Blogging Reflection

I am thankful i got the chance to blog for the first time. This experience has inspired me to want to blog more. I like blogging because you are free to write your own thoughts and opinions as you please. I think i would enjoy blogging, because it allows me to vent, voice my opinion, and discuss topics i am interested in. I am so glad i got the opportunity to begin blogging here.

top 10 internet moments of the decade

As i was looking for a topic to write my paper on, i stumbled across an article that describes the top 10 internet mometns of the decade and i thought it was super interesting. Some of the ones that stood out in my head were 1) wikipedia is launched 2) twitter takes off 3) i-phone debuts 4) presedential campaign 5) napster shutting down.

It is fun to think about how the internet has changed in the past ten years and how much differently i have used the internet between then and now.

10 years ago, for me it was all about AOL and instant messenger, now I am using FaceBook and YouTube daily. Very different.

A most toxic waste

While watching the video "A Most Toxic Waste", I felt extremely sad. Guiyu is the largest electronic waste site on earth and I feel so bad for these people that have to live and work in a place that is so detrimental to their health. Not only did this video make me feel sad, but it also made me very angry. OUR pollution has essentially ruined their town of Guiyu; the environment that they live in is extremely harmful to all its inhabitants. When I heard that this town has one of the highest levels of cancer causing dioxins in the world I was shocked and saddened. No one deserves to live in a place like this and I feel bad for those that feel that they have nowhere else to go. I do not think this fair to the people that live there, considering that all the dumping of these toxins is illegal. Mothers have a much higher chance of miscarriage here; the children are growing up with lead in their blood.
n my opinion, this is completely and entirely wrong. What we are doing here is illegal and it is just a way to save wealthier countries, specifically the U.S., the high cost of disposing of their electronic trash. Eighty percent of the discarded electronic waste comes from the United States. As a highly developed country, I know we have the resources to develop a way to properly recycle technology products, especially since they are “the fastest-growing component of the municipal waste stream worldwide”. One would think that since so many people are suffering, we would accept the costs of recycling e-waste correctly. This has been going on for a long time and yet we continue to stay silent so that nobody will be held accountable. In my opinion, many people should be held accountable for this, the people that run these businesses, the companies who export the material and everyone who does not recycle. I want to know why the U.S. government is not watching this more closely, or better yet banning the exportation of e-waste. We need to figure out a way to take care of this problem, considering it is having a huge (negative) impact on certain areas just like this one.

Technology and the Future

Hopefully, technology will only continue to advance. I have high hopes for technology in the future. I am hoping for advances in medicine and develop strategies that will help prevent the deterioration of the environment, hopefully we will find an alternative energy or a solution to global warming. We have the capabilities to do great things as technology advances and I believe that we can and will only continue to improve.

Social Networking Sites

These days, many kids draw little distinction between real life and online life. The number of networking sites that are geared toward younger users is growing. Sites such as Disney's Club Penguin, WebKinz and Whyville feature more restricted and supervised networking as opposed to other adult networking sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, FaceBook, and others.
There are many dangers for younger kids on adult social websites. Online predators, scammers, cyberbullying, cyber stalking, are all potential dangers that children may have to deal with when using social networking websites.

Pros/Cons Communicating Via Tech. // Support in CyberSpace

In my Interpersonal Communications class, we talked about the pros and cons of communicating via technology and we also discussed the pros and cons of online support. To begin, since we are not face-to-face when having a conversation, we do not know the tone each person is using, so when we say things on the Internet or via text, they can often be taken the wrong way. Going along with the tone, mood can make things difficult as well. Since you cannot see the person or hear their tone, you do not always know what kind of mood they are in, so this is where communication can go wrong. Turn taking is also another aspect that can make things difficult while having a conversation, there is oftentimes little balance and interruptions can occur frequently. Spontaneity is a positive of communicating via technology because the degree of spontaneity is decreased. Often time when we text, email or blog we can take time to re-read what we have written and edit it if needed.

