2nd blog post
Akash Shah on Oct 15th 2013
For this assignment, you must (1) post the New York Times “Front Page” you’ve developed in your seminar AND explain why the group selected the items that are included reflecting on how/why these selections best express the most salient issues/concerns during their first semester at Baruch.
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16 Responses to “2nd blog post”
For our NY Times project we created the following page, dedicated to current, every-day technology and largely focusing on social media. http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/thenytimeseverydaytechnology/
Technology in our times has move past gaming consoles and iPods that were MP3 players only. Technology in our times means something we use every single day, something that is closely tied to every activity we do. From the alarm that gets me out of bed in the morning, to every single assignment I write, to a basic search that helps me with time management – technology has long since departed from entertainment and become an absolutely ubiquitous utility.
Social media is the most visible front of this technology – not what we do with it, but what we say with it, how we express ourselves with it. The anonymity of the internet is one of the integral things of it, and yet nearly everyone has an online profile, a technological mirror of themselves which must constantly be monitored and polished. The moment you post online, that image stops being your own, and as some of the articles we’ve submitted point out – this image of ours is literally up for grabs by the ‘free’ services that we willingly subscribe to. It is an alarming trend both in the pervasiveness of technology and online services, a trend of gradual but constant encroachment on privacy not just by one but multitudes of powerful companies. This conniving methodology has always been happening – with ‘locking’ contracts with cell phone companies, for example, or even the very limits of technology that allow smaller producers to sell their ‘improvements’, such as keyboard apps for smartphones that improve on the generally uncomfortable standard keyboards.
As a college student these are things that I contend with frequently, and everything I write or post online is considered carefully – a must, given that I cannot even accurately judge the amount of people it will be seen by. As a growing global citizen, I need to be aware of such consequences, as unexpected as they can be.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/newyorktimesfrobmb/
My group included Andrea, Barbara, and Rhoda.
Our theme for the New York Times articles was Sports. Sports play a very significant role in everyday life, and we all felt that this was a topic that everyone can relate to and understand. It builds a sense of community, whether you are just watching it on television with a few friends, or actually playing it with your teammates.
Entertainment in sports is definitely a very big deal here in the US and all around the world, as our articles demonstrate. People come together to watch their favorite sport teams, cheering on when they won. Professional sports were mentioned in our articles, as these widely popular sporting events draw in millions of zealous viewers.
There are many opportunities for people to get involved in sports themselves, for reasons ranging from to improve your health or make new friends. I believe everyone should at one point or another participate in sports. From my own experience, swimming and volleyball were things I enjoyed doing greatly since I was young. It builds character and, most importantly, it’s fun.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/newyorktimesfrobmb/
Our group did a presentation on sports. These articles that were selected to be in the blog post reflect the unity in the diversity of the students at Baruch and in the world in general.
At Baruch, a school primarily focused on business, sports becomes secondary. Unlike a university like Ole Miss or even Rutgers where the whole school can unite at a football game, you will never really see school pride reflected in the sports games. At Baruch, everyone has his preference, from basketball to tennis to swimming. We look at sports as a way to express our individuality, which becomes crucial when almost everyone spends their whole day punching numbers.
http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/thenytimeseverydaytechnology/
My group included Nadim, Denis and Elin. We selected Every Day technology or “Ubiquitous Tech” because we felt that technology seems to affect our lives more and more every single day. There are always new devices and gadgets that take more of a role in our everyday activities. They help us and make our activities easier which is why more applications and devices are made to satisfy the demands of the people who want more technology.
One of the main devices that we use everyday is the cell phone. We use it probably all the time. Almost everyone has a cell phone too. One of the articles we developed was about cellphone contracts and about how they can be a scam. The reason is that cellphone contracts help you buy a new phone fore less money instead of the full price, but for a certain amount of years, you must pay a small amount each month. The payment you pay every month could eventually add up to the full price or even more which isn’t fair to the people. Not many people know about this, and more and more people could be losing money.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/fro13bmb4/
For the New York Times Front Page project, our group chose the environment to be our theme. With Earth being the only planet we can sustain ourselves on (for now), it is our duty to conserve as many resources as we can and form new environmentally friendly habits. In order to do this, we need to be informed. As said on our Bearcat post, the program for Convocation day began with a video presentation on sustainability at Baruch. This promptly notified the freshman class of 2013 about the high priority the school puts on the environment.
The articles we selected for our project demonstrate how the issue of the environment affects us on several different levels: city, national, and world. For example, Mayor Bloomberg plans to ban the non-biodegradable plastic- foam containers and to double the amount of recycling bins in the city. President Barack Obama introduced his climate change plan, which involves reducing greenhouse gases, advancing renewable energy technology, and equipping cities most affected by climate change. Lastly, studies show that by 2047, if the Earth maintains the current trend of carbon dioxide emission, temperatures in the future winter can be the same as the hot summers in the present.
