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Week 14: Mobile Health

Mobile Health

For this week, I took a look at the infographic provided by the Pew Research Center (2013) that details the relationship between the internet and health. Traditionally, before the internet became the number one place to go for information, people had to rely on mainly books or healthcare professionals to seek medical and health advice. However, the internet now has some influence over the decisions people make when trying to learn about a health issue they may have.

According to a 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center (2013), 35% of adults try to diagnose a potential medical condition they may have. So even with doctors around to help us with our medical needs, it seems that a large amount of adults trust using the internet for their answers. In addition, 53% of those adults later consult with a clinician to discuss their online findings. So while adults may tend to go online for answers about their health, they still go to professionals for confirmation on what they learned online. This is a good way to integrate mobile technology into traditional methods of researching medical/health advice. This provides people with more information to absorb and trust.

Another way mobile technology improves our health is the advent of health tracking apps. These apps allow people to independently monitor their own health status and goals without having to rely on a visit to the doctors office. Seven in ten adults track their health with these apps, and mainly use them to monitor their weight, diet and exercise routine (Pew Research Center 2012). These apps give more people freedom to confidently approach their health goals independently since this method is easy and fast to learn.

Furthermore, 26% of people online read and watch other people with certain health/medical issues in the past year (Pew Research Center 2012). The internet allows us to share information that is potentially vital to people’s health, this means that we can share medical advice increasingly faster than before.

              It would be foolish to deny the usefulness of the internet and mobile tracking apps in relation to health and medical outlets. While it is still recommended for people to consult their doctor for any medical advice, the value extracted from these mobile tools greatly facilitates a world where we can be healthier and more knowledgeable.

Technology Applications

              One popular fitness app that comes to mind is MyFitnessPal which allows users to track their calorie intake, exercises, monitor their diet, and set fitness goals on their own. It is really useful for those who are motivated to tackle their health and exercise goals, especially for beginners. I personally use it to monitor my calorie intake. This really keeps me accountable to what I eat on a daily basis and allows me to easily track what I eat without having to try to recall what I ate the day before.

              Another new online service that has been gaining traction recently is Betterhelp, which is an online service that connects users to real licensed therapists. The service combines mobile technology and meeting a professional face to face, all online. This is a private and fast solution for those who seek counseling but may be too far from a licensed therapist. Also, this gives users the opportunity to seek their counseling in the comfort of the home. I’ve never personally used this service, but it seems like a good step in integrating mobile technologies into the different fields of mental health.

Course Topic

              Being aware and preserving our health (both mental and physical) is very important, but as college students, life gets really busy sometimes and it can be hard to keep track of homework, work, and our health. However, things like mobile tracking apps greatly reduce the effort required for us to keep track of our health. By learning how mobile technology has been introduced to the health sphere, we can look for others ways mobile tech can benefit other spheres of life.

Discussion Questions

1.       Do you use any health tracking apps? How have they helped you?

2.       Is there a limit to what mobile technology can do for us? Are there any boundaries that we may not want technology to cross?

3.       How much do you trust mobile technology in assessing your health?

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Week 13 Reading Response: Politics

Politics

For this week, I read the Pew Research Center article, “Activism in the Social Media Age”, by Monica Anderson, Skye Toor, Lee Rainie and Aaron Smith where they discussed how social media and political activism tie in with each other. The popularity of social media and ease of access has made ordinary people more involved in the political environment. Hashtags provide a way for everyone to see what the most important issues are, and discussion threads can facilitate a place for debate. It may seem like such as simple thing, but there is a lot of data that has been collected about social media and politics that can provide for some interesting analysis and interpretations.

There are various public attitudes towards the role of social media on politics and activism;

“Around half of Americans have engaged in some form of political or social-minded activity on social media in the past year” (Pew Research Center, 2018).

              That’s a lot of people sharing their thoughts on politics, which comes to question how often do we do this when not using social media? It can be hard, and sometimes considered rude, to discuss politics in person. The advent of social media makes discussing sensitive issues like race or gender identity, to be more comfortably discussed due to the online environment, and sometimes, anonymity.

“Roughly half of black social media users say these platforms are personally important to them when it comes to expressing their political views or getting involved with issues they feel are important” (2018).

This data suggests that there is something to be said about the differences in race of users when it comes to discussing politics online. Perhaps this presents opportunity for the masses to consider certain topics that aren’t being discussed and find solutions to prevent inequal circumstances from forming.

When it comes to getting potential politicians elected:

“Fully 69% of U.S. adults say social media is very or somewhat important for getting elected officials to pay attention to issues” (2018).

              This captures a great point about the role of social media that a majority have agreed upon; the power of social media can be used to lead attention to certain things that officials need to see. It’s difficult to arrange a meeting in-person with potential elected officials or attend a public event, however, social media provides a way for everyone to get their voices heard directly by officials themselves. This perhaps shows one of the greatest strengths that social media has in the political realm, the narrative is completely in the hands of the users, aka “the people”.

              When it comes to hashtags, there is a sense of uniformity and identity that can be used for highlighting specific issues that need attention. The #BlackLivesMatter has proven to be a consistent message online, on nearly every social media platform. This is a good example how social media facilitates the potential for growth in messages online, which can accumulate more audiences and significance.

              Another thing the Pew Research Center discussed was the “Me Too” movement. It was founded in 2006, however the #MeToo has reached masses of audiences in 2017 (Pew Research Center, 2018). Again, hashtags play a central role in creating reminders that can last as long as the users want them to. They may have several purposes, such as highlighting a single event to never be forgotten, or to provide a hope for a solution on future issues to come. Either way, they allow users to use them as a way to speak their mind and gain attention of officials and peers that are affected by the politics they live under.

Technology Applications

              Obviously, hashtags are the first thing that comes to mind when discussing politics and social media. They are so useful for highlighting a specific issue or event that needs attention. They also provide a way of discovering other users using the same hashtag, which can be useful for those who are looking for like-minded individuals to discuss with online. Hashtags make the process of discussing issues online a very streamlined process that can facilitate loads of conversation in a short duration of time.

              Reddit is a place where I often view news and see people discuss politics. It’s a discussion/forum type of website and although it isn’t necessarily seen as a social media site, there are many elements of it that resemble the way typical social media sites facilitate political dynamics. Basically, people can vote on threads that users submit, and they can discuss their opinions on different topics. The higher votes a post gets, the more people are going to view it. Since it is a discussion website, there is a bit more work that users typically put into their responses. However, like any online environment, there are also trolls that you must be aware of.

Course Topic

              Social media was once considered to be a childish past time for teens, but now it has proven itself to be a powerful tool for commanding attention on certain issues. There is a lot of value in being able to freely express your mind online and its important that people realize this in order to be more informed about the world around them. From a broader perspective, it comes to show how the application of technology can change for different uses. I never would of thought that social media would be so common for political uses now compared to how it was in the past. It’s interesting to see how the usage of certain technologies can change based on how the users want to use it.

