Category Archives: Digital Communication and Culture

Online Communities Part #1 – You and me are a communiTY

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200 words or less – discussion part #1 – “Online Communities”

For my Network Society class I am to have a 5 part series/discussion on something cool (i.e. my choice) as long as it’s academically relevant to my class.  I’m also supposed to make it more formal than a ‘normal’ blog post (who defines normal?) and I would GUESS that means I should use BIG words.  I sure hope that words in capital letters count as BIG!!!  (hee hee)  Thankfully for YOU each of the parts only has to be about 200 words.  That’s like NOTHING!  Sooooo…. (does it count as big if it has eeeexxxxtttrrrraaa letters?) here is my first part – 200 words on online communities.  I hope with my WHOLE HEART you choose to participate (comment.)  :)

Online Communities

Never in my life did I realize how much my identity was tied to my culture and community until I moved out of my community.  Living in the heart of one of the chirpiest cities in the United States, full of people who don’t drink, smoke, do drugs, or watch dirty movies, and who wave and smile at everyone who drives into the neighborhood, I was in for a bit of culture shock when I moved to the busy city life of Sydney, Australia.

Who are my neighbors?  Heaven knows I have no clue!  Who was the dude yelling at his alleged crazy girlfriend down the street?  Heaven knows I’m OK that I don’t know!  And umm, excuse me, WHY did you think it was OK to pat my behind while I was walking down the street you crazy stranger?  No, actually – don’t answer that – in fact let’s both forget you exist. (snap!)

Community and culture play a huge role in the way we see and define the world and our surroundings.  It helps us assess meaning and value.  It contributes to our filters and our level of comfort.  And HOW we define our relationship with our community and culture (whether we accept or reject it) contributes to our personal identity.

In a new world full of online communities, how do these digital cultures affect our daily lives?  How much of our identity is wrapped up in digital cultures and online communities?

NEXT POST – I’ll bring in what a few of the “experts” have to say about it – but until then – I’d LOVE to hear what you have to say.  :)  :)  :)

Day 4 – Some much needed ME time

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On set of Insight TV Show

TODAY’s horoscope

You may become less confident as the day wears on, especially if you must show up at a big social event. But if you are able to steal away for a while, then you can emerge from your mini-retreat revitalized and ready to go back out for another round of battles with the status quo. Don’t be afraid of your own power, even if you think it’s wiser to wait for the right time to act.

Annnddd yahoo.com’s said something about taking time for myself and writing a list of “to dos”….

LESS CONFIDENT

I was pretty confident about life this morning but as luck would have it (or more likely as my subconscious would have it because I had already read the above horoscope) I DID lose confidence in myself as the day wore on.  WHAT??  Why would I ever do a thing like that?

Prolly because I realized I’m in some suck classes, the camera adds 10 lbs, I stuttered on TV today and I ran into TWO professors who gave me the pity look because they know about my stupid special consideration and swine flu last semester.

Yeah – that could be why.

Some ME Time

I was kind of excited that my horoscope encouraged a little ME time today but I wasn’t sure how I was going to fit it in – I had a full schedule today!!  After my first class I decided to skip class #2 because it sucks and I’m going to change it for a different one anyway … and I had a choice:

BUS OR WALK??

WALK of course!!  Why?  Because walking is ME time!!  YAY!!!  So I walked from Uni to Central and did some thinking – lots of thinking.  Mostly about the pavement, the cars driving by, the hotties in business suits – but ALSO about Uni, my list of things to do – and ok – that was about all.  Unless you count trying to decide whether or not to text/sms No. Syd and tell him about my day’s adventures as thinking – if you do? well then I thought about that a lot too.

I decided to text him – and got no reply.  And not that I’m getting ready to throw in the towel or anything but seriously – EVERY TIME I DECIDE I LIKE A GUY IT ENDS WITHIN LIKE A WEEK.  So I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if the Love Gods out there put a jinx on this whole thing – aw well.  Time will tell.

No backing out now!!

Even if things don’t work with No. Syd guess what?  I meant what I said about the taking a chance thing – no more negative nancy from me about relationships.  I am ready to put myself on the line – it may take a REALLY LONG time before I find someone that I want to commit to – it may take a REALLY LONG time before I start dating again … but I’m not going to be actively AGAINST it like I was.  In fact! I even replied to Adorable Boy’s (he was the reason I went on the cruise where I met CC+4) email today.  He wants to come visit.  I told him that’d be great.  And you know what will happen if Adorable Boy comes out to visit?  hee hee.  SPARKS WILL FLY!  :)

I HATE TOMORROW’s HOROSCOPE

I just want everyone to know that I already hate tomorrow’s horoscope.  WHY??  Because it is going to require super extra effort on my part to make it come true.  The task??  Find meaning in the mundane things you do.  And after the 2 page long TO DO list I made today of MUNDANE SUCK THINGS TO DO!!! Tomorrow is DEFINITELY going to be a challenge.

