initial proposal

In our social media and justice class we discussed a lot about the digital divide, and how we as students use it. The average teen today is a wizard in the social media department. But are we using it for the best purpose?
Yes social networking sites are fun but how can we make them better? Is it possible to make Facebook or twitter better for our society yet still make it fun? This is going to be my topic for our social media project. I love social media, if it wasn’t for social websites we wouldn’t be as united a world as we are today. But this is a double edged sword. As one part of society grows and connects with Facebook other parts of our society are moving farther apart because they do not have this technology. This isn’t justice. If everyone in the world had the resources many upper middle class Americans had, we could get a lot of stuff done faster. Twitter is now faster than most websites and news reports around the world. When sports teams win championships people hear it from twitter first, when minors are rescued, twitter has it; even when public enemy number one has been terminated, people heard it from twitter.
My question is; how can we utilize this power of social media and our connections all the way across the world? Would we have been able to help Katrina victims faster? Could we have warned more people in Haiti? The possibilities are endless. Like in Paul Grabowicz article about digital journalism. In this article he talks about broadening the social media and nit limiting it. Many people are afraid that with the internet containing so much information, many kids are just Googling it and they are done, making parents afraid that the love for long literature is fading away. But Paul talks about using this to an author’s advantage to grab interest in the reader and increase the interest in storytelling.
What other frontiers can be explored? A hindering factor is a person’s internet literacy. Like a person who doesn’t quite know how to use Facebook, therefore lacking in knowledge to utilize the site better; if a person doesn’t have a higher internet literacy they could face troubles that cannot really be taught. Since the web and social media sites are so busy a newcomer may take longer time adjusting to the site and hence losing interest. This is a serious problem for sites like Twitter; people become bored and lose interest over time causing a decrease in applicants. Also many cultures and societies don’t have the technology to gain in their technology literacy hindering them from people who have the resources.
It is a constant cycle that we face and instead of just saying lose the sites like Facebook, twitter or form spring, lets enhance them make them better for those who use it and for those people who don’t.




Grabowicz, Paul. "Multimedia Storytelling | The Transition to Digital Journalism." Knight Digital Media Center. Berkley Graduate School of Journalism, 6 Sept. 2011. Web. 30 Sept. 2011. .

Weblog 6

                The problem with current social networks, is one’s ability and knowledge of how to use it.  I always tell my parents that they wouldn’t want a Facebook because they wouldn’t understand how to use it fully.  Even though I say this just because I don’t want them to have a Facebook, it is very much true.  I hate to have to this to my parents, but guys you’re old.  Not old in the sense of age but in the sense of social media.  People my parents age or even now in their late 40’s aren’t properly using sites like Facebook, twitter, or blogger.  This is because most of these sites enable you to stay close with the friends you have now for longer periods of time.  Most people aren’t friends with their original friends from high school because they didn’t have the resources.   I shouldn’t take as much though, I don’t even have a lot of knowledge when it comes to twitter.  I understand the premise and the purpose and how people use it; but what I don’t understand is the hash tagging and re-tweeting.   Even though I would say my twitter literacy is about average, like if I made a twitter today I would totally understand how to use it.  Twitter is evolving too fast, it is always changing, I feel like twitter and other social networks are starting to get too busy.  Its lost its cool factor, like that feeling that this is new and not everyone has it yet.  I would say that 21^st century literary skills are the knowledge and understanding of social media and how to use it.  Social media is everywhere, soon we won’t even have television companies like DIRECTV and Time Warner Cable; it will all be run through the TV internet through ones Facebook or twitter, and people will “like” the show and share it as they watch it.  You cannot be taught literary skills you have to teach yourself.  Schools will teach you how to use the computer but they don’t necessarily teach you how to better yourself on it.  

http://youtu.be/dYP-wBaqQAI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYP-wBaqQAI

webblog 5

For as long as I could remember I have been around computers and technology.  My parents were very technologically advanced because of their jobs, so as I grew up it was normal to have one or two computers in the house and be able to know how to use them.  However I didn’t become a creator of internet content until I was in high school.  I didn’t know that there was a consumer and a creator, I always thought that everyone was a consumer.  I never really took the time to think, wait someone created this application, or someone created this site that I am learning from.  When I got to high school it was actually my English teacher who got me to start using wikis.  Over time my ICT skills have significantly increased.  At first when I was a kid all I knew was video games and instant messenger or the social aspect.  But as I grew older I began to understand more about the inter web and what I could learn, and also how programs worked and how to better myself trough use of certain programs or applications.  As shown in a table created by Mark Warschauer, I can say that I did not know the economic era of ITC, or even the receptive skills.  When It came to computers and technology it was pretty cut and dry, write something on paper for fun or draw a picture. But now I can write papers, look up information, connect with old friends, organize myself, and overall better myself.  Thanks to my parents thrusting us into a technology filled world from the beginning I was able to be current with all computer and internet technology at an early age.  And due to this I can be social, productive, organized and current all in one area.      

 

Webblog4

It has always been seen that social justice has been equally unfair for years and years.  But this is actually untrue because we have hidden the fact that we have our racially segregated past is much part of the socially unjust.  We have forgotten the fact that not 60 years ago our country was still segregated due to the laws people followed called Jim Crow Laws.  These laws have hindered the ability for African Americans and other races that where not white to be separated from those who were white.  Even though they were said to be separate but equal, the fact was the many African American children were deprived the right to an equal education because of the color of their skin.  It wasn’t just education; it covered everything from water fountains to social security.  Due to these laws we made our society an unjust and unequal society.  Is that social justice?  I would say not because even though a person usually have the opportunity to better themselves,  not in this case because we discriminated so much that we psychologically damaged them.  Any person that was seen as not part of the “white class” thought there was something genetically wrong with them.  This is not fair because every person should have an equal opportunity as the next man, no matter of skin color gender, height what be it.  

Social Justice

            In Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas,” Through this I discovered two theories of what I believe social justice mean.  Social justice is equality to all no matter of social structures, race, or gender; everyone is treated as the same.  Also it means that all of those who do wrong are punished, no matter what way it is, for their wrong doings. 

            In “The Scope of Social Justice,” the author talks about how some people pay taxes that go to good school systems but may not have kids or their kids may not go to those schools.  I believe this follows my theory that social justice is equality to all.  It is not fair that some more wealthy parents can send their kids to good schools while lesser families cannot.  In a utopian society there would be no difference in school because every child would have the same learning abilities, therefore no need for higher quality teachers and resources.  In our world we would see this as socialism or even communism.  This shows that social justice cannot fully exist because there are always ways to refute it. 

            The author also talks about how the society may be in a free for all but there is a guideline that people should follow in order to keep others in line as well.  This is like a chain reaction, if one person breaks from the pack then chances are everyone will.  This leads to my other theory that those who do wrong should be punished.  I realize that this may not necessarily be true because who would do the punishing?  This would refute my classless society and cause social injustice. 

            Social justice can be defined in many ways and can be used in different forums such as a workplace, a home, or as big as a nation.  It is very fragile and very improbable because the main point is that for social justice to be real, stuff like pain cannot exist.  As shown in Le Guin’s short story even though people ignore the kid’s pain, it still was relevant therefore refuting the possibility of social justice because now it is part of their society and equality no longer exists.