Blogging: The Journalism of Tomorrow?

Our world has been controlled by newspapers for years now. Every morning people put on their robe and walk out to the mailbox to get their newspaper. People want to know what's going on in their city,state,county, and world today. And what better way to get all that information in one than the daily newspaper? Well, until now that is.

With the boom of the technology era and the increased amount of people who have access to internet, newspapers are becoming less and less common. And for a journalism major like me, that's not the best sign. With all the information accessible to us at the click of a button for free, why would someone want to subscribe to a daily paper when everything is online? When I hear people talking about something that happened in the world, they don't tell me, "Oh, just turn to page 4 of the New York Times and look at the 4th article on the page." They tell me to go look it up online. And I can always find it online in 2 seconds.

The internet has done marvelous things for our generation. It allows for information to circulate to a wider audience and at a lot quicker speed. Just think of the number of people who sit on their computers all day at work typing up papers and researching information on the internet. It's insane. Information can spread to millions in the blink of an eye.

Recently in my journalism class we talked about blogging. Obviously, the internet has extraordinary reach. And in blogs, people can basically say whatever they want. They can get quick responses that are viewable by all. Through blogs, we have enormous freedom of expression. Blogging isn't monitored by the government nor does it have strict laws regulating what we can and can't do with it. People can find and post their own news on blogs and make comments and questions on other people's "news." The whole point of journalism is to find information and relay it to the public in a form that they will understand. Well, isn't that what blogging kind of is? Obviously blogging is a more personal form of this but it basically shares news and ideas with the public in usually understandable ways.

So the question is, will blogging and other internet sites eventually take over the need for newspapers? Will people posting and commenting on others news of the day be enough for us in the future? Will blogging be the journalism of tomorrow?

My Spin on it All

Recently there have been a lot of posts about materialism here at SMU. I decided to give my spin on it all here

A Procrastinator's Best Friend

Senior year I was converted to the wonderful world of Facebook.

My friends told me about this awesome site where you could talk to people from the college that you're going to and look at your friend's pictures or rekindle a long-distance friendship.

Little did I know that I soon would become addicted to this site and it would pretty much become my new best friend. It started out as an innocent relationship. I only had a handful of friends on FaceBook and I would only check it once or twice a week to see if I had any new friend requests and such.

But as soon as second semester of senior year hit and the senioritis kicked in, I seemed to be logging on to Facebook more and more every day.

And I guess now, it has pretty much reached the point of an obsession. I know its bad that I have to turn on my computer and check FaceBook before I rush out of the room for my 8 am classes.

But I think the worst thing about Facebook is that its just sooo easy to procrastinate with. On more than one occasion, I have sat down to write a paper and two hours later I will still be looking at people's pictures from vacations with their family that I don't even know! And sometimes it gets to the point of- "Whose page am I even on right now?" "Do I know you?"

But it is just so easy to get distracted and carried away into the cyber world of social networking.

FaceBook is just a click away on my favorites toolbar right next to the email and blackboard. But even when I need to check my email, my hand automatically clicks on the Facebook bar. Bad, right?

And I know for a fact I am not the only FaceBook addict out there. As I sit in Java City writing this blog, I can glance around and see at least six others scrolling through the pages of their friends on FaceBook.

I just don't understand what about it is all that interesting, yet I can't seem to pull myself away from it. It's puzzling really. Relating to what we are talking about class, I can see Twenge or Schumaker saying that it is a narcissistic sign to have a web page full of pictures and information about yourself. But it seems to be the obsession at looking at others peoples pages, not my own that is so interesting. I'm eager to see what my friends are up to back at home or see pictures from someone's weekend. And the fact that so many people do have FaceBooks makes it that much easier to stay off task longer.

FaceBook Addicts Annonymous anyone?

Technology of Today: The Death of Me

You could pretty much say that I didn't really get the technology gene in our family. I mean, my dad is able to basically build a computer and put any programs on it that he wants. My brother can somehow see any movie or listen to any song he wants by pushing a magic button, and my sister can work every technological item in our house. And then there's me. On a good day, I will be able to figure out how to turn my laptop on. It's the sad truth. But I'm just not a technical guru. The only person I actually feel more competent than with technology is my grandma. (And that's saying a lot because my grandma just learned what a CD was this Christmas as opposed to a cassette tape.) I've sat at the computer for hours upon end, yelling at the screen thinking that this will magically make my five-page paper come back. And then I just end up calling my dad and listening to him tell me how I'm an idiot and computers don't automatically save your documents. (I still don't understand that one. I mean, with everything computers can do these days, I think they should be able to save something by just reading your mind and figuring out that you want what you're typing to be saved.)

But I've been very close to smashing my computer into pieces because it's just not doing what I want it to.

And my dad always tells me how he thinks it's funny that I basically suck at technology. He tells me that I was raised in a generation that is supposed to be more adept than his at working things. I'm sorry, but I just can't do it. I know how to type a paper and send it to the printer. And that doesn't even go smoothly all the time. Coming to college, I had to learn to actually install printer software on my computer, how to change the ink and the paper, and fix stuff that actually goes wrong. Oh, but I've definitely got the internet thing down. Facebook is just a click away in my Favorites toolbar :)

But the point that my dad always trys to make to me is that this is only the beginning. Our generation is just going to build upon what we already have, and pretty soon our entire world is going to be run technologically. I wonder what Schumaker would think of that. Does technology bring people happiness or will it just in the long run turn our entire nation turn into narcissists? I mean, if you look at it in the long run, technology is going to eventually take over a whole lot. But technology is pretty much considered to be a materialistic need to Schumaker. Sometimes technology makes me sooo mad because it doesn't work how I want. But then I think of things that make me happy like Facebook, and tv, and movies, and cell phones. I don't think I could live without those.

For now I guess I'll just start with figuring out how to really work this laptop of mine.