Allow me to play the Devil’s Advocate for a moment and ask why is it the media’s responsibility to define someone’s identity? I think most of us are intelligent enough to make up our own minds on who we are, or at least, whom we wish to emulate. Media is a business, they are selling to who is buying. And who is buying has been middle-aged white guys for a long, long time. It’s no wonder that women and minorities have been traditionally under-represented in the media, they weren’t the ones buying product! However, it would be difficult to say that minorities and women are under-represented in media today. We may not always approve of how they are represented, but the programs must be selling product (the attention of the audience) to the advertisers. Take notice that there aren’t throngs of angry, misrepresented audience members protesting shows of minorities or else they would speak out, or at least, cease buying the product and no longer remain that commodity to the advertisers.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Spiderman’s uncle Ben as much as the next guy, and I agree that “with great power comes great responsibility.” And there is no doubt that Media has tons of power. They defiantly have a responsibility to not represent images that are overtly harmful to minds that are incapable of disseminating information but there is a limit to this. We must be some form of Gatekeeper and if we don’t agree with a particular representation, than boycott it, speak out against it. If we continue to view the program and advertisements than we are the true enablers to misrepresentation in the media.
Monday, October 12, 2009
There’s obviously a problem with depicting models that are unattainably and unhealthily thin, but there is another issue at work, media continues to lie. How about they try a little truth in advertising for a change? This article mentioned more than just this freakishly thin model, it mentioned lightening Beyonce’s skin and thinning various other models. It’s despicable just how much we are lied to through advertising, this example employs an additional malfeasance by the advertising institution by setting an unrealistic and unhealthy bar for young, female audiences.
It’s defiantly an ethical issue on both fronts and it seems like their breaking two moral laws. There’s really nothing wrong with touching up a photograph to make it look nicer in advertising. Maybe the light wasn’t just right, or the contrasting features didn’t stand out enough. I don’t see an issue with enhancing what is already there. I can’t speak for the other examples as I didn’t see those ads, but when you alter something to the point of creating something that wasn’t there before, like an emaciated waistline, that goes beyond touching up. At that point you may as well be animating an advertisement.
It’s defiantly an ethical issue on both fronts and it seems like their breaking two moral laws. There’s really nothing wrong with touching up a photograph to make it look nicer in advertising. Maybe the light wasn’t just right, or the contrasting features didn’t stand out enough. I don’t see an issue with enhancing what is already there. I can’t speak for the other examples as I didn’t see those ads, but when you alter something to the point of creating something that wasn’t there before, like an emaciated waistline, that goes beyond touching up. At that point you may as well be animating an advertisement.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Meaning, Chapter 5
It's interesting the book would mention "Born in the USA" as Regan's campaign song since more recently the same thing happened to McCain. I forget the song (maybe someone can help me out) but during his campaign, McCain used some one's song for his own interpretation and the artist didn't share his view. I have also heard of the "every breath you take" song really being more about stalking than love. These are both very contemporary and valid examples.
The book gets pretty involved in some of the theory behind meaning, but I took away that meaning is very often representational to something in the real world. We live in the real world we need to anchor meaning to something concrete, that's the easy part. However, when we try to give meaning, or rather share our meaning with someone else when discussing something more abstract, that's when different interpretations arise. It becomes very easy to see the same thing and take away completely different meanings as in the TV show example at the end of the chapter illustrates.
My little ones like to play a little joke on me. We pull up to a red stop light and they tell me, "Daddy, red means go, green means stop." Of course they both know full well that this is the inverse of reality, but even at a young age they understand this social code and they understand it so well that they find it ridiculous and humorous to try and fool someone into thinking otherwise. And these codes don't take long to learn. I suppose that is indicative of a social code or else we would have a more difficult time following the rules. Think of the Chinese encyclopedia and how tumultuous that would make our world. No doubt children would adapt faster, but the initial the ill effects would certainly be felt on the young despit their comparatively limited exposure to the codes we employ.
The book gets pretty involved in some of the theory behind meaning, but I took away that meaning is very often representational to something in the real world. We live in the real world we need to anchor meaning to something concrete, that's the easy part. However, when we try to give meaning, or rather share our meaning with someone else when discussing something more abstract, that's when different interpretations arise. It becomes very easy to see the same thing and take away completely different meanings as in the TV show example at the end of the chapter illustrates.
My little ones like to play a little joke on me. We pull up to a red stop light and they tell me, "Daddy, red means go, green means stop." Of course they both know full well that this is the inverse of reality, but even at a young age they understand this social code and they understand it so well that they find it ridiculous and humorous to try and fool someone into thinking otherwise. And these codes don't take long to learn. I suppose that is indicative of a social code or else we would have a more difficult time following the rules. Think of the Chinese encyclopedia and how tumultuous that would make our world. No doubt children would adapt faster, but the initial the ill effects would certainly be felt on the young despit their comparatively limited exposure to the codes we employ.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Media Making Chapter 2
Society has gone from a culture that relied on oral communication to that of one that is dependent on electronics for media and communication. Throughout this history it is arguable that the printing press was man’s greatest mass media achievement although the text focuses more on the inception of the telegraph. The telegraph truly was the onset of electronic media and changed forever the perception of time and space for anyone who was exposed to it.
As radio waves began to pierce the air rather than strings of wires, governments began to discover just how beneficial disseminating there message to a mass population could be. On the other hand, this new media was increasingly difficult to regulate. It makes one think of current issues of censorship, information hacking, identify theft and FCC regulations.
Different cultures tend to come up with their own media. High culture reads old books like Shakespeare and listens to old music like Beethoven. They treasure art as a form of media, not just wall hangings. Folk culture keeps it local such as folk music, blue-grass roots and values communication on a community level. Popular culture is really anything that appeals to the masses and is not limited or regulated by the strict confines of traditional and formal education.
As radio waves began to pierce the air rather than strings of wires, governments began to discover just how beneficial disseminating there message to a mass population could be. On the other hand, this new media was increasingly difficult to regulate. It makes one think of current issues of censorship, information hacking, identify theft and FCC regulations.
Different cultures tend to come up with their own media. High culture reads old books like Shakespeare and listens to old music like Beethoven. They treasure art as a form of media, not just wall hangings. Folk culture keeps it local such as folk music, blue-grass roots and values communication on a community level. Popular culture is really anything that appeals to the masses and is not limited or regulated by the strict confines of traditional and formal education.
Media Making Chapter 1
Media Making Chapter 1
I thought that was a good point about how 9/11 would have been different if there had been different media available, more or less sophisticated. It’s true that people are always jumping on twitter, like the rescuers of the plane that landed in the Hudson. Or go in the other direction and think about how it would have been different had the TV networks not been broadcasting live as the second plane hit, or if our communication infrastructure had not been prepared to relay the messages on every station of both TV and radio.
It is interesting to hear that a composer would not appreciate something like a phonograph. One would think that anything to Re-Produce a message like a great opera or musical score would be welcomed with open arms. Of course the phonograph has no soul, but the original artists still do and now they get to share it (or sell it) to anyone. The circumstance kind of reminds me of the camera taking away people’s spirits. That somehow this Re-Production takes away from the original rather than mimicking it. It is always interesting, if not frustrating to hear of some people’s resistance to new technology.
Speaking of reproducing, the communication models were covered well in class, but I liked the books example of the Transmission Model when applied to the Columbine Shooting and how this model supported the idea that violent music and video games significantly impacted the resulting tragedy. Whether or not this is true is for another discussion, but it certainly points out that this model will not always yield accurate conclusions. Propaganda can follow this same model for their own end regardless of any empirical evidence.
I thought that was a good point about how 9/11 would have been different if there had been different media available, more or less sophisticated. It’s true that people are always jumping on twitter, like the rescuers of the plane that landed in the Hudson. Or go in the other direction and think about how it would have been different had the TV networks not been broadcasting live as the second plane hit, or if our communication infrastructure had not been prepared to relay the messages on every station of both TV and radio.
It is interesting to hear that a composer would not appreciate something like a phonograph. One would think that anything to Re-Produce a message like a great opera or musical score would be welcomed with open arms. Of course the phonograph has no soul, but the original artists still do and now they get to share it (or sell it) to anyone. The circumstance kind of reminds me of the camera taking away people’s spirits. That somehow this Re-Production takes away from the original rather than mimicking it. It is always interesting, if not frustrating to hear of some people’s resistance to new technology.
Speaking of reproducing, the communication models were covered well in class, but I liked the books example of the Transmission Model when applied to the Columbine Shooting and how this model supported the idea that violent music and video games significantly impacted the resulting tragedy. Whether or not this is true is for another discussion, but it certainly points out that this model will not always yield accurate conclusions. Propaganda can follow this same model for their own end regardless of any empirical evidence.