Discussion Questions

1.       How often do you find yourself participating in political discussion on social media? Does it feel different than in person?

2.       What would you consider to be some of the major downsides of discussing politics on social media? (Trolls, hateful comments, hard to gain audience, etc.)

3.       Is Twitter the best place for political discussion? Or are there other apps/media that people should look towards for further discussion? How do they differ from one another?

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Reading Response Week 10: Journalism & Surveillance

In the article, Capturing Police Brutality? There’s An App for That, writer Jon Christian discusses the usage of smartphones and apps in the context of police encounters. The main problem Christian dissects is the common protocol for law enforcers to sort of refuse being recorded and resorting to uncivil conduct despite video recording of police being legal in most states. The article reviews several examples of citizens being unlawfully arrested for legally recording police on camera. These cases show highlight that despite the liberties that citizens have, it can be hard for those to be protected when confronted in the situation with a police officer – perhaps there is more discussion needed on this topic so that both law enforcement and citizens can understand the boundaries that they both have to prevent unnecessary misconduct.

In this digitally enhanced age, there is now a way for citizens to keep an eye out for each other and on the behavior of law enforcers. Apps like CopRecorder are designed to monitor police actions – the developers of this app, OpenWatch, state that they aren’t trying to paint the cops in a negative light but rather to collect statistical analysis. The app also records police doing good work as well.

There are also activist hacker groups that have formed, such as Lulzsec, where they release information from the government to show to their citizens. While these efforts may not be legal, the big picture serves to inform the public about what the law enforcers procedures look like on paper. The narrative of legal documents and general knowledge can sometimes be very weak between law enforcement and citizens.

It is important that government entities and citizens reach a common ground of understanding on they interact with each other, especially in police encounters. That way there can hopefully be better transparency between the interactions of police and citizens. Digital technology has come a long way in helping this vision come to fruition, and I’m sure that there will be plenty of issues that may arise from these tools, but at the same time, there is potential for technology to help everyone meet each other on equal terms.

Technology Applications

              Body cameras are on the rise, and they have served to provide a way for citizens to see the behaviors of police in a first-person view. I think this was an interesting way for providing a transparent way to survey the way police behave because it doesn’t really interfere with how police are acting in a situation, so anything that the police does cannot be blamed on someone else trying to record him/her. I believe that the body cameras must also stay on during the duration of their shift.

              I think Twitter would probably be one of the most powerful apps for journalism because you can upload an important event, such as a crime, so quickly. The tweet can be vastly shared with potentially millions of others in an instance, which makes it a great tool for any journalist or citizen that has something that needs to be shared with the public. The great thing about this is that this content could also be shared across other platforms, such as sharing a video from Twitter to Facebook or YouTube and thus reaching more people.

Course Topic

              It’s important to learn about the usefulness of technology for journalism applications, because there can be times where the law may not be protecting citizens in a lawful manner. Or there may be a story that needs to be shared or fundraising for a small charity. Technology is so advanced that a lot of justice can be served in a quicker manner compared to the past. It is important that we use the tools that we have to protect ourselves.

Discussion Questions

1.       What are some apps that you normally wouldn’t use for journalism/surveillance? Are there any common apps that we use everyday that could also be used for events such as bad police encounters?

2.       Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’ve had to digitally document something? Did you feel that it was risky? Did it help in some way?

3.       If digitally documenting an unlawful police encounter suddenly became illegal overnight, do you think that we could still have a way of documenting police in some other way?

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Reading Response Week 11: Identities

The Hastac article “I like the note because it’s so big you have to have a purse to carry it” by Amelia Acker discusses how fashion trends and social patterns integrate with the design and function of mobile phones.

The article primarily highlights some phone designs and bundles that have been marketed to women through color designs and bundles that are enticing. It was interesting that the article mentioned the gender gap involved with mobile phone subscribers/owners. They found a statistic that revealed that women were likely to account for 67% of new subscribers in the 2010s. As the world turned more digital, the need for mobile technology has become a nearly necessary requirement for better professional opportunities. And because of this bubble, phone designers and innovators have thought up of potentially new ways to market phones that fit women, or perhaps only seemingly so.

Some phone designs pay attention to simply adding colors that women tend to wear more often, such as pink. And this doesn’t just apply to the phone itself, but to other accessories as well, like the phone case and stylus. It’s important to note this because while the internal software of our devices is what give us the ability to use them, it’s sometimes easier to sell a product by making it more custom to the user. Our identities follow us during our technology shopping and we try to manifest characteristics and traits (and sometimes the expectations of society) of ourselves onto our devices.

              The article also mentions a phone and skin/hair kit bundle for women; it’s called the “Galaxy S Femme + AVEDA skin and hair kit”. It features the Galaxy S and a lotion and hair kit. Again, this just shows how our identities can be tailored to when phone marketers are selling to us. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are trying to rip consumers off, but perhaps also to make products easier for us to choose because the phone market is flooded with so many different types, it can certainly hard to identify which phone suits us best. Also, lots of people simply aren’t too knowledgeable on the specs of mobile phones, so it’s just more suitable for people to choose a phone based on other qualities that are easier to evaluate.

Technology Applications

              I think the most relatable phenomenon that relates to identities in mobile technology is the distinctions between iPhone and Android users. There is a lot of mob mentalities between these two. Most of it is friendly and funny banter but it really does affect the way people buy their phones. It’s common for to choose what the majority has and prefers, especially when it comes to phones. For example, it’s common for iPhone users to bash on Android phones because they typically have worse cameras and on the contrary, Android users make fun of iPhone users for buying overpriced phones. The list of pros and cons of the two can go on and on, and because of these distinctions, they affect how we think about ourselves and others with certain phones. If any smartphone user saw someone with a flip phone, the smartphone user may think the flip phone user is either technologically illiterate or doesn’t have a lot of money to afford a smartphone.

              The same thing also goes for the accessories that people attach to their phones. Wireless headphones and earbuds are becoming a trend now. While their ease of use makes listening to music a more enjoyable experience, they also showcase a portion of your identity such as your financial status and social prestige. I remember when I worked at Best Buy, they were selling a brand of iPhone cases that were just basic solid colors but were really expensive and I wondered if they were another new trend that marked people who had that phone case with higher status and financial prestige. I’m personally a fan of staying up to date with the coolest and most innovative tech gear, but I can see how it would negatively affect other people’s purchase decisions, just for the sake of having their identity associated with the higher status/prestige that we often associate with certain mobile elements.

Course Topic

It’s important to discuss this concept because there can definitely be some negativity when it comes to associating social identities with the technology that we purchase and use. It’s basically the same concept as people buying flashy cars and nice houses, but because of the widespread availability of smartphones and increasing subscriptions of it, the social patterns that associate identity with devices follow. There can be lots of negative stereotyping and prejudice from judging people based on the things they own, like the type of phone they have, so it would be beneficial for people to learn about how mobile technology can change us socially, despite the positive technological advances that smartphones give us.

