And I've been getting the sympathy replies from Amy (which are appreciated). I'm not proud.
Ok, so I meant to reply to the first round of sites. I meant to blog about the project I did on my own. I also meant to blog about the testing situation at my school. Finally, I meant to blog about my Masters Project on Response to Intervention because RtI is devoid of multimodality.
I also meant to react to Karen Kaun's visit to my school to demo Plato software. I think I wanted to squeeze in my first round of reactions to the curricular changes I've pushed since I started my 3-credit paper.
Oh, and the weather was beautiful in California.
I will make those blogs up - starting this weekend. I went out this weekend to read in the park and got the worst sunburn anyway. The sun is reminding me I have work to do! My skin is reminding me to wear higher spf.
4.27.2009
3.25.2009
Greatest blog ever! (Maybe not, but I'd like to say so)
http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/
Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle - I actually can't believe I missed this one!
The is a blogger/blogspot blog.
It is based on a syndicated crossword puzzle printed in newspaper.
You can donate to it through paypal.
Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle - I actually can't believe I missed this one!
The is a blogger/blogspot blog.
It is based on a syndicated crossword puzzle printed in newspaper.
You can donate to it through paypal.
3.24.2009
Thinking about blogs. . . part 1
http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/
Garfield Minus Garfield - Jon Davis' cartoons have been manipulated to highlight how just how lonely and empty Jon Arbuckle's life truly is.
This website is based on pre-existing comic strip media printed in newspapers and books.
The website is put together by Tumblr at tumblr.com a site for blogging
This site has led to the printing of a book
Garfield Minus Garfield can be received on an RSS feed to a device of your choosing
Of course this is a Twitter about G-G (http://twitter.com/GMinusG) and where would be without the author's as well (http://twitter.com/travors)
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/
Stuff White People Like - blog about. . . well, the stuff that white people like, according to the authors of the site.
The site refers to movies, website, texts, television shows, advertisement, tattoos, food packaging, music . . .
This website is a wordpress.com blog.
Posts can be sent on an RSS feed.
The book of the same name is available, and there is a link to amazon.com for online shopping
Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com has been spotlighted in magazines, websites, television and radio programs
Twitter? Of course (http://twit.tv/picks/stuff_white_people_definitive_guide_unique_taste_millions)
http://www.52.trebsworld.com/2007/index.html
52 Things: Do one new thing every week. Try to be creative and fun. See how others are doing too. Props to Karen actually for bringing this one up in our group last night.
This site is ported to Wordpress. (I had to ask a co-worker.)
I was able to sign up for e-mail updates.
There is a link to http://www.billwadman.com/365/ which is basically 365 things
Garfield Minus Garfield - Jon Davis' cartoons have been manipulated to highlight how just how lonely and empty Jon Arbuckle's life truly is.
This website is based on pre-existing comic strip media printed in newspapers and books.
The website is put together by Tumblr at tumblr.com a site for blogging
This site has led to the printing of a book
Garfield Minus Garfield can be received on an RSS feed to a device of your choosing
Of course this is a Twitter about G-G (http://twitter.com/GMinusG) and where would be without the author's as well (http://twitter.com/travors)
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/
Stuff White People Like - blog about. . . well, the stuff that white people like, according to the authors of the site.
The site refers to movies, website, texts, television shows, advertisement, tattoos, food packaging, music . . .
This website is a wordpress.com blog.
Posts can be sent on an RSS feed.
The book of the same name is available, and there is a link to amazon.com for online shopping
Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com has been spotlighted in magazines, websites, television and radio programs
Twitter? Of course (http://twit.tv/picks/stuff_white_people_definitive_guide_unique_taste_millions)
http://www.52.trebsworld.com/2007/index.html
52 Things: Do one new thing every week. Try to be creative and fun. See how others are doing too. Props to Karen actually for bringing this one up in our group last night.
This site is ported to Wordpress. (I had to ask a co-worker.)
I was able to sign up for e-mail updates.
