More Progress

I officially dove into the research today for my project on how developing technology affects generational personalities. So far, I'm learning a lot about the various generations of the 20th century as well as various technologies that have developed over the past century. So far, I'm keeping the two separate so I can examine them and compare them in greater detail once I gather enough information.

Once article I found particularly interesting is the Population Bulletin: 20th Century Generations by Elwood Carlson. All of the tables and charts and graphs really highlighted the key contrasts and similarities of the 6 main generations of the 20th century. For instance, I found it quite appalling how my generation, the New Boomers, has the lowest rate of children under 10 living with both parents (due to divorce, mostly), even compared to generations of higher death rates due to lack of medical care and during wartime. Although it doesn't have much to do with my topic, I still found it fascinating.

I also found Time magazine's photo essay on 20th century technologies. This will be a good basis for my future research and when I tie things together for the analyzation of the generational personalities.

In addition, I haven't officially made a purpose statement yet. So here goes:

Purpose: I will be examining the US generations beginning with the Hard Timers (born from 1890-1908) and ending with the New Boomers (born from 1983-2001). Specifically, I will be looking at their varying personalities and what factors contribute to the differences, especially developing technology and media. I am studying this topic because I'm interested in examining how technology affects us as people and specifically how the personality differences may affect relationships in the workplace.

This topic may be a bit big, but if I can narrow my search a bit more, it may help. For example, I could only look at developing media technologies. Once I start more research I will see what happens!

As for my medium, I'm not sure if I want to tackle the infographic idea. A blog may be a better choice, but I don't want it to be too boring. Yet another decision to make!

Planning, researching, fun fun fun

Now it's time for the game plan of this major assignment. I'm sticking with researching the generational personality differences from the early 1900s until the current millennial generation and how developing technology influences these differences.

 Right now, making a movie looks like a lot of work in the midst of a busy semester for me. I looked into what making an infographic would take, and found a website called Easelly that provides themes and templates for creating infographics. Once I start researching I think the rest should fall into place. Hopefully.

I also started snooping around for some articles I can use to gather information for this project. Pew Research wrote a quality article on the characteristics of the Millennials that I found interesting, for example. We, the millennials, are described as "confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change." We are confident with new forms of technology because we are digital natives, in contrast to older generations who are unfamiliar with them because they are digital immigrants. We express our different but ultimately similar personalities through social media and other forms of digital media. We tend to be liberal and free in our young and expressive age. We are upbeat and energetic with youth. And finally, with ever changing technologies, we have to be open to change.

By examining my generation, this is just the beginning of my research. I will still need to do an in-depth   examination of the other generations of the century and ultimately compare them all. Then I will look at the technologies of the time and tie it all together. I look forward to looking at the contrasts and similarities, then creating an info graphic to illustrate them.

Purpose Statement

For this post, I am assigned to create an outline of my purpose statement for our next big class assignment, finding a situation that can be displayed through creating a digital artifact. I've done a lot of thinking about where exactly I want to go with this, especially since it's a big part of my grade and will definitely eat up a lot of my time in the next few weeks.

I have experience with movie production and editing, going back to me as a 12 year old just goofing around with my best friend. I haven't put a movie together in quite some time, so this is one path I'd be intrigued to take, although it may be a lot of work.

Photo editing is another area where I have some experience, although a lot less than movie editing. I would definitely be willing to go there too, but it may require even more work and patience.

Now for choosing a topic and formulating my purpose statement. One area that has recently caught my attention is my generation's differences from earlier generations. Our personalities and ways of life are so different, even between two adjacent generations. This has really sparked interest in me. Why is this? I believe that a large part of such drastic differences among such close together generations is the revolutionary boom of technology in the past few decades.

Being in this digital media class has really opened my eyes to how digital media and technology in general has such a strong impact on our lives as humans in the 21st century. So, my topic is going to be something related to the personality differences in recent generations (perhaps back to the turn of the 20th century) due to changing technoligies. The focus, of course, will be on my generation, or the Millennials, and how they compare to the rest in the 20th century.

