Technology and Social Interaction

 I think that technology has a huge influence on social interaction. I think that people now sometimes use alternatives to real interaction by virtually interacting through AIM, Gmail Chat, Facebook, Blogger, etc. I think that the spread of technology has had a positive impact on my everyday face to face interaction, but I think that for some people it has created a negative effect. For example, I still see my friends all the time and I would much rather go to the mall or go get coffee than skype with someone for a few hours. Unfortunately, I do know some people that spend all their time online and have even had some friends who told me they cannot hang out because they are too busy online, which I think is just RIDICULOUS.  But for some people who have serious social anxiety or phobias of interacting with others, I think that it can be helpful to interact with others online where it is not as intimidating, and then hopefully also learn how to face to face interact with others. 

When it comes to meeting people online, I find the whole thing absolutely sketchy. When I was younger (probably about 13 to the age of 15), I had a Myspace account and I would have people I did not know contact me. Sometimes I knew it was a fake account and other times it was creepy older men who had kids as old as I was. I think because of this I am never accepting of meeting people online. In cases where you have met the person before, even briefly, I think it is fine to get to know them better online. As for dating websites, I guess that they can be a good place to meet someone but I am still a little bit skeptical about the actual legitimacy of that other person.

I think that we as a society should be a little worried about how technology is affecting our ability to interact face to face with others. While I do not think that everyone will lose that ability to interact, considering we are quite social creatures, that for some people it can be a little worrisome. I think that children at a young age need to be taught not to rely on the internet as a means of getting things across, but that face to face interaction is much more natural and better. I think that this will also reduce online bullying significantly and lead to a much more safe internet life for kids. Overall the internet is a great way to connect to all kinds of people all over the world and to obtain tons of information that would be virtually impossible without it, but as a society I think that we just need to know to not take it too far and loose real connections in real life.

Social Networking and Privacy

Personally, I think that I do not use sites such as Facebook or Twitters too often. I have friends who basically spend their entire day on Facebook, having it open in the background while they do their homework and checking it every few minutes. I, on the other hand, while check Facebook a few times a day. I have it as an app on my phone and I'll look through it for many five minutes and then look around for a bit more time when I turn on my laptop before I do my homework. Overall, I would have to say that I spend about 30 minutes a day (and this is a day where I have nothing to do) on average on Facebook, some days I do not even go on it at all. Twitter is a whole different topic for me; I do not understand Twitter at all or why it is so popular. If you are a celebrity I guess that it is a fun way to get in touch with your fans and update them on what you are doing. If you are anyone else, I just don't get it; why would you want to update people a few times a day on what you are doing? It seems a bit creepy and stalker-esque in my opinion. I have looked at peoples' Twitter pages before to see updates like, "buying a shirt at macys valley fair!" or ones like "about the go to the dentist office in san jose!" Really, do you think people care about those minuscule facts in your life? I think not. Anyways, before I get off topic, I am also not sure what FourSquares is, I have not hear of it before. Even after looking it up online, I still don't really get it.


I believe that privacy can be a huge issue on Facebook, or any social networking site. I think that people get carried away sometimes and feel a little too "safe" saying whatever they would like to say. One (extreme) example of this is of a 19 year old teenager that tried to hire a hitman via his Facebook updates! 19 year old, Corey Adams posted updates such as "I got 500 on a girls head who wants that bread? Hit me up anyway possible." referring to a girl that he was accused of raping last year and was about to go to trial for. A police officer replied to his inquiry for him, but Adams never showed up to the meet. While this is an extreme example, and also extremely stupid, I think it comes to show how people do not realize who may be reading their Facebooks or the trouble that they can get into with putting up dangerous posts such as these. It also gives a lot of information out to stalkers, especially the new "locations"app on Facebook which I am extremely opposed to.

On top of the lack of privacy and the growing stupidity with some kids' posts, social networking can also warp one's view of real hanging out and socializing in general. Back in the day, before Xanga, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter ,etc. one would have to be much more focused in what they are doing at the moment. They could not reach under the table to their Blackberrys and chat with friends about how they are so bored at family dinners, or when they are at a date that is going so terribly reach out to their friends for help to save them. It makes you able to be turned on at all times to all parts of the world and all your friends; back in middle school it was almost unimaginable to NOT be online the second you get home from school on AIM.

I think almost everyone has made mistakes when it comes to overexposing themselves online. Personally, I am very good about putting the highest privacy on my Facebook; while I do not care if others are to see my picture or what school I go to, I do not like them seeing too much. One of the times where I got caught in a sticky situation was with an after-prom party that I was going to have my house. I posted the invitations as a Facebook event and invited everyone that I deemed suitable to come to my party. Of course, not everyone was invited. When those who were not invited found out, they got jealous and went straight to the administration to tell on me. Because I went to a strict private school, everything you do outside of school, the admin has the right to get you in trouble for (yes I know, totally unfair and extremely annoying). One of the admin directors called my dad to basically tell on me for throwing a party at my house when my parents weren't going to be there. Well, this could potentially have been a bad situation for me, but my dad actually knew about the party, didn't care, and yelled at the admin for calling him during work hours. So in the end, I had won :) But, it could have been very bad if my parents were strict and did not know about this party.

The Hype, and the lack there of

While many of us have been excited for the release of the iPhone, it seems as though many news articles also claim that there is not enough hype around the release. Rather, I think that competitors such as At&t and T-mobile feel otherwise.

At&t has out-lashed with commercials emphasizing that they have the only network in which you can talk on the phone and surf the web at the same time.

T-mobile has out-lashed with commercials in which they claim to be the only 4G network in which you can use 4G and "facetime" at the same time.

