In "How Twitter will change the way we live",  the article discusses the general use of Twitter, as well as its progression over the years. Twitter has grown significantly, but not solely due to its own accord. The growth stems from everyday users, and outside companies, creating extension programs and systems that alter the original intended use.  One of the rhetorical strategies the author uses in this article is analogy. He demonstrates the relationship between the growth of Twitter and its users’ influence. Through these changes, Twitter has proven to be an extremely useful tool for both personal and business use. Due to the fact that information is now readily available in “super fresh” web speeds, communities can be brought together in a crisis instantly. People can track the swine flu, catch the latest information on uprisings in Iran, discuss exciting sports moves, and find out about their favorite celebrity’s night instantaneously. This immediate feedback and connection will forever change us as a culture. Websites are short lived in relation to technology, so Twitter will, most likely, cease to exist one day. The bottom line, however, is that its benefits will forever be an integrated and expected part of our society. It has forever changed

In "Twitter as Newspeak," it discusses how  Twitter has made its way into mainstream media.The first topic is about how twitter has become a new form of communication and how twitter has influenced the way kids think and spell. The next section is about how the overall meaning of words has changed to the literal state and that is all. The last section in the article Twitter as Newspeak is about how abbreviating things makes the overall meaning of the comment less emotional and meaningful. It uses the examples of Fox News and CNN incorporating Twitter into their programming to show how Twitter’s short-hand is now being used in traditional forms of media as a second-screen that allows an audience to interact. It concludes that this is because Twitter is technology driven, and that its restriction of only 140 characters is aimed at gathering the largest audience possible. This article can be used to argue the impact Twitter has had on journalism and how mainstream news outlets are now accommodating and integrating a new media platform into their old platform.

in "from activism to Slacktivism", slacktivismis the ideal type of activism for a lazy generation. Given the media's fixation on all things digital,  from blogging to social networking to Twitter, just about every click of your mouse is almost guaranteed to receive immediate media attention, as long as it's geared towards the noble causes. That media attention doesn't always translate into campaign effectiveness is only of secondary importance.she goes on to explain that in order to not become a slacktivist you must have the opponent prove their worth, create diverse tasks, and using the most amount of required effort needed when our knowledge is put to the test.

In "tweets from iran", it shows two tweets from the Iranian election and its constant status updates that went along with the correct time frame the tweets were written from. The underlying message is that twitter has become an overnight sensation that everyone is suing, even in politics, in order to get their voices out there and heard. It also shows how twitter has become a world-wide sensation and is even used in iran where they may not be as fortunate as everyone else.

In “Social Media and Young Adults”, the Pew Internet and American Life Project conducted studies examining the impact of the Internet on 21st century culture including families, education, and civic life. It explains that blogging as a whole has remained steady, but now younger adults aren’t blogging as much as older adults are. Next it goes into the statistics of social networking sites, where it claims Facebook as the most used one, followed by Myspace and LinkedIn. Young adults lead the way in social networking sites with an average rate of 72% of the population, along with the use of Twitter, which is one-third of the 18-29 year old population. It explains how the laptop has now exceedingly replaced the desktop, and shows that 81% of young adults are wireless internet users.  A quarter of all adults go online. Cell phone usage has extremely high ratings, claiming that 93% of adults ages 18-29 now have a cell phone, along with a shocking statistic that 58% of all 12 year olds now own a cell phone. Lastly, the statistics show the highest percentage of people using the internet for current events and politics, followed by online shopping, and last but not least followed by health, dieting, and fitness information, which shows the diminishing amount of exercise America probably have since the internet and technology in the 21st century has brought about.

In “Social Network Site Taste Test: Myspace or Facebook?” gives examples of people’s opinions regarding the setup of both social networking sites, along with which groups prefer which, and an overall focus on the fact that social networking sites allow people to express their individuality. The younger kids define Myspace as “cool”, while the older set of kids claim Facebook is the most popular used social networking site. Myspace allows the use of profile personalization, where they can add colors, interesting texts, song choices that relate to their profiles, creative pictures, and overall account for a vast amount of self-expression. Where Facebook users claim that Facebook is simple, neat, and clean, just the way they like it. It seems like Myspace users don’t like Facebook’s “Neatness”, and Facebook users, don’t agree with Myspace’s “Clutter-filled customization”. It related to the individual’s style, values, and preferences. Someone who uses Myspace has the ability to “bling” out their whole profile, using foul-language songs and has paraphernalia all over their page. Whereas Facebook users can go for the clean-cut, typed, neat and organized, business looks of their choice.  The choice of some of these cultural signals may not be as appealing to others , but often these sites rely mainly on the individuals social setting, race, and class, and this is the main reason why people choose the preference of Myspace or Facebook. 