Why should I be communicating this? I think it is important for people, mainly the young adults of today, to understand how our uniqueness in this world is both amazing and dangerous. I believe that we need to look at how we differ from those around us who are both older and yes, often times more wise, than us. We can benefit from understanding the differences we have in the workplace for example, or in relationships in general. Our future bosses will most likely be from other generations than us, so we must understand what separates us from them, other than just birth year alone.

Now I will have to let the brainstorming begin for what medium I want to use to portray this idea. Hmmm....

Arguments.

I will be the first to admit I've been putting this post off for a bit. I just returned from one heck of a weekend backpacking trip and am still trying to get my mind out of the woods and into my head so I can concentrate on reading and writing again. But this is always pretty difficult for me, so bear with me as I tread through Wysocki and Lynch's take on arguments in "Compose, Design, Advocate."
First of all, they used a prime example to walk through the steps of forming a solid argument or purpose in a presentation. I'm not sure if the example they used was actually from MTU, but it sure seemed like it to me...boys trying to get girls to join an enterprise, or a club that works on a project typically for a real life client, and accidentally explaining that they just need secretary-like figures. This, of course, offended all the ladies and no one joined.

None of the ladies joined for a few reasons that all added up to a poor preparation on the boys' parts. They didn't seem to think their strategy of persuasion through enough, so this is where Wysocki and Lynch come in to help us through the process. I will keep it short and simple because my eyes are starting to close due to overexposure of the computer screen...

Step one. Formulate a specific purpose and ask yourself what are we communicating and why.

Step two. Find your audience and figure out their ultimate expectations.

Three. The larger context must be considered. Get to know your audience and link the time and place of your presentation of an argument/persuading to your actual argument. In other words, "how will the place and time of your communication affect its outcome?"

Quatro. What strategies will be used? What appeals to the audience? It is clear that the audience must be well examined.

Up top for the high five. It's all about the audience and the medium. What medium will be used and why?

Step six. Order. How the presentation is arranged is also key. Which arguments should go first?

Sept. TEST IT OUT.

Sorry, folks, I'm about asleep. This is as far as I'm making it tonight. All I know is that my mind is indeed still in my hammock out under the stars by the rolling waves of Superior. Bring. Me. Back. Now.

On the note of sharing

Hello again, just stumbled upon another gem of the YouTube world. This one has me practically drooling over the footage. Gotta love the new advances in technology.

In addition, this video is a prime example of defying copyright law and "free advertising." I just "shared" it on my adrenaline junky cousin's wall on Facebook. Who knows, maybe he'll purchase a camera! If not, I may look into it....(You're welcome, GoPro.)

Copyrighting and the Digital Age

Digital media is everywhere. With it, endless files of data including word documents, pictures, music, videos and much, much more. Along with this seemingly endless amount of files comes the glorious thing that all students love to hear about year after year in their writing courses. Copyrighting, plagiarism, the whole shebang. Anyone with a computer can figure out how to download music, movies and more illegally and without paying for it. How far does the copyrighting line go though, and where can we draw it?

Larry Lessig, a professor at Harvard, does a phenomenal job at explaining the issue of copyrighting in today's world.




I found this video extremely interesting overall. There's no denying that the digital age has brought about a new generation of artists, the mixers, if  you will. I thoroughly enjoyed the mash-up creations he used for examples in his presentation. It is truly remarkable what the younger and fluent generation of digital natives can do with technology these days.

Not everything they are doing however can be thought of as creative and good. Downloading music illegally is a huge issue in the world. Before viewing DJ Spooky voice his opinion on the issue, I always thought it was a truly negative action that deprived countless artists of much earned money. After hearing his opinion though, I thought again:





It's the "branding" and "free marketing" aspects that made me reconsider everything. I'm not saying I'm going to go download all of my music illegally, so to speak. It the fact that artists like DJ Spooky can take pride in kids essentially "stealing" his creations because it's a new way of getting his name out there.

When my friends burn me CDs, I often have a few songs on each disc that I really connect with. I often go look up the artist's name, and sometime I even go further if I'm really impressed and buy some of their songs. It's this event that some artists, like DJ Spooky, really smile at.

