Post #4

To reiterate from last week's material, I do not think Facebook correlates with GPA. I thought we had a good class discussion about this topic and I think it is safe to say that most people in the class agree that Facebook and GPA do not affect one another. Facebook is like anything else, if you spend a lot of time on something other than class work, then your class work may suffer. However, we are in a society where multitasking is becoming the norm. Therefore, if someone does spend a lot of time doing something it does not mean they are not focusing on school work at the same time. I will admit that I spend an ample amount of time on Facebook, but I do not think my grades suffer because of it. In addition, many people simply leave their Facebook page up all day while they attend to other tasks. The person may be logged on but may not be actively participating in it. I do not agree with the article that states that Facebook may affect GPA.

As for this week's readings, I can't say that I really disagree with any one particular item. As seen below, the most interaction I had with Multiple User Domains (MUDs) was from watching the show, "The Office". I particularly like this clip of the segment because of the title, "Second Life Is the Same". In this clip, Dwight creates an avatar that is exactly the same as his real life person. While the readings focus on avatars that are different than real life people, I can't help but wonder if some people make avatars to resemble themselves. The readings pertaining to this were fascinating. I liked the contrast in reading articles that emphasized users theat were typically male and in their early twenties to emphasizing adolescent girls. In "Digital Literacies of the Cybergirl" by Angela Thomas she discusses how adolescent girls express themselves and give themselves a new identity in "The Palace". While it was disappointing to see that many of the girls identified themselves through sexuality it was nice to see that they were also emphasizing empowerment, originality, and reinvention.

In correlating this week's articles with last weeks, I do not think we can make the assumption that Facebook and other computer games reflect GPA. At least for the girls in this study, I was intrigued by how intelligent their typing seemed. They even made the point that their text in "The Palace" was more refined than everyday conversation and that it was difficult to express sarcasm. It seems that these on-line social networks are almost improving intellectual ability because the user must think about what they want to say and how they will be able to express that in a clear way so the other person knows what they are saying.


To view the video clip, please follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3d_fqDcN1s
(This video is property of Youtube.com)