Spence Blog Post # 5

                The overall argument that the author is trying to portray in this article is that social networking sites can preserve and culture real relationships yet promote faulty relationships based on a person’s narcissism.

                The intended audience for the New Atlantis would be people who have at least an interest of the science implemented in modern technology. The audience that Christine Rosen does not intend to write for is the older folks that are not into social networking sites. Given that the article uses social sciences to back up the human interactions on social networking sites would be an example of how the articles of the New Atlantis are formulated. Since the article is written by Christine Rosen, senior editor of the New Atlantis, this isn’t her first article so she knows how to properly compose an argumentative article. The article that Rosen wrote is biased because argumentative articles are supposed to support one main point over the other. Rosen’s particular bias was that although social networking sites preserves relationships made in the real world, the social networking sites also promote narcissism of a person.

The evidence that the Rosen uses to support her claims are the different ways to interact and friend people on various social networking sites for the reader to understand how social networking sites work. She talks about how social networking sites are becoming big booming businesses by the amount of registered users on MySpace which is over 100 million users and how much Rupert Murdoch bought out MySpace for $580 million. She also cites NBC’s Dateline about how a police officer posed as a 19 year old boy and found out where the girls involved in the experiment lived and their names to inform readers about the danger of posting information online.

Overall, I agree with everything that Rosen has stated about social networking sites in general. I believe that social networking sites can maintain relationships with people that I haven’t seen in person in years. I also believe that social networking sites are promoting narcissism online due to a person having to create their own little space of information that is related in some way to a person him or herself.

Spence Blog Post #4

1.       The advertisement that I have selected is the commercial for the original copy of Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) that was released back in 1986.

2.       The advertisement for the video game Legend of Zelda starts off with a nerdy kid and a rebel jock sitting on the couch, looking through the Nintendo newsletter. The rebel jock sees some screenshots of the Legend of Zelda and wants to play the game. Luckily, the nerd has a copy of the Legend of Zelda so the jock will be able to play this game. After the Legend of Zelda has been placed in the cartridge slot, these kids start rapping about what sorts of adventures that the viewer can expect while playing this game. After the clips of some intense sword swiping, dungeon crawling action have been shown while the jock plays the game, a screenshot of the NES and a copy of Legend of Zelda appears. The announcer states that kids should ask their parents to help them hook up their NES before playing the Legend of Zelda. Also the announcer states that the NES and the Legend of Zelda are sold separately to let the viewer know that Legend of Zelda isn’t going to come with the NES in a package deal.

3.       The ways that the advertisement tries to gain the audience’s attention is mainly through the catchy rap that the kids in the commercial recite.

4.       The rhetoric appeal of ethos is satisfied in the commercial through the clips of gameplay that occurs in the Legend of Zelda to allow the viewer what to expect while playing this game. The appeals of pathos and logos are satisfied by the kids explaining the viewer about Legend of Zelda through rap and exclamations from the kids about how intense the gameplay was to prove that if you want to be as cool as the kids in the commercial and experience exciting adventures beyond your wildest dreams, you got to own a copy of the Legend of Zelda. The kind of desires that this advertisement uses is youthfulness and the sense of adventure.

5.       The target audience for this particular advertisement is intended for kids and young adults. The aim for the advertisement is proven not only by the catchy rap that kids are supposed to find hip, but during the end of the advertisement, the announcer states that the viewer should ask their parents to hook their NES up to play The Legend of Zelda.

6.       Since the audience is obviously kids and young adults, the advertisement assumes that these kids have the attention span of a goldfish and can by sway into wanting a toy or game from one ad to the next. So by showing clips of exhilarating gameplay from the Legend of Zelda and the rap that explains that actions that main character (Link) must perform to achieve success in this game, the viewers would remember that this product long after the advertisement is finished.

7.       The images of Link slicing up his enemies with sword provide the viewer a sense of action and the images of Link roaming around the field and exploring dungeons provide the view a sense of adventure. Thus, the viewer will associate Legend of Zelda as a game that provides the rush of adventure that a kid would want which will compel kids to buy this game.

8.       The medium that I have seen the advertisement on is on YouTube, but the ad was originally aired on television during the year of 1986. Television was the way to advertise video games during the 80’s due to viewers actually seeing what to expect of the gameplay that a game offers, and other mediums at the time could not do what the television can.