Discussion Questions

1.       What types of stereotypes do you hear about certain types of phones?

2.       How important is it for you to own a phone, laptop, etc. for it to represent who you are?

3.       What other examples can you think of that sort of relate to how identities relate to our phones?

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Reading Response Week 10

Social Justice

In the 2014 MIT Technology Review, an app called Arianna helps the visually impaired to navigate their surroundings by using their smartphones camera sensor and vibration functions. The app developers designed the app to let users replace their normal walking stick with their phone that has potential for more functionality, such as using QR codes that the phone can scan to indicate certain public amenities, such as bathrooms and shops.

When we think of social issues, we typically don’t think of the people who are blind. Adrianna addresses those who need more attention to get their needs met in the digital world. The app provides a great model for how we can further create other ways to facilitate helping other disabilities with smartphone assistance. Smartphones were initially created just to improve cell phones, but not with the intention of addressing other social issues and people with disabilities. But it’s clear that with the advancements of mobile technology, that it’s now much easier to design technology that can help anyone with any disability or need.

Social change and technology go great hand in hand because as technology improves (as it inevitably always will) so will the potential for addressing more social changes at (hopefully) an increasing rate. There just needs to be good awareness on certain issues so that app developers and phone designers can manage to address as many social issues as they can in the future.

Technology Applications

Google translate provides a solution to the language/cultural barrier that sometimes happens when we visit other countries. Or sometimes when individuals interact with each other who don’t share the same language. Even though there is this verbal barrier, people can use Google Translate on their phones to speak with the other person where google will translate everything so that both people can understand each other. The app does a good job and is very accurate in my experience. And you also have the option to simply type what you want to communicate as well for the other person to read in their native language. This is really useful tool that can bring people from different backgrounds closer in a social context by allowing them to communicate with each other despite not knowing each other’s native language.

Another way smartphone integrate social change is through helping prevent crimes. There is a function on certain smartphones where you can press your power button a certain amount of times (there are various options that the user can adjust for their preference) that alerts their phone contacts that they are in danger. The actual technology behind this contact is actually really simple, it’s just sending a text message to a predetermined list of important people in your contacts list. The real social change comes from the context with how this technology is used.

This functionality is aimed towards times where a person may feel a near danger may occur to them and may not have enough time to call or text for help, but instead can send a quick message to a list of people with a quick button pressing action on their phone. I remember my aunt had this feature on her phone and she accidentally activated the function when reaching for her phone in her purse, which lead to a bunch of people in our family receiving an emergency text alert from her.

Even though this is a really simple function built into phones, it shows that it doesn’t require much to create ways for our smartphones to help our social lives, all it takes is just knowing the right context for a solution to come along.

Course Topics

I think this is a really important topic because it highlights that technology isn’t just about having the nicest and coolest gadgets, but its also about improving our lives and the society we live in. It seems like technology is moving in the right direction now because I think it’s so much easier to spread awareness on social issues and for people to come up with solutions as a result of that. This is why I think social media is essential for us now, because it helps address so many issues and provides people with the opportunity to spot problems and fix them.

Discussion Questions

1.       Social justice covers numerous issues needed to be addressed. What are some areas that may be a bit more difficult for mobile technology to address, if any?

2.       Is there a limit to which technology can address social justice issues? Are there any ethical issues that stem from relying on technology our issues?

3.       What apps or technologies do you use on your phone that helps with social justice issues? Are there any that particular pertain to college students?

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Reading Response Week 9

Real Time Rome from MIT SENSEable City Lab is a project composed of mobile data from cell phones, buses, and taxis in Rome. The project was created to observe the social and city dynamics of the urban environment so that individuals can use technology to make better sense of their city.

Real Time Rome can be found in the Venice Biennale, an architecture exhibition. The project uses six types of visual software to showcase real-time information and data about the life of Rome. The software produces visual data about mobile phone and public transportation, bus lines, tourist behaviors, phone usage at certain times of day and movements of those phone users in each neighborhood.

This is an interesting way to show data about how mobile technologies are used in different parts of the city as well as what time. You can make inferences about the behavior from the data, such as the most popular places for tourists to visits, or what time of day phone usage is at its height. But not only was the project designed to provide data, but also to spark conversation about the “access and responsible use of such data”. While privacy and security don’t seem to be the primary aim for this project, there is some value into how this project integrates its data for those discussions.

Data like this could definitely serve to improve some common city problems, such as heavy traffic after work hours and parking locations during city events. This can make navigating cities much more manageable and less stress inducing because of the heightened sense citizens can have over their city. Perhaps there may even be some utility in this software towards deterring crimes, where the software can locate areas that may be potentially risky at certain times at night.

I would love to see how this technology evolves and grows (hopefully for the better!). There is definitely solutions that this software can provide for common city problems that I’m sure citizens would be pleased with.

Technology Applications

Google Maps would perhaps be the most obvious and best example of how location based technology improves the lives of its users. I used to use Google maps on a daily basis during the summer when I had to commute to work. I always checked it first thing in the morning to know if there was a bunch of traffic or not. I worked in security and had to be at my job on time so it was really important for me not to be stuck in traffic and late to work. Over time, google maps would memorize my patterns and tell me if there was traffic before I even opened the app, which I thought was really handy because sometimes I would wake up late and be in a rush and forget to check the app.

I mentioned Snapchat’s location feature before, but I think its utility applies to this week’s location topic as well. The feature is that when you zoom out with your fingers on the camera, you can see a map of the whole around essentially. You can see the map and, in some areas, there will be a sort of “temperature” which indicate other people’s Snap stories. And in big cities, they typically consist of important or fun events that users can be aware of. I think this feature makes use of location-based technology to improve the social life of cities and nearby areas. Since most people are on their phone as opposed to watching TV or being on their laptop, I think the app does a great job of sort of indirectly highlighting the important events near their users.

Course Topic

I think discussing about the location aspect of technology these days is essential due to its flexible utility. You can learn about city patterns, social events, and improve your work life. There are areas of potential concern for privacy issues, but that is why discussion on this topic is important in the first place – so that we can find the optimal balance between optimization and privacy invasion.

Discussion Questions

1.       There is obvious implementation for location-based technology in large cities, but should smaller/rural cities implement this technology as well? What its uses be different than what the Real Time Rome project hopes to achieve?

2.       The privacy concerns for location software can be real for individuals, but at the same time, there are benefits to this technology. What does the public need to know in order to feel more comfortable with this technology? What do you as a college student feel would be safe for your privacy?

3.       What other uses can you think of that location services could benefit us? What implementations would be helpful for college campuses?

