Race Online

When I log onto places like Youtube.com one thing besides the videos interest me, the comments section. When I read this section I often find people that are open or downright rude. For instance, when I look at videos of rappers or an African-American musician, i often find comments of race being brought into question. Its sad but lots of these comments are very racist. I feel that many people probably have a sense of security when they post something online. They feel that "No one is gonna see me, I'm not going to run into this person on the street so why not". I think its interesting how we act in real life as opposed to online chatting or conversation. We seem to be more open and I'm not sure why that would be.

Medium Analysis Possibilities

I was thinking about what possible mediums that I could look at when it came to the medium analysis project. I was possibly thinking of using:

1. Facebook
2. Texting
3. Youtube
4. Wikipedia
5. Netflix or some other movie watching service online,

I feel that these mediums would be important to look at because of the popularity and the amount of incorportation that people have allowed in their everyday lives.

Discource Communites

Discourse communities are a type of "community" that have a common goal, which communicate through language, but don't necessarily meet in person. For instance a few of the ones I am invlolved in are:

- Facebook
- Youtube
- IMDB.com (Internet Movie Database)
- Amazon.com

In  The case of Facebook, my friends and I use it to communicate with one another as well as meet new people or connect with those who we have lost touch with a while ago. For instance, I have friends on my FB that are from my old school in Denver, where i used to live. We all use this site to communicate with one another and keep in touch even though we are in different parts of the country or we just don't hang out in person that much.

In the case of IMDB, these are a group of people that like to read, rate, and comment on films past, present and future. There are message boards, a rating system 1 to 10, and a comment/review section. We all have the common goal to read about new films, and write what we honestly think about them; even though there are "trolls" on this site, it's still quite fun to be on this website for informational as well as personal reasons.

U.S. War Propaganda

In class last week, we looked at posters that were made during the WWI and WWII eras. There was one in particular that really made me think, it was one of Hitler and I assume Tojo (The Japanese dictator at the time. They were both giants and had evil looks on their faces. Both were standing over the U.S. Hitler was holding a gun and the Japanese man had a bloody knife. I find it interesting the choice of weapons that were picked for this poster. Germany was renowned for its' firepower, and Japan was know to be a "savage" people, there are even stories written from soldiers stating that Japanese soldiers cut open the wombs of pregnant women. Overall I find the poser somewhat comedic, mainly because of the look on their faces, as well as very American. It isn't really that affective today, but back then I'm sure it did pretty well itself.

The Burning Elmo

Today I watched a video of a young man pouring lighter fluid all over a Tickle-Me Elmo doll and light it on fire. To be honest at first i was amused. I laughed, in some strange way I found it pretty hilarious. However, after it had burned a considerable amount of time, I found myself pondering my thoughts of why it was funny. I really don't know why I think it was so funny. After the fur and goofy little Elmo eyes had burned away, all we see this the cold mechanics and machinery of the doll. It sounds weird but seeing the burned remains and robotic structure, this reminded me of The Terminator. The scene is where Kyle Reese uses the pipe bomb on the semi-truck, which the Terminator is driving, and it blows up. Well everyone assumes that it is dead, but soon you see the cold endo-skeleton rise up from the ashes. Now I'm not saying the burning of the doll was necessarily creepy but it lost it's comedic value after a certain time. I found that this seems to be a trend online that has been around for ages. I remember my dad telling me stories about him blowing up toy cars with firecrackers. Stuff like that and "Elmo Burning" have been around for a few years, but because of the invention of Youtube, it is more common to post these activities online. I guess people feel the need to post destruction on Youtube and other video sharing websites. I really don't know why, it can be funny or dangerous. I can't stop people from doing stupid stunts and posting them online, but hopefully people can grow out of that phase.

Digital Native or Immigrant: Which One Am I?

In order to understand the differences between a Digital Immigrant and Digital Native, one must know the meaning of the two words: Native and Immigrant. A native is one that is familiar with the ways of the land or a certain way of living. An immigrant is one that migrates to a new land or place; this is the difference between the the two words. In the reading Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky, the author describes the differences between those who have been born into the new "technological age"(Digital Natives) and those who have been born into "Olden days"(Digital Immigrants).

When asked the question, "which one are you?", I must reflect on my life. My parents were not rich, most people I knew that had computers had parents who were rich. At the time, computers were very expensive and we couldn't afford one. Well soon my school got computers and I was then classified as a Digital Immigrant. Throughout the years, even though I didn't have a computer of my own until 2003, I slowly was raised into the digital age and now I have my own laptop, iPod, and cell phone. I now consider my self a digital native, even though new technology is emerging I am still learning it very quickly.