Research Digital Literacy Narrative #4

Enter Facebook. A looking glass where friends can have a front row seat as to just see how other people’s lives are going. Who are they dating? Where were they last week? Who are our mutual friends? Are they friends with that hot girl from biology class? All these questions must have been asked at least once by every Facebook user. Introducing the obsession with everyone else’s lives.

 College life is all about being social, meeting new people, partying and getting the latest info on anyone who you may be interested in. Facebook allows us to do that and eliminates the part of us having to actually speak face to face with the object of out curiosity. That sounds like a sweet deal, finding everything out about somebody without having them know that you’ve looked into them. You might be asking yourself “so what’s wrong with that?”. In the article “To Deal With Obsession, Some Unfriend Facebook”, Katie Hafner states that “the popular networking site, has 350 million members worldwide who, collectively, spend 10 billion minutes there every day, checking in with friends, writing on people’s electronic walls, clicking through photos and generally keeping pace with the drift of their social world.” Imagine that, 10 billion minutes a day. And all we’re doing is liking pictures, statuses and obsessing over “staying connected”.

Facebook itself isn’t to blame for the epidemic that has plagued the social networking world, it is us. We, as users, put ourselves out there, subject ourselves to the harassment by people who take false identities and write to us. We ourselves let these things happen. Unfortunately, with every great invention, there are drawbacks. With Facebook, it’s the lack of privacy. Granted there are privacy settings, but who out there is really using them? We can’t see a computer and resist entering www.Facebook.com. Not only is it hard to control what you put on there, it is hard to sensor it or keep people that you don’t know or like from looking at your profile.

We always hear about the tragic events of cyber bullying, but who is really to blame? You could say that the respect for peoples privacy is lost but is that fair? We as a population want it all as well, to stay connected, post what we want, see what we want and still expect to not be bothered by the cyber evil of the world. We as users, just need to be more careful so that we don’t become part of some tragic statistic. 

Research Digital Literacy Narrative #3

Think about this for a second. What if you could complete more than one activity at once? You would say that that’s great because you would be saving time right? But now think about one more thing. Would the quality of your work be better if you spent more of your time and concentration on one thing at a time? In today’s world, its all about finishing everything in the shortest amount of time and getting the most amount of work done in that time.

Let’s take for instance one of the most pertinent issues of this time, talking on the phone and driving. According to the article “Given the Evidence”, a University of Utah study showed that those students he proceeded to talk on the phone and drive were less able to drive well. “The negative relation between cellular communication while driving and multitasking ability appears to further bolster arguments for legislation limiting the use of cell phones while operating a motor vehicle” stated professors Sanbonmatsu and Strayer of the University of Utah.

It is unfortunate that people know the dangers of multitasking but let’s look at high school and college students. Almost all students today have earphones in their ears while in the library or when trying to do work. I for one can say that all of my concentration is not there when I have music blasting in my ear. The problem is it this belief that we can do it all at once. Common sense shows us that the quality of work goes down when you have a million other things going on at the same time. For example, I wrote a paper my freshman year at St. Johns while having music on in the background. I received a grade of B- on the paper when I got it back. On the next paper that I had to write, I turned everything off and focused on just that paper. When I got that back, I had received an A. I’m not saying that that example should push you to not multitask, but we all should take into consideration the old idea of “quality over quantity”. Whether it may be with school or job, it is up to us to manage our time better and a prioritize what needs to get done and what can wait. 

Research Digital Literacy Narrative #2

It is pretty much public knowledge that texting and driving is a major safety hazard. But the need to keep that constant connection of communication has become such a need for Americans that they are completely oblivious to the kind of danger that they are putting themselves in.

According to the article “Hands-Free Texting by Drivers Still Dangerous”, USA Today states that “new research suggests it’s just as unsafe to use a voice-to-text app while driving as it is to text manually”. It turns out that the hands-free texting app requires more concentration when trying to send a text. Most times, the words become jumbled and that messages come out wrong resulting in the driver having to redo the message. This then requires more of the driver’s concentration. According to the U.S. Transportation Department, 3,331 people were killed and 387,000 were injured in distracted-driving crashes in 2011. This new age of texting and connectivity can be of significant blame for these numbers.

When in a car, the average person’s attention is elsewhere which thereby automatically makes that driver a threat on the road. People will use the hands-free texting app as an excuse for themselves to believe that they can still communicate and send unimportant messages while driving. It is the unfortunate fact that even for people who aren’t texting and driving, they are still in danger because of those who are driving while being distracted. Many cases have been shown on TV about people being killed because of a distracted driver. The worst part is that the people who are continuing this detrimental act don’t seem to care because they continue to do it.

