ashleah04-blog - Tumblr blog

[ashleah04-blog]

to answer your first question, i have all my sources and a darn good thesis but I am having serious writers block for the body.... :/ I think your question about social media causing the next generation to be socially awkward is an interesting one! I think the answer could be a chicken or egg conundrum. For instance it is said that home schooled children are socially inept because of their isolation. I know (because i was home schooled) that it depends more on the child. Is the child being home schooled because he/she is already socially isolating and awkward or is the homeschooling the cause.... are social media prone children doing it because its hard to fit in in person or because they simply can?

Hey there girls! Last blog post this week! How are your final projects coming?

Anyway, This weeks topic is one of interest to me because I spend so much time online and not with people throughout the school year especially. As it is approaching finals, I find that my few moments to socialize are...

[ashleah04-blog]

I didn’t grow up with social media available so I am finding my perspective on it to be a little odd...I suppose it seems like a chore to me to put stuff on social media and so it just doesn’t happen. I think It is more entertaining to have stuff to read or watch so its a filler not something I plan to do. I guess what i am saying is I don’t understand how it causes feelings of any kind. It was interesting in the article and again in your post to see a completely different view on the matter.

I think this discussion is super interesting. The idea behind social media sites is to help connect and bring people together. And at a first glance, it seems to have done just that. personally, it allows me to talk to people I barely get to see. In addition, I can see statuses and photos of those...

[ashleah04-blog]

Last week...

I do feel a connectedness from my social media activity. I am not all that interested in social media thus I only use Face book, and only have close friends and family as connections there. I have found that it is helpful for keeping up on the lives of my friends who have scattered to well… everywhere… and every once in a while when I have some awesome bit of news to share I will do so and enjoy the comments. I am not on face book regularly and I have noticed that when my friends are too invested in face book they become frustrated that I don’t comment enough or like their posts. I do see how, if it is the goal to have lots of followers, likes, and comments, it would be easy to be depressed after spending time in social media and discovering no success. I have found that when by friends on face book are getting depressed or frustrated with lack of feed-back it has more to do with how things are off line. It seems that taking out their frustration online is less harmful than blowing up on their families. When I actually notice grumpy posts (‘cause I can be oblivious) I usually go the extra step and call them. I think when it comes down to it, the cause/effect isn’t directly related. It’s like my wellbeing professor says just because crime rates increase when ice cream sales go up, it doesn’t mean that ice cream causes crime. Perhaps for those who get depressed after perusing social media, are depressed for other reasons. Maybe after hours spent perusing other people’s lives they feel upset not because of social media but because they were on social media avoiding what it is that is bothering them and now must face it or find another distraction… like more social media…!!! If you haven’t seen this you gotta!

[ashleah04-blog]

It really makes me wonder what sort of person would record every phone call... i find the lack of privacy to be creepy! i am in agreement about your scrap-booking idea. It is an ART! Not everyone can and wants to do it but the digital camera is very accessible and convenient. I am intrigued by your comment that you miss having physical photos. I have watched as the ones i have of my parents and grandparents have faded and yellowed and i am grateful that the digital pictures I’ve made will never do so and printing them today is just a matter of owing a color printer. Is it the physical pictures you miss or the communal sharing of precious memories? or am i just completely missing it?

Reading the first article about lifelogging, I had to laugh a little. I’ve never heard of the term or practice and it just seems so ridiculous to me. I’m pretty “with it” technologically; I have an iPhone and mac, use the “cloud” and am on many social media outlets. However, the idea of literally...

[ashleah04-blog]

I am in agreement with the self destructing chat. If i want to post something its because I want to see the feedback. Do you agree that scrap-booking is more an art form today than it is record keeping?

I’m not really much of a lifelogger other than posting pictures of my family and friends to facebook. However, I do think it is a good idea! I think it is really cool that some people can make a living writing about their lives on a blog or ‘vlogging’ their lives with a camera. In fact, I watch...

