Grief in the Age of Facebook

In "Grief in the Age of Facebook, Stone notes that her students "almost never make phone calls if they can help it, so Kelsey's message alone should have raised my antenna. She blogs, she tweets, she texts, and she pings. but voice mail? No."

1. How do you communicate with friends and family when the topic is important? Do you use synchronous, or "live" means of communication, i.e. face-to-face, or by telephone? Or do you use asynchronous, or one-sided means of communication, such as Facebook, texting, blogs or e-mails?

2. Stone also highlights the act of replacing Facebook profile photos with those that include the person who died. She notes that we are uncertain as how long these memorial photos are to be posted. What is the correct amount of time to mourn someone electronically?

3. What is your opinion of Facebook's policy of memorial pages for friends and family that are deceased? Do these pages serve a purpose other than informing the world of the person's death? Do you agree with this electronic (and public) display of grief?

Growing Old in the Digital Age: An Exercise in Egotism

1. Baughman writes that we do not remember the purpose of wishing someone a happy birthday, the emotional connections we make with each other. He notes that we are "missing the point if the first thing we look forward to on our birthday is an over-flowing inbox." Do you agree with his opinion?

2. Do you agree with Baughman's description of a phone call as "antique"? He describes text messages as allowing us to be "sovereign in our own word, while still acheieving a degree of connection with someone else." Do you think his assessment is accurate?

3. Did anyone else laugh at the first sentence of the article? Or was it just me?

We Shall Overshare

Have you ever read a post, on Facebook or a similar site, that a friend or family member published, and your response was, "Ouch!"

Ham notes in her article, "We shall Overshare," that her "online life is a balancing act." How do you interact on sites like Facebook or Twitter? Do you only post certain information?

Here are several sites that broadcast the poor decision-making skills of some people who think Facebook and other sites are places to share too much information, or "overshare" as Ham describes it.

http://runt-of-the-web.com/nine-hilariously-awkward-facebook-interactions

http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2009/09/11/10-of-the-most-awkward-moments-in-facebook-history/

http://awkwardmessages.com/

Globalization vs. Americanization

Lam describes a world where people move from country to country for numerous reasons (i.e., to escape war; to find work; etc.). He views geography as cultural rather than physical and notes in the last sentence that geography no longer defines a person's destiny.

1. If Lam is correct and people are able to move from one country to another, what will globalization mean for the individual? Will there be only one human culture, a mixture of all ethnic/racial cultures?

2. If globalization does happen to the extent that Lam describes, will the experiences of culture shock and acculturation be dimished, if not avoided?

Left for Dead by MTV

Coyle describes in his article how easy and inexpensive it has become to create a music video, because of advances in technology, such as the DSL camera. On the Internet, there is no censorship (in theory) so artists can create and post videos designed to generate a response from the viewer.

Questions:

1. If you were to make a music video, what song would you choose?

2. What story would you tell in the video?

3. Would you create a video to shock, inspire, enrage, or convince others?

This is Your Brain on the Web

The title of today's reading is a paraphrase on an anti-drug public service announcement, "This is Your Brain on Drugs," which was first broadcast in 1987.

1. Why does Ms. Rosen choose this message to link to the topic of reading online vs. reading traditional print?

2. Do you think e-readers like Nook and Kindle will bring the two reading styles (reading vs. scanning) together?

The New Literacy

1. Thompson quotes Andrea Lunsford, a professor at Stanford University, who described the writing that students do outside of class as "life writing." What does this expression mean?

2. Lunsford's research indicated that students defined good prose as "something that had an effect on the world." What does that statement mean for instructors?

Head to Head - Print Photographs

Hello Class!

On Monday I recounted to you the story about film versus digital and former President Clinton. In today's article, Ms. Svokos shares similar ideas on the problems inherent with digital images. She states that digital photos suppress anticipation and spontaneity. She also notes that paper-based photographs can't be altered or improved.

I. Is she correct in her statement that digital photos can be lost forever (and suggesting that paper-based photos can be preserved)?

II. Svokos maintains that the social custom of sharing photographs with family members has been changed from an immediate, physical interaction to one of "crowding around a laptop to click our ways through a Facebook album" (p. 141). What are the positive aspects of digital photo sharing, and what are the negative aspects?

III. How have online photo sharing sites like Flickr.com  and Google Images changed the concept of the photo album? In my opinion, it is now easier to share photos (and other documents) with distant friends and family, but harder to share them with family and friends in the same room as you.

This Photo is Lying to You

Can you trust what you see? How do you know what is real?

Haggart points out that manipulation of photographs has existed for a very long time. Famous photographers controlled the look of their photos during the development process (i.e. modifying the light, dark, shadows, cropping, etc.).

Haggart quotes photographer McLean, who correctly points out that some photographers "capture" images; while others "create" them.

For years, Hollywood studios created an "image" of movie stars, using black & white photography to idealize actors and actresses. What do these photographs have in common?

 

Vivien Leigh

Cary Grant

Errol Flynn

Elizabeth Taylor

 "To photoshop" is now a verb in the English language and whole websites are devoted to identifying photoshopped images.

But, as the author points out, we all are guilty of manipulating photographs. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have you ever asked family or friends to pose for a picture?

2. Have you ever cut a person out of a picture?

Welcome to ALI 490 Media Presentations! This course is designed to develop your academic presentation skills and abilities to successfully apply technology to the college classroom and course assignments. The goal of the course is to familiarize you with a variety of technologies used in higher education classrooms and help you become confident users of these technologies.

I look forward to our semester together learning about media and their use in the classroom.