Matthew Pernell's Online Journal

What the Web doesn't Know

"The Red Ring Of Death" a.k.a "The Three Red Lights", will return 3,510,000 results from a google search! (the three red lights will retun 95,900,000!!!) For those unfamiliar of this phrase, this would seem rather irelevant to anything, but if you were the proud owner of the famed XBOX 360, it would mean the rapture. The ads on t.v and the internet has made this seemingly beautiful piece of hardware irresistable for millions of people. Then we(yes I own one too)must find out later about the reported 30-33% FAILURE RATE! Though this situation may seem trivial, it reoccurs everyday through newer meduims such as Facebook and Myspace. No longer do we have bias information about products, but now we can get it about the people around us.

When I say bias, I do not mean false or faulty. I also by no means mean to belittle Facebook or Myspace; as I use both. I simply wish to caution the miss use of websites. As a student of Case Western Reserve University, I have seen many of my friends on Facebook. Many I saw before the school year began. I would say few of these accounts properly represent them. No, my friends are not liars, but there is much more to them. The web only shows the part of people that THEY can express. What one can miss on the web is the part of them that they might not necessarily know is there.

A better example is the Case website. The site is very thorough and helpful, but it cannot nearly define Case. It may show what we as students can and are required to do, but it can't show the interaction between us. Many of my friends were surprised when they arrived. All of us had been through the website and thought Case was boring and all study. There is alot of studying but the shared difficulty of classes between friends makes the environment feel much better.

A closer reprsentation of Case can be found in the physical writing. This writing is us communicating with the students around us. This is what better defines us. (Though one must ignore the peniuses)Though the web is useful, it cannot take place of the physical. It cannot hold the meaning of postcard or properly define a being.

thanks to: www.IGN.COM for the Info

Moment of Silence for all the 360's...........................you will always be in our hearts.