identity

Today’s class was very interesting. That Lamdamoo exercise was crazy. I do not really understand what you do in it, but it was really cool to talk to people in class and interact with multiple people at once. I think the issue on identity in cyber space can be argued a lot. I think the fact that you can be whoever you want on the internet can be kind of scary. This is why we have the issue of online predators. I think the internet has to be more controlled because having a completely false identity can be somewhat dangerous.

SMSs

Today, our discussion about SMSs made me think a lot about facebook. Why is it so addicting? I know I spend and waste SO much time on it. I can even check facebook from my phone. Is this pathetic? Even though I may spend many useless hours on facebook, when I could be studying for a test, I am thankful that I am part of that community. Facebook has introduced me to many new people. Because of facebook, I started talking to my freshman year roommate, I have kept in touch with friends who go to school across the country, and I have networked with people with the same interests as I have. Even though facebook is addicting, it may be a good kind of addicting. I love being able to show my friends at school in Michigan or Indiana what I have been up to on the weekends. It is a place where you can reflect on past events with your friends when you look through old tagged pictures. I think it would be hard to maintain friendships with people who are far away without the help of facebook.

Lesser kind????

First let me say, I HATE READING DOCUMENTS ON A COMPUTER. I skim the first part, read quickly through the middle, and focus on the end of the document. Maybe I am missing certain points by reading this way, however I believe that it is a more efficient way of understanding something. We start our schooling at the age of 4 or 5, and most of us will continue with it until our mid twenties. The amount of knowledge that we absorb in ONE school day alone is overwhelming. We are expected to store every fact that we learn in some bottomless file cabinet in the back of our brains. This is not realistic. We can only remember and use so much. We focus on what is most important, what facts are most relevant, and what subjects we can relate to and understand the most. Yes, I am guilty of skimming documents on the computer for my Biology class, but that does not mean I don’t understand it. I know what is most important in the document, and I pick out which parts matter the most to me. The day consists of ONLY 24 hours. 24 hours to sleep, eat, be active, go to class, maintain a social life, do homework, and work. There are not enough hours in the day to read every last detail in some 8 page PDF document. We need to be efficient and productive. It is not a lesser way of educating or reading. It is simply a new, and maybe improved way of learning. We are expected to use our education to the fullest, go to graduate school, get a successful job, but how is this possible when we are supposed to focus on tedious or irrelevant data?

Technology

I had my family over for dinner for Easter last night and we all got into a very interesting conversation that reminded me of this class. As my aunt pulled out her blackberry phone (a.k.a. crackberry), we started talking about how convenient that electronic was. I have one and I can honestly say I am DEPENDENT on it. That phone is my life. My e-mail is forwarded it, I store my appointments and homework in the calendar, I use it for everything. My parents started making fun of me because I am always glued to it during the day. My mom raised a very interesting point that in this generation, face to face communication is BARELY existing. Texting has changed the way people interact with each other. My family was talking about how weird it is that times have evolved so much and how it is kind of sad. I hate to say it, but they are right. I grew up talking on the phone to friends and family, now I would rather get a text message. I do not want to have to go and meet with someone, I would rather e-mail them. It is sad and alarming but I know most people would agree with me.

Addictive Internet

In class on Monday, we talked about how much we use the internet on a daily and weekly basis. I started thinking about how much I use it. I sit on my computer for a very large majority of my day. When I was first introduced to the internet in 6th or 7th grade, I remember being absorbed in it. I learned I could talk to all of my friends any time I wanted to and there was a whole online world available to me. I am still under this influence today. I am constantly checking my e-mail and my face book account religiously. Not to mention we can do so many things for school through the internet; submit papers, have group discussions, and reach our professors. I think it has changed face to face communication forever. We now have the ability to meet anyone across the world and get to know them without ever meeting them. I think the internet has made me become less dependent on face to face communication and even talking on the phone, for that matter. I think I would be bored and lost without the internet…

Tiffany B. Brown

Tiffany Brown's interview was very interesting. She started out small and not very popular. Through out the years she has created an online career for herself where she works as a producer for Cox Interactice Media and Newspaper. She decided to start a weblob to promote herself professionally. Tiffany's page gets 400 and 600 views per day and she says this success is because of all of her comments. Tiffany writes about the things that interest her, the things she is passionate about, and things that catch her eye. Sometimes writing entrys to her blog is easy and takes no time at all, and other times she might spend days on an entry. Brown notes how race and gender can effect blogging. Tiffany Brown is a good example of somewhere who started very small with an idea that grew into something bigger and more sucessful. She says that she blogs to "connect, share, and debate." Now Tiffany's sites have become increasingly popular and are viewed by many.

Blog #1

Welcome to my blog, Marissa's Multiple Thoughts.
I am not really sure where to start with a blog because I have never had one...so here goes. This is a completely new concept for me and I wonder how I am going to feel about blogging by the end of the term.

Thanks for reading =)