Law enforcement is working to minimize the amount of texting drivers we have on the road but that isn’t enough. People themselves need to realize this terrible flaw and make the effort to change what they are doing if not for themselves, for the person in the lane next to them. Technology is getting better every day but with every new invention or improvement, that’s another distraction added on to the list. Driving isn’t looked at as such a big responsibility anymore. It is take for granted that other people will be paying more attention to your mistakes than the actual wrong doer will be. It is not everyone else’s responsibility to look out for you, it is up to everyone else to be responsible for themselves.

Research Digital Literacy Narrative #1

With Facebook, people are able to network and keep in touch with each other. Those are the main “benefits” of Facebook according to users. In the article “Students Create Fake E-Profiles to Bully Peers”, bullying is shown to have taken a new form. Instead of having the typical big kid at school taking the little kids lunch money, you now have kids creating fake online identities and causing mischief among other kids at school. According to Michelle Davis, the author of this article, “someone at a Minnesota middle school created a false Facebook profile for a 6^th grader and used it to make violent threats.” In the same article, another incident was pointed out where “two teenage girls were arrested in Florida and charged with cyber stalking after creating a fake Facebook page impersonating another student and using it to bully her”.

What makes this such a harder issue to deal with is the fact that all of these things are done online. It is very difficult for schools to really be able to keep an eye on students and what they do online. When I was in elementary school, Facebook wasn’t around and when it came to bullying, principals and teachers knew who the bully’s were and could reprimand them without much of an issue. Kids weren’t previewed to such an easy way to bully other students without having to physically be in front of them. The victims unfortunately would not know what was really going on until actually being confronted by other students at school.

Slowly but surely, laws against cyber bullying and impersonation have been put in place in states across America. Although this is a step towards putting a stop to cyber bullying, the issue will never actually be 100% resolved. The laws will put fright in any potential impersonators but there will still be events where kids will have the access to Facebook and the ability to frighten their classmates. Ultimately, it is up to the parents to keep a closer watch and monitor what their kids do on the computer. As stated in the Spider-Man comics and movies, “with great power comes great responsibility”, and this new generation of kids have yet to learn the meaning of responsibility and respect for others and their privacy. In time, that will be learned, but generations to come will still have the few that will abuse their online power.

 

 

Digital Research Diary #2

Everyone has their own definition of love. Whether they may look at it as the way Romeo loved Juliet or the way a young child loves candy. Whatever way it may be, the definitions vary from person to person. To me, love isn’t just the feeling of affection you may have towards something. What about the ability to love? That is special in itself. Almost everyone can say that love comes with pain and extremists can even say that it can kill you. But love isn’t just about the affection between two people.

In Jonathan Franzen’s “Pain Won’t Kill You” commencement address, he subtly shows us how he looks at love in a progressive manner rather than in a “in the moment” way. He begins talking about his Blackberry Pearl and how he recently replaced it with the Blackberry Bold. As with any new device, he was “infatuated” with its features and clarity. Franzen says on page 5 “I’d been similarly infatuated with my old device, of course; but over the years the bloom had faded from our relationship.” What he’s saying here is that as time went on and technology became more advanced, his older device lost its affect on him. He then goes on to compare how trying to love all of humanity can be a better endeavor for the soul than loving one person and trying to understand that one thing. Franzen goes on to say “the prospect of pain generally, the pain of loss, of breakup, of death, is what makes it so tempting to avoid love and stay safely in the world of liking. My wife and I, having married too young, eventually surrendered so much of ourselves and caused each other so much pain that we each had reason to regret ever having taken the plunge.”

In today’s world, I can see how that very quote can apply to many young people. In that regard, it can aid the fear of rejection in people rather than encouraging them to go out and find that one person they belong with rather than being with a bunch of different people before they find that one right person. The essence of being able to love all of humanity may seem like an impossible idea, but it is also an avenue for someone to take in realizing what a wonderful world we live in.

Franzen, Jonathan. “Pain Won’t Kill You.” Farther Away. New York: Farrar,

Straus and Giroux, 2012. 5-14. Print.

Digital Research Diary #1

Dear reader,

Before choosing one of the readings, the first thing I asked myself was “what pertains to what is going on in my world today?” I’ve noticed, and I’m sure 90% of people out there also notice, that we are in an era of multitasking. An era in which we think that doing many things at once is much more effective than doing one thing at a time. Maggie Jackson says on page 274 of “Judgment: Molly’s Gaze and Taylor’s Watch”, “why not do two or more things per moment when before you would have done one?” How does that statement not apply to us today?

