Discourse of Attention

This article was a very insightful perspective on the influence of media by adaptation to the “attention span”.  I found it very interesting that Sesame Street was produced to adapt to the attention of the children watching.  Growing up, I never watched Sesame Street so I can’t reflect on it, however the article explained the debuting episode and it seems like the show had rapid changes in scenes. The results of the testing they did even proved that Sesame Street was able to keep the viewers attention from external distractions.  It’s kind of creepy that this show was intentionally manipulated to capture and keep the attention of children, but at the same time it is fascinating how it worked!  It seems that ever since then, the way television shows are created use similar techniques to keep the attention of the views in all age ranges.  It amazing how there is a science in attracting people to staying in tune with television programming and the pilot program was Sesame Street!

The World Wide Web

Wow! This was a pretty interesting article.  I never knew what all those acronyms were until I read this article.  HTTP, HTML, and URI (or now commonly know URL) are all intertwined within each other.  It sounds sophisticated but in actuality it makes simple sense.  Also, I did not know that CERN was at the center in the creation of the Web (I thought Al Gore created it…just kidding).  Because the use of the World Wide Web is completely of the norm, I never really thought about how the different systems works together to bring a pool of human knowledge together.  I found the projection of the future of the Web extremely accurate to what we have today.  All of the points identified have happened for the most part.  After reading this article, I have a much better understanding of what hypertext is, and what was presented in previous reading of hypertexts in hyperspace. 

The Self in Contemporary Society

The self in contemporary society was an interesting outlook on the differences of "self" in our modern world differ very much in comparison to previous generations.  Kenneth J. Gergen's "technologies of social saturation" has an enormous influence to almost everyone's life in modern society.  With these technologies, the variety of relationships differ much more than it did in the non-globalized world.  I also thought that Gergen's perspectives competing in modern life was very understandable.  Although he had three different perspectives, the two that stuck out was the modernist and romantic movements.  "The modernist self is described by the philosophers of the Enlightenment as the rational creature, one who operates in the world by attempting to master the passions and to act rationally, while for Romantics our sense of self originates from a deep inner core..." (pg 164).  These two perspectives are very visible in people and it's almost like distinguishing between the "emotion" driven people versus the "logic" driven people.

A Virtual Death and a Real Dilemma

This article took a look at multiple aspects about the effects and insight of the controversy that occurred with the fake death of  Kaycee Nicole Swenson.  What triggered my interest throughout this article was the direct effect of the blog, as a medium, had in the ability affect so many people.  As the reading states, "Hoaxes may have a history as old as communication, but some hoaxes are better suited to particular media than others" (pg 202).  Because of the lack of visual mediums, blogs are more susceptible due to the fact that it is typically text based.  Reading requires the audience to use their "imaginations to fill gaps and gloss over inconsistencies in their interactions" (pg 203).  This created an atmosphere where the audience became more connected with this fictitious character.  Furthermore, I found that because the freedom in which blogs hold, some address the impact of the hoax because of the technology itself.  This may bring people to not "trust" information conveyed through the web.  I found an interesting perspective to rebuttal why we shouldn't hate or distrust the internet  further in the reading.  On page 212, there is a quote from Powazek's forum , " This saga isn't going to make me stop trusting what I read on the web, the relationships I form here, because what enable trust, compassion and love is the message, not the medium...I found a out a friend died recently, because her daughter called up and told me. I do not hate the phone. I hate the fact that she died".  Although these hoaxes may be easier to be susceptible to on the internet, we should still take an appreciation of the web.  We must be more cognizant of what we trust, but that is on the individual to determine what is fake and what is reality.

The End of Books?

The End of Books was a unique outlook of the demise of novels.  However, I did find this article confusing as far as the specifics in what is being affected.  Im not a literary buff, so if I were to assume the intent of the article, I gather that novels are being threatened by "hypertext".  I was not previously aware that there were specific established systems in which people manipulated and added onto other peoples writings.  The effects of "hypertext" was confusing at first but George P. Landow clarified exactly what is occuring.  He writes, "Electronic text processing marks the next major shift in information technology after the development of the printed book.  It promises (or threatens) to produce effects on our culture, particularly on our literature, education, criticisms and scholarships, just as radical as those produced by Gutenberg's movable type".  I found it interesting how these "hypertexts" in "hyperspace" has no real rules or base.  Rather, it is a free for all with no specific order or system.

