Tweets
Following the first day of class, Professor Padgett asked that we tweet something we learned that day. Because of a game that we played, I learned the names of all of my classmates.
When we first began our process towards our research papers, Adam ask us to tweet our inquiry question. Mine was about the effects of social media and whether there more positives or negatives.
During one class period, the class met in the Atkins Library to attend a presentation teaching us about the wide variety of things we can gain through the use of the campus library. Adam asked us to tweet something that we learned from the presentation.
I tweeted this because writing about social media throughout the semester has shown me that when you have enough knowledge and interest in something, it's much smoother to write about.
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Journal EntriesWhat makes things viral?
For something to become "viral" on social media, it usually needs to be one of two things: funny or shocking. When I see something that makes me laugh, it makes me want to share it with as many people as possible so that they may laugh as well. Also, things that are shocking like someone being killed or making some crazy basketball shot tend to go viral as well. Professor Padgett asked the class to write about what we believed made things go "viral" on the Internet. While there are many different reasons why something may become viral, I believe that these two reasons are the most prevalent. Dove Soap The goal of the video is to redefine beauty to a group of girls who are insecure about their appearances. They define beauty as being unique and not being afraid to put yourself out there no matter how insecure you may feel about your looks. The video sells soap by shedding a positive light onto Dove's company.
We watched this video as a group one day in class. I chose to add this to my portfolio because I believe that Dove did an excellent job of both advertising their company and helping a group of young women feel more confident about themselves. I think that more companies should do things like this because it would good for their business, along with all the people they could help. Listen Up (article) What is the purpose of this article? The writer's purpose is to bring to light the growing issue of the withering of the deaf culture due to new technology. What are some further inquiry questions about this? How do cochlear implants work? How do these implants affect the deaf community? What other cultures may be affected by the technology? The blind culture may also be affected by this type of technology, along with the possible withering of braille, like sign language. What stood out most about the article? I was surprised that some people found it demeaning that technology was being developed in an attempt to aid deaf people in their sense of hearing. Do you agree with the article? I think that people who think that this technology is a negative thing are incorrect. I think that anything that can help someone with any type of handicap should be looked upon with a positive light. I chose this journal entry because I have a friend who is deaf, so this topic really struck an interest in me. Although I disagree with the opinion that aids to people with disabilities can possibly be a negative thing, the article struck up a good conversation in the class. How much do you use social media? I rarely engage in social media. The only thing I really use is Snapchat and I have recently deleted it. Social media can be a great form of communication, but at the same time, it can cause a lot of problems. At any given time, you can get on Twitter and you will most likely find someone saying some sort of negative thing about someone else. While many people are able to keep the peace on social media, the number of people who are not is too high for me to be able to enjoy it. When we first began discussing the futures of inquiries, Professor Padgett asked us to begin thinking about how much social media we engage in and how it affects us. The amount of social media that I use has not really changed much since I wrote this journal entry, and I still believe everything that I wrote to be true. Inquiry Proposal I found the Inquiry Proposal paper to be very straight forward and relatively easy. The only struggle I had was reaching the 800 word minimum with the limited information I had. This journal entry was about the first major paper we were assigned. Professor Padgett asked us to write what we thought about the paper and what the most difficult part of the assignment was. I have always struggled to reach minimum word counts without enough pre-existing information. Digital Nation (video) Early in the documentary, there is a discussion on multitasking. One student comments that she can multitask very well and that professors just don't understand this skill the younger generation has. Discuss the findings of multitasking in the Stanford study and your particular views on multitasking. Are you adroit at multitasking? Is this true that professors just don't understand or is multitasking a real problem? The Stanford study found that students' brains function better when they are focused on one thing at a time rather than when they are multitasking. What can you infer on the study of how the brain functions while reading a book and how the brain functions while googling. What kind of argument are they making about reading vs googling? The brain scans showed about double the brain activity while Googling than while reading. Dr. Small said that all the extra work wears the brain out rather than strengthening it. How do you respond to the charge that we are raising the "dumbest generation"? I disagree with the statement that this is the dumbest generation because the technology we now possess provides us with an unlimited amount of information in the palms of our hands. This video was about the effects of social media on us and our brains. One of the people in the video made the accusation that the new generation is the dumbest generation that the world has seen. I disagreed with it then and I still disagree with it. I chose this journal entry for my portfolio because it is one of the few videos we watched in the class. |