For that reason I value Dr. Goodnow’s courses (the mere 2 I’ve taken). If I was able I’d have taken more. It’s not brown-nosing. I suck at brown-nosing, just ask my employer who laid me off this past week in favor of keeping another less experienced employee. I’m not bitter; I’m just not good at kiss ass and sometimes that hurts me! It sure can hurt in college and I’ve enjoyed engaging “crazy” authors like Neil Postman, Wood-Smith was alright and more ordinary. But the overall premise was a fresh one for me. I’m tired of living for someone else’s ideas and want some of my own. To find someone who is educated and values others ideas seems a rarity to me. As such I valued the ideas I’ll take away from this course. It isn’t the principle of technology and communication as much as it is the ability to stretch myself out. The ability to say “x+y=6” and have to support it. This is difficult to do, but at the end of the day that is what I’ll remember. That I had to think and I found a little truth from my efforts.

For the criticism I can’t say much. Most of my hard critiques are aimed at the university processes and it wouldn’t be fair to level an assault upon a course operating in the university system. Given the requirements of university and the limitations of an online format I felt the class was very effectual. A chat room assignment would have been interesting. If a timed chat was used as an experience to “blog” about it would have been very fun. I’ve experienced discussion in a classroom setting, but in an online forum it would be interesting to see how the dynamics of communication might change.

I understand why we had a textbook like “wood-smith” but I didn’t enjoy it much. I’m really unsure of how you’d introduce educational concepts to a topic without an academically minded text. I wonder if concepts would be just as effective if provided outside of a textbook, just as a matter of fact on a word document for example. Then that may open more time for assignments or another opinion (perhaps a contrasting one). That would have been interesting to explore, the internet is still new and allows for a lot of contrasting ideas.

All in all I had a great time with this course. My only regret is there are no other options to continue learning like this though the Cascade-Campus in Bend, OR. Thanks Dr. Goodnow!

This situation opens questions of corporate responsibility, appropriate regulatory action, and the very sensitive and pertinent issue of pedophile activity on the internet. For me personally I have a very astute position against any activity that harms children. But, these girls who are using the website illegally are 16-18. Furthermore these girls are eliciting themselves voluntarily. So for me there was a bit of a dilemma; in today’s society girls and boys are exposed to more mature material and circumstances than they were just 50 years ago. It seems to me that the result is teens behave on a more mature level than previous generations. Whether this mature level of behavior is successful or not could be debated, but I don’t think it can be denied that kids must grow up at an earlier age. So when is a child an adult? It seems to me that this issue opens that issue for debate. Maybe 18 is too young, maybe it is too old. Either way the internet allows for children of younger ages to successfully engage sexual activity. My question is, “why are they doing that?” Does our society put undue pressure on them at an early age only to hold up a huge “stop” sign for them until they are 18? Again, I believe wholeheartedly in protecting the innocense of children, but this activity seems a difficult one to properly tackle via larger socital means.

With the opportunity for under aged teens to successfully engage sexual activity what is society to do? It seems to me that if Craigslist.com is banned from facilitating this activity I do not think it will be hard for this activity to find another place in the internet. This question leads me to the question of what is appropriate regulatory action? If honest websites such as Craigslist.com are shut down what freedoms might society be willing to surrender to resolve this issue? Not that I’d advocate no action, but I do think this particular issue has potential to be the Achilles heel to societies free use of the internet. My concern is that websites such as Craigslist.com act in a manner that at least within the legal perameters set by government and society. But where those perameters are inadequate to prevent harmful activity I am leery of further regulation. Where does one draw the line? I’m not totally sure, this issue is a difficult one for me.

“Great idea “History Channel”, what better way to combat unsettled economic times by proposing outrageous claims of secret societies controlling the world and driving us to a “globalized version of Nazi Germany”. Cultivating widespread distrust in the social and economic systems our economy needs is a grand idea.

Its not any news to find out there are a select few people calling most of the shots in the world. I’m glad the people of the “silverbearcafe” have finally caught on to one of the most blatant facts of history, namely that the systems of government are ruled by a few powerful members of society. Brilliant insight.

These people are nuts, interesting in the same nature that a comic book would be; and about as helpful!”

