I have enjoyed this class and I am excited for what the Cyber future holds for us! 

What I liked best about this class was all of the exercises that we were asked to do.  Sometimes you know that all of these things are available to you (i.e. discussion boards, blogs, etc.), but for whatever reason, you don’t take it upon yourself to look into them.  Maybe it’s because we’re all to busy?!? 

I know for me personally, I have a list a mile long of websites I would like to check-out or things I would like to research or projects I would like to do, if I ever have a spare moment someday…but I never seem to.  So this class for me was a good exercise in getting some of those things checked off my list. 

Probably the most personally impacting exercise was the letter’s though: that exercise was priceless! 

And in the spirit of evaluating, my least favorite was the abstinence exercise!  When you have such an AMAZING tool as the Internet, who wants to abstain from it?!?!  Just kidding, I know that it’s good for us to remember or experience what life was like B.C. (before computers), but that doesn’t mean that it’s fun. 

Overall, I would recommend this class to anyone who’s life is affected or influenced by a computer…so pretty much anyone!  As for changes, I think that the content was great, I just struggled with a few of the logistics.  I understand why there’s limits on when you can participate in the discussion boards, but I also know that it’s sometime hard with life to fit in responding only on the weekends.  And it was also frustrating to have so many blog choices: not all servers were comment friendly (unless you belonged to their blog service, you couldn’t comment).  Otherwise, I enjoyed my experience and reading all of my classmates blogs!  You really get to see some personality (way more than you get on the OSU discussion board). 

Have a great rest of the summer everyone…all three weeks of it that is! =(

Well, one of the biggest frustrations or challenges that I have with the Internet is the security of on-line shopping. Most of the time it’s so much cheaper than what I can find in the stores, not to mention the convenience of clicking and shipping! But with that, comes a bank account number that has to be blindly sent through Cyberspace. And on more than one occasion (it’s only been twice, but still that counts as more than one), my bank card number has been stolen.

The first time it was stolen was in connection with E-Bay and Pay-Pal. I was new to the sites and I had just set-up my Pay-Pal Account when I got an e-mail requesting verification of my card number. I know now that I should have been suspicious, but I wasn’t and so off it went to be “verified.” Well, in reality what had just happened was that thieves had taken control of my account. The address on this fake request was something like www.paypal1.com. I can’t remember exactly, but it was something very sneaky like the 1 at the end of the address that tips you off…I know now to look more closely. Which by the way, has come in handy on more than one occasion since then!

Anyway, the thieves proceeded to charge up thousands of dollars in the matter of a few days, until one day the bank called me at home and asked if I was traveling oversees (apparently that’s where these charges were originating from), which was out of my norm so that’s why they had flagged it. Of course, I wasn’t (remember they called me at home) and so they shut down the card immediately and I wasn’t responsible for the charges…end of story! No, not exactly. What ended up happening is they moved those charges over into another account with my name and SSN attached as a holding place while they investigated (but no body did). And since it wasn’t a fully set-up account, I wasn’t getting statements (I thought the charges had all be reversed), but what was happening was that they (the bank) was reporting me delinquent to the credit bureau. Three months later, I get a call from a debt collector asking when I was planning on paying this bill….hello, what bill?!? I hadn’t used that card since the “incident”. In fact, I shut down the whole E-Bay, Pay-Pal account and decided it wasn’t for me.

Long story short, it was almost a full year later that I got the credit bureau corrected and the cards BOTH canceled. Not to mention the countless hours of my time dealing with it via phone, e-mail and eventually letters.

The second time was not all that long ago, and if anyone else buys their books from the OSU bookstore they’ll know what I am talking about. This time though, I had called in my order and given them my credit card number over the phone, which was input into a database that was latter hacked into and stolen. Again, charges were made and the credit card company called me and the card was shut down….it’s still to early to tell though if I will repeat the whole debt collector scenario.

As a side note though, OSU did sent out a blanket e-mail warning me of this potential breach, which was caught by my spam filter and deposited into the trash (I still don’t know why since other OSU e-mails are not), but anyway, it was almost two full weeks after my credit card company had contacted me about the suspicious charges when they did this…way to late!