As you can see, our actions right now affect our imminent future. The environment will continue to be a hot topic as long as the Earth continues on its current path. But by doing something as simple as sorting our garbage in paper, bottles/cans, and landfill receptacles at Baruch, we are making a difference.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/newyorktimesfrobmb/?p=7
I chose this article because of the popularity of Jeremy Lin. Mostly everybody in New York City itself knew about him and he was a big deal among society. Jeremy Lin unified a lot of people. Even people who didn’t know much about basketball connected through their interest in him. This is important among the Baruch community because it connects all of us with a common interest. Even if we have nothing really in common, we can all come together with our similarities.
Baruch has an amazing basketball team and Jeremy Lin is one of the most prominent figures people look up to. As a guy who was undrafted but still a big success, he displays a great image as an idol. He reminds people to not give up even at the tip of the iceberg. Many people look up to him and think of him as a person to strive to be like. He kept up with his academics and chased his dream. It is important to keep school a priority but also do what you love and that is exactly what he did. At a confusing time transitioning into college, it is easy to get lost into the task at hand. Some people may be putting off school for their interests and some people may be putting off their interests for school. But it is important to realize that you can have the best of both worlds and you can achieve both if you put your mind to it.
We selected innovative technology because it is interesting. Who isn’t interested in new technology? Nowadays, technology is one of the hottest issues because people always want the new iPhone, tablet, console, or car. Furthermore, it is heavily integrated into our economy. Tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Sony are in a competition to create the best product and sell it to the widest audience. This competition forces companies to make better products; it forces them to be innovative. If any one of these giants fails to keep up with the pace, it will be swept away. It’s a bit disheartening but it’s survival of the fittest.
I myself was a big console player. I am interesting in the current console war between Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One. I want to see which console has the best (or most) processors, which console has the better graphics, and which console will have the better games. I have an Xbox, but I am leaning more towards the PS4 because I know Sony is a great company with many smart innovators.
Baruch is modernizing whenever and wherever it can. I am sure Baruch college wants the best for its students and this usually equates to better technology. Students want a choice when they sign out laptops. And they do, for in our selection we have Macs, a few kinds of PCs, and even iPad minis. Not only that, but most of the campus consists of teenagers that live in New York City, the best place for the best technology. Teenagers, like myself, are always interested in the newest phones, handheld consoles, tablets, and computers. There is a lot we can do with technology. It can help us in our studies, but it can also allow us to have a good time.
Our website page is : http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/tech4alchemists/
Our innovative technology group consisted of Brian, George, Evan, and Taruna.
I think we chose this topic because the United States is so famous among other countries for coming up with new technology every year. We never have same devices for too long because companies always have updated version. This is amazing feature of our country. So we highlighted extra interesting technology of this year that will come out soon in our future like google glasses, projectors, gaming consoles and watches. This is important because you want to be aware of what the near future has in store for our generation because falling behind with all these updates is so easy. This was the first group project in Baruch so it was interesting experience: it showed me what to expect in other classes and how my peers will work. Therefore, it was good project to have undertaken.
For the New York Times Front Page project my group decided to go with everyday technology. Our front page can be found here.
http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/thenytimeseverydaytechnology/
My group decided to go with everyday technology since it has such a large impact on our lives and we sometimes forget how much we rely on it. When we need to know something we usually just pull out phones and google it. We do this so much that it almost becomes a natural instinct. What we don’t consider is that back in the old days people didn’t have google and they had to research things on their own. So one of the purpose of my group was to show what an impact technology has on everyday life.
Our project relates to our first semester at Baruch since we use much more technology than we did in high school. For textbooks we were always given physical copies but now people bring pdf’s on their laptops and tablets, the school allows us to use wi-fi, and everyone takes notes on their laptops and tablets rather than paper. One of my articles talked about how Twitter was falling behind other social networks because it couldn’t keep up with the new features. i was able to relates this with our experiences at Baruch since it’s a huge change from high school and if we don’t adapt then will just fall behind like Twitter.
Overall we chose our topic of everyday technology since it is so significant in our lives and here at Baruch and college in general we have such a dependence on it.
Our website page is : http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/tech4alchemists/
Our innovative technology group consisted of people.
I have no idea why we chose this topic, but hey, the world is always changing. For the record, the Japanese made a giant gundam because they can, and that’s pretty interesting. Waiting for them to make it functional so there can be some Pacific Rim action going if there has to be.
Our webpage can easily strike interest in freshmen because if you don’t keep up with the times, you’re a loser… like me. 😀
Our webpage: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/fro13bmb4/
Our group decided to pick the theme, environment. We picked environment because it is probably the most important if not the most important issue we have today. Earth is right now the only planet we are able to live on and the resources here are not unlimited. Once our resources deplete, we will most likely not be able to live on Earth anymore and die out.