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Reading Response Week 8

Ted Talk: Connected, but alone?

For this week, I watched the “Connected, but alone?” Ted Talk by Sherry Turkle where she shares her primary concerns with technology leading people to isolation. While it’s true that technology like texting and email has made modern society faster and more efficient with communication, it has also conditioned people to prefer this way of connecting with others now. Turkle talks about how people’s need for connection is actually what causes us to be more isolated when technology gets involved because we abuse the sharing power of social media or texting, giving us a sense of connection to others.

The need for constant connection makes people prefer these faster technological methods simply because of its quick accessibility. Turkle says that we use technology to feel connection rather than actually focus on ways to become better at connecting with people (particularly in person). She also says that we fail to learn how to be comfortable with being alone. Being alone is good in her eyes because it lets you do self-reflection where you learn about yourself. Then once you understand yourself, you can share yourself with others, thus facilitating a process of connection that is authentic and genuine. Basically, without giving yourself solitude, you are connecting (via technology) without actually putting effort into the content you’re sharing with others.

Technological Applications

I think smartphones themselves are a good example of how we use technology during times where we want to fill the void of being alone. There are times, like when sitting in class before it starts, where people don’t really talk to each other but instead go on their phone to wait for class. The classroom environment is a great place to connect with people, but we distract ourselves to connect in other places, such as social media or to text our friends outside of class. But I think this makes people a bit more distant from others in the same class.

Also, video games sort of facilitate the same thing, particularly online gaming. The internet allows people to make friends online easier, however it is possible for people to only prefer making friends through this way. Video games offer a sphere where you don’t have to pay much attention to the outside world and instead you get lost in the virtual world. You may feel more connected with friends online, but once the game turns off and you have to go to school or work, you don’t feel the same if you prefer being in the virtual world.

Course Topic

I think this is really important topic to discuss because it shows how people are affected by technology and the dangers of the way we interact with one another. It can be hard to connect with people when you’re too caught up with what others. I also think that people now are just really afraid of in-person interaction and rely too much on their phones to fill the gaps in life as opposed to wanting to do small talk. I think technology is great for work and school and entertainment, but when connecting with others, it can sometimes be a great hindrance.

Discussion Questions:

1.       What are ways that people can become more comfortable without being reliant on their phones when meeting people? It can be really intimidating to meet people in class on the first day of school when you don’t want to appear awkward when there’s nothing to talk about initially.

 2.       We all grab our phones out of habit in situations like waiting in the elevator or getting our groceries checked at the register. What does it feel like when you don’t have your phone in times like this? Some people feel nervous, others are more relaxed and make efforts to start conversation.

 3.       There is no doubt that we can’t completely eliminate technology from our lives or society, so what would be the best way for technology to make people feel more connected in ways that are better than being in-person? Will human culture eventually create a virtual world thus eliminating the need to leave the house? Or do we become cyborgs that can read each other’s minds to share interests alike?

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Assignment IV: Photo Essay, App Design

Photo Essay

For my photo essay I conducted auto ethnographic research, choosing myself as the research subject to explore the concept of mobility and creativity. The items in my photo essay represent the tools that I rely on for being a content creator (I would have included my phone in the photo as well, however I that’s the device I had to use to take the photo). They emphasize the importance on being able to create and edit fun YouTube and Instagram videos regardless of my physical location. I enjoy traveling and I hope that I can make a career that lets me travel anywhere at any time!

The most important items that I need are my laptop and my phone because they allow me to share my photos and videos online. I also began learning to make music on my laptop with a music production program called “Fruity Loops”. The tablet is mainly for my entertainment uses, like watching Netflix or YouTube videos. There is also tripod stand that my phone sits in for shooting video/photos. I have a few tiny USB and micro SD card adapters so that I can store all my files at any moments notice in my phone or laptop. I use the wireless headphones for when I go to the gym or if I just don’t want to deal with wires while listening to music. I typically always have a hat for when it’s windy, a watch for fashion and gum because it helps me stay focused when doing work. My planner is vital to keeping myself organized with my projects, school and other plans that I may have for the month/week.

I need my phone a lot for building my social media reputation, which helps me build relationships with other like-minded people with similar interests. I enjoy the ability to sort of work on my goals essentially wherever I go. If I’m sitting in bed or in class, I can use that time to post my content (videos/photos) and view my statistics and see what’s trending online so that I can create content that people will find interesting at the moment. This is perhaps where mobility really affects me the most. I don’t like having to rely on being at a certain place to do my job or hobbies. This is because I never really got to travel a lot as a kid. Now that I’m older, I want to live my life in a very mobile way so that I can easily travel without it affecting my job/source of income too much while still engaging in my hobbies and passions.

There is a lot of negative stereotypes about being on your smartphone all the time, because it makes you look like you’re just wasting time on Facebook and not being productive. But I think that it just depends on how you’re using those social media apps. They very well can be tools for procrastination, but they also have great potential for networking and building an audience that will buy products and services from you. By learning how to build an audience and create content can grow your social media marketing skills which are essential to a lot of organizations and businesses today. The value from our mobile apps and devices derive from the lightning fast speed at which we can network, attract viewers and produce content. My laptop and smartphone are a great combination for facilitating a lifestyle where I can constantly work on my content creation. My phone let’s me travel anywhere and build an audience on Instagram and my laptop let’s me edit videos and photos for me to publish online.

App Proposal

It is important for people to keep track of their progress on their efforts for things they want to achieve because it gives us motivation to strive for greatness. And when we reach these goals, we feel great accomplishment and pride in ourselves, which of course makes us feel good about life. People who are busy with multitasking, such as college students, will benefit from making their life much more organized. A mobile app that teaches its users how to be responsible and disciplined can help people be more motivated and dedicated towards their life goals. It is likely that younger adults in college would most benefit from this application since they are just stepping into the world of being an independent adult and will need guidance on becoming more independent and responsible for their life choices.

In this context, “independence” is used to define a person who doesn’t rely on other people to give them motivation for reaching their goals and achievements. It is important for users to understand that making decisions on their own builds their confidence to tackle life’s challenges or personal achievements. “Goals” are defined as any achievement or desirable reward people seek for. The goal can be tangible (like a brand-new Lamborghini) or intangible (learning to meditate). People may also have “projects”, which are similar to goals, but require multiple steps (such as building a business). My app will teach people “discipline” which will be simply referred to staying committed to completing goals and not quitting. My app will also make its user’s more aware of their personal “responsibility” which means taking ownership of their life choices and the consequences that follow them.

My last concept I want to clarify is “multitasking” which forms the foundation of my mobile app idea. In this context, multitasking will refer to efforts towards completing multiple goals, projects and deadlines. I want to improve people’s multitasking abilities because most people don’t just have one goal going on in life, for example; A student may be going to college for an engineering degree (one goal) who may want to lose weight (another goal) and also trying to start an online business (another goal). I believe that by learning to multitask your life more efficiently, it will make people more well-rounded and give them more things in life to go after. The digital age can definitely help individuals with multitasking.

