All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.
Marshall McLuhan

I think that media is a form of entertainment (which, yes, as Mcluhan states is intrinisically linked to education), and as such, it is valued differently than the founding principles upon which we are raised. What role does religion play in this? Our religion does teach us the binary of right and wrong, and it is often through television and movies that the gray is filled in. Therefore, we are educated through media, but is this education a bad thing?

New SyFy Show

Has anyone seen this? Caprica is a new SyFy show and the personalities of the robots is created through search engines so that they are copies of real people created from all information found online!

Scaryy

What scares me the most is Google Maps's Street View

100 Sites to Download Everything

100 Sites to Download Everything

List includes free audiobooks, emagazines, sheet music, clip art....

Social Etiquette

What I think is most interesting about social media is all of the new rules of social etiquette that have come with it.

Writing a letter is no longer a casual thing to do. It has been redefined.

Facebook friending means something between real world individuals. It has definitely evolved in its meaning as Facebook has evolved. I think this is a large reason why people are nervous about it. They don't understand the ramifications of their actions or how to control it.

For example, in my last post, I shared an article about viral crooks and how they can take over your online identity creating a social faux pas. However, if I had received that email/message, I would have known immediately that it was spam. Also, I know how to avoid getting spammed because I have learned how to control my profile. If you are going to interact with social media, it is imperative that you know this. Otherwise it is just as scary as people say.

For example, I would never allow my photos or cellphone number to be open on Facebook. I have it open to my friends. I am incredibly careful about my privacy settings and have created groups to limit what those who I know really well can know about me versus those I do not know well vs employers and my grandparents etc.

Twitter/Facebook Pirates

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/technology/internet/14virus.html?_r=2&em

“I wonder what people are thinking of me right now?” said Matt Marquess, an employee at a public relations firm in San Francisco whose Twitter account was recently hijacked, showering his followers with messages that appeared to offer a $500 gift card to Victoria’s Secret.

Mr. Marquess was clueless about the offers until a professional acquaintance asked him about them via e-mail. Confused, he logged in to his account and noticed he had been promoting lingerie for five days.

“No one had said anything to me,” he said. “I thought, how long have I been Twittering about underwear?”

McLuhan Link

CBC on Marshall McLuhan: The Man and the Message -- 10 tv clips, 8 radio clips

This helped me understand the distinction between "hot" and "cold" media.

Marshall McLuhan adapted these references from the TV jargon "high" and "low definition." High definition means well-defined, sharp and detailed visually, such as a map. Low definition refers to indistinct images scanned by the eye, with which the viewer is left to fill in the blanks, such as a sketch.

McLuhan says television is a cool or low definition medium, offering little information but the user participates with most of his senses. He explains that a book is a hot or high definition medium, presenting the user with lots of information at a level of lower sensory participation. 

Also, the direct reference to high definition vs low definition points to the question of the accuracy of his categorization of television, now that it is high definition.