But the joy is in the challenge right??  :)

Don’t write essays when you’re drugged up – just a little bit of advice

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When Miss Piggy came to visit last week I should have known that greedy hunk of bacon would overstay her welcome and leave me with the flu.  Hmph!  RUDE!  They say you can’t get the swine flu from eating pigs – and so NEXT TIME maybe I’ll roast good old Piggy next to Kermit, toss in a couple eggs and have myself a regular old green eggs and ham breakfast.  mmmm.  I bet it’d give me LOTS of energy instead of leaving me BED RIDDEN FOR FIVE SOLID DAYS!!!

Yeah so remember all of those parties and plans I had this past weekend?  No?  Oh wait that’s right – I never got to blog about them OR go to them because I had the SWINE FLU!  grr.  extra grrr.

ANYWAY – I had a couple assignments due yesterday and so guess what?  I did them.  :D yay!  Happy days for Daisy!

EXCEPT

I was totally drugged up on flu medicine when I wrote them.  Want to know why this is a problem?  Because I wrote the following in my paper:

Someone else could read this conversation and think that Marie has a crush on Sharon and is being overly strict with her in order to prevent the lesbian soap opera gossip around the office.

It gets better.  I also wrote this:

Sharon could be upset for a multitude of reasons. If we throw out the lesbian soap opera option and only look at the surface, we see that Sharon’s needs and wants are not being heard.

And the sentence that makes my paper the coolest druggy paper ever???

Depending on the reality of proposed behind closed doors antics, there could be a lot of fiery gender battles interwoven in this conversation.

Let’s repeat this one because it’s THAT GOOD:

Depending on the reality of proposed behind closed doors antics, there could be a lot of fiery gender battles interwoven in this conversation.

It’s ok though – I saved the paper with this fantastic conclusion:

Sharon, who could potentially have a crush on her manager Marie, may also be a man hater. If this is the case she would be especially furious that her partner and boss was putting her career on the back burner for a guy. Or if Sharon suspects there is a relationship between Marie and John, she may believe that she is being sexually harassed. Eitherway, Marie was not an effective team-manager when she allowed John to take control of the situation.

Yep – THAT’s what happens when you write a paper while drugged up on flu medicine.

Take a lesson from my mistakes and don’t try this one at home.

The Intellectualiz-ation of Emoticons

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Ok ok – so sometimes I like to make up words.  For example: “Intellectualiz-ation” – NOT a proper variation of the word “intellectualize” (hence the “-” in the middle of the word) but you know what?  I like it despite the fact.

Ok on to the most IMPORTANT-est ;) things for today – well for right now.  I was flipping through my text book to waste time (I am an amazing time-waster ) and I found this:

EMOTICONS: NON-VERBAL SIGNS ON THE COMPUTER

And I was like, “Say whaaat?  My textbook has a section on EMOTICONS??”  THEN I was like, “omgosh – no way!  I LOVE emoticons!” And THEN I decided that my textbook and I must have been fated to each other.  ;) And THEN I decided to read the whole 1.5 paragraphs on emoticons.  And THEN I looked at the handy chart they put in my textbook.  and NOW I’m wondering why I keep saying “and THEN.” ?? oh well.

So according to my book emoticons are really important.  HAHA!  I KNEW IT!  When I created the tag, “Emoticons make me happy” ages ago I KNEW it was because emoticons are SO IMPORTANT-est-ish.  :D You see, “Emoticons are a way of denoting emotion when communicating on the internet,” because “when communicating via the computer, we cannot hear voice inflection, nor can we see the funny, naughty or sad emotions of people’s faces.”

YES MY TEXTBOOK USED THE WORD NAUGHTY!  :) heehee – LUV it!!

Please enjoy the “Emoticon Dictionary” from Mohan:
:-* = kiss
:-X = lips are sealed
:-| = indifferent
:’( = crying
0:-) = angel
:-> = biting sarcastic smile (lol – doesn’t look sarcastic to me!)
:-0 = Oh!
>;-> = devilsh wink

Oh my – HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And here are a couple extra fun ones for you. Your homework is to decide what THESE mean. haha!  And yes – yes I DID put a dancing chewbacca, Mr. T, beyonce, ninja and zorro emoticon on my blog.
IgnoringLoserSarcastic ClapBeyonceBoratDancing ChewbaccaMr T 2Ninja TraineeSumo WrestlerZorro