Blog Assignment #10

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a blog as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer." Blogging is a useful tool to get the average person's voice heard. Anyone can write a blog, making free speech from the First Amendment even more accessible.

I believe bloggers should only post their comments about a topic if that thought is relevant and well thought out. As Jason Falls said, you can get a lot of knowledge from the right blogs and you will become a better professional faster. If a blogger writes even the most non-sense, irrelevant things, I think it hurts the whole blogging concept.

There are a lot of crazy and stupid people out there and obviously, some of them are writing blogs. That's why you have to be aware you can't believe everything a blog says. People can write blogs whether the topic is the cure of cancer or humiliation 101.  Giving the power to publish to anyone is a really sensitive thing to do because people can involve themselves in libel acts, providing false claims. People or company's reputations can touch the ground with just a click of a button. So yes, of course it can create problems.

Regarding what I've learned, it really impacts me that hospitals are using Social Media the way they are. Only 12.54% of hospitals are in this trend, making them the exception, not the rule.

I think it's amazing how hospitals use SNS to improve customer service, to provide community opportunities for patients sharing and support, and to refer physicians in an interface/database setting. Paul Levy's story surprised me a lot. I think more hospitals CEOs should copy his technique. Other hospital stories such as the Sutter Eden Medical, Georgetown Community Hospital and the Mayo Clinic are great. They give people hope and other hospital should take notes from them as well.

Communication technologies have impacted my life a great deal. Especially, the cell phone. I spend a lot of my day sending or answering texts and emails, talking to someone, checking the calendar, enabling or disabling alarms and surfing the Internet. I think this relates to the Media System Dependency theory because the more media I have, the more dependant I am of it.

I take my cell phone everywhere I go and if I can't find it for a few minutes I'll start freaking out. It has a lot of valuable information I need in a daily basis and makes me available 24/7, which makes it kind of like a pact with the devil, as we discussed in class.

Have a good Summer =)

Blog Assignment #9

I think it's amazing how the voice function alone of the cell phone helps to coordinate our lives while on the run. It's hard for me to imagine how life was before cell phones and how people couldn't take advantage of time as they do now. What if you wanted to make a call to a business, which you can only make it in business hours, and if you were not at home during business hours you weren't able to call them.

Cell phones are such useful tools. If plans change you can let someone else know on time. For example, once I was going to have lunch with a friend after class at 12:15. She was at her place and by 12:05 she was going to leave in order to pick me up on campus. My class finished early and I called her to let her know I was out already. She said she would be on her way. She was able to know I got out early because I called her, without that call I would have had to wait, and I would have wasted my time waiting.

Along with the cell phone, another type of etiquette appeared, the cell phone etiquette. While I'm at church, class, a theater, or closed, silent space I don't answer calls because I think it's rude for everyone else. I also put my cell phone in silent mode when I am in those kinds of places because I don't want to interrupt what is going on.

I think cell phones have impacted face-to-face communication in both good, and bad ways. Some people may plan a face-to-face interaction by phone, but some other people might only have the interaction by phone and never get together.

Cell phones let you be in contact with everyone more easily. You can organize plans, maintain contact with people that are in different states or even make long distance calls. Long distance calls are especially important for me because I am from Panama and I can stay in touch with my family and friends that way. The not so good part is that I am available 24/7 and if a friend feels like calling me at 5:00a.m. she/he is able to. 

Blog Assignment #8

Certainly, the Internet, social media and mobile phones made health information more accessible to the public. The biggest shift the Internet has brought to our society is E-patients. They are creating a new healthcare environment. What's on the Internet is not always true, that's why this shift is not leading towards a good path when people auto medicate themselves.

In my family, we are not really E-patients. If we feel sick we just simply try to rest and take pills. If that doesn't work we would call or visit our doctor. Going to a medical consultation in Panama is not expensive.

My grandfather from my mom's side is the only grandparent who's still alive. He's 90 and he is in perfect conditions. He is obviously not a fan of technology and he doesn't even have a clue on how to use the Internet.

My sister is a doctor. So, every time we have a medical concern, we just ask here what we might have. We rely more on our doctor's opinion because we know we can't trust everything that's online.

According to the Journal of Medical Internet Research:

"The quality of information on the Internet is paramount: accurate relevant information is beneficial, while inaccurate information is harmful. Physicians appear to acquiesce to clinically-inappropriate requests generated by information from the Internet, either for fear of damaging the physician-patient relationship or because of the negative effect on time efficiency of not doing so. A minority of physicians feels challenged by patients bringing health information to the visit; reasons for this require further research.

