Equal Accessibility

As much as we like to think of the internet as being an open and equal place where anyone can use it to communicate, or read other opinions, there are economic issues still in the way. Not everyone has equal access to computers, let alone internet. Even in our country, we have some of the most expensive internet rates of the developed countries in the world, partly because there aren't a lot of options in service providers in most neighborhoods because they haven't put a lot of investment in this infrastructure.  The people that are missing out the most in these online conversations are the poor and minorities. I definitely haven't thought about this all that much, now that I it talked about, I understand it, and why I haven't heard of this before. The thing is about having less access to the internet, you don't have the internet to help tell other people about how hard it is to get or afford internet access. There's another demographic that also doesn't have great internet access and that's the old, which can't really be helped, since a lot of them don't understand, can't keep up or don't want to learn. The idea behind the internet and social media is for more free interconnection between people, and not being able to have equal access defeats the whole purpose. It's disappointing that there is such a high rate of people without internet access in their own homes. Of course there's places like public libraries, but who is going to check their Facebook daily at the library? 

Then when you start to look out to other countries around the world, the rate of internet access falls sharply. Many countries have a lot bigger issues to deal with than internet access, but the lack of infrastructure and internet access keeps it hard for their perspectives, which are just as valid as any other persons' on the internet, from being heard. Even with access to the internet, that doesn't quite fix all of the issues to. If a person reads a blog and no one reads it, does it make an impact? If no one reads what you write, what does it accomplish? Popularity is what gets you heard, quietly posting on topics doesn't get you noticed. In a way you need to advertise yourself and what you write, or post in a forum where you will get noticed.

Social Media and Education

There are a great many things we can't learn from a book, not just grander ideas and social  skill related things, but there are a great many points of view and pieces of information that will never make it to a printing press. There are probably a great many authors that won't make it through the publishing process because of the way the system works, putting this method of sharing ideas out of reach for many, but social media is much more attainable. If nothing else, using social media to explore the world of ideas you might never see from the safe space in front of your computer seems like a great way to open the door for students to become more curious about the going-ons around them. Through communication technology, not just social media, has opened up education to this kind of distance teaching, where a teacher can teach a massive number of students over the Internet, sometimes formal like an online class, or informal through instruction through Youtube, where anyone interested in the subject can peek in on the lesson. I can see the apprehensions some school districts have students and teachers on social media like Facebook. This makes it a lot easier for teachers and students to have inappropriate contact, and it also has this weird mix of personal life things and teachers personal opinions of things can come out, and warp students in an unintentional way because its coming from an authority figure in their life. But social media and education allows new methods of teaching, helping and assisting those who need more 1 on 1 help, in a private way. The current way teaching is done works for most people, but not all. Any opportunity to help those who don't fit the mold in the education model reach the same potential as everyone else should be welcomed with open arms.

Politics in Social Media

I haven't become more politically active because of social, or through social media. Mostly, I just don't participate in politics through social media, because it always becomes messy and the people who end up arguing about, aren't able to articulate their opinions well and don't  usually understand what a polite discourse is. What I appreciate through social media on politics is the articles and ideas that aren't normally seen through regular news outlets. Some of these sites are not to be trusted, and a lot of these sights have an agenda, so we have to be careful, but it at least shows a perspective or ideas the regular news didn't talk about at all, or the news thinks isn't important or against the news organizations agenda.

Crowdfunding

This week in the lecture, we talked about crowdfunding, and luckily for me, I have some hands on experience with this topic. A couple years a go, a friend of a friend was developing a fighting game called Skullgirls. There was an issue with their publisher Konami, and they weren't going to get paid for a couple years for their game, along with having to publish the game before it was up to the developer's standards, so they started a Kickstarter campaign to keep their studio in business and get their game finished. The initial campaign goal was for $150,000 so they can finish the last character that was in development, but the campaign exploded. They ended with over $800,000, and they added more and rewards including sketchbooks filled by the artists, massive art collections, the soundtrack and of course copies of the game. With the massive amount of funding, they also added 4 extra playable characters on top of that, along with a ton of extra color palettes for the characters.

In a similar vein, since I didn't see this in the lecture, there's something similar called Patreon, which is similar to Kickstarter, but for on going projects. Pateron supporters pledge an amount for each step, or issue published, with a monthly limit set. For example, several podcasts I listen to run a Patreon account, and pledgers will pledge anywhere from $1 to $10 per weekly episode published. The money is to help pay the producers of the show for professional sound editing and help get them better equipment for the show, so the producers don't have pay for all of the expenses for their show out of their own pocket. Some of these groups are trying to make this into their profession and need the money to quit their current jobs and focus on producing the best material they can.

Unfocused Blog Focus

With this blog, I hope to talk about what I was see and experience while I use social medias and what I will learn through this social media class. The topic of course sounds terribly broad and very unfocused, but I'm going to cast a wide net, to make sure everything I might want to post is able to fit in this topic.

-Colton Rader