In-Class Writing Assignment #4

                The images that are being used on the Virginia Tech homepage are usually some sort of accomplishment that had happened during the week such as the robotics team celebrating their victory in the robotics competition followed by images of various students using computers. All of the images featured in the slideshow graphic in the middle of the Virginia Tech website reinforce the idea of Virginia Tech being a university that focuses on modern technology and research of technology. Also the images featured in the slideshow of pictures in the middle of the Virginia Tech webpage reinforce the one of Virginia Tech’s slogans which is “Invent the Future” as all of these pictures feature students using computers and other sorts of modern technology as the workforce is in constant need of skillful computer workers. The background image of the website is a picture of the Virginia Tech campus from the outside which makes the Virginia Tech campus to be appealing learning environment for college applicants. The colors of the website are mostly orange and maroon which are the official school colors that represent Virginia Tech as well as the occasional pale blue. The navigational system is on the left sidebar which will allow you to find the information about each topic that you click on and I find navigating the Virginia Tech website to be straightforward and not confusing as each piece of information is within its appropriate place. Virginia Tech’s website’s main audience is not only for students that are enrolled in Virginia Tech but for incoming applicants that are applying for colleges and universities to enroll in for further education. As for me, I am perfectly fine with how the Virginia Tech’s website looks and functions, so I wouldn’t change the format of the website as of right now.

Spence Blog Post #3

                In Eli Pariser’s introduction of his book “The Filter Bubble”, he explains how Google has personalized users’ search results since the December of 2009. This means that Google does not standardize all search results for every person when they type a topic or issue in the Google search engine. I have decided to test the personalization of Google by typing muse in the Google search engine. The reason why I have type the word muse into the Google search engine was that muse was one of my favorite words and also the name of one of my favorite bands as well. The results that had appeared top to bottom were the band Muse’s official webpage, the Wikipedia page of the band Muse, and thirdly the Wikipedia page of the Muses which were the nine goddesses in Greek mythology who control and symbolize nine types of art known to ancient Greece. The list of results made sense to me as I often go on the official webpage and Wikipedia page of the band Muse to see the latest news on their music and when and where concerts will be held, though the Muses and Greek mythology are of little interest to me at the moment.

                When I ask my friend Chris to search for the term muse on Google, the exact top three results were the same. Although Chris has never even heard of the band of Muse or listened to their music before, I am not all that surprised at the same results that had turned up for both of us. The term muse isn’t a term that is used often, and the Muses are not as big household names for the general public as Greek goddesses such as Athena and Aphrodite. To further prove the legitimacy of these results the band Muse are relatively popular throughout the world and have even won a Grammy for best rock album. Thus the search results makes sense as the band Muse is the most relevant reference to the general public’s interests when the public thinks of the world.

                Individualized search is not a disadvantage for Internet users in terms of short term usage, however in terms of long term usage, individualized search makes the formation of new interests about topics and issues more difficult. The difficulty of learning new material while on the Internet is due to personalizing the information that we have at a certain time of our lives. From one day to the next, our information and interests could change gradually with time, thus who we are now is not going to be who we are in the future. The knowledge distribution would be slanted toward our interests and our opinions on a certain issue so that there will be less encountering on articles that provide an opposing opinion to ours.  The Internet is a space for free knowledge and ideas it’s just that personalization would make search for free information and knowledge would make searching easier or harder depending on what you are looking for.

Spence Blog Post #2

In this new, globalized, and digital savvy world that we know as 21^st century Earth, the Internet plays a larger and more involved role in the lives of digital natives known as the millennials or the net generation. As this new generation is becoming the new faces of the workforce for first world countries all over the world, many people have questions about the amount of productivity, creativity, and morals that the millennials will provide such as Robert Carr questioning the Internet for a sloppy research ethic. Of course, these values can be easily translated and understood in the digital world and the numerous articles, blogs, and videos about certain topics such as politics can have elements of productivity for the amount of work proving a political issue, creativity with how the opinion is presented, and a person’s own sense of morals as what drives a person to take a particular stance on a certain political issue. So Carr’s assumptions of the Internet providing an ease of researching is true as the sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube provide any individual the opportunity to voice their own opinions about issues they actually care about and researched thoroughly about these issues as it coincides with their own interests and beliefs. The concepts of what it means to work diligently on an issue have been translated from files of paper placed in cabinets to online files stashed in a computer’s hard drive. However the Internet not only is for voicing the opinions of individuals, there are opportunities for businesses to grow more efficiently to accommodate the new generation of digital natives. Thus as the basis of how to manage a successful business changed from olden times previous to the inventing of the Internet and how businesses are managed with the digital technology, the education must adapt to incorporate digital technology into the education systems in schools to provide the skillset for a constant technology advancing work-in-progress that is known as the business world. These schools should teach students how to type keyboards properly and efficiently, how to use and even develop software, how to use the Internet and social networking sites to their advantage for job opportunities offered by businesses. Of course there will be the standard core classes as well as extra-curricular activities but these classes can be enhanced by digital technology. Thus even new courses can be provided such as digital art and mixing of samples of music as even new art and music are being developed through the usage of digital technologies. This world has become digital whether people like or not, the Internet isn’t leaving anytime soon.