Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Old times

Summer is sneaking up on me this year. Throughout high school I always counted down the days until the summer, when I would no longer have to deal with the boringness and busy work of school. There is no doubt that I am ready to get exams over with and be out on good ol Lake Murray with friends and family, but one thing I will definitely miss is all of my new friends I have met thus far at Clemson.
If it weren’t for modern communication I wouldn’t be able to be in touch or stay in contact with any of my new friends who live in all over parts of the country. After spending everyday with these new friends it would be terrible to not be able to keep a strong relationship with any of them. College has not only taught me that modern communication, such as; Facebook, Twitter, and Skype are important but also I’ve learned to truly cherish the old fashion way of communicating that we being Americans constantly tend to forget.
I honestly have the greatest parents and grandparents in the entire world and being in college is allowed me to realize how great they really are. My grandpa and I are extremely close and even though I’m away in college and we rarely get to see each other, he continues to send me a letter in the mail every two weeks. No matter what he has to do or what is going on in his life, he has never once forgotten that special letter.  Don’t get me wrong, a good comment on my Facebook wall is nice every now and then but for some reason receiving a letter in the mail is so much more exciting. As much as I love how crucial modern communication is in our lives today, I never want the good ol fashion letters to disappear.
My mom and dad have obviously adapted to the new resources of communication that overwhelms society today but my grandparents are not exactly there yet and probably never will learn to appreciate it the way young college students do. My dad is a huge fan of blogging and tries to do it a couple of times a week, he also has a Facebook and Twitter that he tends to get on every now and then as well. I love to give him a hard time because sometimes it seems that he is texting or on the computer more than my sister and me are (which is probably not actually true, he is just easy to mess with). Even though he’s a huge fan of all of these new things, he takes the time to write my sister and me a simple letter to let us know how much he cares and is thinking about us. There’s no doubt that modern communication is a great aspect to our society but it is always great when you check your mailbox and there is a little letter from your favorite grandpa waiting for you!!

ps.. the site won't let me put a picture on this.. i'll keep trying later :)

-Kimberly Gray

Monday, April 18, 2011

Keepin The Family Close


      Contrary to most assumptions, using social networks is not just another way to talk to friends.  Many people refer to it as “conforming” or following the crowd.  What I believe a lot of people don’t realize is how much of a positive impact social networks can have in other areas, specifically family relations.  My extended family (2 sets of grandparents, great uncle and aunt, aunt and uncle, and five cousins) all live within an hours driving time from each other, everyone except my family.  They all live the Suburbs surrounding Atlanta, which is approximately 3 hours from where family resides, Greenville, Sc.  Although it is relatively close it is not exactly a day trip you’d enjoy making for a quick visit. Before I moved to Clemson I saw my family about once every two months.  Now that I don’t love at home I see them maybe once a semester (Christmas and my birthday).  Disappointing isn’t it?  You never realize how much you like keeping in touch with your family until you actually try it.  I didn’t have much of a choice but to keep in touch.  I logged on to my facebook account one day to find a plethora of new friend requests, all from my grandparents.  My cousin who spent a week with my grandparents decided it would be a magnificent idea to create facebook accounts for all of them.  At first I was terrified.  The last thing my grandparents need to see are my weekends captured on facebook.  Goodbye birthday/Christmas presents…. As the last few years have passed I have been proven wrong.  I forgot one important factor, which would be that my grandparents basically don’t know what a computer is.  I watched them venture through the world of facebook and realized I have nothing to worry about.  The only thing they know how to do is read their inbox so they think that facebook is an email service with a little picture next to it.  I still get to message them about weekly and let them know what’s going on, which they very much enjoy.  I also send them pictures that I consider appropriate and pictures of my family, which they enjoy even more.  The point of this blog is to bring attention to the way your family can be can stay close through social networks such as facebook and how many different age groups can be affected. (Not my grandma below)

