Blog 6

After reading ALL of chapter 6, I get to the sentence in the summary that says "Technological affordances intersect with personal, social and cultural influences in ways that lead to media use meaning different things to different people in different relationships at different times" and I thought "I could have just read this one sentence and not the whole dang chapter and gotten the exact same thing out of it". Then I relize it DID say to just read the summary. But, since I did read the whole chapter, I'll make a comment on one or two points. At one point she talks about online relationships and how we "fill in the gaps" from what few cues we get from the other person. I used to live in Florida and worked at a compute dealer fixing computers. I got to know a woman via the phone at the Univ of Florida who would call to arrange to get computers fixed. They would send them to us, I'd fix them, and then send them back. She had a very sexy voice (and you can guess where this is going, but I'm gong to tell it anyway) and each time she called I just imagined a young, attractive, tanned young lady on the other end and did all I could do to keep her talking. When I finally met her 6-8 months later, as you've guessed, she wasn't quite what I imagined she was. She was considerably older than me and not all that attractive looking. God forbid I should see her on the beach. Anyways, this was back in the earlie 80's before small businesses had Internet access or email. The only cues about her I got was her voice and her willingness to talk about the university and her work. Not quite enough to form an accurate picture of what she looked like or her age.

Later in the chapter it talks about how "SNSs allow exchanges more emotionally risky than people would brave face to face", like what was mentioned in our earlier reading for blog 4 about texting (52% of respondents report sending text message to say something they wouldn't say face to face)

Blog 6 Internet Bonding

When I think of hours spent on the internet chatting with my out of town friends about daily problems. They intervene and help me over coming difficult situation that I couldn't solve by myself. When I'm at work, my close friend girl always sending me an email asking how is my day going. Sometimes it's fine, and sometimes it's not. When it's not, she always intervene with a scripture or a word from God.

I became to feel a relief of someone who cares about how I'm doing. We can pick up the phone right then and have a long conversation, but a simple text can change a dark day until a bright day.

I belive the texting itself, helps relieves tention during the day. When we type any thoughts, we usually type really fast. This relieve tension of anger, I do believe.
After all, when causing a distraction, releases!

So, bonding on the internet leads to a strong healthy relationshiop that will lock in a good friend.

Blog 6 Relations

When talking about relationships on the internet, I can go back to one of my very first friends. His name is Mike, I met him when I was 10-12 something like that on a local billboard (Yes this was before the actual internet) Call Shadow scape. We played, probably the nerdiest text based game of all time together called Tradewars. No you don't know what it is... Lets just leave it at that... Like Nancy's friend Markus we had something in common. She had his sweedish music, and Mike was one of the best at this game, till I joined in. Funny thing is I remember at the time my parents didn't understand what was going on they just knew some guy named Mike was calling the house asking questions about a text based game that they thought was us hacking into the government or something. They did take my computer because of this... And with all honesty there was some sort of foul play just not with the government... Anyway, to this day I talk with him on AOL (IM) literally daily. We play Xbox together and help eachother out with daily stress issues... BUT to use my example from before if I was moving I would never call him for help and vise versa. It's not that I or he wouldn't help me, it's just that we don't talk aside from the computer or Xbox so we don't think to talk to the other to ask for help. Eventhough I have known him YEARS longer than anyone else, and he may know more about me than even some of my family members. He is still not in my core group of freinds.

Cyberbullying...

The Pew report wouldn't load on my computer for some reason so I was not able to read the 2007 report but I did look up the report from 2010...

