I had never been a big Internet guy until facebook. In high school everyone always used AIM and I never really did. I mean, I did sometimes, but I never really got into it. In college when I heard about facebookI figured I would make an account just to find old friends. When I first made my page I just put a simple picture of my self that I took at arms length. I wrote a few things about my self like my age, sex, and what I liked to do in my spare time. I did not really care what people thought of me when they looked at my page I just wanted to find other people and look at their pages to see what they were up to. After I did this for awhile I realized that other people might want to know what i was up to and things that i liked to do. This was when I decided to change my profile and really try to let people know who I was.
I put all of my favorite pictures of myself and my friends up. I wrote paragraphs about who i was and what i liked to do. I read through my profile to make sure it sounded like I was doing well and looked good to other people. I didn't want anyone to really know if I got bad grades or if I had gained the freshman 15 or maybe it was 25. I organized my profile to make it seem that I was doing great at everything and looked just like I did in high school. I got away with all of this until my girlfriend read my page and called me out on all of it. She told me that it didn't even seem like it was my page. She said that if she read that she would think I was a totally different person. This kind of made me made until I thought about it and realized she was so right. I went right onto my profile with her and changed all of my info to show the real me. I even put up recent pictures showing the real me.
All of this made me think of how any one of my old friends that have facebook profiles could be doing what I had done originally. i don't really know if my old friends are doing well or not because if they are not doing well I doubt they are going to put it on facebook. If I were to speak to them face to face I think they would tell me how they were really doing, but since I just see their profiles I don't really know how they are. this actually really makes me sad because I want to know how they are really doing and since they can put whatever they want online I really don't know the true them anymore. I think this is one of the worst things about facebook. if I were to call my friends of meet them face to face I would know the real them, but since I don't. I just look on facebook to check up on them I end up seeing potentially fake information. It would be cool if people felt comfortable putting up negative information on facebook, but I don't think they ever will so I am going to have to just call my friends. Not such a bad thing I guess.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
You've Got Mail
I will admit that I have seen this movie about 4 times and every time I get a little chocked up at the end. This time I watched it to try to pay attention to how different they were online compared to how they were in real, every day life. I came to the conclusion that they were actually pretty much the same. They were both a little more friendly online, but over all they seemed to both be nice people in person and online.
The two characters have personal problems in the real world. Tom Hank's character is a big business owner and is putting Meg Ryan's character out of business. She hates him and thinks he is a terrible man. He does not really hate her at all. he doesn't feel good about putting her out of business, but he just thinks of it as business. So some how they meet online and start sending emails to each other. the end up having crushes on each other and they don't even know what the other person looks like, but they really do. When they type online neither of them ever really lies about anything, but they also never really disclose anything that would tell the other person who they are. It is a funny situation that they don't like each other at all in the real world, but on the Internet where they have no business wars they only get to see the other persons personality through words and do not have to see the aggressive business side, they fall in love with each other.
Tom Hank's character ends up finding out who she is with out her finding out who he is. this gives him an unfair advantage and he uses it. he messes around with her a little bit. he sends her emails that kind of get her thinking and maybe confuses her a little bit. They then end up actually liking each other in real life before Tom hanks ever reveals that he is actually her online crush.
This movie is a great movie to look at when looking at how different people can be on the Internet if they want to be. These two characters where pretty much themselves on the Internet, but you could see where if they wanted to be a totally different person they could have been. This as a scary thought and it is why we are having so many issues with websites such as Myspace. People can portray themselves however they want. In this movie she thought for a moment that her online crush might be a murder. This could have been totally possible and she never would have know until she was killed.
The Internet and technology are good things, but they can be used in very harmful misleading ways if we do not place enough security on them. His movie is a very cute, funny, romantic movie, but it should have brought to light a very potentially dangerous thing and that is online predators. I am surprised that our culture has let the Internet get so dirty and I hope that soon we realize what we are doing and make some much needed changes.
The two characters have personal problems in the real world. Tom Hank's character is a big business owner and is putting Meg Ryan's character out of business. She hates him and thinks he is a terrible man. He does not really hate her at all. he doesn't feel good about putting her out of business, but he just thinks of it as business. So some how they meet online and start sending emails to each other. the end up having crushes on each other and they don't even know what the other person looks like, but they really do. When they type online neither of them ever really lies about anything, but they also never really disclose anything that would tell the other person who they are. It is a funny situation that they don't like each other at all in the real world, but on the Internet where they have no business wars they only get to see the other persons personality through words and do not have to see the aggressive business side, they fall in love with each other.
Tom Hank's character ends up finding out who she is with out her finding out who he is. this gives him an unfair advantage and he uses it. he messes around with her a little bit. he sends her emails that kind of get her thinking and maybe confuses her a little bit. They then end up actually liking each other in real life before Tom hanks ever reveals that he is actually her online crush.
