Unlike Hillary Clinton, I have yet to find my voice when it comes to discussing technology issues. I am a novice in this arena and don't feel qualified to provide any sort of opinion -- other than an uninformed one -- about anything related to our class (Comm 534) at this point. Given that, I've decided my best course of action will be to talk about my reaction to our first reflection paper assignment.
I'll start with the only area I have any experience with -- social networking sites (SNS). I did have memberships on MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn prior to taking Comm 534. However (BIG DISCLAIMER) that does not mean I actually used them much. I originally signed up for Facebook at the urging of a USC professor, and until recently, only used it a handful of times. The MySpace account followed when I registered simply as a way to spy on my unsuspecting daughter. In my defense, I'm told that many other loving (and nosy) parents were sneaky like this. I was invited into LinkedInby work colleages, so I joined that as well. Friendster was the only SNS that I knew about and didn't join, even though I did know a few people who were members...but I have now.
When it comes to these social networking sites, I can see how they could be fun, but frankly I don't think I'd really want to have more than 1 or 2 memberships at the most. They seem to be time consuming and I don't like having to log in and check them all the time. If I want to contact someone, I simply email them. However I do realize that these sites are about MORE that simply getting someone a message. Perhaps in my case, it comes down to time. The only time I ever get on MySpace or Facebook is if I am bored and looking to kill time (rare) or if I get an email message that someone wants to be my friend -- and who can pass that up I ask you??
What I have found valuable for my own purposes on these sites, MySpace in particular, is the music info. Since a large number of musicians have MySpace pages, I usually look at their pages for music downloads or tour information. This is really the main thing that keeps me coming back. I also like that I can post photos on my site and personalize them. It makes it easy to share pictures with friends. The voyeur lurking in me also likes looking at my friends' friends and checking out their profiles and pics. I hope I am not the only one willing to admit to this slightly embarrassing tendency.
Part of what excites me about this class is in learning what these things can do for me (social networking sites, blogging sites, wiki's, etc.). I'm sure there are tools I am going to find extremely valuable and I am simply not exposed to any of this information in my daily life. For example, in reading an article on mashable.com, there was an article about GTD's. I didn't know what these were and had never heard the acronym before last week. Yet, they seem to be something that would be extremely helpful in my everyday life. This could be the beginning of a whole new world for me.
Hello New World!
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