Well it seems we've reached the end of our fall semester far faster than I could have guessed. Looking back on the past few months, I have gained an overwhelming amount of knowledge on many subjects I was not previoulsy familiar with (some much better than others!) This course, among others, indefinitely gave me insight to many concepts I hadn't considered.
To begin with, ask me 5 months ago what CMC was and I might have given you an answer about maybe a "country music concert." Sounds reasonable enough, but throughout this semester I have been exposed to many new forms of electronic communication, via the web and other sources. We dove into areas of business knowledge, such as linked-in, and we even checked out social resorts like Second-Life. While I may not agree with all of the ideas behind each of these websites, what is important is that I now understand why some people do.
Electronic communication surrounds us, whether in school, in jobs, or in our everyday lives. Some form of electronics is always in use, and most of this is based from the internet. To me the most miraculous part of this class was really looking into how much CMC has developed over the past few years, especially regarding sites like Facebook! When I came to college and got Facebook, it was just something to do, a way to meet other new students. Now Facebook consumes a great portion of the social networking community, and has advanced from just simply exchange of information to mass amounts of applications and a play-by-play mini feed for all your friends.
If there is one thing I hope I have taken from this class, it is to have an open mind about the way people choose to interact. Whether or not I may like to acknowledge it, many of these blog forums and even online dating sites, do meet the criteria for "communities" and many people feel extremely connected to them (no pun intended). In the future, I may come across an oppurtunity to really seize one of these social networks or communities for my own benefit, as sites such as linked-in do seem very resourcful. Luckily, this class has given me the ability to know how to utilize them. I only hope that the technology doesn't advance so much between now and then that my knowledge of them goes to waste! I guess only time will tell.
Have a wonderful Christmas break Everyone, :-)
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Kissing into a new radio era
We recently devoted a couple of class periods to discussing example cases of businesses looking to enhance their production and output via the internet. Each group was given a different scenario to work with which they were to make a few recommendations for a way to increase their productivity and popularity to online sources. A majority of the groups proposed a possible contest where participants were able to win a prize by participating. For example, one idea was to have people comment on a photo or to respond to a comment as a possible way to win a prize, which would in turn get them looking at the pictures. As I was driving to work over Thanksgiving break, I actually encountered an example relevant to this exact idea.
I was tuned in to 96.1 KissFM, a Pittsburgh radio station. They were advertising the two 3rd row Pittsburgh Penguins tickets they had in the studio to give away to listeners. While most radio contests consist of calling in and being a certain number caller, this contest took a different approach. The station works diligently to advertise their website which provides forums, on demand music and videos, contests and giveaways, and even mass amounts of photo albums from events they participate in. This particular contest they were doing for the Pens tickets worked with the website to get individuals to look at the photo albums. To win the tickets, the first caller who could call in and tell them in detail what the 112th picture in the most recent album was would win the tickets. Low and behold, within minutes they had a caller who had gone onto the internet and found the picture and was able to tell them exactly what the picture was of.
I think this contest idea was a great way to incorporate both computer mediated communication with radio broadcasting. Because the internet has become such a popular way to access, well, anything really, this may be putting traditional TV and radio stations down in numbers. KissFM now streams their broadcast live over their website and uses contests such as the example above to get people involved with their website and browsing around. While I am sure the idea of incorporating TV and radio with the internet is becoming extremely popular, more stations should consider connecting the two rather than making it an either or. By doing so they are welcoming participants to engage in both of their productions in correlation with each other. This will bring increased attention to all aspects of their business and in turn increase their productivity greatly, as we had proposed in our class discussions.
I was tuned in to 96.1 KissFM, a Pittsburgh radio station. They were advertising the two 3rd row Pittsburgh Penguins tickets they had in the studio to give away to listeners. While most radio contests consist of calling in and being a certain number caller, this contest took a different approach. The station works diligently to advertise their website which provides forums, on demand music and videos, contests and giveaways, and even mass amounts of photo albums from events they participate in. This particular contest they were doing for the Pens tickets worked with the website to get individuals to look at the photo albums. To win the tickets, the first caller who could call in and tell them in detail what the 112th picture in the most recent album was would win the tickets. Low and behold, within minutes they had a caller who had gone onto the internet and found the picture and was able to tell them exactly what the picture was of.
