Writing a Letter

From the moment I saw this assignment, I knew that I wanted to write a letter to my mom and dad. I am incredibly close with my parents, and I always wanted to write a letter to them while at college, but I never got around to doing it. I am really glad writing a letter was an assignment because it forced me to do it. I don’t have my stationary with me at college, so I had to write my letter on a piece of notebook paper, which caused me to write a pretty long letter. Since I knew I probably wouldn’t write another letter to my parents, I decided to use up the entire sheet of paper and really go into detail about not only me college experience so far, but also my childhood. Writing this letter caused me to really think back and reflect upon my childhood and how my parents did so much for me, and still do. By focusing on only my letter, I was able to remember many memories that I have not though about in so long. I feel like everyday I am so busy and I never have time to reflect on my life now and then, so I really loved being able to have this time of reflection. I did not think that I was going to take a long time writing this letter, but it ended up taking me about an hour to get everything in the letter that I wanted to. I am really excited for my parents to get the letter because I feel like they are going to really love it and they will be able to save it and really cherish it. Overall, I loved writing the letter and I thought that it was an amazing experience!

Blog 2: Letter

Writing a letter is not as easy as it seems. When I first heard this assignment I expected it to take me about 10-15 minutes to write the letter, but it ended up taking just 15 minutes to figure out how to start the letter. I wrote a letter to my best friend that is going to school in Alabama. Whenever we are together we can never stop talking, but I was surprised at how awkward I felt while writing the letter even though I was writing to one of my best friends. Staring at the blank sheet of paper as the minutes passed by, I had no idea what to write. I felt like I was overthinking everything that I wrote because it felt more permanent when I wrote it by hand. Once I started writing, I sort of felt like I was either talking to myself or overpowering the conversation because there was no response from the other side. I have been so used to sending or saying short messages to people through texts, emails, or phone calls and then immediately receiving a response. Even though I had so much to say and to tell my friend, I just did not know how to put it into words for the letter. Finally, I just decided that I was overthinking myself too much and wrote down everything that I was thinking. Once I finished the letter, I realized that I have no idea what my friend’s address is at school. Sure, we did just move to new addresses for school, but it’s weird to think how we can be best friends with someone yet not know something as basic as their address. I can’t imagine what my friend’s response is going to be when she receives my letter because the only time we really get letters in the mail these days are for “thank you” letters. I definitely underestimated how hard it would be to write a letter.

blog #2 8/29

I wrote my letter to my older brother who lives in Virginia which was weird because I only really communicate with him through text, occasional phone calls, or in person when he visits home. Handwriting a letter wasn’t anything particularly odd or new for me because I hand-wrote all my senior letters for my close friends a few months ago. I like the concept of handwriting letters because it feels more sentimental. I felt the need to fill out a whole page to fill in my brother on my life whereas through text it is confined to a mere 160 characters in one message. Writing this letter gave me the opportunity to reminisce with my brother during this transition to college and thank him for being an awesome sibling so this assignment was super fun for me!

Letters during this modern age may be outdated, but they’re thoughtful and sentimental. It’s a nice form of media to go back to because it means people take time out of their day to sit down and think out what they want to say as opposed to shooting a quick text or email.

Week two: writing a letter

Your assignment (due Sunday night) is to write a post-able letter to someone who doesn’t live near you/whom you don’t see all the time these days. Then write a paragraph analyzing or reflecting on the experience, the letter, letters as a medium, your history with written letters, or using such an old (obsolete?) medium in a digital world.

Reading: for Monday:  On letters in the digital age

Resource on letter writing (intended for kids in UK but still interesting!)

Remember to bring your letter and your recipient’s postal address to class on Monday… the envelopes and domestic stamps are on me! 

(Sorry to be slow off the mark with this posting—but I love the fact that some folks have already beaten me to the punch with thoughtful posts!)

Writing a Letter

So I wrote an actual letter other than a thank you letter for the first time in about 5 years today, and wow was it odd. While writing the letter, I noticed  that I was very unsure of the proper formatting that comes with writing a letter and quickly found myself on google. Another interesting development that I noticed was my inclination to use texting language in the formal letter, something that would be considered rather out of place. I was struggling for sentences and thoughts that actually contained substance and worthy of writing down in the letter as well. The recipient of my letter is a friend of mine who is still in high school, so I absolutely had plenty of talking points, but I kept coming up short as all my sentences seemed to be simple sentences. This process actually opened my eyes to how much texting and mass media have revolutionized the communication realm of the world. Although letters have been highly efficient for hundreds of years, in a mere 10 years they have been completely overtaken by social media. This is a slightly saddening reality that we all have to deal with, but optimistically we can appreciate just how easily we are able to communicate with others around the globe.

Writing a letter

Okay, so I just finished writing a letter to my cousin who goes to school in Florida and I would have to say it was very weird. Typically if I want to get ahold of her I would just shoot her a text message. Writing a letter to her seems so odd and formal to me. It makes you take a step back and actually think about what you are saying, rather than just clicking send too fast to even spell check.
If you had asked me to send someone a letter 4 months ago, I would have been ashamed at the fact that I would have struggled to address it. That’s insane! Twelve years of public school education and I would have struggled with addressing an envelope. The only reason I am (barely) comfortable with this form of media is because I wrote close to 50 thank you notes this summer for graduation gifts.
It’s crazy to me that our generation has almost completely eliminated this form of media from our lives. Also, this form of media is very generational. Here at college, my grandma sends me a handwritten letter every week keeping me up to date about her life. I would typically just text her about what’s new with me, but after this assignment I am going to go buy stationary and become her official pen pal. Taking the time to analyze what you are going to say when writing a letter truly seems so much more meaningful and heartfelt then texting someone.