Research Project

I chose to focus my research project around the effects of online communities.  I have not decided if I am going to look at a specific online community group or keep it general to all online communities.  I haven't researched much thus far, and I will have a better outlook within the next day or so.  Depending on the material I can find, I would like to focus more on a specific age group, preferably children in middle school and high school, because I feel they would be more effected my these online communities.

Navigating Technomedia

I wasn't entirely confident in what this article was attempting to present.  I thought the first couple pages was going in one directions, then it turning into a history lesson.  However, I was able to grasp a couple interesting points from this article. I thought this article made clear that technomedia is not tied down to a corresponding technology, but rather it has multiple, multitasking and interconnected capability.  The article specifically identifies the Internet, and is a great example of it "has become a progressively more inclusive media technology, one in which technological developments of past and future somehow incorporate one another".  I am hypothesizing that the point of this article is to ask or find how and what our new technomedia is being used for...but I still feel that is not the purpose of this article.  Although I don't really understand the point of this article, I realize that the importance of technological advances is becoming a global necessity (or want) as expressed by the President of Senegal.  

Personal Dynamic Media

Wow! This was a very interesting article! Its amazing how these plans of the Dynabook have become actuality and it was all visualized so many years ago!  Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg had fully examined all the capabilities they could see a notebook sized computer to be.  Opposing to Licklider's time-sharing computers, these two people visualized and end goal of what they saw would be the most functional in the end-game rather that Licklider's views of what you be capable.  I thought Kay's and Goldberg's approach in creating a system in which children, hospitals, and musicians can all use what a great method in creating what we have privilege of having today.  By looking at all the various uses people want and need, they were able to devise a system that met all requirements for virtually any customer they may have.  The amazing part is, today this dream is true, and all facets in which they examined utilize laptops and other notebook size computer for those purposes.  Now everything is run in our world by the Dynabook-like devises.

From Computer Power and Human Reason

This article from Joseph Weizenbaum is a fascinating look at the humanistic possibilities that computer are and possibly can become like a human.  He looks deeply into how computers can be very humanistic in a sense of patterns and can imitate man in every aspect.  However, he believes that there are limits to what computers ought to be put to do.  I found that ELIZA brought two very interesting perspectives.  Weizenbaum writes, “a number of practicing psychiatrists seriously believed that the DOCTOR computer program could grow into a nearly completely automatic form of psychotherapy”.  Although this was completely not the intent of creating this program, the technique used by psychotherapist was incorporated in this program.  I could understand the perspective of the psychotherapist believing this because some techniques utilize a method of patterns and responses derived from the patient, and it seems that is possible to program into a computer system.  The example of the interaction between the young lady and ELIZA is a prime example of how this is possible.  Another idea I found very interesting was the emotional connection people created with the DOCTOR.  They had anthropomorphized it to the point where his secretary had asked him to leave the room because of the intimate thoughts that were being discussed with the computer program.  Weizenbaum found that he did “not realize that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people.”  This unexpected finding shows how people can form such emotional bonds and create relationships between an individual and a computer. 

Second Life

This was another interesting article about a very odd (at least to me) topic or game platform.  The main purpose of this article is to based on gender and roles in the second life platforms.  Several unique results were identified throughout the project. First, to attempt to come to a solid conclusion on virtual worlds and positions on gender is very complex as many variable may play a role.  The vast perceptions, social visions, and social layer of the world can influence this.  In addition the player's technical skill level tie into the performance of gender.  Secondly, the stylization of the body seemed evident that they are common among the "particular normative visions of femaleness and maleness".  The male and female appearance and beauty are very stereotypical and constructed as the in ways of our popular cultures perception of attractiveness. For example, for women, slender bodies, tiny waist, big breasts and for males, broad shoulders and muscular upper bodies.  However, what the article found is that the gamer level or technical skills increased the ability to software writing.  They can manipulate and escape the constructions made available by the platform.

