One of the blog assignments that I really enjoyed was one of the very first topics of being abstinent from the internet for 24 hours!  I never imagined that it would be that hard but I was surprised on how much of my life is on the internet!  First off I use the internet to check my school work hourly, and I can receive updates from my teachers all day long.  Without having the luxury of staying up to date with my school work really bothered me.  Then on a more personal note I couldn’t believe how much I missed the internet to do simple things like check my facebook account or being able to go online and shop.  I think students appreciate this assignment because it gives them a reality check on how people’s priorities have changed on what is considered important.  It is a very relevant topic that anyone will be able to relate to. 

Another assignment that I really liked was what we did on week 2, where we had to decide between watching a music video and watching you’ve got mail and then discuss how the internet played a role in their lives.  The only reason that I liked this topic is because I am a big country fan and was excited to see that the music video was brad Paisley’s So Much Cooler Online, that video made me laugh!  It was a very fun assignment that I honestly enjoyed doing. 

One assignment that I didn’t like very much was what we did in week 6, where we had to join an internet community.  The reason I didn’t enjoy this was because it was out of my comfort zone, and I don’t take pleasure in chatting with people who I don’t know online, it is a little creepy to me.  For safety reasons I might advise taking this topic out for next term.

Another suggestion I have is that I liked responding to people’s blogs because it was very interesting to hear what they had to say about such random topics.  So maybe instead of responding to two blogs and a post, you could give students the option to just do any three responses that week, therefore giving them the choice of doing three blog responses or three post responses or mixing it up as they choose.   That way you could also get more variety in what you would grade each week.

Overall I really enjoyed the course; it gave me a chance to take a look at the internet in a totally new light!

I totally agree with the punishment handed out to Jacqueline, I think that is totally wrong of her to do, especially in the profession she was in.  Every job has rules, and the biggest one in the reporting world is that you always have to cite your sources!  She had learned that since her first reporting class in high school!  With the internet becoming as big as it has, it is hard to not use such a powerful information source.  There are so many reasons of why people are drawn to the internet, the first one being the overload of information, and the second being the accessibility.  No longer do people have to take the time to go to the library and look up books and journals for the same information that is only a click away.  There is no way to regulate what is put on the internet, and that is part of the reason it is so amazing because you can find anything!  However at the same time that is what can make it such a dangerous tool.  Wood and Smith talk about how great the internet is because it directly relates to the right of free speech everyone is promised by living in the US.  The only way to control the internet is if everyone were to take it upon themselves to not take information off of non credible cites.  Also people need to make sure that they cite all of their sources, that way the information can always be tracked back to the source and people can determine whether the site is reliable to use or not. 

My friend began to tell me about this new guy she had just recently began to see, and was totally into him.   Before I knew it I felt like I had met the guy 500 times with the information overload on this guys likes and dislikes.  I could tell she really liked him.    Along with being a little boy crazy, my friend can also be a little dramatic and in the past has had a tendency to drive the guys she is interested in away because of this personality trait. 

When I’m with all my girlfriends we are usually a pretty crazy bunch and we like to be sarcastic and poke fun with at one another, its part of our relationship.  So when I was talking to my Friend online and I thought I could be myself and give her a shot.  I was telling her how great of a guy he sounds like, and that she better not show her true colors if she wants this one to stick around.  After I had said this I didn’t get a response back from her for a couple minutes, when all of a sudden she comes back and starts screaming (I could tell she was screaming because she was typing in all caps and all the exclamation points she was using after every sentence) at me.  Telling me how rude of a friend I was, and that she really likes this guy and she is going to do anything she can to make it work.  In between all of her rude comments I was trying to explain to her that I was merely kidding, and didn’t mean to upset her at all.  I told her any guy would be lucky to have her, and that I didn’t mean what I said. 

This all happened because we were not face to face and she couldn’t read any of my body language to go along with my joke.  That’s the trouble with cyberspace communication; people can take things so literally, because there is no indication of what is either a joke or a factual statement. 

This is directly out of chapter 9 of Postmans book, he questions if humans need qualities such as intuition and logic due to the major influence of technology in our lives, do we need to be able to think on our own.  From my experience that I explained with my friend it goes to show that what pops up on your computer screen isn’t always reliable information, and my friend should of used logic to know that I was only kidding and my comment was not intended to hurt her, but to make her laugh. 