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Procrastination is key


It’s late on Monday night, three weeks before my freshman year at Clemson is over (I can’t believe it) and it is taking everything in me to study for the test I have tomorrow at 5 pm. By this point of the year I’m honestly just ready for summer and so over the idea of doing any kind of schoolwork. So, while I should be studying for my stat exam, I decided to instead write this blog. This is a prime example of how the internet and other sorts of technology have become so distracting in today’s society. I’ve been on my computer on facebook and twitter, I’ve been texting my friends, sending out important Emails and distracting myself on StumbleUpon all night; basically doing anything I can to avoid any students worst nightmare… studying. Modern communication is not only a great way to procrastinate when you have a huge test the next day, but it is important in everyday life. If we didn’t have these kinds of tools we would have a much harder time keeping up with old friends, talking to family members back home and being able to see what all is going on. Another thing that has become extremely popular and helpful since I’ve been in college is skype. I love talking to all of my friends from high school on the phone but being able to actually see them on the screen is so much easier and more fun. Skype is probably the most recent addition to the communication world and really helps during nights like this when I choose to chat with my best friends over doing anything that is the least bit productive. The time I spend on all of these websites could definitely be put to better use but what is college without procrastination and wasting time?  Even when there is nothing to look at on facebook or twitter people just get on it and stare at the screen, scrolling through unimportant wall posts and conversations; society has become so obsessed and dependent on these networking sites that they are almost unavoidable. The sad thing is, even when there is no computer around to get on, we now either get on our phones for facebook, twitter, and even skype on some phones. It is too easy to get distracted by all of these sites, so why study when there are so many other, more interesting and fun options? Who needs studying when you can stalk people’s pictures on facebook? Story of my life. 

-Kimberly Gray

Monday, April 11, 2011

Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj "Go Hard"





Any Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, or Travis Barker fans out there? This past weekend I went to Lil Wayne's I Am Music II Tour concert in Atlanta, which featured other big name artists such as Nicki Minaj (who I absolutely loveeee!), Rick Ross, DJ Khalad, and Travis Barker. There were also many other younger and new artists from the Young Money label such as Shanell and Lil Twist who performed as well. Even Birdman made an appearance! The concert was absolutely AMAZING and everyone who sang and performed was outstanding. Travis Barker mesmerized the audience with his drum playing, simply incredible to watch. Rick Ross captured the crowd with an old favorite called “Here I Am,” and Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj engaged the crowd through humor and animation during their show. Never was there a dull moment in the Philips Arena as each artist promoted and sold themselves to the crowd flawlessly. I could not contain my excitement, tears filling my eyes, as Nicki Minaj took the stage opening with “Roman’s Revenge.” Nicki Minaj was definitely the most animated as she acted out each of the songs she performed and even engaged the crowd by bringing someone up on stage. I wish I could describe how mind-blowing the entire concert was but you had to be there to really experience it yourself.
            After the concert, we were able to see where Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj would be conducting their after parties through their tweets on Twitter. So, yet another use for Twitter is a new way that big time starts promote their work and what they’re doing to support their fan base. Since I am a follower of Nicki Minaj on Twitter, I looked at her profile yesterday and saw the countless tweets from friends and fans. The tweets ranged from how excited they were to see her in the specific city she was performing in that night, to how her music has inspired girls and really changed their views. Some tweets were also from Nicki herself reporting something about the show just went and where she was off too. It’s pretty neat to see the views from the other side, the performer instead of the audience. Before twitter or any other social network, this would not be possible. 
By: Heather Britt

