blooooog comments woo hoo

1. Abby:
Beauty- Is it in the Eye of the Beholder?

2. Mehgan:
A Look At Music Videos

3. Rhys:
Here it Goes Again

4. Robbin:
Media & Self-Esteem

5. Allan:
To Share or Not to Share is the Question...

6. Izza:
Texting in Social Situations

the end! (*≧▽≦)

#6 Web 2.0 and YOU!!!!!!

1. How will emerging technology (ie: blogs, videos, e-readers,e-books) affect literacy?
I think that emerging technology like blogs, videos, e-readers and e-books will affect literacy in a positive manner, but will have its cons as well. Since society is beginning to gear more towards technology and electronics, they are more likely to read, write, respond, reflect, and make connections through pieces of literature on these technologies. For example, people might be more likely to read a book if they had it on their Kobo or Kindle without all the added weight of the book itself. They are also more likely to write their thoughts out using technology instead of using the traditional pencil and paper, as it saves time, energy, and effort. However, with the web comes factors that may hinder our level of intelligence and literacy, especially with younger generations. The use of chat speak and negative influences found on the Internet are things to be considered that could possibly affect literacy.

2. How is Web 2.0 challenging us to "rethink ourselves" (ie: friendships, work, education, community, family etc...)?
Web 2.0 is challenging us to rethink ourselves and our relationships with others, work, education, community. With the Web being used so often and frequently, many people find themselves spending too much time on in the Internet. This may ruin in-real-life relationships likes with families and friends, but the Internet can also connect us to family and friends. With the Internet at our resource, we learn more and more which can be a form of education. Education is possible now through the use of the Internet. With the web at our fingertips, almost anything is possible. 

#5 A Look @ Music Videos

♪ Tis the season to be jolly, fa lala la la la, lala la la~  ♪

Christmas. Amid the last minute gift-shoppers, the chiming and ringing bells, the inconveniently placed mistletoe and The Salvation Army asking for donations on the busy streets, there will always be Christmas music playing somewhere, or by someone. Since a Christmas tune seemed mildly appropriate during the Easter season, I decided to do my media analysis on a modern day Christmas melody-- Fa La La by Justin Bieber featuring Boyz II Men. ☺

The first few frames of the video is of a person playing a record on a record player and my first thoughts of that was "old school". Needless to say, the entire video is in black and white, giving me more of a reason to think that "old school" is a good term to describe the video. I thought that one of the reasons why the video was in black and white is because of Boyz II Men being in the video since they were a group popular in the 1990's and not so much now. It could also reflect the smooth and slow style song that is reminiscent of the old days.

To compliment the black and white nature of the video, bright lights are used. Lights on the buildings, lights dangling in the dance studio that Justin is singing in, strings of light hanging from lamp post to lamp post on the streets. The video itself has no real 'plot' or 'story' behind it-- just lots and lots of footage of Justin singing and being adorable, as well as shots of the Boyz II Men singing on the front steps of a building. Maybe they're singing for a special someone, making for a romantic move on Christmas Day. Normally the music video of a song doesn't affect my like or dislike for the song itself-- besides, I'm more likely to be listening to the song more often than watching the music video. This video was probably created to promote the release of Justin's Christmas album, Under the Mistletoe. 

All in all, the video was just a video of minimalism-- nothing flashy or wicked sick or extraordinary awesome. Just a simplistic black-and-white video of Justin and friends singing their song like they own it. Which they do. I thought that it matched quite well with the music, but it was quite entertaining watching the video as well.

#4 Beauty - Is it Really in the Eye of the Beholder?

An image of Selena Gomez on Teen Vogue
(from Google)

1. Why do you think people are portrayed this way in the media?

Humans are attracted to beautiful things. The people portrayed in the media are beautiful, handsome, and good looking-- things that will attract attention from the audience. If we see happy, beautiful people in the advertisement, we assume we will feel happy and be beautiful too if we just buy the products that they are wearing/using/advertising to look like them. If the advertisements featured someone looking like a bum, chances are we will not be interested in the product, because we will associate it to feeling unattractive and no one wants to look like a bum.
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2. How are you affected by the images you see?

