Unit 11: Let’s See How Far We’ve Come

We have come to the end… the end of the fall semester 2018, the end of my first ever online class, the end of a crazy journey.  It has been quite a semester to say the least with hectic schedules, group projects that have tested limits, and an online emergent media course that turned out better than I thought in the beginning.

Beginning this online Emergent Media course I was a little hesitant because I had never taken an online class before.  I have since come to love this class and have looked forward to learning new information each week with a different unit.  I was also able to make some amazing new friends through this class and meeting them throughout the semester.  I have enjoyed being able to work independently to complete the various tasks given to me and especially enjoyed the blogging section of the class.  Blogging my opinions on different units and what was going on in the class, dug deeper into my creative side and I felt free to say whatever I thought. In an appropriate manner, of course.  As for how the class was run, I really liked that each week the unit was typically released on the same day and we had a week to complete each unit.  I liked how the instructions were clearly given and that Dr. Magolis was easy to contact if we had any questions.  I loved learning about sports and the salary cap situation that we discussed in class.  I think that it was interesting to hear classmates perspective on the different topics and learn a little more information from their point of view.  I had a ball working on the videocast assignment, considering I made a blooper reel of the tiring tries I attempted at perfecting my video but failed and busted out laughing.  It was cool to edit my multiple videos into snip-its and put them all together in the end as the final videocast assignment project. When thinking about ways to improve the course, it is hard to say.  There was not really anything that I did not like about the course. Maybe videochatting with the class or classmates or even Dr. Magolis for one unit and have an online video chat discussion instead of a discussion post?  It’s a possibility.

It’s sad that this semester is at closing time in the book, but I am excited to be back next semester and continue taking classes similar to this one to proceed in credits for my minor. As someone once said, your life is a book, move forward, close one chapter, and open another.  A very fitting and motivating quote that I think wraps it all up nicely.

Unit 10: Protecting Our Privacy

We do not want everyone to know every single detail about our lives or us.  Why do you think our windows have curtains to shut, why our doors have locks after we close them, or why our clothes cover up our bodies? Because we want things to be private and kept to ourselves or our families.  This relates exactly to our privacy using media. Why do you think we have usernames and passwords, why do we have security questions, or why do we settings that we can control (to a certain extent) who sees what we post or share?

[Privacy online]. (2017, October 4). Retrieved from https://socrateswater.com/2017/10/04/a-note-about-online-privacy-and-security/

So to answer the big question, what can we do to protect our privacy?? Well, I have a few suggestions that I have learned over the years myself. Take a look and maybe you can learn something too!

Cover Up

One thing that I was told awhile ago when I got my first personal laptop was to put a sticker over my video camera. Now why would I do that? After hearing this, being the inquisitive person that I am, looked up to find the answer to my why and what I found was very interesting.  I was shocked to hear about how easily someone could take over my webcam and collect footage without the light indicator turning on!

EWW How Creepy!

Monitor and “Spring Clean”

Monitor and limit who you are “friends” with on social media sites.  Remember at one time when it used to be cool to have the most friends on Facebook or the biggest amount of followers on Instagram?  Answer this for me, how many of you allow anyone and everyone follow you on social media? I can say that I do not know everyone who follows me.  I monitor my followers in moderation, but probably not as well as I should be.  I have my settings set to a private account on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, but it’s not necessarily completely private. I personally like to “Spring Clean” my social media accounts. Within this process I go through each of my accounts and delete followers that I don’t want seeing my accounts anymore, remove friends on Facebook, especially people who are no longer in my life and no longer need to see what is going on.

Secure and Safe

Make sure whenever you are browsing or shopping online that the website has https: at the beginning of the web address and that the secured lock is shown in the address bar before the web address.  To be safe, ensure that you follow all the safety and security protection steps when setting up an e-mail address, new social media account, or account on a store website. When making these accounts, always use STRONG passwords, don’t make it something easy that uses common information.

I hope after reading this blog that you were able to learn a little more information of some things that you can do to help protect your privacy! Safe surfing and searching the web!

 

Unit 4: What is Media Literacy?? Do you know? Let’s find out.

Ahh … the good ole term of media literacy, where we do we begin?

Well I guess for starters, we should define the term so that we all are on the same page for this post.  Media literacy as defined in our class discussion, “is a set of perspectives that we actively use to expose ourselves to the media and interpret the meaning of the messages we encounter. It is multi-dimensional and a continuum.” Now, I know we all like things put into simpler terms for us so to keep it straightforward, media literacy is analyzing the good and the bad in the media world.  We all the know that the world is changing CONSTANTLY and we are always having to keep up with this ever-changing society.  Media literacy is being able to adapt to these changes and having skills to access the different meanings for all the media messages we face.

Duke, J. B. (2017, February 23). It’s Complicated [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://libguides.furman.edu/medialiteracy

Why is it important to be media literate?

