Social Media Coming of Age Article

    I read this article this week and found it very relevant to the time we are living in. I believe we don’t really realize the power social media is having on the younger generation and the world for that matter. I see many more people looking towards alternate avenues to get their daily dose of news, weather it be social networking sites, internet news, blogs, online articles, or even as this article suggested Twitter and Facebook. (Facebook and Google are taking over the world.. jk) I know I look even more towards the internet than ever before to get my news. Sometimes the only reason I know something has happened is because I saw it on the main page of Yahoo where they have that rotating series of news articles. Why is society leaving the traditional forms of media and news? I am not going to act like I know every reason, but I do think one reason is young people want a more personalized news source. Young people like the fact that they themselves can respond, influence, or even create the news to get their story and voices heard. We see this in this news article and others like it around the world. I believe it is a great thing, but like any great thing it does have drawbacks. One major draw back I see is their maybe no checks or balances on the validity of the story being told. This can be very dangerous for people who don’t regularly check the sources of the media and news they consume. Does anyone else see this as a problem or a blessing? Let me know.

Cyber vs. Real

    So today in class we talked about Cyber communities and specifically Second Life. I am really intrigued about the possibilities that this new world holds, but at the same time I can see the problems with it as well. First, I think that the possibilities of e-commerce is huge in this new reality. Also, I believe it would be a cool way to view the web. Instead of viewing these flat one dimensional pages it would actually be cool if it were a world you could step into and explore. Along with that you could bring on a new level of interaction among different people around the world. I eventually could see this world like the movie "Matrix", where people feel like they are traveling to the place they study or that they are interested in. On the other hand as I stated in class last night, this would bring up obvious problems and problems that are not so obvious. Some of the obvious problems is the lack of real social interaction and physical activity for those engaged in this new world. This could lead to serious health and social problems. Another problem that was touched upon in class was the wrong behavior many users engage in while in those virtual worlds. Some of these bad behaviors are murdering, stealing, and assaulting. The one that bothers me the most is assault. I see eventually the lines between the cyber and real world will eventually blur. The more someone is wired into this world the more they will be open to be exploited and abused. 

Blog 1 - Difference between Social Media and Social Networking

Well, I will start with what I believe is the easier of the two to answer. Social networking is a group of individuals that have something in common with one another, such as, friends, family, co-workers, etc. These people use social technology platforms like twitter and Facebook to communicate with one another. This communication among these people create a network that people can find out about one another and share feelings, ideas, lives, etc. Now, I believe social media is ideas and products companies try to sell on these networks. Companies use social media on these network platforms to engage individuals with their products and ideas they think the person may be interested in.