This situation brought about a slightly heated debate between folks about the legitimacy of facts presented by the History Channel. It was particularly pertinent to the recent chapter in Postman’s book. The situation revolved around how our culture innately thinks scientifically. In life I look for hypotheses, theories, and evidences supporting or usurping whichever idea I encounter. I have been taught that objective thought is superior to faith driven thought; I also value my objective thought when it does not discriminate against other thoughts, just when it disproves the ones containing no verifiable evidence. The point (I think) is this: we operate in a scientific world. I recognize not everybody embraces science… or that science is always accurate… but everyone values scientific reason though they may call it by a different name. The point is I inhabit a worldview claiming to be on the crest of superior technology, the pinnacle of human discovery, and the ultimate realization of self-actualization. And all this is supported, in theory, by science.

So many people discussed their thoughts on science and it’s application to that particular website. It was a strange experience because I don’t often have such meaningful conversations; some of these people I didn’t even know. But for a short time there was a lot of email activity surrounding peoples very interesting and meaningful interactions to the website.

The discussion was actually (I think) helped by the medium of the internet because it kept people from interrupting others. If someone was upset they could very easily disengage the conversation (just don’t reply). So for this particular situation I think CMC helped to spur honest conversation which allowed communication to more easily tackle a difficult topic.

First, “lil’ cutie” was my over 60 interview. Lil’ Cutie owns and operates an internet based baseball card shop. That aspect threw a unique twist into the mix.  In regards to the business, Lil’ Cutie used to own a physical card shop in Clairemont California. The shop was quite successful but, as Lil’ Cutie puts it he wanted to “stretch his legs” a little bit and so he and his family “moved to the vastness of Bend Oregon.” At the time of the move he didn’t use the internet at all. That would have been pre-1997. When he moved to Bend in the Fall of ’97 he decided that he was going to sell baseball cards via mail order only. For him the internet was only valuable inasmuch as it provided opportunity for his business. When he started using the internet in 1999 it was only for email. He didn’t use any other features. He was running mail order ads and wanted to have an email address for people to contact him through. He only used email minimally and only tied to the business. He didn’t communicate with friends or family through email until around 2002 when they began to send him emails. Even today he doesn’t use email to solicit personal communication with people he knows, but he will reply to emails from other people he knows. The only other development for him was when eBay entered the scene. He set up an eBay account to fulfill orders online as well. Since he has been in the baseball card business for some time he has some contacts who prefer postal mail but he finds most of his business is on eBay. He doesn’t use the internet for anything other than eBay and email. He still checks card values in the old Becket books and doesn’t use the internet to keep up with hobbies or interests. For him it is all about utility.

“See-tata-my-lada-my-itti-bitti-bayba” (no joke, I confirmed it as this persons nickname!) was my 36-60 interviewee. We’ll call her Seet. Seet remembers when the internet first came around. Though for her it was too cumbersome to be useful. She remembers her first experience with it was viewing it on a friends computer. Her friend seemed enamored with the experience of finding particular websites and likened it to a “treasure hunt.” But when Seet gave it  a try she got so frustrated with how hard it was to use with it she didn’t touch the internet again until… AOL. America Online revolutionized the internet experience for Seet. She again was introduced to AOL at a friends house (same one as before… its all in the details right?) and it was here that she found the ability to navigate the internet. For her the most appealing aspect was the social aspect. She recalls keeping a journal of screen names of people she’d meet on AOL. She’d record peoples likes, dislikes and availability (she was single at the time). But she quickly grew overwhelmed at the immensity of the internet. There were so many screen names that she couldn’t keep up. Over the course of a year she began to loose interest in chatting with people in chatrooms and on instant messager because she couldn’t keep track of everyone. She found that the people who she would have a few run ins with would eventually disappear and her efforts to connect seemed more meaningless at that point. It was then that she began to use the internet for only two things, shopping and keeping in touch with people she also knew physically. She found this aspect of the internet to be very satisfying. Her usage dropped though she always saw it as an opportunity to connect. (And the answer is no, she didn’t meet her current husband online… I was disappointed since that would have been the true coupe de grace)

My last interviewee was 18, right on the edge of the 18-35 group. “Megee-magoo” or “Meg” has an interesting story with the internet. She didn’t use the internet at all for some time. She was homeschooled and says she grew up not needing to use it. She would mostly use the internet when needed to research a topic for an assignment. She said her parents didn’t encourage internet use and as such she didn’t give it much thought. This is atypical for what I expected in this age group. The twist is at the age of 16 Meg developed an eye condition called Keratoconus. My understanding is it means the cornea is degenerative and it is difficult to remedy. For Meg this meant the year she was going to enter High School here eyesight was quickly degenerating. Her first year of High School saw her struggling to keep up due to chronic eye pain and frequent headaches impeding her progress. The school allowed her to try to catch up with summer school but since her condition was proving elusive for treatment she had to find a flexible alternative for her schooling. She says that is when she really began to use the internet through an online High School program. She said there was an entry counselor who also suffered from Keratoconus and that opened up a lot of opportunity for her to learn about her condition while working at her own pace with school. She still doesn’t use the internet due to her eye condition but she is completely reliant on it for her schooling. She amplifies the webpage text by 200% to get through what she has to then she stops using the internet until more study is required.

I must have had a strange sampling of people. It was not intended. I knew my young interviewee had some difficulty with vision but never knew that would mean a skew of what I expected with my data. It seems to me that the internet is mostly about utility for the older generations and as you get younger the internet becomes more of an opportunity for layered possibilities.

Assimilation was a bit awkward. For the first week or so I didn’t see much interaction at all. After following the forum for several days I quickly discovered certain users would gain more positive affirmation than others. This led me to understand that even this online forum was governed by certain social norms. Given the religious nature of the forum, flaming was non-existent. Things were mostly upbeat. People tried to offer a respectfully positive spin on every observation even when there were disagreements. Though I can vouch for the extreme of “respectfully positive” as feeling dry and fake I felt people allowed themselves to be a  bit more raw when displaying their thoughts in the online forum than I’ve experienced interpersonally (generally speaking) in church. Granted, in any group there are exceptions to social rules and norms. But I have sensed many people feel awkward projecting a negative view of life and their involvement in religion and society. So it was interesting to see how CMC acted as a mediator, a place for some people to express themselves and their frustrations. I’m not positive but I do think this was a positive result of how CMC may remove social context cues from communication.

I didn’t find much interaction until I posted a thread asking, something like, “why does ‘Christian music’ sound second-par to ‘secular music’?” That question/post seemed to strike a vein in many people and it was a hot item generating a high number of posts relative to the other threads in the forum. At that point I discovered the other members of the forum seemed to engage me and my responses/requests a bit more. Whereas before I would post and not gain a response from other users I now had a greater probability for interaction. Being directly addressed in the forum in someone else’s post seemed to be a key element of assimilation. Until then I didn’t have much interaction, it felt a bit more like voyeurism than communication. Because of how acceptance and interaction came slowly and with certain qualifiers I can say this internet group felt a lot like a typical group I’d describe as “cliquish” in my physical communication experiences.

Now, for a positive observation; my observations the past few weeks have been more harsh on society and technology (even the authors!). I think some of that is due to the overwhelming nature of the topics this class is engaging. In some way’s I think I have engaged the negative aspects of these topics to “thin the heard”, because if something is wrong or bad it doesn’t become as immediate a threat to my own worldview. If all these ideas and topics are correct or good then I’ve got a lot of processing to do! Anyway, for the positive side of this assignment (This exercise, being self imposed and  “therapeutic” to my negativity must say something about how I’m just a stones throw from needing some sort of CMC therapy! J)

Anyway, I’ll race to the positive before I digress again. Once assimilated into this group I was shocked to discover how much the group cared. There are a few threads where people are asking for support on various issues etc. and the group had numerous responses of support for those people. Through the negatives tied to CMC loosing some aspects of communication, despite it often being blamed for trite and shallow conversation these interactions seemed very meaningful for all involved. This aspect challenged my initially negative assessments of the internet as a communication medium. Another facet of meaning unique to the internet, or maybe it is that I discovered our humanity expresses itself though various mediums. Perhaps it is just another aspect of technology, like writing and the phone which humanity will adapt to and conquer as it is mastered.

