Media Diet

For my media diet it basically comprised of Facebook, Facebook, and more Facebook. With a side of Glee. This past week was Thanksgiving break. For the first days up to Tuesday I was out and about having fun with friends and not wanting to go home yet. However, come Wednesday morning my mom wanted me to come home already so I packed PJs for a few days and went home. I stayed home from Wednesday to Saturday doing absolutely nothing productive. Because my mom wanted me home I gave her just that, me at home. However, my house does not have cable, we only have like three spanish channels so I didn't watch much t.v. All I did Wednesday through Saturday afternoon was Facebook it up. I also caught up on my Glee episodes from this season because I would always have to miss it every Tuesday at 8pm because I have a weekly meeting every Tuesday at 7:45pm. So I guess we can count that as 8 hours of Glee. As for the Spanish channels I watched maybe like 4 Spanish soap operas or novelas so 4 hours of novelas. In total I would say I watched 12 hours of TV (counting the online episodes as TV). Even though I probably should have been more productive I did not open a single school book until Sunday where I did work from 5pm till 10pm so 5 hours of work that day and many Monday and Tuesday in preparation for an essay I have to write by tomorrow at 1:45 pm. I also spent a good amount of online time on tumblr. I recently discovered it actually and found it really interesting. I made an account just so I can reblog things that I found cute or inspirational for myself, not so much to make an online identity or anything of that sort. I guess I was on that for 2 or 3 hours on and off during my time at home. I would stay online till 3 or 4 in the morning chatting with my friends who were also bored at home and also my friend who had gone to Singapore over Thanksgiving break. Their timing was like 16 hours ahead or something so when it was daytime there I’d be sleepily replying to what she was saying in the early hours of the morning. Then I’d sleep and wake up around 2 and get back onto the computer. Throughout this entire break another form of media I used constantly was my cell phone. I’m not much of a talker but I definitely texted as much as I could. However Monday night I had left my phone charger in East Palo Alto at a friend’s house and I didn’t have a way to charge it until Tuesday night when my friend came to San Jose and bought me a car charger because she forgot to bring my real one. Which reminds me, I still have the car charger, I forgot to give it back, oops. But anyways! So my texting was rather sparingly until Tuesday night but then I got back to my bajillion texts a day pattern. That is always something that no matter where I may be, as long as my phone is charged and alive I will be constantly doing. I feel that my media diet says that when I am having lazy days I still want to remain in communication with friends and to keep up to date on things I like, like Glee. I probably should have been as persistent with my homework as I was with watching my Glee episodes but I definitely enjoy Glee more than homework. I feel like my media diet is similar to that of most people my age. When we have free time we’ll be on Facebook or texting. I think this says that my generation and American society in general really likes to keep in contact with friends and family in any way possible. I don’t think I need to make any changes really, I was only on facbook for a long time during those days I was at home because no one else was home and I had nothing to watch on TV. And there was no food in the fridge :( . I definitely saw how my social location influenced my media intake. When I’m at school I don’t go on Facebook as much as I do at home because at school I’m surrounded by my friends so I only have to send a text to meet up with them but at home I had to really try harder than I do here to keep in touch because I wouldn’t see them randomly around campus anymore, I was at home.

Remixing Music

I think that remixing different Medias in general is so broad and open that the possibilities for creations are endless. The most popular form of remixing is definitely music. I feel like remixing, even though legally there may be issues with that, is altogether a good thing. Sometimes there are bad remixes that make the original song seem better than what it really is but sometimes there are great remixes to songs. First one that came to mind was Birthday Sex by Jeremiah. The regular song has a slow tempo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYZXmY4aco8) but the version the radio played was the up-tempo version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I7UZRlDsbk). The up-tempo version would be considered a remix. Another example is a song that unlike Birthday Sex, isn’t really well known is Anthonio by Annie. Here’s the link for the original song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpv3TBtUcTQ. And the more upbeat danceable Designer Drugs remix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWopPgSGBs. These are just examples of upbeat remixes. But some people remix songs to make them more softer or just to slow it down. One example is Cascada’s Everytime We Touch song and the Candlelight Remix which is a much slower almost acoustic version where the lyrics are better appreciated. Another type of remix example is just adding in different parts to a song or having a different artist be featured in it. For example, for Ne-Yo’s Because of You song, in my iTunes itself I have three different remixes aside from the original version. The first remix is featuring Kanye West, the second remix is featuring Krayzie & Layzie Bone and the third (and my favorite remix) is featuring AC. It may be just the beginning part but I still feel like I’d listen to the AC remixed version any day over the other ones. Another (and last example I swear) is Bed by J. Holiday. That song has a remix featuring Nina Sky where they sing it as a duet as well as a girl version by Esha where only she sings it from a female’s perspective and another remix featuring Plies. Remixing in music serves to help make songs more likeable and enjoyable by different people. Like for example if you don’t really like house music then when it is remixed to be slower and you can really listen to the lyrics you might like it. Or for example you may not like country or pop songs. I’ve heard remixes to some Taylor Swift songs that have made it have a hip hop beat in the background and made it more danceable. Remixing is a great tool that I feel should be allowed to be used to edit all songs. When talking about legal issues that surround remixing songs, videos, literary pieces, etc., I feel that behind the “we want to protect what is originally ours” talk is the fact that they do not want anyone else to profit from their songs. Maybe a compromise for remixing could be that if the remix-er makes a significant amount of profit from the remixed music then they have to give a certain percent to the original owner of the music or other form of media that was remixed. What do you think about remixing music and media forms? Do you know of any good remixes that are worth sharing?

