A typical weekday:
10:00 am- I use my phone for an alarm to wake up in the morning
11:00- If I’m walking with my boyfriend, I don’t use my phone, but if I walk to class alone I usually will text someone on my “commute”
1:00-3:00- My boyfriend and I squeeze in an episode or two of 24, SouthPark, or Dexter, since we started watching them from season 1
3:00- I go to my next class; if I’m not in class I go on my computer for an hour or two to use Facebook, check my email and to mostly do homework (most of my classes demand computer access); if I’m not doing homework I will maybe have the TV on in the background while I do some arts and crafts project
11:00-12:00- Usually this is when I spend another hour catching up on the shows with my boyfriend before bed.
So my media diet is definitely different at school than when I’m at home on break, which I noticed over Thanksgiving. Also, my media diet on a weekday is VERY different than my media consumption on the weekends.
I don’t actually go on Facebook that much throughout the weekday, but I do check my Gmail account a lot through my phone which does send me update (it’s killing 2 birds with one stone!). I check my Gmail and my Groupwise email a lot, and realize I read the mass emails we get in Groupwise WAY more than any of my friends haha. TV is a very rare occurrence at school, though there is one in my room. I have a DVD player and have only used it once all year (to watch Toy Story 3- if you haven’t seen it yet, shame on you! Haha.)
Now let’s compare to a weekend, where my media consumption is pretty much only of the TV shows I watch online with my boyfriend. Otherwise, my computer is away except for school purposes. I use my phone a lot, usually to call home or to get in contact with people about parties, dinner, and other weekend activities. I do realize that my phone is pretty much like a third appendage haha. Even though I’m not necessarily using my phone, I ALWAYS have it on me. I use it the most for access to things and information, and not solely as a portal of communication.
I think that my media diet is actually somewhat atypical to my friends. I am really not on Facebook that often, and I check updates through my email which really cuts down that Facebook time commitment. I think my interest in Facebook faded with age, not that I don’t love it, but that I use it as more of a “keeping myself in the loop” device about friends, events, etc. I think I definitely use my phone more than my other friends; I am definitely the type of person to be playing solitaire on my phone while I am watching television. I think that my media diet represents a dependence almost on these technologies that is prevalent in society. We utilize them to their fullest: looking up the weather, an alarm, a love note to your boyfriend, and a game system. They’re certainly a distraction, but if you use it responsibly so it’s not sitting at your desk when you’re writing a paper, then you are definitely monitoring it’s affects; that’s personally something I make a conscious effort to do, in order to maintain balance between technology and other important tasks or people I need to spend time working on.
The only difference that I find interesting is that when I am home on break, I use the computer a LOT more. I use it because I miss my friends and talk to them using Facebook chat, Skype, etc. Over breaks 3 of my friends and I have a set Skype date every 3 days just to all catch each other up; in aspects like this, I really rely on my computer to connect me to my friends. This is the only time my media diet is a little hectic, but I don’t necessarily it’s being done in an unhealthy way. I think it becomes unhealthy when you can’t be away from your laptop and stop interacting socially, and that’s one issue I’m very determined to avoid.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Cyber Bullying
Free Response
When I was trying to come up with my own topic this week, my mind started wandering to something very relevant to our world: bullying. Bullying has ALWAYS been a problem in society, whether it was happening on a playground or on an international level, bullying has always been around. A lot has been done about bullying, I even remember the numerous “treat others the way you want to be treated” discussions teachers had with us starting in Kindergarten.
The problem now is that bullying has found a new medium to thrive in: the internet. This is a new concept, but the severity of it is increasing on a daily basis, and therefore it demands our attention.
Online bullying can happen in a number of ways, and really it filters out into other forms of technology like texting, prank phone calls, etc. There are apps on the iPhone where you can call someone’s phone but have it show that it’s calling from someone else’s number! Do you know how much trouble that could cause? If not, then I have a story about that:
So, one day over summer I was woken up by a phone call from my boyfriend saying, “why did you write me that text message?” and, thinking he was referring to a loving one I had sent the night before, I replied “I always send texts like that”. He got angry, and hung up. I was very confused until he forwarded me the text that said, “I found someone that I think is hotter than your ugly ass”. I called him and told him repeatedly it wasn’t me, but he didn’t believe me. I called his friend because I had a feeling he was involved, and guess what??? His friend had found a site on the Internet where you can send text messages to anyone and have it look like someone else’s text as long as you know their phone number (he learned this from Jimmy Kimmel haha). This harmless prank actually got my boyfriend and I in an argument, and imagine what could have happened if we never found out? Imagine what could happen if someone wrote something even MORE hurtful?!
