I loved taking this course! This was my first online class and I really enjoyed being able to interact with everyone from all walks of life, thank you for that opportunity. I think that the books were very enjoyable to read and kept my interest most of the time. Yes, there were a few chapters from both books that were a little dry but overall I learned a great deal from them. Call me crazy but I liked reading Postman's novel the most because of his ideas and he kept me thinking about our history, society today and how I view the world around me. I think that the reading assignments were manageable with the allotted amount of time and work that was required. I have learned a lot about culture from this course and having the class online has opened my view and perspective on what can be accomplished. I also liked reading everyone else's blogs and getting a different perspective on life. Our culture is constantly changing and with technology I feel it is increasing at an ever rapid rate. Technology in our culture today has given us the chance to explore completely new realms that were unfathomable in the past.
I think that the first assignment on abstinence was a real eye-opener for me. I don’t think I have ever gone a full 24 hours without using the computer but I’m glad I did. I learned that life is far more important than spending hours on end surfing the web when there are more valuable things that I could be doing with my time. I knew this already but it took this assignment to help remind myself and I think others would agree with me as well. For the second assignment I watched the Brad Paisley video and it represented to me all of the many things that can be accomplished on the internet. People can login to an entirely new reality world and be whoever they choose and it made me ask myself how I represent myself online to others. For the third assignment of Facebook and Myspace I had a chance to question why I had already had both communication networks. They are huge in our society and people have all different reasons to why they choose to use them. They are entirely used for communication and networking which I think is a great idea if not used too much. The next assignment was a great way for me to get back to the older values and write to a loved one which I had forgotten about. So many people including myself choose to use the internet and email instead of writing a hand written letter. I think it shows how much our society has and is still changing. The internet community that I joined for the fifth assignment was something else I had never done. Now that I have joined the breast cancer community I am able to talk to other people impacted by the horrible illness and its healing. Without the internet I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet these wonderful women and I’m thankful for the opportunity. Interviewing three different generations was also great because I was able to talk to three very important family members and learn how the internet impacts there life or not all. For the wild card assignment I liked picking an experience that I had in cyberspace. It’s amazing how so many encounters or communication that takes place in this realm.
Overall I felt that all of the assignments were great and I can’t think of anything I would change about this class. It was straightforward, innovative and fun. Thanks!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
My Wild Card!
I loved the idea of choosing a wild card topic of my choice and discussing my experience but what I didn’t expect was having a very difficult time finding something to write about. I have been thinking of ideas over the past few days and I have decided to discuss an experience I had when I was a freshman here at Oregon State. When I came to college I had just discovered Myspace and Facebook so when I heard about AIM and the accessible way to talk to friends I was excited to give it a try. I found friends at college who had been communicating on AIM for years but for me it was a new adventure. Communicating became much more fun for me because I was able to talk to multiple people at one time and not worry about how I looked, what I was wearing and I loved the idea of being able to respond whenever I chose instead of instantly in a normal face-to-face conversation. With the ease of AIM I was able to accomplish a lot of tasks around my room and all I had to do was hear the little noise notifying me I had a new message and walk back to my computer. Communicating on the internet was fast and very easy.
So with the help of Facebook and AIM combined, my story begins. I had a very close guy friend who was on my computer one night and he saw that we were on the same Facebook group. It was a group related to fishing and hunting, a passion we both still share. For those of you who don’t know Facebook well enough you can see the other members that are part of the same group by their profile photo. I had looked before at the other members and had come across a guy who had a huge 6x6 bull in the picture with him and his bow. Now, as small as I may be I am in fact a bow hunter and love archery. When I saw that this guy had shot this bull with his bow I was pretty impressed because it’s becoming harder for me to find anyone who shares the same passion. I couldn’t look at his profile and all I had to go by was a very small picture that Facebook had provided me. When my buddy who was on my computer saw that the guy I was impressed with was part of the same group he told me he knew him personally and actually was a good friend of his. I was surprised but also a little excited because I thought perhaps he could introduce me sometime and we could talk about hunting and archery. My friend told me a little bit about him and then gave me the confidence to message the bow hunter via Facebook. Normally I would never have considered doing something this bold but because my friend knew him I thought that it couldn’t hurt. I messaged him saying that we knew the same friend, I was impressed by his picture and I was a bow hunter as well. I must admit I did feel very awkward messaging a complete stranger I didn’t know and telling him I liked his picture. Even with my hesitations to my surprise he did in fact message me back and we began to exchange messages. Once we reached more familiar ground he said that I could message him anytime on AIM and of course Facebook has a section where you can put all of your information to get in connect with that person. So with that said we began to communicate through AIM and slowly got to know each other better. Long story short we decided to me at the OSU gymnastics meet in Corvallis and became very close friends. A year or so later we dated and even though that never worked out were still very close friends today.
