So I'm posting this blog a little late because I'm an idiot. My name is Carlos Molina, and I'm a senior communications major with a focus in media studies. I'm a big fan of the media and the transfer/availability of information, particularly online. I guess this would be the major phenomenon that interests me, is just how much information on any subject is available online.
You guys ever see the Terminator movies? You know how in the first one, the war with the machines is far enough away and fictional enough to be a possibility, but not a real threat? Then in the second one the logistics of it are explained some more and still, realistically, it would be very difficult for the machines to become self aware and rise up against their creators? The third one is where my interest in information kicks in. In the third one, SkyNet is a super secret government project that's a hugely complicated defense system, that ultimately gets a "virus" making it self aware. SkyNet itself was the virus, a weird concept I know, but SkyNet also was the entire network and pretty much had all the available information in the world, from the internet to defense secrets and everything in between. SkyNet just started off as a network that could access information.
What is Google? Isn't it just a database full of the world's information? How many different features does it have? All you have to do is look at the front page and see. Google video, google maps, google news, google images, google mail. Let's not forget the awesome Google Earth that everyone has looked their house up on at least once. And of course the massive Google Books project looking to scan every book available with the aid of libraries and publishers. Combine that with the acquisition of YouTube and it creates quite a vast system.
I realize it's a pretty huge stretch to compare google to skynet, and yes I realize the Terminator movies are science fiction. But just the idea and logistics of how much information is out there, how much everybody knows, and how easy it is for people to find baffles me. And we should all be scared of the day when the machines realize how much they know about us and how badly they could crush us. Dun, dun, dunnnnnn.........
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Ahoy
Ahoy all.
So since I added this class a few nights ago after learning that such supercool classes where you post on Google Blog such as this one exist, I'm writing my first post now seeing as I couldn't before and well, I'll spare you all of the whole drama that occurred (yes, gentlemen, drama) in the whole craze of getting it organized.
So I've learned something after spending a year at Cornell (I'm a sophomore in either ECE or AEP) that I didn't learn back in my hometown of Somewhere Around Boston, Massachusetts. Race is real. It's something you don't pick up at all going to a school system that's way over 90% white and a school itself that's almost 98% white (and all-male by the way). Man, you don't realize what you had and didn't have in a certain environment until you leave. And when I left and came here, this whole concept of people with different backgrounds hit me hard in the face. Therefore, though it may not seem that apparent at first that you're in a different environment, but it is. And don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed that kind of setting and sort of wish I could go back. But wishing for the past is a great way to waste your entire life.
By the way, I'm not white, I'm desi. I say desi because well, I think it's really dumb when people say "Indian" to mean Native Americans and also cause whenever you say the word "asian" people immediately seem to correlate that with places like China, Korea, Japan, etc. But to be honest and politically correct (which I support both of), you can't really cast so many people using one term, Asian, that's just a term that says "ahoy friends, my family comes from Asia." So I've started getting annoyed using terms of continental association like so. So desi it is. And I've started to identify with it a lot more now that I'm not in such a white community. Why? Go figure. But I've noticed that I've started listening to a lot of desi music of late. Especially Punjabi music. Punjab es la polla.
In any case. You know what I can't stand? The Times New Roman font. Think about it for yourself. Say you were browsing the web and you came to a page that's written entirely in 12-point unbold, unitalicized Times New Roman font on a plain white background. Well at least when I see things like that, it just drains my soul of everything lively and happy, like notions furry purple bunnies that emit lavender-scented bubbles when they nibble on carrots. In fact, adding colors and background images is part of what makes us creative. And in my experience, any time I go to a website that has something really actiony or intense and lively or whatnot, only two colors seem to emerge: either black or red.
Psychologically, every color in our brain is correlated subtly to certain characteristics. Red happens to be an extremely intense and fiery color and black seems to represent destruction to me. So let's face it: if you went to some site dedicated to, say, Counter-Strike (or whatever these kids are playing online these days) and it just happened to be themed in a bright pink starred-background with electric green font, you'd think you had run into the livejournal of someone with a barbie addiction or something like that.
So if you just happen to come across some webpage written in some language that you don't understand, you could probably still get an idea of what it's all about just by looking at the colors, couldn't you?
Maybe I'll think about that next time I browse the web. For now, I'll just sit here and pretend I'm infinitely wise and enlightening like Andy Rooney.