              The solution for helping college students and other busy workers keep track of their projects and goals is to make them better at multitasking. This is easier said than done however. Multitasking will require to build their discipline and become more responsible with their choices and time management. When it comes to juggling multiple projects and goals, the human mind is limited. It’s impossible for us to remember everything going on in our life. Especially for college students who need to worry about money, food, socializing, school, and a handful of other goals and hobbies they want to get better at. Improving student’s mobility will help them become more disciplined and thus reach their goals more efficiently.

              In “Expanding the Mobility Concept”, authors Masao Kakihara and Carsten Sorensen (2001) define three different types of mobility; Spatial, Temporal, and Contextual. These three affect different spheres of life; Physical space, time, and context, respectively. These three mobile concepts have an effect on how we approach our time management and its relation to completing our goals/deadlines.

              My solution aims to make spatial mobility less of a problem by letting people keep track of their goals on their phone no matter where they are at. So even if our projects require us to be at a certain place, like playing the piano, then my app would send reminders to the user when it detects that you are far away from your piano’s location (you can choose where to pinpoint your physical location for your goals). This is an automatic process, so users don’t have to think about this when they get their day started.

              My app will also address temporal mobility by letting users set their own deadlines for their projects/goals. For each goal, the app will ask how much time each day or week they will put into working on their goals and what days, then it will generate an estimated time and date of completion. This organizes users plans immensely giving them plenty of room to add many goals and tasks at any given time. Users can also set a delay for goals they may want to start later in the future.

              Last, my app will expand people’s contextual mobility by prompting them what times of day they are allowed to have breaks and when they need to be hard at work. This helps users prioritize their time more effectively to reach their goals as fast as possible. This would be especially useful for students who have days that differ, such as having three classes on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays but only two classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The user will input their availability on each day of the week and the app will find the perfect balance between work and break time for each day. The amount of work and break time is based on how much progress they have made to their particular goal. If they are far behind and nearing their deadline, the app will give you shorter breaks and more time for work, and vice versa.

              Research by Tamminen, Oulasvirta, Toiskallio and Kankainen (2004) explains the effort that goes behind multitasking in individuals. They state, “monitoring the environment to notice whether a sub-goal has been reached requires attentional resources from other tasks” (Tamminen., 2004) which tells us that we will essentially lose more energy/resources as we increase the amount of goals we have going on in our life.

Their study also talks about the potential for increasing one’s multitasking efforts when their participants were physically navigating themselves through an urban environment, “when the route is familiar and navigation is more automatic, and working memory is not as taxed, more multitasking can be carried out” (Tamminen., 2004). This idea can be applied to my mobile app because users can first start with just one goal to focus on. The app will judge how well the user is at making progress on their goal; if they are making great progress, then the app will suggest adding another goal since it see’s that the user has the potential to handle more projects. This can create a snowball effect that users will hopefully be able to manage as they get better at multitasking overtime. Users can create a list of goals in the beginning stages and “unlock” a new goal to start working on once they’ve proven to the app that they have the discipline to multitask more.

I estimate that the mobile app would take maybe a month at most to create. I imagine that most of that time would be spent on editing the app and looking for imperfections and making it as user-friendly as possible. I really want the app to be super easy to use so that anyone can download it and enjoy using it.

App Presentation Slides

References

Kakihara, Masao & Sorensen, Carsten. (2001). Expanding the ‘Mobility’ Concept. SIGGROUP Bulletin, 22(3), 33-37.

Tamminen, Sakari, Oulasvirta, Annti, Toiskallio, Kalle, & Kankainen, Anu. (2004). “Understanding mobile contexts.” Personal Ubiquitous Computing, 8, 135-143.

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Reading Response Week 7

In The anthropology of mobile phones by Jan Chipchase, we learn about the development of mobile phone innovations relating to repair and usage growth. Chipchase talks about how increasing the usage of phones are becoming more widespread each year. And with that growth, innovation has grown as well. He takes field work from observing the practices of illiterate people (those who can’t read or write) to examine how they manage to innovate their needs for manipulating time and space to fit their needs and lifestyle. He mentions that they are masters of delegation, meaning that they know where to go and who to talk to when they need assistance with their mobile devices.

The presentation marks the importance of how necessary it is to pay attention to innovation and how it grows to make that process more efficient and rapid in order to keep up to date with technology growth itself. We typically don’t think much about the behind-the-scenes action that takes place when new technology rises, but from the field research by Chipchase, we learn that it needs to be done so that more people can benefit from widespread mobile usage. Phone manufactures may not have the time to develop phones for everyone, but consumers can find ways to make the technology work so more can have access to it.

Technological Applications

Tech-Support is a common service provided by nearly every phone manufacturer. These services help reduce confusion when we don’t know what’s wrong with our devices. Since most people typically aren’t specialized in technology, we turn to experts who do. Tech support provides us with perhaps the fastest way for us to repair virtually anything wrong with out phone. Speaking to someone at a time that’s convenient for us gives consumers an advantage by allowing them to stay as up-to-date with technology and software as possible

Fiverr is a cool website that directs consumers to experts in specialized skills. The website asks what you need help with and then you can search and choose amongst a vast list of people who provide the services you need. It’s an example of how we’ve innovated our need for help on something but can’t do it ourselves. With Fiverr, people are saving their time because the website is easy to use and since it’s online, space isn’t much of a hassle to deal with.

Course Topic

I think that it is important for us to take away the value of people who have a genuine desire to help others. It can be easy for tech companies to develop things at a rapid pace to sort of miss out on serving as many people as possible, but when we find ways to make sure that everyone can get their basic needs of technology, then society benefits as a whole. We have more opportunity to learn and share things with each other when more of us have the technology to engage in such communicative efforts.

Discussion Questions

1.       How often do you find yourself using innovation services, like phone repair serviceman or tech-support?

I personally like to solve things for myself and only rarely, if ever, find myself using things like tech-support or other related types of services. I tend to go on YouTube to watch tutorials on how to fix something wrong with my computer or I’ll find people who talked about a similar problem I’m having on reddit.

2.       Have you ever felt that there were other areas of mobile technology that could still use some innovation that we haven’t created a solution for?

I think there’s some improvement that could be done for phone screens and other consequences of dropping our phones accidentally. I feel like there just needs to be better hardware to withstand the harsh elements of being clumsy. I know it’s not much of big priority for people, but once you experience a nasty cracked screen that takes up your whole vision it gets annoying and makes you cry every time you can’t properly view a funny meme.

3.       How do you personally innovate when you’re face with problems that relate to mobile technology?

Like I said in question 1, I always try to fix things for myself and for two reasons; 1) you can save a lot of money by not having to pay some “expert” to do it for you and 2) you learn more about technology and thus can fix things in the future on your own much faster.

