Social interactions across media

“Social interactions across media” analyzes online communication and how it fits into college students’ daily routines. It also compares online communication versus other forms of media, such as face-to-face, telephone, and e-mail communication. The article stresses that social communication is comprised of multiple forms of media. It also points out the mixed results that have come from studies that exclusively analyze overall time spent on the internet, and not other variable factors.

What I found most interesting was the finding that subjects tended to multi-task more during face-to-face communication than online communication. This goes against the common idea that online communication breeds isolation and reclusiveness. I also thought that taking “quality” of media into account was interesting. As the paper observes, an older person will not think of the internet as the same “quality” of communication as face-to-face or telephone communication.

-Whit Alexander

Dating to Divorcing: Caught in the web of love.

USA today warns readers about electronic data playing an expanded role in divorce proceedings. Almost a quarter of people surveyed confessed to snooping on someone else’s e-mail, but data relevant to divorce proceedings is often obtained from facebook or myspace pages. A family law specialist from Nashville reveals: “I’ve been in this business 27 years… People were much more careful about what they wrote down in correspondence than they are in e-mail.” Electronic evidence probably has not led to more divorces, Moses says. But it can certainly make a lawyer’s job easier.

OkCupid (an online dating service) takes a candid and snarky look in the mirror, publishing data about how race influences users to respond to first-contact emails.  They determined what response rates should be, based on compatibility, and what the actual response rates were, based on race and gender.  Their conclusion: racism is alive and well.

Two of the most striking observations are– black women respond more frequently, but get responses less frequently than other groups, and that white men get more responses than other groups. Also surprising, most groups do not admit to a strong preference to date someone of their own racial background, but more than 50% white women  do (by far the highest preference).

The article about self-presentation was the best of the bunch. It debunks the myth that many people use false or dramatically altered identities on dating sites. Fudging certain details like age or weight are common, but more socially acceptable than major misrepresentations. Because self-presented data is by definition selected, contextual information like log in times and length or quality of writing have heightened importance. The online world offers more possibilities for control over self presented data, but increases the need to establish credibility, and more heavily weights the importance small contextual clues.

week 8, readings 1 & 2

This week’s readings and YouTube clip were about Web 2.0 and education.

Education has changed over the years to go from preparing students for a lifetime on the assembly line to being prepared for a life of technological advances.

The Internet is becoming more and more prevalent in the school system. For example, teachers are using the Internet in classes by having their students blog for credit…sounds kind of familiar, huh. They are also using Instant Messaging technology to keep in touch with parents, though there are some issues with this particular technology. In order to keep from getting viruses from it, there are firewalls to protect kids and computers that make it harder for these to be used in the school buildings.

Web 2.0 is very important in today’s society, and especially in our schools. It’s helping American children catch up with the rest of the world’s school population. For example, the YouTube clip said that there are more honors students in China than there are students in the United States. (Of course, that could have something to do with the differences in population.) If we want to keep up with the rest of the world, we need to utilize the technology that we have on hand.

Learning through your phone, and in Second Life

The United Nations ICT Task Force is enthusiastic about the potential for learning through cell phones. The authors lament the fact that phones are being banned from schools, and suggest that they are being underutilized in educational settings. Today cell phones are more powerful than computers of the mid-1990s, and the quality is improving rapidly.

Although cell phones pose certian limitations, the authors see the brighter side of every dilemma. For example, they predict that screen size limitations may force publishers to display information in a more concise way rather than just adding extra pages. Any one who remembers middle school text books can understand this argument. But they are hyping the potential for education more than current uses. Compared to students in the US, Asian and European students are making more use their phones for education.

The Second Life video highlights numerous advantages to learning in a virtual environment including, collaboration, translation, immersion, and self-paced discovery. They argue that students who are accustomed to multi-tasking and have attention spans shaped by Warcraft learn better in virtual immersion.

They use the words, ineffective, irrelevant and unproductive, to describe the results of our traditional system of education. Many educational institutions are setting up shop in second life.

The video is exciting and informative, but I am left wondering about the role of teachers in a world where learning doesn’t take place in a class room. although Second Life may be a great way to have a virtual meeting with colleagues from around the world, it may make meeting people in your own neighborhood less likely.

Warning! Texting hazardous to health.

In two articles, the New York Times reports a new law making texting while driving illegal and the toll excessive texting has on teens.

The Times points to a University of Utah study that concluded texting-drivers are even more dangerous than drunk-drivers. It seems like a common sense observation that concentrating on anything other than the road is dangerous while driving, but, “in the opinion of many safety experts, self-deluding multitaskers have had their way long enough.” Although I have found myself defending multitasking in the past, more and more research seems to  suggest that when it comes to doing two (or more) things at once, 2+2=3. We just don’t have the brain resources to concentrate on multiple complex behaviors.

The second article details the mind-blowing growth of texting among teens. The average teenager sends and receives nearly 2,500 messages a month, double what it was last year. In addition to the threats posed to a teen’s sleep schedule and thumbs, the constant contact may be adversely affecting their psychological development sense of independence.

A clue for parents: if you are obsessed with constant communication, your 13 year old will be too. Although ICT is essential to getting work done at the pace of business, these practices can degrade other qualities of life. The fact that teenagers have no real need for such constant communication does not stop them from using the tools they are given. I’m guessing that the majority of teen-texts are fairly mundane, but expecting to receive  over a thousand texts a month just might make a person less independent in adulthood.

The experts seem to be saying, take it easy on the text messages.

Week 7 Readings 1 & 2

This week’s readings one and two were about the use of the Internet to obtain medical information. According to Kivits, it is seen “as a primary source of health and medical information. That study looked at four different sets of people to come up with these findings.

According to Pew, “61% of American adults look online for health information,” though they still seek out the help of traditional sources of health information. These include asking health professionals, such as doctors, friends and family members, printed medical manuals, and even health insurance providers.

Of all the people who get information off the Internet, half of the inquiries are on behalf of someone else. Then, two-thirds of these people talk to someone else about what they have found. This shows that health information is not delivered in a social bubble. Even though this is the case, social networking sites are rarely being used to pass along medical news.