Digital Sweet Home Survey

Here is a quick view of our survey. One note, the last question about topics being discussed will only be shown if people mark "yes" or "maybe" on the previous question.

Default Question Block

What is your gender?

  Male

  Fem ale

What is your age?

  Under 12   13-17

  18-29   30-44   45-59   60+

Do you have

  Children

  Grandchildren

Of the following list, what types of digital media do you use?

  Em ail

  Ins tant m es s aging

  Social m edia (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc...)   Blogs

  Webcam

  Gam ing (Such as com puter, internet, video cons oles , etc...)   Video webs ites s uch as YouTube or Hulu

  Brows ing the internet

  Other

  None

How often do you use digital media? (For examples of some types of digital media see the previous question)

  Never

  Rarely

  Som etim es

  Often

  All of the Tim e

Why do you use digital media?

  To connect with fam ily

  To connect with friends / acquantances

  Entertainm ent   Work / s chool   Other

I don't us e digital m edia

What concerns do you have regarding digital media?

Please share some of your experiences with digital media.

Would you be interesting in attending a meeting discussing digital media and the positive effects it has?

  Yes

  Maybe

  No

What topics would you be interested in hearing discussed?

Media Fast

(Top Gear's pretty flipping sweet)

This post is late, but I actually did the media fast. I just never quite got around to making a blog post about it...

To preface, I don't use much technology. I love watching movies and tv (sports and a few favorite shows), but I don't spend hours on the internet browsing through websites. The only time I ever do spend hours on the internet is when I'm at work and have burned out doing homework. I did it over a weekend where I wasn't scheduled to work.


The biggest reason I use digital media now is to stay on contact with my fiance who lives in North Carolina. We text throughout the day (although compared to others, not that much; my brother texts 50% more than me and his girlfriend lives in Provo), and Facetime once a week. While I love using Facetime, we decided to only do it once a week because it makes us miss each other more. We do talk about an hour a day.

I also don't play video games. I've played about 5 hours worth of video games in the last 3 years.

One type of media I do use a lot of is music. I'm pretty much always listening to music.

When I did the media fast, my life felt pretty similar. I didn't get on the computer to check my email, and I didn't watch any tv or movies. The biggest change was not listening to music, and I quite enjoyed it. It was nice to have my head cleared. I did, however, continue texting my fiance. I felt that it was necessary both for my and her.

While it may seem pointless to post a blog about this, I actually did find value in the exercise. It gave me time to think about the types of media that I use and the purpose behind it. I've realized that while it's ok to listen to music, I could be listening to other things. I have listened to a few audiobooks the past year, but I don't enjoy listening to them unless I have long periods of time to listen to them. I have actually started listening to more talk radio to try and stay connected to the world instead of getting all of my information from a few internet news sources. I've also realized that I could do more to connect with the outside world. I have some friends that I haven't talked to and it would be wonderful to reconnect with them.

I think taking a step back every once in a while is a great tool to help us analyze our lives and see where they're headed.

Midterm

I read The Cluetrain Manifesto. It's a very interesting read that has a lot of principles of Web 2.0 where the web is a conversation., that is the most valuable point that the book makes. I also felt that it had a lot of shortcomings. It feels as if the authors got super excited about the principles of the web and its vision and weren't realistic. I think the major oversight is that they assume everyone will get on board with the internet, which still hasn't happened. While culture is trending that way, I'm not sure we'll ever be a culture where everything is digital. Also, they made some points that aren't true, for example they said that consumers are immune to advertising. If anything the internet has expanded how advertising works and companies that can't figure out how to advertise via the internet are falling behind the times. If we were immune to advertising it wouldn't have spread to the internet.

For my fiction work I read V for Vendetta. I salivated slightly at all the possibilities this book presented when it comes to digital culture: the comic book medium itself, hacktivism, decentralized authority, but the one that stuck out to me most was the control of the internet. In the novel V has complete access to everyone because he hacked the government's computer system and is thereby able to topple an entire government. Hacktivists have taken that theme and run with it, they view themselves as a self appointed check and balance (I doubt they would use that description however) for the internet against large companies and the government.

I've had an epiphany of sorts this semester: I am a member of a digital culture and I approve of it. I don't often sit around and surf the internet, in fact the only time I do that is at work. However, when we learned about the 3 C's, it bugged me because I thought I simply consumed. When I thought about it though, I realized that I do create and am learning to connect. I realized that I had created and connected by helping with the Johnny Cash Project, rating movies on IMDB, and when I found out about Goodreads I fell in love with it and have been using it. 

