'Us' Media

   "Don't hate the media, make the media." This, I think, is the one thing I'd certainly highlight as a main idea of this reading. Whether they were talking about the producers of independent radio or the everyday Facebook or blogger, it seems to me that understanding the "power of communication, both for the self and the group," is the key 'takeaway,' if you will, for this chapter.
   I would also like to briefly agree that community media is definately democratic in form, due to the promotion of free speech as well as the more diverse range of viewpoints. Both of those make community media (NPR soooooo reminds me of Dr. Ted Coopman now...) a very important addition to our society.
   Last, I wanted to (again briefly) appologize for the sort-ness of my posts this week. I suffered a twin blister injury on my left thumb and middle finger Sunday and am in serious pain while typing! To prove I'm not making this up because it worked for our instructor ;-) check out this picture I took yesterday (and its slightly worse today!):

(had to drain them this morning...)
Ciao for now, Sharxjay.
  

Uses and Gratifications of SNS

   We covered gratification theory a bit in Dr. Byrd's Comm 101C class last semester. I remember I found it interesting and valid, but we didn't apply it to Facebook (I'm not going to mention MySpace after this, no point anymore!). I hadn't seen the 'process and content gratification' breakdown by Kayahara and Wellman prior to reading this article. It seems like a useful tool, being able to categorize types of gratifications one would experience from using SNS. I also found this quote very interesting, “the person follows his or her
interests, choosing media content according to his or her needs and synthesizes that content to
satisfy those needs.” That is why the Internet is so much cooler than TV and other older traditional forms of media as far as gratification is concerned. Our ability to customize and re-customize our needs based on our changing wants. This was a really good article, see ya'all next post, Sharxjay.

The Medium is (totally tied to) the Message

   Why do I feel like if I had eaten a pot brownie or something this article would have become clearer to me sooner than it did on just coffee and cereal? Mr. McLuhan, dude, you wrote an article that somehow managed to both oversimplify AND dig extremely deep all at once ;-).  I sure hope we won’t be docked for sarcasm…I’ll be in big trouble!
   So on to the “two or three interesting ideas from the article.” I think that what McLuhan is really trying to say in this article is simply to be cognizant of the medium you choose for a particular message because they're undeniably interconnected. That’s it…a message you want to deliver is inevitably effected by the media by which it is delivered. A few passages that stuck out and brought me to the aforementioned conclusion:

   “…because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action.” To me, this is why to get work done or share information you’d probably choose email as the medium, whereas if you needed to deliver news of someone’s death or other tragedy you’d probably choose face to face.

   “…’content’ blinds us to the character of the medium.” With this quote I see his point, but disagree. Say I’m in real estate trying to sell a home to a client. If I were to pull up on a Harley (my McLuhan style ‘medium’) and say “this is a great home, perfect for you and your family,” versus pulling up in a Mercedes (new ‘medium’) and saying the exact same words (message), I do believe the ‘character’ of the Harley versus the ‘character’ of the Mercedes would indeed be noticed. My two mediums bring with them different connotations. My Mercedes medium implies that I’m a yuppie who probably knows what I’m talking about when it comes to real estate and that I can be trusted, whereas the Harley…well, not so much. It would be nice if people would be ‘blind’ to the difference of showing up on a Harley or in a Mercedes simply because my content stated “trust me, buy this house,” but it just doesn’t work that way. Would the ‘content’ “your Mom just passed away” ‘blind’ any of us to how insensitive, impersonal, rude and downright wrong it would be to deliver that message via email? Sorry McLuhan, I’m not fully stretch’n quite that far, but I get it.                                   
'Til next time, Sharxjay out.

Consequences of Extroversion

How 'bout that...I just found out I have a highly arousable cortex area of my brain! Lol.
   Yes, I'm an extrovert, and yes, I'm highly arousable in most areas of my brain. Turns out, according to Adam Acar, that my extroversion is the number one indicator of my OSN size. And we all know size matters!
   Okay, okay...enough silliness. I love statistics, and this was a great empirically backed article. It looked into the effects of certain variables on one's social network size and the time spent on social network sites. Some of the variables were extroversion versus introversion, body image, self-esteem, anxiety and gender and the article did a great job reporting the findings as to whether or not these variables had an impact on time spent on and size of one's social network. I also found it (predictable but) interesting that on average people's online networks nearly doubled the size of their 'real world' networks. I would have guessed and agreed with the article, however, that because extroverts have more social options, that the less socially optioned introverts would be spending more time on the net networks. But Acar threw that hypothesis out, so I guess I guessed wrong. Apparently, extroverts spend more time on and have bigger networks. We're extroverts, so that makes sense.
   One thing that surprised me for sure was that income levels, year in school and relationship status had little to no impact on social network size. I know enough single people to have seen often the 800 plus 'friends' they compile trying to be cool or land dates or whatever. I'm thinking skewed sample on that one.
   Lastly, I was really impressed by Acar's assessment of his own research's shortcomings, stating what needed to be done to further understanding in this area. It seemed to me that he'd done an adequate, thorough enough job, yet he delved into what could be done better. I hope he did indeed get his PhD!
   Until next time, Sharxjay signing off.

