Reflect on your Writing Center experience

Today I had an appointment to at the writing center, I had just started my paper the Monday before but I still felt like the points that I was trying to make in my paper was not clear. So today I met with a teacher at the writing center named Randy and he helped me with my MySpace and FaceBook comparison essay. Randy helped me get a better clear point on how MySpace and FaceBook are similar and by us agreeing on these topics I got to understand more about FaceBook since I am more comfortable with MySpace since I have a MySpace. Randy helped me point out how these two sites are similar in some applications but also very different but I decided just to give in detail on how these sites really are very similar to the T. My experience at the writing center also helped me with an outline for my essay because I could have laid-out my paragraphs in different ways by listing the similarities either one after the other or listing everything about MySpace and then listing everything about FaceBook. I also was able to use a bubble brainstorm to help me connect everything that is similar with MySpace and FaceBook. Since my helper at the writing center was a FaceBook user he explained to me how FaceBook worked and I told him how Myspace worked and we both got to point out what was similar and what was different and how FaceBook used this application and how MySpace used another application, but all of their main points that they aim for are all similar and that really is the main picture in if they really are different or the same and I personally think that they are the same because people use MySpace and FaceBook for the same reasons and just because MySpaces layout is different from FaceBook does not mean that they are different because like I said the main point is that they are used for the same reasons, like communicating with people by keeping in contact or meeting new people, expressing themselves by blogging and updating their status, and by being able to limit the users friends to who the user would like by being able to accept and deny and friend request that was sent to that user, by this the user can over look who would like to be their friend to see if they know the person or maybe just a new user.

Reflect on Todays Exerience

Today we went to the writing center to start with our rough draft for our comparison or contrast essay. By doing this in class helped me put my essay into MLA format and helped me get used to using MLA format as well. Doing this assignment in class helped me really get to look at the similarities between MySpace and FaceBook like the way messaging and instant messaging are used because a user can message any user they would like, friend or non friend and still be able to send them a message. But in instant messaging a user can only instant message a user that must be a friend and must be online. MySpace and Facebook are also similar in the way the user can accept or deny any friend requests. By users being able to pick and choose their friends,it gives the user the power to control the friends that they have. MySpace and FaceBook both also have a section to where the user can express themselves as an individual. Users can update their status at any time that they are on these networking sites by writing in their status and mood. This helps keep up to date with maybe what the user is doing or what mood the user might be in.

Summarize today's articles...

“Facebook and Divorce: Airing your Dirty Laundry”. This article is about how these social networking sites can be good if a user is trying to make relations, keep relations with a person but not really if a person is trying to end relations. These sites can cause more drama in an ending a relationship if any or just be the main source of it. A couple was getting a divorce and on the husbands facebook wall his soon to be ex wife posted embarrassing things about him that all his friends that were on his facebook got to see. After the husband blocked his wife she also then picked girls that she saw on the husbands’ wall and sent emails to them letting them know that he was married and had kids because he left that important information out when writing about himself on his facebook page. Facebook and Myspace can also be used as evidence for lawyers because people use these sites usually either put too much personal information or not enough personal important information. By putting too much information is like a person is putting up like wild pictures or saying that they drink if the person is not even supposed to be drinking. “How Safe is MySpace?” This article is about how MySpace needs to step up their security by having the right age of a user that is on MySpace rather than just typing in a birth date that might not even be theirs and they do not even have to be true. There was cases in this article which says that criminal charges are pursuing a 19 year old boy had sex with a 14 year old girl that he met over MySpace but the whole time he thought she was a 16 year old girl like she had said and put on her age on MySpace. Another incident was when a 16 year old girl flew all the way to Jordan to get married. The whole issue of these situations is either the children lying about their age or the other person is lying about their age and there is absolutely no way of finding that out unless you have meet the person or have already met that person. MySpace’s chief security guard said that there is no technology that exists to show the real identity of a person online. All these issues of lying about the age or being able to put any age is causing more and more criminal cases that could have been prevented.

Dana Boyd video

Today we were in the computer lab doing a survey and after we completed our survey we had to watch a youtube video called Dana Boyd Handheld Learning Conference. This video was mainly about how the education of technology has been evolved over decades. Dana Boyd in this video is explaining how technology is used on an everyday bases from television to computers to cell phones, and now practically anything else you can think of. It has a huge impact on our lives but some say that it is just too much. Dana Boyd explains in this video how she thinks that technology is becoming too much and people are forgetting how the world used to be without technology on a daily bases. Many people do not go out and meet that many people anymore because they think that eharmony or match.com will fix it all, and maybe to some extent that might be true but I think that people are losing the value of living without technology as well as we gain from it. I remember I would have everyone’s number memorized because I did not have a cell phone and that was the only way I would be able to remember my friends and families numbers, but now that I have a cell phone I just save all the numbers and not even have no idea what that persons number begins with. But do not get me wrong I think that technology has its positive and negative sides to it because technology has helped our generation a lot but there is also a limit on how much technology we absolutely need. I had seen on the news that a car can now be driven with an iphone! An iphone are you kidding like would you really want to absolutely want to go in a car with someone and trust their driving because an iphone is steering the wheel. I do not know about everyone else but I sure would not want to put my life at risk like that. I just think that there is a limit of how much technology should be used and if it is a necessity in life. Also it is just throwing out some of the good stuff that needs to be taught instead of just electronically stuff because technology comes with problems and some stuff is just better off without those extra problems.