I also realized that it's important that if I use the internet, I help to moderate it. I have seen several errors in Wikipedia but have never corrected them. I have started correcting them when I see them. With my mom having cancer I realized how wonderful it was for her to post her diagnosis on the internet and receive instant support from those that couldn't be near. She also started a blog to update everyone which has been great because she receives a lot of support from it, but it also means that as a family we don't have to make tons of phone calls to update everyone on how she's doing. (Here is her blog: http://howisbrooke.blogspot.com/). With my fiance being gone I have started using Apple's Facetime to connect and talk with her.

Another thing I learned is how to use social proof both to bounce ideas and to search. For example, I wanted to take my family rappelling earlier in the semester so I found videos of people rappelling up American Fork Canyon, I then was able to tweet them to ask where they went rappelling.

I've also become more aware of "the long tail." While I've been reading V for Vendetta, I've become curious who V is in the novel. When I went online I found other communities and individuals that wonder the same thing, so it's been great to realize that even for small niche interests there are others interested in the same thing.

Being in the Digital Sweet Home group has been great, it's something that we are all passionate about (I'm a recent convert). It has been great for all of us to work together because we can pool all our strengths and be stronger as a whole than an individual. I've also realized that others are having the same experiences I am. Because I've realized that the internet can be a huge blessing for my mom, I've wanted to share that with others. Those in my group are also interested in sharing how the internet and digital culture can be a blessing, so it's been wonderful to work on a project to share this with others.

Kids, Parents, & DC

When I was a kid my dad took me to Washington DC, it was a great trip. While this post isn't about parents taking their kids to DC (although I''ll actively advocate for that anytime), it is about parents interacting with their children.

In class we talked about creating a project that helps parents interact with their children (although we have picked a different direction now). These are some of the websites I came across:

This one is a government website that wants kids to play the games, but they want parents to help the children:

http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/kids/

This one helps parents get involved with how their children learn:

http://www.dositey.com/parent/parents.htm

This one is a list of other websites that help children learn the value of money:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-interactive-financial-websites-teach-kids-money-management-skills/

This one has educational games for children:

http://www.funbrain.com/

I could list more, including websites for tv channels' websites, nutritional advice, helping make children active, parental advice, etc...

None of these are a surprise to any of us, we basically expect there to be a website on any aspect of parenting, raising kids, and strengthening family.

Depending on the way we take our project with the webinars, we may be able to hone down on what we want to talk about with strengthening familial bonds using the internet and present.

Family Togetherness

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer three or four weeks ago. Unfortunately, this is not the first time she has fought the disease, it's the second. Because it's the second time there are some ups, and a lot of downs. As a family we know what we're in for, which is a good thing, but as a family we know what we're in for.

The past three weeks have been crazy. I've been out of it for most of my schoolwork (unfortunately that's affected this class). My life this semester was already going to be super busy with my fiance living in North Carolina, and an event like this makes life infinitely more busy. There are also daily changes/updates as to what's going on with my mom's cancer. Mostly for the negative. The surgery date has moved multiple times, the type of surgery has changed, the cancer is worse than previously thought, she's going to have to have 3 different types of chemo, possibly radiation, they're doing genetic testing, my mom's also trying to help with wedding planning, I could go on but I'll stop there.

Even though this has been another trying experience for my mom, one thing that has made a hug positive impact in her life is social media.

When first diagnosed, my parents wanted to keep the news in the family for the first few days so we could have time to cope with the changes that would/are/will be happening. After numerous phone calls my mom decided to put the news onto Facebook. The response was overwhelming. People sent her messages, responded to her post on Facebook, came over in person, sent texts, emailed, called, and skyped among other things.

My parents tried to figure out a way to keep everyone up-to-date, and one of our close family friends suggested a blog. My parents set one up and so far the results have been great. Not only does my mom get comfort from people commenting on the blog, she is able to bless others she's never met by sharing her experiences with cancer.

I'm an incredibly private person. I don't often share personal details of my life, but because we're in a digital culture class that involves a lot of time outside the classroom it's hard not to share something like this. (That's worthy of a blog post and discussion of its own). I've debated creating a blog post like this, but when I joined the Digital Sweet Home project I realized a blog post like this fits in directly with what we're trying to accomplish.