Facebook Friendships

In Boyd's article she shares her thoughts on "friendship" within social media:
"When a Friend request is sent, the recipient is given two options: accept or decline. In short, it's socially awkward to say no."

I agree with Boyd, though. It is totally awkward to defriend a boss or a person you went to high school with. But for me personally I would rather keep my friend list to a minimum vs. accumulating a list of random "friends".

After our discussion in class on Monday about the definition of an online friend, I went on twitter. The first tweet on my feed was from my friend (twitter friend and real life friend): "Does anyone else find themselves scrolling through their FB like 'who are these people' ... Should've been more selective when adding people". It was super ironic that she was tweeting that considering I had just left a class where the conversation was solely based around this issue. I had stated in class that during high school I had 1,000+ Facebook friends and as of a few months ago I am down to about 500. I cut my number in half because people I have never even met or met one time years ago were showing up on my newsfeed. I think the initial hype of Facebook had everyone friending any person they had even a little connection to, but as time has gone on I am finding that people are using it strictly for close friends and family members. Although some people have thousands of friends and use it as a way to display their accomplishments and how amazinggg life, for the most part I view it as a way of keeping up with/ in touch with family and friends.

Are we addicted to Google?

Absolutely.

Google has changed our world for the better in my opinion. Yeah, we may rely on it for tasks that could be completed without the assistance, but hey I say if it's there to help us we should absolutely use it. It's always funny talking to older generations about technology. They are so mind blown by how advanced our society has become over the past decades, yet, to us we have simply grown up in this technology age. I can remember being in third grade and my teacher telling us to type "http://google.com" into the search bar. She explained to us that this was a search engine that we could use for all sorts of questions. She emphasized that this would be a great tool for us to use in life.

We have never been discouraged from using technology and I think because of this we tend to rely on it so much. I use Google all the time- whether it's using Google Search to answer a simple, silly question or having a video conversation via Google Hangouts with my friend Kelly who is studying abroad in Rome. The possibilities that Google provides us with are endless and the advancements will only continue to blow us away.

I know that our society has become so obsessed with social media, the Internet, television, our cell phones, etc. Sometimes when you step back and see how much it has changed our culture as a whole it is sad. You see people out to dinner "spending time with one another", yet they are more concerned with posting their lasting picture to Instagram. Technology has changed the way we interact with one another. We can blame it on so many various reasons- but the fact of the matter is that we have to learn to adjust to this new culture. We are an adaptable society. We adapted to the convenience of technology.... now we just have to adapt to the affects it has had on our society. I challenge everyone to turn their phones off the next time they are out with their friends! You’ll be amazed.

“I look at Google and think they have a strong academic culture. Elegant solutions to complex problems.”

~ Mark Zuckerberg

Just Do It

The responses Bruce Shneier had to Rebecca Blood’s questions stood out to me because they were honest. When she asked him if he ever writes to deliberately provoke a reaction he shared that he has never written a blog post with the thought: “This will certainly get a reaction from the community.” This intrigued me because I feel that half of the blogs I come across raise controversial questions and topics, almost as if the writer wanted to get a rise out of their viewers. Although Schneier said that he always tries to look for different points of view and opinions to write about, he writes to write. He writes to convey a simple thought or a complex idea because he enjoys expressing himself. I think it is brave when people put their work out there knowing that they will receive all kinds of feedback.

Schneier shared that he wishes he knew who his writing reached. He knows people respond to his thoughts through various discussions and fan mail, but he does not know which specific types of people read his work. Whether he learns the type of people he is reaching or not, one thing is certain: he is bringing a variety of people together and allowing them to relate, simply through the use of words. (In another media class I am taking this term, the professor told us he believes the greatest invention was the alphabet. I could not agree more. Through 26 letters, we are able to communicate on so many levels- how incredible.)

In regards to starting your own blog he says:  

“Just do it. Don’t worry about being boring. Don’t worry about being interesting. Just do it.”

People are going to judge you know matter what you do, but when you are willing to express yourself through writing I think you will learn many positive things about yourself, as well as others.