When I started this class, I had never written an online blog entry. It was interesting to be able to communicate online in a different way than I have before. I think that I will continue with an online blog, just maybe not in a weekly format.
The first blog post about online abstinence was the most interesting. I thought it would have been harder to live without the Internet for 24 hours. During this period I did household chores that I had been neglecting. I found other ways to get my news during the day including reading the newspaper and watching television.
During week 2, I watched the Brad Paisley music video. I see how it could be easy for a person to create a new identity because they are not happy with who they are. You can create an identity that is totally different from the one that is portrayed in public.
Thinking about what I reveal on Facebook has given me a new perspective on things I can reveal, and things I should keep private. I never post very many pictures or information so I haven’t been worried about it. Sometimes I will post something, but then I feel the possibility that someone will see it is so small that it doesn’t matter much.
Writing a letter to someone was a good change of pace from the usual typing on a keyboard and staring at a screen. The though one must put into a written letter makes it become more of a chore than an email, but one that is much more worthwhile after it is completed.
Joining an Internet community was something I was not particularly looking forward too, but it turned out to be better than I expected. With an online group I was able to ‘listen’ to many points of view about the same topics. This was good because it gave me a broader perspective about how to deal with something I had in common with the person based on our handicap. This is something that I will continue with in the future since it was very beneficial.
Interviewing people about their Internet usage was not something I would have thought of doing in the past. I initially felt funny having to interview them, but found they each had things in common. They all only liked to correspond with people they had known previously which I have in common as well. I was surprised my grandma still likes to do her day to day banking at the branch down the street instead of checking balances online.
Week 7 was definitely the most challenging of the blog posts for me. I hadn’t really come to a conclusion on which problems would have been solved easier sans cyberspace. I guess I feel I don’t get into many situations like that so that is why it was so difficult.
Overall this was a very fun class and I had the chance to communicate in some differing ways, some of which I had never done, and others it seemed I had put in the back of my mind long ago, not knowing when they would be used again.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
When Was the Party?
One situation that comes to mind when thinking about online communication was one that happened fairly recently. It was back before the 2009 graduation at Oregon State back in June. A friend of mine was graduating from one of the Masters programs and wanted to have a celebratory party the night before. He sent the invitation out several weeks ahead of time, but kept changing the time the party was supposed to happen. The last couple days of class had been so hectic for me, I had not been able to confirm with him when or where the party was happening.
With lots on my mind, it was hard to remember to check Facebook for updates on how the party planning was coming along. As the week was coming to an end, it was looking more and more like I was going to be able to make an appearance. It was the day of the party, which also happened to be my last day of finals at the end of the school year. I had a final at 7:30 that morning and was very tired afterward, still needing to pack my things and be out of my dorm room by 5 pm that evening. Once I had gotten packed, I checked Facebook one last time, and found out unfortunately that the party wasn’t until 8 o’clock. I had told him that I would be at the party, but had not intended that I would be so worn out from my last final, then having to get moved out.
If this were a situation that was taking place either in person or over the phone I would have been able to confirm the time of the party with better accuracy and may have been able to plan accordingly so I wouldn’t have missed it. Sometimes with technology being as it is, there is not always time to respond to someone in a timely manner like you may have wanted. It also would have run smoother if more than one person were in charge of planning the party.
Although Facebook is a widely used application and it is great for following friends and family, one of the best ways to update people about a party is by calling them on the telephone or talking with them face to face. Ther can be many challenges in trying to plan a party such as this one due to a lag in the time the message is sent out and when the person receives it. Even if it always convenient to call someone, I feel you are momre likely to get a timely response than you would be by posting something on Facebook or sending them an email. These are used so little or not at all by some people, I don’t see them as a very viable option in times when you need to get a message quickly and efficiently to a large amount of people. Networks like these hae their place, but only if everyone invited checks them on a regular basis.
With lots on my mind, it was hard to remember to check Facebook for updates on how the party planning was coming along. As the week was coming to an end, it was looking more and more like I was going to be able to make an appearance. It was the day of the party, which also happened to be my last day of finals at the end of the school year. I had a final at 7:30 that morning and was very tired afterward, still needing to pack my things and be out of my dorm room by 5 pm that evening. Once I had gotten packed, I checked Facebook one last time, and found out unfortunately that the party wasn’t until 8 o’clock. I had told him that I would be at the party, but had not intended that I would be so worn out from my last final, then having to get moved out.
