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Week 5: Mobile Computing and Information Access

From a sociological perspective, how might we interpret the value of a mobile device and the access to information that it provides? The artifact I chose to research this week is about the use of technology for educational purposes in developing countries.  It notes that technology can be empowering for students who may not normally have access to such modern conveniences in their everyday lives.  This article can be found here. In the United States, we are used to having technology available at our fingertips at any moment.  We communicate through telephones, text messaging, email, social media websites, and through the various other avenues the internet has to offer.  We also use technology to gain knowledge on any topic of our choosing.  Having the internet at our fingertips allows us to look up answers to our questions, map directions to a certain place, or even read a library of books with the click of a mouse.  Unfortunately many other countries ...
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Week 4: Media Ecologies and Communication

How indispensable are mobile devices in your life? Are they an "extension" of you? This week, I chose a video artifact of a news story depicting the effects of technology on social communication skills in children.  We all have heard that social media and other technologies can negatively effects kids' communication and social skills, and yet, most of us do not do much to limit the use of it in our children.  You can find the link to the news story here . In my personal life, I can admit that I do have problems with excessive use of my smartphone at times. I use it for everything, including texting, social media, gps, interacting with my students' parents, and I always have Google at my fingertips.  My smartphone is such a handy tool that makes my life much more convenient.  That being said, there are times when I have found myself "lost" in my phone, the time wasting away as I sedentarily scroll through the apps on my phone.  I am even ashamed to admit ...
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Week 2: Social Networking

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Using Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is a great way for people to stay in touch with one another, no matter the distance.  Just about everyone you meet has a profile on at least one social media platform, and this allows for the world to be much smaller.  The question in discussion this week is: How do we define who we are, and shape or reaffirm our identity using social networks? I chose to use a video artifact this week on how Facebook and other social networks have an impact on our online and real life identities. You can view this video here : Social networks essentially provide us with a place to share memories.  Memories, according to John Locke, are the essence of our identity because we construct our identity based on what we remember of our past experiences.  Because of this, we construct our social media accounts to advertise the parts of us that we would like to remember, such as special days in our lives, places that we've ...
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Week 1: Media Ecologies

This week, I chose to share an article about how the overwhelming use of media has created the idea of media ecologies and the notion that a person's online self and real life self can be so drastically different, even if both "lives" are coordinated by the same person.  The article I chose is from the Huffington Post and is written by R. Kay Green. You can read the full article here . This article, in summary, references the all too real practice of creating an ideal self to promote on  social media platforms, which are prevalent among people of all ages. When posting to social media, this generation aims to portray their life as one of a celebrity, by boasting life successes, sharing photos of extravagant trips and vacations, and posting endless unrealistically filtered "selfies" that make people look like supermodels.  This online life does not reflect the true identity of the person, which may in reality include the extra 5 cups of coffee needed to stay aw...
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