"The Technology and the Society"

In the article “The Technology and the Society” writer Raymond Williams looks into the history of the television and the affects it has had on society. It goes in depth about how the television was created and its first uses before it become a mass media. The article describes “accident” of television’s invention. I found it informative to learn the stages of how television grew to what it is today. Also, the article focused on informing us about the history of broadcasting because it goes hand in hand with the development of television.

I think the article wanted the reader to understand why new technology can have major impact on society. By examining what came before television we see the changes society went through. The new abilities that the technology gave to society had major impacts on how people acted on a day to day basis. Whether it was listening to the radio listening for news about the war and ten years later sitting in front of a television watching public broadcast shows.

“Just Like Me Only Better”

This article discusses MUVEs, Multi-User Virtual Environments, and how players design their avatars. Each player chooses the details of an avatar and no one has a say in it, a user imagines the height, body proportions, hair, skin, and eye color. I found the six reasons teenagers made their avatars the way the are not surprising. Teenagers make their avatars with characteristics they wish they had, they like, or just to look different. In second life, you can be who you want to be so a teenager would use it as a place to be someone they are not in real life.

This article made me think about the song “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The song talks about creating a world that is your own and no one can change it for you. Second life is a lot like that I think because as a player you are the world’s creator.

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Self-Representation

In this chapter on self-representation, the writer discusses how the media is controlled by the community. The community has the right to say how they feel about everything and anything through various media.

One of the main ideas for this chapter was how we organize media so that it is “democratic media”. Community media will play a role in documenting what we are doing, “peace building and overcoming negative assumptions to do with gender and race”. Self-expression about everything is possible, by participating we are expressing ourselves, ideas, creativity or politics.

The second main idea of this chapter I found was in this quote:

“There is a relationship between our social, political, and cultural landscapes and our ability to engage with media at different levels and though multiple means.”

I thought this was important because this is what media is today. We use it for social, political, and cultural means. Media like magazines and newspapers are more for political and cultural means sharing information on a daily, weekly or monthly basis through print media. While television, radio, and Internet do the same electronically.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

As a young adult, I am one of the many who are being described in the article, “Explaining Why Young Adults Use MySpace and Facebook Through Uses and Gratifications Theory.” There are many ideas in the article that I knew before reading it. What I was interested in learning from the article was how much of an extent social networking websites has influenced a generation.

Face to face communication allowed gratification but social network sties give instant gratification to its users. The immediate connection with others is a new concept. It instantly fulfills the needs and wants of users. Using social network sites users fulfill the need for entertainment, information, surveillance, diversion, and social utility needs.

I found it most useful to learn the five themes that explained why individuals use social network sites:

1 efficient communication
2 convenient communication
3 curiosity about others
4 popularity
5 relationship formation and reinforcement

These five things embody what today’s youth focus on. Our need to communicate quickly and to know what people are doing or saying or if they are noticing what you do are what today's young adults think about when using social network sites.

"Being American" on Facebook

http://news.yahoo.com/being-american-facebook-generation-opportunity-platform-millennials-surges-154906744.html

The full title of the article, "'Being American' on Facebook, A Generation Opportunity Planform for Millennials, Surges to Over One Million Fans." The article discusses how the grassroots organization, Generation Opportunity, uses Facebook to communicate to over a million fans. Generation opportunity is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that hopes to engage young adults in hopes of creating a better tomorrow.

Their "Being American" Facebook page focuses on targeting 18-29 year old adults. On this Facebook page they focus on issues that affect young adults like youth unemployment and economic opportunity. Because many young adults are unemployed Generation Opportunity uses Facebook to connect those who want to find a solution to unemployment and economic slum.

I believe many organizations today use Facebook to get more supporters. I admire that Generation Opportunity has had a successful campaign on Facebook. Many organizations can only hope that they can reach a million fans. More and more grassroot organizations and community groups use social media to create awareness in the community.

The Medium Is the Message

There are many interesting and important ideas discussed in “The Medium is the Message”. I think the first is that our new technology does not affect the message. It does however change the scale or pace or pattern of how it is introduced into human affairs. I thought this was important because we hear news faster than ever before because we have easier access to it. I think that its important to compare how in the early 1900s the only source of news was a newspaper or word of mouth.

Second, I think that the idea that media are extensions of ourselves is an interesting point. We put our personal energies to surrond ourselves with media to be aware of media and to experience each form of media available to us: radio, television, and Internet. On a personal level we definitely use media to send our opinions out to the world through blogs or our social networking sites. People are caring more about their personal web pages more than what is happening in the community or around the world. It is probably why today’s generation is the “Me” generation. They care little about the bigger picture and more materialistic compared to previous generations.

