Staying Connected with the Internet!

With every step forward in technological advances, there have been people who have proclaimed that it was going to be the fall of society. Also, with each step forward people have been able to become more connected to other people with less effort. For instance when people first started to read and began to write stories down there were those who viewed this as a step back because it would mean that people would no longer need to recall stories at any moment; they would just have to read from a piece of paper. However, this new technology made sharing stories easier for people. When the telegraph was first introduced people were able to communicate with friends and family members who lived in another city. With the telephone, people could talk to someone else across the state or country. Now, with the internet people are able to communicate with other people from all over the world. There are also people who believe that this new technology is going to destroy our community life and make people grow farther apart. I believe the internet is helping us become more connected to each other through email, social networking sites and blogs.

I believe that with the internet people are becoming more connected because they can communicate with people in any part of the world if they wish. When people were graduating from high school and college 15 years ago it was hard for them to stay in touch with their classmates and close friends. If they wanted to communicate with people they did not have the luxury of being able to switch on their computer and check Facebook. Even though 10 years ago some people had an email address, the number of those who did is miniscule compared to the number that have one (or even two) today. Today it seems like everyone and their dog has an email address. It is easier for people to communicate via email today because, along with the rise in addresses, people are spending more time checking their email.

There are a plethora of social networking sites on the internet but the two most popular are Facebook and MySpace. When Facebook first emerged, it was only for those who were Harvard students, then it was for Ivy League students, then it was available for any college student. Not long after it was made available for college students, it was available for anyone with an email address, no matter what their age or geographic location was. Now more people are getting Facebook accounts so they can stay in touch with family members, friends and even co-workers. There has been a rise in the number of parents who have set up accounts on Facebook so they can stay in touch with their children who are away at college. Even though they are able to pick up the phone and call each other, it is more fun to write messages to each other.

The other popular social networking site is MySpace. There are more bands that have MySpace pages than there are on Facebook and they use their pages to connect to their fans. The bands put up tour dates, pictures of their shows and some songs on their personalized MySpace pages for their fans to look at. Before MySpace, a fan would have a difficult time finding out tour dates and other information about their favorite bands. Now that MySpace is around all a person has to do is go to their MySpace page and look up the information they want.

Blogs are also helping people stay connected. Any person is able to blog about any topic they want at any time they want. It is common for people to write blogs when they go on trips so friends and family members can experience the trip along with the traveler. Before the internet, people had to wait for the person to return home from the trip to hear about it and wait even longer for the pictures to be developed. Nowadays, a person can blog about their trip and upload pictures about it and people can see the blog as soon as the author pushes the submit button. For instance, when I went to Croatia and Germany this summer I set up a blog about my trip for my friends and family to experience a portion of what I’ve experienced. Because of the internet I was able to write my blog in a town on the Adriatic Sea in Croatia then write more while gazing at the Swiss Alps in Konstanz, Germany.

The internet has helped people connect in ways that were not possible 15-20 years ago because of email, social networking sites and blogs, among other things. Even though there are many people who become addicted to the internet and separate themselves from parts of society, this is not the norm. The internet has linked people together from different cities, states and countries. Because of the internet we are experiencing what people call Glocalization. This is when what is considered local has grown from within a town to the whole world. It is when I can be in Germany and talk to a friend back home in Minnesota on a webcam and feel like I am sitting across a table from them chatting about our days and adventures.

Goodness Gracious, Groups Galore!!

This is my second response paper for my Internet and America class.

Are you part of more groups now, or fewer? What is the nature of your participation in these groups? Do you feel closer to others who are members of your groups, or more distant? Why? What sorts of things does the internet allow your groups to do that might not have been possible without it? Or, is there no change at all, with the internet having no real effect on the way you are socially engaged with others?


Off the top of my head I can think of 80 total groups that I am a part of, 52 of which are Facebook groups. The groups that I am a member of that are online groups number around 49. They include being a member of Facebook, the various Facebook groups I am part of and MySpace. The majority of the Facebook groups I have joined have been just for fun and do not hold much importance in my life. For example, a couple of the groups I am a member of are: “If you remember this you grew up in the 90’s”, “The domino effect” and a few groups that friends made for projects they had to do in a class at one point. There are a few groups that I have joined that have some sort of meaning to me. Some of them are fan pages of bands, television shows I enjoy or causes that I strongly believe in.

Since coming to college and being online more than I was in high school I am sure that I have become a part of more groups, both online and offline. I have become a part of a new group of friends, I have become a leading figure in my taekwondo club and have joined two academic groups based on my major (history) and minor (communication studies). I have also joined the group of students who call Luther College home as well as the group of seniors who will be graduating this May.

When I am with my group of friends that live with me in my cluster, I feel as if we are a family and a support network for each other. I feel very close to these people, more so than my other groups of friends at Luther, with one exception (which I will discuss later). We do not use the internet to communicate with each other except when we are on breaks. If we use an instant messaging server to talk to each other while classes are in session we tend to make fun of the person who initiated the conversation because we are in such a close proximity to each other. “Dude, I’M TWO DOORS AWAY FROM YOU!!” I do not believe that the internet allows us to do things we wouldn’t be able to do with each other since we are almost always within yelling distance of each other.

In the last paragraph I mentioned an exception to my group of friends I live with. The group that I feel closest to on campus is made up of the only other two people on campus from my high school. I have known these two girls since I moved to Byron in fifth grade. The internet has helped us stay maintain some contact with each other since we no longer live in the same building. During our junior year one of the girls lived in the same cluster as I did. One of the girls has an AOL Instant Messenger screen name, but is never on it anymore, and the other does not have a screen name. If I want to talk to them I have to go on Facebook chat or Google chat. I think that if we did not have these mediums of communication we would not stay in contact as much as we do, but we would still stay in continuous contact and meet up with each other.

