Last minute decision

With the elections coming up more and more people are in a last minute search for information on which the best candidate for the presidency is. It is quite possible for many to stumble upon information provided by blogs or other sources that seem more credible that have a hidden biased. These are just some of the simple ways that computer mediated communication has affect our most important political decisions.

One of the best examples of some of the good being done comes from the way in which our representatives are leading the way. Instead of sending letters or trying to meet with the representatives, the citizens can simply email their concerns to the corresponding government officials. True the representatives are unlikely to read every concern they receive, but chances are they have a staff that is responsible for directing them to the most important of issues.

Some of the major downfalls though come from the same basis. People are more likely to try and spread there opinion based on the ease at which they can do it. People can use blogs, podcast, or even personal emails. It is not too much work to accrue a long list of email addresses and simply press send after jotting down ones political beliefs. On the same time they could be using the same methods for good and simply encouraging others to vote. Not all people need to try and press there thoughts onto others. Most people though do wander onto things with intent to find things that they either previously agree with or can comment on and try to stir up farther emotion and create a war of words.

So in the end it is quite possible to use computer mediated communication to help gain support for one side of a political election while at the same time having other push those same supporters away. Which in the end creates more of a mass of confusion, for those who have not taken the time to do their research prior to the election?

Small Rant Session

This is more of a rant and rave as well as a period of questioning. I was faced with a mild dilemma this past week after receiving an email from my grandmother. Knowing all to well we have all dealt with a similar situation and also just can not stand it. What am I talking about, chain emails, surveys, and whatever else may pop up in our in box.

I have found there to be two basic types the first is the informational. These ones specialize in appealing to our emotions and trying to get us to make as many changes to our lives as possible. The latest was a one sharing the prominence of a new street drug that is harming local children. The interesting part is that there are never any actual areas mentioned and more often than not you can not find any news stories related to it. They claim it appears as pop rocks and tastes exactly the same minus the effects that occur afterword. It’s also sort of interesting to me that it is occurring around Halloween much like the old stories of kids dying from razor blades in apples that they received as treats. So instead of spreading the story via word of mouth like the old ones, they are using their email lists.

The next type is those that call for political change of some sort. Whether it is to change something that has been done or it has to due with getting some more coverage under a media spotlight to expose the corrupt politicians. More often that not they are something that we can agree with, it is just hard to find the time to forward the information. It becomes even harder to decide to bother our friends and risk how they will feel based on our decision to foreword these things.

The major thing for all of these is that it is so evident how many people could be reached by simply having each person sending it to 2 other people. The possibilities are so great that it is nearly impossible to fathom so many connections. The only thing that is potentially equal in sheer size to the potential is having everyone on face book join one single group, oh wait they did its called face book.

To put it bluntly I am tired of the inbox being full of useless things that do not mean anything to me because if I was truly interested I would I would go and find the information on my own through news web sights that are relevant to me. Why can't peopel simple send you an interesting like that they found that way you can see for yourself it the infromation even holds any possible truth.

The Distortonist

With the presidential election running up behind us all, I thought it was important to show how much of a role the Computer world affects our entire nation. The first most obvious things are all the resources that are available. Some of these things include the politician’s standings on issues, blogs on what others are following, media perceptions of what is seen, and simply having the capability to register to vote.


The biggest step is the registration process that can all be done from home. It has had a major increase in the number of registered voters. My only hope would be that there could be an online voting system, we could quite possibly have 100% voter turnout, other than those that truly are unable to get to a computer or a voting booth.


Also with all of the distorted pictures we get from the politicians as they debate one another rather than the issues only serves to confuse potential voters. This confusion only gets worse when viewers watch news reports or try to gather information on the internet from news sites. The media too has their own biased opinions. The only ways to get around these things are to simply look at candidates past records, which the internet serves to speed up the process a little bit by making it, take days to learn a lot rather than years of following a candidates entire career. One good site to follow candidates past records on specific issues that may be important to a voter is Vote Smart. Which puts all the information in one place?


Therefore I feel one of the most important issues that faces us today is making a decision on who to vote for. It is almost impossible to trust our own opinions, so we need to use what is available to us to find as much good and unbiased information as we can.