Antecedents and Consequences of Online Social Networking Behavior: The Case of Facebook

This article focused on Facebook and the affects that social networking sites have on a person's behavior. It focused on the size of a user's social network, a person's anxiety, self-esteem, and body image. The article discusses how social networking sites used for professional or personal reasons is significantly different from real life social networks of friends or families.

The article concludes that online social networking has no relation with a person's behavior. Online social networks had more influence on the size of one's network rather than one's behavior. One's self-esteem does affect whether or not your social network has more strangers than friends.

I found it interesting that women have larger online social networks because they spend more time communicating with the people they network with. This made me realize how much time I do spend on social networking websites versus spending time with people real time. I also found that this is because women have more friend requests and get “poked” more often than men.

"Google will rock you: 'Doodle' celebrates Queen's late frontman"

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/09/05/google.doodle.mercury/index.html?hpt=te_bn6

This article is about one of Google’s many faces. Every once in a while Google changes its main page view. The article discusses how this last Monday, Google was designed to honor the memory of Queens frontman everywhere except the United States where Labor Day was being celebrated.

I found it interesting that though the US did not have it on their main page, Google honored the band’s influence on music. The band had a strong fan base all over the world which is why I believe Google chose to honor the band with their main page. The last few years Google has started to make their home page an informing place not just to search the internet.

My favorite one was the “guitar Google”. The main page allowed users to pluck a string and create music. It lead to videos like this one, that plays the theme song to Rugrats, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSA0NtfYIB4.

Google’s home pages have a history of discussion and buzz. Google honors various holidays or important dates that impact our culture. I think that this is a unique way to honor important dates.

Quality of Online Social Relationships

The main ideas in the article, “Quality of Online Social Relationships”, revolve around interpersonal communication on the Internet. By comparing the online relationships of bankers’ to college students’ online communications.

The study focused on people’s social relationships on the Internet looking at how they have communicated over time and what they were communicating about. First through email, bankers would rely information about work while students used email the same way they would use a phone or how they would do homework. The study also explained the amount of communication non-internet and internet users conducted in a month.

The research concludes that online use is not primarily social based. I know that my Internet use is about half social communicating on websites like Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr. And half on non-social communication either for school or work. Of course there are certain periods of time where I will be using the Internet solely for social reasons. During the summer I can spend hours watching television online and reading websites like mylifeisaverage.com or tumblr.com.

Man Computer Symbiosis

The article "Man-Computer Symbiosis" describes in detail the symbiotic relationship man kind has with computers. The article begins by explaining what symbiosis is, a close union between two dissimilar organisms. It explains how the though process of man develops and is communicated differently from computing machines.

My favorite quote from the article points out that man made machines are built by man to assist man. "There was only one kind of organism-man-and the rest was there only to help him." The article really emphasizes how any computer man uses cannot think like man.

I found it interesting that we rely on computers to solve our problems when fifty years ago this was not the case. Computers are now used for many uses which is why the relationship between man and computers has become symbiotic.

Also, that the article allows gives a specific definition of computer, “a wide class of calculating, data-processing, and information-storage-and-retrieval machines.” Pointing out that these machines capabilities are increasing.

When the article compares the capabilities between men and computers it really focuses attention on the through process man has compared to computers. The differences are speed, memory, memory organization, language, and input/output equipment.

Media Article: Yahoo Rumored to Buy New York Times! Wait, What?

In the article on Techland.com, the rumour that Yahoo is buying New York Times is discussed. It explains how on one website the rumour started. Because of how low New York Times stock has hit. This sort of purchase may or may not benefit the companies. Many companies have needed to merge in order to stay a float. By merging the stock’s of both companies would increase because combined they would have more power to communicate with people. It could give them the edge they need to compete against strong players like Google, Facebook, and AOL who are all dominant in the communication world. I am an avid Yahoo user so I am curious if such a merge would affect my Yahoo life or it would just be a business strategy that the common user would not realize hands have exchanged behind the scenes. If this rumor does become true we will have to see how Yahoo will use it to their advantage.

"The Written Word"

There are a few main points in “The Written Word: From Printing to the Internet” that are important to remember. The article begins by telling us how communication is intimate with face to face between a number of people. Communication has a long history, the article describes each type of written communication that has developed over time: papyrus, newspapers, and magazines. The chapter also goes into detail about how written communication has expanded since people have become accustomed to email and the Internet. Another important point that is made in the chapter is how much skill and thought goes into what written communication is today because of the differences in how much effort was probably put into words in the past. The number of people able to communicate through written word has increased since the cost of communicating become so low. The chapter really emphasizes how technology has affected written communication.