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Week 6 Reading Response

This week, I read #Riot: Self-Organized, Hyper-Networked Revolts—Coming to a City Near You, by Bill Wasik. The article discusses some examples of riots and assemblies of people that seek to cause damage, typically towards city property as a means of protest. Other motivations for these destructive riots are sometimes hard to determine, and controlling them after they’ve gone out of control is an issue police have difficulty with. Wasik looks at how the digital age has impacted the way people assemble to express their attitudes and beliefs. He mentions how fast it is for people to create a message to gather like-minded individuals to plan and execute goals of protest, expression, etc.

The psychology behind the motivations of these riots is discussed as well. Wasik mentions research that proposes the amount of time it takes for these groups to start getting violent. First people need to feel that there is a sense of legitimacy of the crowd to act out towards police. This allows individuals to feel comfortable with what they are standing up for. This feeling starts low, but grows as more people gather, especially if they are like-minded. Next, once people recognize the power that they have accumulated in numbers, they can start taking to the streets and get their message heard.

This article summarizes the problems that arise with technology when it meets people’s right to assemble. Authorities lack control over these mobs and may need to just accept this way of assembly and protest. There is obvious potential for violence to arise out of these, but I find the technology a great way for people to get their opinion on social issues.

Technological applications

Group messaging is a feature in nearly all communication platforms now. It’s found in Instagram, Facebook and in most smartphones default sms application. This allows users to gather as many people as they want into a space where one message gets sent to virtually an endless number of friends and like-minded individuals. This a great tool for connecting and networking, but there lies the potential for abuse, such as creating mobs with the intent to do physical damage to property or people. However, most of the time, I’ve witnessed mainly millennials utilizing this feature as a way to have fun and conversate with friends faster than simply texting one-on-one with each other. I would say the issues that have to do with harmful assemblies of mobs isn’t related to group messaging, but rather from those extreme groups themselves. Don’t punish the messenger.

Google hangouts is also another form of online group messaging, but with live video. While the capacity for these hangouts tend to be smaller, there is still the aspect of assembly that group messaging also accomplishes. But with this video format, more nonverbal communication can apply which is nice for families and friends to use to be closer across far distances. Again, the potential for abuse of dangerous mobs can still exist, but Google shouldn’t be responsible for those issues.

Course Topic

By understanding the usage of group messaging tools, we learn how much we can affect our desires to carryout our inner thoughts or frustrations with societal problems. People can send their message on a grand-scale that nothing in the past could ever imagine. There is good in this technology, such as spreading awareness on a disease that we want the world to be more aware about. However, it would be foolish to ignore the desire to abuse this technology for assembling abusive mobs that may seek to do damage to physical property or even people. Issues arise from authorities trying to regulate the motivations behind using this technology.

Discussion Questions

1.       When do you typically use group messaging services? How does it affect the way you communicate with others compared to your one-on-one conversations?

I personally use this mainly for family events and try to keep my messages as brief as possible because I simply get annoyed by the spam of messages that come from confusion of other members in the chat. I find the experience to be less intimate and more for business purposes.

 2.       What do you reckon the government should do to prevent dangerous mobs from carrying out destructive behavior?

 I think the government needs to educate themselves on mob behavior. By learning the psychology behind why people act so differently in a mob, I believe the solution to controlling them will be much more apparent, and hopefully less violent. I think the government needs to be more open to verbal dialogue with groups who have frustrations with issues in society.

 3.       How much do you think social media platforms have an influence over potentially harmful groups that assemble themselves over their group messaging tools/features?

I don’t think we should hold the troubles of dangerous groups to these companies because they aren’t trying to facilitate any violence, they are simply giving users an option to utilize group messaging for social purposes. It would be much better to open dialogue with these groups and have formal arguments and discussions to prevent violence or hate-crimes from happening.

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Week 5 Reading Response: Privacy and Information

Surveillance

The National Security Agency has a history of mistrust and scrutiny about their means to practice national security. After the Sept. 11 attack, there has been a large change in the way the government monitors its citizens and foreigners.

According to the Pew Research Center (2015) 54% of Americans disapprove of the government collecting phone and internet data for anti-terrorism efforts, 74% Feel that they shouldn’t sacrifice freedom and privacy for safety however 49% say that anti-terrorism policies have not done enough to adequately protect them (37% say these policies restrict too much of citizens’ liberties).

These numbers show that while we want to have a nation that does its best to prioritize safety from terrorist threats and activity, at the same time we feel that our information and privacy is being invaded unjustly. This shows a bit of a cognitive dissonance between Americans wanting to ensure their safety and wanting to keep their civil liberties intact. It’s a complex, paradoxical goal that the government and its citizens want and there doesn’t seem to be a clear solution that would have everyone align in agreement.

93% of Americans say it’s important to control who gets their information along with what kind of information is being collected (90%). Only 6% say they are very confident that agencies can keep their information records secure.

These numbers represent the trust of how our information is being kept, which comes to question how important our records are when they are being transferred to the hands of somebody else. A large organization, such as the NSA for instance would have to garner a lot of trust from citizens. There has to be a way for these information agencies to show us their transparency of how they are keeping the information they collect from us safe while ensuring that our privacy is still maintained.

A majority of other countries have favored towards disapproving the U.S. monitoring citizens however Americans are more in favor of the U.S. eavesdropping on foreign leaders as being an acceptable practice.

Privacy and Information

It’s interesting to see how the value of our privacy and information rises as more people and government gets involved. On a daily basis, we typically don’t think much about our privacy and the threats of leaking our personal information when we install new apps on our phones and sign up for email newsletters at cafés and school newswires or other things like that, but once we find out that a large entity has their hands on that information we start to get very worried.

We tend to have a habit of giving out our information because it is so easy for us to. Our phones and laptops work faster than our rational brain. Technology makes it easy these days for us to explicitly share our information without us actually realizing how much information we’re agreeing to release or even to who exactly will be receiving it. It’s like signing a contract to a random stranger on the streets that entitles them to your house.

Perhaps the problem isn’t necessarily the government aiming to mistreat our information and liberties, but also just the bad habits we have come to exhibit from being so used to pressing buttons on our phone that seem harmless at a first glance. Perhaps more formal education about the ways our information is used and when we should be cautious would help steer the conversation towards making better decisions and lifestyles that would make it easier for us to keep our information in the first place rather than having to worry about it later when it’s too late after signing the contract we unconsciously agreed to.

Relevant Technology Applications

Snapchat has a cool feature that allows you to be virtually mapped on their app. You can view where other peoples’ physical location and they can see yours. You do have the option to disable this feature, however, sometimes it isn’t really explained to us how to. It’s an interesting way to connect with your friends, however there is potentially an issue of privacy invasion when it comes to physical distances. There may be some situations where someone would rather have their location kept private for their safety. It would be important for Snapchat to make it clear to users how to have complete control over what they are projecting to others. I remember when I first learned about this feature that I was automatically shown to the world. I was okay with it, but imagine if someone really needed it to be kept private for personal reasons. This is an area that needs to be taken seriously by app developers when considering the possible threats to location exploitation.