Friday, April 8, 2011

Keeping Your Friends Close - D Heard

Friends Alllllll Over the Place
I'm not one hundred percent sure on how to start these but hello, this is Daniel Heard speaking.  I grew up in various places throughout the world and I made a friend or two.  For approximately ten years I continued to make friends and subsequently lose them every few years.  When I was thirteen we moved back to the wonderful United States of America.  I restarted my process and created a new group of friends.  After about a year of U.S.A living I came across what I though was the coolest thing of all time. AIM. I made my screen name and found a couple of my buddies from previous locations.  As excited as I was it was still limiting since I had no way to search for specific people.  About two years later I received an invitation to a new social network via e-mail. I created my user name and initiated an experience that changed my life in an unusual way.  About the time my junior year rolled around I started getting friend requests from people with what I considered unusual names.  I began to investigate and came to the thrilling realization that these were acquaintances from my previous homes.  Over the years I have compiled a large group of very culturally different people who are all interconnected in unusual ways.  I have met up with a large group of these friends once a year for the last 3 years and hopefully will continue to do this for as long as possible.  It's unbelievable what different forms of modern communication can do for us.  Without it I would be missing out on people that impacted my life for 10 years.  It's allowed me to keep in touch with my upbringing and the people that made it special and I'm always thankful for it.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Tumblr: The Little-Known, but fast growing, social networking site!!

Tumblr is a blogging site that is completely different than any other blogging site around in my opinion. I would describe it as a blog that crosses Facebook and Twitter. With Facebook the goal is to connect with your friends and people you have just met to nurture those connections and keep them alive. Twitter has the same goal but also encourages you to network and grow your follower/friend base to those you have not yet met and discuss things that are import to you. Tumblr takes these two components and adds a blog spin to it. With Tumblr you create a blog and start following your favorite blogs that consist of a few friends and people you know in “real life” (not to say that your cyber life isn’t real life) but consists primarily of people who find you on Tumblr and like your blog whom you do not know. The posts of the people you follow make up your “dashboard” and if you like their post then you can reblog it to add it to your blog or simply “heart” it.  Whereas on Twitter and Facebook peoples posts tend to be thought provoking or conversation starting Tumblr posts tend to be funny pictures, edited comics or movie stills, inspirational quotes superimposed on top of pictures, as well as the traditional blog posts about one’s daily life. Tumblr is a great way to connect with people in a very anonymous way whom you would not otherwise generally come in to contact with. I use my Tumblr to primarily post pictures and quotes about the mood that I’m in as well as things that entertain me, i.e. stills with captions from my favorite TV show moments, etc. Tumblr blogs are very personalized and if you are good at using HTML code you can personalize your blog page in any fashion that you would like. Most Tumblr’s focus on a specific theme such as fashion, comics, a specific TV show, or art and for this reason many people have more than one Tumblr that they “author.” Tumblr is a great way to vent anonymously and just have fun and see funny things and I encourage you to check it out because once you get the hang of it and start following people I guarantee you’ll be hooked. Give it a shot!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Modern Communication Craziness


It's crazy how intense and popular websites such as Facebook and Twitter have become in today's society! Just a few years ago none of these sites even existed and now it’s almost impossible for the average college student to go a whole day without using one of them. These sites are used for several different reasons, but the main reason is to simply communicate easily with friends and piers. For me, Facebook and twitter serve as a great procrastination device, when I'm bored from doing school work the first thing I find myself doing is getting on one of the two sites. Modern communication has stretched to all kinds of new levels and people can no longer live without these advancements. I recently discovered this new application for my mac called self-control where you can pick however many sites you want to and the time limit you want, and it will block the site from your computer no matter how much you want to undo it. It's sad that it is come to this, we have to have a site to block communication sites such as Facebook and Twitter. 
The funny thing about these modern day sites is that many years ago if someone were to ask an adult what they thought about their kids having these sites they would automatically say it would not be allowed, but now even parents are joining in on the Facebook fun. Parents, kids, students, celebrities, and even numerous businesses are hopping onto the Facebook and Twitter bandwagon. Company’s use these sites to advertise and communicate with several different age groups and demographics. When I look around in the library or in my classrooms there is always someone if not many people on Facebook or twitter, either creating a new status, chatting with a friend, commenting on a wall or picture, or uploading something new to their profile. Although some people many argue the benefits of having these sites, there is absolutely no doubt about the sites’ popularity and presence in today’s society.
By: Kimberly Gray