Formal Writing on the Internet

Post #3 - "Formal Writing on the Internet," Free Post 1:


So this post is basically a response to what Professor Gramse said about my style of writing during class on Tuesday March 29, 2011. I thought it was pretty interesting and felt it could directly be tied into the Unit Four assignment on how we communicate via the Internet.


I think its a well known fact that your true voice, the one you speak vocally to one another really shines in the online environment. I think if you, Shannon Gramse, are going to assign an assignment that involves us writing in an online environment, i.e. a blog, then you should expect that the students are not going to write "formally," as if they were for a 20-page report.

Response to Ryan's Post

Post #2 - A response to Ryan's Blog. His blog can be found here.


His post on "The Machine is Us/ing Us:"
"This was a very mind boggling video. Everything it said was very true though. Anyone that tries to live with out a computer will very soon not be able to perform basic things like doing taxes or paying bills. As far as the computer using us goes, I don't believe we will be facing Skynet on the battle field anytime soon. It is true though, in a sense, the machine really is using us. Think about how much humans now rely on computers. Major companies, banks, stores, vehicles, toys, colleges,and  all branches of the military are lost with out computers. It is almost as if just living a life on earth was not good enough.

 We now have the opportunity to have another form of life on the web. We can make our voice heard without ever even speaking. We can join social circles and be outgoing; even when in reality one is a very shy and quiet person. They used to say, people always write things they cant say out loud. That sure seems to be the case these days with all of the tweets, blogs, and personal pages. Even now, I am on a computer writing everything I'm thinking, for school of all things. The irony is, no one can say anything bad about them because they make everyones life a lot easier.  People do not like to admit it, but in reality we are very dependent on our computers, and with out them we would be unconnected to each other, and unconnected to the world."


My Response:
I have a problem with your statement; "We can make our own voice heard without ever even speaking. We can join social circles and be outgoing; even when in reality one is a very shy and quiet person." I believe that that is one of the problems we will face with technology advancing that far, even if it has already done so. By someone depending on his or her computer to socialize with people, they lose out on actually socializing with people. When you 'speak' with someone over the computer, you're really only socializing with yourself. You never speak a word to that person rather you just type text at them. There is no real socializing going on, which I think is something that we need to watch over carefully. Lets not allow ourselves to depend on socializing through a computer, its so much better to actually speak to someone rather than type at someone. 

"The Machine is Us/ing Us"

Post #1 - A response to the video "The Machine is Us/ing Us" by Michael Walsh Sheppard.

I guess at first I didn't quite get how this video related, if at all, to our assignment. But after thinking about it  for awhile I think I get why Professor Gramse wanted us to watch this video.
Basically the video compiled of a professor of anthropology explaining how HTML and XML works, and how its kinda important to know what those two things are. I didn't know exactly what they were and how they worked, nor do I really care, nor do I think most people even care or think about it. But all I do know and care about is when I click on a text box and type a few words and press enter, or click submit, whatever it was that I said is out there for the world to see.


I think Michael Wesch wanted us to watch this video and think about it on a deeper note, but I honestly disagree. Most people in my generation grew up with this kind of "new communication," so for us it isn't quite as new as compared to people who were born in the 70s, 60s, 50s whatever. To me its not as important to "remember how it all began" rather than "how can we improve it?" How can we make "the internet" better for us to communicate to people all over the world? Or is it "perfect" as it is? I don't know, and I still have this "I don't give a..." kind of attitude towards the subject.


With that said I bid you all good day! :)


P.S. - Does anyone else thing its weird that in the video it says "by Michael Wesch," and in the assignment paper Professor Gramse gave is it says "Michael Walsh Sheppard?" Oh well.

Woohoo?

I just started blogging, what?!

oo  Five annotated bibliographic posts (with links if appropriate) on academic resources related to your topic

o  A paragraph or two summarizing “Television the Plug-in Drug” by Marie Winn (pp. 438-447 in 50 E) and synthesizing her ideas with your blog’s topic(s)

o A paragraph or two summarizing “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” By Henry David Thoreau (pp. 403-409 in 50 E) and synthesizing his ideas with your blog’s topic(s)

http://searchengineland.com/the-impact-of-the-internet-on-human-behavior-20921