Behance

Many of us in this class are IMS students, and usually when you think of IMS, you think graphic design. Now everyone knows that having a portfolio is a must, how do you get a job without one? But now having a physical portfolio may just not cut it. Online portfolio's are becoming a huge hit with employers. Behance is a great website where you can not only post your own professional online portfolio for anyone to see, but you can also browse other designers portfolio's for either inspiration or to offer a job! If you're interested in a website that offers these capabilities, then check my profile out and see if Behance is the right choice for you!

Cyberbullying. How do we Stop it?

Danah Boyd argues that the quick punishment that follows online bullying is doing more harm than good. Although many schools are legally required to have rules such as "zero tolerance", these rules will not solve the problem, and maybe even enhance it. To get right to the point, Boyd is right! Kids will be kids, when they're told to do something or scolded for doing the wrong thing, they're going to rebel and do the opposite of what adults want them to do. It's stereotypical but most teenagers really are like that. I think that in order to solve this problem of cyberbullying, you need to start at the root of the situation. By the time online bullying has taken place, the damage has already been done. Some kind of immediate punishment might do some good, but again, the emotional and mental damage to the victim has already been done! What I think needs to be focused on more is the prevention of online bullying rather than the punishment afterward. Show kids how much harm can be done by cyberbullying. Amanda Todd is a good example, she did virtually nothing wrong and yet she was tortured by school kids and by people that didn't even know her. Why would someone deserve that? I can't wrap my head around why kids do things like that to other people, their own peers. Was it worth it for them? How could it be, I hope they've realized how much wrong was going on. By preventing these kinds of situations before they start will dramatically decrease, in my opinion, the amount of cyberbullying that could be going on in today's generation of teenagers.

How Bad is Social Media Exactly?

Social media, in my opinion, is actually not bad for us, I believe there is a lot of good that comes out of it. There are many parents, adults, teachers, and even experts that argue that social media is ruining this generation. But why? because we have found a different way to communicate with friends and family? Sure maybe some of us spend too much time on our phones or computers, but really we aren't any different than kids from previous generations, according to Boyd. All we have done is found a different way to communicate. Some arguments also include not socializing with family. And although there are many that spend a lot of time on social media, I believe that it gives them the opportunity to talk to family more often. Being connected via social media sites has its advantages. And it doesn't have to stop at family, keeping in touch with friends has become easier to do. Although 'friending' has become a popularity contest, those so called friends that you might actually know, are just a chat box away from contacting them. Another major argument is the privacy of anyone on social media. I must say, that this is one thing that I would completely agree with. We may have more access to talking with people but we have surely sacrificed almost all of our online privacy. Information about you is available to virtually anyone capable of getting online. It's a scary thought but nearly everyone is willing to take the risk. It's a new generation, with new technology, we have to realize that it doesn't have to be such a bad thing.

Say Goodbye to Net Neutrality..

Who do these bureaucrats think they are? Where do they get off? The internet belonged once to the public, now for some misguided reason, private capitalists are going to be able to take control and dominate the web even more than they do. Their deep pockets will guide them to a successful business while small companies with innovative business plans will not be able to grow, merely because they won't have the money to pay for 'fast lanes'. Slow internet doesn't attract consumers, fast internet does. Net Neutrality is the principle and idea that internet content should be treated equally and that no providers of legal internet content should face discrimination in providing offerings to consumers. As Ralph from San Francisco put it, "surprise, surprise. Our government rules for the corporations and screws the public."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/technology/fcc-new-net-neutrality-rules.html?_r=1 

Addicted to Google?

Anyone who says that society is not addicted to Google is lying. Of course society is addicted to the reigning search engine king. We rely on Google for almost everything. When we need to go somewhere and don't know how to get there, we google how to get there. If it's someones birthday coming up, and you want to bake a cake, where would you look up a recipe? Just hop on Google and look one up out of the thousand results. If there's a question that you don't know the answer to, "Google it". There are many other ways that we use Google to our advantage, and why shouldn't we? It's more efficient than anything else, and although some may argue that we don't read enough or have lost the ability to look through text to find answers, we can search through many results on google and find more information faster than you would reading a book or article. Google seems to start becoming a monopoly, a central point and significant part in our lives. To be honest, right now I'm okay with it, I feel like it's doing more good than harm. My only concern is if the company for some reason goes down, then society will be lost, completely lost. Til then I believe that Google is a good part of our lives, but maybe I am saying that because it's so key to how we live now?

My Blog on Bloggers

Before I even searched through different bloggers that were available to look through, I decided that I could choose one that I thought was interesting by reading what other people in class had to say about different bloggers they read about themselves. Kiley's was the first one that I clicked on. She wrote about Heather Armstrong, it immediately caught my attention because just like me, Heather was also a designer. What she loves about blogging is the freedom you have. You have no one to deal with and you can write what you want, clients are non-existent in this realm. It's also a great way for her to take a break from her many hours on Photoshop.

I'd like to think that Heather's writing has changed drastically (subject wise) since she's first started. She mentioned that she no longer writes about the news, what's on television, or even music. With a family now, most of her writing relates to her life with her husband and child. I believe she gets so many hits on her site because people like to read stories that they can relate to easily; having a family and the chaos and memories that come with it are extremely relatable. She also mentions that she says things that many people are afraid to say, this attracts more of an audience. With me being soft-spoken, I know that this aspect of her writing would attract me to her site.

Reading more into Heather, it's nice to find out that whenever she writes, she's just being herself. She puts herself into her blog and people love that. She's not faking it or doing it for money, it's simply for the fact that she loves to blog and tell her story. She writes for herself. "If a blog has soul people will come to it."

Reading the interview about Heather, the one major thing I noticed was that you have to be yourself when blogging, if you stray away from that then you won't be successful. She's an inspiration to new bloggers of all kinds. The best part is that she's a designer, just like me!

My First Blog

My first blog