Chatrooms
Chatrooms, as many other things in today’s technology, have found many uses. Some uses are for the greater good of the people or other organizations and companies, while some uses are not considered so productive for the society. One example where chatrooms and other forms of technology are used for a good purpose is education. Alice Lai taught an art class on-line, where some of the tools the students used were chatrooms, as she discuss the experience in her article “From Classrooms to Chatrooms: Virtualizing Art Education”.
Andrea Zoe Aster wrote the article “Virgin Music tries viral marketing” in which she described how fans in Canada were asked by the marketing department to use chatrooms in order to promote a new musical band.
Chatrooms, as well as other internet tools, are being used by different companies to keep in touch with their clients and customers, and to receive feedback on their products and services, instead of using third party market analysis, as Douglas R. Shute reports in an article.
In his article “Beyond Video games and Chatrooms”, Jay Feldman explores how underprivileged children learn how to do other things on the computer, besides playing video games and using the internet for chatting. Using the “WiredWoods” curriculum program, they learn how to create personal Web pages, and use different kinds of video and sound software.
However, on a sadder note, Dianna Lee writes how in Japan and other countries, chatrooms are being used to find “suicide companions” and other related information on the suicide topic.
Chatrooms, like many other products of technology, can be used in many ways, from keeping in touch with your friends, to different forms of education, marketing,
and lately, as well as suicide related information.
Response
Chatrooms can be very useful tools in many fields including customer marketing and feedback, and education, but not very pleasantly useful in other aspects like Internet suicide.
I was very touched by the article that Dianna Lee wrote about people choosing chatrooms and other internet resources to access information and help for suicide. She writes that this type of behavior is especially noticeable in Japan, although other countries like Korea, Norway and United Kingdom, have also experienced Internet suicide. I suppose that it is inevitable that with all the great uses of the Internet, eventually somebody will find uses that are not so pleasant.
As effective as technology is to improve our lives, it seems like sometimes it is being used in ways to disrupt or even damage those lives; therefore, I think we need to use the Internet and other resources to meet the needs of these people who are looking for ways to end their lives.
Most of the technology however, is used for great things that benefit and enrich our lives.
Many colleges and universities offer classes on-line, and for many students this form of being educated is appealing, mostly due to its flexibility. These types of classes are able to function due to chatrooms and other internet tools.
I have never taken an on-line or virtual class, but in some respects, I think it is a good idea. A virtual class offers time and space flexibility, commodities that in a society like ours where everybody is so busy, can be hard to procure.
On the other hand, you have to be good with computers in order to be able to handle a class on-line. In order to be efficient you also need to have a great internet connection, something like a cable connection.
From the point of view of being exposed to diversity and to people with different ethnic and cultural background, a virtual class is not the perfect choice. In our society, diversity is valuable because of the multitudes of different people that make it up. It is very important to be able to relate to other people, because in the workplace it is likely you’ll have to use those skills. If somebody would take all of their college classes on-line, they would come out of college, without many
social-interactive skills.
In other words, on-line classes can be advantageous for the person, but not always or not so much for society; however if done in a balanced way, both (the individual and the society) can benefit.
Jay Feldman wrote in interesting article regarding teaching kids other things on the computer, besides the things they already know like playing games or using chatrooms. WiredWodds is a computer-based curriculum, which teaches kids (especially low-income kids and children of color) to be creative with technology, and not just users of it (Feldman).
I am very fond of these types of efforts that reach underprivileged children, and that give them a chance at realizing their potential and hopefully turning their lives around for the better. This particular curriculum involves having the kids creating websites and learning to use different types of sound and video software. If we care enough to initiate these kids in technology and put a desire in their hearts to want to learn more, we can be creating the next generation’s computer programmers, Web designers, sound engineers, or moviemakers.
I think we need more of these curriculums to reach kids that otherwise would not have the opportunity to be exposed to technology in this way.
Chatrooms together with other Internet tools are transforming the way we are used to doing things. We can see the transformations in many fields including education, where we went from a classroom in a school building to a virtual class that can be attended anytime from a home computer. Customer input and marketing in the business world, can be done using chatrooms.
We need to further pursue possibilities to research and develop more ways to use technology to better suit the needs of the twenty first century.
Works Cited
Aster, Andrea Zoe. “Virgin Music Tries Viral Marketing”. Marketing Magazine
1 May 2000: 2. WilsonSelect Plus. Macomb Community College Lib.,
Warren, MI. 23 Feb. 2006
Feldman, Jay. “Beyond Video Games and Chatrooms”. Learning and Leading
with Technology Dec. 2002/Jan. 2003:10-13, 21 WilsonSelect Plus.
Macomb Community College Lib., Warren, MI. 23 Feb. 2006
Lai, Alice. “From Classrooms to Chatrooms: Virtualizing Art Education”. Art
Education July 2002:33-9. WilsonSelect Plus. Macomb Community
College Lib., Warren, MI. 23 Feb. 2006
Lee, Dianna. “Web of Despair”. Foreign Policy Sep./Oct. 2003:90-1 WilsonSelect
Plus. Macomb Community College Lib., Warren, MI. 23 Feb. 2006
Shute, R. Douglas. “Connecting to the Source: Today’s Communications Tools
Let You go Directly to Customers to Find Out What They Want”. Inc.
(Technology Special Issue) 1995:27 WilsonSelect Plus. Macomb
Community College Lib., Warren, MI. 23 Feb. 2006