There is a link to http://www.billwadman.com/365/ which is basically 365 things
Tech and Lit Meets TimeOut New York
Own This City
Time Out New York / Issue 703 : Mar 19–25, 2009
Memefactory
Are you BFF with the Angry German Kid? Crazy for Lolcats? A total cam whore? Show off your Interweb smarts at 3rd Ward’s new-media circus.
By Sharon Steel
The Internet needs skilled professionals, and we don’t just mean bloggers. Mike Rugnetta, Patrick Davison and Stephen Bruckert (whatweknowsofar.com) are connoisseurs of viral phenomena, and they’ve created the Memefactory event to showcase the Web’s most esoteric riches. Billing it as a cross between a theatrical lecture, a vaudeville performance and Double Dare, the three new-media nerds will guide the audience through a fast-paced tutorial of the Web’s best and weirdest artifacts—from the 4chan message board to YouTube must-sees. “We really love the emerging social aspect of Internet media,” says Rugnetta. For Memefactory, that means audience participation is encouraged. Test your cyber IQ below by identifying each of the following memes; if you find yourself drooling, study the crash course.
1 User-submitted, photographic evidence of pure, occasionally painful irony. The act of being Owned or Pwnd.
2 I can hascheezburger?
3 A dramatic reading of a real breakup letter from a real person
4 A prank played on an innocent Web surfer, in which the victim stumbles upon a link that someone claims will lead to an interesting, sexy or eye-popping revelation. Instead, it turns out to be ’80s pop star Rick Astley singing “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
5 A contortion of the chops; an ill-fated and extremely unattractive turning down of the corners of the lips to show scorn or disdain.
6 This is your child. This is your child after a legal dose of anesthetic drugs: “Is this real life? Why is this happening to me? Is this going to be forever?”
7 A diminutive Chilean performance artist who captured hearts worldwide with his imitations of women, including Hillary Clinton and British train wreck Amy Winehouse.
8 This is what happens when you combine a hyperactive teenage girl and a YouTube account.
9 The implication that one should lighten up; a reversal of one’s somber, grim or humorless expression or situation, Dark Knight–style.
10 correct A literal and pictorial subversion of the expression Taste the rainbow.
Tally your score: Award yourself one point for each question correctly answered.1 Fail Blog (failblog.org)2 Lolcats (icanhascheezburger.com) 3 You Make Me Touch Your Hands for Stupid Reasons (youmakemetouchyourhandsforstupidreasons.ytmnd.com) 4 Rickrolling!5 Sturgeon Face (sturgeonface.com) 6 David After Dentist 7 La Pequeña 8 Boxxy (youtube.com/user/boxxybabee) 9 Y So Serious? 10 Skittlefisting (skittlefisting.tumblr.com)
If you scored between...
8 and 10: You are Mr. Chocolate Rain. Mr. Numa Numa. Mr. Liam Kyle Sullivan in the hot-pink panties and a Garth wig. Congrats on being a meme-mining superstar. (Let’s just hope “2 Girls 1 Cup” wasn’t your doing.)
4 and 7: You can distinguish a teary Chris Crocker from a dancing baby GIF, but you only know “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” ’cause your cubemate IM’d it to you. Keep goofing off at work and you’ll eventually become a meme master.
1 and 3: You do know what year it is, right? And that most Americans are no longer using dot-matrix printers? (Oh, wait...were you in a coma?) P.S. Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten.
POINT AND CLICK! “Memefactory a/k/a ROFL Mill a/k/a LOLfest a/k/a Lulzapalooza”: 3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Ave at Stagg St, Bushwick, Brooklyn (718-715-4961, 3rdward.com). Tue 24 at 7pm, free. R.S.V.P. recommended (events@3rdward.com).
Own This City
Time Out New York / Issue 703 : Mar 19–25, 2009
Meme 101
“Internet media is almost like literature,” says Bruckert. “Unless it’s your full-time job, you can’t possibly read everything.” The What We Know So Far dudes don’t want your tour of the hypertubes to feel like one big inside joke. So brush up on your Internets! Here are five terms they suggest you commit to memory prior to the Factory event. O RLY? YA RLY!