So since I added this class a few nights ago after learning that such supercool classes where you post on Google Blog such as this one exist, I'm writing my first post now seeing as I couldn't before and well, I'll spare you all of the whole drama that occurred (yes, gentlemen, drama) in the whole craze of getting it organized.
So I've learned something after spending a year at Cornell (I'm a sophomore in either ECE or AEP) that I didn't learn back in my hometown of Somewhere Around Boston, Massachusetts. Race is real. It's something you don't pick up at all going to a school system that's way over 90% white and a school itself that's almost 98% white (and all-male by the way). Man, you don't realize what you had and didn't have in a certain environment until you leave. And when I left and came here, this whole concept of people with different backgrounds hit me hard in the face. Therefore, though it may not seem that apparent at first that you're in a different environment, but it is. And don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed that kind of setting and sort of wish I could go back. But wishing for the past is a great way to waste your entire life.
By the way, I'm not white, I'm desi. I say desi because well, I think it's really dumb when people say "Indian" to mean Native Americans and also cause whenever you say the word "asian" people immediately seem to correlate that with places like China, Korea, Japan, etc. But to be honest and politically correct (which I support both of), you can't really cast so many people using one term, Asian, that's just a term that says "ahoy friends, my family comes from Asia." So I've started getting annoyed using terms of continental association like so. So desi it is. And I've started to identify with it a lot more now that I'm not in such a white community. Why? Go figure. But I've noticed that I've started listening to a lot of desi music of late. Especially Punjabi music. Punjab es la polla.
In any case. You know what I can't stand? The Times New Roman font. Think about it for yourself. Say you were browsing the web and you came to a page that's written entirely in 12-point unbold, unitalicized Times New Roman font on a plain white background. Well at least when I see things like that, it just drains my soul of everything lively and happy, like notions furry purple bunnies that emit lavender-scented bubbles when they nibble on carrots. In fact, adding colors and background images is part of what makes us creative. And in my experience, any time I go to a website that has something really actiony or intense and lively or whatnot, only two colors seem to emerge: either black or red.
Psychologically, every color in our brain is correlated subtly to certain characteristics. Red happens to be an extremely intense and fiery color and black seems to represent destruction to me. So let's face it: if you went to some site dedicated to, say, Counter-Strike (or whatever these kids are playing online these days) and it just happened to be themed in a bright pink starred-background with electric green font, you'd think you had run into the livejournal of someone with a barbie addiction or something like that.
So if you just happen to come across some webpage written in some language that you don't understand, you could probably still get an idea of what it's all about just by looking at the colors, couldn't you?
Maybe I'll think about that next time I browse the web. For now, I'll just sit here and pretend I'm infinitely wise and enlightening like Andy Rooney.
I just don't get it...
Hi, my name is Colleen O’Shea and I’m a junior communications major from Westchester, NY.
You will have to excuse my awkward and short introduction. I am awful at the “about me” thing. I had a myspace for a brief period of time but only because I was signed up by a friend and my “about me” stayed blank until that same friend filled it in for me. My facebook is equally as pitiful, containing nothing but my birthday, gender, and email address. I have never understood the need to put a lot of information about myself out for some imaginary audience to read and learn more about me as if they would really care. If you know me then you know all of that information already, and if you don’t know me, you probably won’t get to know me over the internet because I find that creepy. Instead of going online and having “chatting” with peers on the computer I really would rather go and hang out in person. I feel like humor and sarcasm are so often lost through typing and so I have not talked to anyone on AIM in probably over a year. So now that I’m sure everyone is thinking “Wow, what a freak,” I’ll get into the phenomenon of meeting people online.
There are so many ways to “meet” people via the internet; whether it’s talking to a future classmate through facebook or the “Class Of” website before arriving at school, or talking to random people in chat rooms, or using an online dating website, or befriending strangers on myspace. I mean maybe I just listened to attentively when I was told that going to meet someone that you’ve “met” or talked to online was a sure fire way of getting yourself abducted by a psycho/pedophile. Maybe it really is more like Eurotrip where you end up finding the super hot foreign love of your life and I should be less skeptical. However, I don’t believe I will ever be swayed and become the next spokesperson for e-harmony. There are too many nuances of people’s personalities that don’t come through when talking online. It’s my opinion that you can’t “click” with someone online. Even if all of the information you are receiving is true and you are not talking to a 5’5” bald man who has described himself as having Fabio-esque qualities, is an “lol” really the same as laughing with someone in the flesh?
