Reflection on group identity project

The group  identity project was a fun project for me. The group and i choose a character who was well known for being suave, sophisticated and interesting.  It was humorous to go online and find out that there are websites dedicated to writing funny, witty sayings about how awesome he is.  The social network we used was myspace, i would not use that again.  Myspace was slow, confusing and overall very dated.  We wanted to use it because we could design the layout of his site and because we could play music that matched his interests.  Those aspects were effective and fun but overall i would not use myspace as a professional avenue for social networking.  The page we designed was for fans and people that wanted to find out more about his suave persona.  It was for a younger audience (pre 21) as well as had a link put on it that would link the page to his website which was for 21 years old and up.  The project overall was fun to try and put ourselves in someone elses shoes and design a page that we feel the client would appreciate.

Online Identity performance topics

Some topics I'm considering are me as a christian, me as a future film maker or me as a big brother and uncle to my sister who has an illness.  I intend to me as honest as possible although it puts me in a vulnerable position.  I intend to be as informative as possible as well and i feel this would be effective either through podcast and video presentation.  For this project i intend to have other people in my life talk like my girlfriend and Friends or family.

Telling a story with sound

To tell a story or hear a story only in sound it takes on an entire different life.  There is no visual stimuli to reference to, as a listener you cant afford to be lazy and just watch the story unfold, you have to give your complete attention and focus.  I feel it is harder to convey a message and express feeling with audio only, its easier to watch an actors face and gestures and be able to comprehend and feel more what they are going through and there story.  I takes someone who can enunciate very well and very animated to make a listener feel something while hearing there story.  There are perks to only audio storytelling though.  Most often if its a topic that a listener can relate to like perhaps, someone has cancer, then in my opinion they well connect with that story more as oppose to if they saw it instead.  Without visual aid they will relate to what they are hearing and picture there loved one or whomever as the characters of the story since it relates to them, and i feel this would impact them more.  Telling a story without sound allows listeners to also improvise a bit and imagine who they want as "characters" and also imagine certain scenarios however they want, they are restricted to what they see on TV as to how a certain situation looks or is handled. There's definitely pros and cons to telling a story without sound, however it can still be imapactful and effective.

PodCast ideas!

Some topics I'm kicking around for my podcast are these.
1. getting with my nephew and talking about "bullying". He has a lot to say about the topic and its interesting hearing it from a 6 year old perspective. It all depends on how clearly he can articulate.

2. Divorce,  I wanted to get my brother and sister together and talk about my parents divorce. It was in 2002 and its been a considerable amount of time and think it will be interesting to hear our perspectives.

3. Bartenders and servers.  I wanted to do a round table podcast with fellow employees of mine who work in the food service industry. I want to get there takes on that industry.  Trust me it would be interesting.

Advantages and Limitations

Because of technology I'm abled to keep in contact with all my friends and family, even those who don't live in the same city as me. Technology keeps me connected to the news and things going on in my city, state, country and world via the Internet, television, applications, social networks and podcasts.  I am able to search for any answers i have on a daily basis about trivial things through technology in an instant and that has made me wiser and more informed.  However technology does have its limitations.  The biggest limitation i can think of is that it creates a wall between people and their interactions. Technology is a poor substitute for face to face human interaction/connection.  It also gives people a scapegoat for avoiding  "in person"confrontation, they have become more willing to discuss about necessary and confrontational topics via text or e-mail to avoid any huge fight or face to face awkwardness.  This might eliminate any awkwardness or feelings getting hurt but it only prolongs the inevitable because most often discussions through text, e-mail etc are taken out of context, and most often the root of the problem isn't fixed.

if life were a Dollhouse

After watching that clip from "Dollhouse" it illustrates to me how much as a society technology influencses us.  First of all it took alot of creative thinking to think up a show based on erasing peoples personalitys and giving them new ones. I mean it s been thought of before but to make an entire series about it and to show us that in film takes some effert.  I feel like people in todays society really is interested in concepts like these and that if it were possible at this point and time that scientists would initiate stuff like this and implament it to happen , as well as some people in society would volunter.

Age old statement..Men vs Women

Gender is a definite and unavoidable approachable way to define the ways men and women use technologies.  Its not a surprise that more women use social network sites than men.  By nature woman are more social and willing to gossip and discuss about social topics.  Men are more willing to listen and provide some feedback but are not as likely to post it as a "status update" or start messaging their friends in there inbox.  In my own life i have had these experiences.  My girlfriend posts updates all the time throughout the day that detailing where shes going or what shes doing.  A lot of the time i use my facebook just to look up old friends or communicate some prayers or feelings, i don't usually post what I'm doing throughout the day because i don't feel why it would be important.  I would defiantly rather surf the Internet for random things and play video games rather than play with facebook. I feel its a medium that women love because its so informative about other peoples lives and it keeps them up to date and in the loop.