We picked these articles because it shows how the people on Earth are doing their best to prevent disasters that will come if we do not take care of our environment. One of our articles was about the very first day in Baruch, Convocation Day. On that day, we were given a video about recycling and saving the resources of our environment. Therefore, our articles decide to follow up on the insights we learned on Convocation Day. One of the articles we wrote about is about Barack Obama trying to make plans to save our resources. Another article we wrote about is about Mayor Bloomberg getting rid of foam trays because they are harmful to the environment. The articles about the moose and the temperature on the year 2047 talks about the consequences of what happens if we do not save our environment. It will just be like the book we read for Convocation Day, “The Age of Miracles”, where people try to adapt to the new environment.
Overall, we chose environment because it is very important to our everyday lives as well as our future lives. We learned on Convocation Day why saving resources and recycling is such a big deal. Little things such as recycling, saving resources, and saving energy can actually make a big impact on our future. If we don’t start now, our consequences in the future will be great.
My group decided our theme would be environmental because it is very important to everyone’s daily lives and is similar to Baruch’s theme of sustainability. The idea of sustainability is about saving or conserving earth’s resources because they are limited. Limited resources mean that one day our future generations will not be able to survive and just die out or become extinct.
In the article, I wrote about the Boy Scout knocking over a 200 million year old rock formation. It mentioned how it was wrong of the three men to do such a thing because it could’ve encouraged other people to do the same. If everyone begins to grow similar opinions about the rock formations and how they are dangerous then people might start to abandon the idea of conservancy which would go against other ideas such as sustainability. Taking care of these formations is something that the authorities of Goblin Valley State Park have been trying to do for a long time now.
It’s important that we learn from these scouts’ mistake that conservancy is important in every case whether it’s saving a moose to preserve moose-watching tourism or saving the goblin-watching tourism. Conservancy of our natural environments are vital and important to us whether it’s to preserve the beauty of nature or to preserve the resources. It’s all about sustainability here at Baruch and that’s why we chose the environment as our topic.
Our website: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/fro13bmb4/
Our Website is http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/thenytimeseverydaytechnology/
Our group agreed on modern day social media and how it is evolving. we chose main social networks such as Facebook and Google and compared the way they have made changes to turn their huge innovative ideas into money making machines. Along with that we discussed social technology which effects our everyday life like the wireless costs and contracts which in the long run can save us money. The Club Fair also related to the social concept of this projects because it showed the social network within our own college.
Overall, today’s social media serves a crucial role in our society and definitely made a drastic impact on our future.
http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/newyorktimesfrobmb/
My groups theme was sports. We felt like sports are everywhere, they bring the world together, and it’s one of the things us Bearcats look up to since many teams in our school have incredible determination and pride.
We focused on sports in general because it would make things interesting. If we just made posts on who’s winning in a specific league or what is new in sports we’d probably be too limited and there wouldn’t be much to write on.
Two articles on our front page are in regards to basketball. One, about prestigious Jeremy Lin and how he’s influenced not only basketball- but new york as a city. The other basketball related article represents the “Bearcat section” and is focusing on how hard our women’s basketball team is working and progressing to be the best they can. By having two articles on the same sport we are able to compare and contrast plus see how much basketball as a whole has become a prominent sport.
I wanted our front page to be versatile just like it is on a regular newspaper. Having different articles allows at least one article to capture a reader’s attention if another fails to do so. For that reason, I added an article on the most played sport in the world, Soccer. I also added another one for hockey since it’s not so common but is gaining a lot of popularity lately.
The last article is talking about how New York has many things ahead for the sports world. This article is crucial to the front page because it brings a spin on our “sports” theme. It isn’t talking about a specific team or event on a single sport but talking about the city we live in and how it’s going to become even more important in a sports aspect.
All in all, this front page really taught us girls how something as fun and simple as sports has become something incredibly important to the world and how it really does, in a way, bring everyone together.
My group chose the theme environment as a safety net because we weren’t creative enough at the moment to come up with anything better. While researching, it occurred to me that the environment is a really big deal, even bigger than we know. It affects us in the world we live in today and the world we will be living in ten years from now, and the scarier part is that it’ll affect the world of our kids and their kids and so on.. Recycling and taking care of the earth is crucial and I feel like people are understanding that more and more as time goes by. The article I summarized was about how temperature will increase severely in the future to come. It talked about how the temperature will become so high that today’s summer will be considered the future’s winter. This is a truly phenomenal yet scary thing if you think about it. On that note: PLEASE RECYCLE, DON’T LITTER, AND DO WHAT YOU CAN TO HELP OUT OUR PLANET. 🙂
http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/tech4alchemists/
The idea of innovative technology is extremely crucial to our current age. The industrial revolution gave mankind mass production, leisure time, a new focus on childhood education, and more. Our modern society continues to improve and enhance these aspects, making sure that people are well-provided. We can enhance our productivity with technology that helps us stay more organized or prepared in a convenient manner. We can enjoy our down time with new games and ways of enjoying them. And, although not included in our blog, innovative technology will allow us to create a sustainable environment that will be able to renew its resources.