I just got a text from my friend at Saint Lawrence University:

“I just saw the Midd Kid video and it made me think of you. How are you? I miss you!”

Point A: all of our social networks like facebook help link people across the country to new things like the Midd Kid video. Without the online world, the real world might not know about a video like this for a long time, or until its too late to be appreciated. But now we can send it around the world with the click of a mouse. Point B: Cell phone technology like texting allows us to all of a sudden be in touch with people that we haven’t talked to in weeks, as if no time has passed at all.

After receiving this text, I went online and told my friend Julie, via iChat, and she responded “my DAD asked me about it yesterday! Some ladies in his office were looking at it…weird. i know.”

This article reminded me a lot of my first blog post, “Facebook, for better or for worse.” First of all, it’s hard to believe that someone was sitting in their college dorm room on their computer, just like me, but came up with the whole system of Facebook. Incredible. Their lives are certainly no longer the same. But then again, none of ours are. We are always in contact with each other… we always know something about someone else’s life even if we weren’t looking for it, because we have our automatic “news feed.” I for one still do not like the news feed. Zuckerberg says he created it because Facebook was primitive before it. I don’t think Facebook and Primitive can be used in the same sentence unless there’s an “is not” thrown between them.

I don’t think I join Parr’s group demanding the news feed to be scrapped, but I definitely participated in the mass panic, aroused by the site of the new news feed. I guess I’m used to it now… I know it’s going to be there, and it’s visual design has improved to make it less cluttered feeling and confusing… but still I don’t find it necessary. If I want people to see something specifically about my page, I’ll let them know. Or if I want to find out what’s going on in someone else’s life, I look them up. I think the news feed adds to what makes Facebook such a good tool for procrastination. You can’t just go on and check if you have a message specifically for you… Instead you are given a page with hundreds of highlights, which drag you to other people’s pages even though you didn’t REALLY go on to do that. Also, as I talked about in my first Facebook blog and the Times article also mentions, is how Facebook can prolong relationships that need to fizzle out. The ex boyfriend. Facebook just allows bad relationships to end worse, because you can continue to play games and flaunt new budding relationships to the people of your past.

It is interesting to think about the point made, that Facebook actually may make us know ourselves better, or at least be more conscious of who we are. We constantly see how we are displayed in our profile and by what other people say about us, and we choose what we want to be shown and what not. But then, are we really becoming aware of who we are? Or just creating that electronic “avatar” of who we WANT to be?

Facebook has gotten to the point where it really does take over many of our lives, not just at the computer screen. When we’re out at parties or on a vacation, so many teens take photography’s strictly with Facebook in mind. They may even

It is scary to think that even if you finally get away from Facebook yourself and delete your account, you are still being defined by others in the Facebook community. They will still be there putting up pictures with you in them, and you won’t be “around” to see what they are.

I caught on to Facebook much faster than I am catching on to twitter. It seems that many people feel that way, and hate twitter at first. I can see though how it would be useful as a tool for finding answers to questions. I’ve already done that when I had a question about our paper project. I figured Professor Mittell was likely to receive a tweet alert on his phone, in his pocket, most all the time… So I tweeted and let him know I emailed with a question. Five minutes later, I had a response from him! But then back to the beginning again… I don’t feel the need to update people on what I’m doing throughout the day, nor do I feel the need to know what other people are doing. I still rarely use my Facebook “status” unless it’s to say something like, “home for break,” something of a longer duration

Okay. It’s time to admit that… for a long time I didn’t know that anyone could edit Wikipedia pages. AKA – I really had no idea what Wikipedia was all about, or why professors wouldn’t accept it as a citable source. Obviously I never paid attention to the tag line under the logo, “the free encyclopedia, THAT ANYONE CAN EDIT.” I’m realizing through this class that there is a lot about the Internet that I don’t know, even though I use it more frequently than any other technology. I may be using the internet at a very basic level, mistaking my vast amount of time spent on it, for my real understanding of it.

Now I am officially an editor of Wikipedia. I searched for “Lacrosse” and found a Wiki page full of information about lacrosse history, the differences between the men’s’ and women’s’ game, youth lacrosse, college and international lacrosse, and more. I decided to read the section about women’s lacrosse, since that’s what I know most about, and found an area I could add to. When I first read the page, it talked about differences from men and women’s lacrosse, mainly being about the physical contact of the sport – women can’t hit check each other’s bodies – only sticks – whereas men can slash each other’s bodies with their sticks. I added a tidbit about the fact that the fields are also lined differently for men’s and women’s lacrosse.

When we talked last week about editing a Wiki page I was not keen on the idea. For whatever reason I don’t feel confident posting my own knowledge on the web, knowing that other people might look it up and take it as fact. Even though I know what I said is a fact and would verbally tell anyone who asked about lacrosse, it made me question myself when I typed it and had to click “save page.” I think it was like Shirky said, that somehow the act of writing something down makes that something become a FACT in other people’s eyes. I’m talking in circles now, because I just said that what I wrote WAS a fact… hmm. I think another piece of it is that once I’ve become a part of something like this, COOPERATING with the online community of Wikipedia, some element of what goes on “behind the scenes” is taken away, and it no longer seems as true and real. It’s kind of like, when you hear about cast parties with Hollywood stars – then you go to one, and realize it’s actually not all that fantastic. It’s kind of just like a college party but with grown-ups and wanna be’s, and the drinks are in nicer glassware, (okay, yeah. It’s pretty cool too). Anyway, I hope my point maybe makes a little sense. Maybe not? I didn’t add that much to the page… really just a couple of sentences. So my edits probably aren’t that important to the larger project as of now. HOWEVER. Maybe my tidbit will encourage someone else to expand on the point I’ve raised. Maybe I’ll go back to Wikipedia and add some more details about the women’s lacrosse playing field, or maybe I’ll mention it on the discussion page and hope someone else can do the writing after I’ve provided the idea… then maybe I’ll Wikipedia how to put an image on a Wikipedia page. Ah, the never ending cycles of the internet…

Will I ever have to “grow up,” move out, and really be forced to do things on my own? Sure I’ll move out and live away from my parents…i’m already doing that… but will I REALLY have to do all of those “grown up” things on my own like our parents had to?

As Shirky and Mittell point out, it’s not really the changes in technology that matters, but it’s that new technology removes obstacles, allowing new social behaviors. THAT’S what matters. Right now I’m applying for various summer jobs and internships. With just my laptop, I’ve been able to type up my resume and cover letters and submit them all across the country via e-mail. Not only that, but I’ve been able to send drafts and revisions back and forth with my mom. We finally realized that instead of e-mailing drafts numerous times for slight changes, we could just use the screen sharing application on iChat! From 321 miles away, my mom was able to actually see my computer screen, read the current draft I was working on, and then make corrections herself. We could talk to each other  as well. Technology made it so easy for my mom to help me create my digital resume – I may not need to learn how to do these things on my own. No matter where I am, it seems like I’ll always be able to have Mommy by my side for some extra help.