This essay, “I’m so Totally, Digitally Close to You”, is talking mainly about the influence of Facebook and Twitter on people, and how these two social networking dominate the entire thinking of them. What makes Facebook and Twitter very special to people, either youths or adults, is their ability to keep them updated with all what is going on with their friends. Sometimes, some of our Facebook friends keep updating their status about every single detail and action they do during the day, such as “eating”, “studying”, and  “nothing to do!”,  and I think that this is the summit of absurdity. What I really like about the new Facebook is the privacy options that were added recently, so every user can limit the access of his\her friends to his\her personal profile. It talks about how Facebook is becoming the Big Brother of the Internet, recording every single move, which I’m not sure I agree with, because Facebook is just a way to publish what we want to publish, and it does not record our actions automatically, but us who control our own recordings. At the beginning, people used to underestimate the value of Facebook and Twitter, and they used to think that it is not their business if someone starts a new relationship or break up with his\her partner; for instance. But after a while, people found themselves access their accounts unconsciously to check up their friends’ news and see what is going on with the others. I think that the importance of Facebook and Twitter lies in making people able to contact their old friends and be acquainted with new friends; in additions, some of them could find good job opportunities through Facebook. On the other hand, the disadvantages of Facebook and Twitter are their huge role in consuming and wasting the time of many students. Furthermore, the fact that all what we post on Facebook and all our uploaded pictures are saved in the Facebook server is somehow disturbing and worrying, even if we delete them from our accounts. This reading bring a sense of accuracy and likeableness  to me because of the way it is written, and the real facts that are reported in it according to how people use Facebook and Twitter, along with how using these two social networking affect peoples’ social life, and where technology can someday lead us. 

In, “Myspace Outage Leaves Millions Friendless”, Discusses how Myspace had a system failure leaving 150 million people unable to log on to their profiles or website. It shut down on a Friday where some people took the loss of connection as extreme, and some took it as a solution that will simply work itself out, but most of the people suffering from the loss of Myspace, have taken it personally. People are claiming that they feel alone because they aren’t in contact with their thousand friends, some are devastated that they will have to spend a large amount of time getting all their friends back, some spend so much time on Myspace that they don’t know how to entertain themselves otherwise, and some feel as if they lost their whole sense of self simply because their profiles aren’t visible. People began freaking out knowing that they can’t message their friends, send links and pictures, or simply check the news feed, as if they relied on Myspace to control what happens in their daily lives.  Even a smaller knock off Myspace site was invented during the outage so that constant users wouldn’t feel so lost without the ability to use Myspace. This really shows how crazy people are about social networking and how that craze can become somewhat dangerous to humans and society around the world. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8

This YouTube video, “I Forgot My Iphone”, follows an average girl throughout her day and exposes some of the annoyances technology or for this example; phones can bring when in a social setting. This video in my opinion is very accurate according to the way society is constantly on their phone and not paying attention to the world that surrounds them; even though most of us don’t like to admit it. The video is sending a strong message of how technology, mainly cellphones, has taken away the value of spending quality time with people and engaging in meaningful social interactions. When the girl wakes up and falls asleep with her boyfriend while he is on his phone, shows the lack of quality time that should be spent between the two of them, but is not happening because technology is getting in the way. Falling asleep and waking up with someone should be something that we embrace, not something that we take for granted. When she is out running in the wilderness while her partner is on his phone, it is showing the way society can’t even enjoy the beauty that nature brings, and would rather spend time talking on the phone or be occupied with something more satisfying. We all have done this at one point; talking in a group of friends and are multitasking between engaging in conversation and checking updates on social networking sites or texting other friends that aren’t presently face-to-face. The girls’ facial expression shows that she is a little hurt by the fact that her friends find their phones more important than what she is saying because she started laughing when nobody else caught on. She then watches a couple take pictures of them kissing, which is meant to show how couples can’t even show a simple act of love without having to keep a documented picture of it, or post it to their news feed.  There is a young girl who should be enjoying her youth and swinging on the swing set, but is already getting swallowed by the desire to use technology. This can also point out how young our society is starting out in the world of technology, taking away from their childhood and memories that truly matter. 

