"Can Your Online Life Ruin Your Credit?"

Mies, G. (2010). Can Your Online Life Ruin Your Credit?. PC World, 28(5), 24. Retrieved from EBSCOhost

Banks and other financial institutions are now using sites such as Facebook and Twitter to target find good credit customers. These institutions examine your profile information, your activity, even your friends. This is where the question "can your online life ruin your credit?" Rapleaf, a San Francisco-based social media research firm are saying no, the information is only used by marketers not the people in charge of making decisions about your credit. The information is also collected and used for promotional offers on credit cards and advertisements for certain products. Some of these finacial companies are judging your finacial status based on your social networking life. Banks also base your credit on what kind of friends you have, if your friends are home-owners, pay their bills on time they assume you will too and it may approve your loan faster. The banks arn't the only ones watching your online activity, so are bill-collectors. Bill-collectors look for alternative contact information and they also monitor your behavior, like if your buying frequently new things and not paying you debts; it will be noted. Be cautious you never know who's watching you.

"Television the Plug-in Drug"

In Winn's essay she examines how television has taken over family valuesand quality family time. She states how in the 1950's television was new technology, but the family viewed the television programs together. Today, families split up and watch television programs seperately and tend not to interact except during commercials. The writer concludes that television is growing to be the babysitter, entertainer, peer, and educater. Parent's are planning their scheduele around television programs, and she has stated that their was originally one television per household. Today their are four or five televisions in a household and the family secludes themselves to their own space. This text gives the reader a better insight on how television manages our time with ourselves and our families. Families need to turn "off" the television and get "on" with life.

"Where I Lived and What I Lived For"

In Thoreau's essay he portrays how life and technology are evolving very fast and how we do not take time to appreciate the simpliest ways of life. The author compares how we base our daily ways of living by the news we read and the gossip of others. The inventions coming into the nation are making life frivilous, not laboring for achievement. "If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both sides of the surface." This statement gives the idea we are no longer within our moral, but the morals of how others perceive the fact. This essay states life should be taken one day at a time, to live by how we feel within ourselves, not to be influenced by the easy way of getting things done. If we feel it is not complete, we need to check our moral compass to make it right.

"A Deadly Distraction"

Weir, K. (2011). DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION. Current Science, 96(13), 4-5. Retrieved from EBSCOhost

Texting while driving is a serious safety issue with our drivers today, a risk of an accident or near accident is 23.2 times highter. The problem may become more severe as more teens become licensed drivers, and as adults add it to their cellphone comminication abilities. At least a hundred thousand motor vehicle accident occured because texting was involved. Twenty-one percent of one point two million accidents occured because the use of a cellular device. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2009, half a million people were injured and fifty-five hundred were killed do to distracted driving. When a person is legally drunk they are four times more likely to get into an accident, when you are texting while driving the chances are eight times more likely: double that of a drunk driver.

"Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted"

This article diects how Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook sites are the "new" pen pal. Previously people would organize through word of mouth, news paper articles, church, school, or local community. Presently, people can organize a simple campaign or organization on a worldwide scale. No longer is there a need to write to your pen pal in Mexico, but we can email to all seven continents with a click of a mouse. Society is more dependent on email communication than ever before. Meeting new people each day can give a person a sense of self worth and importance. This article expresses how we use to organize and come together as a community. In today's world, the community is no longer in a certain area, but a myriad of people from countries worldwide.

"Media Multitasking"

Vogt, M. (2005). Kids and media: More multitasking. Reading Today, 22(5), 7. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

In this article it examines media use within in children and teens, and their capability to multitask media. Children and teens in today's world are becoming extremely proficent at mulitasking media, they're able to fit eight and a half hours of exposure in six in a half hours real-time in one day. While technology continues to develop children and teens are able to fit in the new technology without cutting back time on old technology. A study done by Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation "Generation M," exmained media in the lives of eight to eight-teen year olds, this study concluded that exposure to media content in young people has increased by more than an hour in the past five years because of media multitasking the hours devoted to it remains steadly rising.