If this were a situation that was taking place either in person or over the phone I would have been able to confirm the time of the party with better accuracy and may have been able to plan accordingly so I wouldn’t have missed it. Sometimes with technology being as it is, there is not always time to respond to someone in a timely manner like you may have wanted. It also would have run smoother if more than one person were in charge of planning the party.
Although Facebook is a widely used application and it is great for following friends and family, one of the best ways to update people about a party is by calling them on the telephone or talking with them face to face. Ther can be many challenges in trying to plan a party such as this one due to a lag in the time the message is sent out and when the person receives it. Even if it always convenient to call someone, I feel you are momre likely to get a timely response than you would be by posting something on Facebook or sending them an email. These are used so little or not at all by some people, I don’t see them as a very viable option in times when you need to get a message quickly and efficiently to a large amount of people. Networks like these hae their place, but only if everyone invited checks them on a regular basis.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
How do they use the Internet?
This assignment was an interesting one for me to complete. Before I began it, I had a general idea of how my relatives and friends had used the Internet. I didn’t realize it had played such a big part in their everyday doings. Here is what I found out when I did the interviews.
My Mom: She uses the Internet mainly for email. She also checks on my brothers soccer schedule and can change her staffs work schedules and check work progress for the department store she works for. She is comfortable communicating online, but prefers to use email when she communicates. Online banking has made her life much less uncomplicated because nobody likes to pay late fees on bils.
My friend Audrey: Her primary uses are for researching medical questions, likes Facebook and doesn’t use MySpace much anymore. “I don’t communicate with people I don’t know.” Better, know she can research stuff quickly. Uses online banking. One thing that annoys her is when the connection doesn’t work.
My Grandma: Searches for info about people, recipes, photo work, pictures, email, easy for email, is frustrated by junk mail and jokes sent by people, technology has made her life better, it is difficult for her to use technology sometimes, “It is a highway to the outside world that I can travel easier than freeway,” she likes that she can get answers to complicated questions.
There were not as many things the three of them had in common with the Internet. All of them use email as one of their main way of checking in on friends and family. They only email people that they have some sort of previous relationship with. I was surprised that only two of the three use online banking. It has made my life so much easier and it is very easy to keep track of expenses.
Wood and Smith explain on page 147 how “dining rooms and bedrooms make way for home offices filled with computers, scanners, and fax machines.” It seems more and more that our houses are filled with pieces of technology. When I think of my house, I can’t think of one room without a piece of electronic technology in it. People in society cannot seem to go anywhere without their Blackberry’s or iPods these days. It is so refreshing when I am able to travel some place and not have the capability of using my cellphone, music player or watching television. I know that when I am not around these things I am much more communicative and tend to pay attention to work I have put of because it wasn’t as entertaining as watching television. There are times I wish I could travel back before all the technology we have today to a time when life was so much simpler. For as much as technology may have helped our world move into the modern age, there is something nice about societies such as the Amish that do not believe in using such gadgets. They seem to have much more time for family and the things that are most important in life.
My Mom: She uses the Internet mainly for email. She also checks on my brothers soccer schedule and can change her staffs work schedules and check work progress for the department store she works for. She is comfortable communicating online, but prefers to use email when she communicates. Online banking has made her life much less uncomplicated because nobody likes to pay late fees on bils.
My friend Audrey: Her primary uses are for researching medical questions, likes Facebook and doesn’t use MySpace much anymore. “I don’t communicate with people I don’t know.” Better, know she can research stuff quickly. Uses online banking. One thing that annoys her is when the connection doesn’t work.
My Grandma: Searches for info about people, recipes, photo work, pictures, email, easy for email, is frustrated by junk mail and jokes sent by people, technology has made her life better, it is difficult for her to use technology sometimes, “It is a highway to the outside world that I can travel easier than freeway,” she likes that she can get answers to complicated questions.
There were not as many things the three of them had in common with the Internet. All of them use email as one of their main way of checking in on friends and family. They only email people that they have some sort of previous relationship with. I was surprised that only two of the three use online banking. It has made my life so much easier and it is very easy to keep track of expenses.