I chose this reading because young people today have by far, a shorter attention span than people of longer ago. We are presented with so many things to do in such a short period of time that it’s hard to not give in to this epidemic called multitasking. It is expected in children when they go from one toy to the other or when they can’t sit still long enough to take a picture with Santa Clause at the mall around the holidays. But with the advances in technology and all the distractions out there, it is next to impossible not to be able to stay focused on one thing at a time. Jackson uses the right terminology in saying that we are “grafted to our cell phones, we drive like drunks even if it kills us”. How many times haven’t we seen in the news that a driver hit a tree or ran into another car as a result of texting or talking on the phone? You could basically pull up next to anyone’s car today and see them doing something else along with driving whether it may be talking on the phone, fixing make up, reading the newspaper or even eating. What is it about waiting that we just cannot stand?

I myself multitask. I tend to listen to music while doing work or writing a paper. To tell you the truth, I do notice that I get more work done when I don’t listen to music. Thoughts flow much smoother without music blasting in my ear. I personally feel that Jackson wrote this to show us how many studies were done to show us how multitasking has affected us and the relation it has to productivity. As time changes, human functions will change, beliefs will be different and people will feel that they can do more than they are actually capable of.

Jackson, Maggie. “The Digital Divide” Judgment: Molly’s Gaze and Taylor’s Watch. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2011. 271-294. Print.

Hashtags

Before actually looking into hashtags, I had no idea what they were. I used to think they were just words that lead to separate links. What I did learn is that they are links that people use to write about that particular word or “hashtag”. For example, take the hashtag #nyc. When you click on that, all these tweets about something or a specific event pertaining to that particular hashtag show up. In this case, tweets about 1 World Trade Center, celebrities such as Rihanna and Lebron James, and tweets from the FBI about recent arrests were also being posted. From there, people comment on other posts or just post any other information that has to do with that hashtag. I do find it interesting how much information can be found from just looking through hashtags.

For entertainment purposes, I found a hashtag about the new “Great Gatsby” movie. With this hashtag, there were a lot of people commenting on what their expectations were of the movie and their thoughts on how the movie turned out. Many references were made to the book and debates were started about if the book was better than the movie. Even the clothing company “Brooks Brothers” commented on this hashtag. It turns out that their suits were used in this movie. I had read The Great Gatsby in high school and somewhat forgot what the story was about. I could see myself commenting here on my thoughts on the movie and how the characters were portrayed in the film in contrast to the book. From this hashtag, I came across one called “#CryingForever”. This was a hashtag in which people commented on what has made them cry. For example, tragic events such as shootings at schools, or other events that have taken place were discussed. Conversations and debates were started and this was also a good way to keep up to date on the most current events.

Hashtags is something that I need to learn more about before I can start to use it but for the most part, it looks like something that can be very useful in terms of talking about important events or issues.

Advances in Technology Help us to Advance in Life

It’s amazing to look back at how technology and life changed all at the same time. Coming from a family who wasn’t really all about technology, I was never really into the latest devices and video game systems. In the 90’s I do remember us having a super Nintendo. To date, I have to say that that was my favorite gaming system. My mom actually has it at her daycare and it still works perfectly fine. The amazing part for me is to see how much fun the kids at the daycare have with playing these games from my childhood. Video games today do have incredible graphics and all but in my opinion, these older games like Super Mario and Tetris are still the cream of the crop. Those are just good, clean and fun games. No gore, no cursing and no killing. I have tried Call of Duty and Battlefield, but they aren’t as entertaining as these older games.

Growing up, I had limited access to electronic devices. The TV was the only real “device” that I used from time to time. My dad bought a computer before I was born and at that time, that was like getting the new IPhone of today. A huge box with a black screen with letters on it. Today, these monitors are so slim and can play movies, music and basically do anything. Internet speeds are also much faster that of in the 90’s. The designs of the older computers were also much more basic than the computers of today. Today, these monitors have fancy LED backlighting, the ability to dim the screen when not in use, and speakers that are so loud that your next door neighbor can hear what you’re listening to. This new age is also all about speed. When yahoo takes two minutes to load their page, we’re all ready to call Verizon and yell at them as to why the internet is so slow.

Constant communication was also not a top priority. Instant messaging programs like AOL, and MSN messenger were the main forms of immediate back and forth conversation with people. Before that, emailing was the one of the main forms of communication. Long emails would be typed so people could say everything that they had to say, and then it would be the other person’s job to respond to everything in the email and to add what it is that they were doing. With instant messaging, that eliminated the whole waiting period between emails. As time went on, texting became the new instant messaging which pushed emailing into being something of the past.

