Traditional Textbooks vs. Hypertext

Chapter 17 in "Communication and Cyberspace" talks about traditional textbooks in classrooms versus the use of hypertext based textbooks. The text talks about Traditional textbooks being for more individual study and as not really promoting an interactive classroom. Whereas hypertext textbooks are more interactive, students can click on text or graphics to lead them to other pages to learn more about a topic, which may hold a students interest more.
I think this may work for lower levels of education such as grammar schools and junior high schools, but once a student gets to high school and most definitely in college, it seems they prefer the original paper based textbooks, at least for studying on their own. In many of my classes here at Fordham, whenever a textbook company offers an online edition of their textbook, it seems only a few students in the class opt to use this version of the textbook even though it is cheaper. It seems that many students still prefer to study out of a physical paper textbook, even if it costs a bit more money.

Digital Divide

The "digital divide" is an extremely important issue in today's world. As America becomes more and more of a completely "digital society," those who do not have access to the internet are getting left behind. As the text mentions in chapter 10, some of the main demographics in which the digital divide exists are Income level, Race, Age, Education level, and Household type; and most of the time, Income level and education level are intertwined. If you have not gotten much education, you will usually have a lower income and therefore may not be able to afford to have a computer, nor know how to use one of your lack of exposure to computers. This issue has caused a lot of controversy in the last few years, some believing it is more of a problem, and some believing it is not a problem at all. But there is a website dedicated to educating people on the issue of the digital divide and to finding ways to conquer it.

http://www.digitaldivide.net/

Lost in Cyberspace

With the emerging technologies and social networks that allow people to go from site to site with the help from hypertext, many people find themselves becoming addicted to the technology. Yes, I will admit, I have found myself trying to do homework and getting stuck going from facebook page to facebook page, but it can get out of control for some people because the internet is open 24-hours, 7-days a week, to anyone accessible. There are so many people on the internet at the same time, that people get caught up and lose track of their own realities in this virtual one. I researched about the cultural geography of cyberspace and found stories of parents getting so involved in the virtual world, that they forget to pick up their children or a spouse. Now it is a little out of control to fall completely out of reality and into a virtual world, but in an episode of South Park called "Make Love, Not Warcraft," they poke fun at the idea of children getting so involved in the game that they never leave their rooms. I couldn't find the actual episode, because of copyright, so here is a different version.

Interactive Media

The idea of Interactive Media revolves around a medium that allows its participants to communicate with each other actively through two-way communication. In its relation to "New Media" a form of this would be Skype or IChat. These medias are groundbreaking into today's society because they allow people to speak to each other even if they are miles apart. I am an avid user of Skype because it enables me to chat with my friends across the country. Without this, we would only be able to communication through text and most of the time it is hard to decipher their emotion and sarcasm.

Along with Interactive Media comes Interactive Advertising. Some advertisers will show a commercial but cut out the end of it and post a saying "Go to this website to see how this ends", to get their audience to access their website. Most of the time it doesn't work because I suppose American's are too lazy to get up from watching television to see what actually happens, but that's just my opinion. haha.

Here is a pretty cool image I found that used Interactive Advertising to catch the attention of their audience for Star Wars.

The Differences Between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

While I was browsing the Internet, I found this distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 on O'Reilly.com. It's funny to see that our generation may know the applications on both of these lists but the generation following us would probably know only the right column.

Web 1.0		Web 2.0
DoubleClick	-->	Google AdSense
Ofoto	-->	Flickr
Akamai	-->	BitTorrent
mp3.com	-->	Napster
Britannica Online	-->	Wikipedia
personal websites	-->	blogging
evite	-->	upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation	-->	search engine optimization
page views	-->	cost per click
screen scraping	-->	web services
publishing	-->	participation
content management systems	-->	wikis
directories (taxonomy)	-->	tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness	-->	syndication

The Future is Now

The android phone and Google goggles

Cellular phone technology has come along way from the “box” nokia phones that were originally produced for the masses. In this video google goggles is presented and shows us how users can access ever more technology by just taking a picture of an image.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhgfz0zPmH4&feature=related

Attn: Advertising

In one of Robby’s posts, he posted his thoughts on the way advertising has been developing in order to “catch” and hold the audiences attention. As I do agree with his comments that these advertisers only have a few seconds to get their message across and have the audience intrigued by what they are saying, it should be noted that it is not necessary for this to happen, there are numerous tricks that advertisers use to get people attention. As he stated, advertisers only have a few seconds to get their message across and hope that people get interested in the subject. However I believe that the main way to get people interested in their advertising is in repetition and not instant gratification. Most people find that when a commercial is played over and over again that they become more intrigued then just seeing a commercial once and saying that was cool and moving on. When a commercial is played repeatedly people tend to memorize the information, which leads them to further research the subject and potential buy the product. So it is not necessary to “catch” people’s attention but to get them to learn the information, which will hopefully get them to buy the product.

