final thoughts

This class has really forced me to re-evaluate my media uses. It has made me look at things with new eyes, eyes that are far more aware of the influences technology has on our society and how the idea of community is being re-defined by technology.
I have given the most thought to my cell phone practices, probably since this is the medium that I most use in my day to day life. I now notice things about how I use my cell phone and I am more aware of how I am using it. For example, I try to never interrupt a conversation that I am having in real life with a cell phone call, either coming or going. Its that whole idea of “absent presence” that seems to take away from the value of day to day interactions. Also, when it comes to text messaging, I have noticed that I text more and more to the people I am close to in real life and less with people I don’t know as well. This is probably because I know I am going to remain close to the people I love no matter how I communicate with them. Texting allows us to communicate more often than we would with actual phone calls Sending quick little messages to those people keep us connected more often. However, with people I don’t know as well, I feel like the voice interaction helps us establish more of a relationship as well as lessen the chances for misunderstandings or confusion since we don’t yet know each other to well.
The same goes for IMing over the internet. I only IM with people I know and am close too. In fact, I have my screen name blocked to people who are not on my buddy list. I did this when I started to get IMs from people I did not know or did not want to talk to. Again, I believe this is because I like having the alternative form of communication with people I am close too but do not want that for people I am not close too.
In terms of social networking, I am starting to see it as a way from people to express who they are. I did not see it this way in the beginning because for me personally, I find it very hard to express myself in this manner. After spending time on MySpace and seeing the profiles of others, I can see how people do put a lot of time and effort into creating a page which is a true representation of who they are, what they stand for, and what they enjoy.
But I am still not convinced that this is true of Second Life (surprised?) I do not see people’s avators being an extension of who they are because it seems like such a change. I do however, believe that it is a good means of vicariously doing what is not always possible to do in the real world, such as fly or transport. When I was younger, I spent plenty of times wishing that transportation was really possible. Actually, I still wish it was possible whenever I am traveling or running late.
Overall, I do feel as if I learned a lot this semester about me and my media uses as well as some of the new media coming about that I would not have engaged in otherwise. Thanks everyone for the great semester!!!