Homophily

     Ted Talk by Eli Parsier, the article Mind Control and the internet by Sue Halpern, and the article Clive Thompson On high Bandwidths all have one recurring theme and that is Homophily. Homophily is the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others; people tend to form connections with others who similar to them in characteristics such as socioeconomic status, values, beliefs, and attitudes. One of the major downsides to homophily is that we end up encountering only news and opinions that reinforce what we already believe; I guess in a sense our ideas become biased relying on very similar sources.

          The internet has become one of the biggest sources of information for the masses and companies like Facebook and google are well aware of it and cater their information and adversting to indivual users. For example are searching for specific product , and than you go on yahoo to read an article you will see an ad for the product you previously searched for. Google also saves your reading habits and than gives you links to articles  that discuss same topics therefore strengthening your beliefs in what you are already leaning towards. The World Wide Web is a great place for knowledge we as consumers just need to be more open minded and unbiased.

Obama Campaign’s Use Of Socail Networking Tools

     As years have passed politicians have changed the methods on how to get their message across to the masses. Barack Obama was able to masterfully use social media to get his message across to the masses and gather more supporters. Obama and his advisers dominated social media, and capitalized on a confluence of trends . His team created a website called MyBo and were able to get their message across to people all across the country.

     Americans have more access to media and all the rich content it has to offer online. Over 55percent of Americans have Internet connections at home. More Americans are comfortable with and Obama used that as the center of his campaign.

     Through the Internet Obama was able to post his speeches online; one example being a single YouTube posting of one of Obama’s speeches being viewed more than 4 million times. His campaign site made it so easy for users/support to give money towards his campaign. At one point his website (MyBo) was able to garner a record 55million in campaign donations in a single month.  Money; the main fuel for any campaign makes it easier to pay for advertising and staff. Visitors could make contributions credit cards as one time or recurring monthly.

     Obama’s team made sure he was very prominent on social media sites as well, including My Space and face book. The Internet was a great tool for Obama to get his messages across and worked very well in elevating him to the presidency.

Growing up online

     In the PBS presentation there were several issues raised about the effect social networking has on teens at home and in the classrooms. The internet and social media has become a a part of our daily lives and we are intertwined with it. In the pbs documentary there were some teachers that were ok with using technology to get their message across to students and used it as a tool for teaching and getting the students attention. Teens used social media to have sort of an alter ego online separate from reality.
   
       Students do too much of their social media online. And even when friends would get together they would all be lost in their respective devices. In one portion of the film it shows a group of teens meet  at a friends house and they all bring their lap tops and just play video games online, having very minimal conversation.One thing that was very surprising as well was how clueless the parents were the whole time.