HW 11: Making Global Voices Heard

hoder.com/weblog. A weblog about Iran, technology and pop culture, by Hossein Derakhshan. He blogs in English and Persian, and is responsible for triggering thousands of Persian blogs both within Iran and amongst the Iranian diaspora. The blog as it now exists still corresponds to MacKinnon's view of it. Many young Iranians have come to this blog to speak their mind and get to know eachother online. It seems that these Iranians have been careful about what they're saying due to people going to jail. Yet some readers may challenge my view that people are holding back how they feel because why would they say something if they couldn't fully state what they ment or how they feel. However the Iranian government is taking it seriously and viewing it as a challenge to its power.

HW 9: Punching Holes In Old Faded Mirrors

I have chosen to respond to "Punching Holes In Old Faded Mirrors", an interview with Arianna Huffington. I Found this article most compelling. I agree that gas-guzzling SUV's are linked to terrorism, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe otherwise. The "blogazine", or the Huffington Post, is a vital part of the media industry and will contribute to the national ebate on a wide range of issues. Huffington's theory that blogs have made a huge difference is extremely useful because it sheds light on the difficult problem of media's attention defecit disorder. The media can only focus on one story at a time while blogs can jump back and forth between topics. Huffington is surely right about the theory that if you put thoughts and ideas out there and they'll enter the cultural bloodstream. "You don't need to reach everbody in order to have an impact". (Kline & Burstein, pg. 348)

HW 7: My So-Called Blog

I think that kids should be able to say what they feel online without their parents interrupting. Teenagers have a hard time expressing how they feel when talking a stranger. It makes it especially difficult when the therapist is provided through the school which has readily available contact with that teens parents. In the case of LiveJournal or Xenga, the keyboard is the therapist. "It allows them to say things they wouldn't otherwise say, to be hurtful at a distance." (Kline & Burstein, pg. 359). Some may interpret this as a bad thing. However, if the child is thinking it, there isn't any more harm done by saying it. Though online journals are thought of as being "emo", "My So-Called Blog" explains that it is becoming popular among all teenagers, even jocks. "Then there are the kind of posts that fulfill a parent's worst paranoia. 'It was like just a nite of lying to my dad,' reads one entry posted last fall. 'At like 7ish we started drinking, but i didn't have THAT much. And i figured out y i drink so much. Cuz i really really don't like being sober with drunk people....i have more homework to do than imaginable. And to make it better, im hungover and feel sick. Great....great. DRINKING IS BAD!!' (Kline & Burstein, pg. 354) This quote may appear as a nightmare to most parents, however to a teenager this is quite real. Though the quoted teenager had been drinking that weekend instead of doing homework, it shows that he more intelligent than the teenagers accompanying the festivities. "I don't talk to them about anything. They'll be like, 'How was school?' And I'll be lke, 'Fine.' And that was it"Parents need to become more involved in their childrens lives. After school clubs and sports are not a safe alternative for parenting.

HW 6: Interest Statement for Semester Long Project

The social computing technologies that I'm currently interested in are e-mail, social networking services, and virtual worlds. E-mail is a simple and valuable tool I use to communicate with family and friends. Social networking services are also a good way to keep in touch with people. Whether it is people you are yet to meet, trying to meet, or have met before and are trying to find. Facebook and Myspace connect millions of people every day. Lastly virtual worlds are quite interesting because of the everchanging technology used to create computer games.
The kinds of empowerment of marginalized groups I'm most interested in finding out about are overcoming ageism, overcoming religious intolerance, and issues of refugees. The one I'm most interested in is overcoming ageism because I think that the youth are often neglected by society and have so many expectations without being offered much assistance. The two geographical areas I'll start looking at are the Middle East and the US.

HW 5b: I Blog, Therefore I Am

In David Kline's "I Blog, Therefore I Am" it states that since 1990 the newspaper has become less popular especially among younger generations. Although there aren't many teenagers who read the newspaper on a daily basis, this doesn't mean anything has changed. I don't believe the newspaper has ever been very popular among teens. Many people assume that because people aren't recieving information from the newspaper, then they aren't recieving it at all. This interpretation is not at all true. Though the media is often wrong with their research, blogging has become a new way to gain information. I think people need to stop believing what they hear and use their own resources to decide for themselves. Hopefully this will help educate future generations.

HW 4: The Voice of the Customer

The voice of the customer by David Kline expresses how blogs affect and impact the business world. I think it's safe to say that most, if not all, college student on a cellular telephone. Seeing that cell phones are so prominent in modern social life, the brand I chose to research was Verizon Wireless. When I visited the Verizon website I found that their target consumer is the family man. They offer plenty of deals when you include other member on your plan. Their logo is crowned with a checkmark implying thorough and complete service. They claim they are America's most reliable network. Their commercials are state that you can recieve service virtually everywhere. Whether any of this is true, it is in fact a fair attempt to sell more product. The rest is left up to the consumer.

HW 3: Toward a More Participatory Democracy

David Kline states that the media today is extremely bias and often completely erroneous. Reporters and journalist are more concerned with creating eye-opening stories than remaining in the margins of the truth. This defys the purpose of news. This is where blogging can help rebuild trust in hearts across the world. Blogging creates a balance between media and fact. I was surprised by the huge influence blogging had on politics. One example was that during the August period leading up to the 2004 presidential election, the ten most popular political blogs collectively had 28 million visits from readers which rivaled traffic to the three 24/7 online cable networks. One of which, the liberal blog DailyKos, drew 7 million reader visits alone that month, which beat Fox News' 5.7 million online visits. It's incredible how much internet activity goes unmentioned.

HW 2: Burstein's 12 Key Ideas

Blogging will continue to spread across the globe, connecting people from all areas. People constantly strive to be heard and what better way than through blogging. Blogging is free, fun, and easy. I relate Burstein's 9th idea to any up and coming sport. Take snowboarding for example; no one believed that snowboarding would evolve into what it is today. When Jake Burton originally designed his first model he was told it would never work and that it was wasting time, energy, and money. Snowboarding was labeled as the most rediculous and uneccessary sports of all time. It is now thirty years later and snowboarding is still growing and impacting people's lives. So hop on and let the world of blogging take you for a ride.