Views About Patient Responses to the Internet

Eighty-five percent of all respondents had experienced an occasion when a patient brought information from the Internet to a visit. For most physicians this is still a relatively-rare event; 59% of respondents stated that less than one fifth of their patients had done this. 87% of physicians perceived their patients as being concerned about the quality of information on the Internet, and 84% of respondents rated their patients as only fair or poor (rather than good, very good, or excellent) at appraising the quality of information on a Web site ."

Here's a link to a video that talks about e-Patients.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7ZrWSmQxcU

Blog Assignment #7

Video games gain more popularity every year. In schools you can take for granted that most of the kids play video games. The ones who don't play them or don't own a video game console might even are bullied. I think the video games impact has been a huge deal because average American households own at least one video game console.

I've played video games since I was like 5 years old. I do think it's good for kids to play them because they force kids to find solutions, look for alternatives and overcome challenges. These thinking out of the box skills can be developed and kids will be able to apply them in the real world.

I am 20 years old now and I still play video games. Maybe not as much as before because I don't have as much free time as I used to, but I still try to play often. I've had every single Nintendo console since the NES and something tells me the Wii console it's not the last one I'm going to have either. I also have an Xbox, but I don't use it as much as the Nintendo consoles because most of the Xbox games are violent and targeted to men. Sony consoles have never caught my attention. I think Nintendo consoles are way better.

I believe that playing video games make people more tech savvy, which is why kids are more tech savvy than old people. The old population didn't have as many opportunities of playing video games as young kids do.

Obviously, it has its cons if you become addicted and abuse of the video games usage. Some kids have been so addicted to video games that they don't engage in social activities anymore. They miss the chance of meeting new people and hanging out with them.

The Social Learning theory comes into play in video games when players try to imitate what they see in the video game. There are studies that show that kids that don't play violent video games versus kids that do play violent video games are less violent in real life than kids that do play them. Violent learning happens, whether the behavior is imitated or not. 


Here's the link for a funny video that illustrates my point: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URIWJlSDh68

Blog Assignment #6

I remember we only had one computer when I was little and it was the classic big and white IBM PC. I think one of the first experiences I had with a PC was moving the mouse all over the screen. My parents bought me some Barbie and Toy Story CD-ROM games. I'm not sure if it was Toy Story but it was something like that. I could dress up Barbies, design their clothes, learn cowboy songs, organize a doll house and stuff like that.

My first experience with the Internet I think it was remembering we could not receive or make calls or something like that from our landline phones while someone was using the Internet because of the Dial-up connection. In order to get access to it you had to listen to this kind of annoying noise. It was painful after a while and it took several minutes. Here’s the link where you can listen to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0

Let's say I wanted to know the meaning of "ensemble". I would type in the Internet like www.ensemble.com. Obviously, my results were not really accurate or the website did not exist. I remember this because when I discovered Google doing research was way easier. I had access to all sorts of information in a click.

This experience has helped me tons in my education. Every time I have to do an assignment I access Google most of the time. Without Google or the Internet, our research methods would be looking for information in books, which is time-consuming and people would have to go to libraries.

As time passed by, more members of my family started owning computers. We are 5 and now we have 7 computers, from laptops to desktops, from Macs to PCs. I hardly spend a day without using a computer. I might use it for either educational, social or leisure purposes. It has become part of most people’s lives.

Video post

Here's a video that talks about this switch and how to install the converter box.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwvlgT8SVrg

Blog Assignment #5

Digital television has been adopted even faster than color television was years ago. High resolution TV attracted tons of people, plus the Telecommunications Act of 1996 established the change from analog to digital. This switch provided easier access to TV by viewers. However, the ones that wanted to keep their analog TV had to get a converter box.

The move to digital TV brought open skies, HBO, WTBS, MTV and deregulation. DTV enabled broadcasters to no longer be limited to a single station, in the digital world; many broadcasters have launched three or four separate digital channels.

This transition made valuable spectrum available that is been reassigned to firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel. This high-quality TV spectrum is efficient and will ensure first responders can better communicate during emergencies.

Watching a clearer picture on TV matters because this goes along with innovation. Engineers were motivated because of this change and created more channel capacity, better shows, more variety and other devices. DTV enabled creatives to use new techniques and put their creativity on display.

After this switch, not only TV changed to higher resolution, cameras, cell phones and other types of media have more pixels now.

Blog Assignment #4

Camcorders and webcams are not the first communication technologies that pop to your head when you think about communication technologies. These devices have been created from a long time ago and still telephones, cell phones and other communication technologies play a bigger role in consumer behavior.

In my own life, home video technologies are not a big deal at all. I do not go around taping people. The most use I give to a webcam is when I use Skype (which is not really often) and camcorders sometimes when I travel but I have travelled and I have not even touched the camcorders. For YouTube up loaders though, home video technology must be really important.

