#dragonfly121

[ashleah04-blog]

Last week...

I do feel a connectedness from my social media activity. I am not all that interested in social media thus I only use Face book, and only have close friends and family as connections there. I have found that it is helpful for keeping up on the lives of my friends who have scattered to well… everywhere… and every once in a while when I have some awesome bit of news to share I will do so and enjoy the comments. I am not on face book regularly and I have noticed that when my friends are too invested in face book they become frustrated that I don’t comment enough or like their posts. I do see how, if it is the goal to have lots of followers, likes, and comments, it would be easy to be depressed after spending time in social media and discovering no success. I have found that when by friends on face book are getting depressed or frustrated with lack of feed-back it has more to do with how things are off line. It seems that taking out their frustration online is less harmful than blowing up on their families. When I actually notice grumpy posts (‘cause I can be oblivious) I usually go the extra step and call them. I think when it comes down to it, the cause/effect isn’t directly related. It’s like my wellbeing professor says just because crime rates increase when ice cream sales go up, it doesn’t mean that ice cream causes crime. Perhaps for those who get depressed after perusing social media, are depressed for other reasons. Maybe after hours spent perusing other people’s lives they feel upset not because of social media but because they were on social media avoiding what it is that is bothering them and now must face it or find another distraction… like more social media…!!! If you haven’t seen this you gotta!

[msuinformationists-blog]

The Distance of Connectedness

I think this discussion is super interesting. The idea behind social media sites is to help connect and bring people together. And at a first glance, it seems to have done just that. personally, it allows me to talk to people I barely get to see. In addition, I can see statuses and photos of those people, which gives me the feeling that I can still be a part of their lives, even though I’m hundreds or thousands of miles away. This is especially important to me because I live far away from my entire family. My dads side lives in places like Georgia, Massachusetts, and Colorado, while my mom’s side of the family is in Germany and the Czech Republic. If it weren’t for social media, i would almost never get to talk to them, or see what’s new in their lives. Yes, there is still phone calls and texting, but it’s hard to schedule that many phone calls and pay for international calls on a regular basis - cue Facebook! 

However, when one takes a closer look, something daunting reveals itself. Just as the New Yorker article suggests, social media makes people super unhappy with themselves. When you think about why, it makes sense. People used to do things because they liked it, and it made them happy. But now, I find a lot of people I know (and sometimes even myself) doing things simply so that later they can post about it on social media. Now, logging on to Instagram, I rarely see a powder day that hasn’t been documented. It has become a competition of who can do the coolest stuff, or even more accurately, who can look like they do the coolest stuff. People do stuff in public in order to post in private. That’s just the way it is now, and I can’t think of a more isolating and lonely way to live.

I think the only real way to navigate the fine line between “connecting” with people and flat out isolating yourself from everyone else is to be aware of the motives behind your social media use. Are you logging on to see what everyone else did today so you can compare that to yourself, or are you logging on to say happy birthday to your cousin in California? Noticing why and how often you log on will allow you to become self aware with your behaviors. Are you living for the rush of being online famous or are you living to experience the famous offline world?

BTW: HAPPY EARTH DAY.

Get outside for the hell of it - and don’t post about it. I dare you.

[ashleah04-blog]

Week 13 Sarah’s week

Reading the two articles for this discussion really reminded me of the movie starring Robin Williams called the Final Cut… I remember sitting in that movie with the same internal conflict that these articles caused. I like my privacy! But I also like to remember what it was like to hold my children for the first time; the feeling of my first kiss and all the home comings when despite all odds my marine was returned to me mostly intact…. But then again, I don’t want all my ugly moments caught on tape either. How awful to have to share your honeymoon with strangers or to have that embarrassing first aunt flow visit on the record for anyone to revisit…

I do think that scrap-booking, as a way to keep memories of family events, is slowly dying today it’s more a form of art. Today digital scrap-booking is how it’s done. All my life I have moved from place to place (with the longest time between moves being about 4 years…) so, I learned to toss everything ‘cept what I really needed. I have a tiny box that is sitting on my desk as I type with the few pictures that I hoarded from before the wonderful invention of a digital camera… It is much easier to just have everything on iCloud or a backup hard drive. The information is easily accessed and so portable it’s ridiculous…(My over 700 book library can be carried in my pocket!) I will never again have to go to the book store and order another copy of my favorite book because I accidentally dropped it in the bathtub. To me life logging seems to be a digital hording problem…. I can picture future reality tv shows where I.T. specialists are slogging through someone’s life logging information to try and make sense of it and assist in weeding out the things that aren’t necessary. (ok maybe not but still!) and that isn’t even considering how much easier it would make identity theft!  As for the self-destructing media… I think its name is apt but not in the way intended; it can be self-destructing behavior (especially in teens…)! I don’t believe there will ever be a way to truly keep information that is sent between people in digital media private. The internet is forever and the nature of the internet is what keeps it that way. I don’t think I am a life logger… I’m more of a victories logger and I am not a snap chatter but then again I wasn’t a blogger till this semester ether.

