Last Blog Post- A Reflection

I would say my first foray into online learning has been a success. I learned a lot and was able to make my own schedule which allowed me to be able to work and make money over the winter break as well. To someone who has very limited interaction with social media compared to most, it was a bit of an eye-opening experience. I never thought about how much media I actually see and use either indirectly or directly on a day to day basis.

The assignments were an interesting and fun way to reinforce the materials we were learning about in class. I especially enjoyed assignment 4 where we got to analyze a television show, if only because I love TV, and it gave me an excuse to watch it without feeling guilty. The discussions were also a nice way to reflect on the readings and to be able to communicate and interact with the other members of the class.

One of the more interesting parts of the class was the online lectures. Unfortunately, I was never able to participate in a live session (work never allowed for that), but being able to watch the lecture online was very cool. I especially liked the fact I could pause it and rewind in order to write down notes or re-listen to something that the instructor said, but I missed. After sitting through so many lectures in the past where these were not options, it was a very refreshing change of pace.

Overall, I would definitely recommend taking an online class (especially during the winter break) to anyone. You are able to still enjoy your break while still being somewhat productive without feeling completely overwhelmed. It’s perfect!

Online Learning: Good or Bad?

           I think online learning has its pros and cons. For non-traditional students, I think completely online classes are great and can be incredibly convenient and helpful to those taking the course. One of my friend’s sisters has actually begun the process of obtaining her master’s degree in education. Being a mother of four young children, an online class that she was able to take her time with and complete at her own pace was really the only way she was able to do it. Online learning also can save students a lot of money, since online schools are much cheaper than regular colleges or universities.

           I would say, however, that even with these obvious benefits to online learning, there are still some disadvantages. For traditional college students going to college is about so much more than taking classes and earning a degree. For most, it is the first time they are on their own and able to be somewhat independent from their parents. College is about making lifelong connections with friends or professors. College is a time for making mistakes and learning about life and yourself not just your major. Because of this, I would not recommend exclusive online learning for most. This is also why that regardless of how popular online learning becomes, I don’t think it will ever really replace the popularity of regular universities.

            In regards to whether or not I would consider taking another online course, I would say yes. I had a great experience with this one and really enjoyed the flexibility of the course. I was still able to enjoy my break, work, and see my friends. Online classes are extremely worthwhile especially if you are taking a class outside the fall and spring semesters. 

A World Without Internet

Reading all of these articles about how the Internet and social networking has enormously impacted out society and how we interact with each other, I began to wonder what a world without the Internet would be. Even though I did not have Internet or a computer for a decent portion of my childhood, I find this very difficult to picture this Internet-less world.

It seems that online or virtual dating would still be a thing though maybe not as popular. In 1879 a fictional book was published entitled, Wired Love. This novel was about two telegraph operators from distant towns who have connected over telegraph wires over an extended period of time. Besides the focus on ridiculously outdated equipment like a telegraph, this sounds exactly like something that could happen today either using a dating website, live video gaming, or a number of other social media outlets.

It seems like it would almost be nice to live in a world without Internet (there would have to be a few pros compared to the hundreds of cons if this was in fact a real thing). I feel like I would be immensely more productive with my day and be able to focus on school work a lot more than I do currently. I would have more face to face or phone conversations with friends and family.

Even with these benefits though there is one thing that is too great a thing to even contemplate the Internet not being around anymore. That thing is the vast amount of information that is available literally at a click of a button. My friend who goes to school in the Midwest informed me that Lancaster County, PA (our home county) has a higher population than the entire state of Wyoming. I immediately googled the populations of each area and found out my friend was wrong, though not by much. Thinking about how easy that lame fun fact was to research and verify made me think of how in the world people learned anything even 20 years ago. How would people find the current population of Wyoming? You can’t necessarily trust your printed encyclopedia since most of the time the publication year was far older than is trustworthy. Where would you find the year to year and decade to decade census information?

While people did somehow learn where to find the answers to any of these questions, I think my biggest question is where did people find the time?

Privacy?

In an episode of Parks and Recreation, a TV show revolving around the lives of the employees of the Parks and Recreation department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, the head of the department, Ron, is the definition of a Luddite. He disapproves highly of technology and does not trust it at all; at one point, noticing how the website he was on was making personalized advertisements for him, he proceeded to throw away his entire computer to ensure that his privacy was still intact. In another extreme measure, Ron tries to get himself “off the grid” with the help of two of his employees who happen to be very much “on the grid”. On his quest for ultimate privacy, Ron got rid of all public pictures of him, stopped using his cell phone, and bought a camper for himself so he would not have a permanent address anymore for other people to know.

