Reflections On My Digital Life

Digital Media

After completing a quiz about digital media and digital life, I was actually surprised to see how many teens say they use privacy settings to protect their information, to be completely honest, it's something that I did not expect. I know many people who don't use their privacy settings or don't even realize that they are there, so to see that four out of five teenagers use these settings was sadly surprising.

I was also slightly surprised to see that one half of kids ages 11-18 say that they feel like a different person when they are online. I can understand what they mean and why they feel that way, but I never realized how big that percentage was.

Some of statistics I learned in the quiz are very different to the way I use digital media in my life. I do not send more than a 100 texts every single day, I have never ever received or sent anything sexual and I don't think all my friends share too much information online, maybe a couple, but not all of them.The rest of these statistics though I can relate to. I keep my phone by my bed, I have made my own creations and put them online for people to see, and I use my privacy settings.

The digital media that I use the most would probably be my Ipod, because I listen to music a lot and that is the only device I have music on, but I also use my cellphone for when I message people on Facebook and just text. What I use the least is probably the family laptop that we have at home. I used to use it more than I probably should have, and I still do when I am typing up a story, but ever since I got my own tablet I stopped using it as much.

The Digital World

There are many up's and down's when you think about this generation and how we have and are growing up in a digital world. One good thing, to me anyway, is that it makes it much easier to display things that I wrote and pictures that I've taken. Things that I am proud of and want people to see just for the fact that it's original and mine, I don't care if they don't like it. If there was no internet, it would be a little harder to get things out there. I would have to leave the house for one thing, and that's something that my antisocial self doesn't like doing sometimes. The internet makes this a much more easier and efficient thing to do! A downside however, though ironically, is that I don't get outside enough. I lose touch in people, not that I stop talking to them, but I forget what it's like to talk to people face to face. You get used to looking at a screen, and that's a bad thing. Digital social skills are only helpful to an extent, and if you get so used to watching a screen and typing on a keyboard instead of hearing the words come out of your mouth, that can have a larger affect on your life than you may first think.

The internet has however improved some of my relationships with people, and have broadened my horizons I guess you could say. I know what I just said was all negative and screaming, "Talking online is bad! You will fall in love with the screen and not the person behind it!", but ignore all that! It's true though, but ignore it for this paragraph only.

With the use of the internet, I have met people oceans away and still talk to them now and then, and I have also gotten to know people a lot better. People who I probably would never approach and start talking to in the halls or on the street. In that way, the internet is a wonderful thing that does connect people, but it's losing that connection that worries me and others. As soon as you stop typing back and forth, you can tend to forget. It's a connection, yes, but it's not the same. It's not as deep and ever lasting as when you talk face to face over a pot of coffee. The internet can connect (I have used that word way too many times) people and introduce people, but if that isn't brought over to the physical world, that connection can be easily lost and not many would even care, and that's part of the problem when it comes to society as a whole.

Our society is (mostly, some people will be offended but no offence intended) growing into a brain-washed group of Google programmed bodies. When we don't know something, we just Google it without even attempting to figure it out. We shorten words because it "takes too long" to type the whole thing out. We put things online without a thought about the consequences. We think that online isn't real, that what we say and what we do will just disappear, and no one will think about it after you shut the phone off or close the tab. Well that's a lie. These are all things that shouldn't even be considered let alone fact, and there are countless more. We are a society that claims to be a strong and connected one, but has anyone ever actually looked outside the window instead of the digital one and looked?

What I do on the internet is most likely very different than what my fellow peers in this class do. I write online. I am part of a website called Wattpad and I have 13 books n there. Most of them are not complete or are so terrible I should really take them down, but still! They are there. They are mine. People read them and that makes it extraordinary. I have one book of poems that has over six thousand reads and numerous votes, and it's definitely a way that has connected me with people. Complete strangers on this site have complimented and asked for help on their stories and they are not strangers any more. The internet is a way to connect and evolve in ways that were once not thought possible, but to disconnect to get a better connection is something that should be taken into consideration.

Mr.Savoys Presentation-Journal Entry #5

On March 24th, Mr.Savoy came to our classroom to show us a presentation that talked a bit about what we had been discussing in class, which was "Facebook Follies" and the dangers of displaying personal data. He also asked the question, "Are you in control?". What he meant by this was that we are losing control of technology and the way we use it. When we send a text to the wrong person, forget a password, or have accounts hacked into, we are losing control of technology.

Mr. Savoy showed us a video by Jack Vale where he was doing a Social Media experiment. He was wondering how easy it would be to get strangers personal information by searching them from the tweets and and times people have "checked in" near his location. When he went up to random people with information he had gathered form Instagram and Facebook, they were freaked out and didn't fully understand how he could possibly know so much about them without ever meeting him before. People don't realize how easy it is to acquire "personal" information about someone. Private data is private for a reason, and more people should have come to the realization that privacy settings are there for a reason, and a small comment or picture by you could have some serious consequences, or cause someone like Jack Vale to learn more about you than maybe you thought possible from a stranger.

After having seen this presentation, I found an article that talked about ad tracking, which was also briefly discussed in Mr. Savoy's presentation. The article was titled "Ad Tracking-Is Anything Being Done?". It talked about computer users privacy and how there have been complaints on both ends. In 2011, DNT technology (Do Not Track) was introduced to protect computer users privacy, and now there is downloadable software to specifically monitor your website activity. Most websites still have cookies that are sent to your computer after you have visited their website, and that's why people are wary. There is another three part article you can read called "The Paranoid's Survival Guide". Where it goes into greater detail of ad tracking and it's invasion of privacy.

