Erin Corcoran vs. Her Multiple Internet Personas

Well, I finished my prezi. It took decidedly longer than I expected because my computer decided to choose this weekend to begin the dying process and broke down every time I tried to operate jing. But I got it done eventually (though a bit late).

Anyway, here’s the link. Hope you enjoy it – I actually did enjoy making it. 

goo.gl/xjE1c

Final Prezi

Well, after the arduous task of syncing my voice and mouse motions perfectly together, here it is, my final project. I enjoyed creating this, and hope that others will enjoy it as well.

http://screencast.com/t/3iT2uDLbMtn

(oh, also, I tried to rename the project to “Scott, Meet Internet Scott”, but the site was being finicky, so i didn’t get to change the title)

Twitt-stalk-er

After twittstalking (Is this a thing yet? Can I make it a thing?) Anna C., the “skilled writer/editor” located at urlm.in/lfzc on twitter, I’ve deduced that she’s super into writing! No, really! Seriously folks, judging by this lady’s twitter it’s absolutely helpful to follow people within your field. She follows 14,897 people and the majority of them claim to be interested in/in the field of writing. She follows all kinds of writers – “online” writers, “freelance” writers, “published career” writers…she’s got ‘em all. I have to assume that this networking within the realm of twitter helps her career, so kudos to her. Anna doesn’t just follow writers, however. Apparently she has a wide range of interests including music, Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome awareness, Walgreens (who doesn’t love drug stores?), candles (a bit random, but okay) and “nerdy shirts.” So, while she focuses her twitter on networking within her field, she isn’t afraid to branch out into a wider range of interests. Way to use twitter to its full potential, Anna C.

My Online Identities Prezi Narrative

My name is Carrie Ann Watson. I was born at Cooper Hospital on November 19^th in 1982. Most of my life I lived in Oaklyn, New Jersey; ten minutes outside of Philadelphia. The public school system where we lived didn’t have a fantastic reputation, so my mom sent me to Catholic school.

I went to St. Johns Catholic School in Collingswood from Kindergarten to eighth grade. From there I attended Camden Catholic High School. Go Irish! This brings me to my first online identity. I am listed under the class of 2001 on a website called NamesDatabase.

I taught myself the internet when I was a sophomore in HS. That was when our house in Oaklyn became connected to the internet, or that I had any exposure to it. My first window to the internet was through America Online.

I changed my screen name several times throughout high school and would chat with my friends about whatever I thought was important at the time. My screen name changed three times; from Beetle1119, to Miami420, and finally to Wattz10.

In 2003, Myspace was launched. I didn’t create a myspace page until after I turned 21 years old, so naturally my Myspace page was filled with pictures from the bar or various parties. It also changed theme around once a week, with different backgrounds – such as Budweiser themed background.

I wanted everyone who went onto my page to think that I was cool and a fun party girl. I also wanted my page to look cooler than my friends’ pages.

For the past 8 years, I have been signed up for a website called pogo.com. There are over a hundred games on the site and when you enter into a game room, to the right of the screen there is a chat window where you can chat with the other players in that room. Pogo.com was originally accessible through aol, so your screen name was your username. On Pogo I’m known only as Wattz10 and I also have a “Pogo Mini” which I can make to look like me. I made my mini to look how I want to look by the summer time, so it keeps me motivated to not sit on the computer all day and actually go get some exercise.

Three to four years ago I signed up for Facebook. My Facebook identity, compared to my Myspace identity is very good evidence that I have matured over the years. Instead of presenting myself as a party girl (which I rarely drink anymore anyway), I give people more of an insight as to who I am rather than trying to look cool. I also use it to share pictures with people.

I also use facebook as a way to stay in touch with people. Between work and school, I don’t have a lot of time to call all the people I would like to, nor do I like being on the phone that long. However, it takes only a minute to send a message to many members of my family and friends and let them know what I’m doing, or even use the chat function to talk to multiple people at once, while looking at other sites or doing other things on the computer.

