This class is very interesting as it covers the developing ideas and questions people are asking when analyzing  their own or others use of the internet.  I would say this class has provided a strong vocabulary and theories to discuss the various topics of  understanding the impact the internet and other CMC technologies have on building networked relationships. I saw became more aware of trending issues like  self identity on the internet and online communities and groups.

Overall what i really took from this class was an understanding that the internet is an evolving tool that allows people to communicate and network like nothing seen in previous technologies. The internet and now even cellphones allow someone to make a connection anytime and anywhere. One thing i found interesting over the semester was how the rise in  SNS and CMC technologies have made people dependent on these tools for communication. We live in a world now where we can communicate without actual Verbal communication, which has both positive and negative affects depending on the user.

I think a couple of the biggest things researchers need to try to research is the ideas surrounding privacy on the internet or even the permanente nature of content. Another  issue they should look into is the ever evolving SNS that are updated constantly to engage the user. It is it helpful or hurtful.

In Conclusion Baym points out that the internet was not originally designed for interpersonal communications. People took advantage of the affordable technology and transformed it into a social resource. she also points out that technologies are created to foster meaningful personal connections.

In the Pew Internet study Aron Smith details his find with the evolving use of mobile phones. In the study he found both positive and negatives with determining peoples use for their mobile phone. He found that mobile phones can provide: quick access to information, safety in emergency situations. However most people need need a break from their phone since it provides access to many CMC type technologies.

I think  CMC technologies will continue to grow. It seems like there is always some new device with built in apps to help better manage you social networks. Technology is bringing people more and more ways to communicate online which could led to f2f social problems as the lack of using body language or social cues. Also another question i have is kids today being born in a world filled with technology. How early will kids start interacting with these technologies.

The internet is a modern marvel of technology that has become a great tool for communication. The pew internet studies seen in the readings, show that the internet and technology use is effecting civic and social groups behavior. According to the study by Rainie, Purcell & Smith internet users a have stronger sense of community or belonging to a group. The study also showed high percentage of Americans achieving group goals and gaining access to internet groups.

In the Pew study conducted by Jansen, he points out that the religious groups are the largest type of communal group among Americans and they find the internet is a significant tool to communicate in a group.

I think that civic engagement and social capital exist in a cause and effect type of relationship. Civic engagement such as church groups leads to social capital like church Facbook group or vise versa. As we saw from the studies most people involved in some form of  community or group have a drive to want to join other  groups or at least have access to them.

The Scholars of this weeks reading take a deeper analysis into SNS than the previous scholars. The readings suggest that social  network sites exist with two main roles of either bridging or bonding  for users.  Bridging refers to the connections made between users of different race or class, or bonding which is the connections of users with the same interest and value.  Both bridging and bonding are equally present in SNS and can be seen as positive benefits and give a sense of community. It seems to all depend of on the type of SNS or online community the user is involved.  I would describe my personal SNS experience as a mixture of both. Although, I have FB freinds and follow twitter users of different social class and race, its is because we share a common interest or have been part or the same organization such as school or work. The more i use Facebook I noticed the type of bonding between users.

According to Danah Boyd and Nicole Ellison Social networking sites are commonly defined as web based service that allows people to 1) create a public profile 2) articualte a list of other users who share a connection 3) view and  navigate their list of connections within the system.  However Boyd and Ellison point out that “Networking” is not an accurate term for most sites, since most people use SNS not strictly  for making connections. Also the connections made are not always between strangers. 

David Beer points out the difficulty of  Boyd and Ellison use of the term Social network sites by saying it is too broad and stands for to many things. They are numerous activities that are limted to Networking interactions between friends.

I would have to agree with Beer in the point he made about SNS being in a large umbrella of media web 2.0. Social Networking is evolving rapidly with less emphasis on “networking” there are more functions of the sites then making new friends and its shouldnt be limited to the term social networking.

