A Virtual Death-Jordan

"One of the most touted beliefs about Internet communication is that the medium
strips away users' offline identities and leaves them free to reconstruct a tetherless online persona" (Jordan,2005). I really enjoyed reading this article, and this statement in particular stood out to me because this ties in with what we have been studying all semester. In the article Jordan discusses a particular case of an online hoax involving a woman who was blogging as a 19 year old girl who was dying of leukemia. When the community discovered that Kaycee did not really exist and that the woman who was blogging they were upset and released a lot of statements from all over the world in regard to how they felt. This article brought up some very interesting points about the Internet serving as medium that allows people to deceive others based on the ability to hide certain information as well as portray themselves in a certain light. As we have learned throughout this semester many people are comfortable using the Internet to paint a picture of themselves ( not just literally, but in terms of how they want others to see them based on the pictures, videos, text, etc that they choose to put on their online social networks, blog cites, etc.) The story of Kaycee was not surprising to me because as the article often brings up, people have already been doing this type of deception for as long as we can recall and the Internet is now just another form of media that someone can use in this way. I liked how the article brought up the point that specific images (example "the bodybuilder") cannot conclude what a person is or is not (Jordan, 2005). We see this often with the Internet because there is an uncertainty on what we are looking at and our imagination is left to decide. I have questioned the authenticity of pictures of people before and whether or not they were really the person who was writing something on the Internet, but that is not to say I was right or wrong on whether or not the picture was really the person. The whole point is how would I really know? There is truly no way to know for sure unless I know the person in face-to-face contact. This is why I agree with the article that we should stay skeptical to a certain degree because if not we would likely be suckered in to everything we read online. It is unfortunate that other people who are staying truthful online had to receive backlash from the Debbie Swenson incident, but the truth is we don't know that these people are being authentic either. I think we can only trust and distrust as we have reason to and as we come across each new experience.

Smartphones

Article Link

Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy

It was interesting to learn in this study that over half of the participants (62.6%) were blogging for social interaction. There were several great points brought up in this article in relation to privacy and expression. We read about the different types of privacy as well as how social construction plays in on how we feel comfortable expressing ourselves or disclosing personal information. There was the example of how if we didn't have these types of privacy that our relationships wouldn't differ between those with our mothers and those with our employers. I think that it's hard to make that assumption simply because there are still aspects of affection and nurture that we get out of our family members that we don't have with others due to how much time we spend with them, but I can understand what this means in relation to privacy. Basically privacy is what plays a huge role in our everyday lives. We do and don't do many of our actions because of privacy. Expressive privacy was found to be crucial in the way that bloggers value their privacy. In my personal life I have never felt comfortable creating a blog or uploading videos of myself onto any web forums, but I have made an interesting connection between this article and my personal life. When I had to create a blog for this course I felt comfortable doing so because I knew my audience would be classmates and my professor. I have become used to uploading videos of myself for educational purposes, but I know that I would not be comfortable putting these videos onto YouTube or a similar Internet site.

The End of Books Article

I thought this was a very insightful article that is highlighting where hypertext started, and also potentially where it is headed in the future. Like most of the articles I found some very surprising information such as hypertext fiction being published on disks as far back as 1991. When I think of online print now I tend to focus on the last ten years being a prominent source for hypertext taking off. Although I see book stores such as Barnes and Nobles still around there are still other companies that are going under like Borders books, and I often wonder what the future of books will be like. Especially now with technology like the kindle and even just our basic computers enable us to read books online. I know many people who still prefer to read their books in physical book form, but that doesn't mean that we won't see an end of books here in our lifetime. Much like people who were not so eager to switch over from cassette players to CD players eventually had no choice in the matter because technology moves forward whether or not we are displeased. When the technology of watching movies on the computer or streaming them with an HDMI cable to our televisions we slowly saw Hollywood Videos and many Blockbuster videos shutting down because there was not as high of a demand for a DVD to watch a movie. I thought that it was very interesting what the article mentioned in regard to hypertext using different font types to identify voice and plot elements. The way we used to know books is one type of font throughout the whole book that we do not often associate with what we are reading, meaning our minds interpret what is happening in the story based on the words, rather than how the text is displayed. With hypertext there is the ability to shift to several different fonts and even font sizes to place emphasis on specific parts of the content. Personally the thought of this is not appealing and I would prefer to read a simple text that stays the same, but I have no idea what I will be saying about this ten years from this point. I have always been a little bit slower than the average person in regard to technology. I never even understood how people preferred to listening to books on tape as opposed to reading them because I occasionally found myself annoyed by the person reading the book, and was unable to focus on the content. I think I might have a similar experience if I were to read a book through hyperspace and the font were to be constantly changing as if it was forcing me to accept specific content as being more important, serious, etc. than other parts of the book.

Grooveshark

http://sfappeal.com/culture/2011/04/big-fish-big-pond-grooveshark-app-no-longer-in-android-app-store.php

Technomedia

I really enjoyed reading the article Technomedia. In this article we learned that technomedia are when certain devices are operating together even if they were once something separate. The article discusses the history of several forms of media such as photography, the telephone, television, motions pictures,etc. All of these forms of technology are now working together by technomedia such as the Internet. The article gives the example of the Internet being the made connective medium, as well as how websites such as YouTube enable us to watch videos through Internet websites as opposed to watching the television separately. This interesting part is that many people are now using the Internet to stream movies onto their tv as opposed to renting DVDs for their DVD player. I also know many people who use the Internet to stream radio stations as opposed to listening to the radio station on an actual radio. Some people are even using the Internet from their cell phone to stream Internet radio through their car speakers or watch movies on their cell phones or laptops via the Internet. Technomedia is a great concept to learn because of where technology is today. Everything that is being designed has something else in mind while it is created. I think that this is a positive aspect of media technology to keep things working together rather than separate, but as the article mentions, I also understand the need for perspectives that people such as Avital Ronell point out in regard to communication and telephonage.

Personal Dynamic Media

Back from Spring Break to another really interesting article. This time we read Personal Dynamic Media which took us though the creation of the Dynabook, which was a future focus for The Learning Research Group at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. The interesting part about seeing the picture of the mock-up of a future Dynabook is that is looks a lot like an ipad or a laptop computer that has been folded flat. The interim Dynabook is what we know today as a desktop computer which consists of a monitor, keyboard, and modem, as well as a "mouse" which is used to navigate. I couldn't help but laugh a little at the photograph of the Interim Dynabook simply because the modem looks like a dishwasher. The disk packs that are inserted into the Dynabook look like a similar size to music records. I learned a lot about the foundation of systems like Paint and other program design for computers while reading this article. I thought it was very interesting to learn that some children as young as 12 were helping to develop these programs because they are able to interact and have control of things. I found all of these things to be very useful while learning about the different forms of media and how the computer can be all these forms of media. We have been learning about this all semester and this article fits right in with everything else. I really enjoyed reading it.