Grammar

I think it's interesting that women graduates are supposed to be considered almnae. Personally, I never knew that, and I don't think many people do. We are surrounded by faculty, bulletins, facebook, and word of mouth that graduates are considered "almuni." I was taken back a bit by this, because I feel almost that I have been lied to. Being a woman, and about to be a graduate, knowing that "alumni" means men, I would want to call myself an "alumna." However, society may look at me like I may be an idiot-- but in reality society is beeing fooled. What do you think?

Bad communication at its finest.

I saw this video the other day of a candidate giving a speech for Stark County Treasurer in Ohio. It is very entertaining, and rather hard to take serious; however, it happens to be a great example of what NOT to do when speaking to the public. Share your thoughts!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMgyi57s-A4

Semiotics

Semiotics is concerned with how our mind perceives meaning about something. That "something" refers to a word, symbol, icon, gesture, or object. The concept of semiotics seems to enable underlying uncertainties because essentially, our minds are manipulative and we decipher different "things" to our individual accordance. Semiotics goes hand-in-hand with communication theory.
Today, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have become a primary tool for communication. This way of communicating is different than what it used to be of course; however, it has evolved and will continue to. Take Facebook for instance, we have become willing to share information about ourselves publicly- in essence, what you put online is not always secured to your privacy standards. In addition, we put ourselves out there through the internet to perhaps begin relationships- whether it’s befriending someone, or used for networking. When you share information about yourself, what you're thinking about something, how your day has been through the status box "what’s on your mind" do you think this is social interaction? I mean, when you befriend someone, you are giving them the opportunity to "get to know you a little better." Do you think facebook has become an alternative reality? Because in reality, you are not speaking to this person directly, but radio/micro waves are maintaining your communication. Today, it seems as though we have put trust into the internet and not so much each other.

Social Network War

As I was surfing the web the other day, I came across an interesting news article about Facebook, Skype, and Google. The head line read: Facebook and Skype link arms against Google. Apparently, Facebook and Skype are combing their features to create a stronger, more sufficient online coalition. By combining their features together, I think that the social networking world will be taken to the next level. By doing so, individuals will be able to video chat with friends of Facebook and make calls to friends through Facebook... in a more cost efficient way. This technique would make it even easier to communicate with people across the world. I think the partnership is an interesting approach for the growth of social networking. I'm wondering if they will create a new name for the partnership- or will they keep Facebook as Facebook and Skype as Skype. What are your thoughts about this partnership?

You can find the article at http://www.technewsworld.com/story/70929.html?wlc=1286207613