Throughout this course we have learned and experienced lots of different new and exciting topics all related to digital learning in today's world. Each topic we have discussed thus far has influenced me in my life whether in my education or in my daily life routine. Many of these ideas have great meaning to my life but just a couple seem to stand out the most. In the first chapter we read we discussed peoples addictive behavioral patterns that are involved in social media sites or just the use of cellphone addiction. In chapter two a topic that stood out to me most was "Crap-detection skills and the lack of them are a life-and-death matter for more people every day,” (p90). The topic I will elaborate on for chapter Three is the excessive use of blogging and how to make it less boring to viewers.

          People have had addictive behavior patterns from as long as I can remember, whether they are digital or just obsessive compulsive in life, they are present. In chapter one Rheingold discussed the major impact people have when they use their cellphone and or computer and how addicting it can be. I personally suffer from a cellphone addiction of my own. I got my first cell phone in case of emergencies when I was in 6th grade because I started staying home alone. This was not an addiction at first since I was only using it for specific reasons which were phone calls. When 8th grade rolled around everybody started getting blackberries which were the cool new business phones to have. Being in 8th grade does not require much business but it entails games. The blackberry had a bunch of great phone games and my particular favorite was called "brick breaker." The moment I started playing this game on my blackberry I was hooked. That is when my addiction with cell phones began.

        After that came texting. We all know what texting is and how convenient it is to be able to send a quick text rather than having a voice phone call when you're simply just "not in the mood." In the text book this quote stood out to me most,"“In a single-subject case study, Paul J. Zak of Claremont Graduate University, a pioneer in the emergent neuroeconomics field, discovered that a spike in oxytocin occurred after using Twitter for ten minutes. The implication of Zak's finding is that the frequent checking behavior of our favorite social networks might be reinforced by the chemically mediated feeling of connection that it gives us (oxytocin) as well as the chemical reward for hunting-seeking behavior (dopamine) described by others,” (47-48). This is describing a small feeling a drug addict may get when they are in need of their next "fix." I think that people get the same feeling when they are in need of phone usage, whether it be a text, a game, and or internet usage on their phone. My personal fix used to be texting but now it has moved onto social media usage. I use social media sites purely for entertainment although they can be used for educational purposes. They are my escape out of the real world and into the virtual world just to play around and have fun with. My friends use twitter for educational purposes when following news channels and newspapers to keep up with current news. This to me proves that social media isn't all that corrupt as people make it out to be. Everybody uses their phones and gets their "fix" for different reasons. It is safe to say media is addicting but it is not all negative.

    In chapter two we discussed how the use of the internet is good but that as commonly known everything you find on the internet is not always TRUE. The quote I mentioned in my introduction "Crap-detection skills and the lack of them are a life-and-death matter for more people every day,” is stating that crap is all over the internet and we have to be smart enough readers and writers in order to weed out the crap from the real thing. Here is a video that Renee posted that discusses this a bit more in depth.

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a summary this is briefly discussing that the internet is a wonderful and powerful tool that should be easily accessible to a student in a classroom of any kind but we must use our brains to focus on the important sites and tools to use.

 

  In chapter three I personally focused on the art of blogging. I think this is extremely relevant and important to this class since what I am doing at this exact moment in time is considered blogging. I know that it is difficult to create a well written and attention grabbing blog because that is my goal. My goal is not always easy to reach but it is reachable. A quote that I found in chapter three that I also used in my homework is..... “It doesn't take too many hours of web surfing to realize that the technical ability to blog, upload a video, or edit Wikipedia doesn't guarantee that everyone will express themselves effectively. Most blogs are boring (which means that knowing how to find the ones that aren't boring is part of your infotention-filtering challenge). Too many comments in forums and blogs are not worth the time it takes to read them-or worse (part of attention self-training consists of cultivating the ability to stop reading something that promises to be toxic.) Wikipedias are constantly healing the erasure or vandalism of their pages. And you could put yourself to sleep for the rest of your life-or run screaming from the room-by watching the truly terrible videos people put up for the world to see, or reading the excruciatingly mundane minutia of unfiltered twitter. ” This means to me that as persistent and necessary technology is, it is not always the most entertaining depending on what you are posting. Making blog posts are fun to make but they may not be as fun to read coming from an audience standpoint. This quote is stating that people should be aware of what they post especially when they need to focus on entertaining others and keeping people engaged. Participation is excellent when creating interactive sites and blog posts but keeping them interesting can be tricky.

 

  Overall I believe that every topic that we have touched based on in this class so far has been relevant in my daily life. This class is going to help me become a better writer and internet user just by utilizing twitter and communication back and forth with my peers on these sincere topics. Everybody has their own corks and we are just discovering our media corks through digital learning which I think is excellent.