Personally, I feel like I am not very affected by the images I see. Although I am constantly bombarded with glamoured girls caked with make-up all around me, I am also constantly reminded that "I am beautiful just the way I am" and that I should "love myself and accept myself" and my flaws because "that's what makes me beautiful" and that "God made me in His image". I do not feel the extreme pressures that others may feel when exposed to such images, but I know people who are.
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3. What can be done to reduce the amount of young men and women that are negatively affected by these images?

To reduce the amount of young men and women that are negatively affected by these images, we could begin to use images that aren't heavily Photoshopped. Or, we could start to send out more messages about feeling comfortable in our own skin and how we are already perfect. Society could put subtle hints of these messages through popular media used by young people, like the internet, music, television and more. I think this method would be a lot more influential and effective than just having people tell young people these messages.
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4. What would your reaction be to a magazine cover where the subject isn’t all glammed up?  Is this a possible route that society should take?  Why or why not?
Obviously a magazine cover where the subject isn't all glammed up would catch my attention because it is different. It is not like the rest of the of magazine covers where the subject IS glammed up. If society were to take this route, sales would drop at first because people are still pretty superficial, but eventually I think that it would have a positive effect on the masses as the idea becomes integrated into our daily lives. Personally I'd rather seen a blown up photo of someones pimples and black heads and pores than a blown up photo of a picture that has obviously been abused by the Spot Heal tool and obviously been edited on Photoshop (example: Selena Gomez on Teen Vogue. I'm pretty sure the original photo looks a whole lot better than the one they chose to publish). 

#3: To Share or not To Share... That is the Million Dollar Question

1. What is your personal opinion towards file sharing? Is it right or wrong?

I think that file sharing isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes we need to share files with other people, and this is made easier by sharing files online, especially if the recipient is sitting halfway across the globe behind their computer. However, this method of sharing online can be exploited by having people share things like movies, music, art, etc. -- things that are usually supposed to be bought with money. So by having a way of getting these for free, the people who are producing said things are losing money. Even though this would be considered 'stealing' and stealing = wrong, people still do it anyways. So maybe file sharing can only be labeled right or wrong depending on the kind of file that is being shared. But regardless of file sharing being labelled 'right' or 'wrong', I don't really think people will give a second thought before they download that file off Mediafire or some other file sharing site. 

2. If you produced your own piece of art/song/movie, would you hold the same opinion?

If I produced my own art/song/movie that was being shared online, I would be thinking that sharing files online is so wrong. Money might not be the only reason why I made that art/song/movie, but it definitely is one of the reasons why the piece exists. If people were sharing my piece among themselves for free, many of them would not bother spending their money to get their own copy when they could get it for the price of $0 because humans are greedy. I would be losing a lot of money because of this which would be bad if I made a living off of my art/music/movies.  

3. Do you feel it is morally acceptable to download copyrighted material if it is only intended for personal use? 

I'll admit that many times I have downloaded copyrighted material intended for my own personal use (the most recent being One Direction's album, hehe) without having an internal struggle with my morals. Many people will feel that it is morally acceptable to be doing this, but if everyone felt that way then no money would be made. Even knowing that it's considered stealing and that the makers are losing money, I would download it anyways. So perhaps a part of me feels that it is morally acceptable, even though I know it isn't. So yes, I feel it is morally acceptable. But that is just a personal opinion.

#2 Career Mashing!

With my sister having just graduated from high school and starting her first year of university, my parents (mom, especially) thought that it would be a good idea to start pressuring me to start thinking and decide what kind of future I wanted to pursue when I grew older. I always have trouble answering when people ask, "what do you want to be in the future?". Usually I stick to one of the typical 'Asian' answers, nurse, which is really only half-true. I am thinking of maybe taking a job in the medical field, but I'm terrified that I won't like it at all or be good at it and instead waste precious money learning how to become a nurse. When asked what are my hobbies and interests, I still cannot find much to say besides the typical "eating and sleeping" answer that many young people automatically reply with.

