard is on the internet, where Youtube and Facebook is. Basically, it is inevitable for us to get distracted when it comes to doing educational tasks on a digital resource. Rather than if assignments and information was only given in books, the students would be forced to read them, and be less distracted because a book is not connected to any digital resources.  

Blog Entry #1

Facebook has made one of the most important impact on the social life of teenagers. Sheryl Turkle said,  "The tools that we use to think change the ways we think." In this case, the computers with websites such as, Facebook are the representation of the tools we use. The "new" media we use today, including Facebook has changed the way teenagers think. For example, teenagers such as ourselves believe Facebook creates opportuinties for us to communicate to friends and families in an acceptable way because it gives another outlet in a social aspect to communicate. Although, in the past we were able to communicate the same way, without using a computer. In my opinion, Facebook didn't make communication betwen people any better because in a sense it sort of gave us a distant relationship between our loved ones. I say this because this website has taught our minds that it is okay to communicate on the computer rather than face-to-face. The communcation was stronger before Facebook or the computer itself came around because it was more intimate and real compared to virtual and words on a screen. I know teenagers today think that it easier to communicate on Facebook by writing on their wall, but the only way they think that way because the generation of today were never exposed to living without advanced technology, or social networking websites like Facebook. This is how Turkle makes a point about computers changing the way we think.

The good thing about Facebook is that they give the user the right to privacy. For example, we are able to choose what we want to show on our Facebook profiles and who we want to show it to. We have funny applications that tell you whose been "stalking" you on Facebook. In a sense, Facebook does give the users privacy, but some teenagers today still don't have the maturity to understand the boundaries of privacy. On Facebook, some teenagers could see it as an opportunity to make a lot of friends for their popularity and social status. Therefore, they decide to open their profiles to people in the same network or they don't even set up their privacy settings.

In conclusion, Facebook is just part of the category of what new media is. You see how websites like Facebook distribution value is and what it offers to teenagers. Manovich mentions in her reading that the Internet creates software "agents" such as Facebook that has created this new society. It is important for the way people see Facebook to be a vital social aspect of our lives, but simutaneously see the limitations and understanding the purpose of the website in the first place.