The Internet and Us.

"We are left to explore the many ways that citizens can participate in governance and policy development without becoming a professional member of the governing class. "(16 Rebooting America) We can participate in the political sphere through new media. Chapter 16 also talks about satirical media which is used often in the political arena. Chapter 16 introduced the idea of tactical media. It is use of open media to create new media. In the political sphere it can be used to make satirical videos. Old ideas are combined with others in order to present new ideas. The power of new technology allows satricial artists to be seen all over the world. Many people commenting on the US political seen are not from the United States.

"The Internet holds enormous potential to help rebuild the civic foundation of communities. "(69 Rebooting America) Rebuilding our community can be done by the Internet and now we can be more connected more than ever. We are connected through the Internet for politics, job searching and relationship finding. So many things that have been developed and have come to connect our generation as a whole. It used to be just that the telephone connected one person to another but now we can connect so many more people.

a video related to our demographic

"More than any generation in history, people who are young today are not free to create an authentic culture of their own. Instead their hopes and desires are intensively studied by marketers, then amplified and sold back to them in a diabolical feedback loop."

In high school we watched a documentary called Merchants of Cool, which documents the idea above. I was perusing the internet and found this website, which i suggest you check out. It explains the basis of Merchants of Cool and some of the quotes/reviews really stuck out in my mind.


"What this system does is it closely studies the young, keeps them under constant surveillance to figure out what will push their buttons,” says media critic Mark Crispin Miller. “And it blares it back at them relentlessly and everywhere."


-Adrienne

"wanna be more than a walking demographic?..."

iGeneration video. It definitely isn't crazy like the twitter video. I pasted the lyrics below.


-adrienne


And people tried to put us down, when iTunes bumped a post-Cold War sound.
My generation sat the at mecca of malls, Times Square, I'm there, Viacom installs.
So we hit the net while the Trade Center fell, New York met Hollywood, we ran like hell
No Vietnam for us, yo, Iraq it's on. So who agreed upon this cowboy Genghis Khan?
The choice made, baby. Hey we take it back, logged in dropped out, MTV took track.
They sold it back to us and claimed no correlation. The iMac, iPod, iGeneration.
And I'm waiting for the day we can get out. The world is ours, that's the story no doubt.
Want to be more than info super highway traffic, want to be more than a walking demographic!

CHORUS (x2)

"Hey! You're part of it." Talking about the iGeneration.
"Yeah! You're part of it." Talking about my iGeneration.

The iGeneration new organization meant optimization and unification,
When imagination gave participation in creation of culture a manifestation.
The Berlin Wall fell and out we came, the post-Cold War kids laid claim to AIM.
LOL, OMG, yo, BRB. Space, colon, dash, closed parenthesis.
We sat at our laptops and typed away, and found that we each had something to say.
Web-logged our fears, our hopes and dreams. Individuated by digital means.
Fiber optic lenses, DVD, Coca Cola, Disney and Mickey D's.
Flat mass culture, the norm that took hold; I hope I die before I get sold!
REPEAT CHORUS (x4)

This is the I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T ge-na-ra-tion, see?
This is the I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T ge-na-ra-tion, see?

REPEAT CHORUS (x3)

Class Reflectin 10.2

I was not very happy with class today.

I think class got off to a bad start for me with the discussion of Twitter. It may be different with other people who understand Twitter more, but for me, I was so confused. I understand how Twitter works on a blog. It is simply posting what your are thinking, doing or where you are and people can read it. However, when the conversation about using cell phones and all that jazz, I just did not understand it. Not to mention that You Tube video was creepy. That girl is a nut.

I know this is sort of off topic, but it had me thinking. When someone does not know how to do something or is confused about how something works (like myself and how Twitter works with cell phones), I find it interesting how people think it is impossible to learn or just so overwhelming. People feel that way because they simply are not use to it. It is not normal. It is difficult to learn something that your not use to.

Anyways, the class discussion was OK. I understand the reading for the most part. The discussion in class was a little confusing. I was unclear about what Prof. Dean was asking because of the way she worded some questions. That threw me off. Overall, I think the class was not horrible, but we have had betters ones.

Sam

America's facebook newsfeed

http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1762639



-adrienne

Political Potential

There is alot of optimistic political potential for the internet. Alot of bloggers have come to participate in politics through the internet and have become more influentical in politics that evolve outside of the internet.

In chapter 11, it discussed the attention that was brought to the Dan Rathers and CBS scandal. So many bloggers were posting about the incorrect information that was discussed on the network that it led to further media publicity and ultimately Dan Rathers' forced retirement. The Wall Street Journal claimed that it was a huge milestone that the bloggers were such great fact checkers and that they should be praised for their efforts.

The "Rebooting America" article talked about the potential of candidates using the internet and how it may really evolve to reach out to certain demographics. This way it would be more in the hands of the people which would make our government more democratic because that is the way it has historically been. They talked about how the revolution of the internet and blogging could be a parallel to the 1960s and how they had such energy and political force. Blogging and the internet to use it for political use may be our common cause.

However, it could become a negative impact because some people choose to believe what is on a blog without verifying the information. A blogger posted that Sarah Palin was trying to ban certain classics in a local Alaskan library. It spread further than the blog and eventually made it to prime time news. Later the blogger, was interviewed on tv and admitted that he had just made up the post and that it was not true at all. How many people actually saw him admitting that it was false is uncertain and many people may just believe only what they want to hear.

Arghh Matey!

Prof. Dean asked the question at the end of class of whether or not we, the students, liked and enjoyed the format of the class. I really enjoyed the class because it was interesting to hear what other people choose to teach about. I think when you get about 20 different people together in a class all with different interests and opinions, you will be able to find some pretty interesting topics to teach. I also enjoyed the class format because it brought a different aspect to class. I liked the role reversal. Now the students are the teachers.

I think a way to improve this class would maybe break in three groups. I only say that because I was interested to hear what other people choose to teach. I did think that it was good to pick one person from a group to explain to the whole class what they wanted to talk about.

As far as the group presentations and the five or six people who did speak about what the taught to their smaller group, I thought we heard some interesting presentations. I was very impressed with Yanina's presentation. I think the topic of e-waste is pretty unique. That would be a great topic for a final project because I feel like you could find a lot of interesting information on that topic. Also, I feel like not many people in the United States are aware of the importance of the topics surrounding e-waste, so it would be a great for a class like ours to learn more about it.

I thought Asa's presentation was creepy. I am starting to really think twice about the e-mails I am receiving. The most astonishing part of the fake e-mail was how simple it was to search for it on Google. I think Asa maybe choose the third option on the Google search engine page. That is nuts! I really don't think students should joke around with that fake e-mail possibility. You can cause some serious problems and probably get in a good amount of trouble.

Overall, I felt like there was a theme that was circulating around at the end class today. Suspicion. I felt like people were really taken back by Asa's presentation, especially Prof. Dean. His presentation developed a lot of questions and people seemed to be very suspicious of this fake e-mail application.

What did other people think of this. I felt like some people were trying to put their thoughts together but were just baffled by Asa's presentation.

Sam