Next she is with her friend who is very rudely snapping selfies of herself while she is talking.  This is showing how cell phones are beginning to interfere with social interactions and take away the enjoyment of spending time with someone. In this case, it proves how horrible of a friend she is because the girl talking doesn’t even get included in the picture, so they can’t share any connection at all during their interaction. Afterwards she is in some sort of lecture or classroom setting where she is being distracted by the classmate laughing and filming the instructor, something that exposes how cell phones could be a distraction in class; although this is an extreme example. (We are all a little smarter than that right?) Then she at a bowling alley with a group of friends where she goes up to bowl and is so excited about her turn, yet she turns around to find out that nobody was watching or supporting her, let alone engaged in the activity whatsoever. Next she is at a concert where the two people in front of her are filming it, causing her to not be able to see what’s happening. This addresses the issue of not being able to fully enjoy something without having to keep track of it, send it to friends, or update everyone on what he or she is doing tonight. The second to last part shows the girl singing happy birthday to her friend while holding the cake and completely engaged in what is going on, while the person being sung to is too busy taking pictures with the people sitting on the couch, and everyone else in the room is also on their phones, which shows how even a special day like a birthday is taken for granted and so rudely ignored with the help of cell phones. Lastly, after a long day the girl gets back in bed with her boyfriend and turns off the lights, and instantly he ignores her and opens his phone to text, update his status, etc. This video put me in the position of the girl, because I’m usually the friend who’s always on the phone, and it actually makes me feel bad for her. I know that when I’m with my friends and I’m on my phone they start to act weird towards me, thinking, “she’s completely ignoring me”, when really I claim I can multitask. Along with engaging in any social setting I think a lot of people in our society today, including myself struggle with knowing when the appropriate time to use their phone is. This video definitely gives people a good insight on how people see it from the other side. Whether the person “forgot their phone”, are grandparents who aren’t technically savvy, someone who genuinely loves you and are actually engaged in what is going on between you two, or even being a teacher or someone who finds their efforts distracted by the use of cell phones, it definitely made me think about the way I come off towards people when I’m constantly on my phone. 

In "Excerpt: Bound By Law", an editorial cartoon by Keith Aoki, follows a common issue among copyright law and intellectual property. He follows the main character; a woman who wants to film a documentary about capturing a day in the life of New York, where she explores the city and the number of texts along with the variety of culture she wants to include in her film. She soon begins to realize that many of the things she wants to include in her documentary have limited use because of the broad copyright law and the term of protections they hold. The cartoon wants the readers to take a look at the ideas surrounding "fair use" in the public domain, and how copy rights and intellectual property should be protected for the sake of one's original expressions of an idea to not be republished or resold. But, also should not be overprotected for the sake of the public's domain for research, critiques, knowledge, and creativity that the original idea contains. Both textual and visual imagery is used, and is spread out over a sequence of frames. The tone regarding this excerpt is very playful, as demonstrated in the last page of the excerpt where recognizable paintings and images are used to get Keith Aoki's point across. This editorial cartoon reflects the fair and incidental use of creative common licensing among copyright law and intellectual property in a playful yet driven demeanor.

In "Address Before Members of the United States Congress", Micheal Eisner, the Chief Executive Officer of the Walt Disney Company, addresses the many issues regarding the limited protection of intellectual property in the digital age, along with five solutions to protect these rights in the cyber world. His ideas were laid out  in the form of a persuasive speech advertisement, where he among many leading members in business communities, could share their ideas about "Opportunities Facing the Internet". The speech was addressed to the members of Congress through art, music, and imagery; the ways intellectual property is defined through, more than simply words. The speech was directed to the less educated, along with the audiences of copyright related industries, motion pictures, television, home video, music, publishing, and computer sequences, to work together with government agencies, in order to resolve the ever-growing crisis towards the lack of intellectual property security, and the terrain of advancements the digital age has provided through the internet. It was spoken in a friendly tone, allowing the audience to connect with the speaker, while bouncing from analogies, to cause-and-effect strategies, used to make this speech persuasive. Micheal used historical examples throughout his speech through the use of video clips, which gave the audience examples of the incredible and creative images technology has allowed us to create today, along with the striking irony it also brought to the table; the disappearance of this original creativity completely. He focused mainly on one example, the movie "Dinosaurs", which he explained took over four years to accomplish special sound affects, "dino-cams", extensive background research, and advancements in animation, in order to bring the 80-minute film to life. He then goes to explain that all these efforts can be easily pirated and compacted into a simple DVD, thanks to the ever-growing technological advancements which are making this task easier and faster to accomplish. Internet programs such as iCrave.com, Napster, Wrapster, Freenet, and Gnutella, promote intellectual property pirating through their websites, where most pirates claim, "It's just cracking a digital code", but as Micheal puts it, "it would be [the same as] justifiable to crack a bank code and transfer the funds from someone else's account into your own. Theft is theft, whether enabled by a handgun or a computer keyboard". Micheal states very strong facts regarding the overexposure and under-secured intellectual property today, and addressed the multiple internet hardware companies that don't protect piracy because of the internet's need to continue publishing new content, which in turn only helps promote the long-term interests of those companies, while companies like Disney seek opportunities in technological advancements, while participating in the expansion of the internet through their many .Go sites. Because Disney desires to contribute to the internet's information and resources, without having to surrender their rights regarding their intellectual property, they came up with five steps to help address this problem. First, Micheal states that intellectual property rights is really no different than ordinary property rights, and that the government should treat these matters accordingly by protecting what is rightfully theirs by assuring new solutions to copyright security. Secondly, that governments around the world should work together on a global scale to help protect these rights. Thirdly, many people are still uneducated regarding the consequences of downloading copyrighted material off the internet, and believe it could be enforced with a warning similar to the FBi one's seen at the begging of VHS video tapes. Fourthly, because piracy is a technical problem, it should be solved through technical solutions. This can be accomplished when all studios, broadcasters, record companies, and technological companies work together to stay one step ahead of pirates and hackers through the use of encryption and watermarking systems. Last but not least, it raises an economic issue, where pirates try to sell poor quality products at what the consumer believes is a suitable  price. But, it has been demonstrated time and time again that legitimate products will still be purchased for the appropriate prices, which continues to boost the economy positively. He concludes his speech by informing his strategies' success through the recognition and commitment of the community as a whole, that theft will not be tolerated in any form, and once this law is enforced in the cyber-digital world as much as it is enforced in the real world, the communication, education, entertainment, and commerce the internet provides, can someday be limitless and continue to produce better creative horizons in the future.

