Here's a follow up article--more about our actual topic. It's introducing a new social media site created just for young athletes. It's different than, say, facebook.com in the sense that it's not just a way for athletes to portray themselves, it's also a hub for parents to organize carpools and get the latest equipment to buy their young athletes.
The thing that caught my attention in this article is when the author pointed out how the site would allow athletes to have more control on how their "image is being used commercially." I think that should be a top priority to any athlete and it would also allow them to sell advertising alongside any video/photos they upload to their page, instead of having a network like ESPN show their stuff for free.
I think the key term the author uses further into the article is "opportunities." This site would provide young athletes so many more opportunities to get their image out there and to become known in more ways than are available today with just networking.
This article is great for our topic because it's not just about Twitter and Facebook anymore, but now there's a site out there with the sole purpose of promoting athletes, which is long overdue in my opinion.
Article link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/technology/26caa.html
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The effects of writing in early America
I actually hate thinking about the impact language has on our lives because i go so in depth it gives me a headache.
The effect writing had in history is unbelievable. It's so second nature in our lives, we don't even realize how much we depend on the fact that we're able to communicate and how much has stemmed from the creation of language.
Even though the United States became an independent nation long after language was introduced, we had the ability to break away and establish a new form of government all because we were literate and could communicate with one another. After our independence was won, our forefathers created the Constitution and Declaration of Independence (http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/constitution/text.html), a document we continue to interpret and use as our foundation of democracy.
With the creation of language came expressing one's opinions, likes, dislikes, etc. A man like Thomas Paine could publish a book with his beliefs--one which later caused him to flee England with charges of treason. That's sort of the risk you take when expressing something that goes against the grain, though. He stood by his work, The Rights of Man: (http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/writings/rights), and even started a revolution among the people of England. That's huge, for someone's opinion to impact so many people...all because of language.
Another thing that is really interesting to me, is what technology stemmed from all of this. Thomas Paine's book was available all because of the printing press. From that came typewriters (http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/typrwriter.html), computers, cell phones...etc, because people were fascinated with communicating with one another.
So, I'd have to say hats off to those who created the alphabet and thus invented our lovely language that we use all day everyday, it'd be a strange world fully of hieroglyphics and cave paintings with out it! (and don't even get me started on different languages (i.e. Spanish, English, German...etc.), that's a whole other topic in itself).
The effect writing had in history is unbelievable. It's so second nature in our lives, we don't even realize how much we depend on the fact that we're able to communicate and how much has stemmed from the creation of language.
Even though the United States became an independent nation long after language was introduced, we had the ability to break away and establish a new form of government all because we were literate and could communicate with one another. After our independence was won, our forefathers created the Constitution and Declaration of Independence (http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/constitution/text.html), a document we continue to interpret and use as our foundation of democracy.
With the creation of language came expressing one's opinions, likes, dislikes, etc. A man like Thomas Paine could publish a book with his beliefs--one which later caused him to flee England with charges of treason. That's sort of the risk you take when expressing something that goes against the grain, though. He stood by his work, The Rights of Man: (http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/writings/rights), and even started a revolution among the people of England. That's huge, for someone's opinion to impact so many people...all because of language.
Another thing that is really interesting to me, is what technology stemmed from all of this. Thomas Paine's book was available all because of the printing press. From that came typewriters (http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/typrwriter.html), computers, cell phones...etc, because people were fascinated with communicating with one another.
So, I'd have to say hats off to those who created the alphabet and thus invented our lovely language that we use all day everyday, it'd be a strange world fully of hieroglyphics and cave paintings with out it! (and don't even get me started on different languages (i.e. Spanish, English, German...etc.), that's a whole other topic in itself).
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Blog about Blogging.
Alright so....after about the 20 minutes it took me to remember how to get to this point to type out my blog....here I am! I used to think I was pretty technology savvy, but between this and say like Diigo, I'm finding out very quickly that there's much more than just facebook and twitter out there in the social media world.
So, I understand why some people blog-to express themselves, to be critics, to be heard-but I feel so.........awkward, I feel is the appropriate term, when I blog. Maybe it's because I've never really had anything to push me to do it, like documenting a trip or going through a traumatic illness or something. The thing is, I would love to keep this blog up...but it's like when I write in a journal, I never know how to format it...do I act like I'm writing to someone? Do I basically just give you an overview of my day? That seems boring. Right now I don't have anything I'm particular intrested in voicing my opinion about...although I just had a project due today in my Ad Techniques class about the organization Greenpeace...which I have fallen in love with (check them out: http://www.greenpeace.org/). I have this thing where I get really passionate about something (like everything this organization is about), I just have absolutely no way to carry out any action. I'm a poor college student living in Northeastern Kansas. I feel as though my abilities to make a difference right now are very minimal. But anyways...that's totally irrelevant. I would have made a video blog, but I kind of spaced on this assignment so I'm doing it in the library, and I don't really want my peers thinking I talk to myself...that would be embarrassing!!! So I'll just leave it at that and hopefully get a vlog up next time.CIAO, try to stay warm, all!!!
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