Now looking back at my experience I know that the internet gave us the opportunity to meet one another. I realize that my friend could have eventually introduced us but the internet gave me the opportunity to communicate with him that very moment. With the realm of cyberspace you can become anyone you want with a click of a button and I was lucky enough to find a friend who represented himself honestly. Cyberspace made it easy and very convenient for us to get to know each other and see if it was even worthwhile to meet in the future. It was easier to talk online compared to face-to-face because I feel we didn’t have as much to lose. We had never met face-to-face and if we didn’t like each other than either one of us could have ceased conversation. With that said I also think that the situation became harder at times because we were communicating on the internet and not in person. I have always had difficulty knowing what someone really means when I communicate with them via AIM or Facebook chat. The same goes for texting in the sense that perhaps someone is trying to be funny but I take them as being rude and unfriendly. I think that when you know someone and have become acquainted with them in person then it is easier to know their expressions or jokes when you are communicating online. For example I have a friend who is very brash and has a dry sense of humor. Whenever I talk to him online I am able to distinguish that he’s not insulting me but being himself and relaxed instead. The face-to-face personal interaction helps me identify someone when were speaking in cyberspace. As for the bow hunter I had never met him when we began talking on AIM and it made it more difficult for me to know if he was serious or joking at times.
Another important point that I think should be made is that technology is flawed. I can remember at one point in our many discussions that he stopped talking to me in mid-sentence. I thought perhaps I had said something wrong but I found out days later that his computer was going haywire and he was trying to respond but couldn’t. The situation was indeed mis-communicated because of the technology. In Wood and Smith’s chapter on page 168 they state, “Already three fourths of all teenagers use the Internet for study, socializing, and entertainment. Just think, a mere decade ago, Internet usage was a rarity, a research tool for scientists or a plaything for the wealthy.” Now look at us. I was one of those teenagers using the internet to socialize and establish a bigger friendship network. I was drawn in by the ease of the technology and now I use cyberspace everyday. Postman also makes an excellent point on page 179, “Into this void comes the Technopoly story, with its emphasis on progress without limits, rights without responsibilities, and technology without cost.” I feel that cyberspace is becoming if not already is this realm of emphasis. Things are constantly changing and I’m not sure if it’s even for the better.
My entire experience told me a lot about our culture today. We like things to be easy and cyberspace gives us a great opportunity to do ample amount of things, including meeting someone through AIM or other networks. I could have very easily had a bad experience with my internet communication and the OSU student. Luckily I didn’t but I could have become very bitter I’m sure towards AIM and other chatting realms if I had a bad experience. I think overall that all of us need to be very careful with who we meet and what we present to other people because we don’t know who is watching.
So with the help of Facebook and AIM combined, my story begins. I had a very close guy friend who was on my computer one night and he saw that we were on the same Facebook group. It was a group related to fishing and hunting, a passion we both still share. For those of you who don’t know Facebook well enough you can see the other members that are part of the same group by their profile photo. I had looked before at the other members and had come across a guy who had a huge 6x6 bull in the picture with him and his bow. Now, as small as I may be I am in fact a bow hunter and love archery. When I saw that this guy had shot this bull with his bow I was pretty impressed because it’s becoming harder for me to find anyone who shares the same passion. I couldn’t look at his profile and all I had to go by was a very small picture that Facebook had provided me. When my buddy who was on my computer saw that the guy I was impressed with was part of the same group he told me he knew him personally and actually was a good friend of his. I was surprised but also a little excited because I thought perhaps he could introduce me sometime and we could talk about hunting and archery. My friend told me a little bit about him and then gave me the confidence to message the bow hunter via Facebook. Normally I would never have considered doing something this bold but because my friend knew him I thought that it couldn’t hurt. I messaged him saying that we knew the same friend, I was impressed by his picture and I was a bow hunter as well. I must admit I did feel very awkward messaging a complete stranger I didn’t know and telling him I liked his picture. Even with my hesitations to my surprise he did in fact message me back and we began to exchange messages. Once we reached more familiar ground he said that I could message him anytime on AIM and of course Facebook has a section where you can put all of your information to get in connect with that person. So with that said we began to communicate through AIM and slowly got to know each other better. Long story short we decided to me at the OSU gymnastics meet in Corvallis and became very close friends. A year or so later we dated and even though that never worked out were still very close friends today.