Quality of Email Relationships

   This was an interesting article to read sitting here in 2011, chuckling at how the 'online relationships' in question were restricted to only listservs and email. It would be a much more interesting article now with Facebook in existence.  And Match.com, eHarmony and the like. Not to mention Skype, which would gray the lines of the studies as it could be counted almost simultaneously as electronic, computer mediated and sort of 'telephone', too. Plus with ten plus more years growing up with Internet know-how under their belts, the kids today have a much greater chance to achieve 'quality relationships' than ever before.
   I'm not so sure I really 'learned' anything in this article, just reinforced some hunches, I think. This study was done long enough ago that I'm 'from' that era...the late 90's and early 2000's when the Internet and email were new technologies. We weren't as used to them in our everyday lives as f2f or telephone 'communication episodes', so I have always felt that the quality of the relationships you build with faceless strangers pales in comparison to 'real life' interpersonal interactions. I'm still getting used to Fb for crying out loud! I'm an open book kind of guy in 'real life', often times getting looks from my wife as she utters "TMI, honey," and I still find myself feeling uneasy putting stuff up on the Internet for the world to see. So of course when they studied my generation eleven years ago they found those results. So there it is, that's what I learned...we need to 'redo' this study and include the kids of today who've grown up with Fb and Match.com and Skype and see what they say now!
   I found it interesting that the one part of the study, I think it was fig. 2 on page 8 or 9, reinforced what I previously thought about the usefulness of email to share info or get work done. People are chatty :-) and that 'wastes' time (in regards to work or sharing info, not relationship building) so when you really need to bear down and accomplish tasks, email is the way to go.
   Lastly I wanted to touch on the 'adding to' versus 'substituting for' f2f interaction thing. I agree with the article, it makes sense, that when you replace traditional interpersonal (f2f or phone) interaction with too much Internet, your relationship 'quality' will take a huge hit. And adding to f2f  relationships with MORE interaction possibilities will strengthen the quality of the given relationship...most times. However, I've (and I'm sure most of you ;-) ran into plenty of 'different' enough people in my day that I bet a select group of people experience the reverse. You all know who I'm talking about...the people that don't do well with other people. They don't take or give normal social cues in normal ways. They genuinely hate public situations, and usually don't get along that well with anyone face to face. If they're replacing their 'bad' f2f experiences with Internet relationships, where they can hide, or perhaps simply navigate through, some of their social 'differences', I bet the findings would reveal an increase in relationship quality. Just my thoughts, signing off until tomorrow, Sharxjay.
  

The Union of Man and Computer

   After reading the beginning of this article, I thought, "uh oh, more dry material for me to drudge through." But it didn't take long for me to really start thinking about what this article was really saying, and how dead right this guy was even though the article was obviously written along time ago. There's a newer commercial were people are ignoring life while giving all their attention to their phones. A wife in a sexy nighty trying to get her hubby in the mood, a kid trying to play baseball with his Dad to no avail..."it's time for a phone to save us from our phones" it says at the end. That's us now and this article said it 50 years ago!
   I think when this article was written we as a society were leaning toward a "symbiosis" with the computer, but its rather obvious now that our society couldn't function, at least as we know it, without our machine counterparts. I'm a bit older than most of my fellow students, and I remember having to plan things with people thoroughly before you separated or went about your individual business. Now, we rely so heavily on our pocket miracles, you can just hit the road and wing it. I can google directions, call anyone on a whim, get my banking done, snap photos and share them with the world...all instantly from a device in pocket.
   I really enjoyed the first weed of readings and am excited about were we are going in this class. Looking forward to next week...Happy Fathers Day everyone!

The Written Word

   In reading this overview of the history of written communication, I found myself hoping we won't be held accountable for all those dates on a test or something. Or at the very least hoping if we do I'll be able to sift through all of them quickly enough to get the correct answer without wasting too much D2L time.
   Anyway, this particular reading spread it's focus on many types of written communication, and it jumped around chronologically quite a bit. I'm reading about xerox machines in 1960 one second, then in the following paragraph I'm back in 1600 BC Egypt talking about the advent of snail-mail. In the beginning I found the chapter most interesting when it talked about the evolution of the written word itself, I've always been into hieroglyphics. I also never knew that the Chinese had been using movable type hundreds of years before Gutenberg got credit for inventing it in 1439. A few of the technologies, such as the radio-facsimile and TWX, I had never really heard of. Since the radio-fax got killed by TV and TELEX and TWX were used only by big business in the 30's it shouldn't surprise me I hadn't heard of them...learn somethin everyday I guess. Until next time, Sharxjay signing off. Ciao.