I think this contest idea was a great way to incorporate both computer mediated communication with radio broadcasting. Because the internet has become such a popular way to access, well, anything really, this may be putting traditional TV and radio stations down in numbers. KissFM now streams their broadcast live over their website and uses contests such as the example above to get people involved with their website and browsing around. While I am sure the idea of incorporating TV and radio with the internet is becoming extremely popular, more stations should consider connecting the two rather than making it an either or. By doing so they are welcoming participants to engage in both of their productions in correlation with each other. This will bring increased attention to all aspects of their business and in turn increase their productivity greatly, as we had proposed in our class discussions.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
"A Deranged Dexter Fan"
Throughout our Electronic Communications class we have discussed topics ranging from Facebook, to SecondLife, to Online Dating, and beyond. I would have never thought, though, that sitting through my Abnormal Psychology class we would cover a horrifying case that included all of these topics and more. We have heard of people becoming addicted to their online lives, but did you know these people do not only get wrapped up in these things via the internet? TV shows can also have a horryfing impact on their fans as well.
The case is of a man named Mark Twitchell who was a crazed fan of the show Dexter, which is about a forensic expert who is also a serial killer. Twitchell claims to be an aspiring film maker, who has already filmed his own remake of the Starwars movies (a hint that he might be a bit off the wall!). According to investigators, Twitchell is being accused of first degree murder after attempting to reenact an episode of Dexter by luring a 38-year-old man to his garage (descriped as more horrifying than all 5 Saw movies combined) and cutting the man into pieces just like he saw on the show. Heres the catch: The man was lured to Twitchell's house via an online dating service where he was pretending to be a woman. Similarly, Twitchells Facebook page explains how he feels he and the Dexter character have far too much in common. On his Myspace page, where he oddly enough only has 13 'friends', he posted an eerie quotes stating "The world is getting bigger and so is my influence on it." Keep in mind that Twitchell is a married, otherwise 'normal' man who would have never been suspected of these crimes.
I feel that this case is sadly an excellent example of the impact technology can have on people. The crimes committed by Twitchell were undoubtedly influenced by a TV character, which was obviously not the intent of the producers of the show. Twitchell's crimes may have been prevented if his online activity had been observed more closely. Had someone found out about him impersonating a woman in a dating service, some questions would have been raised. Perhaps if someone had noticed earlier his strong connection with Dexter's gruesome character, which he made clear on his Facebook profile, someone could have stopped his future actions. Also, had someone explored his MySpace page and noticed how ironic his quote was, his insanity would have been seen beforehand. Sadly, use of the internet has become so common that people often overlook odd behaviors online. It seems as though eerie actions are more acceptable via the internet than they are in the real world, which is why people often get so involved in online worlds. It is time we begin paying closer attention to what types of behaviors certain people are taking part in online. If we continue to ignore peculiar behaviors online that we would not accept in society, acts of violence and crime could begin to skyrocket due to lack of law and observation of these types of behaviors.
The case is of a man named Mark Twitchell who was a crazed fan of the show Dexter, which is about a forensic expert who is also a serial killer. Twitchell claims to be an aspiring film maker, who has already filmed his own remake of the Starwars movies (a hint that he might be a bit off the wall!). According to investigators, Twitchell is being accused of first degree murder after attempting to reenact an episode of Dexter by luring a 38-year-old man to his garage (descriped as more horrifying than all 5 Saw movies combined) and cutting the man into pieces just like he saw on the show. Heres the catch: The man was lured to Twitchell's house via an online dating service where he was pretending to be a woman. Similarly, Twitchells Facebook page explains how he feels he and the Dexter character have far too much in common. On his Myspace page, where he oddly enough only has 13 'friends', he posted an eerie quotes stating "The world is getting bigger and so is my influence on it." Keep in mind that Twitchell is a married, otherwise 'normal' man who would have never been suspected of these crimes.