This was the report I read...

http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2010/May/Cyberbullying-2010.aspx

The stats are not all that shocking to me, I see myself engaging in many of these myself from the daily routine that is (not the bullying)

To be completly honest its VERY shocking to see that only 32% of teens are bullied on the internet... I will say however it is VERY shocking to findout that 26% of teens are bullied on their cell phones, the problem I have with this statistic is that they don't specify what core of friends are doing the "bullying". Are they random people? If so this is disturbing... Are they close friends that already have the number? How do people get the numbers to bully these kids? These are questions that would skew this report a little, because if the student gives out the number to someone who in turn bullys them I don't think you can contribute that to the internet as part of "Internet Communication"

Ah this brings me to "Spam"

Outlawed by the Government in 2003-2004 Spam used to be a GREAT way for X rated sites to make a killing. I knew quite a few people who did it.. Spamming now is more about harassment and seeing 54% of teens receive spam messages is amazing, it really makes me feel like the giovernment outlawing something makes a difference... (not really) Spam messages (the majority of the time) are the end user's fault. People don't just guess Cell phone numbers. These kids have given their numbers to someone who has sold it to the highest bidder, I know because I have seen this happen 100s of times but back then it was about emails rather than cell phone numbers.

Seeing that social network users are bullied more often is not suprising either, ladies don't put a cute picture of yourself on facebook and not expect creepys to come out of the woodwork and harass you. I wouldn't consiter this bullying more or less just being stupid.

For some reason the Ling Reading would not load either and I was not successful in finding it through Google so I will comment with my updates on this reading tomorrow when I get to work and have access to another computer... I hope you enjoyed the Blog!

Whizzle izzle...

Teens vs Cell Phones (Round 1 Fight!)

Reading the articles by Ling and Lenhart I must say I am convince with the face-to-face results over the current years. Although teens have the number one text addiction in the world it's amazing how they can still manage to use face-to-face interactions. In the article, ‘Teen, Texting, and Social Isolation,” by Rich Ling, he shows how the rate of face-to-face is holding steady. Many teens outside of school contact their friends on a daily basic. The issue with texting, chatting, and blogging is this technology is always available and so are the users. In the article, “Teens and Mobile Phones,” by Amanda Lenhart and other varies authors, it shows how over the years mobile phones have been a solid source for communication. Technology within the mobile world is moving in a fast past every minute a new application is being brought to this fancy technology called cell phones. I myself find it hard to believe to text and chat with someone all day everyday and not see them this is impossible at least for me. For example, I know I am going to sound like I am nine but when my mom text me more then she calls my mind wonders. What is she doing that important that she just could not call? I guess it's the unlimited plan she has with her phone that gives her this option lol. But it makes me miss her and reminds me everyday why I can't wait to May 7, 2011 to gradate so I can move in the house next door by my mommy and have a real conversation face-to-face!

Blog 6

The roles of the Internet plays such an important role in our culture. Every entity of wordily life if somehow intertwined with technology. Technologies such as cell phones, websites, social networks, blogs and computers are transforming the way we mesh together in our society today.

In Lenhart's research on teens and texting, several focus groups of different ages were asked questions about why and how they use their cell phones. The results concluded that parents wanted their teen or younger tween to have a phone for safety reasons but admit that mostly the teen wanted it to talk to friends. Some focus groups of the teens said that their parents wanted them to have the phone. I thought this finding to be surprising because it seems like the child would be begging for a phone. Also, the research touched on how teens did not mind being accessible all of the time to others. They said they did not find a phone call or text inconvenient. I am the opposite of that and feel that one of the most annoying things about having a phone and email is being on call all of the time. I thought it was interesting how many of the younger teens did not use the cell phone for the Internet activity but instead still relied on the computer. As they grow older, the study revealed the teens had their own jobs, which means they can afford their own plan resulting in their Internet acivity to be on their cell phone. I related more to the younger teen because I use my computer more for my Internet even though I do have Internet access on my phone.


I like Bayam's take on interpersonal relationships. Because the cell phone study done by Lenhart supported the idea that teens and parents find their communication better because of cell phones, I was confidant that Bayam agreed that because of the Internet, cell phones and other technologies, communication social ties are strengthened because of their existence. Even though there was a few excerpts that stated some research shows friendships more developed when formed face to face as well as partners who spend less time together and more time via Internet are less likely to share personal problems. Thus, as a cynic I would gather from these two sentences that there is a support of the issue that not all is better when communication is done primarily through the Internet. That there is still something to be said about looking someone in the face, spending quality time with them and sharing in each other's trials and tribulations. However, Bayam explains that as people are still trying to compare "online" and "offline" relationships the two differ so greatly they must not be compared. He explains in an analogy early in Chapter 6 about a relationship that developed over the internet that probably would not be developed if they would have met face to face. Their age difference and language barrier would have most likely set them too much apart in a social setting. However, because of the Internet their friendship has grown and flourished.