We also discussed online support. Support in cyberspace can take on many forms, websites such as online support groups, FaceBook and MySpace, blogs and online journals, chat rooms, instant messeneger and online therapy. Online support can be extremely beneficial because of a variety of reasons. First, it is annonymous, so people can go to forums or online therapy without being embarassed. It is a good tool for people who are shy, it is not face to face, so it may make communicating easier for some people. It is also extremely accessible, more ability to receive more support from more people. Unlike regular therapy, online therapy is availbale 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and all you have to do is log on to a computer.

censorship and the news

The News online is extremely convenient for people who do not have time to sit down and watch it on TV. It is faster, more efficient way to get information out there. But oftentimes just like the News on TV, it can be biased. It does not always show both sides or the entire story.
In class i remember discussing what life would be like if there was no news. In my opinion, life would be scary. It is frightening to think of living in a world where we did not know what was going on in our country or the world. We need local news for things such as the weather and so we can know when abductions, rapes, or robberies occur. We need the news so we can learn about what is going on with foreign affairs, new governmental policies, potential epidemics, etc. A life without the news would be extremely scary.

Technology and the Economy

Technology has had both a postive and negative impact on the economy. It has helped the economy because more technology = more jobs. YouTube and Blog websites are creating more jobs for people. Advertisers have made a fortune off online advertising, and internet advertising is only growing, thus creating more jobs. Also, Job sites such as "Monster" has helped people find more jobs, there are more jobs being created online because of newspapers and magazines going electronic. On the flip side, because newspapers and magazines going electronic, people working for these print companies may also lose their jobs. Identity theft is a lot easier to accomplish with the development of technology over the years. Therefore, technology has had both positive and negative impacts on the economy.

Privacy

Privacy is an issue we have discussed in length in this class. In my opinion, I do not think we are able to have a lot of privacy on the internet, we can't help it. As time goes on, its only getting easier and easier to gain access to more and more information about people. In the long run, there are a couple inconveniences, but nothing huge. We have to be aware that whatever we put on the internet is fair game. I believe that if you don't want someone to see something, either don't put it on the internet or figure out how to cover it up. To increase our chances of gaining more privacy on the internet, we can read the privacy policies on websites that we have to register for. We can also limit the number of websites we give our personal information to.

Today I was thinking about how life would be different if I lived in China with their internet censorship laws. I go to certain websites on a day to day basis, and several (if not all) of them I could probably never get access to there. Websites such as FaceBook and Perez Hilton are blocked there. Even this website is blocked there. I think their rules are too harsh and unnecessary. I believe people have a right to browse the internet as they please. I am thankful to live in a place where i can have access to almost any website i want to go to. I believe it is each individual's (rather than the government's) responsibility to be moral and ethical when using the internet.

In the past, we have discussed a lot about video games and ethics. In my opinion, I think that video games definitely have a huge impact on kids, especially younger kids (age 5-12). I have done a little bit of research and have found that there are many theories that link violent video games with raised levels of agressiveness in children. If kids play these violent games enough, they can be come desensitized to it. However, I believe that is the parent's responsibility to control what their children are playing and for how long, not the creators of video games.

First Blog!

This is my first blog ever and I am very excited to get the opportunity to create and update one of these for the first time! Last class we talked a lot about how technology affects our social life. In my opinion, technology makes a huge impact on our social lives. Through things like facebook and myspace we can not only keep in touch with old friends, but also keep ourselves updated with what everyone is doing around us. Personally, if i want to find out what everyone is doing on a specefic night, a lot of times i can find it through facebook. I have become a victim of Facebook, in that, I spend a lot of my time on it, when i could be outside or socializing with actual people instead of doing it online. I feel as though many people share my same problem. If people's involvement in this technology age keeps increasing where will we be in ten years? What about twenty? For me, it is scary to think about because i feel as though, technology will have a greater and greater impact on our social lives and we will continue to lose person - to - person contact.