#isdaysix

[almostnuttydinosaur-blog]

Neha Kumar's article goes over the way facebook effects the lives of male youth in India. In her study, the youth used mobile phones as a kind of freedom. The internet and mobile phones allows youth to access facebook and other social sites without parental monitoring or needing to share. The youth took pride in learning how to navigate the web and showing others how to do so. They also became more fluent in English because as one of the boys said, it is the language of the internet. The youth got a sense of importance with friending as many people as they could on facebook and really enjoying communicating with people all over the world. In short, the use of facebook gives these youths a sense of empowerment as they navigate the web and life in general as well.

[almostnuttydinosaur-blog]

The 'prime time' for media in the household used to be easily pinpointed; In the morning and in the evening. The place for media consumption was in the household, with the exception of newspapers that one could take on the go and music players. However, with the creation of the smart phone especially, media has become more entangled with everyday life and has moved farther away from those set times and places. The constant access to media that we have today has made us able to have a constant flow of news and entertainment without the constriction of an appropriate time or place. This space that is created, such as when one takes time out of a daily routine to use the media is referred to as an interstice or gap, in time.

[wildgrube-blog-blog]

Facebook for self-empowerment?  A study of Facebook adoption in urban India

Describe: The article is based on an ethnographic study conducted on socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in India among their youth.  India, which is the second largest user of Facebook, is a developing countries that has used this platform in a unique way. The purpose of this study is to help fill a gap in the current research on, the emerging practices of new technology adapters.  Easier access through mobile phones, youth around the world have more access to the internet.  Especially in countries like India, where owning your own computer in a luxury, the use of mobile access has increased access to platforms like Facebook.  Due to the lack of employment in India many youth have large amount of waiting time, with this time they have engaged in three stage which the author calls: aspiration, avenues and agency.  As the authors states, “aspiration gets created first, frequently driven by peer pressure and the thirst for leisure. Next avenues are cleared to achieve these aspirations.  Finally, the agency of these youth leads them to pursue he avenues relentlessly until their aspiration are indeed archived.”  The main finding of this research was that, regardless of their disadvantaged situation, the youth in India were using Facebook as an outlet of fulfilling their aspirations. Facebook was a tool for self-empowerment due to the access to the worldwide network

Contextualization/Critically Engaged:  The article is the perfect example of a niche, in the article they referred to it as the waiting time.  The youth in India were able to use this waiting time towards their benefit.  When I look at the way I use my niche, it’s completely different and unproductive, in comparison.  I have also thought Facebook was a way to kill time when I was bored.  I like how the author view Facebook from a utopian perspective and focuses on the positive outcomes technology is giving to developing countries.    

[paigeypaigerrrs-blog]

In the article, "Sorting Places Out? Towards a Social Politics of Neighbourhood Informatization", Roger Burrows and Nick Ellison discuss how urban policy and planning have been virtually absent in modern day times. They also examine the consequences and after math of online Geographical Information System (GIS) for the social policies. Burrows and Ellison not only argue how not only social citizenship and is understood in terms of proactive and reactive engagement, but also how virtual decisions can effect the overall public sphere and the shaping of these communities. 

Farther into the article, we see how Burrows and Ellison compare and contrast different areas by giving them titles such as live zones vs. dead zones, and tame zones vs. wild zones. The comparing and contrasting of live zones vs. dead zones is used to communicate the idea of fluid geographies and the opportunities for the flow and exchange of extraordinary amounts of information. They use these characterizations in order to determine the socio-spatial reconstruction.

[khanhdphan-blog]

The authors pointed out how the Internet plays an important role to the adult immigrant. They listed out the impacts and benefit of the Internet in the elder immigrant’s life in a different country. It helps immigrant people, especially old people, in managing health, nurturing their professional interests, maintaining and extending their social networks in current countries and in their hometown, and enjoying leisure on the Internet. Obviously, people usually have an extremely stressful life and hard time at the very first with everything whenever they move to a different place to live. They have a hard time to adapt to the new environment because of the differences in languages, culture, people, and many other perspectives.

However, the Internet helps the immigrant a lot in connection and assist immigrant with languages and social networks. The authors mentioned how Internet helps immigrant, especially old immigrant in managing their health. They have a very hard time to understand what the doctor said and they barely get the full meaning of what the doctor told them; so they ask doctor to write down for them and they use the Internet as a translator for them so they could fully understand of the instruction. Also, the Internet helps the to extend their socialization with new people through networking sites and also keep in touch with people in their home country. The new immigrant can go online and do research about their new places so that they can easily get to know about the background and the culture of their new environment. Especially with old people, who cannot really go out and seek to know new places, they can stay home and keep in touch with their families or they can enjoy their leisure through the Internet. The habit of enjoying leisure on the Internet helps the old people to expand existing interest and explore new ones, which facilitating self-expansion and self-reinvention. It also helps old people feel less isolation and loneliness to the real world by enable them to keep in touch with their relatives and make new friends online.

The Internet is having a more positive affect than a negative affect to the new immigrant. It enables new immigrant to find more information about new places and have more networks with new people as well as maintain relationship with their friends and families. Related to the artifact, it can be seen that we can make a connection with people from all over the places from different countries through the Internet and from that it could benefit you with many opportunities and advance through a larger socialization.

[paigeypaigerrrs-blog]

In the article, CouchSurfing: Belonging and Trust in a Globally Cooperative Online Social Network,b Rosen, Lafontaine and Henderson discuss a study in which the popular social media website CouchSurfing.com is the topic of investigation. The three main components of their study include looking at the sense of belonging, connectedness and trust these users have to build in their online relationships with each other. 

For those of you that do not know, CouchSurfing is a popular site that members use when looking for hospitality accommodations when traveling world-wide. They are able to be connected with other members that are willing to let them into their home for a period of time. Although this might seem a little odd to some, many members of the site find a sense of belonging through using this method. If you have not met this person face-to-face a sense of trust must be made between the two parties. This is build through one's online profile and identity - how they portray themselves to be online.

As discussed in the article, many people "couchsurf" in order to achieve a cultural sense of belonging. When comparing CouchSurfing to staying in a hotel, besides the price of CouchSurfing being much more affordable (especially if you are traveling on a budget) CouchSurfing also gives you the opportunity to connect with locals. By staying with one of the locals, you immediately are completely immersed in the sense of the local culture without having to struggle with the temptation of your travels feeling too "touristy".

[betharoniepizza-blog]

"My music, my world: using the MP3 player to shape experience in London" focuses oh how music shapes people's everyday lives while on the streets of London, whether it detaches us from society or makes us more receptive to our surroundings. George Simmel argues that music makes us more receptive and aware of our surroundings, however Theodore Adorno argues the opposite, that music creates an illusion or mask and separates us from the truth. Music prevents us from critical engagement and thinking. Personally I agree with Simmel and have found that music does not disengage me from reality but helps me focus, prepare, and relax. I also would like to comment on Adorno's view: I do agree that music may to a certain extent prevent us from critical thinking however music is a way to relax the brain from over exercise. We are constantly engaged and focused on our jobs and work through out the day, music does not entirely disengage our minds but slowly exercises it. Music however does not work in the same way for everyone, so either argument is a very interesting take. This picture shows the interactivity of someone and their music. A concept interfaces with this article is interactivity, music (the mp3) pleasures the mind and we often use our MP3 players on a daily bases.

[jasonnu-blog]

- The authors are trying to give an argument about how social media, specifically Facebook, affects students' relationship with friends and families. The research is focusing solely on international students. During significant changes such as moving to another school, learning a new language, moving to a new country, what kind of effects do Facebook have on students' new and old relationships. 

- The author did try to make an argument. However, there seems to be many faults inside the research method itself. The most important on those is the fact that different country has different social network site. For example: China uses QQ while America uses Facebook. The research was based solely on Facebook. They did not take in account for the fact that students do not necessarily have to use facebook to communicate with people. Additionally, there was such a small amount of reply to the survey (8.6%). The results that came out were almost insignificant. It was not big enough for the research to talk about the whole international student community. 

- I can relate to this as i was an international student once in Canada. For me personally, Facebook does matter a lot. I was able to keep in contact with my friends at home. It allowed me to keep myself updated to what was going on at home. At the same time, I added new friends on the SNS and created new relationships. I will be doing studying abroad soon enough. Hopefully, Facebook will help me again as it did 3 years ago :)