Monday, April 13, 2009
New CT Research - Focus Group Transcripts
Cell Phone Use Focus Group Study Transcript 4/08/09
UW Whitewater
Leader – Jim Schwartz
Participants from right to left
Male 1
Female 1
Male 2
Female 2
Female 3
L- My research paper is on the use of cell phones and I want to start out by asking if everyone has a cell phone.
All – Yeah
L- What kind of cell phones do you all have?
All – (various, mostly LG)
L- Do you guys have lots of extra features on your phones?
F3- Texting and stuff.
L- Anything else that you have for features?
M1- TV
L- You can play live TV?
M1- I can, but I don’t because it costs a lot.
L- OK, it costs a lot, sure. How often do you use other extra features? Do you text a lot?
F3 – Well I text every day.
M1- (uses IM feature)
F2- Yeah, but you don’t use it every day.
M1- Yes I do, it’s (another feature) that cost’s extra.
L- If you text everyday, how often do you find yourself using them in middle of, something like, class?
F2- Yeah, but I try not to as a general rule.
F1- It gets me through class depending on the teacher.
L- Do you find yourself using these features to just fill in time when you’re bored. You’re just standing around so you whip it out and start texting away?
F3- Probably, but I don’t want to look stupid if I’m just standing by myself around a bunch of people.
L- you don’t want to feel like you’re standing there all by yourself. How about when you’re driving? Do you find yourself conducting a lot of business when you’re in the car?
F2- Well, talk. But not text, because I think that’s dangerous.
M2 – You can still text but it is a lot more dangerous.
M1- I do both.
F2- [Male1]!
M1- I talk while I ride my bike too, on a head set. I’m not riding my bike saying “Hey, yo! I’m not dumb.
L-What about when you’re on your way to class and your walking with someone, you’re with a group of friends and the cell phone rings, do you feel obligated to pick that up and talk?
F2- It depends on who it is.
F3- Yeah.
F1- I don’t feel obligated.
F2- It depends on who it is. If it’s a good friend…
L- The person on the phone or the person next to you?
All- The person on the phone.
F2- And if the person you’re with is ok with it.
F3- Yeah, it depends on who I’m with too, because if I’m just with my friends, I’ll be like “just hang on a minute” but if it’s someone I don’t know very well, if they’re not really a friend like just an associate I’ll ignore the phone.
L- So the better the friend, the more acceptable it is to put them on hold so you can answer the phone?
F2 – Yeah, right. But it also depends on who’s calling, because if it’s my dad, who I don’t talk to that often, I know he’s probably calling because he needs something or he’s got a question where as if it’s a good friend from back home I know they’re just calling to talk.
F1- Yeah, that makes a difference.
L- OK. What if you’re on a date with somebody and you’re at a restaurant and the cell phone rings?
F1,2,3 -No
M2 – I would answer the phone.
All- [laugh]
F1- And [Male 2] is single because…
L- What about if you’ve been going out with this person for a long time and you start to feel comfortable with them. Then does it become acceptable?
M1- Depends who it is. A friend, probably not. Family, yeah.
F2- Calling you?
M1- Yeah.
M2- And if I got a text I would probably see what it is or who sent it to me.
F2- And maybe not respond back.
M2 – Make sure it’s not something pressing.
F3- What’s the scenario here, are you guys boyfriend and girlfriend are you just…
others – Yeah
F3- Well then it depends on what kind of date it is. If it’s just a “hey lets go out”, then yeah. But if it’s it date night and you’re getting all dressed up then I’ll just leave it alone.
F2- Right. It also depends on where you are and also the duration of the conversation that you’re going to have with them. If it can be a real quick answer to a question, then maybe respond back. But if it’s going to be someone like, well if [sister] calls I know that’s going to be more than a couple of minutes so I will talk to her later.
M2 – And for texts you can always do the under the table thing.
F1- Oh sure, no girl will ever catch onto that!
L- What do you think the weight is between the social agenda on your cell phone and conducting business whether that business is for school, work. Or family function versus something purely social and random with friends and not that important?
F1- Do you mean duration?
L- well more percentage-wise
F3- Way more social for me.
F1- Yeah, like 80-20 for me.
F2- But that might be because I’m in school.
F2- Not really anything related to business. My boss isn’t going to call me.
M1- Well it depends a lot for me. Over the summer I use it all the time for work, but during the school year, never for work.
L- What do you do?
M1- I work for DPW and there’s radio’s in the trucks, but mostly we use our phones to call each other, so we’re always calling for that. Because we have to have the trucks on in order to use the radio so most of us just use our cell phones.
L- Do you use your own phones?
M1- Yeah, we use our own phones. It’s a lot easier than starting the truck up and calling someone to say “yeah, so-and-so, are you there?” where if they’re there, they’re there, if they’re not they’re not. So it’s a lot easier to call someone up and say “hey I need you to get over to this street and do this.”
F2- It depends on where you are in school too. If older like us (F2,3) you might be getting a lot of internship calls. I use it a little bit more that way. I’m trying to set up an internship for the summer so I’ve had a lot more calls for that recently but it’ still a lot more social.
F3- I’ll use it for business, it’s not technically business, but for group projects I’ll get a hold of people like that. They’re not my friends; I don’t talk to them outside of class or the group project.
L- Have you guys been in many situations recently when you didn’t have your cell phone with you, whether it broke down or you forgot it for a long time, or lost it.
M2- They do get lost.
F2- Yeah, or when you throw them against a wall you tend not to have them for a while.
M1- I don’t want to talk about that.
F2- Mine died on the way home from [sister’s] house, and it was like, “dang-it” because I was talking to a couple of people.
M1- I’ve actually installed a car cigarette lighter-style DC power source in my motorcycle so I can charge my phone on my motorcycle.
L- There’s a cigarette lighter on the motorcycle?
M1- No there’s not, I directly wired one into my motorcycle so I can have one.
L- What age did you all get your cell phones at?
F3- I didn’t get one until I was out of high school, so 18.
F2- 18, I got it my first day of college.
F1 –I was 14.
M2- That’s a rich kid for ya.
F1- I bought it myself, I paid for it myself.
L- would you be surprised if I told you a recent study found the most common age for kids to get phones was 8-12.
M2- 8’s a little low. I would have thought more like 13.
F3- I wouldn’t be surprised, but-
F1- Yeah, 12 or 13 because that’s about the age-
F3- Anything younger is kind of stupid.
F2- I think that’s too young.
F1- Well when I was that young I would borrow my mom’s phone when she had to pick me up somewhere later.
F2- I just found the internet when I was 12 or 13.
M1- I think it’s too young to have this kind of phone, but the most basic phone, yeah. It would be a great way to get a hold of you kids. Kids now-a-days are in more and more after school activities and it is a lot easier for parents to get a hold of them. They always know where they are, they always check in, it’s a great way to check in no matter what. They don’t have to ask someone else to use their phone to say “hey I got out of school early” or “practice is done early”. I mean, a phone like mine I think is over-kill for a little kid, but I agree with little kids having have a cell phone just as a way to keep in touch.
L- do you guys think it might be possible that once this kid gets a little older, he turns into an adult and something happens to his phone. Do you think he might feel a little lost, like he’s not able to cope without his phone?
F3- yeah, I would think so. That’s the whole reason why, well not the whole reason why, I wouldn’t have a cell phone or my kid wouldn’t have a cell phone is more-so that they don’t necessarily need one for people to get a hold of you 24/7 and so that it will help you when I’m in a situation where, what can I do if I don’t have a cell phone? I don’t have to rely on my cell phone.
F2- I’m really dependant on mind and I’ve only had it for 4 years, not even 4 years so I would think that that kids, especially if you have a kid having it early on…
F1- My battery doesn’t hold a charge any more so when it’s late at night after I’ve talked to people all day long it dies and I just want to make it come back on, but no body ever calls me to tell me anything important, but I feel like somebody might need to get in touch with me.
F3- I like to keep it on just to see if I missed anything.
F1- Right.
F3- But, I don’t know, nobody ever gives me calls like that.
F1- I don’t like that I don’t have any numbers memorized now.
All – Yeah that’s right.
M2- Like when you get a new phone and you don’t have any numbers on the new one. I don’t know anyone’s… I can’t remember anyone’s phone number. I know my parents, my grandma, our old house, the only one’s I remember are from when I didn’t have a cell phone.
All- Agree
F1- I still remember my friend’s parent’s house number, so if I ever need to call my best friend’s mom, I can do that.
F3- It makes me sad because my best friend got a new number and I don’t know it, but she knows mine.
M2- [refers to 16 and once you get a car communication is easier].
L- What if you take that car to Chicago, you get a little turned around and you don’t have your cell phone to call your buddy who know his way around for directions.
F3- You go to a gas station.
F2- I would die. I get lost in towns I know. I can get lost in Whitewater.
F1- I would go to gas station.
F2- I would still ask for directions too, but I get panicky when I get lost and it depends on how close you are to a gas station.
M2- You need a charger for your car and you don’t have to worry about it.
L- What if it breaks and it dies and your…
M2- Then you’re screwed.
