Debate

   While watching the presidential debate on friday then after thinking about who I thought won the debate, I honestly could not come up with an answer.  Though out the whole debate I felt like Obama and McCain each talked more about what each one was going to propose and bashed each other more than answering the actual questions being asked.  Through out the debate the moderator kept mentioning to each candidate to look at the other person and each time it looked like they were just reading off the TelePrompTer.  It was pretty hard for me to actually determine a winner because i felt like the debate was so scripted and that the questions were not being answered.  To me the debate was like the usual debates where all that happens is bashing each other and also proving which one of their points are better and why.  I just wished the canidate's answered the questions and did not just read off their TelePrompTer.

Election coverage

During election day on November 4th I sat back at watched CNN's media coverage of the election.  I noticed that the media coverage was extremely intense and also very informative.  It was not boring to watch at all and actually it was entertaining to sit in front of.  Not only did it grasp your attention because it is about our president but the way they had it set up, they had guest speakers and also they used humor and had images.  I liked how they had on the bottom line the set up of each state and they broke down the demographics of who voted for who and how the votes were processed.  I turned the channel and started watching MTV, there's is more geared towards grasping the youth of americas attention and not really on the older generation.  MTV had guest music and movie stars talking about the election and also they had games in between to gain the viewers attention.  Basically if you want the real up to date political scene then my vote is to stick to CNN.  CNN is no nonsense but also it keeps you interested to watch.  

I think that the media coverage of the election has really gone up and is more of entertainment now than it ever was.  It was usually just someone relaying the news and basically reading off a TelePrompTer but now it is more like a TV show and it is very entertaining.  They showed some reporters in Chicago at a Obama rally and it seemed almost like a party where they could not hear what the reporter was actually saying.  The huge rally seemed extremely energetic and wild.  I really think that CNN provided the best coverage of the election that i watched and i felt like it was very entertaining and kept you on your toes.  It was a good thing that it was not boring because the election is a very important time in American History and everyone should be interested and excited for it.

itunes

itunes in unreal, i think it one of the best inventions ever.  Itunes allows you to access their music library and buy any song, video or game for a low as .99.  They have to be making a killing with money through this because people have been really scared of downloading music illigally after the whole napster thing  happened.  Now people feel safe and think it is a great idea to buy music off itunes because they think it is cheap and also people dont want to go out and buy a whole new album just for two of the songs.  

   Im pretty sure that the record companies are not too happy about this whole internet invention of itunes and also downloading music illigally.  The record companies are losing money and people just don't want to go out and buy a album anymore they would rather buy it on itunes which it is cheaper and can go directly to their ipod or just buy a couple songs off the album.  Although this may take money away from the record companies and the artists I think that it is more benificial to the consumers because now we have the access of all of these songs and movies and such from our computers.  It really is a hassle to go out and buy a single or a album in a store.  Also people like to listen to parts before they buy it and you can do that on itunes easier than you can in a store.  

Ebay

  Ebay is something that started out small and has now taken off to be one of the more popular online shopping websites.  Ebay uses its innvoation of bidding on items and starting a competitive battle for a specific item that you want.  Also they have functions on Ebay which allow you to just buy the product now exactly when you want it.  My first experience with Ebay i bought a blackberry cell phone on it.  When i was bidding for the phone i decided that i would wait until the last minute to put my item number in so that no one could rebuttle.  What i did not know was everyone was thinking the exact same thing as me and i got out bid 3 times in the span of 2 minutes.  I think that is one of the problems that Ebay has, it is annoying and hard to keep up with all of the people bidding on the specific item and also if you really need something you just want it, you dont want to fight for it.  One great thing about Ebay is that you can find pretty much anything on there, from cars to boats to socks.  I feel like everything you want can be on Ebay and if you end up wanting to sell something you can do it easily through Ebay.  

    I remember when people used to be skeptical of ebay because they always thought that they would end up paying and then not getting their item, but ebay administrators have taken percautions and protected people from this ever happening. 

Online Dating

  Online dating sites like eharmony, match.com, and Adult Friend Finder are really revolutionizing the dating scene.  Now you can put in your interests and your personality and then find matches that way instead of going out and maybe wasting your time with trying to find a match and going through several dates and women.  Now you can pick your choice of girls online and you can find a place to meet and hit it off.  I think that these are really good for people who have trouble going out and meeting people, sometimes people struggle just going up to random people and striking up a conversation with them, but in this case you can do it over the internet and you can avoid the aqaurdness and the struggle of finding that someone special.  These specific sites are really changing the dating scene and also the social scene, if i was the owner of a bar or pub i would be a little upset with all of this because now that means that less people are going to be going out to meet and connect so that means i can lose alot of business.  But overall i think that these dating sites are helping alot of people out finding love and finding a person they are compatible with, it is not an easy thing to find people that you can get along with and share the same interests and likes and dislikes.     

Facebook

I think that Facebook has completely revolutionized the way high school and college students can communicate.  Not only now do we have cell phones for text messaging, now we have facebook where we can poke, write on peoples walls, message and send different types of gift.  I think that facebook is a real good way for college students to communicate and for them to make connections with others.  I know speaking just for myself i have met several different people and have made real good connections with others on it and it just like a social networking site.  I also think facebook is changing the way that we use technology, instead of going out to a bar or something to meet people we can stay on facebook and meet people through its social networking way.  It is contributing to our lazy society of not wanting to go out and meet people or go out and do anything, people would rather just stay inside and sit on their computer and communicate that way.

The apple store

I think that the apple store is something that is fascinating when you first walk into it and is different than every other store.  The first time i walked into one before i bought my computer it was really a different experience.  Everything is laid out so nice and in perfect order.  Also the help was right there at the door to assist you with everything you need.  The apple store was the only store in the whole mall that had a line to get into it.  This shows our societies needs and wants on new technology that the apple store provides.  Each individual item that they had for sale was set up perfectly and was operating great.  It was hooked up and had basically every application you could possibly think of on it.  What i found the most intriguing was that the prices were so expensive and steep for just a case for a mac computer it was $40.  It seemed also that no one was phased with these step prices, i heard one lady saying to her husband that a mac computer was only $2,000 and her response was. "well yeah its a mac!"  I found this insane, basically we are paying so much because its a mac!, thats crazy, but then again people in our society need the best and want the best out there and i guess that apple products are right now the best.

My Media Habits

My media habits are like the normal for college students. I love watching tv, using my ipod and also using my laptop. I love watching TV i think that it is the most media i use. I usually cannot go a day without watching tv. Also i think my computer is something i cannot live without. I can live without my ipod though. My view on the media is that it helps get information out faster than ever. People also think that the media misconstrues situations for their benifit but i also think that it is their job to do that in order to grasp peoples attention. The media nowadays helps people find information and use information fast and in a appropirate manner. I understand the term media is anything or person that portrays information and provides it to the community. If we did not have media it would be impossible to gain new information and to spread information to our society. 

 I also think that media is growing so fast that you really have no choice to use it and use it well or else you will be left behind.  I think that the new things that the media presents to us is significant and we need to embrace it in order to get ahead in our society.  Not saying that media is a bad thing its just that it is growing real fast and especially our younger generation has no choice but to use all of its tools.

Millennial Makeover #2

I do agree with the book Millennial Makeovers ideas on my generation and i think that if i were to give our generation a name it would be the Technological Generation.  I feel that our generation is so involved and so dependent on technology that if we did not have it, we may end up being lost.  Many of the things we take for granted are because of the technology we have and that it what gets us by.  I think that the cultural touchstones that are the most useful in understanding our generation would be computers/internet and the TV.  The internet is something that our generation constantly uses to communicate and gather information, i think that it is something that defines our generation.

user generated ad

Cult of the Amateur #2

 I think that i am happy with the proportion and i think that the balance is something that could be fixed but i do not know if it will ever be fixed.  I do think you may be able to combine passion with a career because then that means that you care and it means you will dedicate your all to that specific job.  But you have to be careful with passion because sometimes it can get out of control and you can not think rationally.  

I think that I found the book more convincing that Lessig's arguments.  To me i hate listening to critics and try and hear them out because their motivation is so negative and it is hard to hear them out when they are so one sided.  I think Lessigs counterpoints are valid and he had back up but i also thought they were too biased and too one sided to really convince me he had a good argument.  I really wish there was more of an unbiased opinion.  

Online Banking

I personally think that online banking has been one of the best inventions and innovations that has been around in a while.  Instead of waiting for the bills in the mail and then sending your checks back to the bank for them to only get lost in the mail and returned, all you have to do is manage your account from home and then paying is just one click away.  My mother always used to say that the old fashioned way of banking used to be the biggest pain because you really have no idea of your account balance unless you visited the actual bank.  I think that this is a result of how far the internet and our society has actually come.  People now take online banking and these types of stupid little online gimmicks for granted, but in actuality they really are something that are handy and help people out more than you think.  It is really a time saver and also you can now have more time to try and make money that can go into the account!  This makes me think of how far the internet will actually come and what will be next.  It also makes me wonder if i would want my money and my personal information to be out on the internet for everyone.  Guess it is something that we will have to risk in order to have our lives made easier by this specific tool provided from the internet.  

Charlie Wilsons War

After watching the movie Charlie Wilsons War with Tom Hanks, I really sat back and thought about the movie and what was happening in the movie.  I thought that Tom Hanks did play a great role in the film but what I don't think was realistic was how outlandish and crazy he was.  Im not saying it was fake or false information but in this day and age a United States Senator would not be able to get away with all of those acts and violations and not have it surface somewhere either on the Internet or on the TV.  Now a days with the camera phones and all of the little technological gadgets we have, someone would find the way to spill the dirt on Charlie Wilson if he was out partying and doing drugs.  I do think though that maybe with our technology the government could hide and maybe block these images or stories from getting out, but i do think it would be extremely hard.  I just think that now with all of the technology it would be extremely hard to hide things from the public and basically to do whatever you wanted without anyone finding out.  If you are a person in power or a celeberty then it is very hard to keep yourself out of the public eye, especially with the technology we have.    

