Week 2

Week 2

Week 2 we were introduced to the concept of social computing. Firstly we were presented with different forms of communication, traditional (face to face, telephone, letter), semi-traditional (email, online chat, mobile phone) and social media (integrated online means, web conferencing). We also learned about power when it comes to computing, communication power (who has the power online) is provided by influence meaning that those with the largest influence automatically have the most power. Also, gatekeepers are those who have direct power to influence society (journalists, teachers).

Source credability is how we precieve where certain information comes from and what value we put on the information as a result, this is provided to us by the expertise of the author, the trustwillingness of the author and the goodwill of the author. However we also put value on how others precieve the information (i.e. how many likes it has on facebook.)

We were given an exercise to challenge ourselves to go without social media for a day and see how we coped. Now my hand was forced slightly given the fact that the wifi at home was out of action so I had no real choice but nevertheless it provided me a real oppertunity to carry out the exercise. During the day I felt almost remote, cut off from the world slightly, I found myself urging to take out my phone and click on the twitter or facebook app to see what was going on in the world only to realise that I shouldnt (or couldnt!). It was a saturday too when I would usually click into twitter at least every 15 mins to check the latest premier league scores and to recieve instant updates of the action that was unfolding. This is where I felt I missed social media most, the practical nature of being able to locate information instantly, more so than the communication nature, I'm very must a reciver more so than a provider when it comes to social media, my last facebook update  was in december 2014 and my last tweet was "Happy new year everyone #2015",  but I still check both every day to see what everyone else has been up to. I was surprised how I found it hard not to think about social media throughout the day, It surprised me how much it was engrained in my daily routine and how reliant I was on it.

I also completed the lab tutorial for week 2 where we were tasked with developing a simple app design 'Hellopur'. I found the task quite enjoyable and felt i picked up the methods and material pretty quickly. I downloaded the app onto my phone and tested it, it worked perfectly. Here is a screen grab of my design screen: