Final Project: Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Relationships via Texting

For my final project, I’ll be looking at the way one communicates via texting while having synchronous and asynchronous relationships. I’m hypothesizing that when one is involved in an intimate relationship, (synchronous relationship), one is more inclined to send more responsive, (and longer) text messages. On the other hand, having asynchronous relationships (less intimate relationship) with friends or accomplices, here, text message length become relatively shorter, and less interesting.

In my final project I’ll be referring to synchronicity, and asynchronicity as:

-          Synchronous: Intimate relationship (best friend, significant other, mother, father, etc.).

-          Asynchronous: Less intimate relationship (friend, accomplice, boss, professor, etc.).

I’ve also created a survey using Survey Monkey (it’s easy to use, free, and super effective). This way, the survey will serve the purposes of the quantification of data, and the postulation of hopefully (more specific) generalizations. Please feel free to take the survey (at your leisure), and send it to your comrades by May 9^th. Thank you!

Take the survey here. 

Project: Google Translate

For my project, I will be working on Google Translate. Google Translate allows users to do translations between various languages. However, most of the users realize that Google Translate often generate weird translations, translations that do not make sense.
I will be gathering examples, have them to be translated by Google Translate and see what's wrong with those translations.
So far, I have introduced Google and Google Translate in my paper. Also, I mentioned how Google Translate works and what is statistical machine translation. Next, I will be looking into examples. I will be putting them into groups according to the problem of the translation. I still feel a little confused but I will try to tackle it.

Final Project: Preferences

         My topic for the final project is looking into the different mediums such as: Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, texting, face-to-face, and Instagram, and seeing what and why do people today prefer when speaking to others. The reasons why people would prefer to use the different mediums would be because of easiness, convenience, social distance, and popularity. I will take a polls from Imagoo, an iPhone Application, to see in general why people prefer one medium over the other. In this, it will make clear which medium is most popular today. To see why certain groups of people prefer one medium over the other, I will conduct a survey that will help me see exactly why some mediums are more likely than other preferred by people between gender, age, and ethnicity. Finally, I will present the polls and the results of the survey by using Pinterest.

       So far, I have taken polls on ratings, challenges, and reviews of unknown people using the application, Imagoo. I have started the survey process by using google forms and will be expecting my dear classmates to answer them as well as other random people. 
 

Final Project - Netiquette

My final project is based on Grice's Maxims and how they are applied to Netiquette (internet etiquette). These two themes go hand in hand because in order to successfully use and behave on the internet, you should always try to adhere to Grice's Maxims. To summarize Grice's Maxims*, they are to:

1. Always make sure that what you are saying is relevant to the conversation/topic.
2. Always be truthful and have information to support yourself.
3. Do not be ambiguous; always give enough information. 

Because we use the internet as a means to communicate with immediate friends as well as acquaintances (via emails, texts/chats, social media, etc), it is necessary to adhere to these Maxims as much as we would in face-to-face conversations. There are usually three ways someone can use a Maxim: they can either fully adhere to them, they can be violated (it isn't obvious that the speaker has either lied, not given enough information, or gone off-topic), or they can flout a Maxim (it's obvious to both people that one of the speakers has not adhered to a Maxim).

In order to adhere to Netiquette, you must be understood (which is where Grice's Maxims kick in), and you also have to adhere to the social expectations that are required when you speak to certain people (friends, family, teachers, complete strangers, etc.).


I decided that the best way to explain my topic would be by creating a webpage, since I would need to talk a lot (and I don't wish to bore my peers to death). I'll probably use either WordPress or Tumblr to create my site, especially because I feel a bit more comfortable using those blog platforms. As far as my data collection goes, I will be collecting samples of emails, texts (iMessage), and FB chats from my personal accounts and select the best examples that either adhere, violate, or flout the Maxims. These examples will not have any sensitive information, nor will they be graphic in any nature.

So far, I haven't had any big problems when it comes to collecting data examples. Probably my biggest issue would be perhaps giving too much information that would confuse the audience. I have to go over all of my information and decide what is best to use, as well as have enough examples for the audience to understand and follow.

*Peccei, Jean Stilwell. Pragmatics. New York: Routledge, 1999. NOOK file. 

Translation service

 If we have an assignment from a language class, or we need a translation for something, people usually think of Google Translate. How does it work? In the article “Find out how our translations are created”, it introduces Google Translate. Google Translate offers instant translation on sentences, words, and web pages. It looks for patterns in hundreds of millions of documents that have already been translated by human translators to decide the best translation. This process calls "statistical machine translation". Since the translations are generated by machines, they are not perfect. Moreover, as some of the languages have fewer translated documents available, the quality is varied. But the users are welcome to give feedback.
      In the article, “Breaking The Language Barrier: Technology Is The Great Equalizer”, written by Ashley Taylor, she pointed out that in the past, using Google Translate to finish homework is not a good idea. It basically translates sentences literally word by word. The grammar and word use is wacky. Taylor introduced Google Translate and translation service on smartphones. Verbalizelt on smartphone provides live translation.  To indicate the translator is available, the person pushes a button on the dashboard of his or her phone’s VerbalizeIt app. When the user need a translation, what they have to do is to make a phone call the app.
           In the past, I used to think Google Translate is a great tool to use. When my family needs translation on certain websites and documents, I asked them to use Google Translate. However, the more I use it, the more  hilarious I realize Google Translate is. It literally translates word by word, as Taylor mentioned in her article. It is impossible to understand its translation. Now I understand how Google Translate operates and how come the translations come out to be so interesting. These days, I don’t really use Google Translate because of its quality. Instead, I will be using other dictionary websites to translate words. Then, I will translate the entire sentence by myself. Hopefully, I  will figure out more about the Google Translate in my project.