[msuinformationists-blog]

Online Errything, or Disappearing Data?

Reading the first article about lifelogging, I had to laugh a little. I’ve never heard of the term or practice and it just seems so ridiculous to me. I’m pretty “with it” technologically; I have an iPhone and mac, use the “cloud” and am on many social media outlets. However, the idea of literally recording my entire life and storing it is just too much for me to take in. I can’t imagine how that could help someone, and I don’t really understand why everything in a person’s life is worth recording. Some of the things mentioned, like an online calendar, using Dropbox, and scanning paper documents are understandable and I can really see how that can not only cut down on clutter, but become a resourceful way to store important information. However, things like putting a camera on you and recording everything, or setting up a device to record all of your phone calls is just too much (I think). I just don’t see a purpose to keeping track of every moment in your life. 

I don’t think scrapbooking has become obsolete. I think it’s more of a lost art now, more than anything. There is something to be said about the comfort felt from sitting on the couch with your family and looking through family photo albums. The art of reminiscing with physical pictures is something I miss now, and wish I did more often. It’s definitely something I want to do with my kids.

As for the article about ephemeral data, I was a bit confused. As we all know, there are so many ways to post and record your life. We have various photo apps and websites, and sites devoted to statuses alone, and everything in between. So, apps like snapchat, where the ability to view the content is limited, and archiving is more complex and difficult, are just another way to record and observe your life and the lives of those you know. What confused me about the article was the tone. It seemed to me like the authors were concerned about where data archiving will head, and how history will be passed down if ephemeral data is to continue to become popular. I don’t really see a problem with it. Because there are so many ways for us to record our lives and pass on our experiences to the future generations, having an app that deletes the data in a matter of seconds isn’t going to cause that big of a shift in practices. It’s simply another option for us to connect and record things we deem important. Besides, I don’t think 100 years from now people will care about what my friends had to drink the night before...

As for which side of the spectrum I fall on, I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I do partake in ways of recording my life, such as Facebook, Instagram, Evernote and online calendars. I also use “disappearing” data sites like Snapchat. However, I haven’t practiced one or the other to the extreme of labeling myself as one or the other. 

[msuinformationists-blog]

Blurry Lines, Indeed.

I had not heard much about specifics involving this court case. I knew that Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke were accused of plagiarizing their song, but nothing more. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of “Got to Give it Up” before today. After listing to both songs one after the other, it is obvious that the musical similarities are there. However, as the articles brought up many, many times, it is difficult to tell whether their inspiration from Gaye’s song went too far into plagiarizing copyrighted material. I feel like if it were me personally deciding the case, I would have sided with Thicke and Williams. I think that countless artists are inspired by each other. Today it is hard to create something uniquely yours, because the amount of exposure to various muses and inspirations is endless. It is a tribute, more so than plagiarism. 

I see myself  coming into contact with all of these concepts. Mainly during my education career, I will be citing a variety of works including videos, lectures, photographs, papers, articles, etc. I hope that i will have learned everything I need to in order to give credit where credit is due. I think that is extremely important in the educational world. I don’t think I’ve violated any copyrighted work before. I’ve never downloaded an album from the internet or anything like that. Using iTunes is the easiest way to do things, and since I have a hard time adapting to new technology (as well as breaking any laws), that was never a consideration for me. What is interesting to me, however, is Spotify. I use that more than anything else and with it I am able to synch playlists to my phone so I can listen without using data. It’s pretty much like I bought all the songs. I wonder if someday enough artists like Taylor Swift are going to revoke rights for Spotify to distribute their music and have it potentially become more of a discussion about copyright.

The purpose of copyright is to give credit to the original artist or researcher. For all that hard work that they put in to their creation, copyrights allow them ownership of whatever it is they created. The specifics vary based on the type of thing created, but the idea is the same. This is why inventors get patents on their ideas, so that no one else can hear about it and steal it. I think it’s also so that when the copied work is heard or seen, it won’t be mistook for the original. I think that generally copyright laws are helpful - rules and structure aren’t a bad thing for the most part. However, when thinking about the “Blurred Lines” case, I can’t help but see a slippery slope forming. This case sets an example for future creators and may scare them from pushing the limits to create something great (or creating at all).

[msuinformationists-blog]

The Power of Emphasis, Word Choice, and Bias

The idea for this weeks blog was super interesting. In the first couple weeks of this course we discussed the power of information, how we attain information and how we perceive the information we learn about. Because information is so palpable and available in our culture, it is important for us to notice the power that the information providers have on the information receivers. 

The article we read exemplifies how different the same event can be received by the public depending on how the reporters choose to headline their stories. Was the car crash a terrorist attack or simply a bad driver making a fatal mistake? It is pretty much up to the reporter to decide that! This reminds me of grade school and high school with gossiping. If someone got in trouble for saying a bad word in class, that information is passed on through the whole class, changed, distorted, and altered based on the next person’s understanding and biases. By the time the news was done circulating, the person who got in trouble didn’t get in trouble for saying “damn” in class, but got expelled because they cussed out the instructor. 