user generated content

The book talks about how web sites and multimedia cd-roms are completely one-dimensional in that communication from these sources can only be displayed in certain order even if the user has free range. What is meant by this is that news outlets can display a certain piece of information that a user can read but to that extent only. Same with multimedia cd-roms such as Microsoft Encarta can display information to a user on basically any subject but can do no more than that. However I would have to disagree with this statement due to the fact that in today’s world information can be commented on from just about anything as well as be changed at any users discretion. It should be noted that at the time this book was written, digital media was at its infancy and commenting on news feeds was not yet available. However websites such as Wikipedia allow for users to add comments and change information on particular sites and allow users to either agree or disagree with this change. Take a recent example of the late death of Brittney Murphy, within only minutes of her death being released to the media outlets, her Wikipedia page had already been updated by a user about her death and also commented about the proposed cause of death. This right here shows that web sites are completly multi-dimesional in that information can be changed, commented on, and even debated by numerous rumors at the instant information is displayed. This just goes to show that the evolution of the web sites has come along way from web 1.0 to web 2.0.

Interactive Internet

Rushkoff states in chapter 21 that the World Wide Web only allows for “interactive-style” activity, which would mean an information only,static type of internet. However with the rise of Web 2.0 and internet sites such as facebook and youtube, this statement can be clearly seen as false. With the ability for people all over the web to instantly change information on their own personal blog as well as get instant feedback from other users turns this idea of “interactive style” on its head. Another innovation the web has done is the collaboration of many websites all in one general location. Take for instance google maps or any other map based website. Google maps allows for users to not only find their way around a busy city by seeing a visual guideline, but they can also see traffic conditions being reported by not only news outlets but also from people on the road via their phones. Google maps also allow for a 360 degree view of a street and actually allows the user to “walk” down the road and look for particular shops along the route. If the user was able to find their store they need only to click on that store and all its information would be brought to them instantly via the stores personal site. This only proves that the world wide web was come along way from an “interactive-style” format where everything was static and only information searched for was brought to them, instead today all the information is brought to them at their fingertips.

Life without the Internet

While searching about the effect the Internet has had on the concept of time I came across a funny story on The Morning News site about a little girl named Sally and how to do modern day tasks the way people would before the Internet. I copied the funnier parts out of it here...enjoy!

Googling Information

You’re unpacking the groceries when Sally walks in and starts tapping you on the arm.
SALLY: Maryland State bird.
YOU: What about it?
SALLY: Let me try: quote, state bird, unquote, Maryland.
YOU: Are you OK?
SALLY (to herself): Did I spell it wrong?
YOU: Spell what wrong?
SALLY: M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D.
YOU: That spells Maryland.
SALLY: State bird.
YOU: (Pause)
SALLY: (Pause)
YOU: Sweetie, the Maryland state bird is an Oriole. It’s a black bird with an orange belly. Are you OK?

Emailing friends

This is where the video starts to look real old-timey. Sally sits down at a desk and gazes out the window while using a pehn to make swirly shapes on a piece of payper.(Forgive me if I’m misspelling anything. Some of these words are so out of date, spell check doesn’t even recognize them.) Since she’s still quite young, we see you proofreading her lehtir before she seals it up into a larger folded piece of payper known as an ennvilowp. Sally puts a stahmpe on the lehtir and males it with great satisfaction. Cut to the next day when Sally angrily approaches her friend Christine.
SALLY: Where were you yesterday?
CHRISTINE: When?
SALLY: Yesterday, after class.
CHRISTINE: I had ballet.
SALLY: Didn’t you get my message?
CHRISTINE: No.
SALLY: Really?
CHRISTINE: Yeah. What message?
SALLY: I asked you if you wanted to hang out.
CHRISTINE: Oh, no, I didn’t get it.
SALLY: Hm, the maleman must have a virus.
CHRISTINE: That sucks. He should run Live Update.

Classroom 2.0

Google Wave is the latest craze in open source, real time, cross platform development online. Since we spoke about it in class I've seen interest generated around it mainly by education institutions who are looking at Google Wave as a new kind of classroom forum or community. With the addition of a few extensions or plugins it would eliminate many areas of criticism concerning online classes. Team building skills and social skills could be cultivated using this type of cross platform communication which could not be in a typical online class. It will be able to replace wikis, be able to playback the information for those who missed it in real time, allow collaborative, simultaneous group work, teacher involvment in all waves, and ability to publish (embed) completed projects to other sites. There has been so much buzz around Google Wave revolutionizing education that some are calling this next step in learning "Classroom 2.0"

I found that online I cannot find a single article bashing Google Wave in regards to education anywhere. However, I haven't heard any of my peers support Google Wave at all. I think that the beta version is pretty awful, as was the beta version of Gmail. Once Google gets it's feedback I'm sure they'll figure out a way to have us addicted to it like we are with Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter.