Meeting and possibly dating people online can take place in many different online spaces. You can chat with someone in real time in a synchronous environment through AIM or chat rooms while asynchronous discussions through myspace or facebook as well as electronic mail are probably an even more popular means of a first encounter (just not for me).
You will have to excuse my awkward and short introduction. I am awful at the “about me” thing. I had a myspace for a brief period of time but only because I was signed up by a friend and my “about me” stayed blank until that same friend filled it in for me. My facebook is equally as pitiful, containing nothing but my birthday, gender, and email address. I have never understood the need to put a lot of information about myself out for some imaginary audience to read and learn more about me as if they would really care. If you know me then you know all of that information already, and if you don’t know me, you probably won’t get to know me over the internet because I find that creepy. Instead of going online and having “chatting” with peers on the computer I really would rather go and hang out in person. I feel like humor and sarcasm are so often lost through typing and so I have not talked to anyone on AIM in probably over a year. So now that I’m sure everyone is thinking “Wow, what a freak,” I’ll get into the phenomenon of meeting people online.
There are so many ways to “meet” people via the internet; whether it’s talking to a future classmate through facebook or the “Class Of” website before arriving at school, or talking to random people in chat rooms, or using an online dating website, or befriending strangers on myspace. I mean maybe I just listened to attentively when I was told that going to meet someone that you’ve “met” or talked to online was a sure fire way of getting yourself abducted by a psycho/pedophile. Maybe it really is more like Eurotrip where you end up finding the super hot foreign love of your life and I should be less skeptical. However, I don’t believe I will ever be swayed and become the next spokesperson for e-harmony. There are too many nuances of people’s personalities that don’t come through when talking online. It’s my opinion that you can’t “click” with someone online. Even if all of the information you are receiving is true and you are not talking to a 5’5” bald man who has described himself as having Fabio-esque qualities, is an “lol” really the same as laughing with someone in the flesh?
Meeting and possibly dating people online can take place in many different online spaces. You can chat with someone in real time in a synchronous environment through AIM or chat rooms while asynchronous discussions through myspace or facebook as well as electronic mail are probably an even more popular means of a first encounter (just not for me).
Could you imagine....john.smith@facebook.com!
Hello COMM245! My name is Katelyn McClellan and I am a senior in the ILR School. I still cannot believe I am a senior already! I had a guaranteed transfer to Cornell so I came here at the beginning of my sophomore year. Deciding to come up to lovely Ithaca was definitely one of the best decisions I ever made!
The internet phenomenon I am most interested in is the new craze with social networking sites such as facebook and my space. I am currently working on a thesis in ILR studying how facebook/MySpace/blogs, etc. have impacted the workforce. Therefore, learning more about why college students can spend several hours browsing profiles and updating personal pages most interests me. I remember back to freshman year at CUA when we were only added to facebook second semester. Weeks after word got out, it seemed as if the entire university was friending, poking and updating! The actual thefacebook.com website was so slow, probably from so many people logging on at once! Today Facebook had reached a new levels with applications, videos, the mini feed and common phrases such as “Facebook me.” Sometimes I wonder if the trend will ever end or will there be a generation of senior citizens in years to come with facebook/myspace pages!
I would not be surprised if one day facebook incorporated all types of online space. Currently, features such as wall posting could be considered asynchronous and messaging is somewhat a form of email. Yet with video and applications added, I would not be surprised of one day facebook chats or even email accounts became a part of the site. Could you imagine john.smith@facebook.com!
The internet phenomenon I am most interested in is the new craze with social networking sites such as facebook and my space. I am currently working on a thesis in ILR studying how facebook/MySpace/blogs, etc. have impacted the workforce. Therefore, learning more about why college students can spend several hours browsing profiles and updating personal pages most interests me. I remember back to freshman year at CUA when we were only added to facebook second semester. Weeks after word got out, it seemed as if the entire university was friending, poking and updating! The actual thefacebook.com website was so slow, probably from so many people logging on at once! Today Facebook had reached a new levels with applications, videos, the mini feed and common phrases such as “Facebook me.” Sometimes I wonder if the trend will ever end or will there be a generation of senior citizens in years to come with facebook/myspace pages!