MEME“A meme is an idea, practice or image that travels between and across members of a culture. Coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, it’s most easily described as a unit of culture. The focus of Memefactory is Internet memes: trends or pieces of media which are propagated by Internet culture.”
LOLZ vs. LULZ“Laugh out loud is used in response to something funny, or as a prefix meaning ‘characterized by humor and Internet speak,’ e.g., Lolcats. Lulz, while similar to lolz, is specifically used in the context of laughs sought or received. Lulz are not always humorous. Frequently an action perpetrated ‘for the lulz’ is insidious in nature.”
+1“A way to indicate approval of a post, user or posted item. +1 might be followed by a request for ‘moar.’?”
SNOWCLONE“A commonly known and repeated sentence framework. A traditional example might be Have X, will travel or X is the new Y. The Internet has bred a fair number of its own snowclones, including I’m in yr X, Y-ing yr Z and All your X are belong to us.”
TL;DR“Too Long; Didn’t Read. Most often used in the comments section of a blog or forum as a response to a long post. The Internet is full of lazy people who are not interested in life stories, only quick lulz.”
For more info on meme trends, What We Know So Far suggests rocketboom.com, encyclopediadramatica.com and somethingawful.com.
Time Out New York / Issue 703 : Mar 19–25, 2009
Memefactory
Are you BFF with the Angry German Kid? Crazy for Lolcats? A total cam whore? Show off your Interweb smarts at 3rd Ward’s new-media circus.
By Sharon Steel
The Internet needs skilled professionals, and we don’t just mean bloggers. Mike Rugnetta, Patrick Davison and Stephen Bruckert (whatweknowsofar.com) are connoisseurs of viral phenomena, and they’ve created the Memefactory event to showcase the Web’s most esoteric riches. Billing it as a cross between a theatrical lecture, a vaudeville performance and Double Dare, the three new-media nerds will guide the audience through a fast-paced tutorial of the Web’s best and weirdest artifacts—from the 4chan message board to YouTube must-sees. “We really love the emerging social aspect of Internet media,” says Rugnetta. For Memefactory, that means audience participation is encouraged. Test your cyber IQ below by identifying each of the following memes; if you find yourself drooling, study the crash course.
1 User-submitted, photographic evidence of pure, occasionally painful irony. The act of being Owned or Pwnd.
2 I can hascheezburger?
3 A dramatic reading of a real breakup letter from a real person
4 A prank played on an innocent Web surfer, in which the victim stumbles upon a link that someone claims will lead to an interesting, sexy or eye-popping revelation. Instead, it turns out to be ’80s pop star Rick Astley singing “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
5 A contortion of the chops; an ill-fated and extremely unattractive turning down of the corners of the lips to show scorn or disdain.
6 This is your child. This is your child after a legal dose of anesthetic drugs: “Is this real life? Why is this happening to me? Is this going to be forever?”
7 A diminutive Chilean performance artist who captured hearts worldwide with his imitations of women, including Hillary Clinton and British train wreck Amy Winehouse.
8 This is what happens when you combine a hyperactive teenage girl and a YouTube account.
9 The implication that one should lighten up; a reversal of one’s somber, grim or humorless expression or situation, Dark Knight–style.
10 correct A literal and pictorial subversion of the expression Taste the rainbow.
Tally your score: Award yourself one point for each question correctly answered.1 Fail Blog (failblog.org)2 Lolcats (icanhascheezburger.com) 3 You Make Me Touch Your Hands for Stupid Reasons (youmakemetouchyourhandsforstupidreasons.ytmnd.com) 4 Rickrolling!5 Sturgeon Face (sturgeonface.com) 6 David After Dentist 7 La Pequeña 8 Boxxy (youtube.com/user/boxxybabee) 9 Y So Serious? 10 Skittlefisting (skittlefisting.tumblr.com)
If you scored between...