With that, it hit me that perhaps our culture is changing to the point where it's actually not all about the money. People like Spooky really, truly take pride in people listening to their music and sharing it with people who don't buy it just because it's a form of free advertising and "branding." In a sense, it's all about the art, and creating as he says, a "rich and robust...narrative." I found this cool, personally.

 I mean sure, DJ Spooky may also be loaded to the point where he couldn't care less about making another 99 cents on iTunes, but it still made me think again about copyrighting and stealing music from its producer.

Same goes for videos, like the ones on Lessig's presentation. People make those to entertain others, to share with the world, or to get their names out there. Mainly, I believe it's the first two reasons, or so I hope. The fact that we live in such a sharing culture now is also something to be proud of.

I myself share a ton of online videos through Facebook and e-mail. If a friend is having a rough day, I'll share some humorous little clip on their wall and they usually appreciate it! Or if I find something, yes, inspiring. Here's one that I absolutely love to leave you with (yay sharing!):
 

Follow up on the situation

Yup, here it is. My follow up on my post from yesterday on Bitzer's Rhetorical Situations. After going to class and discussing Bitzer, it makes more sense to me now, as Baudrillard did as well.

Rhetorical situation is composed of a few different elements. First off, rhetoric, as we defined in class, is a mode of altering reality through persuasion and discourse. Thus said, discourse is defined as communication, whether its language, purpose or meaning. Then there's the 3 main parts of rhetoric situation, according to Bitzer. Audience, exigency and constraints.

The example used in class was, easily enough, our class. The primary audience is the class. The secondary audience is, if you will, the creepers who peer in the windows at us or walk by the door and hear what we're discussing. Finally, the tertiary audience could be considered anyone with no invested interest in the class or our activities.

Next, the exigency of our class. We went through a lot of examples, but I  came away with the idea of exigency being any event in the class. For example, when the whiteboard marker wasn't working, a student spoke up about it. Then the professor threw it out and got a new one. Another example that was on my mind at the time was my stomach growling for the last 30 minutes of class, so I snacked on pretzels.

Finally, constraints. Any distraction in the classroom could be considered a constraint. The humming of the printer in the back of the room, side conversations, friends passing by outside.

All in all, it's simple. I was just over thinking it again!

Rhetorical Situation...hmm...

Sitting in the library after trying to get through Llyod F. Bitzer's writing on "The Rhetorical Situation," I'm starting to get overwhelmed and I haven't even finished it yet. And I'm starting to sweat, but blame that on the sun beating down on me, for the most part at least.

Anyways, I'm currently having trouble differentiating rhetorical situation and persuasive rhetoric. Bitzer says that there are three elements of the complex known as rhetorical situation:

1. Exigence: "An imperfection marked by urgency,"it's only considered rhetorical when it is "capable of positive modification."
2. Audience: The audience, as Bitzer states, is a group who consists only of people who are "capable of being influneced by discourse AND of being mediators of change." In other words, not just a group of readers or listeners. The audience on rhetorical situation must be able to mediate change.
3. Constraints: Made up of "persons, events, objects, and relations which are part of the situation," simply because they all possess the power to "constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence."

This is when I see parallels between someone giving a situational rhetoric speech and a persuasive speech using rhetoric. Although Bitzer specifically states that these two are not the same, I'm still having trouble separating them.

In a persuasive speech, the author uses rhetoric in order to convince the audience that his/her way is right. The "exigence" can be any controversial topic in my eyes. One that can be changed for the good, which is what the author, for example, is trying to do.

Then there's the audience. Now that I look at it, this is where one difference can be argued. The audience in a normal rhetoric speech of persuasion is mostly just a group of listeners interested in the cause. There are also those who are indeed knowledgable enough about the topic to mediate a change. But not always. The audience always needs to be capable of mediating change in the case of rhetorical situation, according to Bitzer.

Finally, constraints. Here's another source of confusion for me. Maybe I'm just over thinking this. Is he saying that constraints are the main points or ingredients of rhetorical situation? That's the best I can come up with for now...

Well, expect a follow up post tomorrow after class since I'm still a bit lost in Bitzer's huge words and long complex sentences filled with some jargon I'm not quite following. I will get back to you on this!