We take in a immense amount information from a multitude of media sources, exceeding the traditional media sources like television, radio, newspapers, etc.  When encountering this media and figuring out the significance of it and the message’s meaning, we need to do a few things.  We need to recognize the point of view from the creator, understand the author’s goal, and identify the role of media in our culture. Think about what our beliefs and values would be about topics without the influence from media that we encounter.  The media filters our perceptions and I think it is important for us to start reading in-between the lines of what truly is being said in the messages provided from the music we listen to, the movies we watch etc. It is important for us to become media literate not only to be beneficial to us especially as college students, but also further down the road, whenever we become parents.  We want to make sure that our kids are exposed to the right type of media and we do not want them to get the wrong message from things because today’s youth is exposed to a ton of media that our parents and us did not have access to growing up.

So here is some advice for y’all … become media literate and know what kind of information your absorbing and see how it reflects in what you value and believe.

 

Unit 3: Social Media Is Stealing Our Time

Try to think back on any day this past month that you have not used and/or saw someone using media in some shape or form?… Did you think of one?  I can almost guarantee you that you could not think of one day.  I will tell you one thing is for sure and that is that our world is saturated with media.  Everywhere we turn there are people reading books, newspapers, magazines or someone is on their cell phone, whether it be texting, calling, checking social media.  There are few things that have impacted us as greatly as social media has in the past decade.  Social media plays a huge role in the communication of our society today.

For me personally, I am constantly checking social media.  Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, and many more to stay connected and up to date with friends, family, celebrities, television series, etc.  Social media is a great form of entertainment.  People are easily able to entertain themselves by watching videos, reading stories, viewing pictures, or even playing games.  I am constantly watching those Facebook videos, showing recipes and how to prepare them or funny posts on Facebook or Instagram to give me a laugh throughout the day.  After monitoring my media usage for a 24 hour period for our assignment this week, I noticed that a lot of my time was spent checking social media updates.  So, why am I and others in a constant need to know what is going on in the world?

Social media can also be a big distraction for me.  There are many times when I have been working on school work or something important and my mind wanders and I instinctively get on some social media site.  I tell myself I’ll only spend a few minutes on it but then those minutes get longer and longer, distracting me from being productive. It takes my attention away from what I really need to be focusing on to complete. It also can be distracting before going to sleep at night.  Sometimes when I lay down in bed to go to sleep and I cannot fall asleep, I will get on my phone and check social media. This not only probably is not good for me actually getting to sleep but it gives me something to do (not the best way to handle the situation).

Social Media Marketing Services Clock [Photograph found in Social Media Marketing Gifs, Gyfcat]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://gfycat.com/gifs/search/social media marketing

With all that being said, I am definitely the kind of person that also needs to take time and step away from social media and likes to unplug and disconnect.  I love an annual tradition my friends (who are like a second family to me) and I take a trip to their hunting cabin.  There is not really good cell phone reception in the mountains and definitely no internet connections nearby.  It is beautiful to spend those few days with the people that we are around and not have constant other distractions.  I love being able to soak up the outdoors and beautiful nature without hearing about what else is going in the world.

Like the saying goes, “Do more things that make you forget to look at your phone!”

 

Unit 2: Here’s to the beginning

As I sit here and type this first blog, I’m not sure really what to think.  This is a semester of new beginnings for me: first time living in an apartment, first time taking an online class, and first time blogging.  Before the start of the semester when I first found out I was taking an online class for Intro. to Emergent Media, I was a little anxious.  I was not sure what to expect and how the class would run.  Now, three weeks into the course, I enjoy it and like the material that we are learning about.  In chapter one, we discussed the information problem and how we live in a media saturated world.  Everywhere you turn someone is either on their phone, or computer, or watching television.  It is crazy to think that we have more people producing information today than ever before.  I really enjoyed learning about our automatic routines and how we learn certain tasks or movements and then apply them over and over again without even having to give any effort.  In chapter two we are learning about what media literacy is and the three building blocks including Personal Locus, Knowledge Structures, and Skills.  I found it interesting how there where many skills that are useful not exclusive to media literacy.  Obviously, as most classes are, it is important to take this information that we are learning in this class and be able to apply it to our futures and other classes as well.

As far as the class overall goes, I am liking it a lot.  I appreciate the way that the class runs, giving us a week to read the chapter, take notes on PowerPoints, and then complete the assignments and quiz for that week.  I love the fact that I can essentially work on the week’s assignments whenever I want and schedule my work around my other classes.  I am looking forward to learning more information about emergent media and the rest of this class this semester.

When it comes to blogging, I am not sure what to say.  There are times when I find myself at a loss for the “right” words in my opinion.  I am anxious to continue blogging and making myself a better blogger.  Being given a topic helps narrow down what I am going to talk about but structuring the blog and making it whatever I want it to be ventures over to the creative side of the class. I enjoy being able to be creative and getting to share my opinion and thoughts about what is going on in class and what is being discussed.

So here’s to the beginning of my blogging experience for Intro. to Emergent Media!

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton