According to Pew Internet here are some observations about teens and driving distractions

*overall, 34% of teen texters ages 16-17 say they have texted while driving. That translates into 26% of all American teens ages 16-17.

---One high School student said this “I think texting's fine…And I wear sunglasses so the cops don’t see my eyes looking down.”

*At the same time, texting at the wheel is less common than having a conversation on the phone while driving. Looking at teens ages 16-17 who have a cell phone, 52% say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17.

*Fully 73% of texting teens ages 16-17 have been in a car when the driver was texting.

According to Pew Internet :The revolutionary file-sharing application created by college student Shawn Fanning officially launched in June of 1999. By November, the file-sharing network had grown so popular that it had attracted the first of many peer-to-peer-focused lawsuits from the RIAA. And by the time the Pew Internet Project fielded its initial survey on music file-sharing in July 2000, nearly one in four adult internet users said they had downloaded music files, and most of them (54%) had used the Napster network to do so.

Sharing music without permission is a violation of copyright, as the industry contends, but digital technology makes downloading music off the Internet inevitable. The industry missed an opportunity to turn informal file-sharing into a profit center when it failed to buy Napster, the first of the popular downloading services, when it had a chance in 2000

the success of the Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails experiments would be the prologue to an industry-wide loosening of the ties around digital distribution. Shortly after the RIAA had announced the end to its litigation against individual file sharers at the end of 2008, iTunes halted the sale of music bundled with “digital rights management” protection.

Alan Khazie

Alan Khazei is a candidate running for U.S Senate. Mr. Khazei joined us here at American International College to talk to students, faculty, etc about health care, he is a democratic candidate,His Parents were a Nurse and a Doctor, and his Co-Chair is Smidy Pignitelli. Mr. Khazei talked about how 30 million people don't have health insurance in America. He is committed to get universal health care , with public options such as cost going down, and creating alternative wellness programs. he has innovative solutions such as reducing obesity and smoking. Mr. Khazei also talked about the race to good health fund which i think is a great idea for people looking to have healthier habits.

For more information on Alan Khazei his website is alanforsenate.com

Teens and Technology

-According to Pew Internet Older teens, aged 15-17, go online more frequently than younger teens. Some 59% of wired teens aged 15-17 go online once a day or more, while 43% of younger teens report going online that frequently.

-Teens with married parents are significantly more likely to go online than teens of single parents. Eighty-nine percent of teens with parents who are married go online compared to 76% of teens with parents who are divorced, separated, widowed, or who have never been married.

- Among whites, 87% of teens say they go online. Similarly, 89% of Hispanic youth in this study say they go online. By comparison, 77% of African-American youth go online.

Generations on the Internet

-Teens and Generation Y (internet users age 18-32) are the most likely groups to use the internet for entertainment and for communicating with friends and family.

-Older generations use the internet less for socializing and entertainment and more as a tool for information searches, emailing, and buying products.

-Generation X (internet users ages 33-44) continues to lead in online shopping and online banking. Fully 80% of Generation X internet users buy products online, compared with 71% of internet users ages 18-32.

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Internet and Civic Engagement

1.According to Pew Internet.com the internet is not changing the socio-economic character of civic engagement in America. Just as in offline civic life, the well-to-do and well-educated are more likely than those less well off to participate in online political activities such as emailing a government official, signing an online petition or making a political contribution.

2.In August 2008 a survey done by Pew Internet found that 33% of internet users had a profile on a social networking site and that 31% of these social network members had engaged in activities with a civic or political focus.

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5.Those who use blogs or social networking sites politically are much more likely to be invested in other forms of civic and political activism. Compared to those who go online but do not post political or social content or to those who do not go online in the first place.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nobel_peace

This link Shares with us that President Barak Obama has won The Nobel Peace Prize.

Many Americans are asking what has President Obama really accomplished? I disagree President Obama has captured the worlds attention and given people hope for the future.

Read this article and give your own opinions of President Obama recieving The Nobel Peace Prize.

Political Sites

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/index.html

-This Site seemed pretty cool and interesting id probably spend some time wandering through it.

http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/

-i liked this site because it was one of the only ones that had design or color. it draws you in unlike many that are just very boring.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/

-I chose this site because i think it would be cool to look around at whats happening in Europe, and not just on a world news site.