F2- I do have an atlas so I would actually be OK.
M1- You have an atlas?
F2- Yes I do.
M1- It sure doesn’t seem like you ever use it.
F2- I do. I use it all the time.
M1- Yeah but you call me everyday, “I’m lost where do I go?”
F2- Well, that’s easier. That’s faster. I’m going to pull over to the side of the road when I call you since you know it in two minutes.
L- do you ever feel like there are too many people trying to get a hold of you?
All- No.
F3- There could be more.
F2- Sometimes, depending on the day.
F1- That’s true.
F2- It does, it depends.
F1- Today I got a text message every 30 sec. And at work, and I can text work, but I feel bad being constantly on my phone. It was semi-important things about class and stuff, but I wish they would all just stop for a little while.
L-Where do you work?
F1- Here on campus.
F3- Yeah, I don’t like using my phone at work, I try not to. The most would be texting. But it’s different too, because at this job I don’t like texting or calling at work, but at my job in Milwaukee it’s more of cooperate, we have our own little cubbies so I can talk on my phone, but it’s not a full-blown conversation I’m having.
L- What are you texting about at work?
F3- Umm…
F1- “Whatcha doing tonight?”
F3- Yeah or if people have questions with classes or my roommate may ask questions,.
L- Is this important stuff that you’re texting about that you can’t wait for or-
All – No.
M1- If it’s something that needs to get talked about if it is important, I’ll call right away. If it’s not, it’s texting.
F3- Because cell phones have become more popular, people think that everything is important and they don’t remember back when we used to just have a land line phone, if you weren’t at the house and if it was that important you would leave a message and you would get back to them when you could and that would be that. With cell phones we are so much more dependant on them and it’s “oh this is important, let me pick it up” instead of “you know what, it’s important, but let me set it aside and I will get back to it when I have a chance.”
L- So when you call, it’s more important, but when you text it’s more like a toy, like you’re just playing around with something?
F1- It’s not urgent.
F2- Yeah
M2- Yeah, but a lot of people though, if they send you a text, they want an immediate text back. Whenever my phone dies, I can get four texts from the same person and it’s the same text.
F3- Duplicate messages.
All – yeah
F2- There’s defiantly an urgency with texts even though we just determined they’re less important. You definitely expect that immediate response.
F1 – I think that’s definitely a part of our society we need everything right now that’s why there’s so much technology where you can do anything from your phone. You can check face book from your phone, because we can’t wait update our status.
F2- Well, about text messages, lets say you do need to remember something, not that this is life or death, but, like how I would text you the room number, because if I call you and tell you, you’re going to forget it, but if I text it, you’re going to remember it. Other stuff too, like grocery list, addresses, license plate number.
M1- I’ll actually text myself an address just so I’ll have it in my phone when I need it.
M2- just the other day I was like, “shoot! What number was that?” And I went right to my phone.
F1- I text google when I need to know phone numbers or addresses. Because I can type in pizza hut, whitewater and it sends me the phone number. Just to have everything at their fingertips.
L- Convenient. But some people do feel that it can bring some unwanted intrusions.
M1- Electronic leash. I hear it commonly called that. I have a friend who never wanted one. He always called in the electronic leash because people could always find him with it. He didn’t want one, never wanted one. He was like “No! I don’t want one.” He always viewed it as an electronic leash.
F1- Does he have one now?
M1- No he still doesn’t.
F1- How old is he?
M1- He’s our age.
F2- Coming to college though, it would be hard not to have one just because of the dorms you either have that one, they made it convenient and they made it available for everyone you didn’t have to pay an extra charge but if you have a land line at your apartment that’s an extra charge, an extra fee then you can’t talk to family members if it was just my friends it would be so bad because you would see them every place.
F3- And in the dorms too you have to have calling card if you want to call long distance.
L- Do you think you’d rather call a familiar friend when you have nothing to talk about rather than, maybe you see someone walking to class that you see everyday but you don’t know this person, rather than just say hi to them?
F2- I don’t think I’d take the time to call a familiar friend, I wouldn’t maybe say anything to that person I was walking by, but if I was close enough I would at least have to say hi or smile.
F3- Instead of trying to make conversation with somebody else I would try to make conversation with [unintelligible]. That’s just my personality.
F1- It’s easier to continue a conversation with someone you had yesterday than to generate one out of thin air with someone you don’t know.
M1- I guess it depends on who the person is. Like if I sit next to someone and I see they have a motorcycle helmet, I’m going to talk to him over calling a friend, just like if I see a hot girl, I’m going to talk to her over calling a friend. If it’s just some person who’s gone by, then fine, I’ll call a friend. I guess it kind of goes back and forth.
L- Do you guys have any good phone stories?
M1- Well, [cousin], after I threw the phone against the wall, I didn’t have it and she called, I didn’t answer because I didn’t have it, she called again, I didn’t answer, then she texted and I didn’t answer and she went to [her husband] and said “[Male1] is not answering his phone! I don’t know what I did, I don’t know what I did wrong.” Because I didn’t answer her, she felt like she had done something wrong. Whereas [her husband] was like, “well, it’s because you call him too much and abusing him with babysitting and stuff.” And then they found out it was that [broken phone] and they were like “oh. ok” So because you don’t answer, people can sometimes get upset. Everyone expects you to have your phone. When you don’t answer right away, people get upset.
F1- my mom punished me one because of that. I was out on a date with a guy I was dating for a year and she knew I was out, but it was one of those things where he was like “we’re going to go do something and I’m not going to tell you what it is.” One of those cute surprise things and I left my phone in the car. And we went to the movies, hung out and I didn’t answer it. When I got back I had 8 missed calls I had vm and txt mes saying “if you don’t get your butt home now blah blah. She grounded me and I was 17, I just didn’t have my phone on. She was like “what were you doing?” “I was being good, I promise.” But she expected that because I didn’t answer her call or call her back I was up to no good.
F3- That’s what I like about my parents. They don’t necessarily expect me answer my phone because they don’t have one and they’re used to people not being able to get a hold of them. With some of my other friends, they’re always answering the phone.
F2- Other people are defiantly as dependant on you having your phone on as you are. Because I’ll get calls saying “hey can you pick this up.” [Sister] always calls me, [brother-in-law] calls me when he knows I’m with [sister] cause he know [sister] won’t have it, same thing the other way around.
M1- Yeah, you call other people to get to other people.
F2- Yeah and parents plan on you having your cell phone if they need something. My mom has started texting and she’s not necessarily one that would think of who would be texting and she’ll text from time to time when she needs something. I’d say that other people are as dependent on you having your cell phone as you are.
M1- The thing is, my mom uses it like a college student where she’s texting me all the time.
F2- She does! She texts me all the time. I’m like, dude I’m at work.
M1- She’s like, “so am I.”
F2- Or when I’m in class and she wants to know “why didn’t you text me back, why didn’t you call me back?”
F2- It seems like parents are getting right into that, using the phone when they’re bored. Just using it to use it.
F1- My sister, when she was about 10, discovered the art of txt messaging. She took my parent’s phone and would text me all the time and I would txt her back, I’ve got unlimited txt messages, but they don’t and I didn’t recognize that. When mom got her phone bill, she yelled at [sister] and yelled at me. She didn’t understand that it cost extra money to text versus just calling the person. She never had anything to say to me just “hey, how ya doing? This boy smiled at me.”
F3- That’s an expensive lesson to learn though.
F2- Yeah, I started out without txt messaging.
F1- I blame this on guys because that’s how I got into text messaging.
F2- Me too!
F1- Right? Yes, thank you.
M1,2 – What?F2- Guys are more comfortable with texting from time to time when they can come up with something smooth. Right?
M2 – You’ll write it our and be like “No, no, no. I don’t want to say that.”
F1/2 - It’s so true though, but I’m guilty of it too through, because I like it when they ask a real question that and you want to think it over, you don’t have to have that immediate response.
M1- I guess you could say it’s easier to flirt with text.
F1- You don’t have to have that immediate feedback.
M2- Also when you’re trying to txt someone and you’re not trying to be sarcastic with them, but they think you are and it ends up they get mad at you and you’re like “I didn’t mean anything by that.” But it came off wrong.
M1- Yeah, it’s hard to judge emotion.
F2- I think that’s the annoying thing about text messaging, well, I have the whole keyboard and I do full sentences with punctuation and everything and everyone else does “tty, lol, brd, hahah, although I do hahaha now, but I do full sentences and it annoys me when people abbreviate everything like “thru” and it starts to go into papers though.
F3 – Yep
F2- My other cousin, I correct her papers since I really like… you’ll see text message talk in her papers and I’m like, this is what’s happening.
M2- But you never see it when you’re writing, it’s only when you’re typing something.
F1- A teacher at my old high school, on your first draft of the paper you could use that kind of language, IM text talk, just to shorten it up.
F2- I’m surprised.
F1- I mean, your final paper had to be written down the right way.
L- Your teacher would actually make a point to say you can abbreviate this way on this paper?
