The First Week

As far as an introduction goes my name is Jeffrey Robert Turner jr., but everyone calls me JR. I'm a junior at Stockton University, but still feel like a freshman; time flies. I took this class because when I heard the word portfolio I immediately thought stocks, but it turns out there are portfolios concerning things other than investments. I'm still going to stick with it though. Reason one being I'm too lazy to drop now and have to find a whole new class (that probably will be less interesting than this) and have to make up two weeks of work. Reason two is, I think there is some valuable information to be taken away from this course and I'm interested to stick around and hear what else I can use to benefit me in my not so distant future.
 I'm also a finance major. Hence why I was looking for a class about investment portfolios. I still have no idea what I want to do when I get out of school. I don't aspire to be anything special. I'd just like to contribute to society in a way that enables to me have enough income to support my hobbies (games, computers, and anything tech related really, I'm a nerd). So, here I am on the finance bandwagon. I'm also the biggest Flyers fan there is. Anything you ever want to know about the Flyers, I got you covered. Now, onto class related discussions.

The first thing I'd like to discuss this week is the first chapter of LOL...OMG! we were assigned. I thought Matt Ivester brought up some very valid points concerning kids and young adults and the dangers they face in this ever evolving world of technology we live in. It's no secret by now that everything you post online is permanent. Even if it cannot be found by a simple google search there are many recovery methods to retrieve data that is seemingly gone. I have seen social media ruin people's lives because they made a mistake and posted something inappropriate. I think one point he doesn't discuss (at least in the first chapter) is that technology has also streamlined communication. For governments, the military, corporations, and all they way down the ladder to you and me. Communication is near instantaneous now and because of this it creates an even bigger mess when someone messes up publicly. Wildfire is an understatement when were talking about how quickly news spreads on social media.

The first article I'm going to talk about can be found here. I think this is more of an older person problem being overwhelmed with new technology. While I do agree that following too many people can make your timeline unreadable I consider 'too many' to be well into the thousands. Two-hundred people is really not a lot. By the time I was in eighth grade I had well over five-hundred friends on Facebook. This isn't me bragging or anything either. Me and most of my friends got on the social media bandwagon early. Having that many facebook friends when I was in eighth grade was a common thing. One thing I would urge to educators, and anybody with influence really is that the likes of twitter and Facebook are NOT good sources to find information about the world around us. Connecting with people is a different story, although I don't see Twitter and Facebook being the kings of this for long. I quit using Facebook and I only use twitter when I'm bored. I don't use it to get my news or information. I'm sure you'll hear more about why I feel this way as the semester goes along.

So, next article. This one is from the perspective of a person that was a 'lurker'. To me, she was not technically a lurker. The term was coined on the website 4chan and has a niche meaning to us embedded in internet culture. Being someone who has been consumed by the internet and social media practically their whole lives I find it really funny when people outside my generation try to use terms used by my generation having no idea where that word came from or what it's implications are. It's a touchy subject for me. That aside, this person sounded like she had a very positive experience with social media. She was able to connect with other teachers and became part of communities that would not be possible without twitter, so I'm happy for her.

The third and final article can be found here. This one is short (I think some of the links you posted on LiveBinders are bugged.) I don't have much to say about this as I am unfamiliar with the people that are listed in this article. However, there is one piece of advice I'd like to give to those new to social media. Only follow someone if you've liked a post from them prior or are currently reading and enjoying their posts. Although I said before it is very possible to manage your feed with up to about 1500 people this is only true if the people you're following aren't spammers or redundant. It is not good to make a twitter and instantly follow hundreds of people. It's kind of hard to explain. It's kind of a feel thing you get from being on social media for many years, but there is a strategy to constructing your social media to keep it legible, but also gaining access to the largest amount of information possible.