Now looking back at my experience I know that the internet gave us the opportunity to meet one another. I realize that my friend could have eventually introduced us but the internet gave me the opportunity to communicate with him that very moment. With the realm of cyberspace you can become anyone you want with a click of a button and I was lucky enough to find a friend who represented himself honestly. Cyberspace made it easy and very convenient for us to get to know each other and see if it was even worthwhile to meet in the future. It was easier to talk online compared to face-to-face because I feel we didn’t have as much to lose. We had never met face-to-face and if we didn’t like each other than either one of us could have ceased conversation. With that said I also think that the situation became harder at times because we were communicating on the internet and not in person. I have always had difficulty knowing what someone really means when I communicate with them via AIM or Facebook chat. The same goes for texting in the sense that perhaps someone is trying to be funny but I take them as being rude and unfriendly. I think that when you know someone and have become acquainted with them in person then it is easier to know their expressions or jokes when you are communicating online. For example I have a friend who is very brash and has a dry sense of humor. Whenever I talk to him online I am able to distinguish that he’s not insulting me but being himself and relaxed instead. The face-to-face personal interaction helps me identify someone when were speaking in cyberspace. As for the bow hunter I had never met him when we began talking on AIM and it made it more difficult for me to know if he was serious or joking at times.
Another important point that I think should be made is that technology is flawed. I can remember at one point in our many discussions that he stopped talking to me in mid-sentence. I thought perhaps I had said something wrong but I found out days later that his computer was going haywire and he was trying to respond but couldn’t. The situation was indeed mis-communicated because of the technology. In Wood and Smith’s chapter on page 168 they state, “Already three fourths of all teenagers use the Internet for study, socializing, and entertainment. Just think, a mere decade ago, Internet usage was a rarity, a research tool for scientists or a plaything for the wealthy.” Now look at us. I was one of those teenagers using the internet to socialize and establish a bigger friendship network. I was drawn in by the ease of the technology and now I use cyberspace everyday. Postman also makes an excellent point on page 179, “Into this void comes the Technopoly story, with its emphasis on progress without limits, rights without responsibilities, and technology without cost.” I feel that cyberspace is becoming if not already is this realm of emphasis. Things are constantly changing and I’m not sure if it’s even for the better.
My entire experience told me a lot about our culture today. We like things to be easy and cyberspace gives us a great opportunity to do ample amount of things, including meeting someone through AIM or other networks. I could have very easily had a bad experience with my internet communication and the OSU student. Luckily I didn’t but I could have become very bitter I’m sure towards AIM and other chatting realms if I had a bad experience. I think overall that all of us need to be very careful with who we meet and what we present to other people because we don’t know who is watching.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Three Generations
I loved completing this assignment not only because I was able to talk to three different generations but the fact that I learned so much from the interviews I gave. I decided to talk to my boyfriend who is 22, my brother who is 37 and my grandmother who is 72. All three of them use the internet differently. I decided to interview my boyfriend first. We are the same age and he uses the internet everyday either for school, work or just for fun. Primarily he likes to use the internet to catch up on his sports on ESPN but he also likes to chat with his sister through Facebook who goes to school in Colorado. My boyfriend David is very comfortable communicating on the internet with friends and family. His parents are not very technology savvy but throughout the years growing up he taught himself and now is fairly knowledgeable when it comes to the internet. He believes that technology has given people a lot of advantages but that it has made our society lazy. He thinks that we have become less independent and more dependent on the technologies including himself. David grew up without the internet and technology but now that he has had it while he has been away at college I think that he has become to rely on it much more. He would be able to live without it very easily but because it is such an item of convenience if he doesn’t have to then he would prefer not to.
My brother’s interview went a little differently in the sense that I discovered he doesn’t use the internet as often as I thought. He lives in The Dalles and specifically where his house in located he has a dial up connection. He chooses not to use the internet just because it takes so long for a page to load when he is at home that it isn’t worth the effort. Growing up he didn’t use the internet, he was always outside playing, fishing, hunting and golfing that he barely spent anytime inside. He expressed to me that the only time he uses the internet is to check his email or to occasionally shop online at Cabelas for outdoor gear. Luckily where he works as a firefighter he is able to use the internet and check those items more freely because they don’t have a dial up connection. My brother said that he is comfortable sending an email to someone here or there but other than that he either has no time or the interest to communicate on the computer. He doesn’t really see the sense in Facebook and Myspace when someone could call or talk to a person face-to-face. He agreed 100% that technology has changed the way people live their lives and not necessarily for the better. He thinks just as David did that people have become far too dependent on it and everyone should read a book, go outside or do something far more constructive than being on the internet all day long. He knows that not everyone does that but people have become far too reliant on it.
Out of all of the interviews, I enjoyed talking to my grandmother the most. I try to talk to her at least once a week but asking her for some help on a homework assignment really made her happy and she was willing to give me all the information I needed. My grandmother doesn’t use the internet. She doesn’t have a computer and doesn’t choose to have one. Having a cell phone is a big leap for her and just about all the technology she wants to deal with. If she did have a computer she said her primary use for it would probably be email so she could talk to family members and communicate with them that way. If my grandma did have a computer I know she would be very uncomfortable communicating as she said so herself and she would get too confused with all of the technology they have now a days. My grandma absolutely believes that technology has changed the way people live their lives and she doesn’t like it. She doesn’t see the point of people spending hours of time on the internet, she said there are always better things that people should find to do.
From all of the interviews I noticed that there was one common theme. The fact that all three of my interviewees thought people could find something more constructive to do in their spare time besides being on the internet. In general my boyfriend and brother like the internet and think it has its purposes but my grandmother remembers when she was younger and people did just fine without all of the technology that is now present.
There was one particular sentence that continued to stick out to me when I was reading Wood and Smith’s chapter. On page 157 they state, “Time provides a dimension to study the unfolding of events in various contexts.” I think this related perfectly to this assignment because of the three different generations that I interviewed. All three of them grew up in different generations and experienced completely different lifestyles. Things take time to emerge and I think that is the same case for technology. It doesn’t develop in a split second but throughout time and there are different generations that experience that particular change. On page 143 of Postman’s chapter he states, “And so it is necessary to understand where our techniques come from and what they are good for; we must make them visible so that they may be restored to our sovereignty.” I think that my boyfriend, brother and grandmother all felt that there is a time and place for technology and once it is determined what purpose the particular technology is used for to try and not exceed its limits.
I think that this assignment says a lot about how our society is constantly changing. Things are completely different from when my grandmother was growing up to even my brothers childhood even though it doesn’t seem like very many years have passed. I think that our society now, right at this moment relies on the internet and all of the technology given. Perhaps that might evolve into something else in a few years but for the time being we are the technology generation. Do you agree?
My brother’s interview went a little differently in the sense that I discovered he doesn’t use the internet as often as I thought. He lives in The Dalles and specifically where his house in located he has a dial up connection. He chooses not to use the internet just because it takes so long for a page to load when he is at home that it isn’t worth the effort. Growing up he didn’t use the internet, he was always outside playing, fishing, hunting and golfing that he barely spent anytime inside. He expressed to me that the only time he uses the internet is to check his email or to occasionally shop online at Cabelas for outdoor gear. Luckily where he works as a firefighter he is able to use the internet and check those items more freely because they don’t have a dial up connection. My brother said that he is comfortable sending an email to someone here or there but other than that he either has no time or the interest to communicate on the computer. He doesn’t really see the sense in Facebook and Myspace when someone could call or talk to a person face-to-face. He agreed 100% that technology has changed the way people live their lives and not necessarily for the better. He thinks just as David did that people have become far too dependent on it and everyone should read a book, go outside or do something far more constructive than being on the internet all day long. He knows that not everyone does that but people have become far too reliant on it.
Out of all of the interviews, I enjoyed talking to my grandmother the most. I try to talk to her at least once a week but asking her for some help on a homework assignment really made her happy and she was willing to give me all the information I needed. My grandmother doesn’t use the internet. She doesn’t have a computer and doesn’t choose to have one. Having a cell phone is a big leap for her and just about all the technology she wants to deal with. If she did have a computer she said her primary use for it would probably be email so she could talk to family members and communicate with them that way. If my grandma did have a computer I know she would be very uncomfortable communicating as she said so herself and she would get too confused with all of the technology they have now a days. My grandma absolutely believes that technology has changed the way people live their lives and she doesn’t like it. She doesn’t see the point of people spending hours of time on the internet, she said there are always better things that people should find to do.
From all of the interviews I noticed that there was one common theme. The fact that all three of my interviewees thought people could find something more constructive to do in their spare time besides being on the internet. In general my boyfriend and brother like the internet and think it has its purposes but my grandmother remembers when she was younger and people did just fine without all of the technology that is now present.
There was one particular sentence that continued to stick out to me when I was reading Wood and Smith’s chapter. On page 157 they state, “Time provides a dimension to study the unfolding of events in various contexts.” I think this related perfectly to this assignment because of the three different generations that I interviewed. All three of them grew up in different generations and experienced completely different lifestyles. Things take time to emerge and I think that is the same case for technology. It doesn’t develop in a split second but throughout time and there are different generations that experience that particular change. On page 143 of Postman’s chapter he states, “And so it is necessary to understand where our techniques come from and what they are good for; we must make them visible so that they may be restored to our sovereignty.” I think that my boyfriend, brother and grandmother all felt that there is a time and place for technology and once it is determined what purpose the particular technology is used for to try and not exceed its limits.
I think that this assignment says a lot about how our society is constantly changing. Things are completely different from when my grandmother was growing up to even my brothers childhood even though it doesn’t seem like very many years have passed. I think that our society now, right at this moment relies on the internet and all of the technology given. Perhaps that might evolve into something else in a few years but for the time being we are the technology generation. Do you agree?
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