website thesis (blog hmwk# 2)

the world wide web is revolutionizing the way we live our lives; paying bills, grocery shopping, and communicating with friends are just some of the minor changes that have recently occurred. with the help of online journals like www.livejournal.com many people are displaying their personal information on the web so that millions of people can read. as online dating services are becoming a new popular feature perhaps it is time to ask ourselves how personal is too personal on the world wide web.

many people are involved in these new online dating services, and they are now becoming more personalized. for example: an online service (www.jdate.com) specializes in matching up jewish singles . this company has been around since 1997 and is the leader of the online jewish dating community.

my website will review how sucessful these online dating services really are at finding a true match for their costumers. i will try to collect as much data as possible through each major dating site, i will also email the site operators for more information about how each particular site works. with this type of information at my disposal i would feel confident in telling whether or not these dating services actually work.

homework#1

I. make a list of all of the digital communication/information devices that you access on a regular basis: cellphone, PDA, radio, TV, phone, computer, game console, portable music devices, music/video players, electronic clock, GPS, other tracking devices, and so on.

cell phone
calculator
electric dictionary
television
digital watch
Satalite Radio
PDA
Ipod
Xbox
computer
portable cd player
Playstation 2
Alarm clock
fax machine
DVD player


II. Make a list of those that were available to your parents AND your grandparents (or people of those generations) when they were your age. How will you find this out accurately?

television- the television was introduced to the public by John Logie Baird on March 25, 1925

calculator- Blaise Pascal invented the calculator in the year 1642

Alarm clock- alarm clock with 'snooze' were introduced to the market in 1956


III. Think and write about the differences in terms of: access to sources (how many sources of information/entertainment), perceived quality (true/false/biased) of information and entertainment, yours and their ability to CREATE content for these diverse media, and how you think this affects both what YOU know and what THEY (your parents or others in their generation) know.

the differences in access to information from my parents generation to my own is immeasurable, an abundance of diverse sources have been invented to make recieving information easy for today's society. back in the 50's and 60's people relied on the newspaper, radio, and new clips in movie theatre's to inform them about different topics around the world. today we rely mostly on the world wide web and television to supply us with the knowledge of current event, breaking stories, stock quotes, weather, etc... but as more sources are being created we must ask ourselve which ones we can trust, many news stations are known to be extremely biased. it would be correct to say that with todays technology word travels around the world in minutes, in todays world we dont have to worry about getting the new, we have to worry about how accurate that news really is.

IV. Talk briefly with parents/grandparents, if available, OR people of those similar generations (staff or professors on campus, people you know who are 40 yrs of age and older) and ask them how THEY think new communications technologies are affecting the world they live in. Are your ideas similar? Include their comments in your blog.

the people of the different generation that i spoke to all agree that todays technology is amazing, it helps to bring everybody together, and provides us with lots of information about nearly any subject. most find it like they are living in another world with todays technology. i however have not felt a dramatic change in technology while growing up, this is mostlikely because i grew up with the internet.