8 and 10: You are Mr. Chocolate Rain. Mr. Numa Numa. Mr. Liam Kyle Sullivan in the hot-pink panties and a Garth wig. Congrats on being a meme-mining superstar. (Let’s just hope “2 Girls 1 Cup” wasn’t your doing.)
4 and 7: You can distinguish a teary Chris Crocker from a dancing baby GIF, but you only know “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” ’cause your cubemate IM’d it to you. Keep goofing off at work and you’ll eventually become a meme master.
1 and 3: You do know what year it is, right? And that most Americans are no longer using dot-matrix printers? (Oh, wait...were you in a coma?) P.S. Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten.
POINT AND CLICK! “Memefactory a/k/a ROFL Mill a/k/a LOLfest a/k/a Lulzapalooza”: 3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Ave at Stagg St, Bushwick, Brooklyn (718-715-4961, 3rdward.com). Tue 24 at 7pm, free. R.S.V.P. recommended (events@3rdward.com).
Own This City
Time Out New York / Issue 703 : Mar 19–25, 2009
Meme 101
“Internet media is almost like literature,” says Bruckert. “Unless it’s your full-time job, you can’t possibly read everything.” The What We Know So Far dudes don’t want your tour of the hypertubes to feel like one big inside joke. So brush up on your Internets! Here are five terms they suggest you commit to memory prior to the Factory event. O RLY? YA RLY!
MEME“A meme is an idea, practice or image that travels between and across members of a culture. Coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, it’s most easily described as a unit of culture. The focus of Memefactory is Internet memes: trends or pieces of media which are propagated by Internet culture.”
LOLZ vs. LULZ“Laugh out loud is used in response to something funny, or as a prefix meaning ‘characterized by humor and Internet speak,’ e.g., Lolcats. Lulz, while similar to lolz, is specifically used in the context of laughs sought or received. Lulz are not always humorous. Frequently an action perpetrated ‘for the lulz’ is insidious in nature.”
+1“A way to indicate approval of a post, user or posted item. +1 might be followed by a request for ‘moar.’?”
SNOWCLONE“A commonly known and repeated sentence framework. A traditional example might be Have X, will travel or X is the new Y. The Internet has bred a fair number of its own snowclones, including I’m in yr X, Y-ing yr Z and All your X are belong to us.”
TL;DR“Too Long; Didn’t Read. Most often used in the comments section of a blog or forum as a response to a long post. The Internet is full of lazy people who are not interested in life stories, only quick lulz.”
For more info on meme trends, What We Know So Far suggests rocketboom.com, encyclopediadramatica.com and somethingawful.com.
3.05.2009
Comic strips, timelines with pictures and graphic running records are three strategies I employ as a special educator, but as a reading teacher, their value is endless. The incorporation of pictures with any(decontextualized) text is really helpful to increase understanding.
This is a really neat program that combines students computer skills and also boosts the confidence of students who do not participate in graphic components when they feel they can't draw:
For schools that do not have the right hardware or infinite resources, there are so many artistic elements to standard applications like Word to create the necessary elements. In the event there are NO computers available, using the thought and speaking bubbles, preset frames and generic characters to create one's own comic features is just as helpful. Cutting and pasting, old school. Teachers too often write a product off because they cannot foresee purchasing 200 licenses or having enough equipment. Maybe we should start adapting to meet our own technological needs, while creating similar engagement.
Other resources I have been given as a history teacher include the work of Larry Gonick. These are not the shiny new manga type comics, and I know I'm only drawn to them because in my heart I love history, but they are an interesting take. In these cases, the comics had been supplemental.
In my literature classes, when I worked with self-contained special education students, I used graphic novels (notice the language change, as I am seeing my obvious judgment) to teach the classics. I wanted the students to feel pride in their reading, as many of their peers read texts at a higher level. Leveled and abridged texts just weren't the same because the stories were lacking their "classic" qualities, and more often than not, edges of their plotlines. Worse, when you take the sideplots and descriptive language out of many texts we use in class, the readings become even more decontextualized and insultingly simple. My students loved reading Metamorphosis because the text made more sense with the original language and the supplement of pictures. The text was a perfect match for a graphic novel and the ease of reading allowed the students to discuss the deeper issues, which are usually lost in comprehension strategies when reading a dulled abridged text.
