Writing+on+the+Web

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Kameran Malcolm This page describe 12 different types of Facebook people who ae annoying. It gives some details of each one and it tells of how they use the web to spread thier greif. One of the the 12 is The self promoter. the description thet they give is "OK, so we've probably all posted at least once about some achievement. And sure, maybe your friends really do want to read the fascinating article you wrote about beet farming. But when almost EVERY update is a link to your blog, your poetry reading, your 10k results or your art show, you sound like a bragger or a self-centered careerist." I think that this is very accurrate. this braking up of different groups means that there should be minoritys and majoritys. It s like my dad always told me " there will always be more asshole then people in the world because everyone has an asshole. i think that the same goes for the web. some questions I have now are what other kinds of "people" are there and which one am I? Also what do these descriptions mean for the future of the web and its uses? ====Use this page to post links to articles, videos, websites related to writing on the web. Who writes Blogs? Who writes Fan Fiction? Who creates online Zines? How do these spaces function on the web and in our culture?====

From Kim Jaxon: Link to Jonathan Harris's TED lecture. Mindblowing stuff that shows what he's done with blogs: [|Jonathan Harris TED lecture]

Lena Cottam

[|Writing on the Web]

This link is a home page for several other links to research articles about the habits of users on the internet. Not only the average internet user behavior is researched, but the tendencies of "low-literacy" users, teenagers, those reading e-mail, and more. The way certain people view a webpage is varied, but usually an average person skims an internet page so severely that a web page designer must make things in a certain way to obtain and keep their attention. On average, a person views 20 to 28% of an entire webpage. Thus, the writers of a page must adapt to make their pages ultra concise to get more of their information across. The fact that this must be done creates almost a whole new web culture - one where writing online is separate and much different from the real world. This may raise important questions like; what effect(s) does this web culture have on reading and writing in real life? Is it beneficial, or does it 'hurt' reading and writing skills? Does the fact that writing on the web has to be different than in 'real' life tell us something significant about the state of reading and writing in other settings? These articles can be used for our class research in marking the differences between literacy on the web and in reality.

“Discrimination” By: Samantha Bailey http://www.macses.ucsf.edu/Research/Psychosocial/notebook/discrimination.html In the article composed by David Williams, it describes studies that have been conducted in order to find out the percent of people from different races that feel they have been discriminated against. As stated in the article, “racial and socioeconomic status are among the most prominent types of intergroup relationships that reflect types of social inequality in American society”. From these inequalities between groups of people, discrimination is born and is used to identify to which group one is associated with. It states that in a couple of studies conducted, about 47%-68% of African Americans feel they have been treated differently because of their race or ethnicity, and is therefore the highest percentage of the racial groups surveyed (others were Whites, Latinos and Asians). The most prominent group of people that are discriminated against the most seem to be middle-class African Americans. Although studies that were conducted trying to positively correlate income to the amount of discrimination didn’t turn out to be very strong, it is still presented that “discrimination was also related to higher levels of chronic health problems and disability”. Education level also has a strong relationship with discrimination and is still more prominent with African Americans along with Latino women. From this article I learned that African Americans are discriminated against more often than other races and is mostly based on education level and mental and physical health status. This leads me to believe that people who are more self-conscious of themselves in their appearance or thinking ability report discrimination more often. It makes sense to me that people perceive being discriminated against more often when they believe they possess some trait that deserves or is inevitable to be judged for, by others. In the study, it says that when people were asked about specific occurrences of discrimination, like education, jobs, housing or equal wages, the results were lower than if the simple question of if they’ve been discriminated against was asked. This leads me to believe that people may interpret the term discrimination differently and may exaggerate their experiences based on how the question is asked and if specific examples are given. Works Cited: Williams, David. “Discrimination”. Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health. David Williams. Web. October 1998.

Writing on the Web

Caroline Lusich In their article Blogging As a Social Tool: A Psychological Examination on the Effects of Blogging James Baker and Susan Moore discuss the positive effects that blogging has on a persons ability to communicate harder subjects in a social setting. Basically they're saying that blogging is a form of social freedom, stating that "blogs may allow authors to communicate subject matters difficult to express in regular social interaction by reducing social constraints that hinder discussion of distressing events in offline life"(para.1). There seems to be a positive connection between people discussing socially hard subjects online and receiving positive feedback and the support of friends that the sites allow and encourage, suggesting that blogging has a positive effect on well-being and the way you feel about the support you receive from your peers. The authors suggest that over time blogging can have significant effects on how you communicate with others in a social setting and greatly improve well being.

Citations: Baker, James. Moore, Susan."Blogging As a Social Tool: A Psychological Examination on the Effects of Blogging". Cyber Psychology and Behavior volume 11, number 6. Web no date