In Chapter 3 Baym starts the chapter with introducing the research topic of Social Presence Theory. The theory is a psychological trend involving how people interact with one another, or the “Level of interpersonal contact and feelings of intimacy in communications”. Thrulow,Lengel and Tomic (2004:48) An issue I felt was interesting about the theory was how the lack of social cues, such as facial expression or body  language  shaped the interaction of relationship. The issue seemed important to Scott E. Fahlman. He created the first set of Emoticons to convey certain expression such as the smiley face. Its interesting that someone came up with the idea to type different  characters to create a social cue. We now have the ability to better understand a person’s intent for text in various CMC technology.

In the Linguistic Diversity Reading I found another interesting point about the National Censuses discussed by Gerrand. I did not know that nations conduct censuses on citizens of minority languages they consider important. They have concluded that best way to study the actual use of languages used on the internet is by web presence. An example of the rise in web presence is found in chapter 3 where Baym discusses the Miler and Slater’s ethnographic analysis. The analysis shows how Trinidadian identity sparked online interaction and the notion of linguistic diversity through web presence. The “Trinis” communicated in forms related to “being Trini” Baym(2010), as well as linking people to view Trinidadian national sites and more importantly personal websites.

I personally have not had any Involvement with languages outside of English. However i have started to notice people of diverse languages are commenting on public facebook pages that are in English, or leave comments on youtube videos that are in English as well. It makes me wonder if they watch or read their content in the their language or in English.

In this weeks readings both authors discuss the emerging social ideas surrounding the new technologies, primarily CMC’s or computer mediated communication. Baym dicusses that the technology agents like the internet and CMC’s have certain “technological determinism”, meaning technologies have characteristics that can be transferred to a user and impatcs the social life. (Baym 26) Therefore Baym fears the potential of negative influence or moral decline of CMC users, as well as giving the users to much technological influence. He hopes to understand the features of the new technologies to better better link social consequences.

In Herring’s Article he somewhat tracks the growing trend of people becoming ordinary CMC users. Herring discusses that in the later years the demographic of CMC users has changed to” younger and less tech savvy” Herring (2004). This due to the rise of email, IM, ans SMS technologies which provides a way for young people to communicate online. Herring also points out the social fears that are being noticed. Some social fears are the loss of personal privacy, cyber bulling, and spaming. Herrings observations, even thought a few years old, seem to fit some of the social fears we have seen in the past 5 years. For example terrorist groups like recently formed  “anonymous” or the devastating stories of kids taking there lives or others after begin a victim of cyber bulling.

My user type is “Digital Collaborator”.  According to Horrigan a digital collaborator is one who engages in a wide variety of online activities and has uses the internet quite frequently. In addition a digital collaborator is also someone who most likely shares thier ideas or works of art online. They also participate in online groups such as forums or blogs and  only make up 8% of internet users. I would say the description fits for the most part I do create and share work on the internet, however not as much as other digital collaborators. I would also say that I am a media mover. I loving finding new media and sharing it with friends. However the digital collaborator seems to sum up my internet lifestyle a lot stronger. I think it is important to know the different types of users because who can find people like yourself as well as others who are not like you. For example you might be a collaborator and someone is a mobile newbie or an off the network looking to create something on the web for the first time. You could provide your knowledge to assist those less skilled.

Hello my name is Adam Knych.  I am a senior communications major with a concentration in film and video production and a minor in history. I aslo have an  AAS Degree in graphic design. I spend a lot of time with various mediums of technology, especially the internet. Last semester i took the media 2.0 class with Dr. Markman and learned a lot while having fun. I look forward to another interesting semester.