Technology and the Society

Wow, this was a very interesting article on the history of technology and the social affects upon it.  I found a lot on interesting information throughout the article in regards to the correlation of different technological advances in various mediums through our history and how the society formed with it.  It was very interesting to read how there was also a correlation between our historical events such as WWI and WWII, and the developments in technology.  The article reads, "the principal incentives to first stage improvement in communication technology came from problems of communication and control in expanded military and commercial operations".  Like much of the tools we use today, our channels of media were directly involved in the development of what we use today on a daily basis.  The phases in which television and radio had gone through was very similar.  Both had phases which "technology of transmission and reception developed before content, and important parts of the content were and have remained by-products of the technology rather than independent enterprises".  In addition to the historical coming of these mediums, the history in uses were very fascinating throughout the article.  These examples include the regulatory aspect, and the uses in politics as mediums to speak to the "masses".  Technology is and always will be a part of our society, whether it's used properly or manipulatively.

Just Like Me Only Better

In Just Like Me Only Better, the author investigated "Second Life" avatars which represents individuals from different ethnic origins and various other backgrounds.  I found the results of this article very intriguing.  First, the commonality in preference of facial features among the study subjects  were very similar.  Even with the subjects coming from various backgrounds and nationalities, they had seemed to choose characteristics following a "contemporary Caucasian pattern of beauty".  However, every nationality seemed to have favoritism in slightly different features of their avatar.  This is another aspect of this study I found to be unusual and interesting.  Each nation had their own version of a "perfect" avatar.  For example, the Germans preferred tanned skin, blond straight hair, and thin lips and nose.  Among the Vietnamese and Chinese, they seemed to prefer darker skin as well, and the Japanese preferred larger eyes.  These slight variations and commonality show the general tendencies of what is preferred in these nations.  

Community Media

In this reading, I found the power of self representation and its ability to bring communities together to voice opinions and issues that otherwise may be denied a chance to be amazing.  Such community media examples don't necessarily have to represent political issues or leaders, but may represent the individuals of the community.  The importance of these community based media is the representation of "oneself, ideas, creativity, or politics" in an act of participation.  It shows the audience an accurate portrayal of what is coming from the local community.  Another idea I found interesting is the author identifying the new era of internet use as the era of "read-write" media.  This is "where people don't just consume media, they also create it."  Furthermore the participation in community media increases because of the accessibility, affordability, and the easier it becomes to use.  With the increasing ability to participate in the media network, I makes is easier to represent oneself to the world.

Uses and Gratifications

In this article, I found most interesting is the use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) to gain popularity in a social highlight.  The author finds that the "vast majority of participants agreed that many individuals use SNS to become more popular".  In a sense it seems to be a popularity contest among whatever community people may belong to, for example high school, or college.  This might be true to the specific targeted audience of this study, because in my personal experience, I notice people at my work and among family have SNS to mainly stay in touch with old friends and family.  The popularity perspective is funny in a sense that, even if a high school student leaves the campus of the school, there is still a society in which he has to represent and maintain.  I also found it very interesting that certain elements of SNS, such as MySpace's "Top 8" section brings a sense of hierarchal ranking, in which participants of this study "admitted they were very conscious of where they ranked in their friends' list".  I learned that potential drama in "real life" is played out in the online social network world as well.  Most of this study displayed what I would expected, such as the purposes in researching people, the privacy matter, and the easy ability to communicate with others.  However, the popularity thing is simply odd...maybe it's just my age (25) and if I were 18 again, maybe I would feel the same way as the participants in this study...

The Medium IS the Message?

