The Double Edged Sword: Technology!

By James O’Hagan

Hello, Hi, Hey, What’s up, what’s good, and Yo! Seems that these greetings are common between friends, but what happened to saying hi to perfect strangers?  Hi, I’m James and I grew up in the 80’s, which was a time when everything was a lot more laid back. We felt more at ease. Now, I was a kid then so it didn’t impact me as much as it did the adults. Kids always said hi to each other and were more willing to communicate face to face then… what choice did we have, we didn’t have cell phones, Internet, blogs, IM’s MySpace, FaceBook, or Twitter. To hang out with your friends you had to walk over to their houses, and knock on the front door, and ask their parents if they could come out.  I guess now I’m showing my age of course, but, that’s ok, it was great to be able to experience the jump in technology from how it was in the 80’s.

But, there is some down falls to our newfound communication conduits. Since the creation of cell phones, the ones we could afford, the world as Generation X knew it, changed dramatically.  From, letters to email, from phones calls to texts, has the world has gotten… lazy?  Maybe! I feel that the world has changed and one of the reasons that these changes maybe good is it makes people feel safe, because there is a barrier between them and the person they are interacting with.  But, it’s also a shame, that we can’t even lift our heads far enough to acknowledge when someone says hi to them face to face. With our noses stuck to our smart phones, we can easily type, “Yeah, I need 4 more friends for Mafia Wars”, but can’t pay attention to the people around us.

With the creation of texting, facebook, and twitter, the normal hello you may have heard years ago no longer resonate from the mouth, but, from the fingertips, and not to the person in front of them, but, someone in the next class, next city, or next country.  I personally did a quick test, sitting in our Fine Arts Buildings rest area, throwing just a simple “Hi” or “What’s up” to my fellow students that passed by, Out of them I greeted 20 students, 10 male, and 10 female. Out of the males, I was able to get a pleasant response to 7 out of 10. Now, with the females, I was only able to get 5 out of 10, but I think one student was wearing ear buds and possibly didn’t hear my greeting.  My hopes are that one day we can go back to saying hello, face to face, and not worry about if that person has a FaceBook or a Twitter account.

This addition of brand new and advanced social media focused smart phones, tablets, laptops, gaming consoles, and now even TV’s has been a curse and a blessing. On the up side it allows for new connections, learning, and, even new employment opportunities. On the down side, it has taken a new generation of youth and young adults and created an army of social media zombies. The basic practice of saying hi and talking with friends is some what watered down. Instead of friends hanging out and talking face to face, they have resorted to video chatting, while texting, and playing Call of Duty: Black Ops to fulfill their social needs. Then again maybe I’m just old school and if you are curious I do block game requests. If you see me just say hi, and then we can Facebook each other.

Vineland’s very own Bring the Music festival ’09

By AARON RILEY

Staff Writer

The music is being brought on June 24th, 2009 at Vineland, New Jersey, courtesy of the 2nd Annual Bring the Music festival. Boasting moderately unknown bands, many from the tri-state area, infixed into the smaller and more intimate (at least relative to most venues) setting of the U-Sell Flea Market, the Bring the Music festival has been a successful new concert. Beginning in 2008, the Bring the Music festival has spotlighted lesser-known bands with strong local and online followings, many of which you wouldn’t see at Coachella or the Pitchfork Music festival.

These bands’ vital lifelines of fan support have been achieved primarily though the Internet. In the age of Myspace and Facebook, a striking portion of the problems facing local and regional bands has been thankfully eradicated, leading, for many of them, to record deals. There are still however, bands that continue to be independent, either by choice or by as of yet remaining undiscovered. With that information in mind, festivals like this are important for establishing fanbases for many unrecognized talents.

Bands performing at the festival this year are You, Me, and Everyone We Know, The Morning Of, Go Crash Audio, The Lives of Famous Men, Raccoon Fighter, Where the Ocean Meets the Sky, Losing Ground, A’s Rage, Liam and Me, Eyes on the Prize, Van Atta High, I Know the Struggle, The Crosstown Rivalry, Cheezy and the Crackers, and Cassonova Brown. Expect to see more bands perform that will be announced in the coming weeks. Last year’s Bring the Music festival was held on June 25th, 2008, and included headliners Houston Calls, Person L, and Socratic.

The Bring the Music festival is being held on June 24th, 12:00 PM Noon, at the U-Sell Flea Market, 2896 S. Delsea Dr., Vineland, N.J. 08360. The tickets cost $15 presale and $20 at the door.

What’s the tweet about Twitter

By MELISSA PILEIRO

Editor-in-Chief

A few years ago, the Internet buzzword was “Myspace.” Not long after, it seemed like every college kid in America was getting a Facebook page. Today, the website of the moment is Twitter, and it’s spreading faster than many of its competitors. The secret might be that while social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook tend to attract only young students, Twitter is intriguing just about everyone. Huge media corporations like the BBC and CNN have it, as do many popular celebrities and even politicians.

The sudden incredible popularity of Twitter has left many people on the outside asking one question: what is it, anyway? Put simply, Twitter’s purpose is to answer the simple question “what are you doing?” in 140 characters or less, about the same amount of space allowed for text messages.

Yup, that’s all there is to it.

So what’s the appeal? For most, it’s a way to keep in touch with family, friends, or colleagues without the clutter and busyness of other social networking sites. The length of individual messages, called “tweets,” is short enough for readers to get all the information they need without having to dig through photos, quizzes, and other friends.

For the media, Twitter adds an interesting new dimension to the way news is exchanged. When the Internet first started to gain momentum in the 90s, journalism was revolutionized as the day’s news no longer needed to wait for evening. Twitter is a step up from this almost-immediate gratification that news websites provide. Twitter can be used to post breaking news headlines long before a story is written.

Naysayers believe that Twitter does little more than support personal narcissism. Using the site might leave your friends wondering why you felt the need to tweet “having my morning cup of coffee” or “going to class.” However, those that use it typically have very specific reasons for tweeting, and are thankful that they can keep others informed in a quick, concise way.

You can follow The Voice on Twitter, too! Check us out at http://www.twitter.com/cccvoice.