These types of technology can become really dangerous if it’s abused, just like most things the Internet offers. In high school, there were so many people that would get anonymous texts or Facebook messages that were really hurtful and cruel. These technologies are providing a mask for the bullies to hide behind, and even allowing people who would normally not be aggressive enough to bully in person, to express their feelings toward someone in a hurtful way. These mean messages were sometimes reported to faculty, but they really didn’t know how to approach it since technically it occurred outside of school and they don’t have the technology to necessarily track down a person’s phone number.
I think that schools and others must begin thinking about ways to prevent this kind of stuff, and to teach people to still respect one another, even when they think their identity is unknown. This type of bullying is much less monitored than the bullying that occurs face-to-face, yet it’s the most frequent form of emotional bullying that adolescents experience today; steps need to be taken in order to start intervening with this cyber bullying.
When I was trying to come up with my own topic this week, my mind started wandering to something very relevant to our world: bullying. Bullying has ALWAYS been a problem in society, whether it was happening on a playground or on an international level, bullying has always been around. A lot has been done about bullying, I even remember the numerous “treat others the way you want to be treated” discussions teachers had with us starting in Kindergarten.
The problem now is that bullying has found a new medium to thrive in: the internet. This is a new concept, but the severity of it is increasing on a daily basis, and therefore it demands our attention.
Online bullying can happen in a number of ways, and really it filters out into other forms of technology like texting, prank phone calls, etc. There are apps on the iPhone where you can call someone’s phone but have it show that it’s calling from someone else’s number! Do you know how much trouble that could cause? If not, then I have a story about that:
So, one day over summer I was woken up by a phone call from my boyfriend saying, “why did you write me that text message?” and, thinking he was referring to a loving one I had sent the night before, I replied “I always send texts like that”. He got angry, and hung up. I was very confused until he forwarded me the text that said, “I found someone that I think is hotter than your ugly ass”. I called him and told him repeatedly it wasn’t me, but he didn’t believe me. I called his friend because I had a feeling he was involved, and guess what??? His friend had found a site on the Internet where you can send text messages to anyone and have it look like someone else’s text as long as you know their phone number (he learned this from Jimmy Kimmel haha). This harmless prank actually got my boyfriend and I in an argument, and imagine what could have happened if we never found out? Imagine what could happen if someone wrote something even MORE hurtful?!
These types of technology can become really dangerous if it’s abused, just like most things the Internet offers. In high school, there were so many people that would get anonymous texts or Facebook messages that were really hurtful and cruel. These technologies are providing a mask for the bullies to hide behind, and even allowing people who would normally not be aggressive enough to bully in person, to express their feelings toward someone in a hurtful way. These mean messages were sometimes reported to faculty, but they really didn’t know how to approach it since technically it occurred outside of school and they don’t have the technology to necessarily track down a person’s phone number.
I think that schools and others must begin thinking about ways to prevent this kind of stuff, and to teach people to still respect one another, even when they think their identity is unknown. This type of bullying is much less monitored than the bullying that occurs face-to-face, yet it’s the most frequent form of emotional bullying that adolescents experience today; steps need to be taken in order to start intervening with this cyber bullying.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Week 8: Face-to-Face
Question 3:
I personally don’t think my every day face to face time has been altered by technology, but that’s perhaps because I have always really enjoyed having a balance of down time and time out with friends. Technology has probably only affected my face to face time in that I now rely on it to SET UP my face to face time; I usually plan everything through texts, something that’s definitely generational. But other than that, I don’t watch movies online, I still go to the movies; I am not satisfied with being cooped up at my computer all day, talking to a friend ONLY through typing. I think that on a more general level people are probably affected by technology. We can be instantly connected to someone with a click of a button; there’s no traffic, no gas money, no paying for over-priced movie tickets. All you need is the internet to see someone, talk to them, etc. However, I think there’s a lot of value in still maintaining face-to-face time.
I know a lot of people who have used online dating sites and have ended up having successful relationships. The funny thing is that this used to be a taboo or strange thing, but now it’s more commonly acknowledged as a normal romantic “how you met” story. I fear for people meeting through Myspace, Craigslist, etc. because I’ve had the idea planted in my head that there are very dangerous people out there who abuse the internet. I have heard so many stories about people meeting up with someone and then disappearing; I think a LOT of caution must be taken when engaging in these types of activities and interactions. I don’t think there’s necessarily anything harmful with conversing with someone online, but I think meeting someone in person is a whole different ballgame. I suppose the wisest advice if that IS something of interest to you, is that you meet in a public place….or at a police station haha.