[ashleah04-blog]

Week 13 Sarah’s week

Reading the two articles for this discussion really reminded me of the movie starring Robin Williams called the Final Cut… I remember sitting in that movie with the same internal conflict that these articles caused. I like my privacy! But I also like to remember what it was like to hold my children for the first time; the feeling of my first kiss and all the home comings when despite all odds my marine was returned to me mostly intact…. But then again, I don’t want all my ugly moments caught on tape either. How awful to have to share your honeymoon with strangers or to have that embarrassing first aunt flow visit on the record for anyone to revisit…

I do think that scrap-booking, as a way to keep memories of family events, is slowly dying today it’s more a form of art. Today digital scrap-booking is how it’s done. All my life I have moved from place to place (with the longest time between moves being about 4 years…) so, I learned to toss everything ‘cept what I really needed. I have a tiny box that is sitting on my desk as I type with the few pictures that I hoarded from before the wonderful invention of a digital camera… It is much easier to just have everything on iCloud or a backup hard drive. The information is easily accessed and so portable it’s ridiculous…(My over 700 book library can be carried in my pocket!) I will never again have to go to the book store and order another copy of my favorite book because I accidentally dropped it in the bathtub. To me life logging seems to be a digital hording problem…. I can picture future reality tv shows where I.T. specialists are slogging through someone’s life logging information to try and make sense of it and assist in weeding out the things that aren’t necessary. (ok maybe not but still!) and that isn’t even considering how much easier it would make identity theft!  As for the self-destructing media… I think its name is apt but not in the way intended; it can be self-destructing behavior (especially in teens…)! I don’t believe there will ever be a way to truly keep information that is sent between people in digital media private. The internet is forever and the nature of the internet is what keeps it that way. I don’t think I am a life logger… I’m more of a victories logger and I am not a snap chatter but then again I wasn’t a blogger till this semester ether.

[ashleah04-blog]

I'm kinda wondering if perhaps the punishment for this sort of thing doesn't fit the crime. Are companies like Disney perusing to sue and get money back or to be acknowledged? Isn't it a good thing to have your music advertised in small clips everywhere?The original goal of this sort of law is so you credit where it's due and don't profit from someone else's hard work.... So when an infringement occurs shouldn't it be that instead of paying huge sums of money one should give the credit to the original owner and pay Only the profits gained if there were profits on exact copies!!!...??? Advertise for the original person and give partial credit when you borrow an idea or "feel"......if it's accidental then fix it, credit them, and move on. As for legal fees....I'm stumped but I'm sure there's a solution other than making the looser pay everything (making this sort of thing an enticing business decision for lawyers....?I dunno...)

The case of the song blurred lines, really does have blurred lines because it is really hard to know what really happened.

Despite the song being really sexist and sort of rude to men who know how to control themselves, if these guys really did violate copyright of a Marvin Gay song, they can…

[ashleah04-blog]

True originality can only happen in a vacuum.

I have an aunt who is a gifted pianist. When I was a child (can’t remember how old but less than 10) she entered in to a commonwealth music competition and made it all the way through but lost at the end. I have a clear memory of eating cookies in the kitchen on the day she came home and listening to her tell how the girl who won had stolen her song. The piece the girl submitted for the final judgement incorporated a refrain from my aunt’s song. My aunt was furious and frustrated that her work was used to tweak the other woman’s song and that the result was first prize. I remember thinking that it was wrong of someone to copy my aunt and then take credit. I have discussed in the past how it is difficult in art to feel confident that one’s work is solely their own, and thinking about music, I can see how difficult it would be to produce something that wouldn’t be an infringement on someone else as well. In the case of my aunt I believe if she would have sought legal assistance she would have come out the victor. The musical score she submitted in the initial part of the competition could have been compared to the end result of the other musicians score and the matching part would be straight cut infringement of intellectual property. The verdict for “blurred lines” however, sets a terrifying precedent for all musicians. Many songs sound similar and if similarity is all that is required for winning a law suit on copyright infringement then we will find many more similar lawsuits.