When students do not understand, I encourage them in both literature and core content area classes to take notes in the form of pictures in the margins of their texts. Students with severe comprehension difficulties are often helped by summarizing chunks of text in pieces and drawing quick pictures of the important elements of their reading. Upon "rereading" the text (and their pictures), students have built up their visualization of the text, demonstrated the use of their prior knowledge in their depictions of the content of the reading and the inferences they have made, as well provided themselves a cheatsheet of the story that is as easy for them to read as scanning would be for a student without reading difficulties.
Differentiated Instruction and Multiple Intelligences theories promote these kinds of uses of graphic novels, comics, and pictures throughout instruction to meet the needs of different types of learners. Using these resources as texts (differentiating the content), expecting learners to produce these media for assessment (differentiating the product), and incorporating these media as reading strategies (differentiating the process) are key elements for reaching all learners. Additionally, these media allow for greater variation to meet content needs, readiness levels, student interest and modalities, also critical in the need to differentiate.
The philosophical foundation is very rarely related to technology and literacy, but rather on cognitive demands or learning profile information, as if how students learn is divorced from the technology and literacy experiences they have had in their lives outside of the classroom. It will interesting to see how to create something more complete when incorporating the experiential learning that is a contribution of culture and lifestyle, or to see how extending something that may already being do that do so more completely when teachers become cognizant of the elements outside the classroom.
This is a really neat program that combines students computer skills and also boosts the confidence of students who do not participate in graphic components when they feel they can't draw:
Comic Life is an award winning application for creating not just comics (obviously), but also annotated images, dynamic photo albums, greeting cards, scrap books, story books, and instruction guides and brochures. In the classroom, it is an excellent tool for creating reports of almost any kind. Comic Life allows you to create page layouts with boxes for images and text. Styles can be applied to create just about any type of ‘feel’ for your document. Captions can be created with tails in order to have thought balloons, speech boxes or just additional annotations. Filters are available to turn your digital images into a variety of hand drawn looking graphics to enhance the comic appearance of your work.
For schools that do not have the right hardware or infinite resources, there are so many artistic elements to standard applications like Word to create the necessary elements. In the event there are NO computers available, using the thought and speaking bubbles, preset frames and generic characters to create one's own comic features is just as helpful. Cutting and pasting, old school. Teachers too often write a product off because they cannot foresee purchasing 200 licenses or having enough equipment. Maybe we should start adapting to meet our own technological needs, while creating similar engagement.
Other resources I have been given as a history teacher include the work of Larry Gonick. These are not the shiny new manga type comics, and I know I'm only drawn to them because in my heart I love history, but they are an interesting take. In these cases, the comics had been supplemental.
In my literature classes, when I worked with self-contained special education students, I used graphic novels (notice the language change, as I am seeing my obvious judgment) to teach the classics. I wanted the students to feel pride in their reading, as many of their peers read texts at a higher level. Leveled and abridged texts just weren't the same because the stories were lacking their "classic" qualities, and more often than not, edges of their plotlines. Worse, when you take the sideplots and descriptive language out of many texts we use in class, the readings become even more decontextualized and insultingly simple. My students loved reading Metamorphosis because the text made more sense with the original language and the supplement of pictures. The text was a perfect match for a graphic novel and the ease of reading allowed the students to discuss the deeper issues, which are usually lost in comprehension strategies when reading a dulled abridged text.
When students do not understand, I encourage them in both literature and core content area classes to take notes in the form of pictures in the margins of their texts. Students with severe comprehension difficulties are often helped by summarizing chunks of text in pieces and drawing quick pictures of the important elements of their reading. Upon "rereading" the text (and their pictures), students have built up their visualization of the text, demonstrated the use of their prior knowledge in their depictions of the content of the reading and the inferences they have made, as well provided themselves a cheatsheet of the story that is as easy for them to read as scanning would be for a student without reading difficulties.
