Week 7

Yesterday was our last day of in class classes.  This semester has been a good and feel grateful that the course load was bearable.  I enjoyed the different articles that we were assigned to read and especially liked Revolution 2.0 and the articles for parenting. I felt the parenting’s articles helped answer question that I have been wondering about.  I have often wondered when and how to talk to my son about pornography. As I have got older I find myself being more like mom and how her and my dad taught us about things.  In our home we didn’t speak of pornography ever. I remember once my mom trying to talk to me about how my body is changing and I remember just feeling uncomfortable. We weren’t allowed to talk about bad things but instead pretended that they didn’t exist.  I remember growing up my dad smoked but even till this day we do not ever talk about it around him and we all pretend that he doesn’t smoke. When it’s my mom and siblings we’ll talk about, but I remember a time even doing that wasn’t allowed. She would pretend he didn’t smoke.  I think I remember learning about him smoking and my mom would beat around the bush with me.  I’d play dumb and ask my mom why there were cigarette butts on the ground and why the garage smelt like smoke. I have been hiding more things from my son and am glad I learnt that it’s ok to talk about pornography but that I should be talking to him and teaching him how to handle it at a young age.  I was always honest and dope but found myself closing up and being like my mom.  I kind of felt like that article gave me permission to be myself with my son and talk about those bad things we were never allowed to talk about when we were young. I also learnt to think twice when I read things on the Internet. The stuff I am reading is often time written by one person and it reflects their opinions and ideas and that is important for me to remember.  Be critical of Internet content and check the sources.

Week 6

This week we read a chapter of the book called “Revolution 2.0”.  I found it to be a really interesting read. I don’t know too much about world events and found what happens in different parts of the world eye opening.  I had heard about the revolution in Egypt before and know that disturbing things go on in the world but I don’t seek out the details because it’s difficult to for me to see and hear these things when I feel like I can’t do much about it. It’s very unsettling and stresses me out. On the first page it gives details of the man who had been severely beaten to death and talks about how this goes on a lot in their country. From reading that chapter it amazes me how much the Internet was able to help over throw the dictatorship in Egypt. Today we watched an interview on what happened in Egypt and the man said that social media made the popular media avenues pay attention to this story. I was amazed of the power groups of people have in the world. It makes me think how valuable the internet is and how valuable it can be to learn how to use social media to bring awareness to good causes or issues that need to be addressed. 

We also had to read some article about the Internet and how it affects children. The things that I took away from those articles were that what your kids see on the Internet from friends or ad etc., affects their behavior. The author encouraged to see what your kids are looking at and to be open and talk to them about it and help those images in context, such a you don’t have to party to be popular was an example given. I also liked that as parents it’s important to model the behavior we want our children to have with technology.  I think that also can apply in many areas.  I also liked the idea to use a token economy with you children. I often struggle on when or how much time I should let our son play games, this was a great way for him to feel like he has power but can also learn from it and how to use his time wisely.

Week Five

Last class for prep we read some articles about slacktivism. Up until this past week I have never heard of the term and didn’t know what it was about. Upon reading it I thought it made sense and clarified some questions I had when using change.org. For the last couple of months I have been signing petitions on change.org and felt like well if I can at least help make a change in a small way that I would sign petitions that I thought were important. The more I have been signing them the more I have started to wonder if the people they petition would even care. I thought how easy is it for me to hit a submit button with my information attached and wonder if it even gets anywhere. In reading the articles assigned it helped clarify some of the feelings I was having.  I learnt what I am doing is called slacktivism. I sign for a cause but then don’t do much to follow through or make sure change happens.  I think using change.org has brought to my attention a lot of issues that I didn’t even know was happening. I don’t have a tv and so I don’t hear much about what’s going on in the world, I guess in a way a bit of a newsfeed for me as well.  I often find myself wondering what else can I do to help. I liked in the article that it talked about slacktivism is a good thing in bringing light to different issues but if it only brings to light the issue and doesn’t do much than that, then it can be ineffective. I have noticed in some of the petitions I’ve signed with change.org they give instructions on how to go further than just signing. I find this helpful. I think a lot of why people don’t take it further it because they don’t what to do next. I’ve been thinking how can we take it further than just signing something. I think when they give out the information of who to contact and what to say teaches us how to be advocates in our causes, how to contact an authority and I think shows the representative that you mean business.  I think that kind of guidance is needed and can help us take a more active role in supporting our beliefes.

Week Four

Last week we had Bro. Wilson come and speak to us about the Dark Web and marketing. I had never heard of the dark web before and was surprised that something like that even existed. I thought it was creepy that there’s something like that and seems scary.  He showed us different videos that have ogne viral. He got advice from one of his friend who has made videos go viral. One of the tips that stood out to me was that a video had to be unique.  Bro Wilson gave the example of the blendtec videos call “will it blend”.  I had heard about the “will it blend” videos before but didn’t know that they were done by done blendtec. I thought it was done by guys who had a youtube channel and just wanted to get a ton of views.  He said that when they were thinking of what they could do that was difffernt that wanted to make sure that it cool and that they would want to watch it. I thought that was so smart and such a good guideline to follow when making videos for my business in the future. I think that helps to get you thinking outside of the box and make something that people will want to watch.  The four tips his friend gave him was that the video should be unique, emotional, bite size and targeted. I think the advice to be  is great because making sure that your videos are “cool” like the blendtec videos might not work for your target.  My target is LDS families and blending things up wouldn’t work for my purposes, so I have to think what would work for my audience? For Bro.Wilson app class I made a video for my app and analyzing it with that info I would say that yes it was unique and I think targeted for families, but I think it was too long and I wonder if it could be more targeted. I would shorten it if I were to change it and probably make it more funny than cute and try to get to the point quicker. It was awesome advice and enjoyed it.

