Sunrises and Sea Turtles

This weekend was nothing short of great times with great people. I can't express enough how thankful I am to have made the friends I've made, and how we can share so much with each other after only knowing each other for a few months. My friends are so passionate about what they want to do in life--it honestly made me second guess my future. I'm just going to have to embrace the fact that I'm not sure what I want to do and just continue to explore the world and learn more about myself.

Me hiking the Noosa National Park

We went to Noosa, which is on the Sunshine Coast, a little north of the Gold Coast. The hostel was absolutely adorable--bright pink with painted designs on the doors, hammocks to relax in, Buddha statues everywhere and dragons on the walls, incense being burned--our own little hippie home. Noosa was a very different place than we were used to...lots of elderly folks...in fact, I commented on the fact that I'd never seen such a large concentration of older people in one place in my life. However, it was a nice change being in a calm peaceful place. Upon exploring the shops in town we realized that there was a jazz festival going on which was a nice surprise. I kept thinking about how great the lifestyle is here--no one is stressed out, working ridiculous hours and missing out on family time--the mindset here is "it will get done when it gets done, lets go have fun".

The girls and a boy we met at the hostel

That night, Gracie and I went to the beach to look at the stars and so she could take star trails, which in the world of photography means leaving the shutter open for a long amount of time so that as the Earth rotates it leaves a trail of light from the stars in the photo (I think). The pictures turned out AWESOME.

And, of course, we also had conversations about life.

Sunrise at Noosa

We decided that we should continue the tradition from Byron Bay of getting up to see the sunrise at each new place we go. It doesn't get old--this sunrise was absolutely gorgeous, pink clouds swirling in the sky and reflecting on the water to make it look like we were sitting inside a painting. After the sunrise, we went on to hike the national park. Hiking here is amazing because the lookouts are something I've never experienced before: stunningly blue oceans and..get this..DOLPHINS AND SEA TURTLES! Yes, we saw them and it was incredible. We continued on through the national park and found our own little private beach to take a quick nap on. Can't believe I can say I laid on my own private beach...in Australia.

When we got to the end of the national park, we ended up back downtown, and went to lunch at a place called Hogs Breath, where live music was playing. I had a delicious salad with chunks of pumpkin (they really like they're pumpkin here), almonds, cucumbers, tomatoes, and Australian feta cheese. A great end to the day was going out for drinks with all the girls, talking about our highlights of the day and having a lot of laughs.

Hells Gates

We decided to get up for the sunrise again..and it seemed like a great idea at the time because the previous day we felt so active and were able to fit so much into the day and didn't understand why we don't get up this early every day...but we really hit a wall. Don't get me wrong, it was just as gorgeous as before, except this time afterwards we all went back and passed out and you couldn't get us to wake up if the world was ending. Once we were able to peel ourselves out of our beds, we headed over to the beach again to explore the caves. This was SO COOL. After basically scaling a mountain, we were greeted by the view of a huge cave with tide pools of crystal clear water that we could swim in and jump into. Probably the most fun part was deciding to let Gracie take Victoria's Secret-eqsue model pictures (yep that happened).

These weekend trips just keep getting better and better! This weekend we are going to Brisbane for a festival, stay tuned!

Cheers!

Technology and Politics

One of our new communication technologies readings for this week was a blog post from Brian Whitman, the co-founder and CTO of The Echo Nest, which is "a music data company in Somerville, MA that powers most music experiences you have on the internet today."It was about how they analyzed what types of music people listen to, and how it correlates with what political party they identify with. It said that people who listen to musicians like Kenny Chesney or Blake Shelton generally swing to the right, while people who listen to musicians like Rhianna and Maroon 5 swing to the left. I generally use 8tracks and listen to playlists with the tags "chill, indie, and study" and get very indie, calming music. I'm guessing that would swing more to the left, which makes sense for me. However, I think both people's music tastes and political preferences vary way too much to make such a generalization, but hey it's still fun.


