The Use of Cyberspace

In Andy Carvin’s article, “New Govt Report Exposes the School-Home Digital Divide“, he exclaimed, “that for the first time in a very long time, I’ve felt stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide.” He felt this way because he did not have access to the Internet, showing his readers his dependence of the cyberspace. He continues on about how many young kids do not even have Internet access in their households but they a majority of percentage of children do have web access in school. Carvin also explains how today’s youth grow up with the cyberspace. I couldn’t agree more because I grew up learning how to use the computer at a young age. Throughout my teenage years, I’ve gone through Xanga, MySpace, and now I’m on Facebook and possibly in the future when it gets popular, Google+.

Cyberspace has two primary functions which are to be used as a public space and as a standard of accessibility. The relationship between the two are closer than what many people think. Using Facebook, it’s open to the public to use. You have your own profile and can communicate with almost anyone as long as you “friends” with them through the site. Accessibility comes in when, let’s say, you have a group project to do. By all means, Facebook can be a great tool to access to work on a group project. You can now group chat with your partners and share files with them. Also, Google has stepped up as a standard of accessibility for public spaces. Google has open sharing documents that allows multiple people to edit one file at the same time, so constant updating is possible.

Cyberspace plays a major role in academics now since communication towards professors and peers can be accessed through the web. The Internet has come a long way since the beginning. The public has access to it for its open space (such as social networking or digital storage) and its functionality for communication.

 

 

Politics & the Internet

The Internet has greatly impacted politics. I say this because people use the Internet all the time these days and by having politics online, this would be a greater convenience for politicians and people interested in politics. One point I’d like to come across is the use of the Internet as a tool for campaigning. I remember back in my senior year of high school during the 2008 Presidential elections. I had the privilege to vote because I was of age by the time the polls were open for voters.

I fondly remember the use of MySpace and Facebook for campaigning, especially in Obama’s side. By getting to a broader range of people, Obama and his supporters were successful in getting their message across to millions of United States citizens that were not in touch with the subject of politics. Online support is the biggest type of support there is because not every supporter has the time in their hands to go out and rally for their favorite candidate. By chatting amongst themselves, they can plan on how to spread information for others to see. This, by itself, is one big reason why politics is greatly influenced by the Internet today.

YouTube had channels that supported both 2008 presidential candidates. Users voiced their opinions while streaming clips of speeches, advertisements, and other endorsements. Big-time hip hop artist P. Diddy launched a campaign for young people eligible to vote to go out there and vote to make a difference. The slogan for his campaign was “Vote or Die”, which sparked many young voters to buy t-shirts, buttons, and stickers to show their willingness to make a difference and vote in the 2008 elections. By using social media networks, politicians have succeeded in getting their messages across to potential new voters. We can only see how big of a role the web will play in the 2012 Presidential Elections. I predict that it will be even bigger than 2008.

My Experiences with Electronic Commerce

My experiences with electronic commerce have been quite positive since I was introduced to the world of the Internet. I have always been a customer for U.S. Bank and didn’t get an account with them until I turned 18. When I did sign up for a debit card, the bank teller told me how I go online to access my account information to do transfers and read my bank statement. So, that night, I went on the computer and logged onto my bank account via online and found it to be convenient. Instead of having to go to the bank or an ATM to transfer money from accounts, I can do it from the comfort of my own home. Also, later I figured out that there was direct deposit where my paycheck from work would automatically be deposited online straight to my account instead of having a paper paycheck sent home. The use of electronic funds transfer is brilliant because it saves everyone time.

 

I was an early adopter of iTunes compared to most of my peers because I purchased an iPod Mini back in 8th grade before iPods sprang to its infamous popularity. Since I was 16 at the time and didn’t have my own debit card to purchase music, Apple offered gift cards to their iTunes store. So, I can go to the store, purchase a gift card, and use that to purchase music online. It’s simple, safe, and user-friendly. I also want to mention how the store was ingenius for having recommendations. Other users who listen to similar music as myself would purchase and recommend music that is similar in style to the music I’m purchasing. This would get me to sample the other music to see if I like it or not. I found the idea pretty neat.

 

Amazon was the death of my wallet. You can find ANYTHING on Amazon. From textbooks to workout machines, it’s almost endless. When I go on the page, there is always recommendations for me because I online “window shop” a lot to see what I’d like to purchase for the future. I strongly favor this feature because Amazon made this popular for other e-commerce sites.

