When we were first assigned to use Second Life in class, I did not know how to do anything at all. Slowly as I began to explore, I found out ways to travel from place to place, communicate with other users, buy items, and most importantly change my avatar. My avatar came with a pink dress with white polka dots, by default. I wasn't a big fan of the dress, so i decided to change my outfit into something a little more business casual. My avatar is currently wearing a pink elbow-sleeved shirt with black pants and peep-toe heals. I decided to make my avatar dressed like this because it's not too flashy, simple, conservative, and cute at the same time. Before coming to this consensus, I changed my avatars outfit nearly 10 times, but didn't like any of them. I'm not a big fan of Second Life because it is very difficult to use. Other than that, I think that the concept of the program itself is fun and an interesting hobby.
Dear Uncle George, Jason told me that you wish to create a "Myface" account. Truth be told, "Myface" is non-existent. They are Myspace and Facebook, both popular social networking sites. Although they are both online social networking sites, they are very different from one another. On social networking sites, people are able to communicate through messages, photos, videos, comments, and much more. One is able to both send and receive friend requests to add someone to your friend list. Personally, I recommend that you get a Facebook account as opposed to a Myspace account because Myspace has a lot more younger teens than Facebook does. Facebook is also much more controlled, safer, and effective than Myspace with things like mass-messaging, instant messaging, groups, event invitations, applications, and much more. Also, Facebook has a lot of security options to provide the best possible service to its users. Not only that, but it's a lot easier and knowing that you barely know how to use a computer that is probably the best choice for you. Now that you know a little about each online social network, I hope you are able to make a decision and wish you the best of luck!
Growing up, television in my household wasn’t a big deal. As an advanced student nearly my whole life, homework and studying always came first. When I actually got a chance to watch TV, of course my parents influenced, or practically controlled what I watched. Growing up, I was allowed to watch only educational shows and movies. Shows I was allowed to watch contained a lot of information a young child could pick up on, such as Reading Rainbow, Arthur, Sesame Street, Disney, Mr. Rodgers (RIP L), the Magic School Bus, and Barney. Television was definitely looked at as a harmful thing in my household. Even when I finished my homework and studied, my parents would tell me to go play with my toys. Of course, all the toys they bought me were mind stimulating, therefore even when I was playing, I was learning. Growing up, TV took a bigger part in my life. I began to care about the news, whether, and a few preteen shows and movies here and there. Though I began watching TV a little more, my parents still made sure I was on top of my education. I can remember a time where my report card contained all A’s, and only one B+. My parents were very upset with my progress in school so they took the TV out of my room. I worked harder than ever to raise my B+ to an A just so I could watch my weekly show, 7th Heaven. Today, I have little or no time for TV. Occupied with schoolwork, family, my sorority, friends, and church, whenever I get a spare second, I sleep since I don’t get much of it. My family has, in fact, influenced the way I view TV. While TV can be very educational and informative, it is very addicting and takes away from me doing other valuable things with my time. Instead of watching TV, I could better myself by going to the gym, studying, and working to pay for my education. As Michael Leboeuf once said, “Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of life.”
The Wiki controversy that interested me most is the Speedy Gonzales discussion. Speedy Gonzales as stated on Wikipedia.org, "‘the fastest mouse in all Mexico’, is an animated cartoon mouse from the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Speedy's major traits are his ability to run extremely fast and his comedic Mexican accent. He usually wears an oversized yellow sombrero, a white shirt and trousers, and a red ascot.” This entry arose the controversy of what exactly to label his accent. As of now, Speedy’s accent is characterized as a “comedic Mexican accent.” Previously, his pronunciation was described as “Mexican accent,” and “stereotypical Mexican accent,” and “inauthentic Mexican accent,” all of which users found problems with. Under the discussions tab of the article on Wikipedia, this is in fact the most controversial, not to mention, longest discussion. The discussion for the characterization for his accent began in August of 2006, and surprisingly is still a controversy today. After much argument back and forth between users, the phrase “comedic Mexican accent” was decided upon. Though this issue is still controversial, the characterization “comedic Mexican accent” is more descriptive and precise compared to the previous descriptions of Speedy’s accent. What I learned from reading the article on Speedy Gonzales reinforces the fact that information on Wikipedia should be reliable, and factual information. A stereotype to one person may be different than another’s, therefore words in which users may interpret meanings differently should not be used. This also could be offensive to a specific group of people. Coming from the Middle-East, my family is often perceived in a negative way. Knowing how that feels, I understand why the issue of Speedy Gonzales' accent is such a controversy on Wikipedia. The purpose of Wikipedia is to inform the public, not to deceive them, and as proven in this article, Wikipedia is not the best source to obtain information. In high school my teachers always told me that Wikipedia is not a reliable resource; Wikipedia has never been my primary resource to obtain information, and it never will be.