I guess the moral of the story is, expect these things to happen if you’re going to shop on-line or over the phone…or maybe it’s just my luck?! No, I really do think this is more common that people think or know about and it’s sad because again, something that was designed to help up out and save us time, ends up costing us more of both in the long run.

Wood and Smith’s reading’s this week focused on Internet hate sites saying that, “this is the dark side of the Internet (pg. 191).” Well, I would say that the thieves that steal credit card numbers should be included in that “dark side” group and the frustrating part about it is that you don’t even know they are out there, watching you. At least on the street if someone steals your wallet, you have the chance of seeing them do it.

The Internet has brought so much potential to our lives in terms of opportunities and options available to us.  Instead of calling someone on a phone (land-line for that matter) or writing a letter with pen and paper, you can now e-mail them, IM (Instant Message), post a comment to a blog or an on-line discussion forum, you can call them from your cell phone on a snorkel boat in Hawaii (I personally experienced that one last week)…but anyway, the point is that our available means of communication has changed drastically over the last few decades. 

In talking with my mom, I will leave her age unsaid, but she falls into the middle group (she’s not old enough to get the senior discount yet, but close), she says that she’s got no computer skills at all; however, I would beg to differ.  She can turn it on and off and e-mail, type, or surf the Internet, but if she’s got to troubleshoot it at all, no chance!  Personally, I think she underestimates her abilities, but maybe that’s a trend with her age group?   

Anyway, her primary uses are e-mail and an occasional word processing need (i.e. the yearly Christmas Letter), since she’s self-employed (and has been for 25 years).  She still does most things the old fashion way with hard copies and ledger books.  When I think of her IM’ing or participating in an on-line discussion, I have to laugh.  She just started utilizing text messaging on her cell phone last month (and it’s a rare occurrence at that). 

Overall, my mom thinks that the Internet is a good thing, for today’s generation.  She says that hers is to far past it (they can live without it), but she thinks that it does offer some great opportunities for today’s times.  She still thinks that it’s amazing that I could finish my Bachelor’s degree totally on-line from Oregon State! 

The next person I talked to was my younger sister.  She had already been shocked by the abstinence exercise earlier in the term, so I thought that she might have some interesting things to say about her Internet usage. 

Being newly graduated and working full-time in Accounting, she says that she couldn’t imagine life without the Internet.  Her company is completely paperless; every thing’s kept on-line.  They communicate (all hours of the day and night she says) via e-mail, IM, or cell phone’s.  All employees have dual monitor displays at home with laptops and access to all of the companies software 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week.  She says that she never really gets away from work…she’ll soon learn boundaries, but for now she LOVES it!

Overall, she’s embarrassed the Internet for all of it’s potential and it’s a good thing right now, I have to wonder though if it won’t become a bad thing when she’s burned out and CAN’T seem to get away from work?!? 

Last, by not least, my grandparents had some words to add about the Internet.  It’s worthless!!  My grandpa, bless his heart, says that his computer does nothing but sit over in the corner collecting dust.  The only thing that he knows how to do it play solitaire, but who wants to wait the 20 minutes it takes to warm up, when you could just go grab a deck of cards and be done with it!?!  I don’t know grandpa!  Now gran-it, his computer is extremely old and slow and he doesn’t have any access to the Internet, never has and never will he says: that’s for the younger generation! 

Overall, he thinks that it’s got potential for today’s kids, but he’s got no need for it.  And he often wonder’s why we can’t just be happy with what we’ve already got?  “I remember when we got our first Black & White TV…..too funny!!

So, what does it all mean….I found that the younger you are the more you like the Internet and the older the generations get, the more they have no need for it.  And I suppose, if I were to interview my great grandpa, he’d probably avoid the whole thing all together?!?

