Cyberspace

While reading these pages on cyberspace, many ideas were brought to my attention that I have never thought about before. One of the first things I learned about was that people look at cyberspace as an actual geographical place. Now, I have never thought about the internet this way but I can see where they are coming from. The part that I really liked in these few readings was the part about real life shopping compared to internet shopping. In this part they talked about how on the internet the places you want to shop at are infinite where as if you actually went to the mall your choices are limited to the stores the mall has. They also talked about how on the internet the stores are just one click away rather than going to the mall and having to walk around to them. I also liked the part where they talked about games and how they get you away from your ordinary life. I like this because when you play video games it gets you to experience things you never would in real life. For example, I just bought a new video game called Call of Duty: Black Ops and in the game you are a secret organization that goes around and completes unimaginable missions. Now, in real life I would have never had the opportunity to do this but because of video games I have experienced it. One of the last things that I read was about how people think the virtual world will affect life in the real world. I strongly disagree with this because I have been playing games like this my whole life and not once have I ever been affected in the way they speak of.

Cyberspace Greg Knapp

This reading put the internet into a different perspective. Even after reading it, I still don’t know where I stand I stand on the actual physical presence of “cyberspace”. Obviously it isn’t something that you can feel, touch, taste, touch, or smell but is it still there? Every second of every day cyberspace is used. You can talk to people through cyberspace. The amount of information being passed through this space is endless. It can never be overused or “burnt out”. Cyberspace to me is facebook. Through facebook a lot of things are possible. It allows you to connect with people that you may not see on a daily basis. This is a positive way that I utilize cyberspace. The reading talks about how it is in a negative way. The game world of warcraft was mentioned. I’ve known many people that have been way to into this game. The reading talks about psychologists have clients that talk about obsessions with games. This is a prime example of the negative effects of cyberspace. I have personally known these types of people. These kids can’t wait to play in this virtual world. I’m sure that each and every one of them world tell you that cyberspace is real. They are so into the game that they think they are the actual player. I think that cyberspace is something that needs to be used correctly or the results could be bad.

Cyberspace

Cyberspace is becoming a very hot topic amongst people today. I believe that cyberspace has changed the way that people are communicating. Things such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming a more popular way to talk to someone than to talk face to face with a person. I think that cyberspace is actually a good thing also. I have to say that I think without things such as Facebook I would not be able to talk to the people that are far away from me as much as I do. I can now communicate more conveniently with people. I also believe that cyberspace can be taken in a bad way. Like I said before, I believe that people can use the internet too much and that disconnects from the actual world. Not only is there Facebook and Twitter, but now there are video games and much more to do on the internet. Cyberspace can be taken in different ways, but I believe that it can be positive and negative.

week 13- cyberspace

The first thing I found to be really interesting is when you are talking to someone like in Koppell's example of a chat room, you are all in one place. I never thought while I was skyping someone or talking to someone on Facebook that we were all in one place. So when I thought about that there are probably millions of people in one place at one time on Facebook constantly throughout the day. I also found it interesting that members of groups are also in one place. It's weird to think when logging into anything it is considered to be logging into another dimension. Where is this dimension they are talking about when they actually think about this metaphor they are using? Do they think of it as like another planet out there? When thinking of cyberspace as a thing, I don't really know what I think of it as. I guess I just have always thought of the internet as always being there and when it's not there, I have absolutely no idea what to do. I think that's a sign of how dependent we have all become of the Internet. The distance article really is interesting how fast you can visit a site that is based out of one part of the world, but then the next second you can be visiting a web site out of another place in the world in a matter of seconds. When the article talks about there being a lack of direction in cyberspace I believe that to be true. Especially when you are trying to google something and it comes back with thousands of results, choosing which article to pick is often difficult and finding one that is reliable. I found some of the articles to be sometimes confusing and at times boring.

CONVERGENCES ("Cyberspace")

It's interesting reading about the history of cyberspace. For me, it's easy to forget that the internet and the virtual world is recent development in the history of the world. "Cyberspace" takes up so much my generations time. It's very much apart of us. Reading that the term "cyberspace" originated in a science fiction novel is very bizarre. It's understandable that travel in the virtual world was so popular though, it isn't as much anymore. Convergences speaks of "Second Life" as if it's going to be a break though in how the world interacts but it's popularity has seemed to fizzle. I know no one personally who still uses the program. I looked at it myself a few years ago but I found it to be confusing and dull. So, to answer the question "Will Second Life and it's successors transform our conventional notions of public space and human community?" I'm going to say no. Time has proven that but I think one of the reasons it failed had to do with the popularity of facebook. There's more instant gratification in a page a with all the information that you need from a person while with second life there still just more interaction.