I feel that this case is sadly an excellent example of the impact technology can have on people. The crimes committed by Twitchell were undoubtedly influenced by a TV character, which was obviously not the intent of the producers of the show. Twitchell's crimes may have been prevented if his online activity had been observed more closely. Had someone found out about him impersonating a woman in a dating service, some questions would have been raised. Perhaps if someone had noticed earlier his strong connection with Dexter's gruesome character, which he made clear on his Facebook profile, someone could have stopped his future actions. Also, had someone explored his MySpace page and noticed how ironic his quote was, his insanity would have been seen beforehand. Sadly, use of the internet has become so common that people often overlook odd behaviors online. It seems as though eerie actions are more acceptable via the internet than they are in the real world, which is why people often get so involved in online worlds. It is time we begin paying closer attention to what types of behaviors certain people are taking part in online. If we continue to ignore peculiar behaviors online that we would not accept in society, acts of violence and crime could begin to skyrocket due to lack of law and observation of these types of behaviors.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Facebookography Addiction
This week, my group presented to the class our findings for the Facebook project we have embarked on. We were to research addiction and identify various personality traits along with behaviors of an addict. We focused greatly on addictions outside of substance abuse such as gambling, the internet and pornography. In great relation to this, I came across an article on Time magazines website titled “Facebook: More Popular than Porn.” This immediately grabbed my attention because we identified in our presentation that porn is undoubtedly one of the biggest addictions identified in internet users. I was interested to see, then, why this author would compare Facebook to porn, and what types of people he identified to be such avid users of Facebook.
The article begins by discussing the popularity of Facebook among college students. He then points out that for the general population, pornography sites rank first in the most visited sites, followed by search engines. For the age group 18-24, though, this is not at all the case. Studies have shown for this group of users, social networking sites rank #1, followed by search engines, then e-mail based sites, with porn falling in fourth. Over the past few years, rates of users in social networking sites such as Facebook continues to increase, while visits to porn sites is decreasing at a steady rate. He proceeds to point out that not only has Facebook well exceeded pornography, but it has also put e-mail websites and even instant messenger use down. Users of all ages are logging onto Facebook. In fact, just the other day one of our classmates pointed out that her mom had just added her on Facebook! I’m sure she isn’t the only one who has had someone outside of our so called “Y Gen” (young generation) contact them via Facebook, I know I have!
This article was extremely enlightening for me and also kind of amusing! When I think of the internet and addiction, the first thing that comes to mind is undoubtedly pornography addiction because that’s what we’ve always heard of. Perhaps I need to modernize my way of thinking because clearly pornography isn’t the only serious addiction that has actually been empirically proven. In light of all this, it makes me believe that if Facebook related sites truly are the #1 visited sites in the age group we will be surveying, we are extremely likely to find significant results confirming that we at Westminster College have an epidemic of Facebookography addiction among us!
(http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1678586,00.html)
The article begins by discussing the popularity of Facebook among college students. He then points out that for the general population, pornography sites rank first in the most visited sites, followed by search engines. For the age group 18-24, though, this is not at all the case. Studies have shown for this group of users, social networking sites rank #1, followed by search engines, then e-mail based sites, with porn falling in fourth. Over the past few years, rates of users in social networking sites such as Facebook continues to increase, while visits to porn sites is decreasing at a steady rate. He proceeds to point out that not only has Facebook well exceeded pornography, but it has also put e-mail websites and even instant messenger use down. Users of all ages are logging onto Facebook. In fact, just the other day one of our classmates pointed out that her mom had just added her on Facebook! I’m sure she isn’t the only one who has had someone outside of our so called “Y Gen” (young generation) contact them via Facebook, I know I have!