[ashleah04-blog]

I whole heartedly agree with your idea that it is important for us to immerse ourselves in other cultures to lessen our bias from ignorance. I found it intriguing that you looked at bias from a cultural ignorance point of view and loved your picture of how bias effects gossip! Sooooo true!

The Power of Emphasis, Word Choice, and Bias

The idea for this weeks blog was super interesting. In the first couple weeks of this course we discussed the power of information, how we attain information and how we perceive the information we learn about. Because information is so palpable and available in our culture, it is important for us to notice the power that the information providers have on the information receivers. 

The article we read exemplifies how different the same event can be received by the public depending on how the reporters choose to headline their stories. Was the car crash a terrorist attack or simply a bad driver making a fatal mistake? It is pretty much up to the reporter to decide that! This reminds me of grade school and high school with gossiping. If someone got in trouble for saying a bad word in class, that information is passed on through the whole class, changed, distorted, and altered based on the next person’s understanding and biases. By the time the news was done circulating, the person who got in trouble didn’t get in trouble for saying “damn” in class, but got expelled because they cussed out the instructor. 

Biases play a large roll in the distribution of news around the world, also. Biases based on religion, culture, and location are all major contributors. This is why news in Europe about the US presidential election is often really different than it is in the states. I think because of this, it’s important for all of us to improve our cultural competence, learn about others’ backgrounds and ethnicities. Maybe this way, we may be able to eliminate some of the biases we carry around and will be able to both deliver and take in a more complete picture of what really happened. Let’s all try to learn in order to eliminate some ignorance and improve our understanding and ability to synthesize. 

[ashleah04-blog]

Hi Sarah, I loved your picture... I am still laughing about it! I do not believe there are any news sources that are un-biased.... I also don't think that it is always intentional when news is biased. For example when the Olympics are being shown. When in the US it's pretty much a guarantee that the US athletes will be followed. Other athletes are shown but we all know how the U.S. Is doing. It's different when I go home to Canada.... As you can imagine the Canadians follow their athletes.... Also, It is human nature to form an opinion about everything and communication is never 100% effective in its interpretation.... I think that being aware of bias allows us to better consider our words and how they may be understood by our targeted reader, and to leave it open so that our reader knows there is more information out there to be found. What do you think?

Week Ten Post- Ashleah’s Week

I find this weeks article on news sources presenting bias very interesting. I like to try and find bias in my news sources to make sure that what I’m reading is not biased.

I know that most things are biased. For example, people who are “pro-life” may describe people who describe themselves as “pro-choice” as “anti-life”, which sounds much more negative. Or someone who is “pro-choice” may describe someone who is not as “against women”. In both cases, regardless of what is true (if that can even be determined) the people on both sides are trying to make the other side look like they are doing something bad or wrong.

In this article, where headlines are reported differently and corrected by various news sources, there are some sensitive issues. News sources don’t want to seem like they are against Israeli people and think they are terrorists, but they also want to report the truth (At least I hope they do). In doing this, they basically lied to their audience and misconstrued the news as less of a big deal than it was. In trying to be sensitive to the issue of terrorism, they called it an “accident” which is not correct either. Simply because you tell the truth does not mean that you are reinforcing stereotype, people will make their decisions about what they believe based on what they know . If all anyone knows is biased news they will believe something without ever hearing the other side of a story and that is really irresponsible journalism.

Do you guys think there are any news sources that don’t display any bias? I think that would be nearly impossible.

[ashleah04-blog]

I absolutely agree with your ideas on children I am sorry that my comment didn't express properly what I was meaning. When I said as a whole what I should have said was in a mass... When (and this isn't just for kids its adults too) children are a part of a crowd it is easier for them to feel faceless. When facelessness happens all that is required to push someone over the line of what they normally find acceptable is a strong suggestion and someone starting the action. This is another phenomenon often documented when crowds riot.... Basically I believe it is important to show children that they are never faceless wether it be on the Internet, in a group of friends, or in a mass of people. I hope this is a better explanation. Lemme know if you still disagree.