Now, this is a ridiculous and obviously fictional solution to the problem of trying to find some semblance of privacy while using the Internet and any form of social media. But it has to make you wonder what it would take to be completely “off the grid” like Ron tries to do in Parks and Rec. It seems that for data mining purposes, everything you use on the Internet is actually secretly spying on you in order to develop better advertisements and better marketing strategies. Recently, it has been revealed that the government is spying on you almost more than anyone in order to combat possible terroristic threats. While this is a noble cause, people obviously have to wonder how far is too far in terms of breaking privacy rules?

With the outcry and overall disapproval with the NSA spying on us citizens, it seems that the line is approaching at a faster pace than ever before. As our society and culture continue to change to a more technological world, hopefully a happy medium between the government and its citizens will be achieved. 

#Sherlock

A great, wonderful show returned on New Years day after a long two year wait after the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers ended the previous series. For those of you who do not know what show I am talking about it is Sherlock, a modern day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes airing on BBC starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. (To those who don’t know this show, watch it. You will not be disappointed.) Because of the modern twist to the old detective’s stories, social media plays a prominent role. Dr. Watson (Freeman) writes a blog describing the crimes solved by Sherlock (Cumberbatch), and Sherlock keeps a website entitled “The Science of Deduction” containing several different articles, one of which details the differences in 243 types of tobacco ash. Note, Watson's blog does contain information from past episodes, so if you don't want to be spoiled, don't click that link. 

As mentioned above, series 2 of Sherlock ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger. I won’t go into details, but millions were left theorizing and discussing what could explain what in the world just happened to end that episode. My friends and I were not immune. We discussed together, over Facebook, watched Youtube videos, you name it we probably did it. A lot of guess work can happen in two years. Social media allowed us to do something great too. We were able to organize a time for us to get together and watch the first episode. This allowed for more discussion, more amazement, and more side commentary that would not have been possible otherwise. In fact, we have already made plans to get together for future episodes, realizing quite quickly that watching this show is by far much more entertaining and exciting when watching it with friends than by yourself even if you have to wait a few more days to do so. 

The Internet Paradox

In the early stages of social media, scholars were already noticing a strange phenomenon they dubbed the “Internet paradox”. This phenomenon was the defined by the ease and opportunity rewarded by the Internet to connect with others and the growing lack of actual human contact. In other words is the Internet (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) actually making us lonelier? There seems to be an abundant amount of research claiming that this is in fact true. A study conducted by AARP in 2010 found that 35 percent of adults older than 45 were chronically lonely compared to only 20 percent in 2000. In 1985, people had 2.94 confidants and that number decreased significantly to 2.04 confidants in 2004.

Using sites such as Facebook or Twitter causes disconnect and envy through social comparison when used poorly. A student interviewed for a Tufts Daily article discussing the effects social media has on happiness talked about Facebook as a tool. He said, “You can use it well, you can use it poorly, you can use it productively or you can waste time on it.”  Basically, it isn’t necessarily Facebook’s fault if you are lonely. When used well, social media was found to have positive mood changes when direct participation occurred through messages, wall posts, or likes.

Now I’m going to ask this question: how do I use Facebook? I think I use Facebook in a beneficial way. Yes there are times when I do blindly browse my news feed “liking” something here or there, sometimes commenting on an interesting status, most of the time not. However, I also use the message application quite a bit to set up friend hang outs, or to maintain relationships with others as I go back and forth from college. Just today my friends from Allentown and I are planning a time to meet for lunch sometime next week to catch up before we trudge back to Bloomsburg in three weeks.

So it seems that Moira Burke’s observation may be the truest of them all: the effect Facebook and other social media has on you depends entirely on how choose to use those sites. 

Multitasking and Me: A Love/Hate Relationship

I sit here cross-legged in a big comfy chair downstairs in my living room as I type this blog post. My cell phone is somewhere in my room (I honestly haven’t looked at it in a few hours), and I am wondering how in the world does a 14-year-old girl sends and receives 27,000 texts in one month. It’s astounding! Allison Miller has accomplished this amazing feat by texting at every opportunity: between classes, after soccer practice, and basically any other time a cell phone is allowed to be in her hand. Miller claims to be able to hold up to seven different conversations at once. Apparently she can even talk to one friend on her phone as she is texting another one.

I can barely listen to Pandora while working or reading without getting too distracted much less being able to hold conversations (either virtual or physical) with others. I can barely text and walk at the same time and have had to put more than one real life conversation on hold because texting and talking is simply impossible. Clearly multitasking is not one of my strong suits. I simply get too absorbed in whatever I am doing and forget that anything in the world exists beyond my current activity. Even when I try to multitask, once I make the move from the first activity to the second, I inevitably end up finishing the second activity regardless of what the first activity was. I just hope I actually remember to go back and finish any remaining activities.

While I lament my inability to perform more than two things at once, there are some perks.  By only concentrating on one activity at a time, I feel that I am able to finish it at a faster pace. I think I also am better equipped to retain information from whatever I just did and have a better chance of actually learning from my experience. Even though these reasons may be trite or cliché, they are nonetheless true and I am better person, student, and worker for it.