My________

Guess who is back and better than ever? One of the original social networking sites Myspace. According to Mashable.com they rolled out at a whole new look that started today and will continue until November.

I find this to be interesting because in the back of my mind I’m constantly questioning what the heck happened to Myspace. It use to be on then Facebook blew up and it fell off. When they came out with “Social Network” about Facebook I also wondered if they were going to make a movie about Myspace. It could be titled “The Life and Death and Rebirth of a Social Network.”

Myspace will no longer contain the million templates that one could choose from. The user now has a choice of just seven templates. Do you remember when you put so many graphics on your page that it would cause it to load slowly? It was like there was some kind of race to see who could have the most random graphics, songs, displays and everything else on their one page. Their format is more of a block style so that its easier to follow what is going on in certain topics and trends.

One thing that I really like about the revamping is now they are exclusively focused on a certain group. If you’re between the ages of 13-35 then you can be on there. I say that is a good age group especially since Myspace will be much more focused on entertainment and artist rather than just being all the way random.

See, Myspace saw that they had a problem and was being out done by other social networks. They didn’t completely die off but they fixed it or accommodated to the new social media atmosphere. Most of these changes are just the tip of the iceberg and they will be continuing their changes.

Does this mean that I will go join Myspace again? Most likely not I feel over connected now and wish not to create any other accounts. I’m glad that they could accommodate and stay in the game with todays ever changing media.

I Steal and You Can Too

Hello, my name is Danelle and I illegally download and watch movies and music online. It’s really not a hard task. Come on in and let me tell you about it.


When it comes to technical, coding and hacking I guarantee you that I’m very basic at it. I was first introduced to this thing called downloading music off the internet for free a long time ago. This had to be one of the greatest inventions. No longer did I have to obtain my music legally, I could download a little program and let the sharing begin. Now don’t look at me like that, I know what you’re thinking but its okay as long as you don’t get caught right. Right?


With the way the internet is developing why not get everything for free offline? I do see the issues of downloading music offline and how it can effect that persons records sales but if we figured out a way for it to work for us, why can’t they.


Now not all of my music downloading is illegal, lately I have been using a lot of torrents. As I was reading through some of the blogs and Twitter comments I found it hilarious that some people were worried, dare I even say scared, to even use torrents. Torrents are not bad for you; they make finding and sharing music and everything else quite easier.


Okay, I have to confess I’m not really illegally downloading all this music. It’s more like file sharing and that’s better right? Right?
I don’t have an issue with the way I acquire my music. I can’t tell you the last time I bought a CD. If music artist are not doing as well in this ever growing and changing digital age then they should find a way to make it work for them.



Discussion Question:
What was your recent illegal or legal download?





And just in case…

Digital Citizenship

The importance of teaching digital citizenship.

Digital Citizenship: a concept which helps teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately. Digital Citizenship is more than just a teaching tool; it is a way to prepare students/technology users for a society full of technology. Too often we are seeing students as well as adults misusing and abusing technology but not sure what to do. The issue is more than what the users do not know but what is considered appropriate technology usage.

According to Wikipedia a digital citizen commonly refers to a person that participates in society using a certain amount of information technology (IT). To qualify for the unofficial title of digital citizen a person must have the skill and knowledge to interact with private and government organizations through means of "digital" tools such as computers or mobile phones, along with access to these devices.
People characterizing themselves as digital citizens often use IT extensively, creating blogs, use social networking and other means of modern communication.[1] Digital citizenship begins the first time any child, teen, and/or adult signs up for an email address, posts pictures online, uses e-commerce to buy merchandise online, and/or participates in any electronic function that is B2C or B2B. Parents and teachers need to start teaching children and teens at an early age about the responsibilities of being online as a digital citizen.

I’m sure most of you have heard or seen some type of news report on cyber bullying and after the recent death of a Rutgers University freshman, cyber bullying is back in the spot light brighter than ever. Bullying of course is nothing new but the internet has changed the speed of these cruel behaviors. Pictures can be taken and uploaded in less than five seconds, live streams can take place and this can go on without the person being bullied knowing.

Along with teaching children how to use the computer and internet, teachers and parents should go a bit farther and teach them digital citizenship. Just because the internet allows you free speech doesn’t mean that it should be exercised in every way. In no way am I saying that the internet should be censored but just as people “are suppose to” conduct themselves in a certain way in public they should also conduct themselves in a certain way behind the computer screen.

It is so easy to act up online and do whatever one pleases because it’s anonymous and the internet allows you to create any and every type of identity. One of my goals is to learn as much as I can about social media and networking so that I can teach and show younger generations a more positive way to participate in it. Students are being watched unknowingly and having their information broadcasted to the entire e-world and there aren’t any real consequences to doing this.

Social media has a lot of pros but to me I think the cons outweigh those pros. People are creating false accounts with cruel intentions just for the heck of it. They don’t care who they hurt and why. So this is my plea to you, teach digital citizenship, tell these kids that it’s not okay to be an online bully. It’s more than about being safe online its teaching people how to use a computer to be a fully functioning, competent and good member of the online society.

What does this have to do with emerging and new media? Cyber bullying is happening and taking place through FB, Twitter, Myspace, message boards, recorded on the cell phone, with the click of an iPad. As I said before these newhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif_hyuncompressed and quickly evolving technologies are allowing it to happen at too fast of a pace to stop it.

Start with yourself and practice digital citizenship. Who knows you could save someones life and what happened at Rutgers University will never have to happen again. The following is a link to Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship.

Discussion question:
- Do you feel that you are a responsible digital citizen and if not how can you approve your appearance in todays social network?

Time Not Spent Online...

How often should you tweet? Every few minutes? Every few days? Or maybe you tweet so infrequent that you forget that you have a Twitter account.

Being an EMAC major I feel that I should spend 22 ½ hours of the day online. Sadly, my number is far from that and this week I had a startling realization. I don’t spend enough time online or even tweeting. When I realized this I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not. I don’t even like saying it out loud. It’s a bad thing because I should be staying right on top of what is going on in the social media world. But it can be good because I’m not always in front of my screen or on my phone (even if it looks like it). And when I do get online, I check the usual email, message board, social/news websites just so I can try and keep up.

But as far as Twitter goes when I first signed up I kept forgetting that I had a Twitter account. And when I did remember I would check in and at least try to tweet some random fact. Now I actually check Twitter daily; be it from my phone or computer. I’m mainly looking to see what do certain news organizations or social sites have to say about different topics.

My main questions are: Is there a certain amount of time one should spend on the internet? I’m not looking for a specific number but more in the ballpark of (you fill in the blank). And how frequent should one tweet?

Maybe I should be the guy in this video....