7/21-8/5 Post 3: Burkitt Conclusion

What a great wrap up for this book! I like the way Burkitt concluded this book. It definitely gave me food for thought and further interest in this subject matter and an interest in researching it some more. All in all this book along with the other articles, has opened my eyes to the study of communication in terms of social media and new media. In my field of study, public relations, I have a better sense of what I need to do and should be looking for when working, writing/posting blogs and so on. This book also worked out perfectly ending right when the research project was due because it helped me write it. Not only that is helped me better prepare myself for it. All in all, Burkitt used great metaphors and examples to convey these important messages that can help society move forward.

7/30-8/5 Post 2: Discourse of Attention

How I love this article. My thoughts written down perfectly. I am so thankful that I grew up not watching television too much. I was outside mostly, taking trips with my parents, on play dates or at practice. Granted I wasn't reading, I was actively doing stuff that required a good portion of my attention. Gymnastics for instance, required 4 1/2 hours of my attention everyday. After that was homework which also had my attention for quite some time so there was never really time for television. But I didn't really read either. That did not increase my vocabulary which gave me problems later on. But especially with this class, I have been reading much more whether its web browsing or reading these blogs and it's helping me tremendously. Though it's in small segments, everything I read gets me thinking. I feel like television is a trend, and what is seen on TV can be the "hot topic" of the day and if you don't know what it is you're not cool. But now I believe that has transferred over to the Internet and multimedia. People have to keep up on much more than just shows to fit in. All in all, I think this article has truly helped me want to actually pick up a book, a good book.

7/30-8/5 Post 1: The World Wide Web

Another great flashback article of how something was created and the thought process behind it. It made me appreciate the Internet much more. This was written the year I was born and it's amazing to see how the Internet/world wide web has evolved. I remember in grade school having computer class and it had nothing to do with the Internet until 7th and 8th grades. I do believe that we all, especially the younger generations, take it all for granted. It's fascinating to see their predictions of the world wide web for the future. It is also a great article that shows detailed step by step explanation of how it works from a technical perspective of the backside of it all. When the article first spoke about URIs I thought they misspelled it because all I know is URLs. So I researched it and found they are a bit different but URL is also used to talk about URIs. The last thing I would like to mention is this quote, ""For example, the common URI syntax reserves the '/' as a way of representing a hierarchical space, and '?' as a separator between the address of an object and a query operation applied to it," (793). I finally know what they mean when I click or type in a link or web address!

7/23-7/29 Post 3: Virtual Death

I was blown away with the first paragraph when realizing that Kaycee wasn't real. I definitely thought this article was food for the soul. For someone to play a "game" like that in my opinion is crazy. Jordan describes the Internet as a way for people, "to reconstruct a tetherless online persona," (203). I find this extremely true. I remember earlier on in the year with a previous reading that spoke about the findings of using the Internet that actually boasted social relationships. This story proves this to be true with an online community blog. It also shows how people can become whoever they want. If I were one of the people a part of the community I would definitely feel betrayed and hurt. That's because I put a lot of my time, support and effort into allowing this person into my life and me into hers. I also like the concepts of rhetoric and authority that Jordan explains. It is ironic to think of it in the perspective of the virtual and online world.

7/23-7/29 Post 2: Burkitt Text

Out of all the Burkitt chapter's, I believe this one was my favorite chapter out of them all thus far. A lot of the ideas proposed and challenges faced from these ideas are things I have thought about completely agree with. I even found joy in disagreeing with a couple things as well. Since I can only point out a few concepts I will talk about the ones I found most interesting and relevant to life. The first is how society is moving away from "I" and moving toward "we". It is hard to imagine and see this concept in reality when everyone is wound up in themselves. But as I thought about it more, it makes more sense because "I" is created through the "we". Self identity is changing from what a person know to who a person knows. The other concept that I would like to highlight which relates to this last one is the concept of writing and rewriting one's self. Personally, I don't think self identity can be rewritten or even erased. A person's future is based off his or her past when trying to change oneself. That life had an impact was a reason as to why the new life will be different. The "old self" will always be a part of a person. The past will always haunt.

July 23-29 Post 1: The End of Books

In the article, "The End of Books," I have it extremely challenging to read and comprehend. For me it was the dry style of writing that kept my mind wandering and not fully knowing what Coover was discussing in terms of hypertext and the technicalities that go along with it. For one I did not find his metaphors and references to other pop cultures things to be helpful at all. I was a bit offended (if that is the right word) with his comment about God. As I kept reading, it made me think about the end of the concept of books. We are moving into an age, if we haven't already, that has to do with blogging and getting a point across. People's attention span has shortened and they like to browse and skim not really indulge in a novel anymore. It is fascinating however that this was written in 1992 and changes were already being foreseen and made. One concept I found interesting is that at that time the "multidirectional" linkages were the most radical new element of hypertext according to Coover on page 3. We take that for granted today.

7/16-7/22 Post 3: Research Topic

After doing some research and some thinking, I have decided to base my project off of Children and Media. I chose this topic for a couple of reasons. The first reason is out of curiosity. I have heard discussions that this may be an epidemic cause of obesity, lack of social skills and education. Children spend a lot of time on video games, computers and the television which deter them from other experiences. I also had a fear of this but with all the readings thus far, new media and children may not be as bad as everyone thinks. This world is moving toward everything being related to new media and fast. One day I will have children and I would like to know where children and media are headed. I have a niece and nephew, ages 4 and 8, who are heavily involved with media. At one point, I was scared that their childhood was lost. But I think that this research topic and project can help me find out more information that can perhaps help me teach them a few things about it. All in all I am very excited about this topic for the research project.