First Blog Post

Hey everyone! My name’s Dakota Gulasa and I’m from Cartersville, Georgia. I am currently majoring in Biology for Pre-Med, but I will  be changing it to Music Business before the next semester. I currently work at Red Lobster and the Ramsey Center. I spend the majority of my money on concert tickets. My passion for the music industry is what has drifted me towards my new major. I would love to one day be a tour manager for a famous music artist. Enough about me; let me discuss my idea for a media tetrad. I have decided to use my favorite form of social media – Instagram – in order to create this tetrad.

Enhancement: Instagram is a platform that allows individuals to share some of their most memorable moments for the world to see. It allows you to stay up to date on the lives of others through a single photograph.

Obsolescence: Instagram holds people back from directly sharing their life stories to their friends and family. For instance, I typically do not tell my friends when I go to a new concert because I simply expect them to see the picture on Instagram.

Retrieval: Instagram allows you to stay up-to-date with individuals that may no longer be apart of your life. If your friend moves to California, you will still be able to keep track of how they’re doing through their posts on Instagram. It brings back that connection that was once lost.

Reverses Into: When pushed to its limits, Instagram can be very harmful. Individuals may begin to obsess over how many likes their picture receives. Some people make it their goal to become “Instagram Famous” be obtaining several thousand followers. This creates an unhealthy addiction that can be detrimental to any individual.

First Post

Hey! My name is Augusta King, and I am a freshman this year. I am from Atlanta, GA and I went to the same school, Westminster, since kindergarten. At this moment my major is Intended Business, but I am still not exactly sure of what I want to do after I graduate! In high school I played squash, ran cross country and managed the guy’s varsity soccer team. I really enjoyed being involved in these teams because I got to be around my friends while being active. I live in Brumby Hall and I am really enjoying getting to meet new people! So far, I love UGA and am excited for what is to come!

Tetrad: Snapchat

Enhances:Allows people to keep in touch on a more personal level than texting. By sending pictures of what you are doing in that moment, people feel more connected with you. The snap streak feature of Snapchat encourages people to stay in touch on a daily basis in order to keep the streak.

Snapchat also allows people to promote different companies, which benefits both the company and Snapchatter.

Retrieves: Allows people to keep in touch with lots of people in many different places. While texting can sometimes feel boring, Snapchat makes staying connecting more entertaining, which encourages people to communicate more frequently.

Reverses Into: The pressure of taking interesting pictures that you think would entertain people. Also, the pressure of having to be by your phone in order to reply to Snapchats that you receive. These pressures can cause people to become obsessed with Snapchat, which could take away from appreciating moments for your own good, and not somebody else’s.

Obsolesces: Snapchat’s chat and FaceTime features can prevent the need to communicate outside of the app. Also the pictures you take on Snapchat can prevent the need to take pictures on your camera or post pictures on Facebook or Instagram.

First Blog Post

Hey! My name is Elizabeth Malcom and I’m from Athens, GA. I graduated from Athens Academy and am so excited to be at UGA. My major right now is marketing, but that might change!

Tetrad: Facebook

Enhances: Facebook allows people to share pictures or articles that relate to their current lives. People are also able to view what is going on in their friends lives, providing a way to constantly stay connected.

Retrieves: It allows people to keep up with family members or friends that may live far  away.

Reverses Into: When everyone you know is on Facebook, it creates pressure to constantly be uploading pictures that make you appear fun or interesting to your following online. People live less in the moment and are only worried about taking a good picture to later post online.

Obsolesces: Because you can see what your friends are up to online, Facebook eliminates the need to pick up the phone to ask what is going on in their lives.

 

 

Blog Post #1 8/21: First Blog Post and Tetrads

Hi there! My name is Emily Olson. I am originally from Colorado, but my family just moved to Alpharetta, GA. Since I lived in CO for 16 years, it’s definitely been different here so far, but I’m really liking it. I am very excited to live in the South and experience new things unique not only to the region, but to Georgia itself. I’m currently majoring in Marketing, however, I’m also interested in studying Advertising, Public Relations, or Media Studies. As you can see, I have quite a few interests, so I’m hoping this FYOS will help me learn a little bit more about that last one at least.

Tetrad: Online Newspapers

Enhances: Online newspapers help increase awareness of certain issues and provide access to news at a speed like never before, while encouraging an informed lifestyle for readers as all newsworthy events are reported on and different viewpoints on politics, entertainment, culture, and other areas of interest are published and presented.

Retrieves: Online newspapers allow for a quick passage of information and news globally, in a more accessible way. They revive a connectivity with other parts of the world on a much larger scale, while public knowledge and awareness is improved as younger generations make use of this modern method of information sharing.

Reverses Into: Inaccuracy occurs when online news stories are published too quickly online. In order to keep up with the constant occurrence of events, locally, nationally, and worldwide, many online newspapers report on and post about news material with little turn around time. As a result, not enough information is always included to create completely unbiased, well-researched articles.

Obsolesces: The physical paper newspapers of the past have becomes less popular. Many people forgo the “daily paper” altogether, relying on online newspapers and mobile news apps to fulfill this aspect of information sharing in a different, but more modern way.