DL Reflection

My experience as a reflection leader could have been better. It took me quite awhile to figure out which article to use because the topic of Personal Learning Networks can be referenced to almost anything involving learning via networks. After finding a pretty detailed article about the theory of Connectivism, I thought it’d be a great subject to use as my Discussion Leader post. I thought it was interesting because aside from the traditional sit-down classroom learning, a person can learn from networking online. From experience, a person can leader a lot. It’s interesting that Tweeters using Twitter can constantly tweet new information to others. That information gets spread worldwide and soon, everyone will learn something new.

On that Wednesday morning when we had to present our posts, I was really nervous because I wasn’t as prepared as I would like to be. I thought my presentation was boring because my audience didn’t look to interested in my topic. Sure, they thought it was neat that people can openly learn from networking compared to sitting down in a classroom, but they didn’t seem to absorbed into the discussion. I was part of the blame because I could have been more prepared. Either that or I could have found something more interesting for my post. Well, the discussion has been there and I’m relieved. It was nerve-wrecking.

A Communication Scholar’s Path

Communication scholars should study the open source software movement known as the Personal Learning Network because it will benefit them in two distinct ways. Lets just say that it is like killing two birds with one stone. By broadening your networking capabilities, you open your door to meeting tons of new people. These new people can be vital to your future because they can lead you to success. By networking, you have the power to decide who you want be associated with. You can find your career because of the people surrounding you. They  can connect you to your ideal job while you can connect them to their ideal jobs. Some can say it is a win-win situation. Your Personal Learning network can be both social and professional.

Socially, by blogging, tweeting, or Facebooking your life away, you can reflect on your own character and people will see that. Communication scholars should definitely take this into consideration because they can help each other socially through these social networking websites. By improving on your writing and form of communicating to others, a scholar in the communication major would benefit from being online. Learning from others and yourself from networking can be a fun yet effective way of gaining knowledge.

When you look at the aspect of professionalism, there are many web pages where you can create an account related to your career. I know that I’ve been invited to a LinkedIn account. This website is considered to be the biggest professional networking site today and even though I haven’t had the chance to make an account, I will make one in the future. By interacting with fellow scholars that are in the market for a job, I can work with them and future employers into being considered (and hopefully) hired to a company. Learning to connect to others is one thing I cherish because it really is about “who you know” sometimes.

Connectivism: A New Way to Learn

According to theorist, George Siemens:

“The domain of learning is significantly hampered by progressive revisions of what it means to learn, to know, and to understand. A subset of connectivism, network forming, is presented as an accurate model for addressing how people learn. The test of any theory is the degree to which it solves problems and incongruities within a domain. The shortcomings of behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist ideologies of learning are answered in light of learning as a connection-forming (network-creation) process.”

My view on networks

Reading through Donald Norman’s “Being Analog“,  I can say that his essay has changed my views on networks. Norman states that, “we are analog beings trapped in a digital world, and the worst part is, we did it to ourselves” in his opener of his essay and I can’t help but agree to it because we are so consumed in media today compared to the people of the past. By the advancement of technology, we have all types of new media such as social networking websites, smart phones, and even things like WIFI equipped refrigerators that can access the internet for recipes for your next meal!

One interesting section of the reading I thought that help me persuade my thinking of our views on networks was Norman talked about the ever-increasing pace of change. He proclaims that, “the slow evolutionary pace of life is no longer up to the scale and pace of technological change”; this quote, in its entirety, can tell readers that networks have changed. Human evolution took years to make us what we are today while technological evolution has changed so quickly. The pace of technological advancement cannot be reached by man’s own evolution. I think because of the high demand for better products that would cater to our wants more than our needs.  I say this because we have have many things that we NEED, but we WANT our products to be even better.  Therefore, we network our desire to companies that would look into our interests and give in to our demands. In the end, we get what we want and the lifestyle recycles until the time when we want something even better than that.

Even digitally, I think that networking has changed. Today’s top form of communication is from social networking websites such as Facebook. This one website, alone, has the power to message, comment, instant message, and video chat other users in a way that is quick and convenient. It’s the ultimate form of getting your message through to a big group of people. I feel that networking has really changed compared to before.

Information

My life is greatly affected by information because there’s just so much information out there.  Whenever I have to look up information for a research paper, I always get information anxiety. It’s overwhelming how there’s TOO MUCH info on the internet or in the form of textbooks. Even with social media sites, there’s a sense of information overload because communication is instant so it’s easy to fall behind on news about your friends’ lives. I know that Twitter is constant, everyone posts things every minute and you could possibly be “following” many users, so it’d be difficult to catch up on their lives while posting about your’s.

The main reason why I feel that there’s too much information is that I have to look for the accuracy and reliability. If I use inaccurate and unreliable sources, the information I accumulate would be useless due to the fact that I’d be using the wrong sources. The Internet’s invention is astounding because of its ways of communication and transferring files. Today, there are so many files  that have been transferred to the web. A person can’t get enough information because there is so much and with all that information, I don’t think anyone would have trouble with gathering it.

However, the key to finding the right information is on how you search for it. Wikipedia is a huge database to read about almost anything, but there’s not many references to the work written behind each topic because anybody can access Wikipedia and edit the texts. A lot of posts do reference to accurate information gathered from books and more authentic information sites. Again, I would like to emphasize how amazing it is to know that there’s an endless array of information out there for a person to look up. At times, I would stop searching for a few minutes because I’m overwhelmed from “brain overload” trying to figure out what information to use.

Reflection on how people really watch TV

So, the first reflection post will be on the article, how people really watch TV (The Economist, Dec 2010).

I can say that I use to watch TV a lot before I went off to college. Growing up, my parents were strict about me going out to hang out with friends, so I stayed inside a lot and watched TV to fight the boredom. I grew up in a family that loved to spend time together behind the screen of a TV, watching a movie on TBS or USA Network. It was a fun time. We never got into that whole DVR era because we preferred to watch our shows “live” regardless if they were live or not.

In a social aspect, I would talk about the new weekly episode of whatever trendy show is on through MySpace to my friends. Some heated discussion sessions took place because of these TV episodes. Whenever there’s a show on the History or Travel Channels about Cambodia, my mom would immediately dial my grandma’s number and tell her to tune in to watch. Not only is TV is fun to watch, it can educate you.

Today’s technology is so advanced. I watch TV less now because I can watch shows online on my laptop and I know people with smart phones capable of doing the same. I find it revolutionary that TV makers are incorporating widgets into their HDTV sets. How tube screen television sets turned into sleek and slim HDTVs that connect to the internet! And there’s even those 3D HDTVs. It’s so fascinating how future technology is getting more advanced. By creating such beautiful technology like this, I wouldn’t be surprised of a return of families getting together to watch TV together again because it’s not the same now compared to the past.

Media Diary Post 1

My media diary mainly consists of texting on my cell phone, browsing online, and playing video games. This week saw the usual pattern.

Starting at noon at Wednesday, I was logged onto the internet in COM300 going through the lecture while Kathy was lecturing us. I did browse through tech blogs and other news media websites to learn more about the new Google+. Class was over at 2pm, so of course, I had to check my phone and reply back to my text messages. It was a pretty busy day on Wednesday, so I didn’t really get involved into media that much besides for texting until later in the evening. I got back home at 7pm, turned on the Xbox 360 S and played the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for an hour. Afterwards, logged onto Netflix and got hooked into the TV series, Deadliest Warriors for 2 hours. So, around 10pm, I went to room, logged onto Facebook and chatted with some friends while listening to some music on music blogs. Called it a night after and went to bed.

Woke up late Thursday morning around 11am. How I love not having class these days. Checked my phone for texts and calls, replied back to them. Also, logged onto myUW, Yahoo!, Gmail, and Facebook. It’s interesting to see how much email I accumulate when I get too lazy to check them. Spent about 2 hours online before I jumped onto the 360 to watch an episode of the Deadliest Warrior for an hour. I’m starting to love this show! Afterwards, made a call to my manager at Hollister for about 5 minutes regarding my schedule. Texted throughout the day since I had to go workout and make some errands. Went to a friend’s around 6pm, and we watched TV for an hour. Ended the night watching Youtube videos with her.

Since I slept over at my friend’s and didn’t have my laptop on me, I woke up Friday around 10am. I had to text this guy a few times about meeting up to buy my camera lens at 1:30pm. So, I spent Friday morning watching TV and texting until noon. That’s all for my media journal so far. I just got back from seeing Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon. Loved it.