Facebook and Identity: Be Who You Want to Be!

    "Identity as it emerges in the mind of an individual cannot be separated from social processes and interactions." As a Comm. Studies major, I've heard it a thousand times...you are who you think you are, but also who everyone else thinks you are. But it never seemed more evident than in the Facebook case study by Katie Ellis. Even though I already unconsciously knew it, what I 'learned' from this article is my personal identity is in fact selected from an abundance of social identities. I have many roles; husband, father, student, friend, teammate, son, etc. But which do I choose to represent to the world, and myself, who I am? Interestingly enough, I chose a photo for my Fb profile of my wife and I hugging each other in formal attire at our best friends' wedding. As the article suggests, when I maintain my Fb page (and this blog ;-), I am selecting a 'me' to project to the world and to myself. Am I trying to show the world I look good enough in a tie to land a hottie wife, or am I simply trying to convince myself of that? The answer is both.
    I also find it incredibly interesting that George Mead, who was the first (in the 1920's) to say one's self is established through communication, was dead on and would have had a field day with Facebook. Katie Ellis' views are totally in line with what Mead was saying, and I agree with her in that Mead's theories have never been more evident than in the age of the Internet, where it's unique social context allows these behaviors to be accurately studied.
    Lastly, I would like to argue with Tara Brabazon. Does she really think we can't separate 'real' news from the Fb news feeds? If anything, I think the opposite is true. Today we are constantly forced to sift through videos of water-skiing squirrels and other crap in order to find accurate, trustworthy information...and I have noticed that we are becoming very adept at it. Maybe I'm not as addicted to the 'social landscape' on Fb as some, but I still believe we can equate what's relevant, and what's little more than entertainment, quite well.
  Until next time, this is Sharxjay signing off.

Introductory Post

Hello everyone. My name is 'Jay' and I'm excited to finally be blogging! I love to write, and have always envisioned myself doing this. Yet as a husband, father of two kinder-aged children and a full time student, I have been simply too busy to blog for pleasure. I'm a "real talk", "call 'em like I see 'em" kind of guy. An extrovert for sure. My wife is a bit more shy, to say the least.  She gets mad at the few moments a week I 'waste' on Facebook (she's one of the last people I know who doesn't have an account), and would've previously killed me for taking time away from the family to Tweet, Yelp or the like. Now I have an excuse, yay!

I am a Communication Studies major at San Jose State and expect to graduate with honors in the spring of 2012. My grades mean alot to me as I feel very fortunate to have been given this opportunity to finish my education. I do have an A.A. in Communication Studies from Gavilan College in beautiful Gilroy, California. Although I was born and raised in San Jose, graduating from Oak Grove High in 1991, I love it here in Gilroy and no longer have any desire to move back. Life here is a bit slower, something I, a very fast paced and pretty much 'hyper' individual, never thought would appeal to me. But there's a small town, community feel to Gilroy where you chat with and get to know your neighbors and store owners/workers and actually care about them...I fit right in!

As an aspiring Marketing Communications Specialist, I love being a Comm. major. I was briefly an engineering major first (way to much math and science), then an advertising major throughout my lower division G.E. Then I was lucky enough to find Communication Studies. I am diligently dedicating myself this summer not only getting an 'A' in this course, but also to finding an internship that will help successfully launch me into some decent money in the world of marketing after graduation. I do have a few leads, and am extremely hopeful about only one in particular, so to anyone interested in marketing communications, feel free to ask me anything, anytime.  

I worked for almost 20 years at the former "NUMMI" plant (manufacturer of the Toyota Corolla and Tacoma) in Fremont, Ca. During that time I managed to earn my A.A. and do nothing with it, as I was working a ton and making good money at NUMMI. However, it closed last April and my wife, an L.C.S.W. and SJSU alum, is currently the 'bread-winner' as I finish my B.A. Nearly 4000 union workers got laid off when the plant closed. I understand that only 6 of us were given the okay by EDD (California's unemployment department) to "retrain" at a University rather learn to be a truck driver or a plumber or something. So as I mentioned before, I feel extremely blessed for this, my best and last chance to earn my degree, and take my studies very seriously.

As students, we are all very fortunate to be in this position, but also very busy and sometimes stressed as we struggle to juggle work, relationships, kids (for those of us lucky enough) and our coursework. So I hereby offer my help and/or advise to anyone who needs it. In regular contact with all of my instructors, I 'stay on top of it' and love to help...clarification on assignments, questions about due dates, something your too embarrassed to ask the instructor, whatever.  Note my active email account at top and please feel free to use it. With that said, it is very nice to meet you all and let's have a great summer session!