More bloggers out to help you

So obviously we know that blogging is become a new creative form of expression. Blogging is even being referenced in television shows and movies. For example the movie Juno that came out in 2007 has an expression I have been using, "Honest to blog?" mimicking the "Honest to God?" phrase people use quite often.

Main stream pop culture for the time being won't die but if you read blogger posts it is sure being bashed. Yet none of these blogger's do anything about it. They sit behind their computer ranting and raving, yet just sitting. What I found is a productive group of university students that blog to help students with budgeting, financial planning, saving and other issues of true importance for a university student like me. Not blogging about how that movie sucks and how corporate America is taking over (which none the less, IS taking over).
This is a new wave to the university students scene. Other students who understand and actually care. Refreshing isn't it?

http://rbcp2p.com/index.asp

Growing up online

On the PBS website I was reading the introduction to this whole new Project called “Growing up Online”. Basically what they want people to understand is how we have a new generation of children who are; more Internet savvy then their parents, who create new identities for themselves, who are bullied over the web, who learn, eat and breathe the Internet.

At the beginning of the introduction it explains how a girl of 14 created a profile of herself on a website and began to have a huge cult following. During the day she was the sweet little Marylou and at night she became a dark Gothic Devora of the new world. Meanwhile her parents were completely out of the loop.

I completely agree with the issues at hand. One being the fact that children are so smart these days that they are working around parental controls set on their computers by parents. If you have one friend who is a technical nerd then you are set for life.

For really young children who play on the computer they may not have the know how to break these barriers, but at the youngest age it would be more accidental for a porn site to pop-up then for a sixteen year old male.

Now a days children use the computer as early as 8, maybe even before. Children now have more knowledge about computer then their parents. I can say this because personally that is how my family is. Really I don't know too much about computer, but I do know more then my parents.

It is sad to hear of bullying online. Bullying online can make a child not even want to leave the house, while bullying at school is the same way no one can see it happening when it's happening alone to a child on their computer.

These problems are not simple to slove. Hopfully there comes a time when a child grows up and learns how to appropiately use the internet as the positive tool it can be. While I say this with a hope and an open mind I do know that still adults use the internet negitively. Look at all the child pornography sites or websites to promote illegal things.

On a personal side, one of my cousins was chatting on an internet website and hit it off with this guy. He asked for her number and right away she gave it to him. He called the house and her mother answered and he asked "Hi, can i speak with babysugargirl165 please?" My cousin was 18 at the time. When I was told this story I was completely in shock thinking she was so much smarter then that.

There needs to be an added knowledge of the dangers on the internet. Maybe it is a parenting call but I'm really just not sure. Reading this introduction brought up some interesting questions in my mind about how to stop things like this from happening. There is no way to ban bullying through chatrooms or facebook or even over msn messagener. How can we teach our childern to be sauvy at a young age without them becoming more advanced then us?

I hope technology and the people who use it don't advance so far forward that they can't come back.


Article :
Growing Up Online

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/etc/synopsis.html

Need help

One of the biggest problems with some university students who want to take action about their causes for example Media rights is figuring out where to start. A though this company originates in Australia they do have an e-mail address and are willing to give help to anyone. Their group is called Social Change Media. What they do is help people get on track with campaign ideas and finical problems you may have. Some specific examples of what Social Change Media do are develop communication/education strategies, implement comprehensive education programs for the community, industry and other groups, social research and carry out community consultation programs.

My point is not to plug their organization but to plug motivation.

http://media.socialchange.net.au/approach/index.html

Culture jamming a new form of free speech?

What I took from class the other night was a very clear view on the need for culture jamming. I also before class was a little unclear about what that phrase even mean. So this is my own definition. Culture jamming is a very recent discovery of artist freedom that allows one to challenge cultural hegemony and the repetitive and same structure ethics of main stream popular culture. In the ways spoken about in class culture jamming was done by way of some sort of creation which seems normal at first glace but is really a public spectacle to disrupt or protest an event, idea or mirroring a campaign to try and get attention and shift perspectives of people who pass. A read somewhere once that Cultural Jamming was the “The viral introduction of radical ideas” but I think the ideas are truthful. Maybe a tad extreme, but maybe not. Yes they protest against the normalcy of advertisement and some corporation’s techniques to promote product purchase but the messages portrayed should and generally are things we know about our society. So when people are outraged it severely puzzles me and the way to look at some people’s realization of our world today. I guess I just thought they knew, and we ready to embrace this new order of change. I believe it’s good, and I now understand why culture jamming was needed. I think it should be used more to get the important (as funny as some of the fake advertisements are) issues out to the people who will only look at the sign because they thinks it’s the new Calvin Klein ad. Then they see this…

And the consumer that maybe once thought they “needed” to product might think twice. In an ideal world of course.