“Disconnecting” from Technology

/in /by

I find it quite ironic that I am here writing about “disconnecting” from technology as I use my computer, the internet, and the word press site to blog. Today, technology is all around us and is unavoidable. This assignment was made as an activity because class was cancelled yesterday. How did I found out that class was canceled? I found out through an email from my professor and from a text from a classmate. Each form of communication was technology based. Technology is so important for efficient communication and for many other reasons however, I am not going to talk about all our necessary uses for technology. I want to talk a little about my experience with “disconnecting from technology.”

I consider myself a limited user of technology compared to other users in my generation. I do have a smart phone, I do have a laptop, and I do own a television however I do not have an ipad, tablet, or smart watch and I do not have facebook, twitter, instagram, or any social media. Although social media can have positive effects, I have a strong belief that the negative aspects associated with social media outweigh the positive. My thought is, If I want to keep up with my friends and families lives I will call them or meet up with them. I find it extremely impersonal to simply acknowledge someone’s birthday just because facebook notifies you that it is their birthday. I also believe social media invades your personal privacy. With that said, I did not have to “disconnect” from social media because I am already disconnected but my challenge came with disconnecting to  my other technologies.

My first thought was I would use my phone to text classmates if they wanted to meet up and study since we were not going to have class. Well, there I go using technology. Next, I needed to open my laptop to check my emails and review study material. Again, I used technology. Once I felt I was organized enough to ditch my laptop and phone for the day, I let technology go. I studied with my textbook, I went for a run, I ran some errands, I worked in the yard, I babysat my nephew, I cooked dinner and ate it with my boyfriend as we sat at the table conversing with no technology to distract us. As I was being extra observant of technology use throughout my day, I noticed how many people out and about were on their cell phones rather than conversing with the people around them. This makes me so sad. What happened to being friendly and personable? As nurses, being personable is a quality we can NEVER forget.

If you were a patient in the hospital, what would comfort you more?

A kind and compassionate nurse standing next to your side listening to your questions and concerns

or

A computer screen with a robotic voice explaining your diagnosis and condition to you

 

Capstone Project Update 10/21/2015

/in /by

I will be going to SRI this weekend to collect more data on the Torrey pine demography plots!

SRI Pier

Confucian Politics

/in /by

 

 

 

Being the “Lurker” (part two)

/in /by

 

 

Here we are in the second installment of “Being the Lurker”.  For those that might not know what a Lurker is, I found a few definitions for you that should be helpful getting you up to speed.

Google defines it as: (of a person or animal) be or remain hidden so as to wait in ambush for someone or something.

Urban Dictionary has it as, spying on people online, while you remain invisible

Wikipedia goes further to say: In Internet culture, a lurker is typically a member of an online community or PLN, who observes but does not actively participate.

The experiment at hand is to find some websites/social media pages on the topic of LGBT and Lurk them, spy on them from afar, sneak in and take a peak without anyone the wiser. Being the natural lurker that I am, this task came with no hesitation or delays.  I have been lurking some great Facebook pages on the topic of LBGT, And I will continue to do so after the research is over.  The Los Angeles LGBT Center, LGBT News and Human Rights Campaign are some of the groups that I have been following the closest.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center page on Facebook by far is more progressive and is always being updated with events, news, and information on support groups. It is a constant feed on who is promoting equal rights for the LGBT community and who is adamantly against it. An announcement that came on Monday was a partnership between lavender.com and Birth Sevices to offer Los Angeles families the first LGBTQ childbirth classes.  For more information go to www.lavender.com as first classes start in November. On the darker side of the news, it shares information on an NFL team owner donating money to oppose equality in Houston. For the most part, this social media community has to be one of the best. It is a place where all can come to find useful information on all aspects of the LGBT.
On the Human Rights Campaign site, there is a compelling video that should be seen by all.

The message is clear and it should be understood. People are people regardless of our differences. “People are people so why should it be, that you and I should get along so awfully?”(GORE, MARTIN) This is a question that has been asked far too many times without a respectable reply. It is from a gay man to a straight man, and the question at hand is why all the hate, aggression and rejection? How are we so different? In my opinion, were not. I have witnessed the road to equality has been bulldozed, and is on the way of being paved. The acceptance and understanding of each other is stronger now than it ever has been. I feel that in years to come this will no longer be an issue of any kind, not social or ethical. It will not be overnight, but the day will come when all humans stand together with equal rights.
This project has opened my eyes to many issues, both fantastic and horrifying and has been a wonderful experience. But as I mentioned before, “I am a Lurker,” no denying it. Sometimes while on Facebook or Twitter, I will participate in the everyday shenanigans, but most of the time I am in and out with no-one the wiser. It is okay to be the life of the party, but most of the time i decide not to be.

Well as I always was, keep smiling, make someone laugh out loud and have a fantastic day.

CDR

 

 

Disconnecting

/in /by

Up until recent I had had a really unreliable phone that always died after about an hour of use, therefore I was forced to disconnect on a daily basis. The biggest thing I noticed when I didn’t have my phone is that you never see anyone’s eyes. Everyone is either walking around with there eyes glued to a screen or looking down at the ground, not paying attention to the world around them. It’s pretty sad to think that this media storm has come about only in the last decade, and that now it is all that we know. I personally don’t like how connected we are, I understand the importance and convenience factor of using phones and tablets and other mediums of communication but I hate nothing more than when you are hanging out with someone who is more connected to the newest buzzfeed story than to you. I have a rule with my boyfriend and some of my close friends that we do not use our phones when we are together, we just put them away and enjoy each others company. This allows us to interact without any distractions or disconnection from there here and now, and I really enjoy it. Overall I think we as a nation need to learn some moderation in our life styles, we tend to launch ourselves into all or nothing categories when that doesn’t need to be the case. Phones, internet and media have a place in our lives and there is no denying a lot of good comes of it, but it shouldn’t be our lives in my humble opinion.