Cell Phone Accessibility: UP edition

Snow flies in the crisp October morning air as students hurry to get to their 8 o’clock class. Fall colors surround them as they cringe against the bitter wind and piercing snow. Many students are already on their cell phones, texting, tweeting and updating status about yet another typical day attending college in the Keweenaw on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

On Michigan Tech’s campus, cell phone accessibility is good for the most part, with a few dead zones in various buildings. However, once one gets out of the campus bubble and into the unknown of the Keweenaw and Upper Peninsula in general, cell reception dramatically decreases, as does 3G, 4G and Internet coverage for smartphones. Overall, cell phone coverage is accessible for the average Michigan Tech student on campus, despite being in one of the most remote college towns in the country. It’s the off-campus accessibility that poses the problem, for students, locals and tourists alike.

            Accessibility can be defined in a few different ways pertaining to technology.  One way, according to Kate Williams, is through literacy and/or fluency of a certain medium. If one is considered “fluent” with technology, they have three types of knowledge, as Williams says. “Contemporary skills, foundational concepts, and intellectual capabilities,” are the three things needed in order to achieve fluency. If one is fluent with technology, they can access it with efficiency and ease.

 Most students at Michigan Technological University are fluent in cell phone operation, just like any other college aged students who are also considered “digital natives” as Palfrey and Gasser describe in “Born Digital.” Digital natives, as Palfrey and Gasser explain, are anyone born after 1980 and are fluent in technology because they’ve simply grown up with it. According to Pew Research Center results, “fully 96 percent of 18 to 29 year olds own a cell phone,” which indicates that accessibility in terms of fluency is not the problem here.

According to Wikepedia, accessibility is “the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available,” or simply the “ability to access and benefit from some system or entity.” This paper aims to focus more on the physical accessibility of cell phones in the UP, specifically in the town of Houghton and the Keweenaw in general.

On campus, the cell phone accessibility is great. There’s only been a few days where it would randomly disappear, but that was rumored to be because of some science experiment in one of the buildings nearby. This is a positive for students who live on or around campus, especially when they have to make those calls home to their parents, as well as to other family members, friends, and for important business pertaining to internships, jobs, and co-ops.

It’s when one gets off campus and into the wilderness of the UP when the coverage gets sketchy. No matter what carrier, there are numerous dead zones all over the Keweenaw and Upper Peninsula as a whole. Nikki Davidson, a reporter for Upper Michigan’s Source, says that the station’s Facebook page asked viewers about where they have had trouble getting service in the area, and “the feedback poured in, naming dozens of places.” She then goes on to make a good point about how this affects people. For people on the UP, whether it be locals, tourists or students, “it’s not just an issue of inconvenience, it’s a serious danger.”

The accessibility of cell phone reception is critical in remote areas, but also hard to incorporate into such areas because of its remoteness. This seems like a never-ending and potentially dangerous cycle. With all the snow that accumulates seemingly out of nowhere sometimes during the winter in the UP, driving is often a risky activity, especially when cell phone reception is questionable. In addition, the Keweenaw and surrounding areas of the UP is widely known to attract adventure and thrill-seeking outdoor enthusiasts, from backpackers to mountain bikers to surfers. If something goes wrong and there is no cell phone reception, what happens?

As of May 2012, Verizon expanded its “local network in the UP by activating two new cell sites near Spies and Drummond Lake,” according to a news release. These sites were said to improve coverage along U.S. Highway 41 between Covington and Crystal Falls by strengthening both wireless voice and data services. This is only a small portion of the UP, though.

Verizon also claims that this new site is “part of [their] effort to expand coverage, increase capacity and enhance the quality,” of their services in Michigan. The news release also adds that Verizon has invested over $65 billion in order to make their services more accessible for clients. $265 million of that chunk was spent on Michigan in 2011 alone.

Verizon Coverage

AT&T doesn’t provide any specific information on their coverage in the UP, but according to Davidson, they claim to be aiming to “continue to enhance and expand [their] mobile broadband network in the area to provide the best possible customer service.” No recent news was found on AT&T’s expanding network however.