My aunt also admitted to having a facebook account and expressed how much she enjoyed being able to stay in touch with both old and new friends.  The last reasons she said she used the internet was for her kids, and all the fun websites they have that help her kids learn basic education and help them with their reading skills.  With her busy life that takes place online she said she has become very comfortable using the internet, and talked about she knows a lot more then some of her girl friends her age, and gives credit to her online schooling. 

The next person I interviewed was a fellow team mate, Talisa Rhea who is 19 years old.  Seeing as she is only a year younger then I am I was anticipating her answers to be very similar my feelings on the internet; that it is amazing!  She said that her favorite use for the internet was all the communication systems including both Myspace and Facebook.  Another reason she uses the internet is for schooling purposes, which she said is nice to be able to stay connected with professors while traveling on the road for basketball.  Having her classes at the click of a mouse has changed her life, it allows her to stay on track for school while playing the sport she loves.  Without it she doesn’t know what she would do, and couldn’t stop saying how “Amazing” she thinks the internet is.

The last person I interviewed was my 70 year old Grandma.  I was surprised to hear that she loves the internet, however she thinks it is confusing to figure out.  She told me that there are only a few sites she visits on a regular basis, and besides that she really doesn’t know how to “surf” the web.  Her favorite past times include listening to my basketball games online, and playing in an online bridge tournament with people from all over the world.  The last question I asked her was “what do you think of the internet?”  She then began to express her feelings on the internet saying it can be very annoying, and time consuming.  She doesn’t understand how kids can just sit online and do nothing all day, and thinks it takes away from building face to face relationships especially with families. 

After finishing up my three interviews I was able to see the difference in generations and their feelings of the internet.  The internet is something the keeps advancing with time so I was not surprised that my grandma was not a huge fan, because she was use to a life without online services.   However I was surprised at how similar my aunt and my friends answers were,  they both seemed very comfortable using is and admitted to being online all the time.  I am interested to see how far the internet will go in the next few years, the possibilities are endless!

So the first few days of being a member of my new discussion group I decided to just use the forum page.  This is where you can leave comments on a previous question or comment that someone else had already posted.  This was nice because I didn’t have to worry about what someone would say back to my comment right away.  This way I could leave and come back and check what people had said about my comment.  It’s funny because I got nervous awaiting other peoples responses to my comments, it was like I wanted their approval, like I was meeting someone new for the first time in person, but these people I would never have to meet in my life. I soon realized that what I was saying was matching up with what other people were saying, so I felt some confidence in my writing and my knowledge about the game.

After a week or so I decided to advance my form of communication by entering a live chat.  I’m not going to lie I was a little nervous.  It is weird to me that you are talking to people you don’t know and can’t get a picture for or anything.  It could be anyone on the other end of the conversation!  So after I got over this little fear of mine I entered the chat with an open mind.  I let other people start of conversation and then I would just add my two-cents in here and there.  But as time went on I became more comfortable and began starting my own topic of conversation. 

The first question that I asked was very simple and open ended, so I knew I would get a lot of feedback.  I asked “are you a duck or beaver fan?”  Woah this caused more controversy then I expected!  People started discussing the Beavers head Coach, Craig Robinson and the men’s team and how he has helped turn the program around, and now Ernie Kent and the Ducks are dealing with a non winning Pac-10 season.  People then started to take bets and challenge one another on who was going to win the Civil War down at MAC court in a few weeks.  When there was a disagreement being said people would really stick up for what they believed in and their opinion.  For a chat room, it got pretty heated!  Quickly after that I excused myself from the group and called it a night!

As Postman says in his book “Technopoly also encourages insensitivity to what skills may be lost in the acquisition of new ones.  It is important to remember what can be done without computers, and it is also important to remind ourselves of what may be lost when we do use them.”  This quote makes me think about how much people rely on their online lives.  In some cases it is all people have and they devote themselves to meeting people and engaging in conversations online all the time.  This allows people to lose so many communication skills for the real world.  I was glad that I tried something new by joining an online group but I would not want to make it my lifestyle, there is so much more out there then what’s behind the computer screen.

To start off my research I went straight for the search engine that I have used and loved for the past five years, the internet.  As usual my first stop was Google.com, I then typed in key words that were associated with my topic; technology, advancement in society, technology today, etc.

It’s hard when searching the internet to know what sites are credible and which sites aren’t.  I’ve learned throughout my years to never trust Wikipedia.com no matter how factual the information on their site sounds.  Anyone can post anything they want, so even if their information is correct you can’t count on that all the time. 

