Twttrexecution

I was first introduced to Twitter by my friends a year ago. I don't have Facebook account, back then, so I was impressed with Twitter's usage of one-line status updates and its interactive reply features. I am quite fond of using one-liners so I immediately thought that it was a brilliant idea to have an account on the micro-blogging site. Unfortunately, my excitement was shortlived as I discovered that Facebook is like Twitter with more characters allowed (in its status updates) and more things and time-wasters to do (Mafia Wars, anyone?).

Last week, Prof. Quimbo touched on the subject of Twitter and its relevance to non-celebrities' lives. I immediately thought of this Japanese drama series I've chanced upon, about how Twitter brought a group of ordinary people together and helped them through a lot of tight spots. (Apparently, Twitter has this radar feature on mobile phones, allowing you to search Twitter users within your vicinity.)

With the good, also come the bad. Two weeks ago, I've come across a news article regarding how the Attorney-General of the State of Utah "tweeted" the execution (by firing squad) of a certain Ronnie Lee Gardner. Another news article even reported that the said officer followed-up on this tweet and said, "We will be streaming live my press conference as soon as I'm told Gardner is dead. Watch it at www.attorneygeneral.Utah.gov/live.html".

As aptly described by one Twitter user in one of the articles, I believe that the said tweet "will probably go down in history as the dumbest, most disgusting use of Twitter ever."

IMHO: Media diet is healthy for students and teachers

When one of our ICT classmates (Rania J) posted about Droste effect and the problems of Wikipedia as depicted by XKCD Comics, I concluded I need to media diet -- cutting on gaming, watching TV, listening to the radio, microblogging, blogging, texting, emailing, and my favorite appetite, surfing the internet. This kind of surfing is not making the waves for my acquisition of discipline and productivity and better grades.

As a usual consequence of this "fascinated clicking", I will need to digress (as always). These are some of the reasons why I go on board and surf. You may want to try them too. Disclaimer: They might not be healthy for you.

SELF-MEDICATE YOURSELF.

I don't go to doctors right away. Below are safe sites to go to when you don't feel like going to the doctor because you think you're not dying anytime soon anyway (these sites are based on an issue of Reader's Digest):


www.myhealth.gov.ph
www.moh.gov.sg
www.webmd.com
medicineplus.gov
www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov
www.cochrane.org.au/library
scholar.google.com
www.patientslikeme.com
www.labtestonline.org


DON'T FACEBOOK WAY TOO MUCH.

Instead, waste your time reading other stuff. Below are sites that sure will waste some hours. I'm not even talking about RPGs or browser games which can waste days and lives.

Am I right or what?

Professional Heckler will sure give you that sense of political correctness, or the lack of it. You need to read this like SCRA.
Mental Floss knows you want to.
Maddox says you can't disagree with this.
27bslash because the kitten is lost.
Tunay na Lalake ka ba?


What's out there?

Dark Roast Blend
Mashable

SCRA should illustrate this way!

Questionable Content is a favorite!
Death Note
Cyanide & Happiness
PHD Comics
Order of the Sticks

So you BitTorrent? Then you should know the Subpoena Defense! Downloading movies for free sure is fun but illegal.


And now back to topic. See how much one can binge on one medium alone? This media-binge can cause short attention spans. But the irony of it all is that, although it lessens your attention span, it still makes you stay online for hours, but only for a few minutes per web page! So finally, why is media diet healthy? In my humble opinion, because it can spell much difference between productivity and stagnation. You don't want to rust on things that really matter in real life (like memorizing the Rules of Court). It can improve your coherence and mastery of a subject too!

I will read on media diet later. Ooops. I meant cases. I wonder if the government can implement a law which regulates media consumption. Unconstitutional? If not, really, how?


The girl with ADD:
Paulyn Duman
Blog #3
Go Germany!

Other blogs:
IMHO: Digitized sins are forgiven
IMHO: UP College of Law should improve its cellphone signal reception
IMHO: Media diet is good for students and teachers