HW 4 - Triangular Comments 1

After we wrote our first wall posts, we looked at one another's and commented on our peers work in order for us to fully grasp the concepts which we ourselves wrote about, and get new ideas all together. We were put in "triangular comment groups" which were groups of three people whose responsibility it was to read our two group member's blogs and write helpful feedback to both of them. The people in my group were Beatrice H. and Marco G.

Beatrice,

I thought your post was pretty dope, you made it really informative and thought provoking, but conversational as well. You make good arguments for alternative points of view on technology, many of which I didn't really think about until i read this.

You raised really interesting points about the false personas that people hide behind given different technological platforms such as text messaging, AIM, and Facebook. Also, I like how you brought up that their is a risk to your vision which comes with the use of technology and staring constantly into a screen.

I think that your point about the difference between someone's online persona versus their actual persona is kind of similar in a way to one of Marco's points in his post. He discussed online games versus sports in reality, which also is part of a larger idea, that the virtual world is just that, a virtual world, not the reality that we live in.

I think that it would be interesting if you expanded on the part you wrote about your neighbor who didn't know how to use a computer and instead watched television. I think that if you wrote about the difference between not knowing how to use something, and choosing not to use it, you could make a very strong and effective point about the reason people do or don't use certain technology

I'm realizing right now as I'm writing this, that your point about the use of computers damaging your eyesight is really true. My eyes feel out of focus and I feel like getting off of the computer and looking at a magazine or a paper notebook instead of this blogging website. Since this computer and internet phenomenon is pretty new to the world, it is yet to be seen what the long term health effects of constant computer usage will be, but I have a feeling that it will have something to do with screwing up your eyes really badly by the time you turn 50.

In conclusion, you really did a great job on your post. It was fun to read and humorous, which made it that much easier to comment positively on it.

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Marco,

I thought that your post was really well formed. I felt as if I were reading a magazine article due to how you kept focus on the one very key aspect of this new electronic world we live in.

The way you approached talking about the spirit (or lack their of) of online competition had a very authoritative feel to it, written in such a way that it clearly showed you knew very well how online gaming worked and the mentality of those who play it. However, I didn't quite understand what you meant by people assuming a persona. Having myself played online shooters and fighting games such as the Halo series, I felt like people are more about being as obnoxious as possible, and rarely make comments referring to their characters.

I think that an interesting alternate point to this cheating in video games is the real life cheating which goes on in sports. Arguably, the taunting and hacking we see on Xbox live is purely virtual and mostly without effect. The cheating in real world sports, come with physical damage from use of performance enhancers, and the taunting comes with cash fines and suspension.

An interesting part of your post that I think has a lot of potential to be expanded on is the idea of the mental effect of playing video- games. I think that you could go in a bunch of different directions with this point and if you need to add on to this post at a later date, this would definitely be one to go with.

What I would recommend is that you give examples of what you are discussing. Mostly you tend to state your point and than move on. I think that it would work to your advantage and support your points, if you gave the names of popular video games, and named incidents where cheating had real world effects, like cash prizes in tournaments or something of the sort.

Basically, this was a really good first post, and you definitely executed this assignment well. All you need to do is add a few examples and you will have an excellent post.