"Dating Online"

Epstein, R. (2009). The Truth about Online Dating. Scientific American Mind, 20(3), 54-61. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Online dating has become more and more acceptable in society, this article is about the trends and studies about online dating. More than fifty million people in the U.S. are using online dating and the satisfication levels are high, some studies have also shown that twenty percent of online daters have admitted to being deceptive; lying about age, weight, business, income. Sara Kiesler claims that by nature "computer-mediated communication," has no restrictions or restraints. This allows users to be able to say anything they feel like saying with no repercusions. Plus lying about age, weight, or income increases a users chance of more responses. Despiste the many problems of online dating, the services are booming. It is now a six-hundred million dollar industry with over eight-hundred companies worldwide. The next step in online dating is "virtual dating," which gives people the chance to interact with eachother by a virtual tour. Studies have shown virtual dating is subsequently more successful face to face meetings, it eliminates some of the safety concerns which prevents many from meeting face to face.

"Response To Classmate's Blog"

In one of Ansley's blog entries called "Internet Addiction," it discusses internet addiction in college students and how their more vulnerable to having internet addiction compared to other age groups.

I agree with her completely, I think as college students we have so much going on in our lives: school, work, homework. So we're constanly on the internet on our smartphones, laptops, in the library looking up information for homework assignments, going on Facebook, checking our grades, looking up our scheduele for work. We have to be multitaskers to do all these things and be successful at them. Internet addiction is something we need to pull back from, because there is other things besides the internet. I think as college students that's what we get wrapped up in and lose sight of. Interntet addiction is a problem in our students, we need to find a resolution.

"Myspace"

Myspace has quickly been forgotten, it has now being replaced with Facebook and Twitter. Myspace opened the door to all the rest of the now social networking site that we use today. When Myspace was created everyone wanted to get one it was new and fresh, it opened the door for old friends to reconnect and keep in touch, while being able to express yourself through the background of your page and your about me. I think Facebook and Twitter will be soon forgotten, too. The way society is moving there is bound to be a replacement.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

In this article Nicholas Carr explains how people are more in need of "right now," information without researching manually. He compares the web search as a hierarchy of other previous inventions that changed how people connected to words and knowledge. He concludes people are getting more dependent on quick fixes of immediate information instead of searching through written material.
This article on "Google," gives a better perception of how people have lost their ability to relax and "have a good read," in which the text is absorbed slowly into the brain and into our long term memory, instead of quick text notes that are read and soon shortly forgotten.

"Youtube"

Youtube is what some would call a household name now. I've never met someone who didn't know what Youtube is; its like Google in a sense, you search something and there's thousands of results. It is used for virtually everything: speeches, video diaries, music videos, commercials, ect. It has everything, it has infinite things that you could search. It's Google but with videos.

"The Machine is Us/ing Us"

I found this video to be very eye-opening, it shows how we as a society have evolved from writing on a piece of paper and having to erase our mistakes to digital text. With didgital text we can change it, move it around, put links and pictures in it, the possibilities are endless. It show how us as a society have evolved over the last half century. People across the globe can gather, send, collaborate on information, we're able to communicate in a whole other light. We can go on the internet and put anything we want, we can revise, change information. We create the web into what it is today, the web is also a place we seem some what addicted to. We are quick to steal others ideas and call them our own, we as society need to rethink a few things: ethics, privacy, authorship, copyright. Because on the "Machine," everything is out in the open and free; we should put limits.

"Are Smart Phones Making Us Stupid Too?"

People are relying on technology more than ever, as smart phone become more advance and obtain more information, we tend to lose sight that they are not always right. We think that since it technology gives us this information it must to be accurate. We tend to try and find the easiest and quickest way to do things, but in reality that's not always the best way to get things done.