Internet shift

Looking back to November 9th, I found myself reading Camille Paglia's chapter called "Dispatches from the New Frontier: Writing for the Internet" and was completely fascinated by her realizations about the Internet and her work with Salon. The statistics given by Paglia in her chapter do not even compare to those of college students today, but it is still true that "the Internet has cause a tremendous cultural shift whose most profound impact has been on young people." She states that college students spend 2 to 5 hours a night on the Internet. (I think this could be potentially more today).
With information for papers, tests, and exams becoming more and more accessible for students, it is an easy way for them to turn. The Internet is the newest of mediums that has had a profound affect on all people of all ages, and I think most on the college age students. Personal voices, as Paglia says, can dominate the Internet. As we see with our own blog, we are writing for the Internet, for each other, and for our lovely ONE outstanding follower (and maybe others?). And as Paglia states, we do use "more voices and shifts of tone" than we would in other places, especially here. Here we can be both silly and serious. We can have some fun and remain reserved to what we are reporting in our blog posts. But, as she says, if we were writing for the Wall Street Journal, we would definitely be much more reserved and serious about our reporting. Salon gave Camille a place to use her many voices, and this blog has done that for us!

Surrogates

The term 'virtual reality' takes on a whole new meaning in the 2009 movie Surrogates. In the movie humans live in isolation while only communicating with their fellow man through robots that serve as social surrogates and are better-looking versions of their human counterparts. Humans sit in "stem chairs" and use the "power of their mind" to control these human-like robots with the durability of a machine. You can be who you want to be and live your life without limitations. I haven't seen the movie but from what I can gather, this wonderful lifestyle doesn't quite work out in the end. However, we can wonder if this type of technology will be developed in the future - and if so - if this really happens, does that mean: virtual reality = reality?

WoW Freakout / Internet Relationships

Digital Get Down

Also, from the album No Strings Attached by *NSYNC - Digital Get Down:
From 2000 - talks about a relationship with technological communication as it's foundation. Enjoy the throwback to middle school!

Online Pornography and Protecting Youths on the Cyber Playground

I decided to combine two topics previously discussed on the blog, those being pornography online and protecting youths on the cyber playground. Pornography is so easily accessed that it can even by auto-completed in the search box on Google's homepage. For parents it is probably a scary feeling to know that their child can find pornography just as easily as they can find answers to their homework online. This easily accessbile pornography can lead to corrput attitudes toward sex in children. They may now see sex as a recreational activity rather than an intimate/serious act.

Parents often use parental codes and blocks that restrict their children from certain websites but with each new technology invented there is only a matter of time until there is a way to get around it, or "hack" it.

Now with spam on MySpace that involves sex advertisements, a child doesn't necessarily have to be looking for porn, it can find them. I think more efforts to block spam should taken because it is easy to influence a young mind, and with all of the negativity online, the children may find more bad things to do on the internet than good.

Obsessing Over the Social Landscape

"There are approximately 350 million facebook users who spend nearly 10 billion minutes there a day checking in with friends, writing on people’s electronic walls, clicking through photos and generally keeping pace with the drift of their social world ("To Deal With Obsession, Some Defriend Facebook," NYTimes)."

In a recent New York Times article, renowned analysts from Columbia and MIT, commented on a study that proved facebook was literally taking over student's lives and creating a physical blockade of procrastination. I know what you're thinking--"duh!"--but, do we really take this seriously? According to the article, a few students did and deactivated their facebook accounts to allow themselves to focus more on their studies and non-mediated relationships.

There is commentary on the "new" facebook and the live-feed that it features: "'You’re getting a feed of everything everyone is doing and saying,' Ms. Simmons, an educator and the author, said. 'You’re literally watching the social landscape on the screen, and if you’re obsessed with your position in that landscape, it’s very hard to look away.'"

In Communication and Cyberspace, it is noted that cyberspace may feel real and take on similar traits of real life, personal interactions, but is in fact lacking the crucial component of non-linearity.

"Cyberspace consists not only of material things like people and their artifacts (computers, modems, telephone lines, etc.); it also has two major nonmaterial components: relationships among individuals, and the cybercultural contents of their heads--the sense of belonging to cyberspace, and relational, and cognitive--constitute not only cyberspace itself, but what is often called "culture" more generally (Communication and Cyberspace, "Who Shall Control Cyberspace?" Beniger, p. 61)."

With relation to facebook, when do we draw the line between cyberspace and reality when cyberspace begins to encompass reality, translate into reality and inhibit reality? Facebook may exist only in cyberspace, but that is not where it is solely present. However, there are instances that will stay on facebook and most likely never be discussed in real-life, for instance your high score on “Farmville,” but there are more such instances that will translate off of facebook. For example, lets say you comment on someone’s ending of a “relationship” with someone else on facebook; you probably know that person and will discuss it with them off of facebook.

