My Media Intake

Type of Media	November 19th	November 20th	November 21st	November 22nd	November 23rd
Watching TV (including Movies)	7 Hours	2 Hours	2 Hours	4 Hours	3 Hours
Texting	1 Hour	1 Hour	1 Hour	1 Hour	1 Hour
Computer	1 Hour	2 Hours	0 Hours	1 Hour	2 Hours
Wii	0 Hours	1 Hour	0 Hours	0 Hours	1 Hour

November 19th: 

• Get Him the the Greek (movie)
• Animal Planet’s Cutest Dog
• Pawn Stars
• American Pickers
• Facebook
• Groupwise
• Hotmail
• YouTube
• Texting Friends

November 20th:

• The Nanny
• Sports Center
• Facebook
• Groupwise
• ACES (work account)
• Wii (Sports Games)
• Texting Friends

November 21st:

• Sports Center
• Law and Order: SVU
• America’s Funniest Home Videos
• Texting Friends

November 22nd:

• Monday Night Football
• The Nanny
• Sports Center
• Texting Friends
• Facebook
• Hotmail
• Groupwise

November 23rd:

• Sports Center
• Law and Order: SVU
• Texting Friends
• Facebook
• Hotmail
• Groupwise
• Camino
• Wii Sports Games

  My media diet is an interesting one I’d say but pretty typical of a college girl minus a few exceptions.  I think that my media diet says that I am a pretty well rounded person who enjoys things such as browsing the internet, socializing on the internet, checking her email, talking to her friends via text messaging, and watching television.  

  However, I do think that one thing that people might be surprised about when they look at my media diet are the shows that I choose to watch on a daily basis.  One show that I watch regularly is The Nanny.  The Nanny is a show from the 90’s with some modern-day actors and actresses when they were children.  I became addicted to this show last year when it showed on TV land.  Another part of my media that some people might be a little shocked about it how much sports television I watch on a daily basis.  My family and I are sports freaks so we tend to watch things such as Sunday Football, Monday Night Football, Sports Center, and other sports centralized channels.  It would not be out of the ordinary for you to see me watching sports all day long every now and again.  

  When it comes to socializing on facebook, I would say that I am probably part of the middle group of facebook users.  I definitely think that there are people who use it way more than I do but I also think that there are those people who barely go on, and I would not consider myself to be one of those people.  Depending on what other things I have going on in my life, maybe I could be considered to be one of those people who barely go on facebook, but usually I will spend a little time each day browsing facebook.  I usually go on to talk to friends and family and browse people’s profiles to see what they have been up to by looking at their pictures and status updates.  I never am on facebook for more than an hour at a time as I see it to be counteractive and facebook prevents me from getting the stuff done that I need to get done. 

  I think that compared to other people my age and my gender, my media intake is pretty mild.  I know girls who never get off of their phones.  They are constantly checking for text messages and replying even when it is not the appropriate time to be doing so.  There are also those girls who are always connected to facebook whether it be on their phone or on their laptops.  I do not have the internet on my phone so I do not have that option, but even if I did, I would not be one of those people because I do not feel the constant need to be talking to other people.  I like my time to myself.  I savor it because I do not get to relax as much as I would like to.  Spending time alone is an important part to growing and I think that media tends to get in the way of this.  

  There are some changes that I would like to make about my media diet, I wish to add a reading column.  I do not read as much as I should.  I wish that I could just find a book that I could leisurely enjoy without having to worry about having a quiz on it the next day.  I think that academic reading has taken the fun out of reading in my spare time.  I am really hoping to find a book that will spark my interest in reading leisurely again.  

  My media intake for these five days was probably not the most accurate record of my typical weekly media intake as these five days were when I was at home for Thanksgiving break.  I typically spend less time watching television and more time reading.  I also spend more time on my computer for school work and such.  I think that my media intake is pretty reasonable and does not need to be altered as much as I think other people’s should be.  

WOW is Right!

         So, when I was thinking about what I was going to write for my second free write blog, I thought about the last topic we studied in class about Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games such as World of Warcraft.  I took an English Class Winter and Spring quarter of my Freshman year called Science, Technology, and the Self.  We studied things such as second life and MMORPG’s in this class as well.  We actually even watched the same video about the WOW convention that we watched last week in Sociology 49.  

         This subject really interests me because I have seen first hand what it can do to people and how it can affect real-life relationships.  My younger brother who is 17 and my ex-stepfather who is 43 both used to play WOW for hours and hours on end.  My younger brother was diagnosed with general anxiety disorder as well as bipolar disorder when we was ten years old.  When he was a freshman in high school he missed a lot of school due to chronic migraines.  When the migraines subsided, he tried to go back to school and continue where he left off however the amount of work that he had to make up overwhelmed him and his anxiety level was at an all-time high.  It also probably did not help that all of his friends, just as teenage boys do, gave him a hard time and harassed him for why he was not at school for of that time.  Due to this, my mom had to pull him out of our high school and start him in a local independent studies program.  