I believe that relationships grow stronger because of the people involved in the relationship. If they use the cell phone to call each other or IM every night at a certain time, I believe they are strengthening their ties together. On the flip side, I believe that many relationships are strong without using any technology to communicate and there is no void of any kind in which the Internet has to fill.

My hope is that my children will never text me goodnight from down the hall in our home. That as more and more of us accept the newest technology as a way of life, I hope that more and more of us will create boundaries and that we will keep some type of balance over the phenomenon of digital communication.

Interpersonal Communication

The option of how one communicates is the "in thing". Just think with all of the "interpersonal communication" media networks, being who we want to be or who others want us to be, is part of what makes this type of communication so scary. I have friends that spend a lot of time on these social networks. Some of the associates that I work with, some how, some way respond to Facebook and Twitter all day. When you see time stamps you know they were working. Whether its online or via their phones, they are ready to respond. Personally, I can't do it. There is such a since of urgency to respond, give an opinion, share detailed information of oneself, that I don't feel. In fact I'm very apprehensive about sharing any information, unless I know the person that is messaging me. Oneof the observations Professor Baym, made was about Facebooks, participants profiles are becoming vague, not too much personal data to view. But then I thought about me, I'm not an open book on my profile or my responses.
"Technology is natural" as written by William Revill, it is also necessary, that's what I say. It is each person responsibility to decide how these meadias will affect their lives. How much control will Twitter and Facebook have on the face-to-face encounters we have with each other.
Another point that was brought to light "people are doing the changing not the technology", so the control that we have is based on how we use communication medias. Will we let them alienate or isolate us from other people or is this the prep before our face-to-face conversations? We must remember online communication is different from face-to-face.

Blog 5 Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal Relationships and the Internet

Even though I think the internet and new technologies such as texting and emails are slowing destroying grammar and hurting the English language, I do think that these technologies are now an integral part of communication and our interpersonal relationships. One of the findings from the PEW report that surprised me (surprised might not be the word I would use) was that “About 60 million Americans say the internet has played an important or crucial role in helping them deal with at least one major life decision in the past two years”. It then explained how the internet had helped people with things such as buying a car, finding a job, finding a school, and finding a new place to live. Even though I have used the internet for those things, even right now I’m using the internet to find a new place to live, it isnt something that pops into my head when I think about the internet. I do think that the internet, especially social networks like Facebook, have played an important role in keeping me connected with my friends who go to other colleges. My friends and I are constantly involved in group messages and it almost feels like we’re having a real conversation because we are all participating.

Blog 5 "I hate it when people call me, can't they just Text?"

This reading to be honest is more extremely obvious stuff, lets think about it. If there is a means to talk to 1000s of people at one time then naturally you are not going to be able to see them physically all the time. I don't understand how they can make these assumptions as if it is negative that I have Friends I cannot talk to on the phone daily or see in person. I do agree that I would not be contacting someone I have not seen in years that I was best Friends with in high school to help me change a flat tire because I don't have my spare, or go to dinner with him and his wife in Chicago, or India. Sure that's something I would love to do but it's just not in the cards. Pew wants to imply that the Internet is changing the world in negative ways that I just don't see or understand. The worst thing about it is that it gives someone who like to be mean and start fights a great avenue to just argue all day without having to worry about being beat down like Nancy Kerrigan. Also what's wrong with getting a text or an email instead of talking on the phone? The only thing that is bad about getting a text is emotions are not conveyed so don't go being a smart ass God knows that can always come back to bite you. I did however find the numbers to be somewhat interesting. Seeing how much of the population doesn't use the Internet is really rather funny. I wonder how different this social networking survey would be if they included XBox live and the Ps3 online network. It's basically the same thing as Facebook with a microphone instead of a keyboard. Think about it... Would that be considered talking on the phone? Over Xboxlive? That would REALLY ruin some stats there PEW, I can't help I'm smarter than you...