Cyberspace (Kevin Farr)

I really like the blog reading for this week, it was very interesting. This reading had some truth to it. People now a days are getting glued to their computer and being sucked into "cyberspace." People could sit on their computers for hours on end and with websites like Facebook, Ebay, and Addicting Games people are never bored. They are either meeting new people, shopping or playing their day away with computer games. If you do not pay attention to it you may end up being one of the people who are stuck in "cyberspace," always on the computer doing something pointless. The Internet does have some good aspects to it though, you can look up and infinite amount of information in fractions of second using Google or any other search engine. Even though you find millions of links on the topic you look up they are not always reliable. Websites like Wikipedia are not a reliable source for information. One reason why I know this is because one day Brett Favre's name was changed to Brett Farr by me, It was like that for a good hour before anybody seemed to notice. I did receive a message advising me not to do it again :P The point is that anybody can throw any information on the Internet and we wont really know if its true or not. This is why I feel that the overuse of technology is not a good thing. People are becoming to dependent on the Internet and "cyberspace" that they almost loose touch with reality and think that some online game that they play is their whole world.

Reflection (Week 12)

I did some of the modules at the beginning of the semester and they really helped me to know what to do then. Looking at them again refreshed my memory of how to search through the library for certain things especially when I am researching for my papers in the upcoming weeks. My final papers would probably be tougher if I didn't have this useful knowledge at hand. The MLA module helps to although I've been using the MLA format all year for my papers it is still nice to have a refreshment of this. The modules really helped me out this year!

Cyberspace (BG)

I thought this weeks reading was interesting and makes a good point. Cyberspace really is creating a blurry boundary between the internet and reading books. so many people are becoming bound and taken over by the internet that its hard to get a word in with them. Its not just looking up the news or looking up research any more. its the video games and sites such as Facebook, that have so many people glued to their computers or electronics. I think that if its research your looking for, the internet is not the best option. I mean yeah its fast and convenient, but its not tangible, and most sights you shouldn't believe everything you read. Internet i think is one of those things you have to be very careful with. You cant let it take over your life, even though it can be very easy to do. Its good to still get out and see people face to face and not always chatting over the computer. while the internet can be fun and helpful, its learning the balance of it is the hard part. its crazy how easy and how fast people can become addicted to the internet these days. eventually technology will end up replacing just about every thing it seems like.

Cyberspace

After reading the stories in Convergences that were about cyberspace, i began to think about it a lot more. I had never really sat down and thought about the term cyberspace nor have I ever really used it in a sentence of some kind. One thing I do think that is down right insane is how people become so obsessed with online games and stuff such as Second life, as they mentioned in the readings in convergences. It stated that fifteen million people play that game worldwide. Don't people have better things to do with their life? I know it is probably entertaining, and people like it because it is not real and you can express your feelings freely, but when you can actually spend real money on fake things in the game I think that is crazy. I just believe you can do a lot better things with your time like spend time with a loved one, read a book, play an instrument, clean, make the planet a better place to live, play with your cat, there are an infinite amount of other things you could be douing but many choose to go into a make believe land called cyberspace. I do understand that it is very addicting though. I once started playing a game called Cafe world on face book. I actually planned my day around that game, figuring out when ill be back from places so I can get that chicken pot pie out of the oven on time. It gets intense. But thankfully I quit and refuse to play any online game on the computer. They just aren't for me.

Library Modules

After reviewing the library skill modules I don’t have any questions about library research. I really liked the MLA and APA format modules because I’ve always been confused on what I needed to do. These will help me clear up my confusion. I also thought it was nice for them to talk about plagiarism, in high school we talked a lot about this and I even experienced it. I did not receive the extreme consequences but my 12^th grade English teacher wanted us prepared for college life. These modules are good resources that I will refer back to throughout my college life. They also showed me how to narrow my research results which I’m grateful for, I’m always stuck with too many sources and information that I don’t know how to use this will help a lot. They have taught me a lot and will continue to teach me as I grow wiser.