“1.happy go lucky 2.love to make friends 3.sexy 4.charming 5.kind 6.and all da good things…huhu”

I think the strongest flaw in the “expertise” of my blog source is the use of slang. How would an expert sift this information? The first question would be: what is “huhu”? Is it a beverage? It is one of the items making up “all da good things” so it must be wonderful whatever it is. Maybe it is a type of dance. If “huhu” is how this person laughs, that is simply unfortunate because I’d assume they are a smoker. If this person smokes to the point it affects their laughter that cannot be a part of “all da good things”. If this list is in any way correlated, #3 may provide a clue as to what a “huhu” is, but the options down that particular alley are too many for me to articulate. So, by the method of my straight shooting logic I’ve eliminated laughter and misc. body parts; so “huhu” must be either a delicious beverage or a dance. But it doesn’t advocate the blog as a credible source.

Now that I have defined what an expert I could use our textbook, “Online Communication.” Andrew Wood works at San Jose State University and Matthew Smith hails from Wittenberg University. If they both are tied to the system of education which produces experts, it is more viable that they are reliable sources of information themselves. Further evaluation wouldn’t reveal much from the textbook, but it is a printed source. And we tend to trust printed sources more because someone, somewhere has validated it so that puts us at ease.

Another more credible source would be from the American Psychological Association’s website. An article titled, “Posting on the Internet: An opportunity for self (and other) reflection”  that was submitted by Dr. Stephen Behnke APA Ethics Director, would be more legitimate as a source than the “Blogger” page. This is because the author has a doctoral designation and has been validated by the APA.

As a professor evaluating a students perception of credibility I would form opinions based on the sources presented. If the sources were derived from places that have ties to academia (either through the participants, or organization) then I would feel the student spent more time sifting through the miscellaneous information on the internet.

1.      Wood, Andrew F., and Matthew J. Smith. Online Communication, Linking Technology, Identity, & Culture. 2nd ed. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2005.

2.      Hacqueem. “Incrediblehucqueem’s blogspot.” Incrediblehucqueem’s blogspot. 08 Feb. 2009 <http://incrediblehucqeem.blogspot.com/>. 

3.      Behnke, Stephen. “Posting on the Internet: An opportunity for self (and other) reflection.” Monitor on Psychology. Jan. 2007. American Psychological Association. 8 Feb. 2009 <http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan07/ethics.html>.

The interesting thing for me is how the situation Neil Postman described on page 69 must contribute to this lack of meaningful connection, “information pours in… an even greater source of information is waiting to be retrieved… like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice we are awash in information.”  Maybe our new “information –era” is bringing the death of meaning in conversation. To absorb the information which claims precedence over other areas of our lives we must choose to spend meaningful time carefully. To develop a real relationship takes time, to take time means to spend less time addressing the myriad of information sources at work, school, and play. How much more convenient would it be to influence someone via Facebook? Just type a few encouraging messages every few days, sprinkle some quotes from famous people in there. Maybe correspond on specific matters here and there. But it doesn’t require much commitment of time, you can address the relationship when you want to, in whatever state you feel like, and put as much time into your thoughts as you please. How would a recipient of a CMC message know if you spent 1 minute or 1 hour drafting a message? If they were present, engaged in conversation they would quickly realize their influencor doesn’t feel they are a priority. But CMC removes any sense of wavering commitment to the benefit of the influencor.

As I became cognizant of this point I lost motivation to write letters. By now you must be able to clearly understand my thoughts towards an email. It would have been drafted quickly and more tritely than the hand written draft would have been. The truth is my email would have gone to the lesser of the two influences. Because I know the impact a hand written letter bears with it these days. Writing letters has become a thing of the past. Who has the time? Who has the time… but I think in our haste to address all sources of information we loose something in ourselves, some potential for a more fulfilling life.

Anyway, in my wildest fantasy I guess I’m a mariachi band member. I’m not sure how to manage that, does it say something about myself? It must. The concept of telepresence means we can create meaning via mediated communication on the internet. This is significant (and that statement “this is significant” would be more significant if I was a P.h.d., but alas I’m still an undergrad.) The manipulation of meaningful conversation says more about ourselves than I initially have given credit to. Society is based on interactions between two parties, economic, emotional, practical… whatever the type it is all built on interactions. So, to alter these interactions is to alter the sphere of society one surrounds themselves with means something for that person. Given the increasing levels of interactivity (Speed, range, and mapping) tied to the internet, the altering of internet interactions must also hold an increased meaning for the interactor.

