Essay: Well a part of it...

MySpace and Facebook have become addictions in our everyday life. Similar to people who are dependent on drugs or alcohol, social networking junkies count the minutes to their next profile fix, checking their computers multiple times per day to see how many shout-outs, or new friends they have acquired. Personally sometimes I guess I am one of those junkies, especially when I am bored. Some days I refresh my Facebook app constantly checking my newsfeed to see what is happening and what others are posting. In a completely non stalker way.   
Personally, I only had MySpace for about a month. The way it worked was a little confusing from what I remember. One thing I liked was that the layout really was customized to your liking. You picked any background you wanted. My favorite part was you could choose a song, so when someone visited your site it would start playing. MySpace as almost everyone says is a little confusing I remember I always had a hard time finding things for some reason, from trying to find friends to navigating from one place to the next. I deactivated it because my parents did not like me having one. Shortly after my friends introduced me to Facebook. Again shortly after I made one just like everyone else to keep up with the newest and “coolest” social network. Almost everyone I knew was already on there.  I felt like the new student in class. I did however get used to Facebook in a shorter time than I did Facebook. Which, of course, was a plus.

I have to say I like Facebook more both the reason that I got a MySpace and Facebook was because a guy asked me if I had one and I didn't want to be an idiot and say no lol I have never referred to MySpace as ghetto though I think that's really funny... I think Facebook had more features than MySpace but the one thing I loved about MySpace was the personalized profile

                     -Anonymous
             Facebook got started with a bunch of students from Harvard. Seems like a lot of good is coming from that university, like Microsoft and Facebook. This is why most mention that Facebook users are more in the higher social class. Which is ironic because half the things posted up there are definitely not “high class”. According to the article by Boyd, MySpace is being associated with the term “Ghetto”. Defined, it means a section of a city, especially a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships. Teens use the term probably because mostly minorities take up more of the demographic and also it is used as a music outlet. Mostly hip/hop and rap.

Project Space

For our space my group and I picked the new performing arts center.  We had the most exclusive tour that could have been given. We asked a woman who came out for one second if we could take a look inside, for a project because the doors were locked. She was gracious enough to not only agree but to give us a tour inside, I think mostly because she was probably scared we would ruin the smudge free zone. The inside lobbys were so spotless and shiny it looked highly luxurious and expensive. Actually it was expensive it cost a whopping 120  million (donation money) to build the whole thing. For which they are literally still paying for. Every little part of building had got so much thought put into it, every wall glass, tree branch, tiny tiles that cover an immense amount of wall. It was truly amazing. It is the only upscale building on campus. From outside to inside it is always kept pristine. There is a terrence that only donors who donate 25 grand plus 3 grand get to be wine and dined there.  I never though place on campus will be like this one. Its very calm as well even though ironically there was music playing when we shown the tour. I loved and I would like to go to a performance there.

Essay Proposal!

I would like to ask people (facebookers) about the transition they made from myspace to Facebook and the reasoning behind it. I want to go into the term, ghettoization of Myspace and if anyone had noticed that before or even had thought about it before. Analyze the article associated with it.  I was thinking about doing some kind of survey again on Facebook and see how that works out.

Gamer?

The movie Gamer was not what I expected whatsoever. In my mind I thought it was going to be about teens who are OCD on playing video games or somewhere along the lines of that. With that being said, it did do this in a subtle way or as worded in the question: its the "social commentary. Simon portrayed a typical teenager gamer. Obsessed with his toys, he may have had more advanced systems, but the general image is there. Another thing, it showed was that Simon seemed to enjoy was the girls. Especially when the girls flashed, I would think that’s point on portrayal of teenage boys. 