Facebook is indeed a social landscape and includes yourself and 100’s of your “friends” (or so that is apparent to you) and has the ability to make you obsessed with your position on that landscape. In fact, to make sure I was productive in writing this entry, I signed myself out of the usually-always-open facebook.

As an interesting caveat, here is a look at the top facebook trends of 2009:

This provides us with insight of how there are trends that are important specifically in the realm of facebook , for example “Facebook Applications,” and there are also trends which translate off of facebook and into mainstream, non-linear society, like “Swine Flu.”

The Art of Writing Online

The journalist in me has been trained over the years to write new in a very specific way: the inverted triangle. The most important facts come first, and the less important information comes later to fill out the story. However, online, this writing style is too blocky and unattractive. To remedy this, there have been many proposed models for journalists when it comes to writing online. This model is the one with which I am the most familiar:

In this model, several "mini-stories" make up the greater piece of writing. This allows the writer to keep the readers' interest in an online environment.

Online Education vs. Traditional: The Real Difference

The best, most attractive aspect of online education is that learning online allows students to explore which methods of teaching work the best for them. For example, some students learn better through lecture, others through powerpoint presentations, still others through some combination of the two. By exploring the material at each student's own pace, the optimal amount of learning will ultimately take place. To explore this idea further, check out this article.

Post for 11/10/09: Hypertext

When using the internet it is impossible to avoid being subject to hypertext. At its most basic definition, hypertext is an internet tool that provides users easy access to information related to a specific subject. It is text that is not linear, which enables a user to click on the text and be taken to a new part of cyberspace. In other words, it links the user to whatever the author creates. For instance, a web page may include hypertext for other websites, making it easy for everyday people to navigate the web easily.

Post for 11/3/09: Online Learning

Again, as mentioned in previous posts, the benefits of a virtual reality are numerous. In particular, this post will discuss online education: its benefits, as well as its constraints. While an online course can offer the most basic amenity of leisure, there still seems to be something missing from experience. A classmate wrote how online education helps less privileged individuals receive schooling, and how this is an extremely beneficial aspect to the subject. While i agree with this, i must look at what is missing to truly understand the concept of online learning. I believe that there is a great deal of significance in the interpersonal communication that can happen in a live educational setting. Whether it is being able to speak face to face with a professor or peer, there is something lost in cyberspace. Even with relatively advance video technology, nothing compares to the real thing

Post for 10/27/09: Virtual Benefits

As discussed in previous posts, cyberspace can act as a virtual reality of sorts. While it may not be considered physical space, much of what can be done in our "real" world can be accomplished in the virtual world. For instance, cyberspace can act as a sort of meeting place for people many many miles apart. This can be extremely beneficial for many reasons, whether it be to make information more readily available, or simply help to avoid the hastles of traveling. In any case, the benefits of cyberspace and all it has to offer are huge, and still growing.

Post for 10/20/09: Cyberspace

Cyberspace is something that is extremely thought provoking and interesting. The fact that there can be a sort of "alternate" reality apart from our physical world is astonishing. When you sit in front of a computer screen, one can truly begin to see what cyberspace truly is. While we can know that there is something behind the computer screen, it is hard for us to truly classify cyberspace as another world. While this "world" of cyberspace is entirely man-made, it makes us question our own innate sense of physical space. Can cyberspace be classified as physical space at all? In some ways, i believe it can. Cyberspace can hold large amounts of information, which should act to prove that it does have some physical properties. While we cannot walk through cyberspace, perhaps it can act to alter the physical world we do walk in. Therefore, while cyberspace may not actually be physical space, it certainly can and does affect our world.

Cyberpunks

In chapter 14, Sue Barnes discusses Cyberpunk culture in cyberspace. According to Barnes, the term is used to describe people who explore the digital landscapes of electronic space. It has escaped from being a literary genre into a cultural reality. In the genre, cyberpunks are "outlaws and hackers on the computer frontier." They break into network and otherwise cause mischief in cyberspace. This video illustrates some aspects of cyberpunk culture today.

another backstreet boy fad?

For my final post I would like to take a look into the future and discuss how social networking websites may affect us. Since the introduction of myspace there have been a large number of social sites created which mimic or incorporate the same principles. The main purpose seems to be to connect with friends and show off cool pictures. However, we seem to be creating a culture where we talk about what goes on the social websites in real life rather than the vica-versa. Being someone who doesn't take too much pride in posting pictures and what not on the Internet, these websites have very little allure for me. I wonder if they are a fad that will die out like the backstreet boys? or have they became an integral part of our socialization and culture?

Alice in Cyberland

We talked about mash-ups and remixes today in class, so I thought I'd post a cool one. It is a video that uses footage from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" to create a song. I'm not sure if the song is user created or comes from someone else. We talked about who owns media content today. Originally, Disney owned the video content, but the user has remixed it so it could be considered their intellectual property now. My guess is that Disney accepts this because the "Alice" video has been up for quite awhile. Please enjoy!