What is news? To me, news is factual information on what is currently going on in our world. When I watch the news, I not only look for factual information, but also unbiased information. The news was designed to inform people about what is currently going on all around us, not what people think about these topics. In watching the news, I like forming my own opinion, not basing my opinion on other people's. There are a few things I look at when it comes to considering reliable news. As I stated before, the information must be factual and unbiased. I feel like when personal opinions are placed into the news, people don't hear both sides of the story. Do we really know what happened? To me, the opinions make the stories unbelievable. News also has to be cited properly. It's easy for us to believe what reporters say, however logically speaking if their work is not cited, why do we believe it? The only exception to this rule would be reporters who obtain the facts themselves, from experience. Other than that, how do we know they're not making it up? Citing a source would make it much more reliable. Lastly, when the news is organized, it makes it less suspicious and more reliable. News is factual information on what is going on around us. Things i would consider news would be weather, traffic, crime, election, sports, things happening in the community, and education. Also, I have family just about anywhere you can think of so I enjoy watching the international news to see what is going on where my family lives. Often when watching the news, it seems to me that it is mostly one-sided which in turn discourages me from watching it. The reporters should let the watchers/readers make an opinion for themselves, not push one onto their audience.
We need some sort of organization for the class wiki, no doubt about it. I feel like a good place to start is breaking up the wiki into certain categories, assigning a group of people to each category. Last week when we attempted to create our class wiki, it was out of control. One person would create an entry, and two minutes later someone would delete it or overwrite to their desire. People also edited entries and added their own personal opinions. By assigning particular people to particular topics, it would make the process of editing entries and adding entries to our class wiki less chaotic. I feel that another important factor in creating a successful class wiki is making sure all entries are neutral. An entry should not promote or demote a particular topic, group, building, etc. Instead, the entries should only contain information from other reliable sources. That is a big cause of all the chaos last week, people disagreed with the opinions in an entry, deleted it, and wrote in their opinions. A wiki is not supposed to be based on opinions, rather than factual information. If however, opinions are wanting to be expressed, the wiki as a whole should be consistent. By this I mean that the class as a whole should decide whether or not they want to include opinions and go through with it. This leads me to my next discussion. If we were to add opinions on our class wiki, we should, in fact, cite our sources for our reliable, factual information. The wiki should flow properly. There should be several topics, with other topics branching off on them. They shouldn't all be on the home page of the wiki because that is very unorganized and makes it difficult to navigate from topic to topic. In conclusion, the main key to make our class wiki successful is organization. If the wiki is organized, it is easier for people to obtain the information they are looking for quicker, which is more effective. Also, the wiki must be consistent throughout. Lastly, each person should be assigned to a topic. This prevents chaos and controversy between the classmates.
Our ad was designed to effectively communicate the affects that smoking has on people. The idea behind our parody was to show that smoking leads to death. The slogan for Camel is “Pleasure to Burn,” which was perfect for the concept of death. Cody and I came up with the idea to create an image of an urn with the Camel symbol on it. In the process of making this image, we asked which colors, backdrops, and text would most effectively communicate the message to the audience. In designing this advertisement, I realized how much thought and effort goes into each and every advertisement, and which methods are affective and which are not. I’ve also realized that advertisements have a way to catch people’s attention. There are not many limitations as to advertising. Anything can be advertised whether it’s healthy, safe, or just the opposite, as long as warning labels are also advertised. This doesn’t make sense to me at all because the advertisement is basically contradicting itself when these labels are placed on them.