I think that “virtual” relationships are very fulfilling for some people, and that’s just a matter of opinion/taste. Some people may feel more comfortable talking online to people; an introverted person is going to be much more capable of talking to someone if the pressure is off. However, I think a lot of value comes from talking to people on a face to face level, especially because most professions and daily activities require human interaction. I understand that knowing people who share a common interest with you is very appealing, and I think most people will attest to that. I DO think as a society we need to make sure that this is being done in an appropriate and successful way. The internet is becoming an increasingly prominent component of our society, and therefore steps need to be made to make sure it’s being used properly. People use the internet now to interact, it’s just the way it is, and sometimes it really is nice being able to talk to people who have the same interests as you or who are playing a game with you, etc. The next step is just to ensure that those who use the internet for this purpose are not being put in jeopardy if they pursue their online friendships in the real world.
I personally don’t think my every day face to face time has been altered by technology, but that’s perhaps because I have always really enjoyed having a balance of down time and time out with friends. Technology has probably only affected my face to face time in that I now rely on it to SET UP my face to face time; I usually plan everything through texts, something that’s definitely generational. But other than that, I don’t watch movies online, I still go to the movies; I am not satisfied with being cooped up at my computer all day, talking to a friend ONLY through typing. I think that on a more general level people are probably affected by technology. We can be instantly connected to someone with a click of a button; there’s no traffic, no gas money, no paying for over-priced movie tickets. All you need is the internet to see someone, talk to them, etc. However, I think there’s a lot of value in still maintaining face-to-face time.
I know a lot of people who have used online dating sites and have ended up having successful relationships. The funny thing is that this used to be a taboo or strange thing, but now it’s more commonly acknowledged as a normal romantic “how you met” story. I fear for people meeting through Myspace, Craigslist, etc. because I’ve had the idea planted in my head that there are very dangerous people out there who abuse the internet. I have heard so many stories about people meeting up with someone and then disappearing; I think a LOT of caution must be taken when engaging in these types of activities and interactions. I don’t think there’s necessarily anything harmful with conversing with someone online, but I think meeting someone in person is a whole different ballgame. I suppose the wisest advice if that IS something of interest to you, is that you meet in a public place….or at a police station haha.
I think that “virtual” relationships are very fulfilling for some people, and that’s just a matter of opinion/taste. Some people may feel more comfortable talking online to people; an introverted person is going to be much more capable of talking to someone if the pressure is off. However, I think a lot of value comes from talking to people on a face to face level, especially because most professions and daily activities require human interaction. I understand that knowing people who share a common interest with you is very appealing, and I think most people will attest to that. I DO think as a society we need to make sure that this is being done in an appropriate and successful way. The internet is becoming an increasingly prominent component of our society, and therefore steps need to be made to make sure it’s being used properly. People use the internet now to interact, it’s just the way it is, and sometimes it really is nice being able to talk to people who have the same interests as you or who are playing a game with you, etc. The next step is just to ensure that those who use the internet for this purpose are not being put in jeopardy if they pursue their online friendships in the real world.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Week 6: Pondering Privacy Problems
Question 2- Blog
Coming from L.A., I think there was definitely a demand to be on top of the newest and greatest technology. This is why I created my Twitter account, just to see what all the fuss was about! I never really use it to post about myself, as I much prefer to see how other people are using it. I am more a user of Facebook, and I think that’s where the privacy issues are more problematic for most people.
Personally, I am pretty mindful of observing how other people will perceive my profile based on my photos, “about me”, statuses, etc. I have definitely gone through my photos thinking, “I wonder if these represent me in the way that I want”.
I think I’ve always been pretty mindful in that aspect of “privacy” and my profile is set to as many privacy settings as I can think of. In fact, my last name isn’t even on Facebook because when I first made it I was still hearing my mom’s voice repeating, “don’t give out too much personal information”, and therefore I just stuck with the letter “A” as my last name (haha).
Though the last name thing was from the beginning, it was actually a more recent thing that I adjusted the privacy settings on my Facebook. Last year (freshman year of college), I posted an album on my Facebook. My mom called me and said “did you know your album pops up when I google search you?” I was shocked, not that there was anything inappropriate about the album (most likely a comforting concept for my mom haha), but I couldn’t believe that even with my account set to private that I STILL had to manually adjust the setting separately for a photo album and that it didn’t just automatically put two and two together that my profile is private so obviously I want my photos private!
I think that “loss of privacy” is an accurate and inaccurate term. In a sense we have control of what is private and public; for example, if you join Facebook, you know whatever you put up there could be fair game. But in the other sense, there is a loss of privacy which was proved by my photo album story; even when we put in the effort to control how much is available to people, there are loopholes that we can not avoid. This is clearly a drawback to these social networking sites. But I believe there is always a good side and a bad side to every situation, and I am still an active Facebook user so for me the good outweighs the bad.
