Techno-maybe-so-long!

This quarter in Comm 350 Emerging Communication Technologies has been awesome. I learned so much about InDesign, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver. The tools will be seriously helpful when I look for a job in about a year. I've had fun doing all of the little exercises (like making business cards, newsletters, websites, etc.) especially since they are all things I may do in my future endeavors. I am seriously proud of my individual website (www.hotdiggitydachshund.com) and I definitely show future employers what I am capable of.

This course was so beneficial to me in so many ways. I learned a handful of information that will help me in the future, especially since my generation is so technologically advanced. Many employers now are looking for someone who can work quickly on the computer and work with all the programs we learned in the class.

I will try and keep up this blog even after the course. I've liked having somewhere I can vent about my frustrations about technology. Hopefully I will be able to find topics to motivate myself since I will no longer have a teacher's guidance. Overall, I've loved the class and I'm excited now to work more with those programs in my future.

A Day without Technology... O.M.G.

I'm sorry, but this article "A Day Without Media" (http://withoutmedia.wordpress.com/) is a big pile of stinking horse poop. Are these students serious? They felt "secluded," like they were on a "deserted island," and they felt the "physical" effects of being without technology? Wow, these students need to get a life, like a real life. I love technology and I use it everyday. I do find a lot of my school work depends on the media (hence this blog...), but c'mon people, is your physical body really going to suffer without checking your god forsaken email or Facebook for one day? That sickens me.

My phone dies on me, OFTEN. And when it does, guess what I do? I don't care. The ONLY thing that I think of when my phone dies is what will I do in an emergency (i.e., needing to call 911). Not how am I going to call so-and-so about plans tonight. I check my Facebook almost every day (I even checked it right before I wrote this blog), but if someone came up and told me I couldn't check my Facebook for 24 hours or it was my life, shoot, take my Facebook from me any day. All of that drama or "interesting" facts that people post on Facebook will still be there tomorrow. Don't worry.

I'm not even going to take this challenge of not using technology for 24 hours. It's not worth my time because I need access to certain items on my school's library website that I can't find in the physical library. If I didn't access those resources online then I wouldn't be able to do my school work...and it's finals week. But if those materials weren't online then I bet I know where they would be! Most likely in the physical library (otherwise they wouldn't exist). And also, I'm not taking the challenge because I know that I would be perfectly fine without technology if I really had to do it. If I didn't have school assignments due (that were submitted online - again this blog) then there would be no need for the computer or internet. Plus, I go without my phone all the time and guess what?!

I'm still alive. *Gasp* I know, shocking.

The reason why older generations frown upon technology is because of ridiculous students like the one in that article. They make the rest of us students sound like mindless, ignorant, incapable people. I hate that I'm seen that way, especially since I am NO WAY comparable to those students who are dying because they can't check their email.

Sitting Machines and a Sixth Sense

First off, I want to comment on the video "Pattie Maes demos the Sixth Sense". The technology that Pranav Mistry created - a projector, cellphone, mirror, and camera mixture - is pretty freaking amazing. I am so amazed at how any idea can become a reality with a little bit of brains and funding. I mean, our world could create anything they wanted...I no doubt believe that clones are already being created behind closed doors. However, how far are we willing to go, and how much are we willing to create, before it is just too much technology?

Pranav Minstry stated at the end of his Ted Talk that sixth sense technology will "help us to stay human...and to be more connected to our physical world." He said that this technology will "help us avoid being machines sitting in front of other machines." But just because we've removed someone from sitting in front of a machine to now being able to walk around with that machine, doesn't make us any less dependent on technology. I agree that these "sixth sense" machines would be cool and nifty to have. But at what point do we say we don't need this stuff to survive? Is it really necessary to our survival and needs to have a computer on us at all times that is able to tell us which paper towel we are most likely to buy? Won't our brains do that for us? I'm pretty sure no one, or no thing, can tell me what type of paper towel I want to buy more than my own self.

