What to like and what not to like

There were a few things I really like about taking this course that were different from other online courses I have taken in the past. The first thing is that I never got to do a blog in any other of my online classes. It felt kind of cool to have your own website that you could put your ideas on and that wa nice. The other thing I liked is being able to view other people's ideas on their blog. This was fun because you got to see a wide range of opinions on one subject. This creates a unique learning experience. Now to the things that could use some work.
I felt liek a lot of the assignments were very repetitive. All of the projects we had to do were about concept application. After doing a couple of the papers I felt like I had to try really hard not to repeat information i had in another assignment. Grading the journals was also something nthat didn't really fit for me. While it is interesting to grade the journals as we are sort of switching roles form student to professor, this is something that got fairly repetitive as well and really didn't feel like it enhanced my learning experience.

Cool Mediums

Cool medium is one concept that I don't really think I grasped in the course. The discussion about how television is a "cool" medium because it gives you so much information at once compared to like a newspaper or the radio, i guess confuses me. Is it because it stimulates more than one sense at once. I mean I don't get it.

Collectivism vs.Individualism

My favorite discussion in this course was probably individualism vs collectivism. It is a part of everyday life that here in America we are indivisualistic in the way we think and act. The media portrays a sense of individuality and it is looked upon in the community as well. Everybody wants to be their own person, but at the same time people get put into group listings and get put under categories. It would be crazy to think of a culture where individualism wasn't looked at as a primary way of viewing yourself and the world around you.
Collectivism is prcaticed in many Asian cultures and really focuses on the importance of the group primarily. This is something different to look at because this is simething we're not used to here in American culure. It would certainly be interesting to see more of a emphasis on the group here. There would be a backlash against that here because you always have people that argue against so called "socialist" views. Overall this is the concept in the course that has interested me most this semester.

Obstinate Audience

I think it is funny how far research has come over the past fifty or so years. The mention of the idea of the passive audience is interesting to look at. People just going about their lives passively consuming what they see without any sort of opinion. These activities are viewed only as ways to be mindless and get away from the perrils of everyday life. It was actually progressive thinking in that time to think that an audience forms an opinion about the forms of media they consume.
The idea of an obstinate audience is something that seems like it would be common sense. The idea that consumers have an opinion and make decisions that dictate the media that they are exposed to follows the idea of human thought. What person wouldn't think about what movie they are going to go see or what type of music they are going to listen to. While this idea lost popularity over time and was thought by theorists to be incomplete, it does show a step in the right direction. This is just a small example of how much communication theory has evolved over time.

Cool Mediums

I agree with McLuhan that the format of a medium determines the content of the message. In order to have the television be successful you start with the television. The format would be a screen that you stare at. In order to have that screen capture interest, you have to have content that is interesting. In this way format determines what kind of content you have to have. The format of the TV also allows for a lot of content to be accessed, that may not be able to be accessed through another medium. While i agree with the fact that the format determines that content of the message, i do not know if I agree with the idea of television being a "cool" medium.
The fact that the radio was suggested as a hot medium as compared to TV's cool distinction doesn't make sense to me. While TV may stimulate more senses in being able to see and listen at the same time, the content can be just as differentiated in commercial play. Outside of commercials, TV shows are mostly based on one topic. This is the same as radio. I don't really understand the standing as TV being a cool medium.

Online Relationships

While I communicate online on social networking sites, I don't really spend that much time communicating on the internet as a whole. I prefer face to face communication and usually have too busy of a schedule to spend time online. I have never had a friendship that was exclusively online. I never got addicted to the computer lifestyle like many of my friends did with the online games and chatrooms. I think this is because online communication is very limited.
In a regular old style relationship, you see a person in a face to face contact and hear their voice on the phone. In a online relationship, you never see or hear the person if it is only text based. Of course there are ways where you can communicate over video chat and things. I just feel like you have to make more of a connection with a person than just communicating through an online medium. I don't feel like I spend enough time online to maintain a relationship with a person with that being the only medium

Feedback

Feedback is something that comes with age and is learned over time. When you are younger and people criticize you, you tend to take it more personally. People are scared to criticize you to your face and sometimes do it behind your back which may cause conflict if it comes back around. This has to do with owning your own message. You need to say what you think in a polite way and not put it on other people. People often apologize for their own feeling which also doesn't really make sense. You feel the way you feel for a reason and you shouldn't have to feel sorry for it.
Another part that stood out in this part of the textbook was the evaluating or interpreting your partner. This is a case in my relationship. Often times my girlfriend will ask me "what's the matter?" I won't feel upset maybe just tired. If this questioning continues I might get annoyed and then really get upset.