WOW! This week’s articles were a plethora of new ideas for me. I have been aware of cyber bullying as my little sister-in-law was a victim but I wasn’t fully aware of how prevalent the problem is. I grew up in a time when the internet was in its beginning fazes… I remember chat rooms and how…

[ashleah04-blog]

Hi Amber! I am whole heartedly in on storming the academic world and requiring that only 1 (O-N-E!) format for citations be used! I also amend that this format should be EASY to read, understand, and use to find that research paper! I also think we can state that the consequences for not adhering to our new regime should be immediate banishment from the academic world!

Oh how I hate citations! Citations are such a nightmare for me! I find them very frustrating and no matter how hard I work on them, I just can’t get them right.

I think citations are very important and I see the relevance of them. I know if they weren’t required, people would just copy other...

[ashleah04-blog]

see/ hear /speak/ post no evil

WOW! This week’s articles were a plethora of new ideas for me. I have been aware of cyber bullying as my little sister-in-law was a victim but I wasn’t fully aware of how prevalent the problem is. I grew up in a time when the internet was in its beginning fazes… I remember chat rooms and how (depending on the group of people on at the time) they could be fun or a full-out, rage inducing, screaming fest! I know for a lot of my friends, this took up a lot of their evening. There wasn’t the opportunity for a bully, in such a situation, to follow you around. As I learned how to use the internet and interact with information online I have found that my natural personality usually guides my actions just as if I were talking to someone in person. Being respectful and uplifting will always be my go-to actions for communication and interactions (unless we are talking about something that isn’t directly about people).

“Treat others as you would have them treat you” is what I was taught about life and internet relationships and is what I teach my children. Children are who they are no matter what the circumstances. The children who are insecure and have difficulty understanding social interactions are more likely to be the ones who are cyber-bullied and to be cyber bullies themselves. Kids as a whole are mean (not necessarily individually though) and I can see how their egocentric ideas spewed out online can cause a hostile environment for their peers. I have never been of the opinion that my children should have free reign with the internet and I would come down hard on my kids if I found them being inappropriate online just as hard as if I found it in their face to face relationships. I believe that when It comes to cyber-bullying it is the same old problem of too much freedom for children on the internet as it was before Facebook when we were more focused on child predators and accidental (or intentional) porn. I have also read a lot of articles and seen songs and poems devoted to convincing people to put down their mobile devices and join in with the “reality” of ones surroundings (the irony of their popularity in social media has not escaped my attention). I have spent a good time afterwards feeling guilty about my time spent in “the cyber-hole.” I have participated in the “keep it in the pants” conversation and on many occasions have demanded that someone “whip it out” to answer an argument! It is a very provocative idea that social media doesn’t draw us away from the world we are in but instead causes us to detail the moments we find important and want to share. I do believe that the author of the second article is missing part of the point though. It seemed to me that she was trying to show that we are more aware of our surroundings because we are doing our best to share those “real” moments with everyone else. I agree that we are highlighting our time to share with others however when your mind is on social media you aren’t truly in the moment.

Take a look at combat photographers for example. It is a documented phenomenon that even though combat photographers are in the same type of situations as other military members, they suffer less PTSD symptoms. My theory is that when you are experiencing a situation through a “lens” your mind isn’t processing the emotions attached to the reality of what is happening around you. One becomes focused on how you want others to see, feel, understand, and (fill in the blank)… the documentation of your moment. I still argue that social media is an escape of a sort. When life is too real it is easy to escape into another’s words or life and not focus on what is really important. Or the reverse. Something has really snagged and emotion and you want to support your feelings about it so you fling your crap at your wall and hope for the janitor to come along.....For children this becomes an even bigger problem because they are like small drunk people. Their perspective on what is important and what is not is skewed and without the experience and maturity to reign in their words, thoughts, and actions the new world becomes more interesting, so they want to stay, and yet the potential for hostility is limitless.  Geez sorry about the length… interesting topic!

