Marriage and Parenting from the 60's to Present Day

Social Networking

Social networking in one form or another has been a big part of our generation. Someone is class mentioned AIM and it made me think of what a big deal it is when I got my screen name. It was almost like a badge of authenticity that you were accepted into your peers group. Then in college I fought off the facebook trend as much as possible because I wanted to be part of the counter-culture that valued face to face or at least phone contact more than the impersonal internet way of communicating. But I finally caved and joined the masses in creating a profile. I must admit that there are a lot of perks to having some of your basic information in a social network like this. If you meet someone you can look at their info to see if there is any interest there, as well as photos to get a better look at them in different situations. But after that it can get kind of creepy, like stalking people who you do not really know otherwise. I have two younger brothers who in the past year or so have joined facebook and I was shocked at some of the stuff they were saying on their profiles and statuses. I kind of had to coach them by telling them how everyone in the world can see the stuff they wrote down. I did not want to see people think badly of them, but they also carry my name which I do not want besmirched. I think it will be interesting to see how this kind of social networking evolves over time.

Greg Beresford

Blogs...Truth or Fiction

Talking about blogs in class really got my attention. I have never really followed a blog or participated in one until this semester. I follow postsecrets.com but that has a person who chooses what goes on there and since they are secrets that have no effect on me or what is going on in the world, I never had to think about whether they were true or not. Baghdad Burning was something that I thought was very interesting. There was a discussion in class about whether it matters whether it is true or not. I would fall under the side that said it does matter. I think this because in a blog of this nature you really have you are taking important world events and forming opinions. Yes I understand that blogs are subjective and they are what one person thinks about a particular issue. But if someone is fabricating lies, then I do not understand the difference between that and the media not telling the whole truth. It seems you cannot really trust any source of information. But at least the media is less opinionated and is held somewhat accountable for covering the truth.

Greg Beresford