Twitter Vs. The Newspaper

I liked the article “Who needs newspapers when you have twitter” interesting. It made good points when reading the newspaper you are getting the whole story which sometimes consists of unnecessary facts. Once the story gets to twitter or other sources most of the unnecessary information has been left out leaving you with the important parts of the story. A bad thing about twitter is there are many celebrities that use it so you get caught up it the whole celeb life sometimes. I personally don’t use twitter I don’t like it but I do agree with what’s being said. I get all my news from my cellphone and Facebook which can compare to twitter. It is also much easier to get news from an online source rather than a paper source in my opinion. The good thing is that the television is still available for people who liked to get news the old fashion way. So there are still many positive takes on old fashion media.

Cyberspace

After reading convergences it talks about if cyberspace is a real place. For example, when your shopping online and you fill up your shopping cart you are not really in a store or are you? Technology is blurring the boundaries between real and virtual. Personally I do not think where you go and what you do online is real. It is not tangible you can not experience half of what you would if you were truly there in person. Since more and more things are happening online like match.com where you can meet a potential spouse or skyping, people are less encouraged to go out in the world and do it on their own. I think that is a negative thing. It creates laziness and an attitude that everything should be done for us. Cyberspace brings people together, but not in the same place. How would you truly get to known someone by chatting online or through the phone. You would not be able to pick up on emotion like sarcasm or see their initial reaction about a pressing question. I would not be able to form a special bond with a person without being face to face and being around each other. The sidewalks in cyberspace do not have distance, adjacency, and fixity. There is lack of direction and physical places. That is proof that cyberspace is not a real place and that people should not get confused.

Library Modules

I'd looked at these library modules in a first year experience class but it was a nice refresher for the upcoming finals week. I think most of my question have been cleared up and I no longer have any concerns about how to go about looking for research in the library. It's nice that the modules explained how to use OhioLINK because I'm sure it will be a useful tool in the future. I'm glad this information was covered but I wish this information was made available sooner. This is the kind of information that should be explained in the first few weeks of school not at the end of the semester.

Twitter VS. News

I agree with the author when he says internet is taking over how we recieve news and other information. Twitter is a very popular site when one can recieve tweets and updates from anyone they subscribe to. on twitter one can "follow" a person, company, music artist or news network of one's choice. I personally follow NPR, the onion, and a couple of other news related pages. people are beginning to go more digital ad read less paper newspapers. many, if not all, newspapers already have websites that readers can go on and look at articles. in away it is more interactive and one can look at slide-shows, picture galleries, and even hear audio opposed to reading it. a few industries are being taken over or being challenged by internet advances, and the news and newspapers happen to be one of them.
i remember watching a show about how this newspaper in denver went out of business due to its online coverage. several people were out of a job and the few older folks who still read the paper now no longer could. it was a perfect example of how the world is becoming more reliant on sources the public feels is quicker and easirer to access anywhere. the idea of quick and easy is what makes the internet and social sites easy to post to and share links on.

Library Modules

The library modules (1-5) were quite informational. Checking databases for scholarly articles, recognizing synonyms, finding different books by topic and how to find items in the library were all included in the little tutorials. It was helpful because it refreshed my memory on a few tips n pointers I can use in this next paper. Alot of the material in the tutorials are expected of college students so it was a nice refresher of general research, that can apply to any of KSU's college courses that require a moderate amount of writing. The modules showed me how to use perhaps the most reliable source wisely, the library. The internet is reliable to an extent, but books tend to be the old fashioned reliable way to do research.

Library Modules

I think that the library modules were very interesting and very helpful. I believe that I will use the modules a lot more than I thought. The module that will be most useful will be the module about MLA and APA format. I remember that we went over this briefly in high school, but we never went into detail about it. Once I got to college all of my classes were saying use MLA and APA format and I am confused on what to exactly do. Also, I thought that the module about plagiarism was very interesting. I know that this is a big deal in college, but in high school we did not learn about it as much. I believe that these were the most helpful modules.