Terms and Conditions are those small print that we never, ever read whenever we download an app or program to our computer. It’s not that they aren’t important for us to read, but they’re just too much information for us to read at a glance. These checkboxes are basically contracts that we agree to without really knowing the exact details are, which could be dangerous if there is something in there regarding our privacy! If there was a way for those kind of agreements to make it more clear what is going on regarding our privacy, then it would give us more peace of mind considering how valuable our privacy is and the information that exploiters are looking for in this digital age.

Discussion

1. What kind of information do you think needs to be monitored the most when it comes to protecting against terrorism and suspects of terrorist incidents? Or should their be a different approach to these goals?

This a very complicated situation. I personally want to feel safe at all times, but at the same time, I need to know that I’m not being invaded when I use my camera or sending a tweet or message to a friend. How will the government ensure this, I don’t know. The government really needs to make it clear what they are monitoring, the reasons why and how it affects us.

2. What are areas in the online environment where you think improvement can be done to reduce the amount of people’s information being shared?

I think smartphone applications need to be more transparent with the permissions they request. Sometimes I will download an app that will ask to have access to my media contacts, I’ll be like, “why?”, they should be clear with why they need access to certain functions of our phone so that users aren’t worried about their phone’s contents being exploited.

3. Are there any things that government agencies or businesses can do to grow your trust for them in regards to handling and requesting your information?

The government needs to have more communication with its citizens about privacy. There isn’t much discussion on this in the news at the moment, but its an issue that affects virtually everyone. There needs to be attention on this subject highlighting how people can improve their online safety and what they are currently being monitored for.

Source

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/29/what-americans-think-about-nsa-surveillance-national-security-and-privacy/

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Assignment III: Accessibility

Designing for new cellphone users in Burma - CBC Radio November 27, 2015

Burma has seen a growth in cell phone use in recent years that has largely impacted the way farmers work and distribute their goods throughout the state. The distribution of the smartphone technology is new to the rural locals now that it is much more affordable (a sim card used to cost $5,000!). Burma citizens also find value in the technology to show their political voice as well as play games to connect with each other.

Seventy percent of the state is rural and the new smartphones being introduced to the Burmese farmers is a completely new adoption they have learned to use. There is a phenomenon known as “leapfrogging” discussed in the show which means that the new users in the region are sort of skipping all the previous feature and models of phones and have jumped straight into using smartphone features without prior knowledge of their development and usage.

Lauren Serota and Taiei Harimoto have been tasked with helping with the design of these phones and their applications to facilitate an easier interface and mobile environment for them to learn to use over time. Leapfrogging has made it difficult to get these users to sort of “catch-up” on how to use this technology, however Serota finds it also to be an advantage since it makes it easier for new users in Burma to learn the technology without having previous phone design patterns confuse them with the new phones.

The main thing that has helped with the farmers in Burma is the facilitation of transactions between their crops and the economy. Serota reveals that there is an increase in profits as a result of the increased connectivity and efficiency of smartphone applications usage. They learn to use things like reminders about when to fertilize their crops and what type of fertilizer to use, which helps in their farming process so they can be on time and maintain a sufficient crop for the season. People who aren’t farmers also have easier access to the markets that they want as well since farmers can control who they sell to.

The voting process for elections also has been made easier for the citizens of Burma where they use their phones to register their names and make sure they are engaged with the political scene of the country. Other Burmese users find the smartphones as their primary entertainment device to view news on Facebook and play games as well. 

Accessibility features:

1. The first feature I used was the asnwering and ending calls with voice. It’s useful for those who are really busy and don’t really find themselves capable of answering their phone when they are off doing something. This would be useful for someone like a business person or even a farmer who may have his hands tied up tilling his crops. He can answer his phone without having to stop his work on his farm!

2. The next feature is text to speech, which is reads text from your messages. Great for those who may have a vision impairment. This can even be used again by those who have busy lives and may just want to listen to their messages while they are driving to work or busy with some other chore. This would also apply to the Burma farmers who may need to use this text-to-speech feature for when their hands are dirty and can’t use their phone to scroll through their messages.

3. The last feature I wanted to highlight on was the font size. Although it is a simple feature, this provides great value for those who may be visually impaired and aren’t able to see everything on their phone. This would be a horrible situation to be in if you had to call emergency services or recieved a text from someone in your family who needs help but you can’t clarify what the text is saying. With the ability to increase the size of your text, you are making it better for you to know exactly what it is that you are reading. Here, Burma citizens can use this to read news headlines and be more informed about what’s going on in their home state politically, and some of them may need to increase their font size to read better and fully understand the text on their phone!

Discussion Questions

1. How often do you use accessibility features? Which features do you think more college students would benefit from?

2. Accessibility is such a high priority with growing technology. In the future, what sort of features do you think will need to be developed that currently aren’t being made right now?

3. Like the Burmese farmers, what other occupation fields would greatly benefit from using their smartphone’s accessibility features?

[nathanthai481-blog]

Week 3 Reading Response

In “Expanding the Mobility Concept”, authors Masao Kakihara and Carsten Sorensen examine how information and communication technologies have shaped the way we as humans “mobilize” ourselves in our social lives. They share how these technological innovations have made us increasingly mobile in different ways including: spatial mobility, temporal mobility and contextual mobility. These changes in our mobility have made us independent from geographical and societal constraints that used to limit the way we built relationships and communicated with other people. We also are able to share ideas at a faster rate and find new discoveries because of our increased mobility that has poured into our online world as well.

Spatial mobility refers to the most basic form of mobility that humans have evolved. Obvious things that come to mind when we think of spatial mobility are airplanes, cars, trains and even walking - all these have spatial capabilities of improving our mobility. It’s easy to see where technology has improved our physical dimension of mobility. Kakihara and Sorensen also point out that with these innovative improvements, we have seen spatial mobility improvements in our devices as well. Take our phones for example, they harness the power and capabilities of computers, which were once the size of a living room in the past, but now we can carry that technology with us virtually anywhere.

Then we have temporal mobility, which refers to our “time” space. We have the capability to basically multitask with as many applications and devices that we can handle. Compared to the past where a phone could only make calls, now we can shop, walk, and talk all at the same time. While multitasking may not be the most safest or efficient way to go on about our daily chores/tasks, it does show the remarkable increase in temporal mobility we have nowadays.