Back to the assignment, for my pre-existing Myspace &  Facebook pages (the ones where I’m not Ollie Procurador) I do practice a bit of non-disclosure. Anyone could potentially read that information, so I don’t disclose details which may bring embarrassment to me. I do disclose things which may further my position in the relationships tied to those accounts. I’ll be honest, it is a selfish pursuit. The pages are all about me for one, and people visiting them are interacting with me. Though there are elements that don’t point to me, (i.e. I mention my wife) these pages are social tools which I use to stay in touch, but the bottom line is I want them to strengthen my relationships. So, throw a few witty remarks to show I’m funny, mention my ability to bench 500 lbs. to show I’m manly and ridiculously strong (and funny, because I can’t do that), and post a few pictures and mentions of music to help define myself and that’s about it. I’ve got my “identity.”

Granted, I find myself easily bored on these websites so I don’t put much time into them. I honestly don’t find the communication very fulfilling. For me I think it is tied to the fact that my job involves mediated conversation, so I find myself wanting immediate interaction in my off hours. That is a personal observation which couldn’t bring too much insight for society.

This particular assignment was a bit more difficult for me to navigate and apply the text and answer why-this-why-now.

On the other side of the argument exists a simple realization of our basic needs: food, water, shelter, and interaction. If the internet cannot provide the means for a person to satisfy those needs then the internet, and all identities created via the internet must not hold much material value. It is a basic instinct, but to be honest we value someone who is an M.D. because of how that profession not only provides means to access plenty of food, water, and shelter but it also has an element of interacting with society in a beneficial way.

So can the internet provide social status in a real world way? Even despite the existence of an alter-ego? In chapter 2, Wood & Smith describe the varied and sophisticated methods of communication. Broken into the elements of packet-switching, multimedia, hypertext etc. on page 41 the difference between internet communication and historically traditional forms seems immense. Hypertext alone has changed how we read and interpret documents in multiple ways. Because of the uniqueness of how the internet functions I wonder if that is why we as a society view an internet based identity as invaluable. We prefer the traditional methods of providing for our needs. As should be expected society tends to follow tradition and changes itself slowly. Perhaps that is why the music video ended with the character finding the courage to embrace his physical self and march with his new-found girlfriend down the neighborhood  in his band uniform. Sort of like saying, “I found reality to be better than the internet.” I’ll admit there exist severe consequences for people who only live on the internet; but I was just questioning how I initially reacted to the music video.

Since I didn’t have the internet as an option to occupy myself I put more time into communicating with my wife. Because the ability to find interaction through the internet was severed I discovered how much I satisfy my own need for interaction through a mediated medium. This caused me to spend some time reflecting upon how I define the internet or, more importantly, how the internet defines me. I’ve not been a huge proponent of MySpace or Facebook as a means of communication. They always felt a bit dry for me. Maybe I never had the patience to engage them long enough to find meaningful interaction. I do feel a bit silly using mediated conversation to replace important conversations with someone I see regularly. Perhaps that is because I value being physically present as a part of my interpersonal conversations. Still, I do spend time interacting in a few internet forums, communicating through email and blogging. These places do provide me with much social interaction and I think they can replace my felt need to interact in face-to-face conversation. Since I did find myself seeking out conversation with my wife more I do feel my internet interactions burn some “communication fuel” that I need to burn each day. Granted, as a guy, and given what I’ve been taught of how gender affects communication, perhaps I don’t have as much fuel to burn. If that is the case this exercise at least made me aware of how the internet might take away from immediate conversations my wife would appreciate having with me.

As a musician, I tend to play an instrument when thinking so I did replace some of the time I spend on the internet with music. This also brought up an interesting distinction between mediated music and live music. I sometimes use sites which stream music as a tool to help me relax or pass time. But mediated music, like communication, also feels different. Though I was playing my instrument I also started thinking about how listening to life music affects us differently. I’d personally prefer to hear someone play live at a coffee house instead of a CD recording. Perhaps this digression into music isn’t helpful. Whether my thoughts were helpful or not, I did use music to fill much of my extra time.

P.S. just to get to five hundred…