We also discussed the current global debate of censorship on the Internet by the government. It is a debate because it potentially violates basic human rights. When I searched the topic online, the USA Internet Society website came up. One of their issues I found particularly interesting was the idea of intellectual property. In our lecture, one of the powerpoint slides said "If property is theft, than intellectual property means they're stealing your mind". This was an eye opener for me. The Internet Society says,  "The question of new technology also raises intellectual property issues: domain names are often inextricably linked with trademark issues; and the ease with which digital technologies allow for copying and distribution challenges copyright law enforcement. The outcomes of these debates may have serious implications on your ability to access and use the Internet unmonitored". It is unfortunate that the malpractice of technology of others could affect everyone the use of the Internet for everyone else.  

I don't really understand why there needs to be information on the Internet about how to make a bomb and things like that, so to that point I agree there should be some regulation on what can be posted on the Internet. There are too many crazy people in the world who have access to a tremendous amount of knowledge on dangerous things. However, I believe innovation, creativity, and economic opportunity should always be preserved on the Internet, and that is exactly what the Internet Society fights for as well.

USA Internet Society 2013, Internet Society. Available from <http://www.internetsociety.org/>. [28 August 2013].

Where do I know you from? Oh, Facebook.

This week in my new communication technologies class we focused on social media and how it plays into our daily lives. It's safe for me to say I'm very connected to social media--I have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and this blog. Many of these things have very practical uses for me. Over the summer, I used all of these platforms except for Pinterest to advertise a garage sale I was having in order to raise money for my trip abroad. I used Facebook to share advertisements of the garage sale I posted in a local online newspaper, I used Twitter to keep people updated about things I am selling and when it is, and I used Instagram to take pictures of the things I was selling and keep people interested.

Another way Facebook has proved itself extremely useful is that my town at home has a group on Facebook called "Long Valley Virtual Yard Sale", where people who live in town can post pictures of things they are trying to sell, including the price and details, and people can comment and say they want it and they arrange a time to meet and there you go! Basically an ebay but just for our town. I was able to sell an air hockey table, a David Winter collection, and many other things! And I got to meet some new people as well, people who I never would have met even though they live right in my town.

In one of this week's readings, 'Studying Internet Studies through the Ages' by Barry Wellman, I found it interesting that John Perry Barlow believed the Internet would bring a utopia of widespread global communication and democracy, whereas Hightower believed the use of the Internet would wipe out in-person contact, and neither of these things quite came to be. The Internet has definitely made the world seem a lot smaller--I am studying abroad in Australia but thanks to Facebook I know exactly what my friends and family are up to at home and can communicate regularly with them. And while it is true that if I need to ask someone a question who might just be up a couple flights of stairs in the next apartment, I will text them rather than walking all the way up there and asking them in person, I still know how to communicate in person. In fact, that is why I became a communications major--because I am fascinated by the way people communicate face to face and all the subtleties that go into a conversation.

In our other reading, "Internet giants can earn with ease, it's the churn they must fear" by Sheehan Paul, it discussed that Facebook is on the road to extinction--basically the same thing will happen to Facebook that has happened to every other social media before it--it can't keep up with the new generation and it dies out. As of right now I can't really picture a world without Facebook, I'm not really sure what will come next.

I came across a very interesting article on the New York Times website called "Nice to Meet You...Again" by Henry Alford, which discussed the idea that sometimes you can spend so much time on the Internet "Facebook-stalking" or looking around on Internet dating websites, that when you actually see these people in person you can't remember what you know about them from online and what you would know if you hadn't looked at their profile's online at all, and the embarrassing moments this can cause. This hit home for me because I have TERRIBLE facial recognition, and can't remember names...I will get a friend request on Facebook and think I've never seen the person before in my life until I realize the next day in class that I have been working on a project with them for the past week. Oops. Anyway, social media definitely has its negatives and positives. It all changes so quickly that it is hard to keep up with what the negatives and positives are.

Alford, Henry 2013, 'Nice to Meet You...Again', The New York Times, New York, viewed August 26, 2013 <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/fashion/nice-to-meet-you-again.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0>.

Click here to take my survey, "The Impact of Social Media on the Mental Health of Young People"