-Whizzle Izzle... Back to the Internizzle...

Blog 5

Being my age, I have a lot of anecdotal stories to tell about just about everything. About 10 or so years ago, my wife and I went to visit a good friend of mine and his wife in Florida. This was the first time my wife had met this couple. We were there just for the night as we were continuing on to Daytona Beach and Orlando. Within a half hour of us arriving at their place, my friends wife was on AOL in one of the chat rooms showing us all the people she new and telling us their background, where they were from, etc. For the rest of the evening she sat with her back to us while my friend Charlie and I and my wife talked. She occasionally got up to get a drink or to say a few words, but for the most part sat at the computer typing away. After we returned home, Charlie called to apologize for her behavior and said that's all she does any more. He's doing the cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids and she just chats all the time. They latter divorced and according to him, one of the reasons was her addiction to the chat rooms and how she neglected the home front. I know this one occurrence doesn't speak for all chat room users (and might even sound sexist), but the point is this kind of behavior does happen which falls right in line with the fears expressed in part 1 of the Boase reading. When I first got started on the Internet, before the web browser and the always on internet connection, you dialed up individual text based bbs's, poked around, then disconnected and went on to the next one. I would spend hours online after I got home in the evening calling bbs's all around the country. The weekends were great because I could stay up till the wee hours of the morning and didn't have to worry about going to work the next day. But, I attribute my behavior and Charlie's ex-wife's to the newness of the Internet. Back then it was so new, and to me so fascinating, to know you could communicate with remote people and computers via the phone line. Today, the younger generation expects it and the older generation thinks it old hat.

I don't see how the Internet could do anything other than increase your core and significant ties. It would have to be under very unusual conditions for the Internet to decrease your ties. The fact that Americans still rely heavily on in-person encounters and telephones is encouraging and understandable. Core ties are the people who are closest to you and so would logically lend itself to being the people you have the most in-person contact with, people you build personal, physical bonds with. The Boase article was statistically interesting and the video made interesting references to people differentiating between ‘real world’ friends and ‘online’ friends. The opening steamboat and technology reference also seemed to be true. Overall interesting stuff.

Mama says its the devil.

Alright, not to go so far to say that "Mama" from the movie "Waterboy" was correct in saying that everything in itself is the devil, but is the internet really so bad? The internet is a tool that has created social groups and social norms for those groups. The internet is powerful, hurtful, helpful, and fun. By being a user, this does not mean that you are automatically going to become hacked or have your identity stolen from you. It does not mean that your bank account will be empty for no reason one day. It certainly does not mean that there is a chip planted in your brain from the all powerful digital technology gods we call government. BUT, it isn't perfect either. According to the PEW report, the main focus of the report seemed to really enjoy the fact that we have not been hindered but helped into communicating with each other. The findings were actually a little surprising in that I was one of those people that was certain the internet had created a communication barrier. Some people have created this fear that because of the use of technology- we will lose our "need" for face-to-face communicating. I have to say that it makes communicating so much easier that this fear is actually fathomable. However, I also think it is a bit far-fetched even for myself.
I absolutely enjoyed the digital interview with Baym. It made her words come to life. She had a great point at the end when she said that "your blackberry didn't make you do it". In my perception, she means that just because it is there- doesn't mean you have to use it that way. I will finish with that same idea that just because we have the ability to use the technology- doesn't mean we have to always use it. We can separate ourselves from it at free will. So maybe instead of blaming the digital world, maybe we need to create support groups for the addicted groups who have 10 Facebook accounts a piece and one for each dog and cat.