F1- Right.
F2- Was this an English teacher?
F1- I don’t remember what class it was for.
F3- I think this is going to a problem as we get older and other generations come up with this, they’re going to have a harder time with grammar.
M1- Yeah and even as computers get smaller and we have full keyboards on the phones, we’ll still abbreviate, we still all abbreviate on face book or something on line, e-mails.
F2- That’s true, but then the slang becomes the norm. And there are words that weren’t words that now, because of txt messaging and IM-ing and whatnot, have become words.
F3- It’s kind of annoying, but it makes sense.
F2- Ain’t got put in the dictionary.
F1- what? No way. Are you serious?
F2- I could be lying.
M2- I always type ‘aight.
All- Oh yeah.
L- How do you spell that?
M2- Just a-i-g-h-t.
All- It’s only missing the l and the r.
M1- Well you know, two letters less!
L- it’s a common theme that people say so and so got mad at me because I didn’t respond to their call and I didn’t have my phone with me. Have you ever, honestly, gotten mad at somebody or thought the worst when somebody didn’t return your call or text.
M1- Yeah, I call mom and she doesn’t answer, call dad and he doesn’t answer, call the house and nobody answers, call [sister] and she doesn’t answer, so I leave a message “what’s the point of having a cell phone if you’re not going to answer it!” And then I get the same messages back at me.
F2- Well, sometimes, I’m like, if I can’t get a hold of anyone and if they’re going home, for example, I’ll get paranoid or worried, because I say call me when you get home or text me when you get home and then nobody does and you can’t get a hold of anyone, then I worry because they’re all in the same vehicle or something.
F3- I had a friend who went to AL and took her cell phone swimming in the ocean and she had to come back from AL the next day and I kept calling her and she’s not answering her phone. I was like, what’s going on, she’s traveling. Oh my goodness, I was worried about her!
F1- Sometimes instead of asking a touchy question, you can text it, because via text, you can stall.
F2- Oh yeah, that’s a whole nother topic, people that breakup via-text message.
F1- But if you ask them a serious question and they don’t respond you start thinking “are they mad at me, what’s going on?” But maybe you’re just taking a shower and they can’t get back to you.
M2- I found out with my x-girlfriend, I found out that when I call her, she can’t say anything mean to you, but she can text the meanest things. And they keep coming, I had like three of them right in a row.
F1- I was recently in a text war with her over him and I call her because I actually wanted to have a conversation with her and she wouldn’t answer, but she would send me a text back.
F2- That is so true and how many passive aggressive e-mails do you get verses over the phone, like in our job, we always get that, people swear in e-mails, you never get that over the phone.
M1-It’s easier to do that in an e-mail verses the phone.
F1- You’re not as put out there so much. You’ve got this shield.
M1- It lets you say anything. It’s just a text.
F3- But they’ll have record of this in the e-mail, now they have proof.
F2- It’s funny because it’s another form of communication that causes more misconceptions.
L- People will obviously feel safer if they have a cell phone. Do you feel more in danger if you don’t have your cell phone? Maybe you’re out walking at night and you realize you forgot your cell phone. Obviously you won’t feel as safe, but do you feel as if you are in extra danger, extra-ordinary danger?
F2- I wouldn’t say more danger, but I definitely feel more comfortable with my cell phone. Because if I’m studying at the library until midnight, depending on who else is walking home at the same time…[end of tape]
M1-It’s a lot easier if I want to go to lunch with someone, I’ll text “lunch?” rather than calling them, “hey you wanna got to lunch?” I’ll send the text and then there’s an answer back yes or no.
F1- It’s nice on the way to work or class or places that you wouldn’t normally talk, I’ll send something out just to see what it said. If I’m at work, I let them know, “hey I’m at work.”
M1- I guess when you’re bored, it’s easier to text someone than to call them, because if you call them you get everything you want to say in 10 minutes. If you text them, it takes more like a half hour and it drags out the conversation.
M2- It’s also easier to do a mass text where you can text everyone at once.
M1- Like party tonight at so-and-so’s, you just send it to everyone rather than make each individual call.
F2- Yeah, but I would say that’s more of an informative thing. That time at this place this is what you need to bring.
L- Can I hear the story about the cell phone and the wall?
M1- I had this phone, I was having problems with it, like it wouldn’t charge, and there was this one day, I had it plugged in and it wouldn’t charge and it wouldn’t charge, the screen was going in and out and I finally said “I’m done with this phone!” and I threw it, it broke into- how many pieces? It just shattered.
L- so you were just mad at the phone, you weren’t mad at anything else in your life?
M1- Naw, it was the phone. It was definitely the phone.
F2- Actually it can have that effect. My phone, because it has a tappy keyboard, it’ll turn off from time to time or I’ll accidentally hit backspace and delete the whole message.
M1- Yeah I hate when that happens!
F2- And I get so mad!
M1- Here’s a story that happened to me. I was dating [a girl] and I wrote the text saying “I’m not happy.” Blah, blah to [another girl of same name] but sent it to the wrong one. I actually sent it to the girlfriend instead of the friend. I got a text back from saying “what the heck?” and I was like, “oh shit. Wrong [girl].” So now I put in last names and double check the person I’m sending to. I have four Erica’s in here. Three Megans. Three Amys.
F1- I think cell phones get filled with random numbers. I could go through my phone and tell you I haven’t talked to half of the people in there for over a year if at all. But for some reason you needed this person’s number. “oh, we like the same movie, let’s hang our sometime.” No.
M1- There are people who I will text, but I wouldn’t want to talk to the person. There are people I don’t want to have a full conversation with, but I’ll text the person a full conversation. It’s easier if you’re just kind of social friends, but not a good enough friend to actually sit on the phone and talk to for a half hour, but you can text them for half hour.
F1- You can text random things. You might send them a message, “hey I just saw this thing and it was really cool.”
M1- You also don’t want to waste their time by saying, “hey I just saw a clown on a motorcycle”, but I would text someone that.
F2- You can’t always carry on a full conversion with someone. You get that awkward silence.
L- Why do you feel the need to send a quick message to someone if you don’t have enough for a full conversation? Why even bother just sending them snippets?
F1- I think it’s a nice gesture.
L- Do you get these texts from people and think, “why the hell do I care if there’s a clown a motorcycle?
F2- I like the random ones. Sometimes it just makes your day better.
M1- What I do hate are the forewords.
All- Yeah.
F1- It’s nice when it’s like, “ I thought of you.”
L- Can we go around the room and see how many of you got calls or texts while we were doing this?
F3 - I got one.
F2- None
M2- One
F1- Two
M1- Zero.
F1- I got the lyrics to “Baby Got Back.” Must have been on the radio.
F3- Did you say you didn’t have cell phone?
L- No, I do not.
F3- Why not?
L- Well, it’s an extra bill.
M1- They are expensive.
F3- I can’t really say this though, but I think maybe once you start getting older and have a family, it might not be as important. I’ll still probably have one, but I won’t be as attached to it maybe.
L- I work full time, my wife works full time right now, we have two kids and I can tell you I would really like a cell phone because it would be a lot easier to coordinate whose picking up the kids, whose doing this on that day, but we’ve gotten by without it up till now and we’ll probably get by without for a little while longer.
F1- I think with spouses, depending on your relationship with your spouse, it might be a downfall to have a cell phone too.
F2- I’m not knocking married life, but [sister and husband] have a very…that’s the reason why I get their calls when they’re trying to reach each other, because they don’t always want to talk to each other.
F1- If you both have cell phones and text all day long about what they did, when they actually get together that night, they sit down to eat and, “well I know what you did today, I know what you thought, I know what song was on the radio too.”
L- So which do you feel is more important in a relationship, being able to tell that person right away in a text or waiting so you have something to say face to face at the end of day?
F1- Some things need to be…like “hey, we’re having dinner at 6.” Done. But if I’m having a bad day, I want to actually tell that person, in person to get some sympathy.
M2- I can’t see myself in 10 years sending a text, “Hey [Female1], I thought about you today.”
F1- Awh, really? You’re not going to do that?
M2- Sorry.
F1- I could be really naive right now, but I think you would have more to talk about that way, like “oh, little Johnny was playing with the pots this morning.” More than “I heard this song and thought about you,” or “I just saw this person you used to hate.” I guess I’m hoping life gets a little more serious.
M1- Like the conversations that actually have a point.
L- The other reason why I’m hesitant to get a cell phone, one of my hobbies is fishing. I like to sit in a boat in the middle of a lake with a buddy of mine who ends up getting a call or calling his wife for some reason. Or he calls his brother to ask “hey where was that fishing hole?” Or he calls his dad, “I just got a big one.” Ya know? Could that have waited?
M1- One of these past years I actually took my cell phone up to the deer stand and I would text while up in the deer stand to waste time and I had an I-pod I would play games on. All of the sudden I look up and there’s a deer 10 feet away from me. Great! Now I’ve got pick up a gun and try not to scare this deer because I was texting. I got the deer, but it makes me wonder, since I was texting, if I hadn’t looked, would I have ever seen the deer? Would he have just passed me?