 After being exposed to this quote by McLuhan for the second time in two semesters, I think I am starting to understand what he is trying to say...I say again...I think.  The concept in which he uses the electric light as an example makes total sense in interpreting what "the medium is the message" is saying.  Essentially, the light is the medium, without a message...unless it spells something out.  However, what "content" of the light may be different things.  It could be what the context of the message the light is spelling, or what the light may be illuminating... This is where I became a bit confused, but I understand now the angle McLuhan was going at.  I always understood the message as part of the content...but after thinking about it...you receive a message...and the content is what is in the message...so I guess, you can separate the two as separate entities.  ANYWAYS in saying that, the medium is the message that contain the content.  Another interesting idea in understanding what I said is seen on pg 205, McLuhan states, "Before the electric speed and total field, it was not obvious that the medium is the message.  The message, it seemed, was the 'content' as people used to ask what a painting was about."  This solidified my understanding a little bit more of what McLuhan was meaning when saying "the medium is the message".  So to easily break down what he is saying, the medium is the message because it is a tool in which content is delivered.  That's my understanding...

Online Social Networking Study

This was a pretty interesting study, because although I could have assumed correctly most of these findings, having the evidence to support it makes my assumptions solid.  I found a number of things very interesting and would have not assumed.  First, in respects to introverts and online communications, this study found that extroverts also carry a significant network to online world.  This outcome was different to previous studies that suggested that online communication was more ideal for introverts.  Secondly, I was surprised in the differences in usage of online social networks among men and women.  This study concluded that women "are less worried about adding new people to their OSN, whom they do not know much about" (pg 78).  This is a complete surprise because I would assume that women would be much more alert of who they place in their network and share their "social self" with.  The third finding that caught my attention was relationship between self-esteem and its prediction of the number of stranger in the network.  This study found that people with higher self-esteem had lower percentage in the number of strangers or people that they hardly knew and had lower anxiety levels.  I never thought these aspects could be tied together, however they come together in this study.  This showed that people with higher self-esteem were much more reluctant to add people into their network. 

Dialogue and the Social Self...

First, I have to say WOW in the sense that, this is so much information with various philosophical perspectives, and in another aspect in amazement of the of the tangents these scholars are able to look at in answering who someone is.  In this chapter I learned about the pragmatists and cultural historical thoughts of the social self.  Both make sense when I look at the simple thoughts behind the two ideas.  I will focus on the pragmatists outlook.  Pragmatists looked at the development of social self "through dialogue within groups of interacting individuals.  Ideas belong to a culture and are 'tools...that people devise to cope with the world in which they find themselves'" (pg 23).  I found it interesting how William James's broke down the aspects in which to discover the "empirical 'me'" by looking at the "material me", the "social me", and the "spiritual me".  The one particular idea that popped out at me, in an aspect of social networking, was under the "social me".  It state that "James thought that we all have as many social selves as those who know us".  This is very true because most of my friends, past or present, became my friends because we had similar outlooks on a particular perspective of life, whether it was hobbies, views, career, or what not.  This is the different "social me's" that I have, because not all my friends are friends with each other, however the ones in the similar "circles" probably are.  Mead said it better than I can in relation to my previous sentence in saying that, "...the nature of self experience as embedded in temporality and social life through the use of theories of relativity, in which a common social life is 'sliced' by the different individuals within it according to their own activities, and this 'slicing' composes individual experience within the group" (pg 44).  I learned a lot from this chapter and I could go on about writing more about it, however I don't want to write a novel about this chapter and I will keep it as a blog.  With this said I just want to touch on a part of the reading I found fascinating..."social meaning and values are never table for long, for they are constantly going through a process of destabilization and reconstruction" (pg 43).  I believe that this is a big part of answering "who I am" because while we all grow up, our views on particular matter may change, and this process of solidifying stable meanings is a large part of who we become. 

So how does all this pertain to Social Networking?  I specifically stuck to blogging these points in the book because these perspectives on the social self can easily relate to Social Networking sites like Facebook.   The various "social me's" are found in peoples profiles and web pages, and if we want to analyze it by looking at someone's "about me" or "interests" sub-page, we could probably break it down into the "material me", "social me", and "spiritual me".  Furthermore, the various "friends" we befriend through Facebook (or other Social Networking sites) is the collective of friends we have from various "social me's" that people know us as.  Facebook makes it really easy to see who knows you by your specific  "social me" by looking at a person's "mutual friend".  I can't count how many times I found an old Army buddy from the "mutual friend" function on Facebook.  Once again, I can tie this reading into Social Networking sites in so many ways, but I want to keep this blog a blog and not a novel.  This was a very interesting and informative chapter, as well as philosophical, but as we read through this book, its going to be a continuing challenge of understanding and tracking the various ways scholars can analyze "who I am".

Online Social Relationships

I found this article to be very interesting, however possibly outdated.  Looking at the first study about the bankers is hard to believe in our current age.  Taken from experience, an email at work is as official as a memorandum or order gets.  This is because the evidence and tracking that emails contain.  It always tells you the time and date sent, and whether it was received or not.  Maybe I'm not understanding the study as intended.  I found it interesting that this study concluded that in comparison, emailing is not as good as a phone call or a face to face meeting for developing and sustaining social relationships in general.  Student or Banker.  I find it hard to believe that it is that concrete between every age group that.  I can understand that telephonic and face to face interactions are more personal than messaging, however I feel in my society, today we tend to message more than actually talk on the phone or see face to face.  Overall, this was an interesting article.

Man-Computer Symbiosis

I'm pretty sure Licklider went back into time (1960) after visiting the future (present day) and wrote this article.  The concept of man-computer symbiosis and the relationship the two have are exactly what occurred from what he wrote back 50 plus years ago.  Initially, while reading through this article, I did not understand why he was suggesting the future of man-computer symbiosis and the applications required to make it happen because everything he was suggesting has been discovered...then...I looked at when the article was written...then my jaw dropped in amazement.  The first concept that I found interesting was in section 4 of the reading.  Licklider wrote about the information-processing equipment and its part in converting hypotheses into testable models then testing the models against the data.  This function that the computer conducts would assist and streamline the operators goal in determining an outcome.  This allows the operator that would have had to spend hours of legwork to potentially find out that the hypothesis was useless, and be able to use that time effectively.  In addition, the computer can calculate various calculations instantly.  Another concept I found very interesting is the automatic speech production and recognition.  This function is very real today, but it still amazes me when I talk into my phone how it recognized and answers the question that I ask it.  The number of words in its vocabulary probably surpasses Lickliders 2000 word requirement, because now, word recognition not only understands regular English vocabulary and technical language, but also slang terms used in popular culture today.  The word recognition software has increased our ability to communicate efficiently  and has made it possible for disabled and the elderly to communicate effectively.

Who am I?

Wow, this first chapter was intense.  There was a lot of information to take in so it was extremely overwhelming and hopefully not a reflection of how information is going to be distributed in the chapters to come.  However this was a good preview to the various theories and concepts from wide array of scholars he is going to use to answer the question "Who am I".  I learned that there is an ongoing understanding of where and who "I" am and came from.  The relationship of society and people have so many interpretations which can be tied into why and how people use the various forms of social media today.  For the purposes of this class and tying concepts into social media, I found it very interesting in some scholars' answers on how they answer who we are.  For example, Durkheim, answered that "modern individuals are selves characterized by their place in the division of labour: by their skills, interest, specialisms, talents, functions, knowledge, jobs, professions and social status. It is these things that create a sense of self-identity..." (pg 19).  You can directly tie this into such social websites like Facebook and LinkedIn where individuals display who they are and what they do.  These ideas relate to social media because these outlets of social media are ways for people to communicate and display who they are and what they are about.  Essentially it is a form of answering and displaying their perspective of "who I am" and the different selves they are socially.

Introductory Post

Hey All!

My name is Robert, but everyone including my mother calls me Rob.  I am about a year from graduating SJSU and I cant wait!!!  I've taken several Comm classes, however I still feel like a new student because there is so much to learn in this field.  My favorite concepts include organizational and non-verbal communications, but there are also many different interpersonal communications concepts that spark my attention. 

Some of my interests include, hiking, motorcycling, kayaking, and pretty much any outdoor activity.  I love being outdoors, but with my busy work schedule, I find myself not doing as much activities these days.  I work for the Army...well, I'm in the Army, and my 6th year.  I might be coming up on another here shortly...but with the downsizing of forces in Afghanistan I might be lucky...I guess we'll find out soon!  Personally, I wouldn't mind, but my family and girlfriend definitely would. 

I look forward to this course so I can get another one done!  I'm on the home stretch and ready to roll!

-Rob