Biases play a large roll in the distribution of news around the world, also. Biases based on religion, culture, and location are all major contributors. This is why news in Europe about the US presidential election is often really different than it is in the states. I think because of this, it’s important for all of us to improve our cultural competence, learn about others’ backgrounds and ethnicities. Maybe this way, we may be able to eliminate some of the biases we carry around and will be able to both deliver and take in a more complete picture of what really happened. Let’s all try to learn in order to eliminate some ignorance and improve our understanding and ability to synthesize. 

[ashleah04-blog]

see/ hear /speak/ post no evil

WOW! This week’s articles were a plethora of new ideas for me. I have been aware of cyber bullying as my little sister-in-law was a victim but I wasn’t fully aware of how prevalent the problem is. I grew up in a time when the internet was in its beginning fazes… I remember chat rooms and how (depending on the group of people on at the time) they could be fun or a full-out, rage inducing, screaming fest! I know for a lot of my friends, this took up a lot of their evening. There wasn’t the opportunity for a bully, in such a situation, to follow you around. As I learned how to use the internet and interact with information online I have found that my natural personality usually guides my actions just as if I were talking to someone in person. Being respectful and uplifting will always be my go-to actions for communication and interactions (unless we are talking about something that isn’t directly about people).

“Treat others as you would have them treat you” is what I was taught about life and internet relationships and is what I teach my children. Children are who they are no matter what the circumstances. The children who are insecure and have difficulty understanding social interactions are more likely to be the ones who are cyber-bullied and to be cyber bullies themselves. Kids as a whole are mean (not necessarily individually though) and I can see how their egocentric ideas spewed out online can cause a hostile environment for their peers. I have never been of the opinion that my children should have free reign with the internet and I would come down hard on my kids if I found them being inappropriate online just as hard as if I found it in their face to face relationships. I believe that when It comes to cyber-bullying it is the same old problem of too much freedom for children on the internet as it was before Facebook when we were more focused on child predators and accidental (or intentional) porn. I have also read a lot of articles and seen songs and poems devoted to convincing people to put down their mobile devices and join in with the “reality” of ones surroundings (the irony of their popularity in social media has not escaped my attention). I have spent a good time afterwards feeling guilty about my time spent in “the cyber-hole.” I have participated in the “keep it in the pants” conversation and on many occasions have demanded that someone “whip it out” to answer an argument! It is a very provocative idea that social media doesn’t draw us away from the world we are in but instead causes us to detail the moments we find important and want to share. I do believe that the author of the second article is missing part of the point though. It seemed to me that she was trying to show that we are more aware of our surroundings because we are doing our best to share those “real” moments with everyone else. I agree that we are highlighting our time to share with others however when your mind is on social media you aren’t truly in the moment.

Take a look at combat photographers for example. It is a documented phenomenon that even though combat photographers are in the same type of situations as other military members, they suffer less PTSD symptoms. My theory is that when you are experiencing a situation through a “lens” your mind isn’t processing the emotions attached to the reality of what is happening around you. One becomes focused on how you want others to see, feel, understand, and (fill in the blank)… the documentation of your moment. I still argue that social media is an escape of a sort. When life is too real it is easy to escape into another’s words or life and not focus on what is really important. Or the reverse. Something has really snagged and emotion and you want to support your feelings about it so you fling your crap at your wall and hope for the janitor to come along.....For children this becomes an even bigger problem because they are like small drunk people. Their perspective on what is important and what is not is skewed and without the experience and maturity to reign in their words, thoughts, and actions the new world becomes more interesting, so they want to stay, and yet the potential for hostility is limitless.  Geez sorry about the length… interesting topic!

[ashleah04-blog]

Ethics

When I think of ethics I think of it in terms of my nursing. To be ethical as a nurse is to keep patient information private, to perform my duties in such a way that it puts the needs of my patients first, and to consider the whole picture of said patients life (religion, culture, preferences, family interactions, patient wishes etc.) when providing teaching, care, or administering treatments. I have also considered ethics in terms of my artistic pursuits.

As an artist ethics are viewed in the same light as they are with writing. Plagiarism is a HUGE problem with artists and it is easy to find resources that point out different ways of infringing on another artists intellectual property. I have spent many days staring at my pieces and wondering if I have crossed the line in some way and this is why most of my art work is still sitting on a back shelf somewhere because I have deemed it not entirely my own work.

The article that we read for this week "Writing for Publication: Avoiding Common Ethical Pitfalls." reaffirmed the anxieties that I have about writing and publication. As with my art it is hard not to imagine all the possible ignorant mistakes I may have done that make my work unethical and harder not to allow those thoughts to hold me back from the recognition my hard work deserves.

There is one more thought that occurred to me as I read this article and is nagging at my knotted anxiety ridden gut…. How often do I write, make art, or even educate using information that I have taken directly from someone else and commit an ethical infringement simply because I have forgotten the source? Sometimes these thoughts make me want to remain uneducated so I can just be ignorant of all my failings because the alternative means sleepless nights and reluctant mornings.