Ds initial proposal

DS initial proposal

In this day and age, digital media has become increasingly important in today’s society; however, I never could’ve imagined that despite the quickly rising importance of digital resources how few people in our country have access to them. In fact, as I learn more and more about the uses and importance of digital resources, the more and more I realize how difficult living in the modern day would be without these resources, which reveals the even harsher truth that many people do not have access to the these resources. Even though much of society and many businesses utilize the internet heavily, the internet is still a relatively expensive resource and because of this, digital resources have created a ‘digital divide’ which separates low income citizens from those with higher income. It goes beyond the things I’ve heard and seen in class as I have known many people who do not have computers or even cell phones. I never considered how difficult it was for them to find a job or do a research paper, it wasn’t until the idea of not having access to a form of computer was presented as a problem in today’s society.

I, myself am not a upperclassmen, but I have had access to computers and cellular devices since I was 9 years old, when my mom bought her first, and my first, desktop computer. We had dial-up at the time so I wasn’t on it much; it wasn’t until we got broadband when I really began to explore the features of the computer. At the time, teachers always considered that most students would not have a computer, so they were sure never to assign homework that required one, so I never considered the computer to be that important. It wasn’t until 10 years later when I saw the disadvantage of not having a computer. I was doing PSO at Cleveland state university for my senior year; so I spent all my time at college. The English classes, history class, Math class, Computer science class all required a large amount of typed papers and many assignments were online, however while at campus I had little access to any form of computers and oftentimes had to wait until I got home to do the work, despite being on campus for most of the day. Just about all of my peers had laptops and it was a bit aggravating to see them easily complete their work while I had to wait to get home. Through this experience I learned the disadvantage of not having access a computer, and it’s a feeling I won’t forget anytime soon.

I bought a laptop soon after I graduated from high school, but not everyone has this option. In fact, I’ve found that very few people have the option to just buy a computer or cell phone when they need one and so I plan to base my digital story on the lack of access to computers and how this affects people.

Annotations:

The Digital divide institute provides a large amount of information that talks about the status of the digital and even helps define the digital divide, the website has many good sources that I may be able to use.

                Jakob Nielson’s alert box digital divide discusses the causes for the divide and will be very helpful in exploring the origins of the divide.

Web log 6

Web Log 6

As time progresses, new ways to socially interact and obtain information are formed, people begin to develop new literary skills, however as of recently, digital media has become a huge factor in today’s society creating many new ways to obtain information and socially interact as many organizations and businesses utilize the internet for many informal purposes and even hiring. Despite being used for so many things, the internet is not accessible to everyone, causing people to be excluded from certain events and job opportunities in their communities. Regardless, digital media is altering the way people interact and learn. Digital media, or more specifically the internet has helped promote a participatory culture; a culture with low artistic barriers that supports civic engagements and allows people to share their creations in various online communities. An example of this is twitter, a website that allows one to post updates that may be used to inform others of upcoming events, give links to educational sources, or just to keep in contact with your friends and, while I don’t not have a twitter account personally, I can see how useful it can be. Websites like this shown a progression that has greatly affected the skills required to be literate in the 21^st century, now it requires not only physical social experience but it also requires one to understand the workings of the internet. Despite this, the internet is still relatively new compared to the normal literary mediums such as books and newspapers, and because of this, it hasn’t been adopted as a normal literary source and the skills required to use the internet are not regularly taught in schools; it is up to the individual themselves to learn how to use the internet.  Participatory communities are a welcome addition to modern society and it’s a shame that many if not most people are excluded from them, these communities allow for freedom of the imagination while also being able to provoke truly intellectual pieces of art. The medium that these communities reside is on the internet, which can be access from ones desktop computer, laptop, smart phone and even various electronic gaming consoles. It’s because of this that many people do not have access to participatory communities. Many people cannot afford to buy a type of computer and continually pay a bill for internet access, and so, a limited amount of people have limited access to the internet, despite the internet’s extensive use. 21^st century literary skills requires, to some extent, some experience with the internet and because of this many people are illiterate in the 21^st century as they miss out on many of the benefits provided by the internet. Hopefully, as time progresses, the internet will continue to grow and the more and more people will have the ability to access it.      

Web log 5

Weblog 5

I have used the internet extensively; I’ve used the internet to apply for college, to social network, for research, and many other things, however, after reading Besser’s article I realized how little I’ve contributed to the internet. I’ve never used to the internet to create sources for others, or to keep people updated on recent events; instead, I’ve only used it to absorb information from others. I’ve never even attempted to be a producer of internet content. Besser’s article describes the limited nature of the internet and how many people do not know how to contribute to the internet and how even fewer have access to it despite much of modern society functioning off of the internet. Warschauer’s article also explores the accessibility of the internet, he explores the how well ICT’s (Internet and computer technology) are used help people gain knowledge and access information. In various ways, my ICT skills have altered. Throughout my life I have increased my physical access to the internet, going from just having access through my desktop, to having access through my laptop, phone and even various electronic gaming consoles. I noticed that most of the internet is in English and the parts that aren’t are still accessible due to many translation features that have been introduced on websites like Google, however, these translation features are limited exclusively to English so non-English speaking people will still have a lot of trouble accessing content on the internet. As for human resources; my literacy and education has improved greatly over the years. When I began using the internet when I was a about 10 I had very limited literary skills and was still early in my school ‘career,’ now, 8 years later, I have improved my literary skills immensely and I graduated near the top of my class. Through all these years though, I have seen a great increase in institutions that utilize the internet; for instance I signed up for both selective service and college on the internet. I’ve even noticed an influx of community events that are maintained through the internet, like how many of the clubs at John Carroll email their members to keep in to touch with them and remind them of events. Warschauer’s article also compares ICT skills to literary skills, however, while literacy is available to just about anyone, the internet is only available to a limited amount of people, and even less know how to use it. When I compare my literary skills to my ICT skills, I find that there are a few things that I am capable of utilizing much of the content on the internet; however I am inexperienced when it comes to creating content, such as websites for organizing events. My frequent use of the internet is how I learned how to effectively utilize the internet's resources.
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Web log 4