Week 3

This week we had to read a couple of general conference talks one by Elder Oaks and the other by Elder Utchdorf.  I really enjoyed reading the talks especially Elder Oaks talk.  It really spoke to me on things that I had been thinking about.  I liked how he spoke about being focused on what your looking at on the net.  I liked how he gave the example of people who created great things in the past and that they had limited access to information and it wasn’t the amount of information they had access to that was important  but that they were focused and purposeful in their studies.  That stood out to me so much because on my facebook feed I get so many entrepreneur articles that I want to read.  Lately I have been taking entrepreneur classes from Bro. Wilson and the things that I’ve been learning is so exciting.  There is so much opportunity and so many things I could do, it’s just awesome.  With all this opportunity I’ve been thinking well what should I fous, which area is more profitable?  I thought there are so many different skills that could help me and have been feeling like I have to learn all of them to be successful, and it’s overwhelming to think about all the skills that I’ll need.  It’s been stressful just thinking what direction I want to go.  Reading this artivle makes me ok pick one skill I want to work on and choose a platform that I want to work on and I don’t need to do everything and nor can I do everything.  It was timely advice and am really grateful for that.  Also I though it could apply to the time that I spend on the internet and also could apply it to errandfs in the day.  I get so distracted when I go to do something on the net and takes me longer to get what I need to get done.  Even at home I can get side tracked and it just takes me longer. So I’ve been trying to just focus this week and it’s been helping. 

Week 2

This week we read a couple of chapters in the "everything is miscellaneous" book.  To be honest I've
really struggled with it. I don't understand it and feels like it goes on and on.  Anyways what I did get
of it was a comment that said that "elites" or powerful people use arbitrary lines to stay in power. I've
been thinking about that this week and wonder how often that is true.  I do think there is alot of that,
that goes on. In class yesterday we talked about how the internet removed the gatekeeper and now
anyone can do things they may have not been able to before for example writing a book. Before it
was difficult to have book published and seemed like you had to be a great writer to get that done.
Now anyone can write a book about whatever they want and get it out to the world with little
difficulty. It's really a great thing, I think for the most part to get rid of the arbitrary lines so that the
only the elite can stay in power.  We talked in class about because there is no gatekeeper that there is
so much room for creativity and awesome things have happened and will continue to happen because
of all of these ideas and the ability for people to create and express themselves as they please.
Listening to the Katie Couric interviews really had me thinking about how can there be more
accountability for how we express ourselves on the Internet?  I don't think there is a way.  It makes
me think of the importance of teaching our children at home and at school about the internet and how
to harness it for good.  It seems like there is so much crap on the internet and that the majority of the
population like it.  I wonder if there are other ways to make good use of the internet popular. I think
there is definitely alot learning and teaching to be done for all of us who use the internet.  It also
made me think what's the responsibility for the school when there is cyber bullying taking place?  I
had a instance this year where a mom was using my sons name and posting things about him because she
thought my son was bullying her son, when both of our children where doing things they shouldn't
have. When she was posting she still hadn't talked to me and got the full story, but people in the
community where letting me know what she was saying and was using his name.  When I spoke to
her she said that she didn't use our last name and so it was ok. I told her it's a small community an
alot of people who he was.  When I spoke to the school about what was going on their response was
that if it happens outside of school it's not their business and they can only take care of things that
happen while at school.  At the time I didn't think about it much because I wanted to talk to this boys
mom and straighten things out which we did and things calmed down. Reflecting back it makes me
think what is their responsibility and I think it is there responsibility to assist students who are being
bullied through the internet as well.

First day of class

Yesterday was my first day of class and we watched a Ted Talk.  What stood out to me was when the lady talked about an older lady who was finding comfort in talking to a penguin I think, about her grief of losing a family member.  It was a bit disturbing to see how people feeling alone and wanting to connect to something that’s not living.  I agreed with the woman that this could be detrimental to a person and could also see how it could affect a society.  I imagined people not really wanting to connect with others because its difficult and turning to machine or just having relationships with others only through the net.  In thinking about this I thought how it would make our world more selfish. Selfish because they are willing to give their feedback not matter how ugly it could get and have no repercussion from their outlet.  I think this is could be detrimental to families because when you have to connect or interact with your family it isn’t ok to act how you want, and a persona who is used to letting things out to a machine would be used to acting however they want.  I think that could and would get ugly for those who turn to machines for their connections. 

In class I also was startled at how much I do the same things she was talking about, like whenever there is a minute I’m on my phone or even at times being on the phone or on the computer more than I should when our son is at home.  It’s eye opening and is grateful to be made more aware of it.  I like the challenge she gave to be alone and to connect to others more.  Yesterday I tried to be alone while waiting for my sister at a restaurant instead of checking my Facebook while waiting.

It was also startling to see in myself that I do try to avoid having conversations with people.  I do feel like it’s harder to socialize since I’ve been married, and am glad to be more aware of it.