In the past two years I have set it up so that I can pay all of my bills online, so for different credit cards I have or stores I like to shop online at, including Amazon, Best Buy, Victoria’s Secret, NY&Co., Kohl’s, Capital One, and Chase Master Card, all know me only as a series of alphanumeric characters and symbols, who gives them money when I decide there are things that I just cannot go without buying.

Just recently I joined Twitter, and as you can see, I gave myself a short bio in a limited number of characters I had. I mostly tweet about things for school, or more specifically, Intro to Writing Arts class. I quickly discovered it was a great and simple way to discuss assignments and readings with my classmates and professor.

Plus I learned cool tricks of the Twitter trade, like how to view the people I was following on a map, and also map all of my followers.

I started having so much fun with Twitter, I created a twitter account to use for personal use. I like to keep things I do for school separate from my personal life, so when I’m on my personal twitter, I don’t have to worry about always being professional.

While I’m still almost on the subject of Intro to WA class, I also created a collaborative blog with some of my classmates. We created a professional blog where we could not only discuss things we read for class, but also about creative writing, which we all have a personal interest in.

If you combine all of my blog posts, these are all the things I’ve discussed. If you’re not familiar with Wordle.net, don’t try making sense out of it.

We created the blog using WordPress. I also created a blog using Blogger for Writing, Research, and Technology class. The theme of the blog is Online Dating. And again, I also created a personal one at the same time.

So to recap what my online identities say about me, here it is.

• I’m a high school graduate
• I was trying to figure out who I was while I was in High School
• Then I was trying to figure out who I was AGAIN in my early 20’s – I’m glad that girl didn’t stick around forever
• I like to play games
• I like to stay in touch with people
• I have too many credit cards
• I discuss school stuff with my classmates on twitter
• I liked twitter so much I created a personal account
• And I’ve obviously become better at creating blogs, since I created my first one in Writing, Research, and Technology

I like to think that I’ve always had the same personality, but if you look at all of my online identities collectively, it looks like I have web schizophrenia. But really, I’ve just grown up.

Carrie Watson

http://www.screencast.com/users/cwatson1119/folders/Default/media/c8ab99d2-c7d1-4f44-a794-415755e587c7

Me and my internet self

I’ve spent the past couple of days working on a Prezi that compares my human identity to the identity I present to the world online through various internet spaces. I’ve never worked with Prezi before, but so far it’s a pretty cool website. There’s a lot more room for creativity here than there is on Powerpoint. My narrative is pretty much complete, though I’ll probably tweak it a little before I can consider it finished. I’ll probably add a few pictures/quotes to the Prezi too once I’m done. Regardless, here’s the link.

http://prezi.com/4nc81xnjp7z2/edit/#42_1797101

My Internet Presence

I’m working on a prezi project about my presence on the internet. It’s actually pretty fun, and it’s making me think about what I’ve put out there over the years. Here’s the link to what I have so far

urlm.in/lebw

It’s just a bunch of zooming in – the text that’ll explain everything is in a word document. But it should be pretty cool when it’s done. 

On falling off the Face[book] of the Earth

I lead a busy lifestyle, even for a student. I work as a hairdresser at a popular chain salon (the word that comes to mind is “sweatshop,” but we won’t go there) when I’m not attending classes full-time. I live on my own and support myself more or less single-handedly at the age of twenty, while still squeezing in some semblance of a social and personal life.

Realizing halfway through my college career that battling procrastination is not my strong point, I recently attempted to cut out unnecessary distractions. One of them being Facebook. I took down my page the first week of this semester, and ironically, perhaps two weeks later in Technologies and the Future of Writing, we were asked to do this as a class experiment. I am sure that I am not alone in finding many aspects of Facebook to be, well, obnoxious. There are a handful of close friends and family members who keep in contact with me the “old-fashioned” way. We can assume that if we are important to someone, they will reach out to you using these “old” methods of phone calls, text messages, face-to-face plans, right?