[ashleah04-blog]

I agree! Sometimes ethics is a grey line... The problem is (especially with art) even when you think your work is original someone will be upset by it because they think your ideas are too similar to theirs... So the question becomes when can we choose to publish our own work as original and what are the guidelines we need to meet to ensure our ideas haven't been borrowed or influenced... Because everything we think and do is influenced by others and if we say that it's ours because we cant remember who's ideas we are building off of and don't give them credit are we being unethical or lazy?.... And at what point does it become prosecutable?

Ethics

When I think of ethics I think of it in terms of my nursing. To be ethical as a nurse is to keep patient information private, to perform my duties in such a way that it puts the needs of my patients first, and to consider the whole picture of said patients life (religion, culture, preferences, family interactions, patient wishes etc.) when providing teaching, care, or administering treatments. I have also considered ethics in terms of my artistic pursuits.

As an artist ethics are viewed in the same light as they are with writing. Plagiarism is a HUGE problem with artists and it is easy to find resources that point out different ways of infringing on another artists intellectual property. I have spent many days staring at my pieces and wondering if I have crossed the line in some way and this is why most of my art work is still sitting on a back shelf somewhere because I have deemed it not entirely my own work.

The article that we read for this week “Writing for Publication: Avoiding Common Ethical Pitfalls.” reaffirmed the anxieties that I have about writing and publication. As with my art it is hard not to imagine all the possible ignorant mistakes I may have done that make my work unethical and harder not to allow those thoughts to hold me back from the recognition my hard work deserves.

There is one more thought that occurred to me as I read this article and is nagging at my knotted anxiety ridden gut…. How often do I write, make art, or even educate using information that I have taken directly from someone else and commit an ethical infringement simply because I have forgotten the source? Sometimes these thoughts make me want to remain uneducated so I can just be ignorant of all my failings because the alternative means sleepless nights and reluctant mornings.

[ashleah04-blog]

You make a lot of good points! We are SO dependent on the Internet today being "off the grid" is next to impossible unless one leaves society all together! As for cyber bulling you caused me to have an epiphany! You are so right! It does follow our youth around wether it be positive, negative or in between its that little annoying fluff that you can't pull off your favorite sweater.....For good or ill it's here to say and the impact is huge!

Jumping On and Off the Line

With the breakthrough, and ultimate enhancing of the internet, our online and offline practices have fluctuate exponentially. Though the birth of the internet happened prior to the birth of me, I can imagine how many people became excited to learn about this new tool of information. Millennials have increased their usage, and it is rather scary. I see 7 year olds walking around with the new iPhone 6 Plus! That thing is like as big as their body. But at the same time this is going on, there is a huge portion of people who are, like the article said, idealizing the idea of remaining “offline”, like offline really exists in our culture.. Yeah right. I feel like this has a lot to do with being hipster and different and starting a new trend. Being vintage and catching people’s eye with your individuality is very popular right now.

In this class we talk a lot about how the internet is a good tool for gaining and learning new information. However, with many tools, if used in a different way, can have the capability and capacity to ensue detrimental effects. Cyberbullying is a HUGE problem today. I have been a victim, as well as many people I know. The description that the article gave is really spot on. The difference between online bullying (cyberbullying) and offline bullying is that one you can actually get away from! If you’re in elementary school and someone is pushing you and calling you a butthead, you can simply go home and get away from it. But if someone is attacking you online, there’s no escape. Especially with smartphones, or “pocket computers” like the article said, the on line world follows you everywhere you go. This is extremely meaningful because although no physical harm is done with cyberbullying, it could lead others to want to hurt the individual, or encourage the victim towards self harm or suicide. It is important to note that much of this bullying is done in childhood and emerging adulthood, where friendships and peers are of high importance. Most individuals have a desire to be accepted by those around us, so when someone is bullying you in a way in which everyone you know and want approval from can see, it hurts that much more. 