Social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and blogs, have a huge impact on this years presidential election. These sites have influenced the election in a positive way, persuading as many people possible to vote and constantly reinforcing the fact that every vote counts. On Myspace, when users first log in, the home page is usually associated with the fall election and has advertisements about it everywhere. Also, there is a tab on MySpace specifically for the election, called “Election ’08.” On this site, there are dailypolls, clips from the presidential debates, race coverage from NBC news, a way to register to vote, and other various tools.There are also users blogs posted about their opinions of the debates, candidates, and issues of the fall election. Also, users are able to post their own thoughts and opinions on their own personal profiles, which in turn exposes their thoughts and feelings about the elections to their network of friends. Facebook, on the other hand, is not as creative with the fall election as MySpace is, however users are still able to post their feelings towards the elections on their page. Since most college students are on Facebook as opposed to MySpace, the statements that the users post are effective and in turn start conversations on the election. Not only is the election represented visually, it is also represented verbally on both sites. With that in mind, the more users that go on MySpace and Facebook, the more people exposed to the presidential elections, and therefore the more people that vote.
Both MySpace and Facebook users can put whatever information they want on their pages, whether it be video, words, or photos. Looking at my friends’ profiles, without a doubt it is proven that these social networking sites have made an impact on voters, especially first time voters. For example, on Facebook, users can change their status messages and display how they’re feeling or what they’re doing. As soon as the first debate was over, people immediately changed their status messages to how they felt about the elections and how well of a job one candidate did or how horrible another did. This then started conversations between the users of Facebook as to whether they agreed or disagreed with each other and so on. The more images, messages, or videos people post, the more exposed the election becomes to everyone.
Social networking has mad it unbelievably fast for information, thoughts, and opinions to spread. Imagine a world without social networking. People would not be able to express their opinions as easily or freely to people halfway across the country. “Groups” of supporters of a particular candidate will not be able to be formed, advertisements would not influence over 35 million users, ages 18-21, of social network sites.
Professor Troy Murphy is one of the founders of MiVote. On this site, individuals, mostly students, can voice their opinion to anything. These topics range from the economy, gas prices, war, education, the candidates, or even share a personal story about how our future president will affect them, either positively or negatively. By accessing this website, users are able to view others opinions on issues that are important to them and hear both sides of the story. Overall, social networking has an enormous impact on the election, allowing individuals to express their feelings and influence others in doing so.
Think of what the world would be like if advertisements did not exist: dull and boring. Advertisements are just about everywhere you can think of, from stores and malls, to restaurants, on semi-trucks, even in the air. Advertisements are not aimed toward a specific person or a specific type of person, however most advertisements make the customer feel like the product is in fact created for them which draws the customers towards the product. Three places where I spend most of my time are: UMD campus, my house, and on the road. At school, there are various advertisements throughout the campus for things such as parties, Subway, charity events, job fairs, and volunteer opportunities. Even the students are walking advertisements with their laptops, cellphones, clothing, and accessories. Endless cars are also advertised on campus, by simply being parked in the parking lot. Looking around my house, I see that my house, too, has numerous advertisements throughout. My room consists of Nike shoes, Hollister and Abercrombie hoodies, an E-machines desktop computer, a Dell laptop, Polaroid digital camera, Sony TV, Boise headphones, various magazines, Sprint PCS, University of Michigan, Franklin High School clothing, Vitamin Water, Victoria's Secret purfume, PINK clothing, Secret Deodarant, CHI straightener, the list could go on. The TV itself is an advertisement beacuse you are gaurenteed to find anything from a thirty-second commercial to two-hour infomercials. Catchy tunes or food that looks better than it actually is in reality do exactly what they're meant to do, draw people in. Where ever you look, there is some sort of advertisement constantly encouraging others to go buy the product. Thus, the consumer is happy with the product and the producer's make the consumers pay to advertise their products. I am constantly moving from one place to another. Driving to and from school, to my friends houses, to the mall, to church, or even to pick up my sister from school I can count endless advertisements from billboards, to the signs of stores or restaurants. At times, even when you look in the sky there are big, colorful blimps in the sky advertising new resaturants or grand openings, providing the public with a number to call. It is very shocking to me how much -advertising of a product will cause the consumer to overlook the product, therefore contradicting the purpose of advertising in the first place.