Yes and no. When we delete our Facebook pages, some metaphorical wire, connecting us to our network of friends and colleagues, snaps. On one hand, we are free! We don’t log in first thing in the morning, right before bed, after, before, and during class. We don’t have to scan the list of mind-numbingly boring and sometimes narcissistic posts and photo albums of those we attended high school with and lost touch with years ago, or maybe were never so in touch with to begin with. We aren’t pestered with the oddly flirtatious “pokes” from members of the opposite sex. We don’t have to go “invisible” on Facebook Chat to avoid somebody’s mundane messages. And only we really know what we’re up to, because we aren’t being tagged, or checked in, or posted about.

On the other hand, though, such social networking has made many of us lazy about maintaining our relationships, even ones we do value. I think we aren’t on one another’s minds like we once were, simply because we don’t have to be – abbreviated updates about our daily lives and automated prompts to reconnect will confront our friends before we are forgotten. There is no need to “check in” when we’ve already read about what’s going on. Why phone a friend to ask if they will be attending a social event when you can check the Facebook page, confrontation-free? Familiar faces do not fade from memory when they continuously pop up in a mostly chronological series of photos.

Sure, the internet has convenience us beyond our wildest dreams in almost every aspect of our lives. But as time goes on, cut off from the social networking world and therefore hiding in a disconnected, small dark box of reality and privacy, I fear that it is this very idea of convenience that will render our relationships shallow and meaningless.

Facebook and I are BFFs Again

Well, after a seven day hiatus, Facebook and I are reunited. Was I excited to get back on the train of globalized social media again? Yes, but I wasn’t as excited as I thought I would be.

One week ago, when my writing arts professor announced to the class that we would begin an experiment where we couldn’t log onto Facebook for the following week, I dropped my head in disbelief, and wondered how I’d fair.
It’s not like I’m addicted to Facebook, I just like it. I can stop at any moment, honest!
That’s what all addicts say, right? I’ll admit, I had my work cut out for me.

The first couple of days were the hardest, but I expected that much. I’ve sort of been using Facebook as my default website. Even if I have homework, or an e-mail to send out, I’ll instantly open Facebook once I flip open my macbook. I do this both out of habit and preference. In all honesty, I like seeing what people are up to. I like instant messaging my friends from different colleges, and I like seeing how people react to the links, pictures, and statuses I post. It’s only human nature to want to feel accepted. So first the first few days, I’d flip open my laptop and unconsciously open Facebook. Once I realized what I was doing, I’d yell an expletive or two to the screen, and “x” out of the site. Thankfully, I didn’t give myself time to peruse through the live feed to see what people were doing.

Days 3, 4, and 5 were interesting. I had gotten used to life without Facebook, but I still wasn’t too happy. Because the weekend was nearing, I couldn’t see which parties I was invited to via the “Events” application. I couldn’t check statuses to see who was going where, drinking with who, departing for home, etc. All in all, I felt out of the loop. But I realized that I started to turn to other sources of social media for news and insight on what was going on in the world. I began replying to e-mails quicker, and with less haste. I started applying for internships, and actually put time and energy into touching up my resume. And lastly, I turned to Twitter for updates in my social world. I sifted through through the site, following entertaining celebrities, blogs on food, fitness, and writing, and started to follow more and more friends – both at Rowan, and from my hometown. I tweeted about three times a day, replied to people who tweeted at me, and even got re-tweeted a couple of times.

Days six and seven were the least difficult out of all the days. I became to acclimated to life without Facebook that I was rarely tempted to check what people were up to. I even contemplated deleting my account, but then decided against it for various reasons. Here are some of the reasons:

-My best friend is studying abroad in Scotland, and my only form of communication with him is through Facebook and Skype.
-I have a TV show on campus, and the best way to spread the word about current and upcoming episodes is by posting on Facebook.
-My parents and brother have Facebook, and it is sometimes easier and more convenient to message/IM them through the website than to text/phone/e-mail them.
-I enjoy being exposed to new media on Facebook. When friends post videos, songs, and events that seem interesting to me, I’ll usually check them out. A lot of the music in my iTunes library today came from recommendations and exposure from other people.

All in all, Facebook is not as evil as some may believe it to be. Although some can get caught up in web-stalking, time wasting, and useless social dramatics, those who use Facebook in moderation can genuinely benefit from the site. It is here that my collection of pictures, videography, lists of books, music, and movies reside. Without Facebook, people my age would not be exposed to all the varied and wonderful forms of media that exist on the internet for viewing pleasure today.
 

