Practicum Post 6

When I first started using JDate, I thought that talking to random people I had never met before would be really awkward and was hesitant about signing up for an account. While I still find some aspects to be pretty creepy (like guys old enough to be my dad consistently instant messaging and emailing me), I do think that the website has some pretty cool features. One of my favorites is the “Kibitz Corner,” where members answer silly questions like “What was your favorite sitcom growing up?” and “What game show have you always wanted to be on?” When you respond to a question, your answer gets posted to your profile and they can spark a conversation or serve as an icebreaker when talking to someone. I have had in depth conversations with a few people about the merits of my favorite sitcom, Friends, and how I always wanted to be a contestant on The Price is Right so I could hang with Bob Barker. I find these little trivia questions to be a fun change of pace from the typical “what are you studying” and “what’s your favorite sports team” questions that I get all the time.

I also like that every time I go to my homepage on JDate, a list of my matches pops up. The people I’m matched with tend to be from Wisconsin or New Jersey (my home state) and in their 20’s so we definitely do have some things in common. I have even seen a bunch of people from Madison who are right around my age but I’ve been too nervous to initiate a conversation with them and don’t exactly want people to know that I’m a registered JDate user (ha shhh).

After using JDate for a few months, I can’t get past how superficial it all feels. Even though I know people are looking for good conversation and maybe even a potential date, I know that the first thing they look at are your pictures. I can’t help but feel that people place more importance on what you look like rather than the information you list about yourself. I have found that people are not shy about complimenting your appearance right off the bat. While this is flattering at times, it can also be pretty uncomfortable when it’s the first thing said.

I’ll admit that I can be pretty shallow right back. A huge pet peeve of mine is when people misspell words on purpose or use terrible grammar. A 30 year old guy who spells cool as “kool” is immediately not cool in my mind and it brings me back to my middle school days of talking on AOL Instant Messenger for hours at a time.

Practicum Post 6- Jarchow

So after submitting my video and commenting on several other's videos, I still find myself lacking any constant correspondence with other viemo members. However, I think this is a testament to viemo in the fact that unlike youtube, in order for a video to be popular or generate a lot of feedback, it also has to be a genuinely great piece of work. While I may find my film interesting, it doesn't mean it will spark interest in others. Just because I throw it into the vimeo community, does not necessarily mean I will get a response thrown back at me. While other media based sites take pleasure in always having an opinion, vimeo allows a video time to grow and either find an audience or merely be an outlet for a filmmaker to store his films. As I have stated before it is also not a site that is checked with the frequency of a social networking site, therefore to expect regular communication on a daily basis would be naive of me anyway. It would be nice though if my video was at least getting some more views than it has, but it's not for lack of trying.

Practicum #6- Amanda R

I have decided to become more active in the group instead of observing. I added two new friends to my buddy list, put a profile picture on, and added a signature. I have yet to receive any friend requests back though. I have posted another thread on the discussion topic, Knitters Near You. I simply asked if there were any good knitting shops in the Madison area. I am curious to see if anyone responds. I noticed that people all over the world use this website, Australia, China, and Italy. As I read a post by a student going abroad, I noticed that someone responded nearly nine months later. She wrote a pretty lengthy response, however the student probably did not see it. I think if someone has not responded in a certain time frame, the post should be taken down by possibly the moderator.