Well, I have never really used discussion boards, or internet communities to any great extent, mostly because I don’t have the time to keep up with them.  I hate the logging-in part and I hate that you have to create a new username/profile for each one.  Who can keep track of all of those?  Especially because it seems like each site or group has it’s own requirements (i.e. so many characters, this many letters, that many numbers, ect.).  And then, nobody really tracks whether or not these profiles are accurate and/or used on a continuous basis.  I can’t tell you how many time’s I have had to join, in order to access their information and then have never logged-in again. 

But in the spirit of this project and because I really have been meaning too, I joined a mom’s group with a focus on saving money and time.  Mostly I was interested in all of the hype about coupon’s and how much you can save if you know how to do it. 

So I set out, you have to apply to join the group and it said that the administrator would be notified (via e-mail) of your request.  I was granted access within 24 hours (via e-mail), but somehow it felt like there should have been a cerimony or at least a group song.  Maybe ridiculous hats or a special handshake…just kidding! =)

Anyway, what suprised me was the amount of information that was posted every single day.  In one day there were almost three new pages of posts, there was no way I could keep up on everything.  

Overall, people seemed friendly and helpful.  I didn’t have any outside e-mail contact with anyone (afterall, I didn’t even know them), nor did I do any instant chatting.  But what I did do was read posting and respond.  I was able to learn a lot about the art of coupon clipping and it was amazing how much time people can spend tracking sales patterns.  At one point, someone actually posted a reward for their coupon binder that they had lost in a local grocery store the day before.  They were willing to pay money to get back the coupon’s that were going to save them money…seem like an oxi-moron if you ask me!?!

Anyway, I didn’t really experience any issues or problems.  A few times there was question about whether or not a posting was accurate or ligitament.  But that was usually resolved by the administrator deleting the original post or the original poster clarifying what they ment.  I didn’t really experience any “arguments” or negative interactions, mostly everyone was there to help each other out.  And I got a few good deals (although, the time it took may have actually cost me money….).

What bothered me, like it talked about in our readings, is the anonymous nature of these communities.  I have no idea if these people are telling the truth and if they are not, I have no recourse to hold them accountable.

Well, I can’t really remember the last time I wrote someone a letter, little lone sent it?? Nor can I remember the last time I really thanked anyone for what they had done for me…how sad is that!!

Anyway, I chose my two candidates:  one that I talk to on a pretty regular basis, so e-mail was the perfect option, the other, I haven’t talked to in quite some time, nor do I think she has access to e-mail, so snail mail was perfect for her.

As for the differences, length is the biggest one!  On the compuer, via e-mail, you can type on and on, go back to edit, re-write, add to and delete with no problems at all.  You can even save your draft to finish later.  That’s not the case with long-hand.  In order to change something you practically need to start over.  For me, I roughed out what I wanted to say on a piece of scratch paper and then set to writing it for “real”.  But even then, I think I went through three or four copies before I finished one without mistakes.  And the length was no ways near what my e-mail was!  It takes considerably longer to write a letter long-hand, than it does to type one out.  Not to mention that I haven’t written that much in years, so my hand started to hurt almost instantly…has it really been that long?  Aside from a grocery list or a quick note, I don’t think I really write a whole lot anymore…hmmm?!?

As for a response, e-mail was almost instantaneous and we were able to go back and forth some to share stories, memories, and to re-inforce topics or points.  Within a couple of days, we had expanded on the conversation, shared much more than what was in the original letter, and moved on (note: the only reason it took a couple of days was that we weren’t on-line chatting, but e-mailing back and forth, checking-in only in the morning, night and on breaks). 

My long-hand letter on the other hand, I still have no idea if she’s received it?!?!  First it took me some time to write it (mistake free) and in pretty, legible handwritting, then I actually had to go buy a stamp at the post office (I got lucky with the hours though, sneaking in just before they closed on Saturday).  Allowing a few days for travel time (they said usually it gets there the next day, but allow two for sure), time for a response, and travel time again for it to get back to me…maybe by next month??  No just kidding, I should hear back by next week, but still, if we wanted to go back and forth a little (like in my e-mail thank you), we’d be at it for months!  Or, hopefully one of us would pick-up the phone and call!