In "The Privatization of our Culture", Bret Dawson addresses some of the issues regarding our digital culture, copyright bullying, stolen intellectual property, and the ways big intellectual property owners are trying to expand and protect their copyrights. Bret Dawson uses visual persuasion in his article, where he open with the 9-11 incidents, and its' relation to a birthday party for a four year old and the imagination and wonder that four year old possesses. It is then followed by superheroes and the roll they play in society,  Harry Potter fan sites, the shut down of Napster, and our media soaked society. Although he jumps rapidly from one example to the next, without clarifying his argument thoroughly, he does try to relate his argument to all audiences, referring back to childhood memories, along with putting the reader in the perspective of his choice; one that reveals how, "our entire culture has fallen into private hands." This does prove a point in some aspects, due to the fact that our society is consumed by communication through big brands and logos that we see, leading us to only communicate in one specific way. So how can our ideas now, not have come from previous ideas in the past? Dawson goes on to say that although these big brand names deserve rights to their intellectual property, it is also our right to access their intellectual property, so we may too have the freedom to tell stories of superheroes the way we desire, while having the ability to be creative and aspire new ideas, following the major ones that encouraged them. He believes that we the people have just as much power and rights to these intellectual properties as the next man, and even resorting to measures of civil disobedience or public debate, can help protect these rights and stop big intellectual property owners from taking too much away from our society that is driven by big intellectual properties themselves.

In "Hijacking Harry Potter, Quidditch Broom and All", author Bill Werde, the Editorial Director for Billboard, gives examples in his article of "fair use" in copyrighting to better serve the public, along with opinions of original filmmakers regarding "fair use", and the customized remakes of films by fans. In his article, he explains that Harry Potter was a very successful series and upon its release, a fan had a new idea to re-create the soundtrack and characters in the film, to suit his own liking. Another fan tried to do the same with a newer version of Star Wars, but crossed copyright laws when it began selling at local comic book stores, which is illegal in intellectual property laws. The remake of Harry Potter to "Wizard People, Dear Reader", was protected under the window of "fair use" in copyright laws, because it allowed the public to give criticism, comments, and news reporting on its behalf. He quotes from a co-director at Harvard Law School that, "The long-term strategic threat to the entertainment industry, is that people will get in the habit of creating and making as much as watching and listening...[But] It could very possibly be in the interest of publishers to see a market in providing raw material along with finished product." Although there is a lack of legal clarity, this kind of recreation can open up a whole new market, while renovating new ideas to the public, giving culture a new face of an art form, quoted, "one everyone should experience for themselves."

Lawrence Lessing, a law professor from Harvard Law School, focuses on other creative ways to communicate to one another through a wide range of media use, collages, layers, and the use of others' thoughts, to create a more meaningful and powerful message than the one before. Lawrence refers to this process as "remixing" media, and considers it more productive when the outcome produces a meaningful message derived from references that are expressed in their original form, rather than an individual creating something completely new that only contains those individuals’ own thoughts. By using the ever growing market of digital technologies, it has allowed writers to become creators, and creators to become writers, by using layers of quotes, texts, audio, video, or pictures, that are cut and pasted together from numerous resources. Lawrence explains that these “remixes” allow better arguments to be in communication, but reminds the writers and creators that it should keep up with the cultural demands of today, and consistently match the topic or person being referenced. For example, many of the younger members of our society have been raised in the emergence of new technology every year, while the needs for “simpler” things begin to dissipate. What I mean, is that children today do not want to learn math through the use of flashcards, or timed tests. An effective way of children learning math would be through the use of animated or digital games, songs, or advanced software, due to their cultural needs of today and the environment those children have grown up in; modern. Lawrence believes that masterpieces can be created if we expand the media in use of communicational writing, and through the examples I listed above, mixing these symbolic ideas together, can create something completely new and original, leading to new ideas, and therefore creating better communication with the modern world.