Differentiated Instruction and Multiple Intelligences theories promote these kinds of uses of graphic novels, comics, and pictures throughout instruction to meet the needs of different types of learners. Using these resources as texts (differentiating the content), expecting learners to produce these media for assessment (differentiating the product), and incorporating these media as reading strategies (differentiating the process) are key elements for reaching all learners. Additionally, these media allow for greater variation to meet content needs, readiness levels, student interest and modalities, also critical in the need to differentiate.
The philosophical foundation is very rarely related to technology and literacy, but rather on cognitive demands or learning profile information, as if how students learn is divorced from the technology and literacy experiences they have had in their lives outside of the classroom. It will interesting to see how to create something more complete when incorporating the experiential learning that is a contribution of culture and lifestyle, or to see how extending something that may already being do that do so more completely when teachers become cognizant of the elements outside the classroom.
2.26.2009
What {I remember from what} I would have {ugh} Twittered:
1) I overheard a woman angrily crying on a cell phone. She said, "This is what you always do! You're doing it right now!" Time and space were hers through the technology she was crying into. Fights in the third space.
2) Announced my engagement through Facebook. So much easier than calling people! Horrible? Maybe. No one got told first though!
3) Read about Snark, by D. Denby. If you have thirty minutes read the whole book, but don't give up good reading time for it if you haven't got it. Internet = convenience for faceless, meaningless attacks without conviction.
4) Bloggers and Unions Join Forces to Push Democrats to Left
2) Announced my engagement through Facebook. So much easier than calling people! Horrible? Maybe. No one got told first though!
3) Read about Snark, by D. Denby. If you have thirty minutes read the whole book, but don't give up good reading time for it if you haven't got it. Internet = convenience for faceless, meaningless attacks without conviction.
4) Bloggers and Unions Join Forces to Push Democrats to Left
I get all a'twitter (If only McLuhan could have had an iPhone)
So I have to admit, as constraining as I find Twitter to be, I love its novelty, how it forces clarity (or highlights a lack thereof), and the kind of compulsion it can become.
In all seriousness, the reason I started on Twitter is that I have a few times this week been dying to post things that I saw as I saw them. I felt paralyzed by my fear I'd forget. I thought, I should type this out in a note to myself, or I should text myself, or "Gee, we'd use Twitter!" Not once did I trust that I'd remember these instances on my own (nor did I once actually record these instances, either), and I began to think about myself and the effects of the new electronic media.
Take for example, my phone. It covers e-mail, internet, texting, phone, notes/to-do list, music, audiobooks, games, radio, weather, GPS, and clock and calendar. In this way, the technology enhances my ability to get things done and it carries my personal media. The news, music, my calendar and more are all amplified through this medium. But at what loss? What media have been reduced? Books and planners. Music players. Navigation system. Sometimes, maybe even the personal computer, as I've been known to sit at my desk at work and read my email on my phone as I sit in front of my Dell.
I may not have lost a modality, in the traditional way in which a radio replaces the visual, but I've lost a sense of patience I think. My phone makes a sound, I need to see what it is. I use different sounds to signify different things, so I know before I even see my phone that I have a text message, e-mail, or call from a specific person with a specific ring tone. Have I been prepped by previous technologies and their immediacy (from the ringing phone to the friendly "You've Got Mail!") to seek out a singular device that can fulfill my technological and communicative needs? What has my phone returned to the forefront of my life? My connections with others, my need for instant gratification, the visual of a website when I'm sitting in a doctor's office waiting room, audio when I'm on a train. But my consciousness of what is being sent to me is increased simply by being notified, am I really more conscious? I don't remember that I've read an e-mail because I've read it so quickly and didn't have time to respond. I'm no more conscious of my friend's birthday when I know that my Facebook application will tell me when it is coming and I can let that small fact slip out of my mind after I write something on her wall. I'm much less conscious of the environment around me, physically if I'm going to trip over myself while texting between train transfers, and emotionally in public settings while I'm writing to a long lost friend or angry family member.