AT&T coverage

Simply looking at the two biggest cell phone carriers in the country provides enough information to conclude that the UP as a whole is still a long ways from being completely accessible in terms of cell phones. This can be good and bad. Some people enjoy not having a reason to be constantly bothered by the constant ringtones of voicemails and text messages. That’s why they may come up here, to get away from it all.

On the other hand, if an accident occurs and there is no coverage, people can get into trouble. Especially in a region with many natural wonders, attractions and dangers, this can definitely be a large problem.

More specifically however, Houghton and its general area including Hancock, is very accessible. This is good for on-campus students in particular. Having accessible cell phone reception in terms of voice and texting as well as data is critical for college-aged students.

Overall, a lot can be done in order to improve cell phone accessibility on the Upper Peninsula and Keweenaw region as a whole. More towers can be constructed in areas of the biggest need, starting in the more populated areas along the major highways and eventually growing to include even the most remote places. Perhaps by surveying locals and students, these specific locations can be discovered.

 It will certainly take some time, but by providing more accessibility for their clients, cell phone companies will satisfy more people across the UP as they attend school, explore the untouched territory, and hit the road on a snowy day.

Happy Monday

So it's a Monday of yet another stressful school week. Hooray.

I'd thought I'd share one of my favorite moments from my favorite show "The Office" on here that somewhat pertains to the different generational knowledge of technology and media. Creed is evidently not a digital native. Creed is also not exactly normal, but I guess that's part of why he's one of my favorite characters on the show. Besides Jim, for obvious reasons...

Anyways, enjoy :) and have a good week!

Literacy: Being Fluent with Information Technology

Being literate and fluent in not only reading and writing skills but in technology as well is almost a complete necessity today for those looking to climb not only the work ladders but also the social ladders. I can attest to this, as a typical college student and aspired technical writer and/or web designer.

Being a scientific and technical communications major I am at the minimum required to have basic knowledge of how to create different mediums on a computer. Growing up as a digital native, as Palfrey and Gasser say, I already have quite a bit of knowledge when it comes to computers, and technology in general. I learned basic computer skills both on Macs and PCs easily by age 11, if not earlier.

Since then I have been building my knowledge, to the point of being what is called "computer literate." I can work both Macs and PCs with ease and comfort, as well as operate various programs like Adobe Photoshop, programs on Microsoft Office, as well as others. I can spit these facts right out simply because I had to no more than a week ago when I was in the process of updating my résumé. Yes, these days one is highly advised to include computer skills and knowledge on their résumé.

What I'm trying to say is that our world is changing with the ever-changing technology. People who are literate or fluent in information technology have an edge over those who aren't both in the workplace and in life in general. As Kate Williams says in her article, "Literacy and Computer Literacy: Analyzing the NRC's Bring Fluent with Information Technology," "students who become IT fluent...will have the power to navigate their way through work and life." Here she is talking about students, but it applies to most everyone who is searching for a job or to simply be socially accepted in the norm of society.

I agree with Williams in most of her claims in her writing. One thing that stood out to me however is when she made an argument that computers is "a way to level the playing field for poor kids." When I read this I immediately remembered Blackmon's article on minorities and computers. Blackmon argued that because of unequal funding in education systems in this country, many minorities feel uncomfortable and misrepresented online, thus saying that the communities with less educational funding (which have historically been minority communities) often have students who, for the most part, are not computer literate. The playing field is anything but level in this way, in my opinion.

Being digital natives, most students today are computer literate. However, these is also additional work that must be done for many students, including myself, to become fully computer literate. Personally, I am taking more and more classes, (including HU2642!) in order to learn more about computers and digital media in general. Someday when I'm  searching for a job after I graduate, I will be able to present a résumé that is chalk-full of technology and computer-related skills that will hopefully land me a preferred career at a good company that I like. With that résumé, I will essentially exclaim to my future employer that "I am a young, creative, open-minded hard worker who is computer literate and understands all the new technology in this world and who wants to work for you!" Or I will try ;)

So I'm a Humanities Student

Going to an engineering school that is roughly 70% male, I often get weird looks when I explain to my peers that I'm a humanities student. And yes, as for being part of the female minority, I often get very different looks walking around campus in anything other than sweats and tshirts. (Prime example was yesterday for the Career Fair. I walked 5 minutes across campus in a skirt and heels and got more glances than if I were wearing a gorilla suit and making loud monkey noises at people. It's like they've never seen a girl before.)