Even so, I do worry about my privacy, and that’s why I have those days where I filter through my Facebook and think “Is this how I want to be represented”; I know that by participating in these social networking sites, I am taking on responsibility to monitor what I do and do not want shared, and I think this concept is something that helps prevent me from “over sharing” something to other social network users.
Coming from L.A., I think there was definitely a demand to be on top of the newest and greatest technology. This is why I created my Twitter account, just to see what all the fuss was about! I never really use it to post about myself, as I much prefer to see how other people are using it. I am more a user of Facebook, and I think that’s where the privacy issues are more problematic for most people.
Personally, I am pretty mindful of observing how other people will perceive my profile based on my photos, “about me”, statuses, etc. I have definitely gone through my photos thinking, “I wonder if these represent me in the way that I want”.
I think I’ve always been pretty mindful in that aspect of “privacy” and my profile is set to as many privacy settings as I can think of. In fact, my last name isn’t even on Facebook because when I first made it I was still hearing my mom’s voice repeating, “don’t give out too much personal information”, and therefore I just stuck with the letter “A” as my last name (haha).
Though the last name thing was from the beginning, it was actually a more recent thing that I adjusted the privacy settings on my Facebook. Last year (freshman year of college), I posted an album on my Facebook. My mom called me and said “did you know your album pops up when I google search you?” I was shocked, not that there was anything inappropriate about the album (most likely a comforting concept for my mom haha), but I couldn’t believe that even with my account set to private that I STILL had to manually adjust the setting separately for a photo album and that it didn’t just automatically put two and two together that my profile is private so obviously I want my photos private!
I think that “loss of privacy” is an accurate and inaccurate term. In a sense we have control of what is private and public; for example, if you join Facebook, you know whatever you put up there could be fair game. But in the other sense, there is a loss of privacy which was proved by my photo album story; even when we put in the effort to control how much is available to people, there are loopholes that we can not avoid. This is clearly a drawback to these social networking sites. But I believe there is always a good side and a bad side to every situation, and I am still an active Facebook user so for me the good outweighs the bad.
Even so, I do worry about my privacy, and that’s why I have those days where I filter through my Facebook and think “Is this how I want to be represented”; I know that by participating in these social networking sites, I am taking on responsibility to monitor what I do and do not want shared, and I think this concept is something that helps prevent me from “over sharing” something to other social network users.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Slang, "Sup", and Socializing
Week 5 Response
Free Topic
So this week, as I was thinking about what to write about for my blog, I became distracted by an email I saw my friend typing to a teacher. The email had abbreviated words (ex: “cuz”), which is something I would expect to receive from a friend in a text or on Facebook chat. I couldn’t help but consider how much of an impact technology has had on how we communicate, socialize, and even present ourselves through these technologies (especially in regards to grammar).
This makes me consider a research paper I wrote last year, where I decided to research the evolution of the “love letter” and communication during wartime. The research I found really correlates to what we are studying today. The way we convey information, and even what information we decide to convey, is very different than the content in previous times. Before, people wrote these long, eloquent letters that would be sent from overseas, with beautiful details and wonderful handwriting. Now, I receive texts saying “Waddup”. Was it really THAT time consuming to add an “h” and a space to spell “what’s up”?? (*haha*) which is hardly a real sentence to begin with! We have learned to shorthand, abbreviate, and incorporate slang into most of our conversations through technology. Mostly this occurs through texting and facebook chat/AIM/etc. I never thought of it before, but NOW it seems like such a silly concept that we couldn’t add the 7 extra characters.
I think the reason I started writing about this is because I realize how often I’ve seen my friends write emails to their teachers using text slang and always thinking it’s so funny how built in some of that can be. It’s like a bad habit that no one consciously realizes. I am even guilty at times; when I write my mom emails sometimes I get too lazy to capitalize the “I” haha as if that’s REALLY that hard! But on Facebook chat there’s no need for that since the person I am typing to is sending me responses like “cuz” instead of “because”.
In class when we had to write down a question and pass it around to one another, I wrote “do you believe that technology has negatively or positively affected our communication/social skills”? I got really interesting responses that I agreed with. Most of us agreed that technology did make people a bit negligent about their grammar and punctuation, even in more professional/school-oriented situations. But on the other hand (as there is always two sides to every story), technology has also enhanced our ability to communicate on a global scale. We can communicate instantaneously, which is obviously a big reason why short hand has become so popular, and with people from across the world that we would NEVER be able to get in contact to so quickly.
I realize that, yes many of us may accidentally forget to capitalize our “I” in an email, but technology can also benefit our communication skills in the sense that it can happen on a internationally. Also, the internet and other technologies have opened the door to personal expression and given a voice to many people who would never be able to experience that in the real world. As is true with most things, you can’t have the good without the bad!
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