"2009 In Auto Tune"

Going along the lines of what we spoke about in class today about the kids of today "remixing", I found this video which mashes up a bunch of the most memorable moments of 2009. It's pretty funny. Enjoy! :)

The "Napster"ization of Electronic Books

For my last blog post I wanted to write about something that I have recently found very interesting. Recently, the New York Times has created a lot of articles in relation this idea of e-book "napsterization". I think this relates to our class as it is a new and currently upcoming form of electronic media -- the Kindle and Electronic Books.

Will Books Be Napsterized?
Cellphone Apps Challenge the Rise of E-Readers

These two articles, along with many others recently published with the New York Times, describe the complications that may arise with electronic books, from piracy with the Kindle and online books, as well as the difference in using e-books on the Kindle or the iPhone.
Thankfully, they suspect that with the holiday season coming, hopefully *fingers crossed* the Kindle will be a big present this season and will boost the revenue of the device. They are also currently developing an e-book reader for the Blackberry so the application can be used with purchased electronic books so you can read on-the-go. We see everything technology wise becoming more and more accessible for the average moving person so that no matter where you are, you have access to things with your iPhone, Blackberry, or even cell-phone!

Connected but Lonely

In another class I'm taking, Communication and Technology, there was a discussion I found very interesting about how 1 in 4 Americans are classified by lonely. Lonely being defined as people who don't share their days events with at least one person each day. I found this strange but believable. We have our email and social media but it doesn't mean we aren't lonely. Or internet friends, most of them at least on Facebook, are not people you can share your days events with. You'd like to call someone or better yet talk face to face with someone about your day. But instead, people continue to be lonely despite the reaches and ability of the internet and other communication tools.

Tech

For my final post, i'd like to discuss how lucky we are to have the technology we do, and how in some instances we take these advances for granted.  The advancements made in technology over the past 25 years are simply amazing.  Our worlds are exceptionally different from where they were, and in large part, we have technology to thank for this.

With these advancements comes a certain sense of entitlement for some people.  That is to say, some people assume that technology should be perfect.   Referring to a previous post this semester, this idea links back with our "instant generation", in which we really have no patience for anything that takes more than 10 seconds to accomplish.  The fact that we as people feel our technology should be instantaneous in speed and infinitesimal in ability shows that we certainly in part take new technology for granted.

Of course, technology is not something that should be thought of as a given.  there is much more to it than most of us know.  The fact of the matter is, we should all be amazed by the speed at which our computers work, as opposed to being annoyed that it is not faster.

This issue is something i have seen prevalent in adolescents younger than I.  In particular, my little sister is the epitome of the instant generation.  She has no patience with technology whatsoever, expecting it to do what she wants when she wants it.

Is Twitter making us more selfish?

John Dvorak, a write for MarketWatch.com has some issues with Twitter, especially as a news source. First he says that bloggers tend to make generalizations since they have no idea how to pursue a story and get the facts. Second, he says that the Internet is full of hoaxes and goofballs, making blogs unreliable and non-credible sources. Next, 140 characters does not allow for analysis, just a mere "headline". Finally, bloggers may have skewed priorities.  

His last objection is the one I find most interesting. He references David Callaway, another MarketWatch writer saying, "He accurately points out that Twitter is mostly about the user himself or herself. "Can anyone find me a good restaurant?" ... " I'm cold." ... " I just ate a cheese sandwich." ... " I almost got killed in Tehran." And while the last example is a kind of reporting, these idiots with their cell-phone cameras should probably get out of harm's way."  

Now that I think about it, its true that the point of Twitter is to tell your "followers" the who, what, when, where, why, how of every minute of your day. But who cares? Who cares that you just ate a delicious cheese sandwich, or that you're cold. On the one hand I think Callaway has a point, it is self centered to think everyone cares about everything you do but on the other hand, Twitter can be used to offer advice and experiences.  

I still haven't joined Twitter because I'm torn over the way I feel about it.

Can't Get No Satisfaction

For my last post, I’d like to reflect on an overall view of new media and technologies. We live in a world surrounded by the digital era; everything from our Blackberries to our state of the art computers to high definition televisions. However, I was recently asked in a class to name one form of technology that I was truly satisfied with. And to almost my disgust, I couldn’t name one thing.

In this class, we’ve talked about the constant changing of new technologies. As I reflected upon what technology I am truly satisfied with, I kept naming things in my head, and then realizing that they could be better. First, I thought of my computer. I completely depend on my computer for just about all of my classes. I type up all my notes, have essays and word documents, excel spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations, emails; everything I need to continue being a successful student. However, there are always ways that these applications can be improved. How? Not exactly sure. But I know that Microsoft Office continues to be re-developed, so therefore something can be changed to make it better for me.