Please Step Away from the NET.......I Repeat

In today’s society the internet can either make you or break you. If you are in a relationship, married, or in love I am warring you please stay away from the net. Every since social networks hit the scene seems like the divorce rate is increasing. Social networks and access to porn is ruining interpersonal relationships and even the minds of children because it’s so easy to find these certain websites and get addictive. I think this is anyones' greatest fear losing a relationship they worked so hard for. To my surprise the Pew Internet Project feels it’s a “networked individualism,” so now it’s no long communicating within the household everyone is individual and is communicating in their own way. Rather it’s by cell phone, desktop, laptop, or iPads there is a way for everyone to talk to someone they want through a social network or an email. I called this “Secret Communication.” This is when you have people among you to interact with face-to-face but you rather socialize with someone on the internet. “Our work show that internet use provides online Americans a path to resource, such as access to people who may have the right information to help deal with health, medical or financial issue” (Boase 2). Seriously whatever happened to calling 411 or the phonebooks? Don’t get me wrong the internet is a very helpful source but sometimes they are scams on these resource websites.

Blog 5

There is this old song by Wynonna Judd called Grandpa Tell Me Bout The Good Ole days. (Linked it for all of you that are too young to know the Judds :). This song is how most people from this generation feel about a time without computers. It is foreign to digital kids and teens to know a world where you cannot "friend someone," "write on their wall" and "IM" someone.

In the Pew report much of the beginning describes the ideals of both sides of the fence. One being the notion that the internet is helping today's society connect, therefore, making people closer than ever and their communities larger than ever. On the other hand, there are those that fear that the interpersonal relationships and the sense of community is getting swallowed whole in cyberspace somewhere. While Pew's report was filled with abundant information (65 pages worth!) I found this statement to stand out in the text:

"The internet has fostered transformation in community from densely knit villages and
neighborhoods to more sparsely knit social networks. Because individuals-rather than households- are separately connected, the internet and the cell phone have transformed communication from house to house to person to person. There is `networked individualism. Rather than relying on a single community for social capital, individuals often must actively seek out a variety of appropriate people and resources for different situations."

In essence, I felt this statement summed up the results of the findings. This statement provides such a strong support of how the internet and cell phones have connected people. Yes, it admits that relationships are "sparsely knit" rather than "densely knit" but explains that although the former is true, the internet has fostered the transformation even still. It also supports the idea that having the internet among communities allow for individuals and groups to seek out people for various and specific situations, which in return creates more of a community withou borders.

I was suprised by the positive spin the article placed on the internet being such a unique fit to all types of communities. I was also intrigued by the discussion later in the pew report about the idea of email essentially filling the void of communication. I would have argued, before reading this report, that email is a cop out to face to face communication, but found this argument to be persuasive. The concept that is allows you to be freely communicating with others even when they are not up for immediate conversation is actually expanding the ties between the individuals. In the end, the concept of replacement was reassuring to those like me that worry the internet is taking over interpersonal relationships. The replacement hypothesis reported that ties were not severed among majority of groups that email, text, or IM. Instead, ties are strengthened and research says the users of these connections have stronger relationships because of the other ways they can connect.

Blog 5 CMC

Computer Meditated Communication help people to get a wide range of supporters from the social network of the internet. Also, this technolgy advances the support of speicial engines that the internet provides. It also cuts the time of preparation of sending and mailing documents.

On the other hand, CMC, deflects people from making real connections offline. It becomes so familiar as our source for communication with one another. As a Society we are losing connection with each others.

CMC has it pros and cons, so we as people have to make the decision on how much of it to use in our lives. Like in other thing in this world, we have to be careful on what we use and purchase.

Blog 4- webspeak

Webspeak is rapidly becoming apart of our lives on and offline. A lot of people use webspeak in emails, chats, and text messages because it is faster and easier to use. I myself am a victim of webspeak but i generally use it when i am on the internet, even right now im guilty of using it. My text messages never really contain and abbreviations. A big problem people are facing is the fact that webspeak is beginning to be used in school papers, which is actually hurting the students because they are not using proper English.

Blog 4 Oh yes!

Sadly, but we are all guilty of web speaking every now and then, mostly now. It is the quickest way to type and go to the next task on your list. Funny thing, but most people are very familiar with web speaking and enjoy doing it. I find myself reading from the internet where people use it frequently and laugh. People enjoy the fast past of typing gestures and webbing that they don't care what people say or think.