When I was in middle school, I moved to a new place. In the first few months I was there I got an MSN Messenger IM from someone I knew of, but had never met in person, who told me the moles on my face were ugly and I “should just cut them off, or better yet, just cut my whole head off.” That really hurt me, and being depressed already, made me want to do just what they said. This provides another important thing to consider that people don’t really know what others are going through. The “weird quiet guy in the back” could be dealing with a death of a family member, or could be being abused at home. You never know, so it’s best to be silent and reflect on what judgments you may or may not be voicing. 

[ashleah04-blog]

Ok so self plagiarism is breaking my brain... Plagiarism it self is so daunting!

Ethics Schmethics?

The article for this week was a good way to inform, educate and caution our selves in a reflective manner. The ethics of writing, citing and publishing research papers has always been a subject in every class I’ve taken, but always been redundant to me. I feel like I’ve learned the same things over and over again: don’t plagiarize, don’t paraphrase (instead restate), and don’t turn in the same article twice (aka self plagiarism). 

I was a little discouraged to see this article because I thought it was just going to be the same thing that I’ve had drilled into my brain all these years. However, I actually learned something new, and gained new insight into my writing practices! Yay!

Something new I learned was about authorship. I knew that authors were ordered based on the amount of input and work they put into the article or project. However, I never really understood how competitive it can be. It really surprised me that papers can be thrown out because the authors couldn’t agree on the order. Being the first name is hugely important. If you happen to be that person and there are two or more other authors who worked on the paper with you, when in text citing, only your name will be mentioned (ex: Walton et al., 2015). You will become the most recognizable name for others in your field, so I can completely understand where the competitive nature is coming from. It had just never crossed my mind just how competitive it can become.

In addition to learning something new, I was also able to reflect on my own practices. I feel like I have a pretty sturdy knowledge base on the correct way in which to cite, rephrase, etc. However, I think something I need to make sure I am aware of is whether or not I self plagiarize. It seems like it could get very exhausting to have to keep track of all the original ideas I’ve come up with from previous research papers. I like the idea the article gave of keeping track of insights I have had, so I can avoid possibly plagiarizing myself later on.

[ashleah04-blog]

It was a surprise to me that one has to cite your own work... Never thought of that one and it's easy to think that the info is yours so why do I need to cite I'm already taking credit....*mind blown*

Week Eight Post- Ethics in Research

Hi Ladies! I’m so sorry for the late post, because of spring break I went home to my parents house and they have pretty poor internet so I haven’t been able to get my post to upload till now. (No excuses, I know I know! :)) Anyway, I hope you all had a good spring break!

This week’s article is interesting to me because ethics is not always black and white. Sometimes it is hard to determine people’s motives behind the things they do, so looking at someone’s bibliography doesn’t always paint the clearest picture of their thinking process in citing what they did. However, there are some things that are pretty obvious mistakes that could cost people their careers. 

I think citation errors are sometimes hard to avoid, but if you have someone check them and try to be as meticulous as possible they are somewhat avoidable. For beginners (like me!) it is hard to cite things properly in different formats. It is always my least favorite part of writing a paper because I always make mistakes and mix up the different formats. However in my feedback on worksheet two from Scott he gave me these links to try and do a little better so here those are if any of you have similar problems:

Using Google Scholar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrDfg8o90S0

Using Zotero: http://zotero-manual.github.io/zotero-manual/citations#citations-bibliographies-and-more

I recently read about a student who lost some sort of research grant because he did not cite his research correctly, that would be devastating! He worked so hard for that and because of the citations all his work has been discredited. So I think that this aspect of ethics cannot be overlooked.

Second, Dual publications is another type of ethical dilemma that seems sort of to be overlooked because why would someone report the same thing even though someone else already did? The article states that the main issue with dual publications is “justice”. If someone did all the work, someone else does not get to claim it. This is similar to citations to me because if something is not cited or is cited incorrectly that is sort of like claiming the work for yourself. Do you all agree? 

Some of these types of ethical dilemmas in research I had not considered before, or maybe considered their severity? I feel like I have a better understanding of how to avoid error in research now! do you all feel similarly?