Geekology

     So this is our final blog post. In this post we will try to wrap up all of our topics and discuss the general consensus on each. Everyone in our group generally agreed on one key idea: moderation. Moderation is what needs to be practiced with each of the social technologies we discussed.

     For instant messenger, everyone in the group uses it, and we all agree that it is important to our social lives, but we also feel that face-to-face interactions are important to maintaining a normal social life. Without these, one loses the ability to communicate normally. It takes far more work to hold a conversation with someone who is in your presence than it takes to hold a conversation with someone on the other side of a computer screen.

     Our next major topic was cell phones. Cell phones are important because they make us far more mobile creatures. Without the cell phone all plans for social events must be made prior to actually starting the social event. The cell phone gives us the ability to change our plans and quickly alert others to the change in plans. They are also valuable in case of an emergency. If one of us in an emergency situation, or someone we know is in an emergency situation than the cell phone provides direct access to us or to the person we need to contact. But cell phones also eliminate much privacy. Before the cell phone it was easy to escape for a while and have some quiet time, but with the cell phone quiet time is never guaranteed. Everyone in our group seems to agree on the fact that occasionally you need to get off the phone and enjoy the solitude.

     Our final major topic was video games, in which some had stronger opinions than others. One of us seems to hate them, but most of the rest of the group has mixed feelings about them. We believe that they are fun, and can be a relaxing social activity, but that many people let these games dominate their lives. They become addicted and never leave their systems or their rooms. These people are destroying their social lives.

     As a whole, don’t let these social technologies overcome your life. They may be fun, or they may be addicting, but they can damage your social skills and your life. So learn to moderate.

     As this is my final individual post I would like to wrap up what I have written about. The first topic I posted about was instant messenger. The views I have about instant messenger are for the most part positive. I have many high school friends who went to college out-of-state and in order to stay in contact with them I use instant messenger. It is also useful for carrying on multiple conversations at once and for casual small-talk. It is also handy when I need to tell somebody one thing and don’t want to go through the trouble of calling or emailing him or her. But I still hold actual conversations with people. In my dorm I have the option of just talking to my fellow dorm mates on instant messenger but I still choose to walk down the hall and actually talk to them. It makes for a far more personal relationship than just instant messaging allows.

     When I discussed cell phones I mentioned the positive aspects as well as the negative. Cell phones give us the ability to come in contact with people far more easily. This is both a positive and a negative. If I want to be contacted it is very nice, but if I’m not in the mood to be social this can be detrimental. Cell phones do not leave much room for privacy.

     On the topic of video games I feel that they aren’t harmful to my social life. I don’t play them that often, and when I do it is usually with a group of friends. I try to keep my level of playing to a minimum. Usually I play when there is nothing better to do. And when it gets late I go out with friends. But there are many people in my dorm and others that do nothing besides play video games. They sit in their rooms and don’t come out to meet people. I think their social lives could be greatly improved if they tore themselves away from their gaming systems for a few hours each week.

     These were the three main topics of our blog and a summary of the views I took. It’s a shame that this is over. I actually enjoyed this homework assignment and that doesn’t happen often. I hope in the future I can have similar projects. So this is my goodbye, I hope you enjoyed our blog.

Well, how do you wrap up something that is going so well? Oh, I can tell you, you don’t! It has been so entertaining determining how technology has completely changed social relationships, as we know them. The cell phone, instant messaging, video games, and so much more have changed life, as we know it. Plans change on the instant and people can contact you whenever they want. As the technological world advances, it is going to be hard to find time to simply be alone, and that scares the shit out of me! As for the relationship between boy and girl, it is going to evolve with time and that is ok with me, as long as the boy still has to put in some effort to chase the girl.

The Tech guy to girl ratio affects females as much as it affects males. By not having as many females on campus, it is hard for the females to meet and make great girl friends. In high school, I had a lot of best girl friends. Five to be exact. We did anything and everything together. We rarely went anywhere alone. Since I went to college, I have found a way to make new great girl friends. I made the decision before I left home that I would “rush” a sorority. When you rush, you do not have to join. It is a week where you get to try out all of the sororities and see if any of them fit your personal interests. I was doubtful at first that one of the 6 total sororities would be right for me. But after I stepped in the doors of my sorority, I knew it was the place for me. It has allowed me to become friends with over 100 other girls. We play intramurals together, do philanthropy together, and just have tons of fun hanging out at the house. Some people would say that if you join a sorority, you are buying your friends. I would disagree and say that the money you pay is only helping to keep up a house that you will use to make quality life long memories in.