Facebook Follies-Journal Entry #4

On the 20th of March, we watched a CBC Doc Zone's documentary titled "Facebook Follies". It was a little over an hour long program that talked about the consequences of what we put online for everyone to see, and how we should think before we post.

  Many people appear not to think before posting or tweeting. It seems that all that matters is the pictures themselves and not the consequences down the road. These people are taking a big risk, because you never really know who your friends are until it's too late to hit "unfriend".  Facebook makes social forgetting impossible, and this is partly why the cyber crime hub of the world right now is Facebook. You may not think about it now, but that silly photo you put up of your friend for the world to see could ruin his/her career twenty years down the road. It doesn't matter if it happened when you were 18 and now you're 45, that picture, or that comment, or post, or tweet, will forever be a representation of you.

I think people should really be more aware of this and understand how dangerous it can be to display any type of personal information, or any seemingly innocent joke or empty threat. Even if you don't think that it is harmful, sarcasm can't always be heard via text. Remember that.

It is human nature to connect with people and Facebook is just one convenient way of doing that, but people don't seem to realize that private data is private for a reason. Once you put that on the internet, there is no dragging it back. It is out there forever.

Journal Entry # 3 Sploder and Gaming

I like to think that I am a gamer, but I know that I am not. Gaming is something that I do enjoy doing and I do like watching other people do, but I don't play games enough to classify myself as one of them.  I do talk about games though, and sometimes more than books or TV shows because I hang out with serious(ish) gamers. People who all they do is play Xbox, and when they are not playing Xbox they are playing a game on their phone or computer, or watching someone else play, or talking about a game, or talking about wanting to play a game. It has become a bit of an exhausted topic, but with new games coming out all the time, it renews itself continually.

They're technically not mine, but I do own lot's of gaming consoles. We have an Xbox 360, a Wii, the old Play Station 2 and the even older Nintendo 64 (three of them actually), and it's sad how some people don't even know what that is. I used to play a lot of games on the computer and my phone, but I just use those for pictures and word documents now, so there is never enough storage. When I do play games though, they are usually Call of Duty or an RPG game meant for the Xbox or tablet. I also like the classic Mario and Legend of Zelda. Classics are always the best! Always. Don't you dare ever deny it.  We have a couple Sherlock Holmes games too though, and those are interesting because there is a lot of puzzles and things to remember as you go throughout the darkest streets of London. I guess you could say I like a lot of different types of games, even though I don't have the time to play them very often.

My favorite game would probably be...I don't know. I am the most indecisive person and now you are wanting me to pick one game to be my favorite? It would be worst if it was a book or movie, but still!  It's a hard thing to do! I have already mentioned some that I like above, so I guess you could consider those as my "favourites".

When using Sploder, I like how there are different types of games you can design. Not everyone is making the same one, and I like how there are different mechanics and aspects in each of those designs. Of course with a ton of people all using the same things, they start to get old and you realize how most of the games are exactly a like, besides a background or slightly altered story line.

I used the Retro Arcade for creating my game, just for the fact that it was retro. When he walks it sounds like Kirby! I was excited! There are also cat monsters and lizards with moustaches, who doesn't like lizards with moustaches? If I were to start over now or make a new game though, it would not be Retro Arcade. I was one of the first to start making my game, and didn't realize how popular that platform would be, but oh well! You can't be original all the time, especially if someone else did it first.

The only thing that was kind of confusing was the sliding mechanic when picking what you wanted in your game. It felt kind of like it was meant for a touch screen and was a little hard to manoeuvre. Plus the canvas and how it was a little glichy when putting the floor and ceiling. It might have been just me, or the fact that I was using the netbooks and sometimes they aren't that great.

I don't think game creation is something that I would ever do, but then again I never really thought about it much. I have considered going into computer science though, and that can have a gaming aspect to it if that's what you want to do.  Games are fun though, and the world wouldn't be the same without them.

Sploder-Magic Merlin

This is the retro arcade game I made on Sploder, it's called Magic Merlin and is the most beautiful thing I have ever created. Definitely. No doubt about it. 

Make a Free Flash Game

Journal Entry #2: Web 2.0, Cloud Computing and Google Drive

After watching three videos and exploring the topic for a week or more, I have learned a lot on Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing, or at least I now know more than I did before. I have found out more on code, and the difference between HTML and XML. I didn't even know there was a thing called XML. Which is not my fault! So don't hold it against me please, or do, I don't care.

Anyway, the couple months or more I have been in this course alone has taught me a lot more about technology and computers, and now I know more about the cloud and how important it is to know how to code, which I have actually started to learn. (You can learn too here). I was a little surprised about how complicated it was to upload things to the internet before the invention of XML and HTML. Code used to be so complicated! And still is for some people who can't wrap their heads around the concept.

The topic I ended up choosing for my video was just computer programming. Nothing extravagant or anything so don't get too excited. It was an interesting ten minute film that inspires people to take up computer science and learn the art of coding. To be honest, the only reason I chose the video is because I was behind and couldn't find anything else that would be short and considered mildly interesting, but I don't regret it! It was a hasty choice, but obviously not all hasty choices are bad ones.

Now about Google Drive, we have used it to write responses and create presentations so far in this class, and I personally like it a lot. I like the feature of adding comments and having other people edit your work, which in most cases I really don't like, but I didn't mind it with Drive. You can also chat with fellow students who happen to be sitting just across the room, but what else is technology for?  If we were using this for other collaborations and projects though, we could still use the same program and communicate with people elsewhere.

There wasn't a whole lot that I found confusing or challenging when I was using Google Drive. The only thing that I had a slight problem with was sharing my work with other students. In some cases I had to send it many times before they were able to see it, but that would most likely be a spelling error or something similar and not the actual programs fault. Overall though, I would definitely use Drive again and not just for in class projects.