Video Essay

My group’s video essay was modeled after a Spanish talk show with segments all about Twitter. In the video there is an interview with the co-creator of Twitter, Twitter Box confessions, What people tweet about, and more. We wanted to keep it visually appealing, funny, and informative all in one. Hopefully the audience will be entertained and informed about things they did not know before about Twitter. At the end of the video is a parody called “It’s Raining Tweets” with facts about Twitter being sung throughout the lyrics. I hope everyone enjoys it and learns something new!

Mail In Order Brides

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2012/04/30/mail-order-brides-big-business-in-colombia/

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/06/0081084

Romance has become a less of a concern for women and men these days now since with the frustration might as well skip the process by purchasing a bride from a foreign country. Not just anyone can go out and buy a bride without having to go through a background check before receiving their bride to protect the women. You search in Google under mail in order bride to find yourself on the popular website “A Foreign Affair” with pictures of beautiful women waiting for a man to find them. There is a list on the side of what ethnicity you would prefer. In the article “A Foreign Affair: On the great Ukrainian bride hunt” a man talks about his experience in finding love through a tour that takes you along with about 40 other middle aged men on a trip to meet about 500 different women. You go out to converse and after a few days decide if you found some that interest you. Its so weird hearing about these websites online where you can simply go out and find a woman for a decent price.

Wealthy woman also have websites available to them in search for a husband. Sadly, the men are not as refined as you would they think. Here is an example of a profile I found:

Name: Daryl
My name is Daryl. I will be turning 18 in September. Soon I will be legal and we can marry. My parents are kicking me out after December and I’d like to meet a woman with money so we can have fun. I like women between 18-45, but would consider older if we don’t have to touch a lot.Location: USA

My Little Pony Corrals Unlikely Fanboys Known as ‘Bronies’

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/bronies-my-little-ponys/

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic a animated TV show about ponies and their adventures went almost viral over night. Through 4chan online users began to have a fascination with this new tv show uploading images and memes of these ponies. The fan base is mostly men in their 20’s shockingly and they call themselves “bronies”. You would be surprised to find so many fan videos online, memes, and message boards filled with ponies. There is a fan blog dedicated to the My Little Pony Fandom called Equestria Daily.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/

On Facebook you can even find fan pages dedicated for each pony like Pinky Pie. This show has gone so viral through the spread of communication online. This show started out for little girls under the age of 10. However, the demographics are quite the opposite with so many bronies online watching religiously. On Youtube you can find a parody with not so nice ponies, music videos, fun clips, and a sad video of derpy hooves saying sorry for offending viewers. The character Derpy Hooves shows how communication online can be so powerful. When the first vocal appearance of Derpy Hooves came on air it offended many parents watching that they complained so much they placed her in background again. They also replaced the voice and eyes in that episode for the future. On Twitter they had the #SaveDerpy campaign where everyone tweeted to save the pony. On Tumblr there were fan pictures uploaded dedicated to the cause and much more online. Social networking sites are not only for communicating with friends, but used also for viral media.

The Creator Behind Tumblr

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/03/features/tumbling-on-success?page=all

We all know about Tumblr, but who exactly created this website? His name is David Karp and in April 27, 2007 he founded this website. Karp wanted an outlet for self-expression since he does not consider himself to be a writer. So he reinvented the way of blogging. Through Tumblr you can upload pictures, audio, video, or text if you want to write. Its like a blog with all these different media outlets built into one. In the UK its the 2nd most popular social networking site only falling right behind Facebook. What makes this website unique is that there is not that stress of having to befriend people. It is all about the art or whatever you choose to upload. This started as a personal thing, but grew into something more than could be imagined. Not only did he find success, so did celebrities. Barack Obama created a tumblr page for the 2012 election to create a better connection with the people by showing behind the scenes footage. A porn star found popularity uploading nude photos that got her further in her career in the adult video industry. Tumblr is all about the freedom of expression so you do not have to fear much for having things that can be sometimes explicit taken down. Campaigns are also done over Tumblr like the one mentioned in the article “We Are The 99 Per Cent”. People submit pictures holding a sign supporting the cause. Tumblr is able to connect people differently from Facebook and Twitter without the need for text through photographs and video. What started out as a small website for fun turned into a major career path for David Karp. His staff consisted only of about 14 people in the beginning and Youtube only had 16. Its hard to comprehend how a small idea can grow so much.