A Week Without Facebook?! *Gasps*

On Tuesday, February 7th, I posted a Facebook status that sent a cool chill up my spine.

“Quitting Facebook for a week as a class experiment.”

I hit “post”, and logged off, without even seeing who liked the post, commented on it, denounced it, etc. Now, this might not seem like a big deal to you, the reader, and I played it off like it wasn’t a big deal to me, as well. But alas, it is a pretty big deal. What Facebook represents to me is a way to see what your friends are up to when you’re not with them. Yeah, you can use it to stalk ex-girlfriends, live vicariously through the popular kids in high school, and make obnoxious status updates every other hour. And as tempting as it is to do some of those things, I use Facebook more to keep track of my friends in college, and to see how my close high school friends are doing at their respective schools.

So how has this strange void impacted my daily routine? Well, oddly enough, it has impacted me in a lot of ways. I’ve started to text a lot more, because I can’t access Facebook’s instant messenger. Most of my college friends are on Facebook at the same time, so if I want to eat lunch, go to the gym, or run to the store with one of them, I’ll just shoot out a quick IM. With that choice not available, I have to rely on texting, which I usually don’t do much.

I’ve found that Faceboom is my default website. Even if I have a homework assignment to do, or an e-mail to send out, when i open Safari, I immediately open Facebook. It’s almost second nature; an unconscious action. In fact, I accidentally opened Facebook a couple times yesterday, then once I realized what I just did, I yelled at my computer, and clicked the “x” in the corner of the screen. Thankfully, I didn’t end up accidentally using Facebook.

I’ve begun to rely on Twitter to see what’s going on in the world. I now tweet more often than I usually do, and even respond to people, which I almost never did. I’ve sort of replaced Twitter with Facebook as my default website. I also check my e-mail a lot more than I used to. This is good because I can reply to people much quicker, but it’s bad because whenever I see that I don’t have any new e-mails, I fret.

I have a lot more time in my days. I’m normally a pretty good student, but I find  that the majority of the homework I complete falls between the hours of 11 PM and 2 AM. But why? Well, by the time I finish my classes, go to the gym, eat something, shower, and squander bout a half hour at least on Facebook, I realize that it’s 11 PM, and that I haven’t even started my homework yet. Without Facebook as a distraction, my diligence as a student has returned to where it was in grade school, and I’ve actually gotten a lot more sleep. So is a life without Facebook really such a bad thing? From what I’ve observed, no, it it’s not such a bad thing.

A Workshop Experience

For one of my other writing classes today we had our first of a series of workshops. Myself and another student e-mailed the rest of the class our individual stories several days ago. The class then read the stories and critiqued them. Each student wrote their critique in the form of a personal letter that we (myself and the other author who took a turn today) will get to read them on Wednesday.

Today we sat in a circle in class and I listened to my fellow students talk about the story I wrote. It was a fiction short story and it was approximately 1500 words. I had my doubts about my story. Out of the stories I’ve written recently, it definitely wasn’t my favorite. My professor suggested that I take this story however, and revise it because it presented the most challenge.

The workshop was really interesting. I got a lot of genuine positive feedback. During the negative feedback, the opinions were very contradictory. What some liked about the story, others didn’t and vice-verse. This was much different from the critiques of the other student’s story. Everyone agreed on which parts worked and which parts didn’t. With my story though, since there were so many mixed feelings, I get to decide which side gave the best reasoning for what they liked/disliked and why… but in the end I can choose to revise the story however I want.

With any story, I have complete control as the author. It’s my story and I can do with it whatever I want. But in a writing class, it’s suggested to contemplate the criticisms of the other students in my revision. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to try new ideas and styles of writing because of all of the honest feedback that is given.

Overall, it was a great experience and I am really looking forward to working on the revision. I took a lot of notes and jotted down ideas while the rest of the class was going over my story, but I think I’ll sit down and work on it tonight while everything is fresh in my mind.

Carrie Watson