In our readings from Wood and Smith, they say that the more people talk on-line, the less they talk off-line (or I might add, in real life)!  We are of a day and age that wants instant results and gratification for our actions, no one has the time or patience anymore to send a letter long-hand and wait for a response.  In fact, there’s research to support that because of this ease in communication on-line, and I might add, for what’s easiest, our social circles are actually growing smaller and I would agree.  The person I sent the long-hand letter to, though she’s dear to me, communicating with her is harder since she’s not on-line (and doesn’t own a cell phone), therefore I don’t talk to her very often and essentially she’s not in my immediate social cirlce anymore: not because I don’t want here there though!

The ability to communicate on-line has definitely changed the way that we communcate with the people in our lives and though it’s great to type out a quick note, send it off, and check that to-do off your list, isn’t it also great to see that card or letter in your mail box…or does anyone even remember what that looks like anymore?!?

So many people utilize this site on the Internet that it’s almost scary! For the longest time I resisted the temptation to join the crowd, but last summer I feel pray. The reason, you can’t access its information unless you’re a member (tricky huh?).

Anyway, I had my 10-year high school reunion coming up and someone had said, just post on the MySpace page: really, a MySpace page for a High School Class? Well, to my surprise, almost every high school class has a page and not only that, so did most of my old friends and many of my current ones. I had no idea!

That night I must have spent four hours or more reading up on all kinds of people from my past. Alarmingly, these people had no idea that I was even looking at their stuff (that is aside from the locked profiles that I will explain in a little bit). I found out things like who was having a baby, who had gotten divorced, and who the new spouse was! I was able to look at previous year’s high school reunion pages and follow person, after person, after person, until I had so much “good” gossip that I didn’t know what to do with myself?!?!

My pet peeve with MySpace is that you can’t access their database of people unless you’re a member, which I had no intention of ever being. The plus to having to become a member is that they do offer an option for a private profile, so that only the people you grant access to can see you’re information, but still I would rather not have any part of it. Honestly, I don’t have much of a page, but I have been amazed over and over again at the wealth of personal information that is available on any number of sites.

I’ve read things that I know for a fact to be a lie, like on my ex-boyfriend’s page, under Status, he listed single after we’d been together almost 2 years!! I also noticed that you don’t necessarily have to post the information, but if someone else does, it doesn’t take much to put two and two together. For example, I looked up an old friend of mine, whom I knew was married to another friend of mine. Her page said nothing about a husband or children, but his page totally listed her and had pictures of their family. It’s funny how something as simple as a caption to a picture, “Me and so and so at Disneyland last month,” can give you so much information, if you just take the time to read it.

Overall, I don’t like the idea of MySpace for myself or for anyone I am involved with (I don’t let my sister or my boyfriend post pictures of me or my daughter), but on the other hand, I did find it to be very useful in tracking what’s been happening with the people I know. Is it the right way to keep up on people, no I don’t think so. If they were that important to me, I should probably take the time to call them or see them (even better)!

You just never know who’s looking at your stuff on-line, whether right or wrong, with good intentions or bad, I think that you should be EXTREMELY careful with what you post and read for that matter on things like MySpace. It can be a distorted reality, which you as the poster have no control over who sees, reads, or what they do with that information afterwards. Personally, I think that if you’re going to post something on MySpace (and not make your profile private, at the very least), you might as well hang a banner on the highway for all passer-byers to see…you’d achieve the same result!

In our reading’s this week, Wood and Smith have a cartoon, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog!” (pg. 62). My response to that is, they will if they spend enough time looking (like in the case of the falsely posted Status Comment or the seemingly harmless picture captions explained above). In that same chapter, page 71, they list some tips for on-line information judging: Who is the Author? What possible biases (and I will add motives) might they have? And when was it posted? These rules are great for surfing the web, and with a little modification, they can be excellent reality checks for things like MySpace.

WOW, I couldn’t stop laughing at how perfect all of the characters were, yet at the same time shockingly realistic!

