Second Life Article

I genuinely enjoyed reading this article. I learned a lot about the way gender is visually constructed in virtual realities like SL. In real life we are constantly surrounded by images of gender and what maleness and femaleness is supposed to look like. If we open up a fashion magazine that is directed toward women we see certain types of women with specific images of hair, makeup, clothing, etc. In men's magazines there are similar images that are constructed to fit a specific gendered appearance that our society accepts as male. The article discussed gender in the aspect that we "do" it based on the way we behave or our actions. In SL Delia and Georgia both designed separate avatars. Georgia designed Rude to be a female avatar while Delia decided to create a male avatar. Most of the options that users can select are distinctively 'female' or 'male' based on characteristics like large breasts, small waists, long hair, long legs, and for males there are broad shoulders, large pecs, and six-pack abs. Within time the researchers became used to the environment and were no longer surprised by images of naked breasts or the obvious gender stereotypes that existed in SL. I found this to be very interesting because it depicts many aspects of RL and the way that society constructs and enables gender roles for men and women. I like that the study pointed out that SL is still limited to what the creators allow for the user to create. Meaning someone may find SL liberating based on the ability to create their avatar in many different forms, but they are still choosing physical characteristics that someone else created for them.

http://mashable.com/2011/03/09/president-obama-cyber-bullying/

Question Two

Williams discusses technology and society and cause and effect. He
uses specific statements such as "television has altered our world"
in his analysis of Versions of Cause and Effect in Technology and
Society. He brings several different statements that all have one
thing in common-that they believe that television has altered the
world. This is true because television came before the use of
personal computers for news and entertainment. I know many people who
do not watch tv anymore because they choose other media to get their
information from, but if this other media were to disappear I think
many people would go back to watching more television. He identifies
the first class of opinion as technological determinism which he
states as a viewpoint regarding the nature of social change. He
explains the second class of opinion to be in contrast with the first
and considers technologies to be symptoms of other change. The
article then goes on to discuss how these two opinions are the cause
of a debate in regard to our thinking about technology and society.
The history of television is discussed as well as it's similarity and
difference to radio and cinema. I found this article to be very
interesting because there in personal experience I have heard many
people speak about how television is the cause of many problems as
well as it's effects on people, yet I do not hear much about the
debate behind it all. When we analyze it from the perspective of
television being a medium like anything else that technology helps
create, we then see how there are several forms of new media that most
people are using today for exactly what television was used for then.

Just Like Me Only Better

I found this article to be very fascinating. The study that was done involved the statistical findings of avatars that people from around the world were able to construct themselves for MUVE (virtual realities). The study found that the avatars created all resembled the Caucasian or western standard of beauty which consisted of light skin, thin nose, thin lips, etc. There was one black woman who chose an avatar that represented characteristics of her true self-identity which is overweight and black, but almost every other person in the study had selected an avatar that fit the Caucasian standard of beauty. In Germany there were some people who chose to create their female avatars with tan skin, however they were always accompanied with a thin nose, thin lips, and blond hair. Studies like this one are important because they help us analyze the reasons people are creating online versions of themselves to be what they consider the standard of beauty. The study points out that there was no surprise in regard to the hegemony that was identified in regard to the Caucasian standard of beauty. I was not surprised by this portion of the study either because it seems that many people throughout the world think the Caucasian standard of beauty is universally accepted. We live in a world where skin lightening cream is marketed as a "beauty" product and this is part of the problem.

7th Graders Expelled

Community Media

The author of this article believes that the idea of Democracy is not a concept, goal, or ideal, and that it is not something that can ever be reached. Within representative democracy the media is the center of it all because it enables people to practice democracy. The article gave specific examples of media such as the Women's radio station in Nepal, where they are now able to express themselves in a society that is dominated by men, and Zoom Black Magic Radio station that was based out of Fresno, California and was once a black-oriented station. The article discusses how community media is always democratic media, because it allows for  the individual and the community to be represented. I found it very interesting reading the statistic about how 44% of people who used the Internet in the U.S. in 2003 created some type of Internet contact that was either self-expression or representative of something. I agree that technology and the Internet as we know it today is a way for people to produce media as opposed to having to use a professional medium such as a radio station or news program. I really enjoyed reading the part about the "don't hate the media, make the media" because this makes a lot of sense to me. I occasionally find myself complaining about specific parts of the media without really taking the time to think about how I can be part of the media if I choose. If there are places where the media is being controlled by nondemocratic governments, it only makes matters worse for people who have so much to say to not represent for themselves or their community.

Week Six: Uses and Gratifications

This study aimed to provide an answer to the question of how do members of SNS (ex.myspace and facebook) use the sites to fulfill their wants and needs? in relation to the addiction that many people are reporting to have to these types of sites. I found this quite interesting because I know many people who are addicted to the SNS that they currently use. Many people feel that they need to constantly check their SNS for any news or updates that friends may have left them. I think this relates to humans being creatures of habit, and our habits form easily. SNS has been all the rave these last few years and what many people tend to forget is that many people still desired attention before SNS services were provided. I think that now that there are SNS services many people have become attached to this type of attention and ego satisfaction they may be receiving from online interaction. The study contains information about the origins of myspace and how indie rock bands from the los angeles area used the site to promote their bands, and then slowly teenagers began joining. These people would then tell their friends and before we knew it myspace was incredibly popular. Facebook slowly started catching up to myspace popularity and then in time became the new myspace only with their being differences in page layout, use or SNS services, etc. Many examples used in this article state that they use their online SNS for services they appreciate such as spying on classmates, catching up with friends, reading about another's engagement and so on. This is interesting because many of us are capable of finding out this information through phone services, general email account, or face to face contact yet so many people are choosing their SNS as the easier route. This study aimed to answer the question of how these types of sites were used to fulfill the wants and needs of the people who use them. The study indicated that the people are using SNS to satisfy personal desires as well as interpersonal desires.