Wood and Smith explain on page 147 how “dining rooms and bedrooms make way for home offices filled with computers, scanners, and fax machines.” It seems more and more that our houses are filled with pieces of technology. When I think of my house, I can’t think of one room without a piece of electronic technology in it. People in society cannot seem to go anywhere without their Blackberry’s or iPods these days. It is so refreshing when I am able to travel some place and not have the capability of using my cellphone, music player or watching television. I know that when I am not around these things I am much more communicative and tend to pay attention to work I have put of because it wasn’t as entertaining as watching television. There are times I wish I could travel back before all the technology we have today to a time when life was so much simpler. For as much as technology may have helped our world move into the modern age, there is something nice about societies such as the Amish that do not believe in using such gadgets. They seem to have much more time for family and the things that are most important in life.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Online Community
For this assignment, I joined an online community for people with Cerebral Palsy. This is a disability that I was born with, but I don’t like to think of myself as disabled. As a person on the show “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” once said “These kids aren’t disabled, they are differently abled.” I like this terminology because it doesn’t say that we can’t do anything, we just do them in a different way than most people are accustomed to.
I didn’t feel weird about joining a group of people with this handicap. I have been open since an early age to discussing my situation with people who are curious. That way I can tell them about it without getting the usual stereotypical responses. I get the usual curious stares and kids that are more interested in my wheelchair rather than why I am in it.
It is refreshing to talk with others who are experiencing what you are. It’s great to be able to bring up questions to other members that have the startle reflex of being scared by loud, sudden noises or asking them how best to deal with getting their leg muscles to relax.
It took me some time to find the right group, but then I settled on one on the website www.meetup.com. There are several different types and varying levels of cerebral palsy. The type I have is known as spastic cerebral palsy. It primarily involves muscles in the legs and also deals with fine motor function. Mine is on the less severe end of the scale. I use a wheelchair most of the time to get around, but can also use forearm crutches when I am going somewhere there might be stairs or other obstacles not easily accessed by the wheelchair.
Computers can be our friends and they can also become our enemies. As Postman explains on page 118, “(Computers) place an inordinate emphasis on the technical processes of communication and offer very little in the way of substance.” They might help us get our message to many people around the world, but there is no real substitute for communicating with someone face to face. Computers make it hard to convey emotion as easy as it is to do in person.
With the vast amount of information available on the Internet these days, sometimes I miss having to search for things that don’t require a keyboard. There is something to be said for the hunt it takes to sometimes find the right information.
Discussion boards such as these provide a way for us to get the opinion and input of others without having to leave our homes. This is just another way that society is able to get what they want with the push of a button, or in this case the click of a computer mouse. Our world today is so used to answers at the tip of a hat, and in that way it seems we are becoming lazier because we get all of the credit for half the amount of work.
I didn’t feel weird about joining a group of people with this handicap. I have been open since an early age to discussing my situation with people who are curious. That way I can tell them about it without getting the usual stereotypical responses. I get the usual curious stares and kids that are more interested in my wheelchair rather than why I am in it.
It is refreshing to talk with others who are experiencing what you are. It’s great to be able to bring up questions to other members that have the startle reflex of being scared by loud, sudden noises or asking them how best to deal with getting their leg muscles to relax.
It took me some time to find the right group, but then I settled on one on the website www.meetup.com. There are several different types and varying levels of cerebral palsy. The type I have is known as spastic cerebral palsy. It primarily involves muscles in the legs and also deals with fine motor function. Mine is on the less severe end of the scale. I use a wheelchair most of the time to get around, but can also use forearm crutches when I am going somewhere there might be stairs or other obstacles not easily accessed by the wheelchair.
Computers can be our friends and they can also become our enemies. As Postman explains on page 118, “(Computers) place an inordinate emphasis on the technical processes of communication and offer very little in the way of substance.” They might help us get our message to many people around the world, but there is no real substitute for communicating with someone face to face. Computers make it hard to convey emotion as easy as it is to do in person.
With the vast amount of information available on the Internet these days, sometimes I miss having to search for things that don’t require a keyboard. There is something to be said for the hunt it takes to sometimes find the right information.
Discussion boards such as these provide a way for us to get the opinion and input of others without having to leave our homes. This is just another way that society is able to get what they want with the push of a button, or in this case the click of a computer mouse. Our world today is so used to answers at the tip of a hat, and in that way it seems we are becoming lazier because we get all of the credit for half the amount of work.