The definition of an online community is described differently by many people. According to Howard Rheingold online communities are communities where people share the same interest and the authenticity of the relationships of the community. He tells BBC that more people are leaving the local communities to join online communities because they know that there are people online who share the same interest than thoes of the local community. Nancy Baym uses  a few qualities to describe online community.  One is ” space”, a common shared place the forms a community. Baym explains that most online communities allude to members creating fictional places such as buildings are parks. Another is Practice which she examples the use of lingo used only my members of the community. I think people join online communities for the reason Rheingold pointed which is to be part a more niche community. People now have the opportunity to find people with very specific common interest. I have not been a member of an online community other than Facebook which seems like it doesn’t count since  online communities seem to be created with one or a couple of interest.

In the study conducted by  Huffaker and Calvert they examined the issues of online identity and language of male and female teens  through online publishing such as personal blogs. The case study seems to prove that the  authors of the online blogs remains almost evenly split between male and females.  Huffaker and Calvert came up with a few  Hypotheses a couple are 1) males provide  id info online more than females 2)females use emoticons to express feelings more than males   3) males uses more agressive language and females more openly discuss intamate topics.

Sherri Grasmuck, Jason Martin, Shanyang Zhao conducted a study of ethno-racial identity through surveying peoples Facebook page. They pointed out a interesting issue of colorblindness and how its exist due to anonymous users. The colorblindness is not a ture blindness as the study points out that minorities are more likely to stray away from issues or race.

I have never really thought about race or gender to much in this class. However one thing I do find interesting is that you can seem to tell a females blog post apart from a males by the length,detail, and organization.

In the both the reading Turkle and Baym discuss the various notions on the use of online identity. Tukle uses a strong example of role playing to show how many people are taking advantage of online anonymity. As the study showed people are using their anonymity to relieve stress or understand somone better by “role playing” as that person. Turkle examines the physiological issues of online identity without exploring the social issues.  Baym seems to agree with Turkle’s ideas raised about identity. She also adds the notion that self representation online  is also contributed to the information about one’s self. If people want to know about some one they have the ability to search that persons name in a search engine. Both Tukle’s and Baym’s ideas of self identity fit well in regards to my blogger. The blogger i choice remains to be anonymous for the most and seems to do so in order to rant about or put various pop culture figures on blast. I dont think hipsterrunoff.com would  exist without the cover up of a true identy.  Also there have been people to contributed information about the blogger stating their short lived relationships or encounters with the blooger, which is an example of Baym idea of self information being online.

The readings overall are about the growth of personal technology and its evolved effects on the users. The reading more directly discusses filling the void of  traditional social cues in online communication. I find the Mckenna study from Baym chapter  6 to be the most interesting in the study over 50 percent of people had made a personal connection offline though face to face or other tools of communication. This denounces that people are straying away form F2F relations or older form of communication. I also find from a couple of the readings that so many people are engaged in digital media that they need to power down. I remember when i was kid they use to promote turing off the tube and now they are suggesting powering off. In the radio  program it was reported the an an average kid spent 7 hours a day engaged in CMC.  That seems like crazy amount compared to when i was a kid. It shows how from kid to adults, everyone is engaged in CMC.

In the ch 5 exerpt by Baron she discussed the evolving style of presenting one’s self through online  communication via AOL’s IM away messages. He details the results of his case study of 5 away messages from 38 students. He points out that the overall objective of away messages is to leave a self presence online even if you are or are not at your computer. The use of away message was broken into four categories by Baron; “I am away, initiate discussion, or social encounter, convey personal info, and convey info about others. The away message  represents the author as well as giving insight to the persons mood or persona. Memes like away messages are content constructed with the intention to convey a message by an author. Usually the message contains humorous elements. As discusses in the reading Davidson explains that unlike away messages authors are often anonymous. This can lead to misinterpretation or cloudy understanding of the language used for the concept of the meme. The problem was solved with the use of emoticons in the tittle of memes to let the audience know its emotion such as sad :( or  funny : -). Memes also exemplify the notion  of  content manifesting  thier  away across the internet. People view the image read the content and send share with friends and other online communities who then decided to create their own.