Twiiter

I found the article "Who needs newspapers when you have Twitter" to be very interesting and I enjoyed reading it. It really focuses on how today's people retrieve information. I agreed with Chris Anderson throughout the article on what he was saying. The Internet has made a huge impact in recent years and so many more people are using it. The newspaper is no longer being used by people to get the scoop on the news. People are now switching to going online because it is a more convenient source and saves money. I never read the newspaper anymore and the only times that I have read it was to read about high school sports in the sports section of it. I also think that most people get the newspaper to get the ads for the week. Well, at least that is how my family is and that is the only time they will go out and buy a newspaper. The younger generation of people are now using the internet to get news, but the older generation is still getting the newspaper. The newspaper will always be around, but the internet is just a faster way to find about something big that has happened.

Library Skill Modules

I think that the Library Skill modules are very helpful and explained how to do numerous things very well. I now know how to narrow my results so that I am not stuck going through a bunch of useless articles. I never knew about the truncation symbol but I think that it will be useful as I do research. The plagiarism module was very useful because it really gets to the point on what it considered plagiarism. I know that college is really strict about it so I think that this module was one of the most important ones. The modules also helped me learn the difference between the MLA and APA format when writing papers.

Library Skill Modules

I think the Library Skill Modules are a very helpful and useful tool when it comes to using the library. Half the time when I search for something I just type in the first thing that comes to mind and pay no attention to whether it is too narrow or too big. I also never considered that this could effect my search results. Another thing I never knew was that library's search for the literal term and you can us truncation to find different tenses of the word you searched. I always try to think of synonyms but I never realized that just expanding the words you use and putting the word "and" and "or" can help find better articles/books that related more to the topic your looking for.

Twitter and The News

As much as Chris Anderson sounds like a cocky sob who thinks he knows everything, I agree with what he's saying. The newspaper, radio news, and even TV news are becoming obsolete. Everything is found on the Internet these days. If someone wants to find out what happened in their town all they have to do is go to Google and type in their city and bam, multiple news sources are produced within seconds. The only people who I see buying papers are the people who are 50+ in age and are walking into CVS to get their prescription meds. I think this also true with many other things in the 21st Century. Many traditional things are moving into a technological era. As much as older generations don't want to make this transition it's going to happen and that mainly because of my generation. I would define our generation as the technological generation because we grew up with using computers in school and having them in our homes. In fifth grade, I still remember having a computer lab and we were one of the only elementary schools to have a classroom specifically for computer assignments. Everything since then has, in one way or another, involved technology. One really good example is the evolution of game consoles, granted we weren't around when Atari was out but the consoles such as Xbox and Playstation. When Playstation first came out it was that thing that every boy had to have and not 2 years later did the Playstation 2 come out and the same thing happened. Once those came out Xbox came out, Gamecube came out, Dreamcast came out, and all these "state or the art" game consoles started being produced right around the turn of the century. That is why I would say we are a technology generation.

LIbrary modules

Although I have not yet needed to use the library as a resource for research, I know that I will definitely be doing so in the future. For the past seven years, I have used the same library because my middle school and high school were in the same building. Because of this, if I ever needed a book from either, I could easily find what I was looking for with the help of our librarian. It is much different coming to such a largely populated school that has such a big library. It is very helpful to know how to find the books that I need on the computer and then be able to pick them up or have them sent here. Also, I didn't know how to read the call number and now I will be able to figure out exactly where to find what is needed. Most of the time when I do research, I use the internet. I find that it is easier and quicker than having to find books and I used the least amount of books required. That being said, the modules really helped a lot and will be referred in the next couple of years.

Twitter vs Newspapers

I don't necessarily agree with what Mr. Anderson says about newspapers being dead. On a personal level I think quite the opposite. I've never been on twitter before so I don't really know how it works but I'm pretty sure the majority of people using it are not talking about world events and news that you would get in the newspaper. It all seems much more self indulgent to me. People needing to tell all their "twitter friends" what they just ate for breakfast, or that they just saw the new Harry Potter movie and it totally blew their mind. This isn't the kind of news I care about even slightly.

Another part of this is online newspapers this is a far better argument than twitter. I think most people go online for newspapers because you can read any newspaper around the country and that is truly amazing. This would keep you informed.