Pen vs. Email: Which One to Choose?
When I looked at the prompt for this assignment, I had a hard time thinking of whom I would write to. I thought I would email the close relative and then write the long-handed letter to someone I had not heard from in quite some time.
The email that I wrote was to my aunt in California. She lives nears Yosemite National Park in a house surrounded by tall trees and a river running behind her house. The reason I decided to email her is because she is eventually going to move to Mississippi and I didn’t know quite when that is going to happen. I have become almost too familiar with the process of emailing. It is so easy to log onto my Gmail account, click Compose, write the message, then click send and the message is on its way just like that.
“Snail mail” is another process entirely. I had forgotten how therapeutic it is to right a letter to a friend. It took me quite a bit longer to write the letter because I had to choose my words much more carefully.
The friend I choose was one who lives on the Oregon Coast in Oretown, a small community between Lincoln City and Pacific City. I first met him years ago, and regretfully it had been a long time since I had talked with him. We used to stay over at each other’s houses during the summer when we were younger. He was a year younger, but we each had lots in common. Somehow, we have gone through a long time without a phone call or an email. Its funny how so people can be good friends at one point in time, then there lives go in opposite directions and its anybody’s guess to when you will see them again. I told him about how I was in college, but had decided to choose speech communication as my major. We both dreamed of becoming sports broadcasters when we were growing up. He had recently been hired on as the sports editor at a Tillamook newspaper. With me still in college, its funny at what pace people’s lives will move along. He graduated in four years and I will graduate after seven. Once I was finished with the letter, I felt as though I had accomplished something worthwile, as opposed to just typing thoughtlessly on a keyboard.
There is a quote on page 101 of the Wood and Smith text that talks about the Internet. “The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless, that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.” This rang scarily true for me. Sometimes when life seems like it can’t get any worse, which doesn’t happen too often thankfully, I find myself online, just wasting time until I feel I am over whatever is bugging me.
After this assignment I will continue to write letters as a way to get away from technology and get back to the simple pleasures in life. In our society we are always looking for the quick resolution to a problem, or a way to get more done during the day in our hectic lives. Writing a letter is one way to slow life down and connect with something that might have been missing for a while.
The email that I wrote was to my aunt in California. She lives nears Yosemite National Park in a house surrounded by tall trees and a river running behind her house. The reason I decided to email her is because she is eventually going to move to Mississippi and I didn’t know quite when that is going to happen. I have become almost too familiar with the process of emailing. It is so easy to log onto my Gmail account, click Compose, write the message, then click send and the message is on its way just like that.
“Snail mail” is another process entirely. I had forgotten how therapeutic it is to right a letter to a friend. It took me quite a bit longer to write the letter because I had to choose my words much more carefully.
The friend I choose was one who lives on the Oregon Coast in Oretown, a small community between Lincoln City and Pacific City. I first met him years ago, and regretfully it had been a long time since I had talked with him. We used to stay over at each other’s houses during the summer when we were younger. He was a year younger, but we each had lots in common. Somehow, we have gone through a long time without a phone call or an email. Its funny how so people can be good friends at one point in time, then there lives go in opposite directions and its anybody’s guess to when you will see them again. I told him about how I was in college, but had decided to choose speech communication as my major. We both dreamed of becoming sports broadcasters when we were growing up. He had recently been hired on as the sports editor at a Tillamook newspaper. With me still in college, its funny at what pace people’s lives will move along. He graduated in four years and I will graduate after seven. Once I was finished with the letter, I felt as though I had accomplished something worthwile, as opposed to just typing thoughtlessly on a keyboard.
There is a quote on page 101 of the Wood and Smith text that talks about the Internet. “The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless, that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.” This rang scarily true for me. Sometimes when life seems like it can’t get any worse, which doesn’t happen too often thankfully, I find myself online, just wasting time until I feel I am over whatever is bugging me.
After this assignment I will continue to write letters as a way to get away from technology and get back to the simple pleasures in life. In our society we are always looking for the quick resolution to a problem, or a way to get more done during the day in our hectic lives. Writing a letter is one way to slow life down and connect with something that might have been missing for a while.
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