Class Reflection

Well, this semester and year has finally come to an end. Although, I do not know if using the word finally is appropriate considering this year flew by. This class, Electronic Communications, really opened my eyes up to my own habits of CMC. I did not realize that so many of the technologies that I use have become invisible technologies. Until this class I did not even know what invisible technologies were. I can definitely say that I used to take for granted many of the technologies that I use each and ever day. I still think that I take them for granted here and there, but definitely not as much as I used to, thanks to this class. I also learned what anonymity was and how often I’ve used it and have seen others use it through CMC. This class has made me more aware of several ideas and thoughts pertaining to CMC. When I watch T.V or movies, I am constantly picking out things and relating them to the ideas that I’ve learned in class.

There were some things that I learned that just shocked me. I had no idea that there was such a thing as a digital divide. I am so culturally challenged and sheltered in the United States, that I did not know so many people are without the use of technology. I was also unaware of the inequalities that took place online. It’s normal to hear about the inequalities of every day offline life, but I had never heard of inequalities of every day online life. It goes to show just how much CMC is becoming more like FtF communication and interaction.

Because of this class, I have made some changes to the way I communicate using technology. I try to use technology less. I no longer IM my friend who lives right down the hall or downstairs from me. I also have tried to use fewer acronyms in my communication. I try not to confront people through IM because I do not believe that is the right way to go about a problem. Now that I know more about aggression and online flaming, I feel that talking to a person FtF to solve an issue or problem is a better choice than confronting a person online. Other than those few changes, I have not really changed anything else about the way I use technology. I, of course, still text message constantly and talk to my friends and family from home through e-mail and IM.

I feel that I am definitely more knowledgeable on the subject of CMC. Because I am a communications major, I definitely feel that CMC will be a big part of my future career. Whether it is me informing people on the subject of CMC, or using CMC, I feel that I will be prepared to use CMC in an appropriate manner. Technology is only going to continue to advance, so I believe many people will continue to use or start to use CMC more often in the workplace. I would like to get into a career dealing with radio. I feel that with radio I will be using blogs and other social networks in order to promote the station and keep the public up-to-date with current events the radio station is doing. I feel that CMC is already a big part of my life, and the use of it will only continue to grow, especially through a career.

I think I learned a lot through this course. It is definitely my favorite course that I’ve taken so far in my college career. I learned several terms and ideas that I did not even know existed. I was able to take what I learned about CMC and apply it to my life and the way I communicated using CMC. As I said at the beginning of this post, this class definitely opened up my eyes to many things regarding CMC and technology. The course was a lot different than what I expected. I thought that it was going to be boring and a lot of reading and writing. I had no idea that there would be so much computer interaction. I liked the idea of setting up a blog and posting thoughts about the class. It was nice to read what others thought as well. I also really liked that the class had a website because it was easy to log on and see what the HW was and when it was going to be due. My favorite thing about the class was that many of the things we did, we were able to do on our own time. I liked that we had a week or a couple of days until something was due rather than it be due for the next class period. To conclude, this class was a great learning experience, and I would definitely recommend it to someone else.