This movie is a great movie to look at when looking at how different people can be on the Internet if they want to be. These two characters where pretty much themselves on the Internet, but you could see where if they wanted to be a totally different person they could have been. This as a scary thought and it is why we are having so many issues with websites such as Myspace. People can portray themselves however they want. In this movie she thought for a moment that her online crush might be a murder. This could have been totally possible and she never would have know until she was killed.
The Internet and technology are good things, but they can be used in very harmful misleading ways if we do not place enough security on them. His movie is a very cute, funny, romantic movie, but it should have brought to light a very potentially dangerous thing and that is online predators. I am surprised that our culture has let the Internet get so dirty and I hope that soon we realize what we are doing and make some much needed changes.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
No Internet, No Problem
I am normally one of those people that will pick up a laptop or sit down at a desktop for about 5 minutes 2 times a day just to check my Facebook, read emails, and maybe check my bank account. Pretty much in that order too. i will normally have a new friend request on Facebook and maybe a few new emails, or at least the email telling me that I have a new friend on Facebook. I check my back account so that I know that nobody has stolen all my money. With out being able to check these things I thought I was going to be upset and may even be so tempted to check them that I would give in.
I stopped using the Internet when I went to bed one night and was not going to use the Internet for the whole next day. To tell you the truth I was actually very mad that I had to do this, but I was going to do it any way. When I woke up I did my normal thing which is eating a good breakfast at about noon and then off to the gym. This was nice because I didn't have to think about not using the Internet until I got home around 2. I knew I was going to have to stay busy so I took a shower and went right downtown with my girlfriend. I watched her shop for a couple of hours before I could not take it any more. When I got back from downtown I went right to my buddies house and had some dinner. After diner a few friends and I just sat around the TV for the rest of the night.
Going to bed was the scary part that I had to really worry about. I really like to check all of my previously mentioned things right before I go to bed. it just makes me feel like I am complete. I layed in bed with my laptop sitting on the floor next to me taunting me. Its little blue light would not stop blinking. it just wanted to be opened and taken on a wonderful ride through cyberspace. it was at this time that I realized it was 15 minutes passed when I had stopped using the Internet the night before. Hurray! I picked up my laptop and opened it. I had mad it 24 hours. That wasn't so bad.
On the unforgettable day of no Internet I learned a lot about our society. iIam a person that does not really need to do anything on the Internet and yet i can not stand not using it. I cannot imagine the people that need the Internet for work and everything else in their lives. When I think about all the the people the meet their husbands and wives on the Internet it makes me laugh because people are so different on the Internet than they are in face-to-face interactions. On this day of no Internet I realized that if We as a society had to go back 50 years and write letters to each other or actually go to our friends house to talk we would be better off. i do not like how we rely on the Internet so much. I don't want to get rid of the Internet, but i do think that I will try to not use it so much and it would be a good thing if our society tried to cut back a little as well.
I stopped using the Internet when I went to bed one night and was not going to use the Internet for the whole next day. To tell you the truth I was actually very mad that I had to do this, but I was going to do it any way. When I woke up I did my normal thing which is eating a good breakfast at about noon and then off to the gym. This was nice because I didn't have to think about not using the Internet until I got home around 2. I knew I was going to have to stay busy so I took a shower and went right downtown with my girlfriend. I watched her shop for a couple of hours before I could not take it any more. When I got back from downtown I went right to my buddies house and had some dinner. After diner a few friends and I just sat around the TV for the rest of the night.
Going to bed was the scary part that I had to really worry about. I really like to check all of my previously mentioned things right before I go to bed. it just makes me feel like I am complete. I layed in bed with my laptop sitting on the floor next to me taunting me. Its little blue light would not stop blinking. it just wanted to be opened and taken on a wonderful ride through cyberspace. it was at this time that I realized it was 15 minutes passed when I had stopped using the Internet the night before. Hurray! I picked up my laptop and opened it. I had mad it 24 hours. That wasn't so bad.
On the unforgettable day of no Internet I learned a lot about our society. iIam a person that does not really need to do anything on the Internet and yet i can not stand not using it. I cannot imagine the people that need the Internet for work and everything else in their lives. When I think about all the the people the meet their husbands and wives on the Internet it makes me laugh because people are so different on the Internet than they are in face-to-face interactions. On this day of no Internet I realized that if We as a society had to go back 50 years and write letters to each other or actually go to our friends house to talk we would be better off. i do not like how we rely on the Internet so much. I don't want to get rid of the Internet, but i do think that I will try to not use it so much and it would be a good thing if our society tried to cut back a little as well.
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