Well, its finally time to write my final blog. Looking back on the experience it wasn’t nearly as nerdy as I thought it was going to be. Going into this I joked with my roommates about how I was going to have a blog and they could check in every week to see how I am doing and that’s how they could check up on me. As far as we were concerned blogging was only for people who lived in dungeons with no friends. This class has proven to me that blogging, internet communities, internet culture is so much more than nerds with nothing better to do.
To my surprise I liked having to respond to my classmates blogs. Well maybe not the responding to, but I enjoyed reading what my classmates had to say and I liked seeing everyones personalities expressed through their blog sites. I usually forgot to do the response assignment until right before it was due, but it was always interesting to hear other peoples perspectives and see what they thought about the weekly topic. In a classroom setting not everyone shares their opinions and you only hear from the same people you hear from in every class. This gave me an opportunity to hear from multiple people and I really enjoyed that. Each person had a very unique style of writing and it was fun to read.
The thing I liked least about this class was reading from Postman. Most of the things he said went completely over my head and I either completely disagreed with him or I didn’t understand what the heck he was talking about. If I could change one thing from this class it would be that book. Wood and Smith was alright to read and made me stretch my brain on certain topics. I dreaded each week that I was assigned to respond to Postman. While it was an interesting assignment I also did not like having to abstain from the internet. It got difficult because we rely on the internet so much for daily activities. I wouldn’t necessarily say to change that about the class, it just was the least fun blog for me to do.
Overall the class was interesting and a better experience then what I had prepared myself for. I have only taken one class online before and it was an economics course so it was a completely different experience. The responses and blogging were a good way to make me feel like I was actually a part of a class rather than just doing homework that is due online and never knowing that there is anyone else out there going through the same things as me. This internet course was an overall positive experience and I would recommend it to other Communication students.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Blog Week Nine
The worst story I have heard in the media lately that has to do with the misuse of the internet was a story they had on Dr. Phil the other day. I usually don’t watch the show, but my roommates were all watching it and I was intrigued by the sick people on the show. I’m going to make up names of the girls involved because I don’t remember them. So there is a girl named Karlee, and a girl named Anna. And Anna and Karlee are best friends but they get in a big fight. So Karlee’s mom takes it upon herself to get back at Anna. She makes a myspace account pretending to be this cute boy that is in love with Anna. Anna falls in love over the internet and when that happens, Karlee’s mom breaks up with her and breaks her heart. Anna then commits suicide because of her broken heart.
This story completely disgusted me. The fact that some woman, a mother, would go on myspace and create a false account as a teenage boy; all with the intentions to break a girls heart. I thought it was disgusting. The worst part is that the mother and Karlee both felt no remorse about what they did. In fact, Karlee and her mom sued Anna’s family for blaming them for their daughters death. I completely disagree with the misuse of the internet. There was absolutely no justification for what she did. You cant trust people these days but I wasn’t aware someone could do something so low. It was immature and out of line for the mom to do this. However, the internet is so insecure and anything is possible.
I don’t think its possible to prevent these sorts of things from happening. The internet is so unregulated and there is no sort of security to prevent these things. I think people have to use common sense but not everyone does. An internet security could be created but its too hard to regulate sites like myspace where anyone and everyone can make a webpage.
Postman states that technopoly is without a moral center. Postman may be correct when we look at stories like this. There is not much we can do to prevent things like this except to make sure we are using our own common sense and good judgment. Obviously someone who was completely stable wouldn’t commit suicide over an internet relationship anyway but it can still negatively affect someones life.
This story completely disgusted me. The fact that some woman, a mother, would go on myspace and create a false account as a teenage boy; all with the intentions to break a girls heart. I thought it was disgusting. The worst part is that the mother and Karlee both felt no remorse about what they did. In fact, Karlee and her mom sued Anna’s family for blaming them for their daughters death. I completely disagree with the misuse of the internet. There was absolutely no justification for what she did. You cant trust people these days but I wasn’t aware someone could do something so low. It was immature and out of line for the mom to do this. However, the internet is so insecure and anything is possible.
I don’t think its possible to prevent these sorts of things from happening. The internet is so unregulated and there is no sort of security to prevent these things. I think people have to use common sense but not everyone does. An internet security could be created but its too hard to regulate sites like myspace where anyone and everyone can make a webpage.
Postman states that technopoly is without a moral center. Postman may be correct when we look at stories like this. There is not much we can do to prevent things like this except to make sure we are using our own common sense and good judgment. Obviously someone who was completely stable wouldn’t commit suicide over an internet relationship anyway but it can still negatively affect someones life.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Blog Week 8
An experience I have had with online communication that did not occur in the 385 communication class occurred last summer. I was seeking out an internship at Pebble Beach Golf Course in California and I had been in touch with the lady in charge. Over a two week period we had been emailing back and forth. I first had to send in my resume and then she wanted me to send in a cover letter stating my goals for the internship before finalizing anything. That should have not been a problem at all. Except for the fact that she responded to the second email address posted on my resume rather than the email address we had been using. A couple weeks had passed by before I realized I hadn’t heard from her. I emailed her again to check up and by the time that had happened she had already filled the position. This was all a big miscommunication due to the issues with email. Probably mostly my fault but I don’t take full credit for the problem.
The situation could have been eased if we were not in the realm of cyberspace. If we had been talking over the phone rather than over the internet then I would have had direct communication and instead of waiting a few weeks we would have accomplished everything within a couple conversations. I learned my lesson and deleted my extra email account and now only work with one. Most people these days have a couple of email address and juggle different accounts. I cant even juggle two! The internet is getting so big and becoming such a large part of our daily communication that I guess it makes sense for people to have multiple accounts for different parts of their lives. People use email for business accounts, personal accounts, and school accounts. After my mishap I combined them all into one.
I thought that this issue was going to burn some bridges because I thought this would make me look unprofessional. Fortunately she didn’t take it like that and she has been in contact with me for an internship this summer instead. We have been emailing back and forth again but have also been speaking on the phone. This has helped the miscommunications stop and has opened communication to new levels. The internet can be a very helpful tool but at the same time can cause a lot of problems if you don’t know how to use it properly. There should be classes offered for communities so everyone can learn how to use the internet.
The situation could have been eased if we were not in the realm of cyberspace. If we had been talking over the phone rather than over the internet then I would have had direct communication and instead of waiting a few weeks we would have accomplished everything within a couple conversations. I learned my lesson and deleted my extra email account and now only work with one. Most people these days have a couple of email address and juggle different accounts. I cant even juggle two! The internet is getting so big and becoming such a large part of our daily communication that I guess it makes sense for people to have multiple accounts for different parts of their lives. People use email for business accounts, personal accounts, and school accounts. After my mishap I combined them all into one.
I thought that this issue was going to burn some bridges because I thought this would make me look unprofessional. Fortunately she didn’t take it like that and she has been in contact with me for an internship this summer instead. We have been emailing back and forth again but have also been speaking on the phone. This has helped the miscommunications stop and has opened communication to new levels. The internet can be a very helpful tool but at the same time can cause a lot of problems if you don’t know how to use it properly. There should be classes offered for communities so everyone can learn how to use the internet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)