i choose to do an ethnographic study for my essay topic.  i will be focusing on social media sites, facebook and myspace.  On why people go on it and why they made their face book the way it is. Also on why they choose to put in certain information and decided to leave some out. I will also be focusing on video games and gamers, and their behaviors of when and when they are not playing these video games. Also i will tie this into the focus of the clas, identiy.

when the controller, controls you..

video games are harmless, right?  Not in the the movie Gamer. In this movie, video gaming just got a whole lot more intense. Criminals don't go to prison, the are actually used as real living avatars in the video game "slayer." Gamer's can control the criminals every action in a war like game and these criminals have no way to resist. But in this game when these criminals are killed, they are permenatly killed. While the gamers can simply just pick a new charecter.
This movie can say alot about real life. It's poking fun at the video gamers, It's trying to prove a point that adults and children are not being benifited from long hours of playing. Long hours of playing can be bad; from taking time away from homework and work,  long hours of no physical activity, and just simply taking time away from learing how to physicaly interact with people. One detail I took from this is that in the movie, gamers can control actual humans. In a sense, in real life gamers play for long time and are addicted to the game, that becomes the players reality. Gamers play this maybe cause they are unsatisfied with there current lives, or they need some sort of relief, but for whatever reason they would much rather be playing this video game than be living in there current life. So this can become as an escape, or an alternative life or person. Also when they avater dies, a real human dies too. When gamers play for long hours and are addicted in a sense the gamer dies too. They want to just play and live in this fake world to get rid of and escape thier current lives. The gamer doesn't litterally die but is lost in this game and comes to want nothing but.

El Face vs Myspace.

Myspace; The queen of gossip. Middle school kids and incoming high scholars left to comment and post whatever the heck their minds please. Then comes Facebook, which is pretty much the same thing but both have vastly different reputations.  After reading, Implications of User Choice: The Cultural Logic of “MySpace or Facebook?”, I started to recall my transition from Myspace to El face and how I fitted right into Danah Boyd explanation on the transition. I was surprised, astonished, amazed and humored on how right and correctly he explained the transition.

Many of the transitions where most likely caused by friends switching social websites, as Danah Boyd explained "people go where friends go."  I agree with this very much, most people did not switch websites without knowing at least one person they know would be there. These social websites are called "social" for a reason. Most of the time people will not socialize with random people. Social websites are made so members can socialize with friends and people they are familiar with so people look for the social websites with the greatest activity. Facebook was the place. Boyd also explains his and common views on the differences of these social websites. He explains that the distinctions between these two websites can be put upon taste, social economic status, and education. I reacted very surprisingly, i do agree with this very much but its very mind boggling how it all works. As the hip hop and gossip full myspace has a different audience from the procrastinating students on facebook.  

I' ll admit, i did switch to facebook because of friends. I saw everyone making the switch so i did too.  I don't mean to fall into the educated, classy group of Facebook but I guess I do. Embarrassing to say, but I did and I think everyone else did too, design my profile a certain way. I put up what in want people to see. Funny stories, pictures, videos, comments, and conversations all of them I would not mind people looking at them. I do not think I or anyone else will purposely post something we wouldn't want other people seeing or knowing. so i guess we all designed our profile a certain way. A more perfect and less embarrassing version of ourselves.