Still though for me, I like reading the literal "paper." I don't go on the computer much and when I do I usually have something that I need to do, so I get it done and get off. I don't think to look up today's New York Times. I know if I spent more time on the computer this is probably the way I would get my news. However, that is not the case. I like waking up in the morning drinking coffee and watching or reading (on paper) the news. I do go to these sources when I want to know more about specific events, but just as far as basic news reading, I'm not going to open up the computer.

I don't by any means disagree with the fact that computers are taking over the news and most other physically written materials. I think for some it also replaces the TV. You are able to download movies and watch TV shows any time you want. I just am really not so fond of using computers all the time.

Library Modules

I thought the library modules were very helpful. I didn't know about any of that really. I get that you need to have a relatively narrow search to thin the results but it being too narrow can give you too few results, but I didn't know about the truncation. That seems extremely helpful. I liked that the site was very interactive, by going through the steps I feel like I learned the techniques more thoroughly. I think they explained the information very well. I don't have any questions about those topics at this point.

Twitter and Content

While reading the Article, “Who needs newspapers when you have Twitter,” it reminded me a lot of a Media, Power and Culture class I am currently taking. While I was reading this, I compared the thoughts of Mr. Anderson with the information I’ve learned in the class and realized that I only agree with some of the stuff Anderson said. I agree with the part that said everything is going online based and the things of that sort. I agree with this because you can see it happening for yourself. Also, in my class we have watched many videos on how Newspapers are starting to go to online versions. I disagree with Mr. Anderson in the fact that he said traditional news and newspapers are dead. I disagree with this because as stated in my MPC class, there are people out there who will ALWAYS buy newspapers just for the physical aspect of it. I also disagree with this because when reading the newspaper and watching the news you get a diverse range of news so, if you choose to do what Mr. Anderson does and just pick what you want to know about you won’t be an informed person. Overall, I can see where Mr. Anderson is coming from but, there are a few flaws in his perception.

While looking at these CBC models, I have to agree with the new model rather than the older version. I agree with the new model because when something happens in someone’s life, people now post it on the radio, TV, or web rather than getting content on it first. I also agree with the next stop because people now-a-days comment on thing and blog (add information to it) when they see a subject that interests them. Then finally the news reaches you. In my opinion, in the past times, people use to get a subject and research it before they would report on it and in today’s world people tell first and research later. This is due to all the new technology such as cell phones, twitter, Facebook and thing of that sort.

Library Module

While reading some of the Library Modules I figured out that I really didn’t know anything about what the library can do and the things it can help you with. One of the first things I read was about narrowing your topic; I didn’t know there was a truncation symbol you could put after a word. The truncation symbol lets you search a word and comes up with results in all its tenses (price, prices, priced…). This I believe will be very useful when doing research on a topic. While looking at these modules it also helped me specify the difference between APA format and MLA format. I also learned how to search for books and how to avoid plagiarism. By reading this I really don’t have any questions because I believe it was very thorough and straight to the point.

Library Modules Greg Knapp

The library skills module seems like a very valuable resource. Throughout high school we were taught about the formats explained and all of the topics listed on this page. It was very confusing though. The teachers never really cared about it and just told us to read a bunch of information that no one ever did. This site does a very good job organizing all of these topics. It is also easy to pay attention to the modules as you are flipping through them. I have never actual been to the library but this shows me what they are capable of doing.

Twitter and content- Greg Knapp

I really enjoyed the readings this week. “Who needs newspapers when you have Twitter”, made me think about what was going on with our changing newspapers and technology. Chris Anderson is someone who seems to be very concise and straight to the point. Not many people, especially someone of his job description, would say what he said. He stated that the way people get their information will change forever. The new way that he stated was through the internet. I couldn’t agree with Chris more. Eventually the internet and computers will take over everything. Those who say that it won’t are either narrow-minded or unaware of their surroundings. Anyone with common sense would not pay for something that they could get for free. The internet also has much more information. There is no limit on words like in a newspaper, so people can write for however long they like. Newspapers will not be around forever. It’s not a matter of if but when.

In the content article, they displayed something that is a popular subject. Media is manipulating information to how they want us to see it. Some argue that people need to see it as a primary source. While others might say it protects us. I don’t really have an opinion on this. I do agree with the second diagram portrayed. I think that there shouldn’t be any information withheld from the public eye. Whatever, the media is hiding I think that we can handle the truth rather than being lied to.