So of course, hearing about this CareerMash thing made me feel somewhat relieved. It meant being introduced to careers that I've never even heard of or considered before. Careers based in technology sounded interesting enough, seeing as I already spend 99% of my time playing video games/texting/using the computer/watching television and 1% spent on units. Out of the four categories listed, Leader, Innovator, Builder, and Problem-Solver, I felt like I fit the best in the Builder category. In that Builder category, I found that the 'Game Developer' sounded like a really neat job. 

I've been playing video games for most of my life, but I would not consider myself a hardcore gamer. Though at one point in my life, I've thought about working in the gaming field. Basically what a game developer does is develop the game and incorporate visions and ideas from the artists and designers into the game through program coding. You can also specialize in one field of game developing like 3D graphics, engines to run the game, the music, etc. To become a game developer, you will need to have strong coding and programming skills and some programs offered in universities. You might also want to get bachelor degrees in science or computer science, or enroll in development and design programs offered at some colleges like George Brown.

One person who works as a game developer is a woman named Jade Raymond. Jade is 36 years old and was born in Montreal Canada. Jade has helped program and develop many projects like Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit. She is currently working as a Managing Director for Ubisoft Toronto, a city where she also lives with her family. Jade has helped Sony Online Entertainment, Electronic Arts, There Inc and Ubisoft.

One demonstration of the many jobs and careers introduced at Career Mash.

#1 Texting in Social Situations

Texting has become a fast, easy, and popular way to communicate to other people. It's actually so common that it isn't very often that you will come across a teenager or adult who does not have a cellphone and does not use text messaging. If you were to head out to a mall or a busy street, you will always find someone with a cellphone in hand, fiddling with it whether it be texting or making a call. Also, people usually find that texting (or pretending to text) is a great way to deal with things when they find themselves in awkward situations.

When I find myself in social situations, like going out with my friends or at a party, I try to keep away from my phone unless I am alone and undisturbed and nothing is going on that requires my attention. If someone is hanging out with me and they are constantly checking their phone and texting, I feel like they don't really want to be here and have better things to do. Also, respect is still required in social situations -- if you are doing a job interview or going out on some special occasion, it's only common sense to put the phone away.

If I was talking to someone and they began to text continuously on their phone, I suppose I would find it rude. If they were texting before I approached them, then it'd only make sense they finish the text but once they finish, would it hurt to set it aside just for a few minutes to listen to what I have to say with their full attention? Texing once in a while would be fine if I was telling them a story, but texting continuously throughout would irritate me. It would seem like they didn't really care what I was saying.

If I had to create 5 texting etiquette rules they would be:

1. Use proper spelling grammar. No one likes to have to take 5 minutes to decipher what looks like some kind of ancient alien language. Put everything you've learned in English class to use. Putting abbreviations like 'ur' or '2' is alright especially if you're in a rush, but don't overdo it -- everything else should be easy to read and understand, not to mention in a language we can comprehend.

2. If someone doesn't reply, don't freak out. Not everyone is going to reply as soon as they get your message. If you've sent it once, you don't need to send it another 10 trillion times because you're just going to tick them off, especially if you keep bothering them by sending one word messages or spam. They're probably busy at the moment, away from their phone, or read the text and forget to reply, which is something that I do a lot. 

3. Don't forget to value face-to-face interactions instead of relying on texting. For example, no one wants so have a relationship started (or ended) through text messaging. There's nothing special in that! Even if you want to check in on a friend, sometimes giving them a call would be better than sending them a bunch of words -- having your voice heard makes the conversation more genuine and personal.

4. Be alert while texting. There has been numerous casualties and accidents that were a result from people carelessly texting and doing something else at the same time. In some countries, driving and texting/being on the phone is now against the law! Also, don't text while you're crossing the street. Remember to stop, look, and listen! Looking both ways before you cross the street is still very important to do. Once, a teenager who died when crossing the street while texting and walked right into a truck.

 5. Don't bully people through texts. The same rules apply here just as it does over the internet and in real life. Bullying is bullying, even if it isn't physical. Be respectful of others. Just because you send something mean through texts does not mean it's any less hurtful to the person it's about. If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it ... or text it.