Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Importance of Internet Socializing


Many people see internet sites such as facebook and myspace as a waste of time and as potentially dangerous venues for the children because of potential predators. However, in spite of these occasional occurrences, there are many positives that come from the internet. Specifically, people are able to communicate with others, and learn from their experiences. Overall, the internet is a very usefgul tool for communication.

One example of how the internet is positive is because people are able to communicate with other people that they may not be able to meet with regularly. Specifically, one of my friends does not go to our school anymore and because of this I don’t see him in real life, but I can still talk to him on the internet. Also, there are many other things that are positive such as an escape from real life, and also places like facebook and myspace serve as an area where people can meet. Specifically, their are many kids being interviewed in Tamar Lewin’s article. These kids are from the Bronx and they say that right when they get home from school, they go online.
In the end, the internet serves as social network for kids to be together and coexist with one another.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Technology and the Presidential Election of 2008


In David Carr’s article Campaigns in a Web 2.0 World; he advocates the importance of media and web coverage in the presidential election. David Carr shows how people no longer find everything out by the major network stations such as Fox, MSNBC, and CNN, but by the internet. Nowadays, people can watch videos about the presidential candidates on youtube without having to watch them on TV when they happen. Specifically, not everyone tuned in at 9 AM to watch Colin Powell endorse Barrack Obama. Instead, people watched it the next day online and were able to see the same thing that other people watched on TV. It is very important to use the internet and take full advantage of this in an election, because some undecided voters could be swayed by the blunders that are captured by the candidates and then put online. Also, it is necessary that candidates show their policies as often as they can and they make people know about their beliefs. In this current era, the best way for candidates to advertise is to control every aspect of the media. Now, this includes the internet as well as TV coverage. Both candidates have their own youtube accounts, and they have many videos with over 1 million views. In the end, Barrack Obama was elected president, but perhaps his use of the internet and media played a large role in his election, or maybe it was because of his policy or his appearance in the people’s opinion.