The problem I'm having with technology these days is how dependent people become on them. I'll admit, I have a hard time going a day without my cell phone or the computer (I can definitely go days without social media though). But if it really came down to it, I mean, really came down to it, do I need my computer or cell phone to continue living? Uh, no. I'm still here regardless of my cell phone or computer, and I will continue to be here tomorrow regardless of if they are with me, too. I think Pranav Minstry is a flipping genius. How truly amazing it is that just one person has the capacity and capability to implement such an ingenious idea? Only...another problem is being created. Our world will stop sitting in front of computers and start taking them everywhere. Eventually, our problem will be that humans can't survive without technology. Then a whole new idea will have to be invented to get us away from being machines walking around with other machines.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeebly

My group and I finally published our website that we've been working on for the past couple of weeks. Before you continue reading you should go check it out...www.wwuusefulresources.weebly.com. We chose to work with the free website builder Weebly. Overall, we had a pretty good experience with them. Their site is easy to navigate and it's all pretty much drag and drop. Personally, I only ran into one glitch - or bug - while working on the website. It wasn't dropping the text and pictures where I wanted them, so I ended up just closing it out and reopening it. I have to say that I'm extremely proud of the website that my group and I created. It's professional, it employs CRAP (see my previous blog on this subject) perfectly, and it has great content. We had a lot of fun putting it together, too, especially when we went around and took all of our own photos for the site. Once we had all of our information, we basically just took turns putting our information in. After all the info was in, I went through the entire website and made sure the font, colors, sizing, what have you, were all exactly the same. Our finished product is definitely something I will show future employers.

As far as working with Weebly, the only issue I had with it was that it was too simple. Yes, this was nice only in the fact that we wouldn't have wanted it to be a difficult project, but at the same time it didn't really allow for any creativity. I'm sure if I spent more time with it I would have been able to figure out how to make it more user friendly and...how shall I say this...flashy? I like really creative and unique websites, and although ours is visually pleasing, I would like it to maybe not look like we used a template. When I saw the presentations on those who utilized Wix, I was a little bummed we didn't try that website builder out. Those websites seemed to be a bit more creative and it contained more options.

Overall, I did have a good experience, and I would definitely use Weebly again (or I might even try Wix next time). I would also recommend it to someone who is either just starting out, or someone who needs a free website to promote their own business. I'm glad there are website builders out there that are free. It helps give people a chance to gain some experience, especially people like me who are looking to go into website building as a profession.

I found this video on YouTube that was created by the Weebly company to explain a bit more about their website...

Socialnomics: is it a fad or a way of life?

Before I began to write my blog on social media and social change, I actually checked my Facebook first. Most of what people are talking about right now is the Super Bowl. A couple of weeks ago, it was SOPA and PIPA - people had blacked out their profile pictures and updated their status to "Stop SOPA and PIPA!" I will be honest...I had no idea the whole censorship bill was happening until I had logged onto Facebook that day. In the video The Social Media Revolution 2012 it states that we no longer search for news, but rather the news finds us. This is a powerful statement because it is so true. I hardly ever search for news. All I have to do is log on to Facebook and see what everyone else is talking about. Of course, this does not mean that I never inquire about issues on my own, but for the most part, I rely on my social media sites to inform me.

Like I said, I watched the video on the social media revolution. I sat stunned in my seat while I was watching. I mean, I knew social media was an enormous part of our lives, but holy shit (pardon my french). If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest...that is CRAZY. How can one site, an 8 letter word, be SO FREAKING LARGE? It blows my mind. I'm not going lie, I love this era that we're in and I love that I'm right in the center of it. The video Generation WE: The Movement Begins... talks about a new generation taking over the world: the Millennials or Generation We. They talk about how our parent's generation (the Baby Boomers) used to be the largest generation in the world. But in 2016, the youngest people in our generation will be of voting age which means we will have the largest generational voting block in the country - more than any that have preceded us. That means that our generation (Gen We) will have an unimaginable amount of power.

Think about it...

