Geocaching: Does it make it easier or more difficult to communicate?

After experiencing Geocaching for the first time I am quite intrigued. It amazes me that we can use so many types of technology and yet still have a difficult time deciphering messages. For example, I was the reporter for my group and I was tweeting while we were searching around campus for the cache. Even though I was tweeting in what I thought was great detail, the central station could not understand the context of my messages. This played an important part especially when it came to interpreting the clues that individuals were tweeting. The clues were fairly simple but not being able to communicate face to face made it difficult to solve the puzzle. I never knew that something like geocaching existed, but it was a lot of fun and definitely a learning experience. I had never really participated in a game that depended on using technology to communicate with others in order to win. You would think that as advanced as technology is it would make it easier to communicate, but maybe it is still up to us to clearly express our ideas.

The Experience of the Emerging Technology Poster Session

Going into every project during college you have certain expectations on how you think it is going to go, what might go wrong, how easy or difficult it may be, but then sometimes you are wrong. I am not technology savvy so when the assignment of emerging technology poster session came up, you could say I was not thrilled. Needless to say, I found the Skiff Reader, an emerging technology that was very interesting to me.

The Skiff Reader is similar to the Ipad but it is flexible, more durable, personalized, and could have a huge effect on educational institutions and students. Right now the Skiff Reader allows the user to download their favorite magazines, newspapers, periodicals, etc. and eventually could lead to downloading textbooks as well. What's so great about this technology is that it may have the capability to download all of your textbooks on the Skiff Reader and only carry 1 lb. around campus instead of a 25 lb. book bag.

Also it is giving society exactly what we ask for! We want personalization, we want ubiquity of access, we want to always be connected to society and know what's going on. The Skiff Reader provides us with that capability. It satifies the "always on" feeling that society has when it comes to technology. Also with our crazy college lives there is always something unusual that happens and luckily the Skiff Reader is extremely durable, scratch proof, crack proof, and can be dropped and not break!

The experience of explaining my technology to other students during the poster session was very helpful for a few different reasons. First off, it helped me learn our lecture material because I had to teach them about my technology and how it connected to class. Also it was fun! I never thought I would say it, but it was, I was knowledgable on something that never would interest me at a passing glance. But most of all I felt accomplished when it was all said and done, my poster was efficeint in attracting "tweeters" and getting the information across clearly. Thank you for providing me with this experience.

How the Media is no longer sitting on the front porch

Back in the day our parents used to play in the front yard, while their parents socialized with the neighbors on the side walk or on the front porch. When is the last time you saw that happen? Well it’s probably been a while because times are changing, life is more fast paced, kids are playing Wii inside, parents are working long hours or prefer to relax and watch Food Network inside rather than socializing with the neighbors. This was exactly what lecture addressed when concerning a main issue related to media and community. The issue I would like to address is that the media is recreating our communities through the media that is available to us today.

Through new social medias we are able to get rid of inequalities of many sorts including race, gender, age, socio economic status, because online you can have your privacy settings to where no one is able to access this information. Media is also improving education, for example when we set up a Wiki in class to help everyone study for the Midterm. Before this class I had no idea what a Wiki was, but thanks to social media we are now able to collaborate our knowledge and ideas to better our education. More people than ever are participating in social media because it does provide a sense of community when you have a hectic schedule and don’t get to see your friends. By all of us using all of these media tools we are helping the e-commerce each time we use a media tool.

So the thought I would like to bring to point is that the media is reshaping what we now know as community. A community now consists of individuals that follow your weblog, students that contribute to your Wiki, people that follow your Tweets. Will we ever return to the front porch scenario? Probably not, but are we just as connected as before in our social media community? Couldn’t my tweet feeds be my front porch?