Your Working For Facebook For Free

Hey guys, back again for another blog post. This post is about something incredibly disturbing I learned about this week in my social networking class. It should come as no surprise that of all the social networking sites today, Facebook knows the most about you. The funny thing is people WILLINGLY give Facebook pieces of information about themselves, and don't realize that now Facebook owns this information and can do just about anything with it. This even came as a surprise to me when I read this post called "5 Ways Facebook Owns You"

In the article, it explains the story of a young girl who had been the victim of cyber-bullying. She was gang raped at the age of 15, and suffered from extreme depression. Her depression stemmed from leaked photos of her appearing on a dating site ad on Facebook without her consent. Bullied by her peers over the photos on the site, she eventually killed herself.

That unfortunate story is just one way Facebook can utilize your information. According to Facebook's "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities" agreement, Facebook has the right "to use your name, profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced." In other words, Facebook uses you like a free advocate and spokesperson of certain products, and advertises it to all of your friends on the site. But you knew that already right?

Facebook (along with other sites like Google and telecommunication companies) acts like the black market of data mining, and every company trying to sell you something wants a taste. Facebook finds out what products you buy, where you shop online, and what interests you based on websites you post about or frequently visit, and sells this information to companies that think they have something you may want. Cunning move, Facebook.

All and all, we can't blame Facebook. There just using what you give them. You wouldn't scold a 6  year old for crashing your car if you gave him the keys and told him "Go have fun!" would you? One thing you can do though is limit what they know about you. The less they know, the more you know your not willingly participating to be the face of Cialis. Till next time - Romo

"Breaking Zombies"

Hey guys, just hitting you guys with some of my recent work from my illustration class. There are two projects I'm uploading tonight and the first one is a project im still experimenting with. The objective of the assignment was to design a poster advertising a television show. If you couldn't tell by the illustration, I've become a serious Breaking Bad fan. The portrait is of Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) and is done in ink and graphite. After I uploaded the picture to my iPad, I started playing around with some the different filters and got a really interesting effect in my opinion. Like I said earlier, this is for a poster so its obviously not finished yet but I was really proud of this portrait so I figured I would upload it anyway. I'm pretty sure I know how I'm going to finish up the project but if you guys have any ideas of what I should include on the poster please feel free to comment.

 "Walter White" (1st one has "transfer" filter, 2nd has "process" filter, 3rd has no filter)

"Zombie self portrait"

This last picture is a self portrait project where we had to draw ourselves but as a different character. I had recently seen the movie "World War Z" and I decided I would go for the zombie theme. Just like my Walter White portrait, the medium I made this with was ink and graphite. Hope you guys like em 

A class I will use for the rest of my life

Hey, guys! As you may or may not know, I am currently a college student at Stockton, and I wanted to post some weekly updates on my some off my classes as well as my art postings.

One class that I have really been enjoying this semester is actually not an art class all, but instead falls under one of my general courses. The class is called "Exploring your Digital Toolbox" and is a class I can honestly say I will be using in the real world, (unlike my applications of Math course, blah). The course teaches us how to really utilize all the applications and devices that have become so readily available with modern day technology.

Throughout the weeks we have been reading out of our textbook "The Connected Educator," by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and this week the reading was about PLN, or personal learning networks. The  chapter really gets down to the specifics and answers questions like "How do you build a Personal Learning Network?" "How do you know who to follow, and who to leave alone?" The chapter really shows you how to build a find and build your community (Now here's what I was talking about when I said this is a class that I would be using in the real world). Let's say I am an Art Teacher and its my first time writing a course curriculum and I have no idea where to start. The chapter gives you the tools to join or build your own online community that allows you to converse with and engage fellow art teachers about their disciplines.

Apart from the readings, we also get some quality hands on instruction from people across the globe via video chat. This week we chatted virtually with a man (whose name escapes me unfortunately) and got to experiment with Google Drive. In Google Drive, we learned how to create quality business forms and even had the chance to make forms for each other to fill out. Generating the forms was simple and effective, yet without the hands-on crash course I would have most likely never learned how to create and utilize it.

Recent Self Portrait

Hey guys this is a recent portrait I did of myself. The medium is Oil on canvas and it took me about 4 hours to complete. I hope you guys enjoy it and please don't hesitate to leave some feedback. Thanks!