I then thought to the Internet. Yes, I am satisfied with the internet. Oh no, wait. It can always be faster. There can always be more information. There can always be a way that it’s accessed easier and faster. And the same goes for my cell phone. I have the internet at my fingertips, all my important contacts with the click of a button, texts, calls, and BBMs, as well as a world of applications. What more could I want? The answer is more. There are always ways that it can be faster, that it can be better.

And I know that I’m not the only one to feel this way. I’ve read posts on this blog about how our generation becomes impatient if a website doesn’t load in under 3 seconds. But have we just become spoiled and lazy as our impatience grows with faster technology? Does that even make any sense, that as technology becomes more readily available to us, we become even more skeptical of how great it is and our impatience grows? Is this how we’re going to define our culture, in terms of how we view our cyber culture?

the rise and fall of mankind

The face of social media, and technology as a whole, is changing, fast. Now don't get me wrong, i'm not anti-facebook at all, i'm on it right now. However, certain details have been catching my attention as of late. The facebook "clientele" i'm looking at now, hardly resembles those facebook users I was first aquainted with. A growing trend i've noticed throughout all social media, is how drastically the age range of users is changing. I remember when MySpace was the best we could do because FaceBook was restricted to college students, and then I remember the days when people were getting pissed off because high schoolers started signing-up. Now I didn't care that about any of that then, I was one of those high schoolers. However, when I sign in under that FB banner and look at the list of friends that pop up, I am often caught off-guard. I think I now understand why all those college kids were making such a big fuss over some high-school kid's friend-request. Its all our fault. We messed it up for everyone when we barged our way into a place where we didn't belong. It was by no means intentional, but we DID in fact open the "flood-gates" to the exceptions. Now, my 68 yr old father has facebook. He barely knows how to turn on the computer. All of you know the type of parent im talkin about. He's the kind who constantly alleges that the computer "deleted his emails," or refuses to even attempt to fix his own PC problems because he is 100% sure that he will break it, so he just calls you at 11pm asking why the printer's "broken?" and getting really upset when you don't know. But this man raised me in under his roof and provided for me, there's no possible way I can be justified in rejecting his friend-request. Right? However, do I necessarily want him to be able to read what my friends tell me I did the night before when I was drunk? The answer is no. So i'm forced to give him limited profile access, which i'm pretty sure only lets him see my picture. So whats the point? Why did he sign up? Unfortunately he did it for the same reason we did in the 9th or 10th grade. He did it because he can. Can't blame him for that, we did the exact same thing...but at what point do you have to draw the line? When is it just too weird? Example, my mom, who I guess has just recently discovered Twitter, is following Justin Timberlake. Not cool right? Yesterday I received a FB friend-request from my cousin, Austin. Problem.... he's thirteen years old. The worst part is, i'm sure he knows how to get around facebook wayy better than my parents, and there are just some things that are not appropriate for someone who hasn't even hit puberty. He's just old enough to read and understand what people write about and post pictures of, but he's not old enough to handle it. So here I am, feeling guilty that I rejected my little cousin, but really, I know that if it wasn't for us, and our impatience to get in the facebook clique, I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. So keep this in mind, as we grow older, and new technologies evolve, we must make it our responsibility to know our place, to know where we belong, and to know where we have no business being at all.
-a.s.

Web 2.0 Summit

Every year for the past five years, there has been a web 2.0 conference held. The summit brings those in the internet industry together to look at how Web 2.0 is affecting their businesses and other endeavors. This year the theme was Websquared. The summit describes Websquared: "As we approach the six year mark from the original Web 2.0 thesis, the trends are becoming clearer than ever. Once applications live in the cloud, the key to success is harnessing network effects so that those applications literally get better the more people use them. But that's just the beginning. Today we see that applications are being driven by sensors, not just by people typing on keyboards. They are becoming platforms for collective action, not just collective intelligence."

We can see that we no longer just use the web, the web uses us to create content and generate action. Social networking is just the beginning. Facebook began as a fairly passive application in which one could view friends profiles, but it becomes increasingly more interactive and collaboration.

Google also began as merely a search engine, but has developed into email and so much more. It's latest development is GoogleWave, which I have to admit I haven't totally figured out yet. It seems to allow people to communicate, collaborate, and create documents in real time through cyberspace. Collaboration is key what will be next?

This is a long video taken from the summit called "What Do Teens Want?". It's interesting to see perspective from our age group at the summit. I don't expect you to watch the whole 30+ minutes, but you might find a few snippets interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLblEHTnLPQ&feature=player_embedded

web 2.0

For my last post I thought I would share, although it has already been posted before on this Blog, a video that provides insight into hypertext and the reality of the web 2.0. The video shows how search engines like Google can take the pulse of society as we type into the search box what we need or feel. Interestingly enough, this video is right on par with some of the ideas in our book Communication and Cyberspace. Our book allowed us to "examine virtual reality and the perception of immersion generated by cyberspace technologies, as well as hypertext and hypermedia as new forms of steering through the electronic landscape." It is interesting to note that our computers can now deliver us with more personalized ads based on past things we've searched for.