         Since my brother was no longer regularly attending school, or playing sports, his new interest was WOW.  He got into the game along with my stepfather at the time.  They would stay up all night together playing WOW and sometimes all day.  They would hide in their rooms and office like cavemen and wouldn’t come out unless it was time to eat or if they needed to use the restroom.  It was bad.  My stepdad still worked and only played at night but it was getting in the way of him and my mom because he would no longer spend his free time with her.  He used this an outlet when he was depressed or upset, which was most of the time it was a problem.  For my brother, he had nothing else to do.  He was not going to school, wasn’t playing sports, WOW became his life.  My mom was really worried about him because he wouldn’t go to sleep at night so his sleep cycle was all messed up.  He would play all night and sleep all day.  We would ask him, “Colten, why don’t you come out and play a game with the family?” His response would be something like, “I’m in the middle of raid, it’s going to be a few more hours.”  

         Luckily, my brother broke that habit.  He no longer plays WOW and if he does, it is only for an hour or so when he is home alone and both my brother and mom are at work.  He sleeps, eats, and goes out his daily routine in a healthy way, and no longer lets WOW dictate his life.  I am so thankful for that because we as a family, now can be a family and have dinners and other events together without having to wonder if Colten’s brigade was going to be a part of a raid that evening.  When it comes to my former stepfather, I am not sure if he still plays WOW, but I do know that he let this get in the way of his marriage and even though World of Warcraft was not the primary reason for my parents’ divorce, it was a contributing factor.  

         MMORPG’s are very addicting and they do cause a lot of people to withdraw themselves from their regular, real lives, and indulge themselves in a fantasy world.  The video we watched about the WOW convention and how people feel about WOW makes me cringe.  I do not understand how people can actually consider their brigade members on facebook to be better friends than with people they can relationships with face to face.  I do not understand how people can get engaged when never meeting each other.  I think that MMORPG’s are terrible.  Even though I do believe that one can play in moderation as a release without getting consumed by it or having it run their life, I also do not suggest ever allowing a loved one to begin playing WOW or other games like it as there is that chance of it becoming their life.  

Cyber Bullying

         The reading that we did at the beginning of the quarter, “What Makes the Internet a Place to Seek Social Support?” written by Martin Tanis, does a good job of putting both the positive and negative aspects about Online Social Support Groups into perspective.  In his article, Tanis discusses how anonymity is a huge benefit to Online Social Support Groups but then counters this idea with the view that anonymity can also be a huge problem with online sociality (Tanis 2011).  One of the main reasons that he gives as to why anonymity is a problem is because of things such as online harassment which is also known as cyber bullying.  Cyber bullying and online harassment is a big problem into today’s society.  It ranges from personal attacks to general insults on cultures and subcultures.  

         One minor example of online harassment, in my opinion, include comments like the ones posted on YouTube.  A lot of people who go onto YouTube are ruthless asses who just post rude things because they can.  Because of anonymity, no one knows actually who the person leaving the comment is, giving the commenters the freedom to post whatever they want without having to suffer any consequences.  I have seen many comments that actually do not say anything real... it’s just a few words between curse words.  Comments like these make the person posting them look ignorant.  However, even though I personally would not take the things that complete strangers have to say to heart, some people do take it personally.  Personal attacks such as these do get to people and affect the way they see themselves and the way they live their lives.  

         Earlier this year, on March 21, a seventeen year old girl, Alexis Pilkington, committed suicide.  An investigation occurred only to discover that cyber bullying could have been a main contributer to her suicide.  Even after her death, vicious messages were continuing to be sent to her profile from the taunters.  The messages were very nasty and although she was is counseling before the messages started coming in, her parents said that these messages played a major role in their daughter’s unhappiness.  CBS News covered this story.  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/29/earlyshow/main6343077.shtml

         After reading these article, I was very sad to think that such a young woman, whose life had not nearly even begun, killed herself because of mindless, ignorant people who do not think about the consequences of their actions.  I do not understand how people can send such horrible messages to people.  I mean, what do they think it is going to do?  What do they think that it is going to solve?  Cyber bullying affects teenagers as well as adults around the world and will suicides like this one will continue on as long as people continue to be selfish and not think about the things that they say before they say them.  

         The Internet allows for cyber bullying as anonymity is a huge part of online socialization.  I really hope that they find a way to control this issue because as we can see from the article about Lexi Pilkington, cyber bullying indeed does affect people in a direct way.  

Technology and Social Interaction

        I talked a little bit about this issue in my last blog because I think that it is a big issue in society today.  I think that the spread of technology has had a NEGATIVE impact on our everyday face to face interaction.  I think we lose our raw communication and relationship skills when we rely on technology as our primary source of communication.  Face to face interactions are what build our relationships, both with friends, family, and lovers.  Technology has substituted seeing the smile of your boyfriend across the table to seeing that little smiley emoticon [ :) ] on the screen of your cell phone or computer.  It has replaced hearing your loved one’s laugh over an inside joke with a “lol” or a “haha.”  One of my favorite things about having face to face conversations with people is hearing their voice, listening to the changes in tone and looking at their face, seeing the changes in facial expression.  I think that these things are some of the core parts of building and sustaining strong relationships.  