Reflect on today's experience;

Today were supposed to do a worksheet but instead the teacher Mrs.Crawford explained more in details about our essay. She gave us a comparison and contrast worksheet that we are supposed to fill out as were doing our rough draft for our comparison or contrast essay. She also answered one of my questions whether or not we needed to compare and contrast or to compare or contrast, so she explained the answer to just pick one and I am glad I asked that question because if not I would have been doing a compare and contrast essay paper instead of picking just one. On the back of that compare and contrast worksheet we as a class were calling out the differences and similarities of myspace and facebook. This exercise was very important to me because I do now know how to use facebook and students in my class were helping me understand the differences and some of the things that they have in common. On both of the social networking sites you can upload pictures and videos, add friends, comment other people’s pictures and pages and listen to music. But on myspace you can customize your page to how you want it to look and take out the things on there that you do not want on there or that you do not want anyone to see, I have also just learned from my teacher saying it that you can also search for jobs on myspace. On facebook I have also learned that you can be a fan of a page instead of adding them as a friend. Also on facebook I have learned that there is a limit of how many friends you can have on your friends list, as on myspace you can have as any friends as you choose to have even if it is a totally ridiculous amount. As the class continued our teacher was going over of the important things that we need in our paper. I had asked her another question about the requirements for our paper and it was because she had said that we could not use the word you or use conjunctions. So that is when my question came to mind that how can we write a paper without the word you in it, and that is when she answered me to direct the word you to whoever the audience is and substitute that answer with the word you.

Facebook;Myspace

Today we went to the computer class and made a myspace and facebook account if we did not have one already. While we were making our accounts we also were able to add people that were in our class so we can have our classmates as our friends. I have had a myspace since I was about 14 in middle school. To me making a facebook was about the same as making a myspace but there was some differences and similarities. I have only seen myspace evolve but then again I would not even be able to recognize if facebook has been evolved because I do not know how facebook was before. The main thing that I like about myspace rather then facebook is because on myspace you can make a profile yours and by me saying yours I mean you can decorate it any way you want or just make it reflect you, you can also put a profile song on your page to where when someone gets on your page you hear the song. I am not really a social networking person but the reason why I have myspace is to keep in touch with the people and friends that I already know or meet, and by being able to make my profile page mine with my personality just by looking at it I like it. Myspace also has a top friends list which you can pick how many people you want on your top and who you put on your top as well. I understand that this does cause a lot of problems with immature people when they do not understand that if you are not on someone’s top it really is no big deal. I also learned how myspace and facebook are also alike in many ways and some people think that myspace is copying facebook or facebook is copying myspace, but either or it does not really matter because at the end of the day people pick the one that they prefer. Some of the things that myspace and facebook have in common is that at the bottom they have an instant messaging thing to chat with other users on myspace or facebook. Other things also that myspace and facebook have in common are some of the apps and games that they have on their sites like some popular games called mafia wars and poker.

Dove Evolution

“Dove Evolution”. Today I saw a very interesting video and it showed a girl walking into a room with no makeup on and her hair just down and natural, as the video kept playing you start to see hair stylist and makeup artists come in and start doing her makeup and hair. As this transformation continues you see the drastic change between a beautiful natural girl and a beautiful girl. This girl of course is beautiful either way and she does look like model even without makeup because you see her natural beauty but in this video that was not enough. Even when the girl had her makeup finished and her hair extensions put on to make her hair look fuller and curlier this was still not enough. After she has already all this makeup on and her hair done they continue to make changes with her but now you see the picture that the photographers picked for his billboard but you still continue to see changes. Now this picture is being changed dramatically on the computer by making changes in her eyes by making them bigger and wider, making her neck longer and just other little details. But all these little details are changing her appearance and change the way she looks as a person; as the video still continues you see a sentence saying “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted”. To me this was a very truthful reality that kids and teenagers do not see in the modeling industry like they should. All the kids and teenagers see are the finishing touches in the magazines and on the billboards, but as I saw in the video most of the picture was edited. But the kids do not see the process t goes through and how they edit it or some do not even think it could have been edited because they just think that is the way models look because that is how people and industries try to make it seem like that is how the ideal model is supposed to look or even the ideal girl. That is why so many children and teens now and days are trying to change themselves to be like the girls in the magazines and billboards but they need to know that even those beautiful girls have been edited and changed by inappreciative people in the industry that should just be happy that they have beautiful girls to even want to model or promote their products.