Signing Day

I was on the big screen making my final college decision. In front of all my family members even though we were hundreds of miles away. I did the cheesy football signing day act with the hats, saying “ should I choose Dayton or Maine”. I chose Dayton University and signed my commitment letter the next day. The reason I could do all this was because of Google Plus.

Google Plus is like Skype but you can be doing it with however many people you want. I had my Mom, Dad, Beau, Holly, Tyler, Drew, April, and Kale. They all were using their own computer at home, even if there were two of them in the same house. The layout of “hangouts” on Google Plus is there are all the videos of people on the bottom of the screen. Who ever is talking is put on the big screen and it rotates speakers quickly. This was really nice because with a big close family like mine I could tell them all at once. Instead of calling them all and answering all the same questions over and over again. Also I can see all of there faces making it seem like we were in the same room.

With all of the different social media sites out there it can be hard to pick which ones to use. There are so many different sites out there that can offer different pluses and minuses. Some sites are very similar like Omegle and Chatroulette but you don’t have to pick one. People shouldn’t have to pick one social media sight and be set on it. It would be beneficial to be a member at multiple sights and use each ones benefits when needed. For instance I didn’t pick between Skype and Google Plus. I use Skype when I’m just talking to one person because its easier to use. Than I use Google Plus when I want to talk to everyone in the family because Skype doesn’t allow that. There are so many social media sights out there to fill your need use them all to your advantage instead of picking one.

Bare footing Video

When my brother said our video was on some porn blogs I about crapped my pants. Thoughts like will this be a problem for my future job interviews or reputation. I never thought there would something like that on the Internet that I would be nervous people would find.

My brothers, cousins, and family friends of ours are all barefoot enthusiast. We barefoot all summer on lake Oconomowoc. Barefooting is waterskiing with no skis on just your feet and the water. It makes you feel super human like Jesus walking on water. You can do an endless amount of tricks, which we often make videos of. So when we all heard there would be a barefoot video competition we were in.

We were looking for a good theme for our video. We decided to stick with our roots and go with an American theme. This was natural for us because we hold a barefoot competition on the fourth of July every year. It is our family’s biggest holiday with a family parade and all. We also already had all the gear we needed for the American theme. We all had American flag speedos from the previous fourth and a new American eagle wetsuit.

The part were I guess it qualifies our video to be put on these blogs is we all had different introduction scenes where we were wearing our speedos. Yes it is a little weird but we all thought it was funny and I’m still actually laughing about it while I’m writing this. Some of the introductions consisted of running out of a corn field into a horse field, or scaring chickens into their coop. I can’t say we weren’t warned though. My mother was adamant we don’t submit this video but we thought it was harmless.

Really the moral of this story is with all of the new social media outlets you never know who is going to get their hands on your videos or post. With todays technology it is so easy to share things you find on the Internet which is not a bad thing. You just need to be cautious of this before you post a video that you may think is harmless, but in reality is a little questionable.

http://www.barefootcentral.info/FreestyleChallenge_2011.htm

Social Networks Role in The Past and Future

“Brilliant,” David Cameron the prime minister of Britain said about Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook’s idea. Mark Zuckerberg believes that Facebook can start to help out governments in communicating to the people in a cheaper more direct way. This also lets the people have a say. They can contribute right from the comfort of their home, and they don’t have to be scared to speak up at a public forum, or something of that nature. The people will be more honest in their responses instead of sugar coating them, because they feel safe behind there computers. David Cameron feels this is a great idea and knows how big of an impact it can make. Facebook has been used in movements such as the Arab spring letting people spread the word about there cause, and how other people should react to it. Facebook and other social media sites allow people to share their thoughts on current events and can create powerful movements. Social networks are new to this world and people are starting to adapt. Politicians now advertise over Facebook. Barack Obama had a big online campaign. The British are going to use Mark Zuckerbergs proposed “platform to decrease spending and increase public participation in the political process”. Facebook and social networks are changing the way people communicate, and are making new societal rules. People are way less private in todays world sharing pictures, personal information for example on a dating site, and having private conversations in public forums on the web. It will be interesting to see what more social networks will change about the world we know today.

This blog was inspired by and based off of “The Rise of Facebook Nation” written By Lori B Andrews.

What are the important news stories everyone should be reading? How should we react to these news stories? What is the best way to receive our news? Can we trust new media sources? These are all questions brought up by the choices people have to make between new media and old media.

New media is more democratic than old media. It lets one decide which stories are important by checking out how many hits it gets, or how many times the story gets tweeted. Some web sites even take note of which articles are getting the most hits and will email that article out to pre-subscribers. This contrasts with old media, because in old media there is a small hierarchy of people as in any business who make the big decisions on what articles are the most important, and what ones they might not even choose to run. The reader in new media gets to view a lot of feedback on articles often located right below the article. This feed back offers the reader the opportunity to immediately view other readers' responses and it can influence the reader's own views on the article. In old media one is exposed to just the article, leaving it up to the reader to discuss it or not with family or friends.

One of the most pressing questions is whether or not the new media sources are trustworthy. The new media sources can definitely be more opinionated and sloppy, while the old media sources have a reputation to maintain so their news is generally required to be verified and checked for accuracy. Although the new media sources can be opinionated this just means you need to be aware of its bias and that you may need to read more than one article covering the story to get a balanced view. Whether or not you are a fan of the new media or old, they both have positives and negatives that can work to complement each other in the future.