August 2008 Archives

There are no more LOL's. This is serious. Completely scary. Unbelievable. Just plain on WOW!

This is my first experience with the term troll until now. I was completely blown away about the story of Megan Meier and how a simple troll could destroy such a young girl's life. The fact that a mother of one of Megan’s former friends created a fictional male character whom Megan later fell for is unthinkable, but reality. To know there is a growing Internet subculture filled with a fluid morality and disdain for online users is unreal.

"Drew later said she hoped to find out whether Megan was gossiping about her daughter."
- Malweblolence

It is horrible to read that people, in this case a mother, use the Internet to torment other individuals for laughs and giggles. I think it is people like these so called trolls that create problems in our world today, not just on the internet.

The internet is such a powerful world and a sort of luxury, why would people want to intentionally disrupt online communities with lies and deceit?

Trolls exploit insecurities to obtain drama and laughs and they do whatever it takes to achieve this. It is with this article, that I have become a little uneasy about the internet, security and what information I put out there on the web. I'm kind of freaked out. Aren't you?

"If you want to appear professional and courteous, make yourself available to your online correspondents. Even if your reply is, "Sorry, I'm too busy to help you now," at least your correspondent won't be waiting in vain for your reply."
- Writing Effective E-Mail: Top 10 Tips

Proper e-mail etiquette is essential especially in the professional world. This doesn't just refer to the actual writing of the e-mail but how long it takes you to respond to the e-mail. I find myself sometimes, waiting by the computer waiting for a response from a professor or a classmate on important information that I need to complete an assignment or a paper. I find it hard to believe that most of the people that I know check their email only two times a day. I check my e-mail hourly just in case there is something important that needs a quick response.

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"...the e-mail administrator has the ability to read any and all e-mail messages (and may fire you if you write anything inappropriate)."
-Writing Effective E-mail: Top Ten Tips

Just because you have a username and password combination doesn't mean that your e-mail is safe. There are people out there in the world that have the power to hack into any personal e-mail or website and expose personal and private information. My boyfriend has a work e-mail specifically for professional reasons and a seperate e-mail for personal items. His job has the authority to check his work e-mail at any given time to make sure he is not doing anything illegal or harmful to the company. I would advise anyone who has a work e-mail to keep that for the professional world and another for their personal life.

"Most teenagers do not think of their e-mail messages, text messages and social network postings as 'real writing', the study found."
-Informal Style of Electronic Messages is Showing Up in Schoolwork, Study Finds

When I began reading this article, it made me think of a presentation Karissa Kilgore and Jay Pugh did in our Literary Criticism class where they argued that IM chat and text messaging is a new form of writing and language.

As Karissa wrote on her blog, "With its pervasiveness, IM language is becoming a genre all its own. It has conventions like any other, and develops as the technology does. Although many find IM language to be a lack of form, the reality of the language is that the lack of 'form' creates the newer version of form."

As the English language evolves, writing in this new form will slowly be accepted. Within the first paragraph of the article, Lewin explains how this new language has blended into school. I, personally, have never used emoticons, text shortcuts or omitted proper grammar and puncuation in my schoolwork, but outside of essays and other schoolwork, I find myself using this new form of communication frequently.

Any type of writing is real writing even if it is improper. They are still expressing their views, ideas and thoughts just with using shortcuts and other forms of the new English language to express it in a quicker manner.

I can't wait to see what the English language will look and sound like in the year 2025.
I guess I will just have to wait and see.

"Maybe it's no surprise, given how empowering it can be to have one's own thoughts transported instantly across the globe."
-Freedom of speech redefined by blogs

The power of the 1st amendment allows for all the right to freedom of speech as the right to hold opinions without interference. With the help of weblogs, social networks, e-mail, and other forms of communication, we, the people are able to freely write about our opinions and thoughts. In the article it explains that a fellow Seton Hill graduate was harassed by football players after they read his blog about why Seton Hill shouldn't have a football team and how a Duquesne student was disciplined after posting remarks about gays on facebook. So basically, you can write whatever you want, just be aware of the repercussions that may follow.

When we write on our blogs, we are allowing the world to view our thoughts and opinions with a simple search on google or any other search engine. For example, when I type my name into google, the first link is to my weblog. A little embarassing, but empowering at the same time. With a simple mouse click, the world can review my writing, my thoughts, my creativity and passion on my blog. I have experience my internship bosses reviewing my Seton Hill blog from time to time and having them ask me questions about topics I discussed.

Having my words transported instantly across the globe is kind of overwhelming knowing that anyone is able to view my blog and comment as well. That is why when I write on my academic blog, I know who my audience is and try to use that in my writing.