L- maybe you missed a bigger one.
M1- It’s possible!
Discussed extra features-time, no watches, alarm clock, and calculator.
UW Whitewater
Leader – Jim Schwartz
Participants from right to left
Male 1
Female 1
Male 2
Female 2
Female 3
L- My research paper is on the use of cell phones and I want to start out by asking if everyone has a cell phone.
All – Yeah
L- What kind of cell phones do you all have?
All – (various, mostly LG)
L- Do you guys have lots of extra features on your phones?
F3- Texting and stuff.
L- Anything else that you have for features?
M1- TV
L- You can play live TV?
M1- I can, but I don’t because it costs a lot.
L- OK, it costs a lot, sure. How often do you use other extra features? Do you text a lot?
F3 – Well I text every day.
M1- (uses IM feature)
F2- Yeah, but you don’t use it every day.
M1- Yes I do, it’s (another feature) that cost’s extra.
L- If you text everyday, how often do you find yourself using them in middle of, something like, class?
F2- Yeah, but I try not to as a general rule.
F1- It gets me through class depending on the teacher.
L- Do you find yourself using these features to just fill in time when you’re bored. You’re just standing around so you whip it out and start texting away?
F3- Probably, but I don’t want to look stupid if I’m just standing by myself around a bunch of people.
L- you don’t want to feel like you’re standing there all by yourself. How about when you’re driving? Do you find yourself conducting a lot of business when you’re in the car?
F2- Well, talk. But not text, because I think that’s dangerous.
M2 – You can still text but it is a lot more dangerous.
M1- I do both.
F2- [Male1]!
M1- I talk while I ride my bike too, on a head set. I’m not riding my bike saying “Hey, yo! I’m not dumb.
L-What about when you’re on your way to class and your walking with someone, you’re with a group of friends and the cell phone rings, do you feel obligated to pick that up and talk?
F2- It depends on who it is.
F3- Yeah.
F1- I don’t feel obligated.
F2- It depends on who it is. If it’s a good friend…
L- The person on the phone or the person next to you?
All- The person on the phone.
F2- And if the person you’re with is ok with it.
F3- Yeah, it depends on who I’m with too, because if I’m just with my friends, I’ll be like “just hang on a minute” but if it’s someone I don’t know very well, if they’re not really a friend like just an associate I’ll ignore the phone.
L- So the better the friend, the more acceptable it is to put them on hold so you can answer the phone?
F2 – Yeah, right. But it also depends on who’s calling, because if it’s my dad, who I don’t talk to that often, I know he’s probably calling because he needs something or he’s got a question where as if it’s a good friend from back home I know they’re just calling to talk.
F1- Yeah, that makes a difference.
L- OK. What if you’re on a date with somebody and you’re at a restaurant and the cell phone rings?
F1,2,3 -No
M2 – I would answer the phone.
All- [laugh]
F1- And [Male 2] is single because…
L- What about if you’ve been going out with this person for a long time and you start to feel comfortable with them. Then does it become acceptable?
M1- Depends who it is. A friend, probably not. Family, yeah.
F2- Calling you?
M1- Yeah.
M2- And if I got a text I would probably see what it is or who sent it to me.
F2- And maybe not respond back.
M2 – Make sure it’s not something pressing.
F3- What’s the scenario here, are you guys boyfriend and girlfriend are you just…
others – Yeah
F3- Well then it depends on what kind of date it is. If it’s just a “hey lets go out”, then yeah. But if it’s it date night and you’re getting all dressed up then I’ll just leave it alone.
F2- Right. It also depends on where you are and also the duration of the conversation that you’re going to have with them. If it can be a real quick answer to a question, then maybe respond back. But if it’s going to be someone like, well if [sister] calls I know that’s going to be more than a couple of minutes so I will talk to her later.
M2 – And for texts you can always do the under the table thing.
F1- Oh sure, no girl will ever catch onto that!
L- What do you think the weight is between the social agenda on your cell phone and conducting business whether that business is for school, work. Or family function versus something purely social and random with friends and not that important?
F1- Do you mean duration?
L- well more percentage-wise
F3- Way more social for me.
F1- Yeah, like 80-20 for me.
F2- But that might be because I’m in school.
F2- Not really anything related to business. My boss isn’t going to call me.
M1- Well it depends a lot for me. Over the summer I use it all the time for work, but during the school year, never for work.
L- What do you do?
M1- I work for DPW and there’s radio’s in the trucks, but mostly we use our phones to call each other, so we’re always calling for that. Because we have to have the trucks on in order to use the radio so most of us just use our cell phones.
L- Do you use your own phones?
M1- Yeah, we use our own phones. It’s a lot easier than starting the truck up and calling someone to say “yeah, so-and-so, are you there?” where if they’re there, they’re there, if they’re not they’re not. So it’s a lot easier to call someone up and say “hey I need you to get over to this street and do this.”
F2- It depends on where you are in school too. If older like us (F2,3) you might be getting a lot of internship calls. I use it a little bit more that way. I’m trying to set up an internship for the summer so I’ve had a lot more calls for that recently but it’ still a lot more social.
F3- I’ll use it for business, it’s not technically business, but for group projects I’ll get a hold of people like that. They’re not my friends; I don’t talk to them outside of class or the group project.
L- Have you guys been in many situations recently when you didn’t have your cell phone with you, whether it broke down or you forgot it for a long time, or lost it.
M2- They do get lost.
F2- Yeah, or when you throw them against a wall you tend not to have them for a while.
M1- I don’t want to talk about that.
F2- Mine died on the way home from [sister’s] house, and it was like, “dang-it” because I was talking to a couple of people.
M1- I’ve actually installed a car cigarette lighter-style DC power source in my motorcycle so I can charge my phone on my motorcycle.
L- There’s a cigarette lighter on the motorcycle?
M1- No there’s not, I directly wired one into my motorcycle so I can have one.
L- What age did you all get your cell phones at?
F3- I didn’t get one until I was out of high school, so 18.
F2- 18, I got it my first day of college.
F1 –I was 14.
M2- That’s a rich kid for ya.
F1- I bought it myself, I paid for it myself.
L- would you be surprised if I told you a recent study found the most common age for kids to get phones was 8-12.
M2- 8’s a little low. I would have thought more like 13.
F3- I wouldn’t be surprised, but-
F1- Yeah, 12 or 13 because that’s about the age-
F3- Anything younger is kind of stupid.
F2- I think that’s too young.
F1- Well when I was that young I would borrow my mom’s phone when she had to pick me up somewhere later.
F2- I just found the internet when I was 12 or 13.
M1- I think it’s too young to have this kind of phone, but the most basic phone, yeah. It would be a great way to get a hold of you kids. Kids now-a-days are in more and more after school activities and it is a lot easier for parents to get a hold of them. They always know where they are, they always check in, it’s a great way to check in no matter what. They don’t have to ask someone else to use their phone to say “hey I got out of school early” or “practice is done early”. I mean, a phone like mine I think is over-kill for a little kid, but I agree with little kids having have a cell phone just as a way to keep in touch.
L- do you guys think it might be possible that once this kid gets a little older, he turns into an adult and something happens to his phone. Do you think he might feel a little lost, like he’s not able to cope without his phone?
F3- yeah, I would think so. That’s the whole reason why, well not the whole reason why, I wouldn’t have a cell phone or my kid wouldn’t have a cell phone is more-so that they don’t necessarily need one for people to get a hold of you 24/7 and so that it will help you when I’m in a situation where, what can I do if I don’t have a cell phone? I don’t have to rely on my cell phone.
F2- I’m really dependant on mind and I’ve only had it for 4 years, not even 4 years so I would think that that kids, especially if you have a kid having it early on…
F1- My battery doesn’t hold a charge any more so when it’s late at night after I’ve talked to people all day long it dies and I just want to make it come back on, but no body ever calls me to tell me anything important, but I feel like somebody might need to get in touch with me.
F3- I like to keep it on just to see if I missed anything.
F1- Right.
F3- But, I don’t know, nobody ever gives me calls like that.
F1- I don’t like that I don’t have any numbers memorized now.
All – Yeah that’s right.
M2- Like when you get a new phone and you don’t have any numbers on the new one. I don’t know anyone’s… I can’t remember anyone’s phone number. I know my parents, my grandma, our old house, the only one’s I remember are from when I didn’t have a cell phone.
All- Agree
F1- I still remember my friend’s parent’s house number, so if I ever need to call my best friend’s mom, I can do that.
F3- It makes me sad because my best friend got a new number and I don’t know it, but she knows mine.
M2- [refers to 16 and once you get a car communication is easier].
L- What if you take that car to Chicago, you get a little turned around and you don’t have your cell phone to call your buddy who know his way around for directions.
F3- You go to a gas station.
