Hey everyone, my name is Jamie Hacker and I am a sophomore in ILR. It might be really random that I am taking this class since I am in ILR, but I really enjoy many different aspects of what this class is about. I really enjoy Psychology and pretty much just learning about what makes us the way we are. Since we have grown up in the age of the Internet, it is only natural that we look at the Psychology of why the Internet has become such a crutch for people our age. On another note, I am from New Jersey, right outside of Philly, and I hope to someday be an entertainment or sports lawyer. This leads to an understanding of my personal infatuation with the internet.
I openly admit to being addicted to perezhilton.com as well as every other trashy gossip website that exists. I check perez at least 20 times a day, no joke. Is it that I am just obsessed with understanding the lives of celebrities? Maybe. I think the way different celebrities live their lives is fascinating. Some thrive on the attention they get from the paparazzi, such as Lindsay Lohan, while others tend to shy away from Hollywood and live their lives like normal people such as Julia Roberts. With bloggers such as Perez, even the shyest of celebrities have their lives constantly followed and every single mistake that they make is pinpointed, circled with a big black marker and splattered all over the Internet for obsessors like me to gauk at. Some people think it is sad that I spend hours researching the lives of celebrities, but I think of it as preparation for what will hopefully be my career someday. I plan to go to law school, which I have planned since I was probably 4. I have also been tracking celebrities since not too far after that. I think that it only makes perfect sense to combine the two fields into one and make a living off of it. In Wallace's terms, sites such as perezhilton.com, popsugar.com and thesuperficial.com (in case anyone needed new sites to go to!), can be classifed as asynchronous discussion forums because after the post discussions you can simply reply to them so that everyone viewing the log can see how you feel about specific subject matters. This blog that we are on right now is such an example.
My other option is to enter the sporting world in a legal way. I have always been a huge athlete, and if I do not continue to play sports, I would love to continue in some way by remaining connected to sports. The Internet gives me the ability to track sporting news that may not necessarily be on television or in the newspaper on a daily basis. How else would I find out who is winning the Champions League in European Soccer? Ok so that's a little about my background, but now for a little more on why I am taking this class.....
I hate talking on the phone! Text messaging has been one of the greatest inventions in the past twenty years, I would say, but it also seems to be one of the worst. I for one, am on the "best" side of the argument. I simply hate talking on the phone. I always have and I always will. Even if I am making a dinner reservation or calling information, I for some reason get nervous and do not know what to say. So, naturally when I discovered text messaging, I caught on pretty quickly. I text constantly, not only because it is convenient and fast, but because it helps to keep me from talking on the phone! Am I lazy? Probably. But I also just think that texting is so much more convenient than talking on the phone because you can do it anytime, even if you are in the middle of a movie. Because the technology of social computing that we use today is so advanced and somewhat impersonal, there are plenty of reasons that people find text messaging aloof. Breaking up with someone should NOT be done by a text message! Are we getting to the point where even typing away on the Internet is becoming obsolete? Because I completely see and understand why we are now entering the age of the Blackberry. My family constantly yells at my father for being on is Blackberry to do work all the time, but then I actually thought about what we were doing. My sister is always on her Blackberry, texting friends, getting Facebook emails, and checking her GMail. I am constantly text messaging as well, so we are really asking my dad to stop doing exactly what we are doing, which makes absolutely no sense. I guess being a hypocrit does not really matter because the Internet is "our generation's" and no one else can have it. Are we possessive over the people who only recently discovered the Internet? I know I get angry when my mom asks me how to use a search engine!
1 comment:
My name is Lina and I am also addicted to text-messaging. When people call I would purposely ignore them and then immediately text them back. Some have resorted to buying the new plan with 500 text messages a month for me and others have just given up and moved on.
It cannot be a coincidence that text-messaging has replaced phone conversations. For some people phone conversations are just not appealing. Yet it may also be because text-messaging has many positive features that the phone just simply cannot provide. One example is the advantage of skipping the expected courtesy greetings such as “How are you” and just jumping into the main point. Not asking such questions makes one appear socially awkward for it is one of the many socially imposed rules that one must keep from becoming an outcast. Another reason why text-messaging may attract “phone-discarders” like you and me is the advantage of having the time and leisure to actually think before replying. This takes away the risk of having an awkward silence or saying regrettable comments. With such advantages how could you not depend on text-messaging?
Post a Comment