Is This Me?
It's Sunday and I am in Vegas at my local Starbucks. Hi my name is Jazmyn and I'm an addict. Caffeine addict that is. But I am mainly here because my wireless connection at my house went out. Hi my name is Jazmyn and I am also addicted to my wireless connection. I know this probably sounds like too much personal information, but it is relevant I promise! Relevant to the Michael Wesch videos I finally got around to watching - - thanks to my best friend that is T Mobile Wireless.
According to the argument made in his videos, "Web 2.0 links people - - we are the machine."
I agree and disagree.
At times I feel myself completely connected to the world by the fact that I can converse and see friends who are miles, countries and sometimes just rooms away, talk to strangers who I will never see let alone hear their voice on the phone, and post blogs that people I don't know can read.
But at other times, I miss hearing/seeing/being with the people I know, and I sometimes wonder if it would enhance my life if I actually met the people I talked to over the Web. That's not to say I want to meet the creepers who pop in and out of my inbox on myspace or facebook - - I'm talking about the people you converse with on sites like Creative Cow - - colleagues of sorts, creators.
But I suppose every good thing has its shortcomings. And in this case, I think the Web has in fact connected me to so many things that the classroom can not. The message in a Vision of Students Today was very interesting and pretty much hit home for me. Out of pure curiosity and because I finally have some wireless connection, I did some inventory.
In the past month:
-I have written 51 pages for school papers
-I have written 613 pages of email
-I have posted about 150 wall posts on Facebook
-I have spent on average 5 hours in front of my computer a day. Keep in mind I'm usually awake for only 10 hours or so during the day.
O and my roommate pointed out a very peculiar habit I have. As soon as the alarm goes off in the morning I do not run to the bathroom, I do not make my coffee, I do not stay in bed and I do not brush my teeth right away (ya kinda gross). I get up and go STRAIGHT to my laptop and check my email. I never even realized this habit of mine, it seemed so normal to me. The first thing I see in the morning is my inbox. The first thing I hear in the morning is "You've got mail." Am I sick?
I suppose I'm a product of my culture. Or at least that's what I am going to tell myself for now. The machine has not taken over my life, I've made my life part of this machine. Nearly everything I do in a day is contingent on whether or not I have received some sort of data that was sent to me over the wonderful friend which is the Web.
In terms of College and the Web and Technology
If I could reimagine my college experience I'd change many things. I would want everything to be interactive. Even if that meant that there were no computers involved, I'd want more hands on experience. And if I was fortunate enough to have computers in every class, well,I'd bascially throw out the idea of the class and sit in front of my computer from wherever I was and watch class through a screen and interact with other students and my professor through the Web. This would have many advantages. I could travel and be anywhere in the world and still get a degree. I wouldn't have to pay for housing if I was simply moving about all the time. And maybe, just maybe that would mean that tuition costs from great universities weren't so extravagant. All books could be posted online and that alone would cut out a significant portion of costs.
But there are problems with that. Problems that would become mine. In this ideal college setting - - as a student, I win. As a person trying to make a living in the media industry in the future - - I lose. Authorship flies out the window and nearly any publication or media tool becomes free to the public. It has its perks, but at the same time, it's stealing in a way. It's reaping the benefits of one person's work without them getting any entitlement to it.
The Web is a confusing area-no black-no white-just grey. It's getting messy and it is our problem, whether we create it or not, we've surely inherited it.
According to the argument made in his videos, "Web 2.0 links people - - we are the machine."
I agree and disagree.
At times I feel myself completely connected to the world by the fact that I can converse and see friends who are miles, countries and sometimes just rooms away, talk to strangers who I will never see let alone hear their voice on the phone, and post blogs that people I don't know can read.
But at other times, I miss hearing/seeing/being with the people I know, and I sometimes wonder if it would enhance my life if I actually met the people I talked to over the Web. That's not to say I want to meet the creepers who pop in and out of my inbox on myspace or facebook - - I'm talking about the people you converse with on sites like Creative Cow - - colleagues of sorts, creators.
But I suppose every good thing has its shortcomings. And in this case, I think the Web has in fact connected me to so many things that the classroom can not. The message in a Vision of Students Today was very interesting and pretty much hit home for me. Out of pure curiosity and because I finally have some wireless connection, I did some inventory.
In the past month:
-I have written 51 pages for school papers
-I have written 613 pages of email
-I have posted about 150 wall posts on Facebook
-I have spent on average 5 hours in front of my computer a day. Keep in mind I'm usually awake for only 10 hours or so during the day.
O and my roommate pointed out a very peculiar habit I have. As soon as the alarm goes off in the morning I do not run to the bathroom, I do not make my coffee, I do not stay in bed and I do not brush my teeth right away (ya kinda gross). I get up and go STRAIGHT to my laptop and check my email. I never even realized this habit of mine, it seemed so normal to me. The first thing I see in the morning is my inbox. The first thing I hear in the morning is "You've got mail." Am I sick?
I suppose I'm a product of my culture. Or at least that's what I am going to tell myself for now. The machine has not taken over my life, I've made my life part of this machine. Nearly everything I do in a day is contingent on whether or not I have received some sort of data that was sent to me over the wonderful friend which is the Web.
In terms of College and the Web and Technology
If I could reimagine my college experience I'd change many things. I would want everything to be interactive. Even if that meant that there were no computers involved, I'd want more hands on experience. And if I was fortunate enough to have computers in every class, well,I'd bascially throw out the idea of the class and sit in front of my computer from wherever I was and watch class through a screen and interact with other students and my professor through the Web. This would have many advantages. I could travel and be anywhere in the world and still get a degree. I wouldn't have to pay for housing if I was simply moving about all the time. And maybe, just maybe that would mean that tuition costs from great universities weren't so extravagant. All books could be posted online and that alone would cut out a significant portion of costs.
But there are problems with that. Problems that would become mine. In this ideal college setting - - as a student, I win. As a person trying to make a living in the media industry in the future - - I lose. Authorship flies out the window and nearly any publication or media tool becomes free to the public. It has its perks, but at the same time, it's stealing in a way. It's reaping the benefits of one person's work without them getting any entitlement to it.
The Web is a confusing area-no black-no white-just grey. It's getting messy and it is our problem, whether we create it or not, we've surely inherited it.
posted by Jazmyn Henry at
7:24 PM
1 Comments:
Nice post. When my alarm goes off I stay in bed for 5 minutes, then I check my email (it's open from before I went to sleep). I delete my spam before actually reading anything, but yeah, you're not the only one, and it's not weird.
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