Well, this is where my mind went a few times when I sat on the train, walked by Union Square, read the newspaper this week and thought "I don't have time to a blog fair justice this week, I just want to write up something about . . . " Similarly, there are times when I really can't imagine engaging my mom when I get from work, but I would love for her to know I'm still getting my soup.
[Finally, Twitter. Verb? I'd hate to think so, but it pains me even more to know that my repeated use of the phrase "use Twitter's services" most likely read pretty awkwardly. I can't quite accept it just yet. I'm sorry.]
The only aspect Twitter can control though is your reception; you alone are responsible for your impulse control. Just peek at the reasons to use to Twitter:With Twitter, you can stay hyper–connected to your friends and always know what they’re doing. Or, you can stop following them any time. You can even set quiet times on Twitter so you’re not interrupted.
Twitter puts you in control and becomes a modern antidote to information overload.
I eat soup all the time! Sometimes I eat really good soup! Soup my friends like too! Well, I'll never have to eat soup in secrecy again. I know I'm being flippant, but I completely enjoy the fact that Twitter takes itself in such great stride that it includes "Eating soup?" under basic, but meaningful updates. Twitter can control when my friends get these meaningful newsflashes, but who can control my thumbs when I find something to be meaningful?Why [use the service]? Because even basic updates are meaningful to family members, friends, or colleagues—especially when they’re timely.
- Eating soup? Research shows that moms want to know.
- Running late to a meeting? Your co–workers might find that useful.
- Partying? Your friends may want to join you.
In all seriousness, the reason I started on Twitter is that I have a few times this week been dying to post things that I saw as I saw them. I felt paralyzed by my fear I'd forget. I thought, I should type this out in a note to myself, or I should text myself, or "Gee, we'd use Twitter!" Not once did I trust that I'd remember these instances on my own (nor did I once actually record these instances, either), and I began to think about myself and the effects of the new electronic media.
Take for example, my phone. It covers e-mail, internet, texting, phone, notes/to-do list, music, audiobooks, games, radio, weather, GPS, and clock and calendar. In this way, the technology enhances my ability to get things done and it carries my personal media. The news, music, my calendar and more are all amplified through this medium. But at what loss? What media have been reduced? Books and planners. Music players. Navigation system. Sometimes, maybe even the personal computer, as I've been known to sit at my desk at work and read my email on my phone as I sit in front of my Dell.
I may not have lost a modality, in the traditional way in which a radio replaces the visual, but I've lost a sense of patience I think. My phone makes a sound, I need to see what it is. I use different sounds to signify different things, so I know before I even see my phone that I have a text message, e-mail, or call from a specific person with a specific ring tone. Have I been prepped by previous technologies and their immediacy (from the ringing phone to the friendly "You've Got Mail!") to seek out a singular device that can fulfill my technological and communicative needs? What has my phone returned to the forefront of my life? My connections with others, my need for instant gratification, the visual of a website when I'm sitting in a doctor's office waiting room, audio when I'm on a train. But my consciousness of what is being sent to me is increased simply by being notified, am I really more conscious? I don't remember that I've read an e-mail because I've read it so quickly and didn't have time to respond. I'm no more conscious of my friend's birthday when I know that my Facebook application will tell me when it is coming and I can let that small fact slip out of my mind after I write something on her wall. I'm much less conscious of the environment around me, physically if I'm going to trip over myself while texting between train transfers, and emotionally in public settings while I'm writing to a long lost friend or angry family member.
Well, this is where my mind went a few times when I sat on the train, walked by Union Square, read the newspaper this week and thought "I don't have time to a blog fair justice this week, I just want to write up something about . . . " Similarly, there are times when I really can't imagine engaging my mom when I get from work, but I would love for her to know I'm still getting my soup.
[Finally, Twitter. Verb? I'd hate to think so, but it pains me even more to know that my repeated use of the phrase "use Twitter's services" most likely read pretty awkwardly. I can't quite accept it just yet. I'm sorry.]
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