The “star” of the video was a short, balding, over-weight, nerd dressed in ratty cloths, living in his parent’s basement apartment. His parents were both played by older people straight out of the 50’s. His mom wore a house-coat/robe/dress (something for all occasions I guess?) and her hair was the typical curly bob of the 50’s (she reminded me a lot of Mama on that show Mama’s Family…any one remember that?). Anyway, dad was played by a handsome man, in his own era I am sure: very conservative and old-fashioned. One of those couples that wanted you to think the husband made all of the decisions, but in reality it was only if his wife thought they were a good idea.

What was being portrayed on-line was that the “star” was tall, dark and handsome like Brad Paisley, but in reality he was exactly the opposite. In this video the whole scene was portrayed in a light fashion (for entertainment purposes), but the reality is that it’s not always that way! People can act or display a COMPLETELY different image though the strokes on their keyboard, than what exists in reality. True, this ability to change one’s self or morph into something that you’re not, can give you more courage and strength and when these things are applied in a good, positive way like in the video it’s great! By the way, he did get the girl in the end of the video: his high school sweetheart!

However, these same ego-boasting qualities are often used in negative ways to deceive and harm others. People, especially internet predators, use these exact types of deception and corrosion to lure children into harms way and it’s this warning that I would hope people remember when they watch this video or hear this song: an entertaining reminder, of a very serious lesson!

Like in our readings this week from Wood and Smith, so much of relationship building is lost with on-line communication: emotional responses, gestures, facial expressions and attitudes all the way down to cleanliness and hygiene habits can NOT be observed, processed or evaluated through on-line communication and this is where I think we run the risk, as a society, of putting to much importance or trust in CMC. CMC skews our reality too much by the lack of information it offers, which is ironically supposed to be one of its features (increased information)?!?!

As for the video, I think Brad’s done an excellent job communicating an important message to people through music. And I just hope that people can see past the entertainment value in it and really listen to the true message: who or what’s behind those words on the screen may NOT be what or whom you think it is!

If you’d like to see this video, click So Much Cooler Online.

Well, talk about a challenge for most! Abstain from ALL forms of the internet for a 24 hour period…WOW! For me, my job requires that I use the internet on a daily basis, so this had to be done on the weekend.

So, Saturday rolled around and I tried it. Fortunately, it was my daughter’s birthday, so that kept me preoccupied for most of the day, but I did notice things like, after I get my morning coffee, while she was watching cartoons, what was I supposed to do? I can’t check my favorite web sites or look at my e-mail. So after a few minutes of wonder and some time watching Sponge Bob with her (time well spent, I might add…she love it!). I decided to make sure that I had everything for the party ready, but I couldn’t check the list I had made in Excel. Fortunately, I wasn’t new to this party thing, so I had a pretty good idea of what I needed…she’s only turning 6 after all, how hard could it be?

The most amazing thing though was when I needed a phone number for her party…I realized I don’t have a phone book. You know one of those thick, bound books that contains white and yellow pages for all kinds of things? I’m not sure that I would even know how to use one anymore anyway.

So off I went in search of the receipt hoping that their number was on it. It turned out that it was, so I narrowly escaped that one and it filled my time looking for that piece of paper. In thinking about it though, I was lucky that I kept that receipt, since normally I wouldn’t have: everything I ever need is on-line.

My dependence on the internet was also apparent when my sister called me late in the morning asking why I didn’t respond to her e-mail. All she wanted was to know if she needed to bring anything to the party and instead of calling me, she e-mailed? And when I didn’t respond she was concerned! Have we lost personal contact that much?

All in all though, the party turned out great and I only forgot a few things. Who really needs baby wipes and hand sanitizer anyway? Just for the record though, I would have remembered those things if I had been able to check my electronic list!

In the end, I decided that my dependency definitely runs deep! On Sunday, I spent a far longer amount of time on the computer, with my morning coffee, “catching-up” on everything I felt like I had missed the day before! Definitely an eye-opening experience…

…I look forward to hearing from everyone in this class!