Social Media According To Wikipedia

Coming to the last day of class tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to post on the idea of social media.



And! what better place to find the true definition than Wikipedia: the social media information outlet. The Wiki article describes social media as encouraging "the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers."

MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Digg, Neopets, Last.fm, YouTube, Blogger, etc. etc. etc. all encourage the individual to create the content. No longer is there one-directional communication . Newspapers, TV, radio, and other forms of mass media have been supplanted by these new formats which are all led by an aggregate of the public.

MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites encourage communication between people. Wikipedia gives people who are experts in their field the ability to edit articles. Twitter gives people the ability to hear quick bytes of news and information. YouTube lets individuals post their videos for widespread viewing. And Neopets combines the toy that young kids love with the internet in a fascinating (and personally for me, unbelievably odd) way.

The question is: is this the way media should be? Should face-to-face interaction be supplanted by communication over the internet? Should in depth newspaper articles be overcome by instantaneous Twitter feeds? Should Wikipedia articles, which can be edited by many people, overcome the classic encyclopedia entry? Should YouTube and quick videos change the way people watch anything? It is a question that many people should be wondering with the advent of this Web 2.0 era. The internet certainly makes things easier... but is that a good thing?

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 allows users to become participants rather than only observers. The users of web 2.0 can now take ownership and exercise control over data, whereas Web 1.0 was exclusively information, and less participation by users. Some examples of the increased technology from web 1.0 to web 2.0 are:

Ofoto to Flickr
mp3.com to Napster
Britanica Online to Wikipedia
Personal websites to blogging

Advertising

Advertising has always been a very interesting industry for me personally.  Last semester i took the Principles of Advertising course offered at Fordham.  I was very intrigued by the whole process involved with advertising.  One of the main points we learned in the course was the importance for advertisers to "catch" the attention of the audience.  A major issue with this is that the general public's attention span seems to be getting shorter and shorter.  As our media is becoming more instantaneous, with on-demand options etc. it is much more difficult for advertisers to get their message across.   I find it intriguing how little time the advertisers have to make the audience interested in what they are saying.  I can appreciate the hard work these people put in to their work.  They literally only have seconds to do their job.

Advertising in the New age

In reading about advertising in chapter 21, I became very interested in the idea of Advertising as creating needs rather than fulfilling needs. As our country becomes more and more of a consumer society, the more this issue will happen. As Americans we feed off the new and improved, we strive to make more and more money so we can buy more and more things. Things that we do not even truly need, but we seem to think that we do. The ads that we see are purposely made so that we can connect with them, so that we can picture ourself as the person in the ad. And so, if the person in the ad absolutely needs this new product, well since we are just like that person, we must need that product as well. Advertisers also appeal to our hopes and dreams, showing the rich and famous people using certain products, telling us that if we want to be part of that class of people, we need to use those products as well. It is almost as if we are tricked into needing things, and tricked into thinking that we are making our own decision to want these things.

Also on the topic of traditional advertising and television, it is becoming harder and harder for advertisements to catch our attention. As mentioned in the text, with remote controls, people can just change the television channel to another station when commercials come on, making things very difficult for the stations trying to sell the ad space, and for the advertisers who are trying to sell a product. This has become worse over the years with the invention of Tivo and on-demand television, as well as television being watched on the internet. People may pay a little bit more, but they can completely skip over having to see any advertisements if they choose.

Epilogue: Just the Beginning

In the epilogue to our book, Neil Postman addresses the main theme of our book by writing on the topic of new technologies. However, unlike most chapters in the book, instead of explaining and critiquing the new technologies, Postman warns us about the dangers of new technologies. He wishes for us to go back to a simpler time; a time when we could appreciate things like the arts, writings, even music.

But in today’s time, we use technologies as our medium to interpret these messages. How easily is it to type into google “the Mona Lisa” and literally see the famous artwork in front of you? People use their computers to listen to music, rather than listen to it live. Even our writings are found through technologies; whether it is online journalism or the Kindle.

Many people argue that technology is used to help solve our problems as a society. However, Postman argues that,

“Technology does not touch life’s deepest problems. We may think it will, as so may thought in the 19th century, when the aim of technological development was to reduce ignorance, superstition, and suffering. And to some extent, they were right to hope so. And to some extent, technology did address those problems. But the technology celebrated now is just cruise control and electric windows.” (391)

I think Postman is right to argue this point. He is saying, essentially, that we are using technology as a band-aid to cover a bullet hole. Although I think that he is a bit extreme in his views, I do think we need to heed them, in order to make sure that we are using the technology, and not the other way around.