Either way, I think both At&t and T-mobile are slightly worried about the iPhone's release to Verizon. Many loyal customers were lined up as early as 4:30 am for the release of the iPhone on February 11th in some cities such as Wilkes-Barre, PA  awaiting to receive their iPhone that has been long awaited.

So for most Verizon customers, or previous at&t customers that have switched over to Verizon, what is the main reason for choosing Verizon vs. At&t? The service of course. My boyfriend and I get in many arguments over Verizon vs. At&t, which one is better, faster, has better service, and which one has better customer service. To resolve this, I did a little experiment where I paid close attention to the service in both of our phones (we both have the iPhone4) as we went to different places for the day, and here are my findings:
His apartment: My phone= 5 bars, His phone= 2 bars. 
Smythe European car dealership: My phone= 5 bars, His phone= No Service
Basement floor of SCU library: My phone= 3 bars, His phone= No Service
Nordstroms Valley fair:  My phone= 4 bars, His phone= 1 to 2 bars
Santana Row: My phone= 5 bars, His phone= 3 bars

After that he wouldn't let me look at his phone anymore because he was frustrated that I was right all along. His phone also kept loosing 3G service and switching to EDGE especially in place where he had very little service.

Overally, I think the competitors are realizing that the Verizon iPhone is a threat and they are doing what they can for damage control, while some news sources claim that there is little hype, I may agree that it is not as exciting as I expected, but people are still very excited for the release.

The Verizon iPhone

A few weeks ago I found this Steve Jobs twitter. I thought that it was very interesting that he was openly making comments about AT&T's terrible service, could it be to please Verizon execs? or does he actually mean it? We do not know. Today I'll focus mainly on some of the different media and press that has been out for a few weeks now about the release and the hype of the Verizon iPhone.
The first of those articles would be from eweek.com in which a writer says that the "Verizon iPhone roll out fell short of Hype" and listing 10 reasons why. From his 10 reasons, the most notable were "1. where is the 4G" which Verizon had recently announced that they had received, the next was "6. Steve Jobs absence says everything" which we later find out is due to his poor medical condition and his following medical leave of absence, and another is "4. No data and voice at the same time" which can be a considerable downfall to some, but the chances of one really using the two simultaneously is actually very small.

Another article that came out today would be about the record highs in sales of the Verizon iPhone, the article (which is posted on Phonedog.com) states that within two hours of the pre-sale starting for Verizon customers, Verizon had to pause pre-order sales due to the massive amounts of orders coming in. I was definitely one of those customers. I had waited until midnight the very SECOND that the phone was able to be pre-ordered to get it.

Other articles are testers using the phone side by side to the AT&T phone and testing the service; to no surprise, the Verizon call only dropped once in New York, whereas the AT&T phone dropped calls several times. This article was posted on Yahoo! Finance, stating that For iPhone, Verizon was almost Heaven. The prices for AT&T service and the Verizon service is roughly the same, so why not switch to Verizon?

** Exciting Update ** I personally am getting my iPhone Today! 3 days before the actual release! :) 


Links to Articles:
PhoneDog
Yahoo! Finance
EWeek

My Media Intake

Monday, January 17, 2011

• Phone: approx: 1 hour texting, about 20 minutes phone time
• Computer: 3 hours (including homework and entertainment, watching netflix)
• Television: 0 hours

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

• Phone: approx: 30 minutes texting, about 15 minutes phone time
• Computer: 0 hours
• Television: 12 hours (watching marathon of Bad Girls Club with friend)

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

• Phone: approx 2 hours texting, 1 hour and 20 minutes phone time (international phone call with family)
• Computer: 3 hours (simultaneously watching netflix and writing paper)
• Television: 0 hours

Thursday, January 20, 2011

• Phone: approx 20 minutes texting; 15 minutes calling time
• Computer; 9 hours (studying for mid term and writing paper)
• Television; 1 hour

Friday, January 21, 2011

• Phone; approx 2 hours texting; 20 minutes calling time
• Computer; 4 hours (studying and finishing paper)
• Television; 2 hours

Saturday, January 22, 2011

• Phone; approx 1 hour texting, 1 hour calling time
• Computer; 2 hours (watching netflix)
• Television: 0 hour

Sunday, January 23, 2011*

• Phone; 3 hours texting
• Computer; 5+ hours (some homework but mostly watching shows online)
• Television; 4+ hour

* This day was influenced by my being sick. 


I have realized that with being sick it has influenced me greatly with more media consumption. Not really being about to go out and do anything leaves me at home tied to my laptop as well as my TV (seeing that I am still sick today I have basically been on my laptop all morning while also watching TV, proving both activities to be very unproductive especially together) I also find it interesting that I spend more time on my phone texting than actually talking to people on the phone. I think that speaks to the dependence on technology for a means of easier communication than actual human interaction. I also think that it is kind of humorous that during the days that I am in school (MWF) that I find myself texting much more than the days that I am not in school. Whether it is during class (oops) in between classes, or just in general after I leave for the day, I find myself being more inclined to text during the days that I have class than the days that I am free. I have not quite figured out why. One unique thing about this week is the fact that I had gotten sick by the end of it as well as the fact that I usually watch nearly no TV and this week it seems like I have watched hours of it!

I think my routine is pretty typical for most people around my age group. I think that people typically watch TV more than I do. I have friends that have the TV constantly on in their house. I have 5 TVs at home (including one in my room) and I rarely turn them on unless I am inclined to watch a show or have absolutely nothing else to do. My computer usage might be higher than most peoples, but that is also influenced by the week and what I have to do. Sometimes when I am not in school I wont touch my laptop for days, but seeing that I had a paper due and was sick, that highly influenced by computer usage.