Lastly, there is contextual mobility. The technology we have makes us able to communicate at fast rates, obviously, however what we sometimes overlook is that our innovative technology also has altered the contexts of our communication channels. Look at emails for example, consumers use emails to ask questions to a business and can skip all the initial introduction that normally takes place in face-to-face conversation or in phone calls. Text messaging aims to make us communicate with each other promptly, even if we are a distance away. Social media shapes context by making us display our value and worth by posting pictures of our lives, communicating that this place is for showing off your cool clothes.

The way we communicate via technology has made our lives so much more flexible. We can choose where and when we want to reach someone, as well as how. Our increased mobility gives us a bigger sphere of messages to receive and send. Depending on what your goal is when you’re receiving or sending message, you can use these mobile developments to your advantage in the advanced technological world we live in today.

Technology applications:

The first application that comes to mind when thinking of technological mobility, is Tinder. This dating app sets the premise of communication in the romantic context, speeding up the process of communication between people in a localized area. The app scans the surrounding area for people in the same romantic context as you, thus aiding in our spatial and contextual mobility. On Tinder, you are presented with all the people that you can quickly read about and make a fast decision on whether you would like to meet them or not - which shows our advanced temporal mobility at work, we can swipe past dozens of people in just a few minutes!

Another application that utilizes the same mobility concepts is OfferUp. This lets users sell their personal belongings to other people in the surrounding area. You can sell multiple items at a time and showcase this to potentially hundreds or even thousands of people within your city - a temporal and spatial mobile concept right there! And since the app is all about selling and buying things, it puts the context into either making money or buying goods, which immediately shapes the communication between buyers and sellers (such as setting a price or bargaining).

Course Topic:

These 3 spheres of mobility give us a better understanding of how our lives are changed by the mobility of our devices and technology. We can do more with our communication behaviors by letting go of geographical restraints due to the internet. These mobility spheres also teach us the way we can change our consumption of messages we receive since we have more time to do so and more outlets that expose us to different messages. Everyone is affected by these 3 mobile advancements and it will be interesting to see how much more developed they will become!

Discussion questions:

1. Consider your use of your phone: Which of the three spheres as your phone aided you the most? What sphere could you use more aid with?

2. It’s easy to see the positive advantages of the increased mobility with our technology, but can you think of any negative aspects of these mobile advances?

3. What other ways have we advanced in our mobility that the authors didn’t address?

[nathanthai481-blog]

COM 481: Assignment II Reading Response Blog

1. In his chapter, Jason Farman discusses the “historization of mobile media”. He attempts to make it apparent that there are various aspects to the history of mobile media, also adding that there are multiple histories as well. Throughout the chapter, he discusses the most prominent technological devices and implementations that have developed throughout society around the world and how they have changed the way people and societies engage (and sometimes, disengage) with one another. He first starts with the ancient Egyptians who used papyrus as a means to not only write, but also to transport information to other places. This added a whole new dimension to information sharing. This addition to the media space began taking a snowball effect into history as technology developed. The printing press allowed for rapid creation of pages and books to be printed and shared, an innovation that gave mobile media a prominent place in the business world.

Farman later discusses how behaviors of people have changed as the mobile media began creeping deeper into the personal dimension of people's lives. As phones and radios became more portable, thanks to the development of smaller battery sizes, people have gravitated to being less engaged in face to face interactions for those “in-between-times”, like waiting in an elevator. Simultaneously disengaging ourselves with others in our immediate space, we became more engaged globally as social media came to play with the addition of social apps and text messaging prior. These applications have allowed us to connected with one another in ways other than voice, such as through text, email, etc. Farman emphasizes that the multiple histories of mobile media should be looked at as a cultural object that has made remarkable developments in our communication with other people.

2. There are tons of apps that come to mind when we think about the disengaging effects of mobile media. Anytime we get in those moments where we don’t feel like engaging in small talk while in the elevator or something similar we pull out our phones. The most popular apps that people typically pull out tend to share loads of information from social media. The two apps that I see the most often for these social lulls in life are Twitter and Facebook. These social applications give us a place to focus our attention on when we turn away from the opportunity to engage with another in our immediate space. These apps let us view information quickly. Twitter capitalizes on this desire for knowing what’s new and trending by giving us updates on the world at the tips of our fingers. Facebook gives us deep insights on our social circles that we have built up over the years of having an account. We are paradoxically being social and antisocial at the same time.

3. These examples present opportunity for us to learn about how mobile media and social media crossover one another. We able to observe the effects of such media usage and how they change daily interactions as well as change the media and its narrative with increasing users engaging in the online atmosphere.

Some great questions!

1) We have already witnessed the massive changes that mobile media has made since the Ancient Egyptians using papyrus, what developments do you see happening over the next 50 years? 500 years?

2) There is no doubt that the mobile media is exciting and improves our lives in some aspect that we never would of thought of. Where do you personally find mobile media adding value to your life? What are some areas where mobile media currently don’t serve you?

3) Mobile media touches roughly every aspect of our lives. If you were to give up all of mobile media for a year, how much do you think you would change and treat others? Would such an ambition even be possible in this society?

[nathanthai481-blog]

Introductory Blog Post - 481

Hi, I’m Nathan and I’ll be graduating this semester. I chose to major in Public Relations because STEM seemed very hard and not quite my taste.

I’ve mastered the art of customer service after working at Safeway and Fred Myer for a few years. For about a month, I worked as a Verizon Wireless customer service rep (call center) where customers would just yell at me on the phone all day. So I left the call center and worked at Best Buy in Asset Protection (security). I absolutely loved being at Best Buy, friendlier customers and a very relaxed environment. I don’t work now because I just want to focus on classes so I can graduate.

Once I get my new laptop, I’m going to try to learn to produce hip hop music in my free time. I’ve also been growing an Instagram meme page for about 8 months now and it’s probably been one of the funnest projects I’ve ever taken up. Honestly, that’s part of the reason why I’m taking this class in the first place! I want to learn how people interact with mobile media and use that knowledge to grow more followers on my meme page. I love understanding the dynamics of social media.

I vision myself traveling a lot as some sort of digital entrepreneur. Hopefully I can find some great tools and tips in this class that will get me closer to my vision!

Ideal learning environments are different for everyone. But from my experience, there are a few things that people need to understand to facilitate an effective learning environment/session: 

Time of day: Do your work at the time of day where you feel the most “fresh”. I personally love to tackle my assignments right after eating breakfast and getting my coffee. Some prefer working later in the day and that’s cool.

Location: This one is pretty simple, just choose a place where you’re comfortable and has little opportunities for distractions. The library is my go-to place when I decide to study on campus. Also be wary of the type of people in your surroundings, as they have an impact on your mind.

Diet and Exercise: This is obvious yet the college life can sometimes take our minds away from the simplest of necessities. Don’t work on empty stomachs, try avoiding sugary foods to avoid those sugar crashes and exercise regularly to be at the top of your game!

Also, take breaks! No need to push yourself too hard, life is already short and too much stress will speed up your aging process.