A social commentary that we talked about in class was the man in the wheelchair.  Clearly he was obese. Everyone knows about America being an obese country. We see it, hear it, and there are statistics that prove it. The man was handicapped because of his weight, so the only way to function in society was to be literally in "Society".  It goes to show how impersonal we have gotten especially with the advancements in technology. Everything is so much easier, unlike back in the when a letter would have probably taken about a month give or take to arrive in the hands of the recipient. Now all you have to do is “shoot an email”. Or better yet Skype, iChat, Facetime, etc. Believe me all these are much appreciated.

In “Society” the people got paid for their time. In the real world people will do what ever it takes to support a family or even to sustain themselves. I feel like we have come a place where no job is shameful anymore, yes- even prostitution. I am not saying I am condoning it only that some people’s responses have changed when they hear such things.  The players very much used the game as a fantasy land where everything and anything can be true, take the man in the wheelchair. For most people fantasy is better than reality, which is understandable, except when they let it consume them. Players should not cross the thin line between sanity and insanity.

Gamers Anonymous

I had never heard about Role Playing Games before reading this article. No one I know plays this kind of game. Mostly they play Modern Warfare, my brother being one of them. I still don’t get the hoopla on video games, and now Role Playing Games.

I do believe that the extreme gamers tend to blur the lines between fantasy and reality.  In my previous English classes, we were presented with articles similar to this topic.  One of the articles talked about a young boy around the age 10, while playing a wrestling game on a playing system, beat a 6 year old girl to death while mimicking the wrestling moves. Yes it is not RPG’s, but it involves the same or similar concept how those games affect some people.  As the theorist Arthur Asa Berger said,  “Playing video games may lead to alienation; this alienation can often lead to a sense of estrangement from oneself…what is difficult to know is how being immersed will affect players. Will new video games become a kind of opiate for people who can find an outlet in simulations that seem better than those offered by their reap-life experiences?” (107-108) I get the need to find an outlet for the stress’s in life; however there should be a limit to how much some gamers dive into the fantasy lands.

One of the reasons I think people are obsessed with these systems is because they get a chance to be involved in things that are not possible in real life, do not have the means to, or is illegal.  It gives them a chance to go outside the “box” which is normal. To me it does not become okay when gamers apply fantasy to real life negatively.  For example if they drive around in a car trying to run over things for points or a similar example like that. I believe Role Playing Games or any type of those games/systems should be used in a healthy dose. Not to the point where the person can not sleep because they are thinking about their game or even dreaming about it. They should especially be careful not to mix reality with fantasy. 

Facebook VS MySpace: Battle of the Social Networks.

I thought you guys would enjoy some funny pictures. 

What's MySpace? Just kidding. I don't even remember how MySpace worked.  I only had it for a month, not even that. My parents did not let me have one.

When the author was claiming the ghettoization it -kind of- irked me. I have to admit I don't know much about MySpace, because all my family, friends, and acquaintances use Facebook. I don't like the term ghetto, I feel like it degrades people or cultures depending on how people use it. However I understand what Kat from Massachusetts meant when she mentioned that Myspace is used by the more hip-hop, or rap groups. Myspace allows you to put music on you page and share with others and extremely customize your page to fit you personalty. That would make sense in my eyes. Until this article I read, I had never heard this racial divisions attached to the different social networks. I didn't know Facebook was supposed to be "classier" of the two. Considering the posts, and pictures you see on Facebook, it is a far cry from a "classy" place to me. I admit I did make a Facebook because my friends had one and I wanted know what it was all about. To me it seems that Facebook is very diverse filled with different races and ethnicity's; and different classes of people. I do not like it when people make things political when its just something for entertainment, and networking.

My Facebook is not really designed in a certain way. It is the standard layout page. There is a new Timeline layout available. It seems like Facebook comes out with something new each month. Which leads to people posting about it and complaining. My page is on private, of course, I am aware of hackers can hack if they want to. I did not put any revealing information about myself.  Some things are meant for more face to face, I think. I also love it because I can stay connected especially with my cousins in Armenia. One of my cousins that I had never talked to before, had no real connection with, is one of the people I talk to everyday and am really close with. Thank you Facebook!