Website Critique

Solvetheissues.com

The purpose of this site is to provide a place for people to present problems and discuss ways to develop solutions.  Opinions are shared from conservative, moderate, and liberal viewpoints. 

The intended audience is average citizens. The website says, “We, the people” when describing who must join together to solve the pressing issues of today’s society.

I do not think the site reaches its intended audience.  Personally, I have never even heard of the site before class today. They have only 4 likes on Facebook, one of which is Ryan. On the other hand, they only joined Facebook in March, so it may take some time for their idea to spread. Maybe with a bit more time Solve the Issues will be more popular, but they need to advertise their site on social media sites to get their name better known.

As of right now the site is not useful to me. There are a limited number of issues to discuss, and there are no comments on the provided issues.  Granted, the issue topics were just posted today, so maybe people will start commenting their opinions soon.

I really like how there are various topics of discussion. The one that I find the most interesting is the Energy Strategy for sustainable alternative energies.

As of right now, I will not encourage others to visit this site.  However, if the website starts to pick up interest, I will tell others to visit it.  

This site can be improved by having the pictures corresponding with each issue group link to that issue’s main page.  The website also needs a description for the “Support Solve” tab page.  It just links you to a page for Amazon.  The website also needs a new design for the graphics and color scheme.  Right now the colors are distracting from the purpose of the site. 

Censoring the Internet

The article I read this week is “The Evolving Landscape of Internet Control” by Roberts, Zuckerman, Faris, York and Frey.   It discusses control of the Internet through censoring.  The article specifically looks at practices from China and Russia.  China, for example, has very strict control over the Internet in the country.  Mainstream sites like Facebook and YouTube are banned.  On the plus side, 95% of web page requests are hosted within China, which fosters the growth of local sites.  I think such severe Internet regulations are too extreme. 

Russia is not as strict as China, but it has its own ways of monitoring the Internet.  Since Russia has such a complex network structure, it has the ability to hack into sites to harass activists or flood forums with pro-government views. This passive-aggressive approach is basically as intrusive as China’s direct limitations. 

After reading about other countries’ policies, I am very happy I live in a country where we have freedom to browse the web as we please!  It is nice knowing our government will not hack into a personal website and deface or hijack the site because it displeases them. I will be interested to see how successful the United States’ “Internet Freedom agenda” will be at funding ways to circumvent Internet censorship in other countries. 

Pink Hair

Tonight I decided to temporarily dye my hair pink.  My roommates tried the classic Kool-Aid method, and I used a chalk mixture.  It actually turned out really cool! 

It was funny though because the first thing we did when we finished was take a picture to post to Instagram.  I have started to notice that people are more preoccupied with getting the perfect picture to post to Facebook than actually enjoying the various activities of life.   Anytime someone takes a good picture it is automatically considered a “great profile pic!”

I think taking pictures has evolved from wanting to document your personal experiences for a scrapbook or photo album to needing to share everything with the world on social media.  Does anyone else find this to be true?

Anyways, here’s a picture of my hair because I am definitely guilty of posting my pictures immediately on social media.

Saturday Night

I just realized that my expressed viewpoints on social media and forums in general are fairly negative.  I felt the need to correct this misconception.  I love Facebook and every other social media available!  I have a Facebook, multiple Twitters, Instagram, you name it, and I have probably tried it.  In my blogs I voiced the opinion that we SHOULD follow not the one that I DO follow.   

Due to having to work at 8am tomorrow morning, I am not out partaking in the typical college Saturday night festivities.  Instead, I will have a relaxing night watching tv and browsing Facebook.  So, fellow classmates, have fun and take pictures to post to Facebook for me! 

Rheingold Article

The article I read was “The Heart of the WELL” by Howard Rheingold.  This article portrays a more personal side of the WELL through specific stories and shared experiences of users.  

The article opens with a discussion about the parenting forum on the WELL.  The author states, “What amazed me wasn't just the speed with which we obtained precisely the information we needed to know, right when we needed to know it.”  I find this statement accurate for all information available online.  I have the WebMD app on all of my Apple devices, and whenever I have a medical question that is the first place I check.  It has also become so easy to ask a question on Facebook or another online forum and receive an instantaneous reply.  While this is convenient, we begin to rely too heavily on technology and our access to others.

This leads into another aspect of the article; addiction.  People are starting to become addicted to social networks.  There are 900 billion active Facebook users who spend 700 billion minutes on the site a month.  (More stats can be found here).  This astonishes me!  Why are we wasting our lives on a computer “creeping” on other peoples’ lives?  If we have become this dependent on Facebook since its launch in 2004, I am anxious to see our dependence on new technologies in the upcoming years. 

Turner Article

The article that I read this week was “Where the Counterculture Met the New Economy” by Fred Turner.  It discussed the development and evolution of the WELL and the Whole Earth Catalog.  I found the article very interesting.  However, I had never heard of either the WELL or Catalog, so I decided to do some background research.  I found this page on the WELL’s main website that describes its history.  I also found this page about the Catalog’s history and availability of the catalog online. Once I really understood what the WELL and Catalog entailed, I had a greater appreciation for the article.

One of the quotes that stuck out for me was:

            “In its pages, the Catalog both depicted the products of an emerging counterculture and linked the scattered members of that culture to one another. In that sense, it became a ‘network forum.’”

It is interesting when you think that the reviewers were spread out geographically and connecting through the Catalog to share their thoughts and opinions.  This formed the web of the “network forum.”  Web is an interesting word to use to describe a network forum because things get caught in webs and are held there.  I think this is true of network forums.  Peoples’ opinions are held in the forum waiting for other users to browse through and find them.

I thought this article did a good job presenting the WELL and Catalog to an audience who had no background knowledge on the subject, like myself.  I constantly use online forums, so it is fascinating to see where they have evolved. 

Self-Reflecting

This week in class, Dr. Magolis asked us to try self-reflecting throughout our days. I decided to give it a try at the end of my yoga class. As the yoga instructor was telling us to take a “sloooow deeeeep rhythmiiiic ouija breath” I tried to reflect back on my day. Instead of focusing on my breath and relaxing muscles, I started making to-do lists and going over my mental calendar.  I have an obscenely busy schedule, and the easiest way for me to keep track of everything is with my phone.  As I was lying on my mat at the end of yoga trying to self-reflect I was craving my phone. I realized that I could not even take two hours out of my evening without my phone because I am constantly planning and organizing my schedule and various club activities.  Technology is really helpful to keep us connected, but at the same time it inhibits our ability to take personal time to relax. I am making it my personal goal to build time into my schedule to relax and decompress. No phone, no email, no Facebook.   I recommend we all try this practice and not let technology occupy all of our time.  Yes, it is very helpful, but we need to stay connected with ourselves first and foremost.