Identity Presentation on the Internet

In Naomi Baron's chapter, "Presentation of Self," she talked about how people present themselves to others using the AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and Facebook platforms. For AIM, she specifically cited the away messages people would publish when they were either too busy to talk, or didn't wish to be bothered by certain people. I really like how she said that "people consciously or unconsciously present themselves to others as if they were actors on a stage," because it's really true. On digital platforms, such as AIM and Facebook, people only publish what they wish for others to see.

For AIM, the main categories that away messages fall under are:

• Denotative - stating the obvious (say, for example, that you put your away message as "gone to the store.")
• Connotative - stating something with a subjective meaning (such as "in class, shoot me now!" The reader of your away message can then interpret this as saying that you don't want to be in class.)

 Of course, some people just put their away messages for the sake of not wanting to talk to certain people on their buddy list. However, it is interesting to see that even though AIM has a default away message ("I am away from my computer right now"), many people do not use it. Instead they go through their own creative processes to come up with an away message that closely resembles their attitude and liking.

This brings me to another thing: if someone logs on and automatically reverts to an away message, why are they even on in the first place? Baron says this is because the person wants to have control over who they speak to, which I think is true. I remember when I used to log on to AIM constantly (this was a few years back), I would sometimes just put an away message even though I was not busy and available to talk. This enabled me to choose who I wished to speak to, and ignore those that I didn't. Again, the keyword is control.

Besides AIM, Baron also took a crack at Facebook (back in its infant years); back to when you had to be either a high school or college student to create an FB account (because it required you to give your .edu email address).

First off, let me begin by going on a mini-FB rant: what is the point of having hundreds or even thousands of friends? Do you really talk to them constantly, or is it more like a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of thing? Wouldn't you rather have a small list of friends, but know them completely, as opposed to thousands of friends whom you speak with every few months, or worse, never? What about getting friend requests from total strangers? Now personally, in FB I've gotten a lot of friend requests from people I've never met, but they send me a request because we have a mutual friend. I usually end up denying the requests mainly because I don't know the person! I prefer to have an offline connection with a friend/mutual acquaintance first, and then have them connected via social networks. I mean, what if the person turns out to not be who they said they were? There are some pretty crazy people out there - always be safe! Sometimes, I feel as if FB is a popularity contest, just like Baron noted, "what matters is that they [friends on FB] pile up." Don't even get me started on "poking". Don't poke me, better yet, send me an FB message, or if you have my number, send me a text!

In all, Facebook allows its users to be in charge of how they wish others to view them, and even who has the privilege to see their profiles.Most FB users wish for others to see them as socially desirable and easy to approach ("popular, well-rounded, thoughtful, etc." as Zhao et al. notes in their article, "Identity Construction on Facebook"). Many people do this by adding specific information about themselves in their profiles, such as pictures with friends on a night out, or the various countries they've visited or wish to visit one day. They can also select what kind of music, books, TV shows, and music they prefer.

What do you think? Do you agree with Baron and Zhao et al.'s comments? What's your take on AIM away messages? Did you create your own or did you use the default one? How often did you put your "away" status, and were you really away at that time? If you have [or had] FB or any other social media platform, is there a specific selection process you use[d] when approving friend requests?

Computer Mediated Communication / Discourse

Computer medicated communication is any communication done by humans through multiple devices. Cmc is also referred to as cmd computer mediated disclosure is a form of writing. What medium the writing is done though reflects on a persons setting. Social, professional and educational are suppose require different forms of communication. Have you noticed how I word this, making sure to include suppose to. The reason is because in today's society people mostly young adults don't know the difference of how to communicate. Communicating has unwritten rule that a lot of people don't know. It's more like a common sense kind of approach that should be taken. I personally think the rule of thumb should be when in doubt always communicate professionally. Even on my job I'll hear people approach my manager in an unprofessional way. (Are they that comfortable?) Maybe they feel comfortable to do so but I personally believe it is best to always maintain a professional approach to things and to keep a certain distance. The same would be true for an educational setting. For me keeping things professional shows respect not only for the person but for there position above you.
 
 Speech communication for me overrides writing communication for me. Actually face to face communication is the best medium. Nothing beats looking in someone face and seeing their emotions while they talk. Like take sarcasm for example when discussed in class how do we show sarcasm through texting one said they capitalize letters, put quotation marks or even just type with no extra emphasis. This makes me think bad and wonder if my friends have ever been sarcastic with me. Being that I never really take note on these thing. Like today I was texting a friend of mine and I hit the capitalize but for one word and failed to take it off forth enemy and I ended up writing through rest of the conversation in capital letters. She must of thought I was yelling or being sarcastic throughout out the hole conversation. In testily I was just lazy. This issue would not arise if we were talking face to face or even verbally through the phone.
 
The second reading made me really look back a couple of years in time and really disgust what our generation has come to with technology. Email was considered the default mode of communication through devices. Can you imagen sitting and waiting to get an email (picture with dial up connection) Awwwwww No.