Throughout the first week of camp, the campers including myself set up all of our media outlets including, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Hippie Hosting, Word press, and others. I have slowly started to explore these different media web sites. I posted my first YouTube video about a family legend, which is my father.

I watched a video about Dr. Michael Wesch, an Anthropologist professor at Kansas University. His questions and research involved why students have trouble learning in class and if more people were driven by questions what would the world be like. More questions that he thought about while spending time in New Guiney is who am I? How will I get recognition from it? People only feel the need to know who they are if they are in a society in which they are familiar with. He came to realize that there is a new type of media. An identity is not about yourself but about the people around you, who actually know and care for you. The media can mediate relationships, especially with new outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.

Also discussed was Global Collaboration. People share things over the Internet sometimes with out even knowing one another. For example music and pictures are often used in peoples films, advertisements or short clips. Wesch believes that students learn exactly what they do outside of the classroom. He thinks that social media can be a positive and negative influence among students. It creates community and surveillance, isolation and participation, a better democracy and distraction for all students.

I’ve already had somewhat of an understanding of social media and how it alters relationships and builds them, but after this week I have learned so much more. I am excited to see what is to come in the following weeks!