I would not be surprised if one day facebook incorporated all types of online space. Currently, features such as wall posting could be considered asynchronous and messaging is somewhat a form of email. Yet with video and applications added, I would not be surprised of one day facebook chats or even email accounts became a part of the site. Could you imagine john.smith@facebook.com!
What?! No online pornography?!?!
Hey. I’m Mike Phillips, a Junior majoring in Information Science, Systems, and Technology in the
An Internet phenomenon that I am interested in is online gaming that exists in the “metaworlds” that Wallace described. I know online gaming is probably a relatively dated concept considering MUDs and all, but as a dude who only plays video games on gaming consoles, Xbox Live was my first taste of this experience. I used to play Halo 2 online all the time in high school but this was something that I both loved and hated. It blew my mind that I could go on Xbox Live at anytime of the day and play against people from all over the world who liked to play just as much as I did. Before I could play Halo online, multiplayer Halo was a big hassle. Someone had to bring his controllers and/or games and/or console to a friend’s house so we could take turns playing against each other four at a time. Xbox Live allowed us all to play at the same time from the comfort of our own respective homes. The fact that I could play a game with 32 people at the same time was the coolest thing I could think of at the time. As I started to play against people I didn’t know personally though, I started to become disgusted by some of the things I would hear other players say. I like to trash talk just as much as the next guy, but the truly malicious nature of the things certain players would say to each other and to me left a bad taste in my mouth. People would throw out so many racial, homophobic, Anti-Semitic and generally ignorant slurs that I would sometimes just have to mute my headphones. It didn’t quite shock me that people had these feelings, but it did shock me that they would share them so readily with the others that they were playing with so such candor. The fact that I could hear their voices saying these awful things was something that also got under my skin after a couple of rounds. I still like to play when I have the time but sometimes I wonder if people I know think such terrible things that they will only express to strangers under the guiss of a gamertag.
The Internet is a hell of a drug!
Hello, my name is Gerard, but I go by Scott (middle name). My hometown is Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. I’m a sophomore majoring in Information Science in the College of Arts & Sciences. I’m into cycling, snowboarding, photography and graphic/web design and I’m a web designer for a well-known organization on campus.
I couldn’t come up with a specific phenomenon that interested me most because they all seem equally absurd, so rather than cover one particular subject, I chose to cover the general phenomenon of Internet addiction. It can occur because of one Internet phenomenon or as a combination of numerous online sources.
Many of the topics already discussed on this blog, such as Facebook fiends, omg txt chatters and MMORPG wizards are cases of concentrated Internet addiction. Facebook addiction is a condition that affects thousands of college students every day. From simply checking in every few minutes, hoping for a new notification, and flipping through random acquaintances’ photos, to writing on your best friend’s wall… as they sit next to you. We can all agree that Facebook addiction is real. Txt chatters are easy to pick out from across the lecture hall, you’ll either see the 2” screen light up every other minute, or you’ll hear it flip closed (sometimes preceded by the feverish click-clacking of the number pad). Many of my classmates have already attested to their personal texting addictions on this blog. While Facebook and texting are certainly addictive, they rarely become as serious as an MMORPG addiction. A few years ago the online game EverQuest was linked to suicide and child neglect because of its addictive nature. Similar games have been responsible for students neglecting work and in some cases, failing out of school. How can someone neglect the outside world to such a degree that a game can destroy his or her life?
The form of Internet addiction that plagues myself and many others is less concentrated in one online realm. It is simply the need to stay connected at all times. Whether I’m reading the newest entries to my favorite blogs, checking recent headlines around the world, answering email, or refreshing my Facebook news feed, there’s always something new online. In an increasingly wired world with new distractions every day, this type of addiction is only getting worse.
Internet addiction spans the whole spectrum of online spaces. Each of Wallace’s spaces can be addictive, one can spend hours surfing the web, become a slave to their email client, accumulate thousands of posts on discussion forums, spend too much time in chat rooms, or get lost in fantasy role playing games like MUDs or (nowadays) MMORPGs. Beyond Wallace’s online spaces, Internet addiction is sure to envelop every new aspect of the net, as it has in the case of Facebook, texting, blogs and more.
I couldn’t come up with a specific phenomenon that interested me most because they all seem equally absurd, so rather than cover one particular subject, I chose to cover the general phenomenon of Internet addiction. It can occur because of one Internet phenomenon or as a combination of numerous online sources.