Percentages of Online Access

1. All Whites (75%) All Blacks (59%) English-Speaking Hispanics (80%) 73% of the population reports using the internet or email.
2. percentages of using internet:18-29 Years Old (90%) 30-49 Years Old (85%) 50-64 Years Old (70%) 65+ Years Old (35%) No High School Degree (44%) College Graduates (91%) <$30K Income (53%) >$75K Income (95%) Men (73%) Women (73%)
3. 55%of the population reports using a high-speed connection (e.g., DSL, cable, wireless) when accessing the internet from home.
4. Percentage of population using a high-speed connection from home: Whites (56%) Blacks (41%) English-Speaking Hispanics (55%) 18-29 Years Old (69%) 30-49 Years Old (68%) 50-64 Years Old (49%) 65+ Years Old (19%) No High School Degree (29%) College Graduates (78%) <$30K Income (31%) >$75K Income (82%) Men (57%) Women (52%) High School Graduates (39%) Urban (56%) Suburban (59%) Rural (38%)
5. 73% of the population reports owning a cell phone.

Degrees of Access (May 2008 data)

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Degrees of Access (May 2008 data)

View more presentations from Pew Internet & American Life Project, Pew Research Center.

internet usage: men vs women

In most categories of internet activity, more men than women are participants, but women are catching up.

-overall this might be true i agree that women are catching up,more and more things are becoming available and women are becoming more interested.

Men are more avid consumers than women of online information. Men look for information on a wider variety of topics and issues than women do.

-women usually just use online for what they need ,men can spend hours just parusing the internet, i can see where they are coming from when they use this statistic.

Men are more interested than women in technology, and they are also more tech savvy.

-i feel like im really tech savvy i guess this just depends on who you are

Men are more likely than women to use the internet as a destination for recreation. Men are more likely to: gather material for their hobbies, read online for pleasure, take informal classes, participate in sports fantasy leagues, download music and videos, remix files, and listen to radio.

-basically these stats are saying men use the internet for everything no matter what, they are attached at the hip to their computer, maybe its because you can have everything at the tips of ur fingers and men are usually lazy which makes this understandable.

More online men than women perform online transactions. Men and women are equally likely to use the internet to buy products and take part in online banking, but men are more likely to use the internet to pay bills, participate in auctions, trade stocks and bonds, and pay for digital content.

- women want to check their bank and go shopping right from the get go why bother in auctions and trade stocks and bonds its not appealing.

Bonding and Bridging

Today we were asked to find websites that have a bonding and bridging social capital, a bonding website is a site that people go to that share the same interest it brings people together and i believe that these three sites do just that.

1.)fulltilt.com- an online poker website where people from all over the world can join in on their passion for poker, play against each other and play with real money.

2.)facebook.com- an online website where you get to keep in contact with friends who live far away or the ones right in your area, a site where bonding is its main idea, a social networking site.

3.)ebay.com-an online site where people all over can share their passion for selling and buying products online, a shoppers paradise for things that might be discontinued or a way to make quick money off things you don't want anymore.

Bridging websites are sites that have everything a big variety that people go to to come together.Here are some that i believe are bridging websites.

1.) diospringfield.com a site about faith, and a site that has all the churches in Springfield,ma you can pretty much find what you are looking for at this website.

2.)aic.edu our schools website for American International College, this site has everything from academics, to sports, to your school schedule, many different ideas put into one site.

FCC is taking a stand

According to newtorkworld.com, we were able to hear about the news of the federal communications commission who is trying to take a stand against the information superhighway from becoming a toll toad giving preferential treatment for those who pay for it. To make this easier to understand it means they are trying to slow us down, you would have to pay more for your Internet services to receive the highest speed Internet and if you pay less you are basically at the bottom of the barrel think of it as going back to dial-up. I had found that this quote from the site made me realize what it really means if this is passed:

"imagine if private companies owned the highways and had the ability to control which lanes you could drive in based on your ability to pay. Large corporate customers with enormous budgets would get to fly by in the left lane of the highway. Smaller businesses and individuals who can afford it would get to drive on the slower highway lanes-frequently slowed down by frustrating construction projects. Average consumers would not be allowed on the highway at all. They would be forced to drive on surface streets-plodding along at a snail's pace, constantly interrupted by stop signs and street lights."

I hope the FCCs stand against this is works because i'm sure pretty much everyone is so used to having the fastest internet and in doing this not everyone is going to be able to pay for the highest speed, and the thought of having a snails pace aka dial-up makes me want to spoon my eyes out.

Internet World Stats

In our Internet Communications class we were asked to find five points about internet world statistics according to internetworldstats.com here is what i found interesting that others might as well. The country of Asia has the largest amount of internet users while the oceania users are at 1.3 %. Egypt is the number 1 internet user in Africa. The United States total internet users is 251,735,500. Also, in Europe 24.6% of the population are online which does not accumulate to very many. I hope these findings were as interesting to others reading as they were to myself.