This article was extremely enlightening for me and also kind of amusing! When I think of the internet and addiction, the first thing that comes to mind is undoubtedly pornography addiction because that’s what we’ve always heard of. Perhaps I need to modernize my way of thinking because clearly pornography isn’t the only serious addiction that has actually been empirically proven. In light of all this, it makes me believe that if Facebook related sites truly are the #1 visited sites in the age group we will be surveying, we are extremely likely to find significant results confirming that we at Westminster College have an epidemic of Facebookography addiction among us!
(http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1678586,00.html)
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Another You-niverse
I decided for this week’s blog, after having actually experienced Second Life, to really dig into the publicity followed by the statistics for this phenomenon.
First, I decided to look into how other forms of entertainment illustrated such virtual worlds as Second Life. I happened to stumble across a summary of an episode of Law & Order SVU entitled “Avatar;” how suiting. The episode included a young girl who would have sex with men via the internet in exchange for the murder of her mother. The online sex-world the characters engage in turns into a real life rape and murder. As I continued my search, I then came across an actual website called www.virtualworldnews.com. Here, among many articles, I found a seemingly beneficial article entitled “Sci Fi Channel Partners with Trion for Interwoven TV Show and Virtual World.” (http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/06/sci-fi-channel.html) The article discusses a possible future TV show where individuals in virtual worlds actually compete and interact to predict what will happen on next week’s episode. Interestingly enough, the article happened to mention an episode of CSI, similar to Law & Order, which discusses a crime being committed like the one mentioned earlier. After seeing all this recurrent talk about Virtual Worlds, especially second life, in correspondence with major TV shows/stations one would assume that the popularity of Second Life and the like were constantly on the rise. My following research found a much different answer, though.
According to a recent study conducted by Yankee Groups, the use of Second Life is staggering as user growth reached its peak in October of 2006. Similar studies show statistics such as “users visit Second Life for only 12 minutes on average--per month” (http://www.edge-online.com/news/study-second-life-overhyped) and “The number of active users — defined as those who spent at least one hour in Second Life during the month — fell 3.8 percent to 540,151” (http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/09/25/second-life-user-hours-drop-in-august/). It is surprising to see these statistics as we have recently been viewing Second Life as an extremely over populated social network. Researchers propose that this decline in users could be accounted for by the increased use of mobile devices rather than people sitting around at PCs.
Regardless of these findings, though, we must still keep in mind that there are approximately 157,289 active users of Second Life in the United States alone which is a good number of individuals devoting extended amounts of time to the virtual world. As we all experiences in class, it takes some time to get used to Second Life. I know I personally spent at least 15 minutes trying to fix my appearance, and let’s just say I didn’t differ from the default character I chose more than just my eye color. This just goes to show the amount of time these active users commit to this website in order to be successful. Its also important to keep in mind that although use of the Second Life may be declining, that can only mean that other uses of technology are being created and may result in even more severe anti-social behaviors. Lets just hope we all don't end up living in another you-universe!
First, I decided to look into how other forms of entertainment illustrated such virtual worlds as Second Life. I happened to stumble across a summary of an episode of Law & Order SVU entitled “Avatar;” how suiting. The episode included a young girl who would have sex with men via the internet in exchange for the murder of her mother. The online sex-world the characters engage in turns into a real life rape and murder. As I continued my search, I then came across an actual website called www.virtualworldnews.com. Here, among many articles, I found a seemingly beneficial article entitled “Sci Fi Channel Partners with Trion for Interwoven TV Show and Virtual World.” (http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/06/sci-fi-channel.html) The article discusses a possible future TV show where individuals in virtual worlds actually compete and interact to predict what will happen on next week’s episode. Interestingly enough, the article happened to mention an episode of CSI, similar to Law & Order, which discusses a crime being committed like the one mentioned earlier. After seeing all this recurrent talk about Virtual Worlds, especially second life, in correspondence with major TV shows/stations one would assume that the popularity of Second Life and the like were constantly on the rise. My following research found a much different answer, though.