Digital Nation

This video we watched in class talked about how these days we multitask a lot! As students there are times where we don’t realize we are watching TV, texting, instant messaging, and doing our home work at the same time. It feels normal but, is it really a distraction? The students at M.I.T did not think so. In the interview the students talked about how they spend most of their time online on anything digital. They believed it was no distraction or slowed them down in any way because they can balance everything out. After some research it was proven that multitasking slows the brain down when trying to switch back from one task to another and back. This made me take a step back to look at  myself and ponder if maybe I tried to focus on one thing at a time I would be more successful when studying. We are surrounded by some much technology its difficult to not get distracted or trying to even focus on one thing. I was shocked to see how children barely starting out school are learning to use computers now. When I was in first grade I was taught to do everything by hand. Kids in Korea are being taught to sing a song about being safe on the internet which is probably a great thing. There was a interview with a teenager in Korea who is so addicted to playing online that his parents sent him to a camp that tries to help reunite these kids with the childhood they missed out on without technology. We live in a world that is starting to immerse itself with the virtual so much that we are starting to lose site with whats in front of us away from the digital screens. Digital Nations really makes you think about how our lives are being influenced dramatically over time with technology.

Facebook

Who uses Facebook and why? Homero Gil de Zuniga/Sebastian Valenzuela

This article is about the power Facebook has obtained over the years. There are statistics showing that at the time time this was written there was 400 million users online around the world. That number has surely expanded since then and is still continuously growing everyday. Surprisingly, the Caucasian ethnicity is not the largest percentage on Facebook.  Mark Zuckerberg says in the article it gives users “power to share and make the world more open and connected.” Facebook has a large demographic spreading from the youth all the way to the elderly. The world is surely staying connected making keeping in touch easier for everyone. This website came into existence in 2004 and only after 5 yrs has become one of the most well known websites world wide.  The article also points out that Facebook is not only for communicating but, spreading information. Users are exposed to different opinions and stories about whatever is happening around the world. There are so many users online that its not even shocking anymore. It is mentioned that 1 in every 3 Americans were on Facebook. In another article I read it says that 1 in every 13 people on Earth are on Facebook. That is a lot of people from all over around the world. In a survey the writers did no matter what background you have or income the amount of people on Facebook balances out almost evenly. Facebook is an amazing social network site that grew from just simple communication with friends in the states to world wide communication making the world smaller. Here is a fact. Apparently, about 70% of Facebook users reside outside the states.

Check out the facts about Facebook:

http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/facebook-statistics-stats-facts-2011/

Growing Up Online

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/view/

 

In my opinion the video felt a bit one sided. It mostly pointed out to all the negative point of views parents have on the “online generations”. The internet is a private space for everyone in general at home, but can also be very public for everyone that is watching what they are putting. Parents seem to focus their worries more on who are they talking to online or possible sex predators. The younger kids tend to create identities living a different virtual life online. It feels easier to speak out to people you don’t know or its nice to get attention. Parents feel left out of their kids world these days. They just need to find common ground with their children by not arguing about the internet. There are problems of addiction, cyberbullying, online dating, and chat rooms. The environment does need some control, but parents should make sure to not liet their children feel like they have no independence. Growing up as a teenage especially online can be difficult because they are searching for their identity which isn’t always the best to do over social network sites. The only way to solve the internet lives of teenagers is to find a balance and way of communicating with their kids. Be aware of what they look into because the internet has the possibility of being self destructive if they look up topics that will help them harm themselves.

