Image by be_khe via Flickr

Unless you’ve been completely oblivious to the news during the past few weeks, it’s likely you’ve heard about the supposed “pandemic” that is sweeping the nation, the H1N1 virus, more commonly known as the Swine Flu. I know I’ve seen it all over in the news headlines, and have gotten precautionary e-mails from friends and family telling me to make sure to wash my hands…

But how can we tell which reports are informational and which are just unnecessary hype?

As we just read in our assigned readings for the week, the intro and Major Trends sections of “The State of the News Media”, the news is becoming less centralized, and as a result, less reliable. It states that, “through search, e-mail, blogs, social media and more, consumers are gravitating to the work of individual writers and voices, and away somewhat from institutional brand. Journalists who have left legacy news organizations are attracting funding to create their own websites.” And one of the main problems with this new trend away from big name news sources to smaller individual enterprises is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to make sure information is legitimate, which is particularly important during a global health crisis.

According to CNN.com, health officials fear that the decentralization of the media is causing people to turn more and more to social networking sites, specifically Twitter, for news information. This change may be adding to the unnecessary hype, and contributing to the promulgation of incorrect information that is leading people to make unwise decisions. For example, many tweeters cautioned their listeners to stop eating pork in order to avoid the flu, even though this assertion that the flu is caused by eating pork has not been approved by health officials.

While it is quite possible that Twitter is contributing to mass uninformed hysteria, it can still provide a lot of good. The statements without foundation or based purely on emotion are being contested by other Twitter users, providing for balanced discussion. Some health officials say Twitter is a good way to get people talking and thinking about the flu and is useful for giving out helpful and relevant information about disease prevention. In addition, users can get information about new outbreaks and recommended precautionary measures right from the Twitter updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even though the decentralization of the media may make us more susceptible to falling prey to misinformation, I think this model for distributing the news has a lot of potential for the future. If internet users are smart and selective about what information they read and believe, then the shift away from well-known news industries can prove to be an even more effective means of conveying information, and can possibly save you from the dreaded Swine Flu.

Image via CrunchBase

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you could update your status on Twitter with just a single thought? Or engage in a potentially embarrassing conversation in public without anyone else hearing you? Well, wonder no more! The invention of Audeo by Scientists at Ambient Corporation can make both of these seemingly impossible activities, possible.

When we speak, our brains send waves to our voice boxes to let it know what to say. But what’s even more interesting is that the brain also does this when we just think about saying something. Audeo, a nerve-tapping neckband, picks up on the waves that our brain sends to our voice box when we think about saying something and can translate them into words. Audeo can then send the information to a computer, allowing us to update Twitter, or send it to a cell phone where the waves are converted into an automated voice that the person on the other line can hear. (The video of the first silent phone call is posted below)

My succession of thoughts upon hearing this were: first awe at the ingenuity of the invention, then amazement at how lazy we have become that even typing is too strenuous for us, and finally worry that when/if this device becomes mainstream I might let something embarrassing slip through my mind for someone else to hear… But fortunately, the device does not voice inner thoughts, and one must deliberately think about voicing words in order for them to be picked up. In the words of scientist Callahan, it takes a “level above thinking” for this device to work.

Either this is a sign of great advancement or great laziness…but personally, I’m really excited about what we can do with this in the future.



Sorry guys, I couldn't figure out how to upload the video, so here's the link: First Voiceless Phone Call

Image by premasagar via Flickr

There are many different viewpoints on the importance of Twitter. Some people like twitter because it is convenient to access (from either a cell phone or computer) and because it is a good way to keep up with what friends are doing. Also, the speaker we had in class talked about its practical potential. If someone puts an update on Twitter about bad traffic, it can save us a lot of time, or if a friend tweets about a good sale, it would help both the company and the people who buy the products.

But there is another group of people, myself included, that are just asking “Who cares?” I think Twitter is interesting to check once in a while, but there isn’t really much motivation for me to keep checking the site just so I can see that one of my friends is “eating PB&J” or “doing homework.”

Other concerns about Twitter are the commonly-heard complaints that it is too brief, can be annoying if people update it too frequently, and has a tendency to exceed bandwidth (in which case the “fail whale” will appear).

But another concern with Twitter, to which I had never really given much thought, came up when I was reading an article on CNN.com called, “Scientists Warn of Twitter Dangers.” This article expressed some scientists’ beliefs that using social-networking devices such as Twitter are numbing our sense of morality. The argument is that Twitter is so brief and rapid, that it doesn’t give us time to fully experience the emotions that each post is trying to convey, and as a result, we are becoming more and more indifferent to human suffering.

I thought this was kind of interesting, because it is something that I never really would have thought about. What kind of impact this theory will have on the future use of Twitter, I don’t really know. But I think the chances of us slowing down at all for the sake of morality are pretty slim.

And Sorry about the lag, guys! I'm not really sure how to fix it...

Image via Wikipedia

This week in class we tried out using Second Life. We created our own avatars, customized their appearance, and then explored the digital world. But, frankly, I didn’t like it at all.

Customizing my avatar’s appearance was a chore because it never did quite what I wanted, and at one point my avatar’s skirt was floating 3 feet in front of her… And even walking in Second Life is extremely difficult because the graphics take such a long time to load.

However, even if all of these pitfalls were corrected, I still don’t see the point of the average person using it to just hang out. Maybe it has some benefits to the business world, but I don’t see why hanging out and exploring a world with complete strangers is so appealing. I understand that there is some level of social interaction, but not nearly as much as on other social networking sites, like Facebook. For this reason, I don’t think that Second Life will ever become as mainstream as Facebook, but I think the idea can be built upon and can provide some benefit in the future.

An example of an area where the concepts presented in Second Life can be useful is in the realm of online shopping. I just read an article today about how online stores are thinking about changing their layouts to look more like Second Life and allowing their users to create their own avatars. The avatars can walk around the store and try on different outfits, so the buyer can get more of an idea of how it will look. Customers can even meet up with other friends online to go shopping together! This in turn will increase sales, because customers will feel more certain about their purchases, and retailers can see how popular certain clothing items are by seeing how many times it was “tried on.”

While I personally do not think that Second Life itself will grow much larger, I am very interested in seeing the possible future benefits that it can bring.