Texting and social networking have become the main ways of keeping in touch today. These avenues of communication have almost made emailing a thing of the past. Websites like Twitter and Facebook are more than just ways of communicating and keeping in touch with other people. They are actually windows into peoples’ lives. That sense of privacy is almost not there anymore and everything is on the internet. Granted, we have come a long way from the old writing a hand written letter and putting it in a mailbox, but if you think about Facebook, it is a pretty scary idea that some random person can view you profile and see where you were and what you were doing Saturday night. The majority of people use Facebook for exactly what it was meant for, to comment, like and post pictures of yourself. Then of course, there are the kinds of people who prey on people on the internet who can use the information that is provided on these sites to do terrible things. The worst part about it is that we provide the information. Facebook has revolutionized the term “connected” and has taken that to a level that seems to won’t be able to be improved from where it already is.

I can honestly say, when I was younger, staying in touch with my cousins wasn’t a big deal. They would come from Gu

yana to visit and once they left, I wouldn’t see them for about another five years. Now when they come to visit and leave, we are able to talk almost every day as if they never left. Android phones are the main reason as to how we are able to keep in touch. Apps like “Whatsapp” can be downloaded onto the android phone and from there, you can text anyone, anywhere in the world. Its very much like instant messaging but using a phone number rather than a username and password. With whatsapp, you can also send pictures and videos like nothing. I found this app very useful because my cousins and family live all over the world and we can still talk to each other often. With these texting apps, who knows, making phone might even become a thing of the past. That’s where Sk

ype comes in. You can call someone and use your own webcam to actually see the person while you’re talking to them. That definitely beats buying a phone card.

All these updates in technology are a huge benefit to us today in terms of keeping in touch and being up to date with everyone. But as with anything, you need to be smart about what you put out there and be responsible when putting out information for the world to see. I can’t imagine technology getting much better than this. 

Who I Decided to Follow

I’ve always been a big fan of Mark Wahlberg. His movies for the most part are great and he’s been a big motivation for me to stay in good shape. I’ve been following him on twitter and its no surprise that he has quite a lot of activity on his page. He posts about his upcoming movies, his new line of supplements and about events in general. His posts vary from promoting his movies to notifying followers about upcoming rallies and events. By following his twitter, I’ve learned a lot about his youth foundation and his efforts to better help kids in need.

I am now applying to the NYPD and hoping to start during the summer. This was a line of work that has interested me from an early age. While on twitter, I was able to look at their page and get a good idea of their organization via the internet. Recruiters from the NYPD come to St. Johns fairly often. On their twitter page, they actually do notify their followers of where recruiters will be and when. That’s how I knew they were going to come to St. Johns, so I was able to speak with a recruiter and sign up. The NYPD’s twitter page has posts about recent crimes that have been solved or ongoing investigations. They also have links that take you to their official website where you can find out about how and when to register to take the exams, what the hiring process is like and find out everything you need to know about the NYPD. This page in particular peaked my interests because this is the line of work that I will be going into.

Since I’ve started college at St. Johns university, I noticed that there is a huge community of students that are into using workout supplements. This fascinates me because of the amount of people that are using them. When I go to the gym, almost everyone in there has a shaker filled with a funny looking drink. So I asked myself, “where do they get these things from?”. GNC. One of the biggest supplement stores in this country. I searched for their page on twitter and was amazed to see all their different products and the amount of people who write on their page. I’ve learned about pre-workouts, post-workouts, mass gainers, and all of these different products. The majority of people who post on this page talk about their successes and results of when using these products. I had no idea how popular supplements were until I looked at this page.

Who and What I Found on Twitter

While searching around Twitter, I was able to find a lot of interesting pages. I first searched for GNC’s page. It was amazing to see how many people were so active on that page. There were many comments on their products and questions about certain products. GNC also kept their page up to date with the upcoming products and also had responses to individual questions. It was interesting to see how people follow this page and continue to read and want to know more about this company and its products everyday. I then searched for the NYPD’s page because I’m interested in joining the academy next year. On their page, there were posts about current crimes and investigations. There were also posts about crimes being solved and acknowledging certain officers and their accomplishments. I ended up following this page because you get a really good insight to what exactly is going on in the NYPD. Some of the things posted on this page, you would never know about by watching TV. The last page I looked up was Mark Wahlbergs nutrition page. He recently came out with his own line of supplementation and I was interested to read about it. He is a fitness buff and is very much pro healthy life. On this page, you will find out all about his products and you’ll get to read peoples responses and comments about his products. For the most part, everyone seems to love his products. He also posts motivating quotes for people who are just starting to exercise. This page could also be looked at as an advertising page. It is mainly used to market Mark Wahlbergs new line of supplements. People would more so like this page and follow it because of the fact that Mark Wahlberg is at the forefront of the page.

While visiting these pages, I learned that people follow these pages and comment on these pages and almost make it a part of their everyday routine. With Twitter, you can see that people really get involved with reading and blogging about the things that peak their interests. I learned a lot by surfing around Twitter, but clearly, there is much more to learn.