Social Bookmarking....What is it?!!

During our CMC class, we were assigned to a group project in which we had to discuss our given topic. Our group was given social bookmarking. I actually had no idea what it was. I could have read all of the definitions to help me understand what it was. But the best way for me to figure out what social bookmarking, was to actually explore it. An accessory of social bookmarking is this voting aspect. Social bookmarking is a website where people can post news articles up. It normally involves a headline related to the article and a short description of what the article is about. Then each article is voted by the people who read it. So before reading a story that might interest you, you are able to see how other people view the story. So if the story was uninteresting, it may have very few votes.

My group found out there were several different bookmarking sites. Some were good....some were bad. It all started out with delicious.com. I found this website to be the most dull and the most boring. I then checked out yahoobuzz.com. It was actually a pretty good website. It was colorful with readable text and small pics relating to the story. My favorite was fark.com. Not only does it have a comical name but each article was characterized by a word, such as humorous, funny, stupid, dumb, etc. It is super biased but the description leads to which way the biases lean.

The social bookmarking has actually benefited me in writing my three research papers this semester. I was able to go on to those websites, search for the subject I was researching, and it would give me news articles that pertained to my subject. Most of the articles came from reputable sources such as cnn.com, msnbc.com, and foxnews.com. It helped me gather more sources to better the information in my paper.

Here are the links to my favorite social bookmarking websites:
FARK
YAHOOBUZZ
DIGG

Steve Jobs is THE MAN!!!

So, in my media history class, we were assigned to write a paper on something that deals with media history. My mother made me watch the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley. Just like she said I would, I became fascinated with Steve Jobs. He had this theory of changing the world. He was not interested in making millions of dollars. He wanted to develop a personal computer, that everyone could have in their home. He wanted it to be simple and he wanted it to revolutionize the way people thought.

Steve Jobs did two commercials that jump started his career. His "1984" commercial was aired at the most watched time of the year, The Super Bowl. The concept came from George Orwell's book 1984. In the commercial an athlete woman is being chased by these futuristic warriors. She runs into this room where these people are all dressed the exact same watching this world leader on a screen. The athlete throws this big sledge hammer into the screen and the screen blows up. This commercial symbolizes a lot. During this time IBM was in control of the computer world. Computer were not like they are today. They were very expensive, extremely large, had no screen, and were really used by engineers or scientist. IBM were conformist. Their company was simply about making products that were expensive. Jobs on the other hand has a different view. The athlete symbolizes Apple, in that the company was breaking through this monotony culture and was going to change things. Jobs wanted this commercial to get people pumped up about his new Macintosh. The Macintosh that used graphics and was accessible.



The other commercial of Apple's is my FAVORITE! The Apple company had been struggling. They were losing money and going through CEO's after CEO's. They needed a face lift, and needed some advertising. Jobs hired on an advertising agency out of L.A. Their team of creative professionals wanted society to see Apple as visionaries. So they made a commercial and then took the images from the commercial and placed them as visuals all over NYC. The slogan became "Think Different". The commercial consisted of people who made an impact in the 20th century. People like, Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, Thomas Edison, Muhummad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, Emilia Earhart, Jim Henson, and Pablo Picasso. As you watch the video, listen to the words: its legendary!!! Hope you like!

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. It is the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Addicted to Texting: Guilty as Charged

Texting----Did we ever think it would take over our lives? Well it has. And if it hasnt taken over your life, it has taken over someone you knows life. This video shows mostly teens that develop this addiction of texting but I know in my 20s, I have an addiction and several of my friends do too. It is not nearly as bad as these kids, but its bad.



This to me is insane. And Im falling for it too. My texts have gone well over 100o in one month. Since I got my iphone it has increased by a lot. The iphone texting format has it set up like an instant messaging box. I dont always send everything I want to say in one text. For example:

Kylee: Hey Kim
Kim: Hey Kylee!!
Kylee: Whatcha doing?
Kim: Well....
Kim: I've been trying to type this paper but I can't seem to get motivated.
Kim: and I've been having so many interuptions...
Kylee: aww! Im sorry!!

I feel the need to always have my phone. Sometimes if I dont get a text after a couple of ours I text someone and initiate a conversation with them. When I do leave my phone at home, I feel lost. I normally have to go back home and go get it. Its sick how addicted I am to my phone. I wouldnt even know how to quit texting as much. I have friends that I TEXT only with. We dont talk on the phone at all, we just text. None of my conversations are important and I dont think its the actual texting I am addicted to. I am addicted to the constantly being in touch with someone else. It is constantly having someone making conversation with me. It feels like I am getting attention.I know it sounds crazy but its reality.Texting has become such the norm. I even have classes where I can pull out my phone, send a text, and put it back in my booksack. Teachers dont really say anthing anymore. As long as I am not texting all throughout class it seems to be ok.

We also have campaigns and commercials encouraging people not to text while driving. In the past few years people have killed and gotten killed by people who were texting and driving. They have made laws about texting and driving.

Is society falling into this danger? Is our world really coming to this? Will it get worse? Will texting ever end or is this a fad? Its scary.....very scary.....