Now for the part of this blog that deals with technology. Sororities use tons of technology to communicate to one another. I receive around an average of seven emails a day from sisters informing me of great opportunities on campus or of a sale at the mall. We also use the internet to set up a calendar that all the sisters can view in order to see upcoming activities. Technology has also affected the security at the house. Each sister must now enter a pass code in order to be able to open the doors at the house. Sisters no longer have to keep up with keys. Which in turn, makes life that much easier. So, technology has had a positive affect on sorority life. It has helped us become more organized and more informed.

     The other day our group held a meeting to discuss our group blog. We decided that we needed to cover a few more topics. One of the topics we agreed needed to be discussed was drinking. It doesn’t have too much relation to technology, but it is definitely an important aspect to the Tech social life. If I remember correctly from FASET a majority of people at Tech drink. I don’t remember the exact number, but it didn’t really surprise me. Before I came to Tech I never drank. But when I came here I decided to see what it was like because it seemed to be the favorite thing to do on the weekends for Tech students. So I went drinking with some people in my dorm and to be perfectly honest I enjoyed it. And I actually remembered everything the next morning and had no hangover. I think it is a fun social activity as long as you are reasonable. But there are some people who can’t seem to control themselves when they start drinking and that’s when it gets dangerous. If you drink until you throw up, you are drinking too much. If you get a hangover every time you drink and can’t remember what you did, you are drinking too much. My only hope for these people is that they have good friends. Friends should realize if someone is taking it too far and try to help them. If you don’t have people looking after you while you drink, then you are asking for trouble. Alcoholism is a problem at Tech, and many people can’t control themselves and end up at that fate.

     Since I have been at Tech I have played a fair amount of video games. In my dorm room we have a PlayStation 2 and a Nintendo 64. I enjoy playing video games, I think they are fun. I also don’t think that video games really hurt my social life, and I also don’t think that I am “odd”. When I play video games it is never alone. I am a social gamer. I play games with my roommate or other people in my dorm, many times other girls. I also don’t let it dominate my life. I play when there is nothing else to do. Usually early in the day on weekends, because my nights always start late, and during the week when I have no homework but other people are working. But I can see how many people would have bad views of video games. There are some people, not many, in my dorm that never leave their rooms. They just sit at their computer playing computer games. I don’t think this is healthy, but it is also not the majority, at least where I live.

If you were to randomly approach any girl on campus and ask her what the word is on the tech guy, you would almost be certain to hear the quote “ The odds are GOOD but the goods are ODD.” I think that there is almost a 7:3 guy to girl ratio here at Georgia Tech. When I hear guys complaining that there aren’t enough girls on campus, I want to scream. It is almost just as hard to find guys on campus because of their love for video games. Guys and some girls spend hours playing video games instead of socializing or studying. It has become a rather large issue at tech. I think that is why they started the Freshmen Experience program. The faculty hoped that the peer leaders would be able to help some people socialize more instead of vegetating in front of a television or their computer.

I do not have a problem with people playing video games, but I do think that they should only play for a reasonable amount of time. I will agree with Dave that if they play for too long and do nothing else then they will begin to STINK and that is the biggest turn off for a girl ever!!!

Newsgroups are a way that a lot of groups and organizations at Tech choose to communicate. It is an effective form of communication among these groups because it is an easy way of sending a message to everyone involved in the group. If you need to arrange a meeting or an activity, a newsgroup is the way to do it. By sending one email you alert everyone in your club. But newsgroups have their limitations. In a small group they work very well, because only a few messages are sent out, and they are usually relevant. But once the group gets larger the newsgroup fills up with more messages and it becomes overbearing. Many of the messages aren’t important, and the important ones are often hard to locate in the sea of useless ones. Newsgroups can also be used as a form of group conversation. My dorm is setting up a Yahoo newsgroup. It really has no purpose other than what we make of it. There are also some Frats and Sororities on campus that use newsgroups in this way. They are a useful form of communication, and they affect social life at Tech, but they become kind of overwhelming when too many people join.