One of the blogs that caught my interest about the 2008 election was Hiffingtonpost.com. I like this blog more than the others because it contains pictures and videos, not just words. I like to hear what others have to say about certain issues and this blog allows us to see both sides of the story, with people justifying their opinions. I have just recently become interested in politics, and as a first time voter I would like to make my vote count so by following blogs like these I can either relate to or disagree with other peoples thoughts and feelings and build upon my own beliefs. In my opinion, this blog is somewhat reliable. Though it does contain the thoughts and feelings of citizens, it also has articles from major newpapers. It does not focus on just ONE aspect of the election, rather anything you can think of. Typically I wouldn't go to a blog to help me decide who I'm going to vote for or what the major issues are in this years election, but it is a good way to hear others express themselves and stand for what they believe in.
Another blog that I would go back to was American Thinker. It wasn't promoting one specific person as much as the other blogs were. This allowed different people to express their feelings and state why they think what they think. When pepole can justify their statements, it allows me as a reader to get a better understanding of both sides of the story and thats what I enjoyed about this particular blog.
Richard Florida and Lynne Conner both make very good points. Florida says that almost everything we do is based around creativity. People want to be creative, yet would like to remain “fresh.” Conner, on the other hand, says that today’s youth doesn’t care as much for the arts as they do creating them. The youth of today is much more diverse than the youth of past cultures, causing a much broader range in interests. Contrary to Florida’s statement, Conner says that by looking into the past for guidance, creativity exists, just not in everyone. I personally agree with Conner’s statement more than I do Florida’s. Today’s culture is constantly changing, yet remaining quite similar. Everyone strives to be accepted by society, and if it means being like everybody else, so be it. I think that’s what Conner means by saying that creativity exists in some, but not in all. Some people are smart enough to think for themselves, go out and experience things. Others, however, want to be like everybody else. The youth of today is becoming more unified, yet distant from each other. One thing I thought the authors did wrong was generalizing students. Not ALL students fit the description of what either Florida or Conner said. By saying most students rather than generalizing students as a whole, the audience would not be offended. One author said that all students enjoy the arts, the other said that they don’t. By generalizing students as a whole, they are contradicting each other’s statements. I understand what points both authors are trying to get across and agree with them to a certain extent, however, they could’ve articulated their thoughts and ideas better to make the messages more effective.
I wake up to my alarm going off on my cell phone, hit snooze several times until I get enough energy to actually get out of my bed. Once I finally get out of my bed, I turn on my laptop and check the weather. Since I'm already at the computer, I check my Facebook while I'm there. Taking the weather into consideration, I choose an outfit and head to the shower. When I get out of the shower, I put my music player on shuffle while I get ready for class. I gather my supplies (books, notebooks, and laptop), and go to school. On the way to school, I listen to music and have road rage from all the construction on the roads. Advertisements are anywhere you could imagine, such as billboards, benches, buses, and cars. When I finally arrive to school, my friend and I go to the library and go over our homework. In the meantime, my friends and I text each other and make plans for after class. We finally go to class and attempt to pay attention, however there's only so much our brains can handle at once. During class, my friends and I continue to text each other until we finally get out of class and are able to hang out. Usually we go to the movies, to a party, or on occasion, to Starbucks to study over a Carmel Frappuccino. If my parents are still awake when I finally get home, I enjoy spending time with them and talking about what happened that day. Having a 20-year old brother, and a 15-year old sister, we're all busy doing our own thing and barely have time to spend with each other, so when I get to I really enjoy it. After everyone goes to bed, I usually go up to my room, turn on the TV while I study, and then go on the computer for a bit. I usually get a phone call or two, and then finally go to bed. After actually thinking about my daily routines, I realize that the majority of my life is centered around technology. My cellphone is attached to my hand, and the truth is, my life would be so different without it. Technology even affects the way we study and become educated about things. Although that technology improves our lives and health, the more developed technology becomes the more distant we become from our family. Family is more important than our friends, and we should make an effort to spend more time with them rather than focusing on other people 24/7.