Many of the topics already discussed on this blog, such as Facebook fiends, omg txt chatters and MMORPG wizards are cases of concentrated Internet addiction. Facebook addiction is a condition that affects thousands of college students every day. From simply checking in every few minutes, hoping for a new notification, and flipping through random acquaintances’ photos, to writing on your best friend’s wall… as they sit next to you. We can all agree that Facebook addiction is real. Txt chatters are easy to pick out from across the lecture hall, you’ll either see the 2” screen light up every other minute, or you’ll hear it flip closed (sometimes preceded by the feverish click-clacking of the number pad). Many of my classmates have already attested to their personal texting addictions on this blog. While Facebook and texting are certainly addictive, they rarely become as serious as an MMORPG addiction. A few years ago the online game EverQuest was linked to suicide and child neglect because of its addictive nature. Similar games have been responsible for students neglecting work and in some cases, failing out of school. How can someone neglect the outside world to such a degree that a game can destroy his or her life?
The form of Internet addiction that plagues myself and many others is less concentrated in one online realm. It is simply the need to stay connected at all times. Whether I’m reading the newest entries to my favorite blogs, checking recent headlines around the world, answering email, or refreshing my Facebook news feed, there’s always something new online. In an increasingly wired world with new distractions every day, this type of addiction is only getting worse.
Internet addiction spans the whole spectrum of online spaces. Each of Wallace’s spaces can be addictive, one can spend hours surfing the web, become a slave to their email client, accumulate thousands of posts on discussion forums, spend too much time in chat rooms, or get lost in fantasy role playing games like MUDs or (nowadays) MMORPGs. Beyond Wallace’s online spaces, Internet addiction is sure to envelop every new aspect of the net, as it has in the case of Facebook, texting, blogs and more.
Celebrity Gossip Blogs
My name is Anne Lucke and I’m a sophomore communication major with a minor in AEM. I’m from Hudson, NY (near Albany). I’m completely addicted to reality television, and if you block the TV during The Hills, we’ll have major problems. I also spend way too much time reading celebrity gossip blogs. I check Perez Hilton, TMZ, D-Listed, and Pink is the New Blog more than a few times a day.
Judging by Perez Hilton’s celebrity status and the fact that TMZ will soon be on TV, I think it is safe to say that I am not alone in my obsession with celebrity gossip. These websites get millions of hits each day and a ton of advertisers on their websites. In fact, celebrity bloggers Mario Lavandeira (Perez Hilton’s real name) and Trent Venegas (Pink is the New Blog) generate enough income to make blogging their full-time job. Although the public’s (and my own) obsession with celebrity gossip goes far beyond the internet and is not very new, the immense popularity of gossip blogs is an entirely new phenomenon.
Gossip blogs may be too new of a phenomenon to have any concrete research on them yet (“blog” is nowhere to be found in the index of Wallace’s book), but this is defiantly a major movement that should not be ignored. I think the best internet environment to place gossip blogs in would be the asynchronous discussion forum. The writer of the blog posts a new topic, and readers can comment on it and reply to other readers’ comments. One could also place gossip blogs in the newsgroup environment, which is very similar to the discussion forum. Gossip blogs bring people with similar interests together, just like other discussion forums, which may be a factor in their success. But I have to go now, tmz.com was just updated!
Judging by Perez Hilton’s celebrity status and the fact that TMZ will soon be on TV, I think it is safe to say that I am not alone in my obsession with celebrity gossip. These websites get millions of hits each day and a ton of advertisers on their websites. In fact, celebrity bloggers Mario Lavandeira (Perez Hilton’s real name) and Trent Venegas (Pink is the New Blog) generate enough income to make blogging their full-time job. Although the public’s (and my own) obsession with celebrity gossip goes far beyond the internet and is not very new, the immense popularity of gossip blogs is an entirely new phenomenon.
Gossip blogs may be too new of a phenomenon to have any concrete research on them yet (“blog” is nowhere to be found in the index of Wallace’s book), but this is defiantly a major movement that should not be ignored. I think the best internet environment to place gossip blogs in would be the asynchronous discussion forum. The writer of the blog posts a new topic, and readers can comment on it and reply to other readers’ comments. One could also place gossip blogs in the newsgroup environment, which is very similar to the discussion forum. Gossip blogs bring people with similar interests together, just like other discussion forums, which may be a factor in their success. But I have to go now, tmz.com was just updated!
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