Web 2.0: re-changing the world

A friend of mine recently sent this video to me when we were talking about technological advancements. Though it moves a little fast, it describes perfectly the culture we live in and the advancements that WE create every day. Our own ability to change the computer itself and the way the Web runs is an astronomical achievement.

Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as: "web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web" (Wikipedia) To think about the amount of things that I simply did in this one blog entry though the use of HTML or XML is crazy, and we don't even realize it most of the time (because normally the computer/website does it for us, like Blogger!). The simplicity we are creating will last for years to come and will continue to prosper even after our death. Wikipedia also uses the image below to describe what Web 2.0 is, and what words are normally associated with it. 
REMEMBER it is us who is changing the future of Web 2.0 and beyond, and we are doing so without even knowing it!

Protecting Youths on the Cyber Playground

According to a CNN article published today, social media web sites Facebook and MySpace have deactivated the accounts of over 3,500 registered sex offenders in New York State. These websites used a state law which requires these people to inform the state of their email addresses and any online aliases that they would be using. The New York Attorney General said that the offenders were in violation of their parole by interacting with children in an online environment.

I personally am somewhat torn on the issue. The largest part of me is satisfied with the decision of the social networks. As a young adult and future parent, I absolutely want children to have the utmost protection, particularly over the Internet. However, I could also understand how some people would say that this begins to infringe on the personal liberties of these citizens. It is a complicated decision, but I feel that Facebook and MySpace protected both themselves and children using the site by taking this measure.

The Flaws of Communicating in Cyberspace & Technology

While the title of this post is a bit of a play on our book title, in chapter 21, Rushkoff describes some of the flaws of "communicating" over the certain mediums. For example, he describes the issues within communicating in a video game, multimedia cd-rom, or web site. Within all of these, the communication is simply one dimensional, even if the user gets to pick his own direction.

A video game has been preprogrammed to let the player choose his own direction. While the player is able to follow his own path in the video game, all possible options have already been exhausted by video game developers. There is no possible decision the player could make that has not been already. The player moves within the constraints of the game.

A multimedia CD-rom is very similar to a video game. Like the "choose your own ending" stories we saw in class, a multimedia CD-rom lets the user pick his own direction, but all possible outcomes have been previously thought out by the developers. The person may think he is choosing his own direction, but truly it is the CD-rom developers who have actually come up with any possible ending.

At the time this book was written, the web was not into its full blown "web 2.0" stage. Communication on the web was one sided, with news and information being simply conveyed to the online reader. It is "a simulation of free choice" (350). In this, the reader is simply told information. But now with the rise of social media such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, each person has the chance to publish and respond to anything he wants. The web became 2-directional with each user able to communicate with others, respond to stories, watch and comment on videos, and so forth. With the ability for so many different people to publish their own information, good and bad material has come. But, I don't think that anyone would argue the bad that the internet offers outweighs the good

Is Twitter really the way to God?

Twitter, the popular social media network for micro-blogging was recently dubbed the most popular word of 2009. The Global Language Monitor declared “Twitter” as the top English word of the year. In a Time.com article, technology writer Clive Thompson says that by following these quick, abbreviated status reports from members of your extended social network, you get a strangely satisfying glimpse of their daily routines. We don't think it at all moronic to start a phone call with a friend by asking how her day is going. Twitter gives you the same information without your even having to ask.

Twitter is gaining popularity at lightning speed. It had a huge effect on Black Friday sales, with retailers “tweeting” deal, hoping to catch the attention of their followers. James Fielding, President of Disney Stores Worldwide is quoted as saying, “I think in this economy you need to leverage every asset that you have.” This past Friday, Fielding tweeted, “We have amazing ONE DAY ONLY deals previewing on our Facebook page — become a fan today and find out more!”

While I think taking advantage of Twitter, Facebook and other new forms of social media, how much is too much? This question came to mind when I came across a Time.com article entitled, “Twitter in Church, with the Pastor’s O.K.” The article profiles John Voelz, a pastor at Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Michigan who has embraced Twitter and taught his congregation how to use it. Voelz spent two weeks teaching his parishioners about the site and how to use it. After no time, tweets were appearing on screen in the training session with things like, “I have a hard time recognizing God in the middle of everything" and "The more I press in to Him, the more He presses me out to be useful.”

Is this really appropriate? Voelz seems to think so. Instead of reminding worshippers to silence their cell phones, he is encouraging them to integrate text messaging into their relationship with God. Some believe that it is the Church’s responsibility to leverage current culture to their advantage, in order to draw young people in. Actually, Bible verses can frequently be found in pop culture. Here are two unexpected examples:

On the other hand, many believe that there is a time a place for technology, and Sunday morning Mass isn’t is.

I personally do not believe that Church is the time/place for social media sites. I know if there was a screen in the front of my Church displaying Twitter, I would watch that the whole time rather than pay attention to the Mass. And if, for some reason, I wasn’t paying attention to what’s going on up on the altar, shouldn’t I be reflecting on my life throughout the past week?