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.