Anyways, my work load differs from 95% of the other students here at Tech. Instead of labs, lab reports, exams and online homework up the wazoo, I mostly find myself reading, writing and amusing myself with hobbies in my free time. Yes, I have free time. This is why most people seem to scoff at my humanities area of study. They may think I'm lazy. Or not as smart as them. In reality, I'm just good at writing, and I like it (yup, there's another source of the weird looks).

So being a double minority at this school, a female AND a non engineer, I naturally found myself wondering what I could do with an hour of free time this morning after my 8 AM Stats class. Most students have homework or studying or classes. This is where the perks of not being an engineer come in. I glanced out the window at the cloudless, fall blue sky and the golden trees soaking in the rays. My camera sat next to me on my futon. So I put two and two together and hopped in my car to go to my favorite running place on campus. This time, I left my running shoes and shorts at home though.

And here's what I found. Just a 10 minute walk from my room.

It's safe to say that I love it here. And I love what I'm doing, thanks.

[Cyber] Conspiracy Theories: Internet Discrimination?

I'm going to be completely honest. I am a white, young adult student at a mostly white college in a mostly white region of the US. In addition, I grew up in a white dominant suburb of Minneapolis, and would say that most people I know and are friends with are, as you may have guessed, white. In other words, I have not been exposed to very much diversity in my young life. Consequentially, this makes me feel like the typical white snobby girl who grew up in the 'burbs and has no true exposure to people of different background or races. And yes, this does make me realize I need to grow more as a person and make efforts to diversify my life a bit more, although it is a bit of a challenge in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as I've discovered the past year.

As Samantha Blackmon at Purdue University points out in her writing entitled, "(Cyber) Conspiracy Theories: African American Students in the Computerized Writing Environment," African American students are finding themselves more and more uncomfortable with the online community, and computers in general. It's not just African Americans, either. Minorities in general feel as though they are "misrepresented on and excluded from the Internet," as a whole.

 Upon reading the first few pages of Blackmon, my eyes were immediately opened to an issue that has honestly never crossed my mind. I would have never even thought of how minorities are represented on the Internet, and how they are affected by it.

Blackmon provides some interesting statistics on the matter. According to a study done at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, "84% of 86 white and 65% of 52 African American students surveyed reported using a computer at home." In addition, 33% of African American students surveyed say that they have never used e-mail, as opposed to the 12% of the white students surveyed. This was where I started to think of the factors influencing these numbers. How could this be?

Blackmon goes on to provide support to these facts. In 1980 is perhaps where this all started. Computers were just emerging into the education system in America. Public school districts across the country were looking for the money to support the momentous shift in technology to keep up and perhaps even get ahead of the rest of the technological and educational world. Blackmon states that, "federal defunding of public schools led to inequality in resources and greater inequality among different school districts, depending on location and local tax bases."

Therefore, the poorer areas of the US lacked the resources to keep up with the computer craze. Historically, the poorer regions of the country are also those with the highest minority population. The Population Reference Bureau illustrates poverty as well as minorities in the US clearly (see below). And to this day it is affecting the computer comfort level of students in the US.

We also cannot be assuming that just because someone has computer access or Internet access that they know and can confidently perform activities on them, Blackmon adds. She then goes into more depth about how there is also a relation between the distrust of the reasons to have such knowledge about technology and distrust of those who have more knowledge of the subject.

As I thought more about it and considered why the comfort levels of minorities are generally so much different than the majority's, it seemed to all funnel down to the educational system in this country. I myself should not go into detail because I am simply not educated on the topic enough to make any valuable or valid points. But if I were to say anything, the education system here in the US is partially to blame for such lack of confidence among minorities online, which is almost another form of discrimination in my opinion. Blackmon's writing truly opened up my eyes to what a big problem this is and could easily snowball into. I don't have any ideas for a solution, but it is enough to say that it has come to my attention.