Well-made videos from a camcorder or webcam are not common. Unless you are a Film major, people are not likely to know how to properly make videos. You can manage to do the basics without having studied it, but the quality and outcome of the video might not be great.

I am a Communication major and I definitely want to know how to shoot and edit a video. The more I can learn about my career, the better prepared I am when it's time to look for a job. In the other hand, I don't think most Comm. majors know how to do it properly. They focus more in advertising, public relations or journalism than in shooting and editing a video.

Blog assignment #3

The theory I chose is the Social Learning theory. I believe this theory is greatly applied in television. Since the beginning of television only wealthy families could afford having one. Neighbors of those families gathered to watch TV and they winded up saying: "ohh that's cool, I want to have one." Every time a new TV gets in the market, such as plasma or LCD TVs a few years ago, people tend to like them and wind up buying them because they saw other people having them.

Several TV shows portray behaviors and attitudes that viewers might find interesting and want to copy them. The first TV show that pops in my mind is "16 and pregnant", which made a lot of controversy. In my opinion, this show represents everything you do not want to go through while been a teen; therefore, it makes you have a negative perception of getting pregnant while been a teen. On the other hand, there are girls who get influenced by what they watched and believe it is ok to be sixteen and pregnant. There are also girls that are dying to become reality TV stars. Girls that are influenced in this way are likely to adopt that behavior, such as the case of the ninety girls that got pregnant at Frayser High School in Memphis, TN. I do not know if the show directly influenced those girls, but I believe it had something to do with it.

Other shows that come to my mind that are likely to have influenced viewers behaviors are Jersey Shore, Charm School and True Life. Violence is one of the primary behaviors that people adopt after watching some of this shows.

Another example of this theory is that once, I saw a friend playing Just Dance 2 for Wii. It looked fun so, I went to a game store a few days later and bought it. Even if I had not bought it, learning happened. As a result, this theory enables the adoption of new technologies.

As time pass by and people get more educated, it is likely that the practice of the Social Learning theory might reduce. As education increases people know better, making them likely to know which behaviors they should copy or not.

Blog Assignment #2

I listen to music through my iPod like 70% of the time. The other 30% I listen to it from my computer. Most of the time I am having a shower, driving or using my computer while I listen to it. If I get tired of my iPod while driving, I would put the radio on in order for me to know about new songs, but that does not happen very often. Obviously, if I go to a bar (which happens like two times a week), I'll be exposed to continuous loud music for hours.

I LOVE music. My life would be nothing without music. Since I was little, I've been always interested in how to play instruments and how to sing. I took piano, guitar y singing classes. I am not a professional in any of those instruments, but I know peculiar things about music. I like everything, from samba to blues. I also write songs. Music fulfills my soul. I think it is one of the most creative ways of expression. Just like Friedrich Nietzsche said: "Without music, life would be an error."

Blog Assignment #1

My name is Laura, I am from Panama and I'm 20 years old. I study Communications with a minor in Business and I'm a junior. I'm not constantly seeking new electronic toys. If I see something that I like I will get it eventually but it's not something that I constantly look for. I usually wait a while after the product is launched so that I can get a cheaper price. I like electronic devices because they make your life easier and they provide more variety. However, I dislike the fact that there is less face-to-face communication. In addition, I'm not a fan that cool and old devices get replaced and forgotten like the Nintendo NES, phonographs, etc.

I don't use the radio quite much. My experience with it is hearing the DJs speak on and on, and the signal was not quite good sometimes. That's why I rather listening to my iPod or a CD. If I happen to not have any of those I don't mind listening to the radio but I will get tired of it eventually. I think it's actually good to listen to it sometimes because I get updated on one or two new songs.

My family and friends use it mostly in their cars every day.

Since the radio is the cheapest, easiest and one of the oldest ways to get information, I don't think it will go anywhere in the future. There are a lot of poor people that hear the news or music that way only. In the worst-case scenario, if there is a crisis like a flooding or a hurricane, I think people are more likely to carry the radio with them instead of other communication devices because it's portable (the battery ones don't depend on electricity in case there is a power outage) and smaller than other communication devices. By saying that radio is "one of the oldest ways to get information" as one of its benefits, I mean that older people know how to use it. It's not a complicated device, that's why older people don't look down on it.

Obviously, it has developed like every other communication device. Now we have the satellite radio, which its signal is transmitted through one or more satellites. Therefore, it can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations.

I believe that the satellite radio, neither other future modernized radios will succeed as much as the traditional one did. I think it will be very complicated for future modernized radios to beat ten years to reach 50% of U.S. household penetration and being the number one communication technology.