I do believe that we can get by with it, due to the fact that everybody today, don't have time to really communicate or collaborate on things. So, they speak while in traffic and anything sudden to come out.

We all are guilty of it, and think it's holarious once we read the reply back. I general didn't like it at first, but I found out that it is the easiest way to communicate, while the pace is fast.

Webspeak (Sorry, I thought this was due today)

"Netspeak is a development of millennial significance. A new medium of linguistic
communication does not arrive very often, in the history of the race."(Thurlow, 2003) I suppose it is fascinating to be a part of a culture that is developing such a unique way to speak to each other via text and computer lingo. It is not only a way for people to shrinktalk and text less as far as keying in their information, it also allows for text to refer to things that only the viewer may understand.
I will be 29 in March. To most people that age isn't old, however, when it comes to webspeak I am ancient. I am constantly seeing a jumble of letters together and asking myself, "what does that one mean?" In essence, I feel that webspeak is an easy way to leave adults behind and allow the younger teens to communicate in their own world.
Thurlow's article refers to Herring discussing where linguistic writing will in fact effect the other areas of writing and non-linguistic work. It will directly affect those using it in great amounts. I am glad I am doing my short paper on this topic to learn more about webspeak and how it plays such a mighty role in our culture.

Blog 4

I personally rarely use web/net speak, if at all. If I do, it’s usually to make a point or emphasize something. I can see one reason for shortened text in sms messages on phones and that is the input method. Having to type out long words with your thumbs is very time consuming and cumbersome. Have some one send an email and a text message with the same thought and I would think the email would have fully spelled out words and ideas and the text message would have abbreviations and be short and to the point. Typing with ten fingers verses two is much more efficient.

I found the fact that 52% of respondents report sending text message to say something they wouldn’t say face to face to be surprising. There’s either a lot of shy people (i.e., some one texting “I like you”) or the sender didn’t want to be around the person when they received the text message (i.e., some one texting “I want a divorce)”.

OMG LOL!! WTF Is Blog 4 Webspeak LMAO!!

Webspeak, ah webspeak... What is there to say about it... Sure I put dots at the end of every sentence... yeah usually 3 of them... 4-5 if i'm mad at you... Yeah it's part of my personal "internet" lingo... And you know what I don't care if you make fun of it... I rarely use ROFL, LMAO, or OMG (cause OMG it's so freakin' lame)... I don't understand using short for text messages either, although it never fails daily I get texts with something like "u gng tonight SNP DG is gon rule!" This sort of thing makes me angry... It's like ok, I get that you don't want to do the whole 20 minute conversation for a simple question like "Are you going to the snoop dog Concert tonight it's going to rule!"... If you are so lazy that you can't even type that out, well, then just call me for the love of God... It's the begining of the end of proper English as well as spelling, granted Im a horrible speller, but that right there is proof of how this is ruining the world. I am 1st generation "tech" person... I remember when there was no world wide web, Bill Gates was poor and windows was based out of dos... Yes ... Dos... For those of you over the age of 25 you may or may not know what I'm talking about... ok ok ok ... no not that one... Dos didn't do Oregon trail when you were 5 on the stupid apple's ... Dos was IBM based... you know C:/blah... anyway... I think this article makes very good points but at the same time it looks past the need for conventional methods of speaking... Whats the need? Why do we need correct spelling? Why does someone need to write everything out all the way? (aside from not pissing me off, ladies you know what I'm talking about) Why is it needed? So some a-hole can commend you on how well you can speak a language? If this was the case we would all still be saying "thou" and "to whom" It's called evolution... Language evolves just as we have... If old people can't keep up well thats not our fault now is it...

Maybe they should just chill out and understand times are going to change....

That is Izzle... Fo Shizzle.. From...

-D-Whizzle...

Com'on We all Do It...........Webspeak lol!