Technology and Social Interaction

I feel like technology influences social interaction in a developmental way. Social interaction by definition would be interaction in society among the people in it. Traditionally one views it as face to face interaction but technically, couldn’t internet interaction be considered as social interaction, just via online mediums? Most people feel like online interaction in general is not that good of an experience as seeing someone face to face and interacting with them but I think its up to you to make it as personal as you want. I feel like the spread of technology has had a positive impact on my everyday face to face interaction because it provides a way for me to get to have some face to face interaction. Everyone had busy schedules and sometimes the only way to stay in touch with someone is through technology. A quick “Let’s do lunch” text allows me to have lunch with a friend whereas if I didn’t have text messaging or a cell phone for that matter it would be difficult for me to get ahold of friends unless I walked over to wherever they may live and knock on their door and ask them if they want to eat. Maybe they aren’t in their room or even on campus so shooting them a text is a much faster and efficient way to see if they would want to join me for sushi Wednesday in Benson. I feel like its not just me but everyone else has benefitted from technological advances. In general people can get in contact with everyone more now a days than before thanks to the different ways of technological communication.

In regards to meeting people online via online dating sites, Craigslist, Facebook, online games, etc., I feel like that is really risky. I mean sure, they can be really nice people like you too but the reality is that not everyone is and it’s not worth the risk of meeting up with a stranger and get hurt. Maybe if you have a lot of online interaction like see if they have a lot of friends on Facebook who actually talk to them or if you even have mutual friends then yeah you can safely assume they would be okay to meet up with. I feel like connecting with others via online communities is a viable way of creating meaningful friendships because what you do online is just communicate, and that is one of the key things in any friendship, good communication. However, there should be a balance. You can be a great friend to many people online but if you don’t have any real friends like that you can meet up with and stuff, I feel like that would cause some psychological issues in the long run. Like who are you going to invite to your wedding? You’re not going to take a bunch of laptops and put them all on Skype and have them watch the wedding via webcam. You need physical face to face interaction to be a healthy functioning human being. On a random sidenote, in a study babies were given everything a baby needs except one baby was not touched often and the other experienced a lot of human touch. Developmentally the baby that was touched more often was better off in the long run. It just goes to show that even as babies we need human face to face interaction.

I feel like having more “real” spaces/public spheres for people to connect on can benefit the creation of new ideas that can benefit society, but eventually there should be some face to face interaction. Maybe even a “real” space with webcaming.

Social Networking and Privacy

I don’t really feel like it’s fair to say that I use social networking a lot because I only use one thing in particular: Facebook. I don’t have a Twitter, never really found it interesting. Or a FourSquare, which I never heard of until I took this class. But as for Facebook, I definitely check it more than daily. Back when I use to have a Blackberry I wouldn’t need to check it because the updates would come directly to my phone. New Comment, New Friend Request, New Message, New Poke, etc. But now that I’m back to a boring old Metro PCS phone, I’m definitely on the actual Facebook website/app more often. Not only can I check it from my phone’s rather slow internet, but I can check it from the iTouch. So no matter where I am, Facebook is only a few clicks away. If I’m on my way to class I can just whip out my iTouch and check it while I walk (or speed run because I’m almost always a little late) and see who commented my status or if the pictures from last night got put up.

I feel like the cultural move toward social networking, constant access and “loss of privacy” is a positive thing. I put “loss of privacy” because that is completely up to the user. If you decide to let the world know how you feel in every little status update (and there are people who do that, rant about their whooooole day in their status) or by putting your address on your Facebook then that’s your business. Loss of privacy to me is an issue that is up to the user. You don’t have to put anything up there and when you do, its not privacy loss as much as your own free will to share something about yourself. Just be smart when you do that, because there are creepers out there who will take note of those tiny details you forget you have on there. I personally do not worry about my privacy because I know what I put out there and I’m fine with it, but others are not so aware.

With “loss of privacy” aside, the move to constant access to social networking is a positive on the whole, given that people will control themselves with it. Its so much faster to have notifications come straight to you on the go instead of sitting down and checking it the “old school way” and going onto an actual computer and typing in www.facebook.com. I feel like when you do it that way you get more sidetracked than if a notification comes to your phone saying “New Comment”, shows you the comment and allows you to reply. That way you really have no need to go to an actual computer and sit down and check it. It’s more time efficient really.

Some benefits between this entanglement of our personal lives and technology is more ease in getting support. For example, for my sorority we promote for events on facebook and invite all our Facebook friends to anything we may be hosting. Also it’s an easier and funner way to keep in touch with friends in different places. Like say you see a funny video on youtube, you can send it to them on Facebook. Or sometimes if you have a lot to say and you can’t talk on the phone, just write your friend a long message on Facebook. However, the drawbacks of doing something like this is that if its private and you share a long message with someone, they can copy and paste it to someone who you might not have wanted them to see. Or a status update could be taken the wrong way. Like once I put up a status about boys being dumb because one of my sorority sisters was having boy problems and what I told her seemed like a good quote so I made it my status. Suddenly people started messaging me asking me if me and my boyfriend were okay and even he got messages saying if we were okay from his friends that were friends with me on Facebook. It was funny how people all assumed it was directed to him when in reality it was just a statement. Oh social networking.