7Addicting-To-Mobile-Phones

 

 

http://cellphoneapps.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/7Addicting-To-Mobile-Phones.jpg

Class change for 10/21

/in /by

We will not have class in our normal location. This week’s class activities are online. We will not meet during 3-6 pm, but will resume our normal schedule next week 10/28. Please review the course online activities for today under Unit Three. Please email me for any questions. I hope you find the activities, videos, and blog discussion exciting!

Lurking – Talking Tuition (Week 2)

/in /by

In my Lurking – Talking Tuition post last week, I addressed the usefulness of lurking on social media to find useful, live information on any topic, but in this case specifically, college tuition. I found a good deal of people discussing the same major articles on both Facebook and Twitter, and found that to continue to be the case this week. There is a wealth of new information that has accrued in the last week!

The hot topics of the week are the concept of a “tuition reset” , and not so recently, but still relevant, an analysis from September that was featured on The New York Times website that questions if tuition really is too high. I have also seen a photo going around that surrounds the presidential election.

clinton

There is a vast amount of outrage on both Twitter and Facebook regarding the photo in particular, but I consider that to be reflective of the wording in the text more so than the actual sentiments of voters.

There have been protests about the costs of college for as long as I can remember, but this week, I found myself drawn to protests in South Africa that lead to a shut down of two major universities:

debt sentence

Also in reference to my comments on Germany offering free tuition to Americans in a couple of my previous posts, I found this interesting tidbit on Twitter:

germany

All in all, I have found a great deal of information this week that I think will truly help me to understand the topic in a better light and from multiple perspectives. I have found this week’s post to be a lot easier now that I truly understand the process and was able to dig in and find the “good stuff” much more easily.

 

Professor In Training, MGH

The post Lurking – Talking Tuition (Week 2) appeared first on Professor In Training.

Lurking to The Next Level

/in /by

For two weeks now I have been lurking social media to be twined in on a current refugee crisis. This issue was one I chose for our transfer class yet it was an issue for me prior to taking this course. There is an endless amount of reasons why we need to be in touch with this social uprising. Lurking and being conscious of an end goal is much more complex than simply lurking just to lurk. Now, I take on any new article or post that contributes to my issue and analyze it in depth. The contributions to my knowledge on these issues has been reinforced by not only learning the facts, but the opinions of millions of others on this same issue. One of the most interesting things to me is that this is not a two sided issue. All opinions are different based upon your upbringing and your beliefs, which makes this issue so versatile.
“Fewer than 2,000 Syrians have come to the U.S., though the war has displaced more than 12 million since it began in 2011. The refugees in America are scattered widely across more than 20 different states.”

This is an excerpt from an article published on NPR covering the experience of Omar Al-Awad and his newfound life here in America. This makes me feel proud. For the very reason that my own country is able to help such a humble family like Omar’s.
It inspires me to help another human regardless of where they are from.
The development of this project has made me more conscious, living in the moment you could say.

Lurking 2

/in /by

This week I continued my lurking on the social media sites Facebook and Instagram. The users I “lurked” were LGBTNews on Facebook and lgbttextposts (no caps). I am doing this to understand the social aspect of the LGBT community.

I found that people are much friendlier and more rancid on Facebook than on Instagram when comparing these two sites. People are often curious and ask genuine questions. There was one person who asked another “Off topic what does your profile picture mean?” This person had series of colors in shape of a heart as their profile picture. The person with the profile in question graciously answered, “It is the bisexual flag symbol, it just so happens to be in the shape of a heart.” “Oh, thank you.” The conversation ended pleasantly and all was well. Then I noticed as I scrolled down someone must have left some nasty comments as one of the persons told that individual to &*$7 off. I believe the person who left the nasty comments was blocked.

I also found that on Instagram there were much more people who blatantly were against the lgbt community. They were there to say hurtful things only or to preach, and when I say preach; I mean to invoke Christianity in the sense that being gay is a sin. One person actually wrote, “This is a sin.” Another replied, “Please tell me you’re joking.” Then the conversation ensued from there. I found also on Instagram that the user will post something, then ask the audience a question and most everyone will answer or tag a friend in the comment.

In the Facebook account this did not happen. Most people would agree with the post or not saying “Wow” or things like that or they would have full blown conversations. No one had a conversation on Instagram unless there was hate speech being used, there was preaching as I explained earlier, or of a person defending the lgbt community against the “trollers”.

Why I Am Still Lurking

/in /by

Ok so this week I am going to be lurking on the same websites that I was lurking on the week before. If you did not see my last post or forgot the websites, it was the World Health Organization on Facebook and Startup Health on Twitter; and if you couldn’t figure it out these are both health organizations. The reason I am lurking is because I want to see the different interactions, comments, shares, likes, and what these organizations are putting on their feed.

What I find interesting about Startup Health is that there are no replies to their tweets, but there are a lot of shares and liking the topics. From this I can see there is a lot of traffic that comes in but not a lot of feedback. From what I see from the World Health Organization is that there is an average of about 1,500 likes 2,000 being the highest. There are some comments, around 35 to be the most. What I found interesting was that the organization would respond to the comments if a person had a question. So from what I can see is that they too have a lot of foot traffic, but I’m not sure how much of their information is getting out there.

From what I have found lurking on these sites is that the information they give out is basically the same and the interactions they get are the same. People come and look at their profile but don’t really participate. There are barely any comments, if at all, but we do know that people are viewing their profile. The only place they are really commenting is the World Health Organization and that’s only because that’s the only place where there are comments.

Here the links to these organizations if you want to check them out.

https://twitter.com/startuphealth?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/WHO?fref=ts