According to a recent study conducted by Yankee Groups, the use of Second Life is staggering as user growth reached its peak in October of 2006. Similar studies show statistics such as “users visit Second Life for only 12 minutes on average--per month” (http://www.edge-online.com/news/study-second-life-overhyped) and “The number of active users — defined as those who spent at least one hour in Second Life during the month — fell 3.8 percent to 540,151” (http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/09/25/second-life-user-hours-drop-in-august/). It is surprising to see these statistics as we have recently been viewing Second Life as an extremely over populated social network. Researchers propose that this decline in users could be accounted for by the increased use of mobile devices rather than people sitting around at PCs.
Regardless of these findings, though, we must still keep in mind that there are approximately 157,289 active users of Second Life in the United States alone which is a good number of individuals devoting extended amounts of time to the virtual world. As we all experiences in class, it takes some time to get used to Second Life. I know I personally spent at least 15 minutes trying to fix my appearance, and let’s just say I didn’t differ from the default character I chose more than just my eye color. This just goes to show the amount of time these active users commit to this website in order to be successful. Its also important to keep in mind that although use of the Second Life may be declining, that can only mean that other uses of technology are being created and may result in even more severe anti-social behaviors. Lets just hope we all don't end up living in another you-universe!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Virtual Chaos
This week, I was lucky enough to catch an episode of Dr. Phil titled "Virtual Chaos" which dealt with a handful of individuals who had crossed well over the line of computer game addiction. While I know "Dr." Phil isn't a primary source to obtain information, the show brought about many interesting points which relate to our current topic of people with addictions to on-line "worlds" such as the second life chat room.
The episode actually begins with Dr. Phil dressed as an avatar in a virtual fantasy world like the ones we explored through Second Life and There. He quotes in support of the video gaming world ““In the virtual world, I can be someone completely different. I can be Super Mortal Phil, defender of my countrymen, and a super-stud who gets to have cool hair while playing. And in this virtual world, I’m agile, powerful and I never have to do what my wife says!” He continues in the real life setting to explain how he even enjoys the occasional computer game, but he also recognizes that while they are fun, they can also rob people of their lives. One guest he spoke with was the mother of a young man named Shawn. Shawn, she explained, was like any other young man when he first got into a video game known as EverQuest; a young adult with a promising future. Within no time, though, the game began to consume his life. He stopped being social (she describes him as completely withdrawn) he stopped going to work, he would stay up all night, and he rarely ever left the house. About 3 months later, Liz, his mother, found him in his room in front of the video game with a rifle in his hand after committing suicide.
Liz is now an advocate for telling others about gaming addiction, which she strongly compares to a drug addiction. Often parents will purchase these types of computer games for their children as a way to “preoccupy” them so they can get other things done. Sadly, if the child doesn’t become a video game addict, the fact remains that, as we have noted in class many times before, the computer is still a pitfall for many young people. Dr. Phil shares the statistics that “One in three kids happen on to pornographic sites while on the computer, one in 11 are harassed while in chat rooms, 16 percent say they would consider meeting someone in real life that they met on the computer and 69 percent say they get personal messages from the computer.”
Like Shawn, Caiko from our episode of True Life shared a similar addiction to an online world, along with millions of other Americans. This episode of Dr. Phil shared a lot of interesting insight on the horrors of online addiction and the ability it has to consume an individual. We have also noted in class, though, that when treated maturely, the computer is an extremely valuable tool for both entertainment and educational purposes. Unfortuantly, it can all too often become a source for addiction in which can result in the loss of connection with the real world, or even worse, the loss of a valued life.
To evaluate gaming addictive behavior in yourself or someone you know, review the following list: http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/573
Thursday, October 9, 2008
FACEBOOK ADDICTS ANONYMOUS
As I was brainstorming on what I could blog about this week, I happened to check my e-mail and see that I had a Facebook invite to a group called "Hi name is (BLANK) and I am addicted to Facebook" from a friend at a different university. Now if that isn't coincidental I'm not sure what is.