F2- I would die. I get lost in towns I know. I can get lost in Whitewater.
F1- I would go to gas station.
F2- I would still ask for directions too, but I get panicky when I get lost and it depends on how close you are to a gas station.
M2- You need a charger for your car and you don’t have to worry about it.
L- What if it breaks and it dies and your…
M2- Then you’re screwed.
F2- I do have an atlas so I would actually be OK.
M1- You have an atlas?
F2- Yes I do.
M1- It sure doesn’t seem like you ever use it.
F2- I do. I use it all the time.
M1- Yeah but you call me everyday, “I’m lost where do I go?”
F2- Well, that’s easier. That’s faster. I’m going to pull over to the side of the road when I call you since you know it in two minutes.
L- do you ever feel like there are too many people trying to get a hold of you?
All- No.
F3- There could be more.
F2- Sometimes, depending on the day.
F1- That’s true.
F2- It does, it depends.
F1- Today I got a text message every 30 sec. And at work, and I can text work, but I feel bad being constantly on my phone. It was semi-important things about class and stuff, but I wish they would all just stop for a little while.
L-Where do you work?
F1- Here on campus.
F3- Yeah, I don’t like using my phone at work, I try not to. The most would be texting. But it’s different too, because at this job I don’t like texting or calling at work, but at my job in Milwaukee it’s more of cooperate, we have our own little cubbies so I can talk on my phone, but it’s not a full-blown conversation I’m having.
L- What are you texting about at work?
F3- Umm…
F1- “Whatcha doing tonight?”
F3- Yeah or if people have questions with classes or my roommate may ask questions,.
L- Is this important stuff that you’re texting about that you can’t wait for or-
All – No.
M1- If it’s something that needs to get talked about if it is important, I’ll call right away. If it’s not, it’s texting.
F3- Because cell phones have become more popular, people think that everything is important and they don’t remember back when we used to just have a land line phone, if you weren’t at the house and if it was that important you would leave a message and you would get back to them when you could and that would be that. With cell phones we are so much more dependant on them and it’s “oh this is important, let me pick it up” instead of “you know what, it’s important, but let me set it aside and I will get back to it when I have a chance.”
L- So when you call, it’s more important, but when you text it’s more like a toy, like you’re just playing around with something?
F1- It’s not urgent.
F2- Yeah
M2- Yeah, but a lot of people though, if they send you a text, they want an immediate text back. Whenever my phone dies, I can get four texts from the same person and it’s the same text.
F3- Duplicate messages.
All – yeah
F2- There’s defiantly an urgency with texts even though we just determined they’re less important. You definitely expect that immediate response.
F1 – I think that’s definitely a part of our society we need everything right now that’s why there’s so much technology where you can do anything from your phone. You can check face book from your phone, because we can’t wait update our status.
F2- Well, about text messages, lets say you do need to remember something, not that this is life or death, but, like how I would text you the room number, because if I call you and tell you, you’re going to forget it, but if I text it, you’re going to remember it. Other stuff too, like grocery list, addresses, license plate number.
M1- I’ll actually text myself an address just so I’ll have it in my phone when I need it.
M2- just the other day I was like, “shoot! What number was that?” And I went right to my phone.
F1- I text google when I need to know phone numbers or addresses. Because I can type in pizza hut, whitewater and it sends me the phone number. Just to have everything at their fingertips.
L- Convenient. But some people do feel that it can bring some unwanted intrusions.
M1- Electronic leash. I hear it commonly called that. I have a friend who never wanted one. He always called in the electronic leash because people could always find him with it. He didn’t want one, never wanted one. He was like “No! I don’t want one.” He always viewed it as an electronic leash.
F1- Does he have one now?
M1- No he still doesn’t.
F1- How old is he?
M1- He’s our age.
F2- Coming to college though, it would be hard not to have one just because of the dorms you either have that one, they made it convenient and they made it available for everyone you didn’t have to pay an extra charge but if you have a land line at your apartment that’s an extra charge, an extra fee then you can’t talk to family members if it was just my friends it would be so bad because you would see them every place.
F3- And in the dorms too you have to have calling card if you want to call long distance.
L- Do you think you’d rather call a familiar friend when you have nothing to talk about rather than, maybe you see someone walking to class that you see everyday but you don’t know this person, rather than just say hi to them?
F2- I don’t think I’d take the time to call a familiar friend, I wouldn’t maybe say anything to that person I was walking by, but if I was close enough I would at least have to say hi or smile.
F3- Instead of trying to make conversation with somebody else I would try to make conversation with [unintelligible]. That’s just my personality.
F1- It’s easier to continue a conversation with someone you had yesterday than to generate one out of thin air with someone you don’t know.
M1- I guess it depends on who the person is. Like if I sit next to someone and I see they have a motorcycle helmet, I’m going to talk to him over calling a friend, just like if I see a hot girl, I’m going to talk to her over calling a friend. If it’s just some person who’s gone by, then fine, I’ll call a friend. I guess it kind of goes back and forth.
L- Do you guys have any good phone stories?
M1- Well, [cousin], after I threw the phone against the wall, I didn’t have it and she called, I didn’t answer because I didn’t have it, she called again, I didn’t answer, then she texted and I didn’t answer and she went to [her husband] and said “[Male1] is not answering his phone! I don’t know what I did, I don’t know what I did wrong.” Because I didn’t answer her, she felt like she had done something wrong. Whereas [her husband] was like, “well, it’s because you call him too much and abusing him with babysitting and stuff.” And then they found out it was that [broken phone] and they were like “oh. ok” So because you don’t answer, people can sometimes get upset. Everyone expects you to have your phone. When you don’t answer right away, people get upset.
F1- my mom punished me one because of that. I was out on a date with a guy I was dating for a year and she knew I was out, but it was one of those things where he was like “we’re going to go do something and I’m not going to tell you what it is.” One of those cute surprise things and I left my phone in the car. And we went to the movies, hung out and I didn’t answer it. When I got back I had 8 missed calls I had vm and txt mes saying “if you don’t get your butt home now blah blah. She grounded me and I was 17, I just didn’t have my phone on. She was like “what were you doing?” “I was being good, I promise.” But she expected that because I didn’t answer her call or call her back I was up to no good.
F3- That’s what I like about my parents. They don’t necessarily expect me answer my phone because they don’t have one and they’re used to people not being able to get a hold of them. With some of my other friends, they’re always answering the phone.
F2- Other people are defiantly as dependant on you having your phone on as you are. Because I’ll get calls saying “hey can you pick this up.” [Sister] always calls me, [brother-in-law] calls me when he knows I’m with [sister] cause he know [sister] won’t have it, same thing the other way around.
M1- Yeah, you call other people to get to other people.
F2- Yeah and parents plan on you having your cell phone if they need something. My mom has started texting and she’s not necessarily one that would think of who would be texting and she’ll text from time to time when she needs something. I’d say that other people are as dependent on you having your cell phone as you are.
M1- The thing is, my mom uses it like a college student where she’s texting me all the time.
F2- She does! She texts me all the time. I’m like, dude I’m at work.
M1- She’s like, “so am I.”
F2- Or when I’m in class and she wants to know “why didn’t you text me back, why didn’t you call me back?”
F2- It seems like parents are getting right into that, using the phone when they’re bored. Just using it to use it.
F1- My sister, when she was about 10, discovered the art of txt messaging. She took my parent’s phone and would text me all the time and I would txt her back, I’ve got unlimited txt messages, but they don’t and I didn’t recognize that. When mom got her phone bill, she yelled at [sister] and yelled at me. She didn’t understand that it cost extra money to text versus just calling the person. She never had anything to say to me just “hey, how ya doing? This boy smiled at me.”
F3- That’s an expensive lesson to learn though.
F2- Yeah, I started out without txt messaging.
F1- I blame this on guys because that’s how I got into text messaging.
F2- Me too!
F1- Right? Yes, thank you.
M1,2 – What?F2- Guys are more comfortable with texting from time to time when they can come up with something smooth. Right?
M2 – You’ll write it our and be like “No, no, no. I don’t want to say that.”
F1/2 - It’s so true though, but I’m guilty of it too through, because I like it when they ask a real question that and you want to think it over, you don’t have to have that immediate response.
M1- I guess you could say it’s easier to flirt with text.
F1- You don’t have to have that immediate feedback.
M2- Also when you’re trying to txt someone and you’re not trying to be sarcastic with them, but they think you are and it ends up they get mad at you and you’re like “I didn’t mean anything by that.” But it came off wrong.
M1- Yeah, it’s hard to judge emotion.
F2- I think that’s the annoying thing about text messaging, well, I have the whole keyboard and I do full sentences with punctuation and everything and everyone else does “tty, lol, brd, hahah, although I do hahaha now, but I do full sentences and it annoys me when people abbreviate everything like “thru” and it starts to go into papers though.
F3 – Yep
F2- My other cousin, I correct her papers since I really like… you’ll see text message talk in her papers and I’m like, this is what’s happening.
