This question has plagued me (and most likely my classmates) since the first day of Freshmen year. When I walked into my first class (NMD100) , the first thing my professor did after introducing himself was ask the class what New Media is, and no one had an answer. For homework that night we were given the task of writing a paragraph of what we thought (through research and personal opinion) New Media was exactly and while I got credit for the assignment I still to this day am not 100% sure what it is. I know it’s dealing with technology and using it to change the world, but what does that really mean? Every class I have taken has been something completely different from the next. Every professor teaching a different (New Media) lesson and even after taking multiple classes with the same professor the outcome is the same. In engineering classes you learn math and physics, those are the basic components of what Engineering classes are. In New Media I have written papers on old technologies (analog vs. Digital) and how this affects the world today, I’ve made pictures, both from scratch using Adobe Illustrator and using photos in Photoshop, I’ve made movies both real life actors and animation, I’ve taken photos and learned what makes a good picture, and now I am talking relentlessly about how to take old things and reinvent them and what types of projects can I do that will shake the very foundation that we live on today. All these classes have no true rhyme or reason or for the most part any bridge that connects one to the next.

Maybe I’m just trying to figure everything out right away so I know exactly where I’ll be when I graduate in 2 years but the more time I spend thinking about New Media and the classes I’m taking, the more I’m starting to believe it can be anything I want it to be while also being anything available. Maybe by throwing New Media students into the world of technology and having them touch upon every single work of art and project possible in the first few years, the professors and creators of New Media are trying to give us a solid and very broad base to continue our lives as students because it seems we are going to have to constantly be learning if we are going to be able to stay in this field. Technology is always changing, improving, becoming obsolete, and then being brought back as something new or the same thing with a slight twist and if we want to secure a job and be able to sustain an existence in the world of technology we need to stay up to date with it. Maybe our professors are trying to show us how we need to be able to sort through hours and hours of Bullshit to find the important “diamond in the rough.”

When I say diamond, I say it with a lot of hesitation because what I may see as a priceless diamond, one of my classmates could see as just another piece of shit. Each bit of information isn’t going to be perfectly sorted for us to read and allow to sink in and it is up to us to find what we need and allow the rest to pass by.

So after reading all this you see why I am still unable to answer the question: What is New Media. It is always changing and there is no answer that I have come across that I give and not feel like I’m leaving a large part out. I know I am in the right field because I love technology with a passion and my ideas of what I can do with it and where it can take mankind are beginning to form with more force and stronger possibilities of making them a reality then ever before. I’m not longer thinking in the what if, and trying to create ideas that  might never be possible but instead I’m beginning to see where we are today and take the next possible step which I could make a reality. Only time will tell what New Media truly is, and I’m alright with that because it’s just like you can’t say where technology will going and everyone is comfortable with that.

“The world isn’t designed intelligently.”

That quote is one of the most meaningful quotes I have ever read. Its something that is so true and that I have never thought of before. Sometimes I get caught up in the hustle and bustle of college life and I think this is how life works, everything is laid out and every question has an answer but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Problems in life are not asked by someone with the answer, they given to the people who look for them. If the only thing I take away from this article is to remember that not every question has an answer then the article was a success because I will always remember to keep the world in perspective and not expect things to given to me.

First off let me say that anyone who doesn’t understand the Occupy Movement and what it means to our country and the entire world for that matter then I suggest you start by reading the entire article. In this reading you’ll get insight into how it began, what it aims to do, and what it has already done.

Since it began I’ve been very interested in the entire event and what is going on at these occupy sites. This article helped me to understand how the sites have already changed so much even though people are still getting screwed by the way things are set up. By simply bringing attention to the issues and showing how we are truly all together in this battle the Occupy Movement has change the world whether people want to admit it or not. No longer can anyone argue that what has been going on is the peoples fault. If any fault falls on the people it is for not doing something sooner. And I hope after reading this article people understand that change isn’t going to come about right away. It has taken many years for the 1% to build their base and to shape the system to aid them in any way possible, and it will take just as long if not longer for the 99% to retake the country and the system.

There were a few questions that is article brought up for me:

1)How does a group of people without work or income plan to maintain a society that is structured about wealth?

2) How will they survive the winter, between snow, rain, and cold weather serious health risks could under mind the very base of the movement which is you can’t get rid of us all. Illness and other things could sweep through the entire group and be the death of the movement.

3) When will we see serious change, will Obama speak directly (possibly indirectly while addressing the nation) and bring news of serious or will we slowly see small things (blips on the radar) and one day someone will realize all the change that has been brought about.

This movie was very interesting and made me think a lot about history and how it is written by the victors. The Hackers weren’t these international terrorists, they were American’s, who like there forefathers before them, were pioneers in something that shaped the world as we know it. Without there ambition and love for their craft there is no evidence we would be were we are with technology, they led the way by coming together going where no one had gone before. It was people like Bill Gates who wanted to use the innovations to make money who inevitably destroyed the creative process which brought about many early innovations. I’m not saying that Bill Gates was completely wrong for wanting to make money because without companies like Microsoft and Apple, America may not be the top nation in the world. Had the creative process remained a free information style of innovation another country could have cashed in on the opportunity.

In a legal sense the movie showed me how corporations and people in government have control over history and how they can (to some extent) shape how our society views various things. Before watching this movie I had always associated hacking with a negative connotation and believed they were and always had been bad people, or digital thieves. To my surprise the origins of this word came from the innovators developed the technology. It was Hollywood and the media that transformed this word be thought of as the names of digital thieves of the 21st century. Yes there are some bad people in the world who would and do use this technology for “evil” but to categorize and mislabel the innovators who first designed the technology is doing such a great injustice to these brillant men and women that it seems almost immoral to use the word in that sense. How can a country so dependent on these things wrongfully name and categorize the people who created them. They put in countless hours working towards their idea of the future and were able to bring it to masses at reasonable prices. To categorize them with thieves and con-artists who misuse the technology is wrong on so many levels.

This goes to show how in history the victors write the books. The men and women who influenced the media and Hollywood to transform the word and disallow the free sharing of information may not have realized what they were doing, and to this day may still believe they did the “American” thing but I will never again fall for such  shortcomings and wrongdoings.