Weblog 4

The term social justice has been around for a very long time and has been defined many different ways by many different people, however, in America during the 19^th century; it seems that social justice was not even considered during the creation of most social reforms, such is discussed in “Where race lives” website. The imbalance of social justice starts as early as 1935 with the creation of social security which guaranteed an income for workers after retirement, however, this policy excluded agricultural workers and domestic servants. Agricultural workers and domestic servants were predominantly jobs maintained by minorities and thus, many nonwhite people were excluded from this plan. Other examples include the Wagner act which allowed workers to unionize, but it allowed for unions to exclude nonwhites and did not allow minorities to challenge this law, because of this, many people of color were excluded from better paying jobs and many of the workers benefits, this law would be modified to not allow all unions over 20 years later. It seems that many other government reforms over the years would be created to benefit whites and exclude people of non-color, and the reforms made help minorities were not well enforced until much later. There is then the tale of two families, which depicts the difference between a black male and a white male from two vastly different back grounds growing up living two different lives. Throughout the story, the white male lives a life where the financial opportunities were prominent and he didn’t have to worry about financial issues, whereas the black male lived having very few job opportunities, making much less money and had to worry about the access to money his entire life. The last issue the website discusses is how a good neighborhood gets destroyed; basically starts with the movement of rich white people move out of a neighborhood when minorities begin to move in because they view the minorities a sign of financial distress in a neighborhood. The simple fact that the majority views minorities as a sign financial decline in a neighborhood is a sign of social injustice within itself, and the movement of the richer white people out of a neighborhood decreases the amount of money in a neighborhood which then leads to the increase of taxes to maintain the neighborhood, which then leads to the downfall of the neighborhood when the lower income people cannot pay the taxes. In the end the website shows us how the government has worked against minorities and how this has caused the differences in today’s society because of it; it has shown that social injustice has caused a vast imbalance in income between the minority and the majority. If only social justice had’ve been maintained over the years, maybe we would live in a more equal society.

Web log 3

Web Log 3

Social justice is a very difficult subject to explain and the reason for this is because social justice has been defined by many different philosophers and never once has the word had a concrete meaning. Like most government structures, the definition of social justice has been shaped and molded based on political beliefs and more often than not, religious beliefs. Since the definition of social justice is generally undefined, it normally boils down to personal preference. Miller’s ‘Scope of social justice’ and Dr. Hahn’s lecture help explore many of these themes better, and it will help me expand upon the social theories of capitalism vs. socialism.

Perhaps the easiest place to begin the analysis of social justice is with the oldest theory, which was formulated by Plato, the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s definition of social justice; also considered the ‘Conservative tradition;’ placed society in a hierarchy, where people were placed dependent on the will of the gods. This system was believed to allow people to live the ‘good life’ or the lives that the gods thought they deserved. The conservative view of social justice is a type of caste system where people are born into a certain social class and they cannot leave it, however, in capitalism people may be born into a social class, however, there is no guarantee that they will stay there, due the ever changing economy, and there is no religious beliefs influencing it. Regardless, in capitalism most people tend to stay within the same social class that they were born into.

The next social theory, Liberalism, was created by John Locke, who was one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers. The theory of Liberalism was focused on the rights of individuals which were life, liberty, and property, as defined by Locke. Eventually, liberalism would be tweaked and become the basis for the modern day democracy; property being replaced by the pursuit of happiness. The ideas of Liberalism are more open as opposed to being a caste system. It allows people in a society to live the lives that they work for which promotes equality. Liberalism also began the separation of church and state and thus, religion has no effect on its practice.  Capitalism is more like Liberalism; the only major difference being is that capitalism is a form of the economy.  In a much like a liberalist society, capitalism allows for people work towards their own personal goals and doesn’t limit them to a certain social class, however, it’s still like the conservative society because most of the time it is very difficult for one to work their way into a higher social class, and most people tend to stay within the social class they were born into. In capitalism it is also impossible for everyone to live glorified lives, due to the imbalance of pay, so while it is open for everyone to become rich, not everyone can.

The last topic to be discussed is socialism, a social theory created by the German philosopher, Karl Marx. Socialism is the belief that the means of production and distribution of pay should be equal among both the owner of a business and its workers. However in Marx’s theory, socialism would lead to a communist system where classes are forgotten and everything is under common ownership. Socialism presents a different type of social justice than capitalism. The differences in pay between people and their employers are not so vast, and social classes aren’t as heavily defined (I.e. There are no explicitly Rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods) as they are in capitalist societies. This also means that people who do very difficult jobs may get paid the same as people who do easier jobs, thus still creating an imbalance in pay. In these ways, socialism is different from capitalism, but they are similar in a few ways as well. There are imbalances in pay in both and they each promote equality through equal opportunity.