M2- But you never see it when you’re writing, it’s only when you’re typing something.
F1- A teacher at my old high school, on your first draft of the paper you could use that kind of language, IM text talk, just to shorten it up.
F2- I’m surprised.
F1- I mean, your final paper had to be written down the right way.
L- Your teacher would actually make a point to say you can abbreviate this way on this paper?
F1- Right.
F2- Was this an English teacher?
F1- I don’t remember what class it was for.
F3- I think this is going to a problem as we get older and other generations come up with this, they’re going to have a harder time with grammar.
M1- Yeah and even as computers get smaller and we have full keyboards on the phones, we’ll still abbreviate, we still all abbreviate on face book or something on line, e-mails.
F2- That’s true, but then the slang becomes the norm. And there are words that weren’t words that now, because of txt messaging and IM-ing and whatnot, have become words.
F3- It’s kind of annoying, but it makes sense.
F2- Ain’t got put in the dictionary.
F1- what? No way. Are you serious?
F2- I could be lying.
M2- I always type ‘aight.
All- Oh yeah.
L- How do you spell that?
M2- Just a-i-g-h-t.
All- It’s only missing the l and the r.
M1- Well you know, two letters less!
L- it’s a common theme that people say so and so got mad at me because I didn’t respond to their call and I didn’t have my phone with me. Have you ever, honestly, gotten mad at somebody or thought the worst when somebody didn’t return your call or text.
M1- Yeah, I call mom and she doesn’t answer, call dad and he doesn’t answer, call the house and nobody answers, call [sister] and she doesn’t answer, so I leave a message “what’s the point of having a cell phone if you’re not going to answer it!” And then I get the same messages back at me.
F2- Well, sometimes, I’m like, if I can’t get a hold of anyone and if they’re going home, for example, I’ll get paranoid or worried, because I say call me when you get home or text me when you get home and then nobody does and you can’t get a hold of anyone, then I worry because they’re all in the same vehicle or something.
F3- I had a friend who went to AL and took her cell phone swimming in the ocean and she had to come back from AL the next day and I kept calling her and she’s not answering her phone. I was like, what’s going on, she’s traveling. Oh my goodness, I was worried about her!
F1- Sometimes instead of asking a touchy question, you can text it, because via text, you can stall.
F2- Oh yeah, that’s a whole nother topic, people that breakup via-text message.
F1- But if you ask them a serious question and they don’t respond you start thinking “are they mad at me, what’s going on?” But maybe you’re just taking a shower and they can’t get back to you.
M2- I found out with my x-girlfriend, I found out that when I call her, she can’t say anything mean to you, but she can text the meanest things. And they keep coming, I had like three of them right in a row.
F1- I was recently in a text war with her over him and I call her because I actually wanted to have a conversation with her and she wouldn’t answer, but she would send me a text back.
F2- That is so true and how many passive aggressive e-mails do you get verses over the phone, like in our job, we always get that, people swear in e-mails, you never get that over the phone.
M1-It’s easier to do that in an e-mail verses the phone.
F1- You’re not as put out there so much. You’ve got this shield.
M1- It lets you say anything. It’s just a text.
F3- But they’ll have record of this in the e-mail, now they have proof.
F2- It’s funny because it’s another form of communication that causes more misconceptions.
L- People will obviously feel safer if they have a cell phone. Do you feel more in danger if you don’t have your cell phone? Maybe you’re out walking at night and you realize you forgot your cell phone. Obviously you won’t feel as safe, but do you feel as if you are in extra danger, extra-ordinary danger?
F2- I wouldn’t say more danger, but I definitely feel more comfortable with my cell phone. Because if I’m studying at the library until midnight, depending on who else is walking home at the same time…[end of tape]
M1-It’s a lot easier if I want to go to lunch with someone, I’ll text “lunch?” rather than calling them, “hey you wanna got to lunch?” I’ll send the text and then there’s an answer back yes or no.
F1- It’s nice on the way to work or class or places that you wouldn’t normally talk, I’ll send something out just to see what it said. If I’m at work, I let them know, “hey I’m at work.”
M1- I guess when you’re bored, it’s easier to text someone than to call them, because if you call them you get everything you want to say in 10 minutes. If you text them, it takes more like a half hour and it drags out the conversation.
M2- It’s also easier to do a mass text where you can text everyone at once.
M1- Like party tonight at so-and-so’s, you just send it to everyone rather than make each individual call.
F2- Yeah, but I would say that’s more of an informative thing. That time at this place this is what you need to bring.
L- Can I hear the story about the cell phone and the wall?
M1- I had this phone, I was having problems with it, like it wouldn’t charge, and there was this one day, I had it plugged in and it wouldn’t charge and it wouldn’t charge, the screen was going in and out and I finally said “I’m done with this phone!” and I threw it, it broke into- how many pieces? It just shattered.
L- so you were just mad at the phone, you weren’t mad at anything else in your life?
M1- Naw, it was the phone. It was definitely the phone.
F2- Actually it can have that effect. My phone, because it has a tappy keyboard, it’ll turn off from time to time or I’ll accidentally hit backspace and delete the whole message.
M1- Yeah I hate when that happens!
F2- And I get so mad!
M1- Here’s a story that happened to me. I was dating [a girl] and I wrote the text saying “I’m not happy.” Blah, blah to [another girl of same name] but sent it to the wrong one. I actually sent it to the girlfriend instead of the friend. I got a text back from saying “what the heck?” and I was like, “oh shit. Wrong [girl].” So now I put in last names and double check the person I’m sending to. I have four Erica’s in here. Three Megans. Three Amys.
F1- I think cell phones get filled with random numbers. I could go through my phone and tell you I haven’t talked to half of the people in there for over a year if at all. But for some reason you needed this person’s number. “oh, we like the same movie, let’s hang our sometime.” No.
M1- There are people who I will text, but I wouldn’t want to talk to the person. There are people I don’t want to have a full conversation with, but I’ll text the person a full conversation. It’s easier if you’re just kind of social friends, but not a good enough friend to actually sit on the phone and talk to for a half hour, but you can text them for half hour.
F1- You can text random things. You might send them a message, “hey I just saw this thing and it was really cool.”
M1- You also don’t want to waste their time by saying, “hey I just saw a clown on a motorcycle”, but I would text someone that.
F2- You can’t always carry on a full conversion with someone. You get that awkward silence.
L- Why do you feel the need to send a quick message to someone if you don’t have enough for a full conversation? Why even bother just sending them snippets?
F1- I think it’s a nice gesture.
L- Do you get these texts from people and think, “why the hell do I care if there’s a clown a motorcycle?
F2- I like the random ones. Sometimes it just makes your day better.
M1- What I do hate are the forewords.
All- Yeah.
F1- It’s nice when it’s like, “ I thought of you.”
L- Can we go around the room and see how many of you got calls or texts while we were doing this?
F3 - I got one.
F2- None
M2- One
F1- Two
M1- Zero.
F1- I got the lyrics to “Baby Got Back.” Must have been on the radio.
F3- Did you say you didn’t have cell phone?
L- No, I do not.
F3- Why not?
L- Well, it’s an extra bill.
M1- They are expensive.
F3- I can’t really say this though, but I think maybe once you start getting older and have a family, it might not be as important. I’ll still probably have one, but I won’t be as attached to it maybe.
L- I work full time, my wife works full time right now, we have two kids and I can tell you I would really like a cell phone because it would be a lot easier to coordinate whose picking up the kids, whose doing this on that day, but we’ve gotten by without it up till now and we’ll probably get by without for a little while longer.
F1- I think with spouses, depending on your relationship with your spouse, it might be a downfall to have a cell phone too.
F2- I’m not knocking married life, but [sister and husband] have a very…that’s the reason why I get their calls when they’re trying to reach each other, because they don’t always want to talk to each other.
F1- If you both have cell phones and text all day long about what they did, when they actually get together that night, they sit down to eat and, “well I know what you did today, I know what you thought, I know what song was on the radio too.”
L- So which do you feel is more important in a relationship, being able to tell that person right away in a text or waiting so you have something to say face to face at the end of day?
F1- Some things need to be…like “hey, we’re having dinner at 6.” Done. But if I’m having a bad day, I want to actually tell that person, in person to get some sympathy.
M2- I can’t see myself in 10 years sending a text, “Hey [Female1], I thought about you today.”
F1- Awh, really? You’re not going to do that?
M2- Sorry.
F1- I could be really naive right now, but I think you would have more to talk about that way, like “oh, little Johnny was playing with the pots this morning.” More than “I heard this song and thought about you,” or “I just saw this person you used to hate.” I guess I’m hoping life gets a little more serious.
M1- Like the conversations that actually have a point.
L- The other reason why I’m hesitant to get a cell phone, one of my hobbies is fishing. I like to sit in a boat in the middle of a lake with a buddy of mine who ends up getting a call or calling his wife for some reason. Or he calls his brother to ask “hey where was that fishing hole?” Or he calls his dad, “I just got a big one.” Ya know? Could that have waited?