As a class, we are about to embark on the quest to find out if the majority of our Westminster community really could be classified as “addicted to Facebook.” We are all aware of the different groups we have been broken up into to complete this project, so we all know that there is no group centered around looking at past research on the idea of “Facebook addiction.” After receiving this group invite, I decided this would be an important thing to check out as we are beginning the project very soon.
I began by Facebook searching “Facebook Addict” groups. Needless to say, the results were endless (i.e. Facebook Addicts Unite, Facebook Anonymous: Rehab for Facebook Addicts, etc) indicating that many people were well aware of their so called addiction. With this in mind, I began to search previously researched articles dealing with this idea. My findings revolved greatly around college aged individuals and their excessive use of Facebook, which directly relates to our class research. For example, the author of one article entitled “Facebook is not just an addiction – it’s a disease!” raves that Facebook limits interaction between college aged students and creates the idea that people must have “picture perfect” profiles to fit in. (http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/2/ARTICLE/5655/2005-09-15.html) “We need to face it and realize that life doesn’t happen on a computer screen, that having 202 friends on Facebook doesn’t make you cool.” claims the author who throughout the article describe her own overuse of Facebook. Ironic, don’t you think? Another article written by a college student explains collegiate use of Facebook as “a method of academic homicide.” He says as a recommendation for a cure “Perhaps if there were some type of counseling, [students] could be cured of their addiction to the Facebook.” (http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2006/02/24/Opinions/The-Dangers.Of.Facebook.Addiction-1637444.shtml)
Based on these few examples, we are able to see that our objective to explore collegiate addiction to Facebook on our own campus is beneficial and has been recognized elsewhere. According to these articles, Facebook addiction truly does exist in the context of many college campuses and we are likely to find similar results in our own study. Maybe before we begin, though, we should assess our own addiction to Facebook. Though we have already done so to an extent in our discussion board, I recommend you watch this comical video and see if you meet the requirement for the dreaded “Facebook Addiction!” - http://www.allfacebook.com/2008/02/do-you-have-facebook-addiction/
As a class, we are about to embark on the quest to find out if the majority of our Westminster community really could be classified as “addicted to Facebook.” We are all aware of the different groups we have been broken up into to complete this project, so we all know that there is no group centered around looking at past research on the idea of “Facebook addiction.” After receiving this group invite, I decided this would be an important thing to check out as we are beginning the project very soon.
I began by Facebook searching “Facebook Addict” groups. Needless to say, the results were endless (i.e. Facebook Addicts Unite, Facebook Anonymous: Rehab for Facebook Addicts, etc) indicating that many people were well aware of their so called addiction. With this in mind, I began to search previously researched articles dealing with this idea. My findings revolved greatly around college aged individuals and their excessive use of Facebook, which directly relates to our class research. For example, the author of one article entitled “Facebook is not just an addiction – it’s a disease!” raves that Facebook limits interaction between college aged students and creates the idea that people must have “picture perfect” profiles to fit in. (http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/2/ARTICLE/5655/2005-09-15.html) “We need to face it and realize that life doesn’t happen on a computer screen, that having 202 friends on Facebook doesn’t make you cool.” claims the author who throughout the article describe her own overuse of Facebook. Ironic, don’t you think? Another article written by a college student explains collegiate use of Facebook as “a method of academic homicide.” He says as a recommendation for a cure “Perhaps if there were some type of counseling, [students] could be cured of their addiction to the Facebook.” (http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2006/02/24/Opinions/The-Dangers.Of.Facebook.Addiction-1637444.shtml)
Based on these few examples, we are able to see that our objective to explore collegiate addiction to Facebook on our own campus is beneficial and has been recognized elsewhere. According to these articles, Facebook addiction truly does exist in the context of many college campuses and we are likely to find similar results in our own study. Maybe before we begin, though, we should assess our own addiction to Facebook. Though we have already done so to an extent in our discussion board, I recommend you watch this comical video and see if you meet the requirement for the dreaded “Facebook Addiction!” - http://www.allfacebook.com/2008/02/do-you-have-facebook-addiction/
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