Here is an example of a girl who is posting online about being anorexic and tips to help towards her goal:

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/anorexia-tips

Internet Addiction Camps In China

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3XdUmvYUbA

Internet addiction has grown tremendously to the point that there are now rehabilitation camps such as the one in Beijing. In 2004 the first internet rehabilitation camp was opened. Since then over 5,000 kids were sent to get help. They sent to a place without any access to technology and get military training. They spend their days waking up early to exercise, see a psychologist, and spent their free time playing games like basketball outside. The average age of people in the camp are 17 years old. There is a problem in today’s society all around the world with online gaming addiction. When you stay in front of a computer for so long you being to forget your basic needs for eating, hygiene, and socializing. At the beginning adults tried talking to the youth first to understand their need to play. Talking has not helped much since it seems that the matter has gotten out of control. There are always news stories about gamers who have died from depriving themselves from eating and sleeping. Before 2009 these camps would sometimes be extreme to the point of beating the youth to death or using electro-shock therapy. They have been outlawed since because of deadly results. Whether these programs are effective or not we can not tell. I believe it is up to the individual whether or not they are willing to limit their playing time or give it up. It is difficult to find a way to solve this issue when we are surrounded by digital media everyday.

Research Paper

My chosen topic was focused on how internet influences social communication to the point where sometimes the virtual world and the real world get confused into one. Online sometimes we focus so much on the life we are living online in video games, social network sites, and blogs. We get so wrapped up in a world where we talk to various people online that we forget about the people that exist in person around us. The internet can make people anti-social and fear of communicating to people in the real world without being able to type it out on their computers. In the virtual world identities can be created or have the choice of changing gender to experiment with different personalities. In the online community you have the the ability to have out of the world experiences unlike the real world. Over time people prefer to live in the virtual world that offers them a life more happiness even though isolate in front of a pc screen. In blogs you can write and write about anything in your head. You can gain followers to feel more popular and raise your self esteem. Role playing video games you get to go kill enemies, fight zombies, or even get married. With these options you can live so many different lives without leaving your seat. On social networking sites like the old “Myspace” users scene queens found fame taking pictures of themselves with their new identities they created. Being able to live differently from the offline world distracts people from whats really out there and changes there social skills.

Having Your Say – Blogs and Beyond

Article: Having Your Say: Blogs and Beyond – Baron

This article discusses how far we have developed from a society that had no voice to now the internet where everyone has freedom of expression, opinions, and whatever they can write about online. Early in 12th century Europe people would be hanged for doing anything offensive or too traumatized with fear of being heard when saying the wrong thing.

Today in modern society the internet allows an outlet for people to write about whatever they feel like talking about. It first begun with letters then radio, TV, blogs, Youtube, and now we have the option to create pages on Wikipedia. The public tend to write in blogs about fashion, traveling, art, or use it as a public diary basically.

There are no limitations. Baron talks about the a certain guy named Gary Brolsma under the Youtube section who made a video of himself lip syncing to Numa Numa for fun and it went viral. When you are bored, you will do anything to keep yourself entertained. Recording our lives is a new form of expression we have recently developed. Some users use it as a video diary called “vlogs” where they can rant or discuss random things  like the ever so popular “Leave Britney Alone” uploaded by Chris Crocker.

Numa Numa Guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60og9gwKh1o

Leave Britney Alone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc

The most touching vlog I have seen online is about a guy who called his father over the phone to “come out” to him about his sexuality over the phone. Sometimes these videos can be really personal and heartfelt. They are not all for fun or just someone to make fun of.

Telling My Dad I’m Gay Live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVAgz6iyK6A

Wikipedia is another form of open communication for all the public to use for editing or making up new pages to share information about anything. There are pages dedicated to musicians, actual history, cartoons, or random people like the oh so popular Numa Numa guy. Anyone can go online and edit pages to add more details to a certain topic.

Here is his page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Brolsma

Our freedom of communication has grown over decades and has never been so open to the public than ever before in history. There are different options in vlogs, microblogging, or other unique sites like tumblr. In the online community you have the choice to write about your feelings, talk on video, or use post pictures everyday. They help release our inner thoughts and express our creativity.