M1- One of these past years I actually took my cell phone up to the deer stand and I would text while up in the deer stand to waste time and I had an I-pod I would play games on. All of the sudden I look up and there’s a deer 10 feet away from me. Great! Now I’ve got pick up a gun and try not to scare this deer because I was texting. I got the deer, but it makes me wonder, since I was texting, if I hadn’t looked, would I have ever seen the deer? Would he have just passed me?
L- maybe you missed a bigger one.
M1- It’s possible!
Discussed extra features-time, no watches, alarm clock, and calculator.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Essay-Mills
I suppose New CT is making it much easier to cheat by purchasing essays. But that same technology is also making it easier to catch the cheaters as well. This morning on the news they had a segment on "Turnitin". It's an internet based company that students submit their papers to. Turn it in electronically reviews the papers and through a process determining how the words are phrased and how much they repeat with other words from essays that are in their system (I'm assuming they use other student's essays and the more professional ones) Turn it in can give the essay a percentage of likelihood that the work was plagiarized.
Something else the news mentioned was that it had been used a lot in colleges, but lately more and more high schools are using it too.
Something else the news mentioned was that it had been used a lot in colleges, but lately more and more high schools are using it too.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Chapter 15 - Cable and Phone Industries
Video on Demand seems like a great way to go. I have Dish Network and I'm offered a bunch of PPV and VOD programs. I'm hesitant to take advantage of this technology though. I think it's a hold-over since just a few years ago PPV programs were very expensive and generally the programs offered on PPV besides sports were not exactly family friendly.
I like the Entertainment Information Merger. When I lived in town, we had Charter, and you may groan at their customer service but having cable tv, really fast internet and cheap phone service all on one bill was awesome! I know I sound like a freakin' commercial but now I pay too much for crappy satellite programing and I sit way, way, way too long at my computer as my dial-up modem blazes away at a full 26.4 kbs and my wife witches at me for tying up the phone line. And by the way, this may be a flat world, but the "second shift" that was outsourced to India did not do a very good job helping me trouble shoot why I could achieve the full 56 kbs that my connection was capable of when I started my AT&T service. I think they scaled me back after they figured I was in for a while. Their media convergence hasn't done me any favors.
I like the Entertainment Information Merger. When I lived in town, we had Charter, and you may groan at their customer service but having cable tv, really fast internet and cheap phone service all on one bill was awesome! I know I sound like a freakin' commercial but now I pay too much for crappy satellite programing and I sit way, way, way too long at my computer as my dial-up modem blazes away at a full 26.4 kbs and my wife witches at me for tying up the phone line. And by the way, this may be a flat world, but the "second shift" that was outsourced to India did not do a very good job helping me trouble shoot why I could achieve the full 56 kbs that my connection was capable of when I started my AT&T service. I think they scaled me back after they figured I was in for a while. Their media convergence hasn't done me any favors.
Chapter 9 - Information Storage
Some of the technologies mentioned in this chapter as new are already getting old and out-dated. I suppose it's a tribute to the fast paced technology but as computers get faster, people want to do more things with them and they want a way to store it. It just keeps building on itself. This chapter doesn't even mention blue-ray or hi-def, that technology is too new, but as more consumers wanted high def tvs, they needed a movie player that capitalized on the software.
This area of technology is probably one of the most rapidly changing or evolving sectors. It becomes difficult for consumers to feel confident investing in this technology. People want a movie and music collection, but it would be nice to know we can still use it in 5 or 10 years. And that's no exaggeration. 10 years ago I did not have a DVD player, 15 years ago I did not have a CD player. My kids will never own a disk-man, they will go straight to MP3s or something else entirely.
It really does blow your mind when you think about the floppy disk and how many were needed for programs and software just 20 years ago. Then someone hands you a shiny frisbee with a hole in the middle and tells you the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is on here!
This area of technology is probably one of the most rapidly changing or evolving sectors. It becomes difficult for consumers to feel confident investing in this technology. People want a movie and music collection, but it would be nice to know we can still use it in 5 or 10 years. And that's no exaggeration. 10 years ago I did not have a DVD player, 15 years ago I did not have a CD player. My kids will never own a disk-man, they will go straight to MP3s or something else entirely.
It really does blow your mind when you think about the floppy disk and how many were needed for programs and software just 20 years ago. Then someone hands you a shiny frisbee with a hole in the middle and tells you the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is on here!
Chapter 5 - Fiber Optics
Fiber Optics may very well be the hard-wire wave of the future. Satellites will expand and wireless will become more ubiquitous but, at least for the foreseeable future, there will always be a need, a niche and a market for wired information.
A quick side note, my sister and her husband live in Indiana. A year or two ago a communication/media company ran FO in their neighborhood. They were very excited to be an early utilizer of this technology and they have been very pleased with their results. The only FO tech I have is for my stereo. I guess everyone has to start small.
Not being able to splice it quite as easily does seem like an inconvenience. If FO cable ever gets to the point where coax is right now someone would probably come up with a clever fix. It really seems like a small hurdle for the potential benefits.
A quick side note, my sister and her husband live in Indiana. A year or two ago a communication/media company ran FO in their neighborhood. They were very excited to be an early utilizer of this technology and they have been very pleased with their results. The only FO tech I have is for my stereo. I guess everyone has to start small.
Not being able to splice it quite as easily does seem like an inconvenience. If FO cable ever gets to the point where coax is right now someone would probably come up with a clever fix. It really seems like a small hurdle for the potential benefits.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The New CT Ch 1: Comm in the Modern Era
I've long appreciated and anticipated the convergence of more and more technology. This topic was briefly touched upon in chapter one. One can only imagine that far enough in the future, rather than tv, radio, computer and telephone, we'll have mulit-media stations, and we'll probably have a few of them scattered throughout the house. The basic PC is evolving into such a device. You can hear radio broadcast from around the globe (I have not heard that advertised as much any more. I think I heard somewhere that it was too cost prohibitive, but the capabilities are certainly there) and more phone companies are using the internet, like Vonage and Charter. Then we have those adorable ovoo commercials. How cool is that? Although I must admit, I have no idea how well it works and I have not checked out the site myself.
But all these convergences lead into another point of chapter one (and the course), who's listening and watching us do all this? The movements and habits of an individual are fairly easy to track over the internet. As we begin to rely almost solely on internet programs for information transfer that means we are probably being watched and tracked all the more. But is that necessarily a bad thing?
All this available tracking could make it much easier to catch criminals. Obviously no one likes too much government control and I'm not advocating we all get chip implants in our thumbs to clock in at work, swipe like a credit card at the store or unlock our house, but it would be handy to turn on my kitchen mulit-media screen and see where my kids are.
One more subject I would like to touch upon: censorship. like so many other government programs or institutions it started out with the people's best interest in mind. You may cry 'first amendment" and that you have the right to express yourself as you see fit, but I may say it's not fit for anybody. I'm thinking as a parent here. I am very cautious of what my kids see and hear on TV (and other media). I'm not just talking about cartoons, but if they're in the same room and a prime time program starts to get too racy, I change the channel. I look up, and sure enough, they're staring at the TV instead of coloring like they were two minutes ago. It is within my ability to further censor what they see and I appreciate that the government helps to ensure the media isn't any more audacious than it already is during prime time. Of course I can't censor everything from them forever, but for now I'm censoring as much as I can so I can decide when and what they're exposed to it. To me, some level of censorship is a necessary evil. Everyone, even little kids, are very in tune with multiple media outlets.
But all these convergences lead into another point of chapter one (and the course), who's listening and watching us do all this? The movements and habits of an individual are fairly easy to track over the internet. As we begin to rely almost solely on internet programs for information transfer that means we are probably being watched and tracked all the more. But is that necessarily a bad thing?
All this available tracking could make it much easier to catch criminals. Obviously no one likes too much government control and I'm not advocating we all get chip implants in our thumbs to clock in at work, swipe like a credit card at the store or unlock our house, but it would be handy to turn on my kitchen mulit-media screen and see where my kids are.
One more subject I would like to touch upon: censorship. like so many other government programs or institutions it started out with the people's best interest in mind. You may cry 'first amendment" and that you have the right to express yourself as you see fit, but I may say it's not fit for anybody. I'm thinking as a parent here. I am very cautious of what my kids see and hear on TV (and other media). I'm not just talking about cartoons, but if they're in the same room and a prime time program starts to get too racy, I change the channel. I look up, and sure enough, they're staring at the TV instead of coloring like they were two minutes ago. It is within my ability to further censor what they see and I appreciate that the government helps to ensure the media isn't any more audacious than it already is during prime time. Of course I can't censor everything from them forever, but for now I'm censoring as much as I can so I can decide when and what they're exposed to it. To me, some level of censorship is a necessary evil. Everyone, even little kids, are very in tune with multiple media outlets.
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