The way they I try and determine which sites are credible and which isn’t is by the end of their web address.  If it ends with an edu, or gov it means it has been made by a direct company, unlike an individual who made their own web page about whatever they wanted.  Another way I know if a site is credible if it is put on by a known source.  For example if I can information on CNN.com or MSN.com two well knows news sites that carry information around the world, I will feel confident in believing whatever information I read.

If I were a teacher and I had to evaluate a student’s work and decide whether or not their information is credible or not is by their web address.  The same way that I can decide what sites are credible or not is how I would determine if my student’s sites were.  If they had written down on their work cited www.weirdinfo.com I don’t think I would believe what they were telling me.

For example I found some very interesting information on the NCAA website about my topic of what technology has done to our society. Since I play basketball here at OSU I am very familiar with the NCAA and was excited to find information that dealt with my topic.  It talked about how recruiting has become such a challenge with the use of the internet because it is one more way for coaches to stay in contact with the athletes.  Also it talks about how boosters for the school try and get a hold of student’s athletes, and leaves posts on blogs and message boards. It’s hard to regulate all forms of communication, which is why the internet can be seen as a negative to such an already highly competitive world of recruiting. 

In chapter 5 of Postman’s book it talks about how the internet has helped handicap ourselves and the amount of work we put in to figure things out.  For this paper I used the internet to find all three of my sources just because that was the most convenient, and it was defiantly the easiest.  I didn’t have the responsibility on my shoulders to go to the library and look up books and newspaper articles that would help prove my point.  This would have taken more time and would have made me use a lot more brain power something I’m not accustomed to doing after using the internet for so many years. 

http://www.pepperdinesports.com/fls/18500/pdf/pepp-electronic-comm.pdf.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9uFT080FcRkC&oi=fnd&pg=PP12&dq=technology+and+the+advancement+of+society&ots=AI1e5pO5Ft&sig=p_6OlSCevAuul2ZEvJbViSvaol0#PPA6,M1

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TZOF_1GZRmYC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=technology+and+the+advancement+of+society&ots=fts8R1uKGy&sig=c0Iqnc0WpqTVLFrl7XwE416YUFw

The book mentions channels of communication which deal with the different outcomes you want from your form of communication.   I feel that hand written letters are much more personal than writing an email, because no one does it anymore and it shows a lot more time and dedication.  My mom and I aren’t as close as my dad and I are and I don’t communicate with her as much as my dad.  So I chose my channel of communication to be the hand written letter to really let her know how much I appreciate her in my life, and how big of an influence she has had on the person I have become today.  I thought that form of communication would have the bigger impact, versus the simple email I was going to send to my dad.

When I wrote my mom the handwritten letter I noticed I found myself trying to be a lot more descriptive with my writing.  For some reason when I think of writing letters I always think of old movies where characters are writing letters to one another and they always sound so intense and emotional, and for some reason I caught myself trying to match that intensity.  The funny thing is, was that when my mom replied to my letter I caught her trying to match my intensity and sincerity in the letter.  She couldn’t thank me enough for all the nice things I said about her, and that it really meant a lot that I took the time to write down all my feelings in a letter.

I then noticed that when I wrote my dad then email I wasn’t as formal compared to the hand written letter and was a lot shorter.  I just started it out with “dad” there was no “dear dad” or any kind of formal greeting.  Very quickly I thanked him for being the dad he is and that I really appreciate it.  I was direct and straight to the point. I also found myself not using the correct form of written English, I was using computer slang.  My dads response was almost identical to mine.  He used three periods in a row to separate his different thoughts, very informal.  This is what part of the email looked like:

Stace….thanks for your note, I really appreciate it…

All in all I enjoyed taking the time to tell the ones I love that I really do appreciate what they have done for me. However I think I am definitely going to stick with the email version of communicating, even if my mom isn’t on board with all the new technology! She is just going to have to learn.

As most of us did I transferred over from myspace to facebook when I got to college.  I hadn’t looked at the information I put on my page since the day I had typed it until this assignment, so it was interesting to look back to what my interests were and what I thought was appropriate to put online for the whole world to see.  Surprisingly my answers were similar to the answers I would have had if I were to have just made my facebook.  I never added a lot of personal information, just general activities or television shows that I was interested in at the time, nothing too intense.  The self presentation that I wanted others to think about me was that I was a fun loving girl, who likes to play basketball and hang out with her friends. I’m up for having a good time. 