"We are more globally oriented, we are more ethnically diverse, we are more technologically adept, better educated, less politically partisan, and we are the first generation in American history to inheret a nation in decline...and we will not accept [it]."

- Generation WE: The Movement Begins...

I hate that older generations look at my age group as ignorant, lazy, individualists...C'mon. Some of the smartest people in the world right now are CHILDREN. Has anyone ever read the story about nine year-old M. Lavinashree who was the youngest person in history to ever pass the Microsoft Certified Professional Exam (June)? She doesn't sound ignorant or lazy to me at all. She's not the only one over there that has passed that exam, either. I will admit, when I sat down to do this blog I was more eager to watch the YouTube videos than read articles. I am a very visual person and I like to be entertained (a huge side effect of being born in this generation...blah blah blah). The videos are so much more powerful and that information sticks with me much longer, than something I merely read.

We are in a huge shift. I think many people are scared of it, but most of the world is embracing it to the fullest. What is wrong with being able to do things fast? Finding better and faster ways to obtain information doesn't make us lazy...it makes us genius. We have become the producers of content and we have become the source of power (R.A.). Author of "Can You Social Network Your Way to Revolution?" said in the blog, "Social networking, it seems to me, has quite clearly shifted the balance of power away from centralised power and authority." Our generation is taking control of our world, and we will only make it better.

"We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it."

- Erik Qualman

(The Social Media Revolution 2012)

References

Generation WE : The Movement Begins... Dir. Eric Greenberg. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 22 Oct. 2008. Web. 03 Feb. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vknHKTy1MLY>.
June, Laura. "Nine-year Old Girl Is Youngest Person to Become Microsoft Certified Professional." Engadget. AOL Inc, 23 Dec. 2008. Web. 03 Feb. 2012. http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/23/nine-year-old-girl-is-youngest-person-to-become-microsoft-certif
R.A. "Can You Social Network Your Way to Revolution?" The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited, 27 Sept. 2010. Web. 03 Feb. 2012. http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/09/information
The Social Media Revolution 2012. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 23 Oct. 2011. Web. 03 Feb. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs>.

Music to My Ears

This quarter in my Emerging Communication and Technologies class we are learning the basics of so many programs I've been itching to play with. So far we've done Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and this week we're learning about Audacity and Podcasts. Fortunately for me, I already have at least two years working with music editing that is pretty similar to Audacity (if it wasn't Audacity in the first place). When I was a junior in high school, I was on the Varsity Drill Team. I became a lieutenant and was in charge of mixing the music for our routines. It basically involved taking clips of music and different sound effects and piecing them together so they flowed naturally with no hiccups (we would get deducted points believe it or not). Anyway, during class lecture, I knew everything the teacher was talking about. When I was given the opportunity to mix the music for my team, I wasn't taught any basics. I pretty much self-taught myself...just like I taught myself Photoshop. Aside from already knowing the program, I am excited to start utilizing it again and I'm super excited to start Podcasting with my partner (@ZoeMote). She already has some ideas about what music to use so we'll start mixing within the next week or two.

As for Podcasts, I have ZERO experience with them or what they're even about. When I think of Podcasting, I think of people chatting your ear off about some boring topic. Although, I know this misconception is completely inaccurate, and I'm sure if I actually listened to them there would be something I would find interesting. Apple's website (http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/) offers a section just about Podcasts: what they are, different topics, how to create one, FAQs, etc. I even found a website dedicated solely for different Podcast topics (http://www.podcast.com/). There are so many sites out there nowadays that can aid people (such as myself) who want to learn more about them or even find a topic that interests them. Zoe and I's Podcast is on Apple applications (or apps - for the tech savvy). It should be a fun experience especially since there is so much information about them and so much demand for them as well. Hopefully out of all this, I will gain a new appreciation for Podcasts (and Audacity for that matter) and want to listen to them more in my future.

A Quote to Ponder....

I found this quote when I was searching for information on contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. I thought it would help keep our motivation up.

"The more strikingly visual your presentation is, the more people will remember it. And more importantly, they will remember you."

- Paul Arden