As I mentioned earlier I am in about 50 groups on Facebook, many of which are just mindless groups and I do not have any participation in these groups other than being just another member. There are other groups that I have joined because I enjoy what or who they represent. I am a member of the “Friends of the Boundary Waters” and “Boundary Waters Enthusiasts” groups. I do not post on their walls a lot but I do try to be an active member in the groups. One of my favorite summer activities is an annual trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) with my high school buddies. We all enjoy our time spent in the wilderness and would hate to see it ruined. I found these two groups and liked what I saw on their pages. The “Friends” group sends the members updates and newsletters about what is going on in the BWCA. Some of their newsletters have been about gatherings to raise money for various aspects of upkeep in the BWCA. Unfortunately I have not been able to make them because they are usually in Ely, MN on weekdays and that’s a long drive from Decorah, especially during school! I have invited all of the people I have traveled with up there to join the group, which they have. We all talk about what is going on up there and on the site when we are all together.

Another group I belong to is for the show “No Reservations” which is a show on the Travel Channel about a New York chef who travels around the world and looks at different food in various cultures. Each week during the season I receive notifications about what is going to be featured on the next episode. The notifications include a text description along with a short video clip. I do not post very often on the wall because I use this group to stay caught up with what is going on with the show.

The internet has helped the three previous groups reach a wide range of fans and keep them updated. It has enabled them to gather people for fundraising events (BWCA groups) and keep people updated on what the crazy host will do for his next episode. Because these two groups are for fans and enthusiasts of the things represented, I do not feel close to any of the members, except for the ones I invited myself. I do not feel close to them because they are from all over the world and the groups have about 1,000 fans each which makes it hard for anyone to be close to that many people at one time.

DRUMROOOOOLLLLLLLLL............ASSIGNMENT #1!!!!

This is the first assignment for my communication studies course. The assignment was to answer the following questions: When did you first use the 'net? For what purpose? When did you first log-on yourself with your own account? How did you use it? What technology did you have available and how was it different than what you use now? What place or role did the 'net have in your life when you first began to use it, and how has that changed for you now?

When I look back at my own personal history of the internet I have to go back to seventh grade. I remember sitting in our unfinished basement on the computer. I cannot recall what brand it was but the screen was fairly small with a big bulky monitor which sat upon a horizontal tower. It had a CD-ROM drive and 3 ½ floppy drive. The main reason I would use the computer was to go onto the Sports Illustrated for Kids website and play their games. It wasn’t long after I was able to access the internet in my home that I got an email account because all of my friends had email accounts as well. It was on juno.com since that was our internet provider. After we switched our internet provider, I set up my hotmail account. I have no idea what it was but it was probably something very silly, but obviously sounded awesome at the time. I remember sending emails back and forth between friends and family and myself.

Around ninth grade I upgraded and got my own AOL instant messaging screen name since my other friends had their own. After that, I spent the majority of the time on AIM. For awhile I had the music sharing program Kazza. I thought it was so cool that I could find my favorite songs and music videos. After hearing about viruses that could be downloaded from the files, my dad made me get rid of it. That was a sad day for me, but probably for the best.

The first computer we had was not very powerful. It also had a bulky monitor and tower. When looking back at the first couple of years we had internet access, it was so slow but seemed like the greatest thing since sliced bread back then. We had a dial-up modem so I was only allowed to be on the internet for 45 minutes at a time. If the incoming call alert popped up I had to click the “answer” button no matter what I was doing; even if I was in the middle of a conversation on AIM. I remember getting upset whenever that stupid alert would pop up and I was talking to a friend or two on AIM. If I wanted to talk to people uninterrupted I had to do it late at night on the weekends.

During my sophomore year we got a new computer. It still had a tower but had a flat screen monitor. I thought it was cool that the monitor didn’t weigh a ton and wasn’t overly bulky. It wasn’t until I came to college that we got a cable modem. I thought it was so awesome that we had cable internet because I didn’t have to wait forever for a webpage to load. I could also stay connected to the internet AND have the phone open. I was so happy! Now I have my own laptop with wireless internet capability. My laptop is more powerful and has more storage space than our family computer. We also bought a wireless router for our home during my junior year of college. I was ecstatic when we got it hooked up. I remember turning on my wireless radio and walking into our living room and checking my email. It was such a cool experience to be able to check my email AND watch a movie. What was interesting about the experience was that I was sitting in the same spot that our first computer had been, except this time our basement was finished and I was able to set my computer on my lap and be connected to the internet.

When I first started using the internet I didn’t spend a lot of time online because I was highly active in sports and enjoyed being at practice and outside. I also would spend most of my time after practices working on my homework which was mostly worksheets (I miss those easy assignments). Occasionally I would spend time online for projects that I had to finish. Near the end of my high school career my school started putting our grades, lunch accounts and some teacher info online. I would occasionally check these, but not as much as I do now that I’m at Luther.

Now that I am in college I find myself spending more time on the internet than I did when I was in high school. I spend the majority of my time out of class on the internet. When I come back to my room I check my email, facebook and sign on to AIM. I also spend a large portion of my time online doing research for papers and reading news websites. At nights when I am back at home I am online for a few hours a night. After my family goes to bed I do downstairs and watch TV while chatting online or play random games I find on various sights. Sometimes I also use the internet to watch TV shows that I have missed the previous week or old episodes that I want to watch again.

Since the first time I logged on to the internet up to the present moment, I have noticed a significant change in how the internet is used and the technology we have to access it. It has gone from the crawling speed of dial-up to the blazing speed of the newest internet connection.

Numero Uno

I set up this blog for my Communication Studies course titled Internet and American Life. The following entry is my first paper assignment.

Just for kicks and giggles here is a picture of me and some friends at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin in January 2008.