Why Do Doves Cry?

Unfortunately as time goes on the world continues to lose amazing musicians in the music industry. When this happens, the media gets flooded with all sorts of tributes, stories, and memorials for the musician that passes away.  While I love the idea that these extremely talented (well, some of them... ) people are being remembered for their works, I believe that it is NOT fair that they receive this surge of popularity AFTER they die. 

I was reading an article earlier about how Prince received a surge in the amount of albums sold after he passed away. The surge was extremely dramatic, some 42,000%. The article also mentioned a surge in albums sold that was similar to this when David Bowie and Michael Jackson died. At the end of the article the author wrote how this was a wonderful tribute to Prince from his fans. Again, while I agree with having tributes for these amazing musicians, why is it that this surge in fame happens only after they pass away? This especially goes towards the people who may have never listened to their music then all of the sudden when the media gets hype after they die the people decide they want to listen. Support musicians before they pass away!!

Questioning Your Privacy?

theblaze.com

The Internet is a wonderful place where people can learn and express themselves more frequently, and more easily than in the real world...because of this many questions about privacy problems have risen along with the popularity of the Internet. Among these privacy issues are that of companies, and school systems screening people's online profiles for information regarding their lifestyles. This is either something that is a huge problem, or not a problem at all for Internet users.

In my opinion, when Internet users are actively using online profiles and sites they keep a reputation much like the one they keep in the real world. What each person chooses to do with that reputation is up to them. Knowing this, we can assume that each person should uphold a reputation that they see fit. Due to how vast the Internet is, I do not believe we will be able to keep companies, and schools from monitoring people's online activities. While I agree that a person should have a right to freedom of speech on the Internet, is it always necessary to post EVERYTHING online for the world to see? If you feel like your privacy on a certain post to the Internet might be improvised...chances are you should not post whatever that may be in the first place. If you do not want the CIA to know you are going out for pizza...then do not post that you are going out for pizza.

99 Problems but the Internet Ain't One

The big question that is posed in today's society is... "is the internet making us dumb?". Well, I think it is fair to say that that may not be the case.

The internet has brought us many awesome tools to broaden our educations and learn about things that we would have had a harder time learning about before the age of the internet. The ability to have information instantaneously is a powerful thing when becoming more educated about the world. 

According to an article by Nicholas Carr, the internet can have some bad effects on us as well. I do believe that because of the fast paced aura of the internet that we as learners are losing our ability to focus on long, complex texts. I do NOT believe that this is what is making us "dumb". I think that we as a society are becoming "dumb" because of our lack of motivation to change the way we are becoming. I don't think it is right to blame our societal problems on the internet, after all we as a society are the ones that make up the internet. 

I think the question to ask here is not "is the internet making us dumb?" but maybe, "are we making the internet dumb?".

SPOILER ALERT

In reference to Jenkins book, Convergence Culture, he talks about spoilers and how they came to bring a whole community of fans of the CBS hit show Survivor together. I thought this chapter was super interesting to read, I never thought that hunting for spoilers of a TV series had become such a popular activity. Although it was interesting to read, I do not get where the fun is in "spoiling".

It was even more interesting to read how the participants were getting really into this hobby. In the book Jenkins references a forum website called SurviorSucks. According to the book this forum was filled with posts about possible spoilers for the show. There was a mystery participant called ChillOne who was active on the forums spread his vacation information claiming to have all of these legitimate spoilers. The community got pretty fired up about it and spent months picking apart his information and analyzing it, there was even a book written about it.

I think that working so hard to "spoil" the show ruins the show to begin with. What is the fun in watching a show if you already know everything there is to know about the outcomes? One could argue that there is fun in the game itself, but isn't the show alone supposed to be what is fun in the first place?

 

Have you ever Google'd Google?

 

 

I can say, until recently this would most definitely always be me. If I had a question about something, I would go straight to Google for the answer. I will say though, after going through a personal realization of how much I actually use the Google's search engine I have recently decided to give another search engine a try (DuckDuckGo). One of the reasons I enjoy making the switch is knowing that Google won't be tracking my every move (Google, I know you run Blogger…if you're reading this...no hard feelings) BUT, I will say that DuckDuckGo does not have a nifty feature like Google Images, or some of the other features of the Google search engine.

This brings up an interesting point though... are we being spoiled by Google? If the answer to this question is yes…which I do believe it is, then we are essentially allowing Google to take over our lives by continuing to let ourselves be spoiled by it. Life moves at a very fast pace in today's society so people are always looking for the quickest answer, which Google has become very successful in providing us.

Opinions on Google are really a personal preference, personally I am going to cut back on how much I really choose to let Google control my internet experience...but I am also okay with losing the features over gaining more privacy while online. Google gaining more control over our online experiences (and other aspects of our lives as well) is inevitable, people will continue using Google because it is easy and quick to use.

Blogging about Bloggers talking about Blogging; wait, what?

     I thought it was interesting skimming over a group of blogger's interviews before actually choosing one to write about. I think one of the parts about blogging that I really respect is people's ability to write freely and openly about what they really enjoy, and to be able to share the experiences they have had with their readers. The blogger that stood out to me the most is Trine-Maria Kristensen. Of course I picked the blogger who is from Denmark and blogs in Danish (ha ha I can't read Danish), but thanks to Google Translate I was able to get some idea of what she writes in her blog. (Really, read it.)

     The first thing that I related to very quickly from her interview was that she too found blogs/blogging confusing before actually getting into the ordeal. As much as I love the idea of blogging and writing freely, the process still confuses me and honestly makes me a bit nervous. She mentioned in her interview that she wanted to start blogging but never got around to it...one of the reasons being that she was a bit shy about it. This is exactly how I feel about blogging and putting my words out there for people to read. I could sit here and type you the worlds longest/saddest song on the world's tiniest violin about how I am scared to blog (don't worry, I will spare you) when in reality, I should just do it. It is not a bad thing to put your thoughts and ideas out there. I respect Trine-Maria for deciding to do just that, and I think that's why I enjoyed reading through her blog and reading her interview, which I recommend highly (again, here is the link...at least skim it).

     After looking into different bloggers a little more, I have figured out that there could be a lot to learn from different blogs and their creators. Another great thing that Trine-Maria posted about was a book she was working on about how to get more from "wasting" time on Facebook. This is definitely a book that I would spend time reading, and I have this blog post to credit for linking me to it. Maybe I should spend less time on Facebook and more time reading blogs (hmm..).

Well Ned Stark, you might be right...(Game of Thrones, it is awesome, watch it.)

     While at first I was not excited about the idea of blogging and reading blogs, my first look at a true weblog (with the help of taking a class about blogging, which of course led me to discover my first true weblog) may have changed my perspective on the whole thing. Reading over Trine-Maria's interview and blog helped me to not be so closed minded, and also showed me that blog posts can have awesome and inspiring content to read through. Even though I do not personally consider myself as a strong writer, I think that with the inspiration from Trine-Maria, and my blogging class..casual blogging could be in my near future.

My First Blog Post

Oh boy. I am blogging, this is new.

    help.

Please send help.

This is great.