College Gameday

On saturdays i usually wake up pretty early and end up watching College Gameday.  College Gameday is where 3 analysts' who travel to different campuses which have the biggest college football game that day.  Then preview the whole day and then they make their game picks.  I found it really interesting how they related their media coverage of the games to the college lifestyle.  I enjoy watching the game because ESPN can show the relationships of the campuses to the football teams and also they give backgrounds on the university.  I find it awesome how they can grasp the attention of such different audiences from all over the country to watch.  I just think it is pretty cool how all of the commentators and the shows on ESPN can have such a wide variety of audiences that cant go a saturday without watching their show.  The TV media is really coming a long way to improve their show qualities and also to improve their audience that is watching their shows. 

ISPY Blog 2

   Surveillance does not really operate in my life too much.  I dont have any surveillance on anything important and i do not have to go into a job or a school that i need surveillance.  I think that the gadgets or devices that I use to participate in surveillance is my blackberry phone.  MY phone can show where certain people are, it has a map and people know usually where i am most of the time.  Also onstar in my car, onstar lets people know exactly where you are at any specifc time.  I dont think that my onstar affects the choices i make on a daily basis because i am not doing anything illegal or weird.  If onstar would like to know when i am going to subway and then when i am going to school then they can watch me all they want.  When i charted my survellance for two days i noticed that i really did not do anything out of the ordinary.  I had school then i went to eat and then i went to lacrosse practice.  There was nothing real instrumental in what i did at all and really no harm was done.   

ISPY Blog #1

 When i googled myself many different things came up.  The first thing that came up is my blogger profile for blogger.com.  Then my UMBC men's lacrosse bio comes up and the website for school.  Most of the google websites that came up from me typing in my name are actually me.  There are alot of site that came up and they are mostly relevant to my name and everything about me.  I do not have any googlegangers, unfortunatly no one really has the same name as Steve Settembrino.  I dont think that my name googles well because it is such a unique name and is something that is not very common like mike smith.  The digital impression of of me on the internet is of my lacrosse profile picture.  I am pretty happy of that picture coming up because it shows that i am in college and i am a athlete and also it does not have anything embarrassing about me.  I think it is great not having a comon name because it is something that is unique.  It would be terrible to have a very common name like John Smith and then have to surf through alot of things to just find out about you.  

Cult of the Amateur

After reading the definition of an Amateur and then doing some thinking i feel that I am a amateur at the sport of Lacrosse.  I know that i play lacrosse because it is something i love and something that i feel has defined my life for the past 22 years.  I defiantly spend time on lacrosse because i love it and also because it is the main reason for my success.  If i did not play lacrosse i do not know if i would be attending UMBC.  Lacrosse absolutely overlaps with my schoolwork because playing a Division 1 sport it is almost exactly like a job and you need to commit yourself to the sport and also you need to commit yourself academically in order to stay eligible and be able to compete at the highest level.  I think that the value of work we do because we love it is completely different than the work we do for pay.  I think that if everyone was getting paid for something they love then there would be no problems at their jobs and they would love going to work everyday.  There are only a select few people who can actually say that they love what they get paid for and they do not regret working there or that being their job.  I think i am motivated by passion when i am competing in something.  I feel like for anyone if you have a competitive edge and you love just competing for something that either you love or that you have set your mind too then it is when it becomes passionate.   

MCS 370 Millennial Makeover

After watching some of the videos on youtube about the 2008 election and the presidential candidates it seems like the videos seem more like ads to me rather than regular videos.  It looks like they are trying to sell themselves or their candidates rather than giving the viewer a good reason to vote for them or just listen to their arguments.  I also think that the ads look mostly polished, they do not look like amateur videos but they could be a little more polished.  I found one user generated post that I looked at, and thought that the regular ads were more convincing than the user generated ads.  I think that the user generated ads were cheesy and just had the person opinion rather than good facts that would swing a persons opinion one way or the other.  I also looked at the older campaign ads on YouTube, and i think that they are not the best they can be but they are a little more convincing to me than the newer ones.  The reason i think that is because the older videos did not have so many topics to deal with and they did not seem like actual advertisements.  The newer ads seem like they are trying to sell you something and make you almost buy their candidate and i think that they are sending out the wrong message to the United States.  

Blog #1-Wisdom of Crowds

     I do think that a website with crowd sourcing built in is something that would take off in our society now a days.  I believe that looking at a product and seeing that many people really like it and it is popular would make myself or anyone want to buy it.  I do not believe that I have ever purchased something off a website with crowd sourcing built in.  I do think though that I would defiantly use a website with it though.  I don't really see the harm in that because it is just showing the popular demand what exactly is "hot" right now.  I think that itunes is a online store that shows the most popular songs and what exactly is popular at a specific time.  I think that itunes is the best one out there at this particular time. 

I think that I would trust the crowds more in advice to love.  I think that one person can be biased on their thoughts and on their opinions, maybe one specific instance has changed their thoughts about the topic.  With crowds you can get many different views and different opinions of what people think about the specific situation you are involved in, then you can make a decision after hearing several different views.

MCS 370 blog