Week 16: Favorite Reading

A Virtual Death and a Real Dilemma

Week 16 Question 2: Learned, Favorite, Least Favorite, Improvements

In this class I learned exactly what the name of this course is New/You media. We read about and discussed new media (as well as getting a background history of old) and were always able to use and relate the information to our everyday lives in one way or another. This class truly held up to its name.

My favorite part of this class was Professor Perez's involvement. I have taken other online classes before where the instructor just assigns readings, quizzes, and tests and never gives feedback. But she went above and beyond with her reading summaries, and blogging to make sure we understand and are clear on things. I appreciated that part the most.

I think my least favorite part was vlogging. Probably because I am not that good at it and I see a lot of people using cool effects while mine is just plain and boring lol.

The one thing I didn't like is when sometimes papers and weekly posts were due in the same week. I like to focus solely on major assignment, so adding on the weekly posts was kind of stressful. Other than that I really enjoyed the class!

Week 16 Queston 1: Interesting/Fascinating Concepts

There were so many different interesting concepts in this class but for the conservation of space, I will narrow it down to the most fascinating one to me: the history of computers. We learned about very basic forms of the computer and how big they were. We also learned that they were first used for children to help them learn to read. Then we learned about the program Eliza which was like a computer program to serve as a pyschotherapist.

Anyway, I am very interested to see the growth in the use of computers (or similar items: phones, ipads, etc) from beginning until now. It is fascinating to me that computers were not widely used and needed at one point of time because nowadays the majority of the world is dependent on them. They are becoming more and more accessible and convenient in their many different forms, which makes me wonder how they are going to look in like 20 years from now.

Week 12 Question 2: World Wide Web

I definitely enjoyed this article because in a way I felt like I was going back in to time. At first I tried to read it as if I had no previous knowledge of the Internet, but because of all the things I know I just could not do it. But I learned that it was created to basically exchange humans ideas and knowledge to one another at a larger scale. I thought it was funny when they talked about the "w3" for "www." because that just sounds like an ancient term that I would hear my grandparents use to put in a URL. In fact, most people do not even use "www." when typing in website; for example if we want to go to google we just type in "google.com" versus "http://www.google.com".

This article really made me reflect on my beginning uses of the Internet and how it has drastically changed over a decade or so. As I digress a little bit, I remember I used to like Jelly Belly beans and so on the bottom of a bag it told me to "visit their website". I had no idea what that meant I thought I was actually going to visit a place. When I found out what it was, I was still amazed at the things I was able to do (purchase products, locate stores, etc). Lastly I enjoyed reading the future section of the article. They were able to predict how much the Internet would advance but I actually think we surpassed their predictions and expectations. I cannot help but to think about how the Internet will be used in another decade from now.

Week 12 Question 1: Discourses of Attention

This article was all about our attention spans and how the media effects it. Because TV, games, and other video forms move very fast getting to the points, it programs people to have short attention spans. One example they used was Sesame Street and how it was made to be fast paced in order to help children to learn at a quicker rate. But it was later studied and found to have had negative effects on how children processed information because of their short attention spans. "TV babies" are effected by this the most because they were/are raised in a media filled society where everyone is moving at a fast pace. I do not find it ironic that as the media is becoming more increasingly popular in our generations, so is ADD and ADHD. Another interesting fact from this article is that even though many people are aware of the detriments caused by TV and other related forms of media, they are still continuing to expand in several different ways. I feel like this is dumbing people down and causing people not to think as in depth. Hopefully this will be further studied and discussed so that it will raise awareness to ours' and the upcoming generations.

Week 12 Question 3: Effects of Video Games on Children

When reading this article, I noticed it was broken up into two sections of positive and negative effects of gaming. I also noticed that the negative effects sections was a lot longer than the positive, meaning there were more effects in the negative section. Some of the effects (both negative and positive) were already stated in the previous articles I have researched and read but some were not.

For example the positives were ones I had not previously seen or thought about. Some positive effects included a sense of achievement, and the development of: perceptual, cognitive, and motor skills/ability.

As far as the negatives most I had already read about but some were not. The ones that stood out to me the most were the possibility of leading to: obesity, carpal tunnel syndrome and high blood pressure. Obesity makes sense because a lot of people sit around all day playing games (not getting exercise) and then eating junk food. Carpal tunnel can come from being in a stiff or bad position causing your nerves in your shoulders and neck to not function properly. High blood pressure can be from increased heart rate when playing very action packed or violent games.

I want to do go a lot further in my research so that I can get more in-depth information regarding the positive and negative effects of gaming. This article still helped me nonetheless.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/effects-of-video-games-on-children.html

Week 11 Question 2: A Virtual Death and a Real Dilemma

Okay, first let me start off saying that I am close to feeling as betrayed, upset about the Kaycee blog as the rest of her blog supporters/followers. When I first started reading the article I was thinking of how great Kaycee was to have the courage to blog about her life as she was suffering from Leukemia and was happy to see all of the supporters. When I read that she died I was kind of sad. But when I read that "she never even existed" my initial thought was "are you serious?!" Even though I only got a brief excerpt of her life I felt betrayed as well.

I learned a lot of different things in this article but the signals were interesting to me. In regards to assessment and conventional signals, I had never really thought about how they give different types of authenticity to the viewers. For example assessment signals are usually types of evidence such as photos supporting their statements. Conventional signals on-the-other-hand are more like simple quotes or sayings; nothing is really proven. I was sickened to know that Debbie, (Kaycee's "mother") went as far as posting pictures of a teenager and even having a conversation with New York Times, which both would be considered conventional signals.

I am not sure if the article ever really stated if it was true or not that Debbie is/was mentally in-stable but all signs point to yes in my opinion. She lied, betrayed, so many people and I am not even clear as to what her motives really were for doing this. I agree with one of the bloggers comments saying that this should be a lesson to many people who are involved in online relationships that the person they are talking to may in fact be deceptive. This article will make me start being more cautious and inquisitive toward the validity of things I read/see online.