         I think that it is a joke that people think they can start relationships via online dating sites, Craiglist, message boards, fan sites, online gaming, or virtual worlds.  I think that this is a cop-out way of meeting people.  I think that those who are afraid to go and put themselves out there in real-life situations use the Internet as their way of meeting people and developing “relationships.”  

         I do not think that connecting to others via online communities is a viable way of creating meaningful relationships.  You need more than a keyboard and a computer screen to create a meaningful relationship.  You need that face to face communication to really create long-lasting relationships.  It is easy to create relationships based on lies when you create them over the Internet.  You can tell people exactly what they want to hear over the Internet, whether it is actually true or not, they won’t know.  But I think that it is much harder for people to lie to someone’s face when first establishing a relationship.  On the other side, I totally understand the Internet and technology is a good way to sustain meaningful relationships as we are not all lucky enough to live near the ones we love so sometimes, we must rely on these forms of communication to keep relationships going.  Facebook and Skype allow us to stay connected to the ones we love when we are unable to drive a few hours or even fly across the country to say I love you or to see how they are doing.  I am who relies on these technologies as means to keep my relationships at home going.  But there is a bigggg difference between CREATING relationships through online and SUSTAINING them through online.   

I do not necessarily think that we are neglecting out everyday relationships in favor of these “virtual” relationships but I also do not think that we are making room for our everyday relationships because Internet relationships take much less effort.  

         I do think that we, as a society, need to focus on creating more “real” spaces/public spheres for people to connect and interact.  The relationships that we establish through raw means of communication are those that are going to last, not the ones that start of with “lol”s and [ :) ]s.  Even though this will probably not happen, I think that we need to continue back to when people met up and went for coffee to catch up, not grabbed their laptops and typed back and forth and considered it “good enough”.  I know that I am just a guilty as anyone when it comes to using this cop out form of communication and I am personally trying to improve that, I hope that others will as well. 

Social Networking and Privacy: More Than it's Cracked Up to Be?

        Social networking is a huge part of our society today and is only becoming more significant with time. I know that I can speak for many people when I say that much our down time at home is consumed with browsing other people’s facebooks or sending a few dozen text messages per hour.  As technology has developed, besides the typical functions our cell phones have including texting and talking on the phone, we have been able to check our email, facebook, or twitter wherever we may be at a given time in our busy day.  No longer must we be sitting at the desktop computer at home to talk to a friend on the internet who may be across the country.  Our phones and laptops allow us to be social on the go.  

  Personally, I do not use facebook as much as I know most other people do.  I am not on it 24/7 and it does not follow me everywhere I go.  Part of this has to do with the fact that my cell phone does not have access to the internet and the other part is the fact that I do not feel the need to constantly be connected with people online by repeatedly checking status update or posting a wall comment on pages of my friends as I am walking across campus or getting a bite to eat.  I like to wait until I have a reasonable amount of time to dedicate to catching up with my family and friends or more than just a minute or two to send a meaningful message or post.  I am not saying that I don’t spend time on facebook but I am saying that like many my friends, I am not continuously checking my facebook everywhere I go.  I must be sitting down with my computer to check my facebook or chat with other people.  Now texting is a different story.  Like most teenagers and young adults my age, I am on my phone quite a bit texting my friends and family.  I am not saying that texting is any better than being on the internet checking facebook updates, however my means of communication is limited through capabilities that only a simple cellular device is efficient in doing.  I have been trying to be aware of and control my text messaging and only do it at the appropriate times and if you ask me, I have improved quite a bit.  

  One thing that I think to be a significant drawback about social networking and constant access is the potential of losing our face-to-face, raw communication skills.  People are so often online and talking with people indirectly through written text on either a computer screen or cell phone that eventually it would seem that we would lose our ability to have in-person, healthy, raw, relationships with our friends and family.  In my opinion, communication through text such as email, facebook chat, or texting creates a barrier between us and those who we are communicating with.  You are unable to see facial expressions or hear the tone of voice of which the person is speaking when you talk to them through written text.  Emoticons such as “ : ) ” or an acronym such as “lol” are not real emotions.  Seeing a happy face on my screen is much different than seeing the smile of my best friend in front of me.  Much is lost in translation online and many things can be misinterpreted or misunderstood due to the lack of raw communication. I know that I personally have misread a text message and gotten upset when all could have been avoided but having a real conversation with the person.

  Social networking has opened many possibilities though.  I have friends who live across the world in Australia and face-to-face communication is not always possible with them.  Sometimes the only way to stay connected with friends and family is through texting, emailing, or facebooking and so in this way I do think that social networking has benefited us but sometimes I feel like we too easily and readily rely on it as our primary source of communication.  

  I do not really think about my privacy when it comes to social networking or text messaging because I am usually cautious of what I say and post anyways.  At one point I thought about it, enough to change all of my privacy settings online to “friends only”.  However now that I have done that, I do not give a second thought to what I post as I think that only my closest friends and family will be able to see it anyway.  Hearing and reading about all the facebook privacy issues that have been coming up have made me more alert about what I post and my own personal privacy online.  I am always thinking about how I come off to those people in my social networking circle just as I think about how I act in my day to day life.