I have known people who put their full address online and that is just creepy!  You do not know who might look at your pictures and think you are attractive and then they will write down your address and try and stalk you! That’s what is dangerous about putting yourself online like that; it’s open for anyone to look at.  Along with people stalking you there is another danger of putting your information online.  Identity fraud which Wood and Smith talk about in Chapter three, which discussed when people take your personal information and then impersonate you online or in real life.  With this information they are able to buy things and charge it to their account, which is a scary thought!

Whenever I get a new friend request and I don’t know who the person is I never accept them, because I don’t want strangers taking a look into my life.  I had a friend once who got a friend request from a stranger and she then went on to write him a message asking him “hey I don’t recognize you from your profile picture.  Have I met you before.  If I know you I will gladly accept you but if I don’t sorry I don’t accept strangers.”  The guy then wrote back and explained to her that he was doing an assignment for class and was seeing how many people actually accept “friends” to look at their page of personal information who they don’t even know.  He said that surprisingly a lot of people pushed accept without any hesitation and that my friend was one of the only ones who called him out on it. Facebook can be a fun form of communication and there is nothing wrong with having one as long as you are cautious about what is going on around you.

            Because the guy lives two separate and completely different lives, one in reality and one in cyberspace, there are two characters to this music video.  Guy number one is this short, fat, bald guy, who still lives at home with his parents.  He has the job of a high school kid, by being the pizza delivery guy for pizza pit pizzas.  At home he plays with his star wars memorabilia and creepily stares at the neighbor girl from out his window, because he can’t find enough courage to go up and talk with her.   Guy number two is this 6’5 model, who lives in Malibu and drives a Maserati.  The difference between guy number one and guy number two is that number two has confidence and it’s all because of the security he has from hiding behind the computer screen.   With this new and improved confidence guy number two has more friends, is always laughing or smiling, and is much more outgoing and adventurous in his life. He then uses this personality to try and make friends online.  Guy number one is depressed, and mopes around wherever he goes.  He would rather sit at home by himself, because he is afraid that he wouldn’t be able to find anyone else with his same unique interests. 

            In the Online Communication book, Wood and Smith refer to “Smart Mobs” which look at the way individuals can interact with the assistance of technology.  This social network is how our nerdy guy gets up the nerve to talk to girls, who he would normally never talk to.  People pay too much attention to what other people think, that’s why so many of them change their identity online.  People can never be satisfied with who makes them happy if it is not socially acceptable.  But it makes no sense because the person that you are online isn’t at all who you really are, therefore the person who is going to be attracted to you online isn’t someone who you would get along with in real life.   You are going to have nothing, so when it comes to actually having a relationship you are going to feel a sense of rejection all over again. 

            My opinion is that if you can make up this fantasy world where you are comfortable in your skin then why can’t you turn yourself into that person, someone you admire and want to live your life like.  Nothing is holding you back, so stop making excuses and go for what you want.  Now that’s not to say that our music video guy can all of a sudden become 6’5 and own one of the most expensive cars in the world, but you can take the same attitude toward life, with confidence and enthusiasm and you will be able to meet just as many people, and have just as much fun!

I went through the rest of the day doing pretty well not even letting my mind have enough time to think about all the facebooking I was missing out on.  The next problem came after my game; I thought to myself “I wonder how all the other Pac-10 teams did tonight?”  So I reached for my phone to check the scores when I realized I was about to use the internet, but instead of using my laptop I was using my phone.  The internet is everywhere!  I was lost I didn’t know what to do.  I felt like everything I needed to do involved getting online in some way shape or form. 

Later that night while I was sitting on my couch I had to resist the urge to get online, and check my email or do some shopping.  So I watched TV, which is something that I don’t do very much of, probably because when I have a free moment to sit down and relax I get online and deal with people and issues that are in my own life, instead of turning on MTV and watching other people’s lives. 

So the next morning I wake up and finally I can get online!  So naturally the first thing I do Is check my facebook, and I had a message from a friend asking me what my plans were for the previous night because she wanted to get together.  Of course this was sent on the day I wasn’t allowed to use the internet so I didn’t see this message until it was too late.  That’s when I realized how much we rely on the internet for communication. 

Not having access to the internet was not an enjoyable time, and I hope that I never have to go a day without it again.  Because as I found out the world revolves around the world of email and web addresses, and it is a world I need to be a part of.