I must say technology is slowly taking over the world it is to the point where it is beoming controlling . In todays time if you don't have a cell phone you really don't exixts. We are living in a society where everything is becoming a number and, an alphbehet just look around you. Social sercurity numbers, a number in the church, and even a number to get school lunch, I guess it's safe to say we are living in a global communication as the authour, Crispin Thurlow would say. Webspeak has a big influence on our cultural because it's taking away of how proper English should be spoken the biggest problem is your nationality has nothing to do with it. It is more of an age group and digital technology everything is moving so fast. I always speak webspeak I mean I don't know a person who don't especially with all the social networks in the world I believe everyone has done before or at some point. My friends and I always websepak it's much easier and now I am to the point where I make my own short-hand abberviations, then I have to explain what it means lol. " Unique writting style provides oppertunity for creativity,"(Thurlow 3).I love this quote I feel like some time why can't short SMS just be a creative way of talking or sending mail, instead of making others feel like their trying to get a way from standard English, "text messages offten bear more resemblance to code than to standard language" (Thurlow 3). This is true after all we are living in different times!

Blog 3(late)

After reading Gerrand, I realized that the English language pretty much ruled the internet sky. Of course before the readings I had assumed that the English language had alot on the internet, but I have this fear of being a stereotypical English speaker and believing that us English speakers rule the world.
As Baym introduced chapter 3 with face to face, over the phone, and finally internet communication- I found myself agreeing with pretty much every piece of information regarding the general preference for facial and audio recognition for "verbal and non verbal cues" over the internets lack thereof. When reading up on social cues, flaming, and the "antagonist", I couldn't help but randomly laugh extraordinarily loud due to the excerpt from the Star Trek forum. I have heard rumors of how some people on the internet can rip you apart, but this was beautiful-A great way to explain a flame war.
The only real experience I have had with non-English language on the internet was from
A. playing yahoo chess from someone in mexico (spanish speaking only sometimes)
or
B. when I clicked on the wrong tab for a website and I get a french version or something.

Honestly, I don't see these things as issues, just language barriers that the world has from being just that, a world. Unless the entire planet agrees on a universal language (go english!), I think we will be just fine by doing what we have been doing for decades.

Blog 2 (Late)

Well after finally being able to read Baym.. I can begin to catch up on my blogs! First, I noticed in both readings that they touch on the fear that language in users is degrading over time due
to, basically, laziness of typing a word. I see the abbreviations for words that will make our language lazy such as: lol, lmao, rofl, brb, gtg, ttyl etc. I tend to agree with both Baym and Herring when they state that these forms of CMC is continually making our world of language and communication more portable, therefore ending with a less personable means of communicating. One thing I thought really touched my thoughts perfectly was one phrase used in Baym's reading on page 34 of chapter 2.
"The internet would lead to the world Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of, in which people would be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin." Baym goes on to describe the superbowl commerical from MCI "There is no race, there are no genders, there is no age, there are no infirmities, there are only minds. Utopia? No, the Internet"

I believe that these words could not be more true of the internet, and that many points offered by both authors are actually well founded in these ideas.

How Do U Want to Communicate?

In the last chapter we talked about the hopes and fears in the new technology world. In chapter 3 Baym discusses face-to-face communication versus internet communication. We can understand that not only are we living in an information world but a digital world too! A world in which we use social cues. The understanding of how people would rather communicate face-to-face because of Social Presence , which is the “level of interpersonal contact and feeling of intimacy experienced in communication” (Baym 53). When it comes to communication nonverbal and verbal language plays a major part every human being has used it one point or another in their lives. When Bayam explains the Social Presence Theory she turns our attention how the theory focuses on real and present; and the Medium Richness Theory which focuses on the medium. In other words this is how the world is operating rather we like or not? These are two very important theories in the world right now because it is how the world is communicating on a daily basis.

Blog 3

Flaming, or as we like to call it now a days, Trolling, has got to be one of the most annoying but yet fun things you can possibly do on the Internet. Who says correcting someone's grammar like they are writing an MLA format paper on a youtube comment isn't fun, if you are trying to anger someone it's probably the most fun thing you can do on the internet. On top of it all you can be totally anonymous in the process of doing this. What better way to have fun with a hot headed old person or an obnoxious little kid than to slander their thoughts and insult spelling and grammar as if they care about it. Between twitter, youtube, facebook, and myspace thats is pretty much all the internet is becoming. The means of information is becoming the key and not the actual information itself. People are more concerned about a journalist's grammar in an article about something important than the actual message of the article itself. It's really quite funny.

Languages, are really not important at all by this point. The world has languages that I can kinda see ass barriers to separate the rest of the world from the small portal we see in our daily lives. The language used by anyone means nothing anymore, with the way technology is becoming you don't need to speak 5 languages to have a conversation with someone in Arabic. It's a simple keystroke, a google search, and a cut/paste away from being able to tell someone on the other side of the planet they suck at grammar as well. Google has had translators that will load up entire HTML's now for several years, I have actually done business this way several 100 times. It's a great way to break any barrier of communication in the sales/business world.

All and all I think in the next 20 years there will be advances so strong in the language department that needing to know how to speak another language will be pointless, people will have handheld devices that will do it for us. Technology is awesome isn't it.

Can I get a hell yeah?

-David

Blog 3

I am shocked that it is possible to monitor the use of key words or phrases in digital text. It just seems like something that would be hard to attain data for because of the broad uses of the internet. It also seems unfair that conclusions can be drawn on by languages used because of the type of platform many people are using the internet for in their expression. I know for sure that I do not concern myself with grammatical decisions as much when typing on social networks or blogs.

I thought it interesting how Gander took note of the wide span of internet users that do not speak the written language that they are typing. Therefore, there speaking lanugage conflicts with what they are researching or typing on the internet. In this data, however, it is dated 2005 and earlier. The formula used relies on a formula from the Global Reach webiste. It would seem that much of this information would be hard to gather with trying to manage the cenus information, first language spoken and along with internet access.

In comparing Herring (1999) to the linguistic study, I found that face to face communication remains the key ingredient in communication. There is still a gap among people in their written skills and using the internet.

Blog 3

Flaming segments in reading today is use to create an interest to readers. To me I see flame as a way to point out the important part of English writing. We all are guilty of using action words to keep the reader interested in listening to what we have to say.

Also, in the standard English world flaming is intended to bring about rage or excitement to text. English text is sometimes looked at in a critical way when it single out. When I think of flame, I think of bursting words that expresses energy and wits.

Texting of today is mostly done by short detail words that are straight to the point. This text is not spelled out fully, but abbrevated to keep from doing long texting.

I myself don't approve of flame text, due to the fact that sometime I am lost by it. Sometimes when I see flame text, I respond back by saying, what? Smile. However, this is the new technology of today, and people are thrill about it.

Blog Entry 3

Ah, flaming; the bane of early newsgroup reading. I used to spend a lot of time reading computer newsgroups and to me it seemed to happen a lot. Seems like all it took was one misspelling, one misplaced innuendo, one statement misunderstood and Lord help us, it was Flame On! Some people did it just to try and show off their abundant trivial knowledge of a subject, while others did it just to be a jackwagon (my new curse word from the Geico commercial). And, while the last paragraph of the section "The example of antagonism" explains a lot of it, some of it can also be written off to maturity. People who flamed did so because they could get away with it, something they might not do in real life. It was like they had an alter ego.

The fact that most web pages are in English to me makes sense, since English is the world standard language, meaning it's the official language of several countries plus it is the most widely spoken international language. However, the web presents an excellent place to expand and archive any language that can be displayed with Unicode. Books go out of print, yet on the web, information is almost always (well, some web sites do go away) available. A web site dedicated to documenting a language would almost certainly be archived if not absorbed into another if needed and would not go away. The language could live on indefinitely. I’ve obviously seen websites in different languages, but not speaking any other language, they are more of a curiosity than anything else.

One thing the web has lead to, in my opinion, is tons of grammatical and spelling mistakes. It used to be that you could pick up a newspaper, read it cover to cover and never find a spelling mistake. It would be an embarrassment to the publisher if you did. Now a days, there is such a rush to get the story out as quickly as possible that hardly a day goes by that, if you look hard enough, you'll find either a spelling mistake or a blatant grammatical error on any number of respected news sites.