Final Week #2

Throughout this class I have learned many things regarding New Media and Web 2.0 sites. One of the most important things I have learned is that social networking sites are utilized by human resources departments as a type of preliminary screening during their hiring practices. Another important thing I learned was the 'digital divide;' this has to do with the availability of types of new media technologies based on an individual's region or area where they live. I also learned about the ways social and political movements utilize new media and the internet for political campaigns and organization; this was through my own research and writing for the final paper.

My favorite thing about this class is the relevance to today's media world. Most things we covered in this course will be important and relevant for much of my life because it is regarding new technologies that have prevailed into popularity. Some people today are uninformed regarding the use of internet web 2.0 services and the knowledge I acquired in this class will benefit me for years to come.

My least favorite thing about this class was that it was entirely online. I'm used to meeting my fellow classmates and the instructor of my class, so having online classes takes away the face-to-face interactions I find most beneficial to learning. That aside, I don't believe there was anything I disliked about the course. A possible improvement I'd suggest would be to make this course a hybrid class; by having the class meet in person once a week, it would be easier for students to understand what is expected if them and it would allow the students to meet their classmates and the instructor.

~T

Final Week #1

This class exposed me to a plethora of interesting and fascinating concepts. One of the readings I found most interesting came from Jordan's "A Virtual Death and a Real Dilemma." Swenson's blog about an imaginary daughter dying caught my interest immediately; I wasn't so interested in her 'lie,' but instead in the amount of people attracted to the blog! Thousands of people were concerned about a girl they had never met before, but they felt connected with her because they had be interacting with her blog online. This event exemplified the possibilities of online fraud, internet security, internet communities, and questions of morality online; this was so interesting to me because I never see people as passionate about strangers through face-to-face interactions, yet online, these people seemed to care a great deal about this young girl! Another aspect of this dilemma I found interesting was the fact that if skeptics of Swenson's blog weren't so adamant in figuring out the true identity of the person posting the blogs, there would have be no dramatic after-effects.

~T

Men Beware of Beautiful Beasts.

For my new media related article, I stumbled across an article from Time’s Techland regarding Facebook scams. According to a Daily Mail survey, men are more likely to be friend a stranger and share personal information, especially if the image on the profile is an attractive female. Images of buff/attractive men didn’t show the same results for women adding strangers. This isn’t surprising to me considering lonely men aren’t necessarily considering the possibility that the attractive female could try to scam him, but instead just wants to look at her pictures.

The article continues on explaining that people accessing social networking sites from mobile devices and other new technologies may also increase risk for fraudulent activity. I try my best not to access my Facebook frequently or on computers that aren’t mine. Though, this isn’t because I’m worried about fraud, but instead I try not to use the site often because I don’t enjoy it like I used to. There are some tips that explain what kind of things regarding a “stranger” trying to friend you should make you see ‘red flags.’ So, thanks to Keith Wagstaff for “Men More likely to Befriend Sexy Strangers in Facebook Scams.” This article can be found at: http://techland.time.com/2011/11/11/men-more-likely-to-befriend-sexy-strangers-in-facebook-scams/?iid=tl-main-feature

Enjoy,

~T

The World Wide Web

This reading was an enlightening view of the beginning of the World Wide Web's (W3) development. One of the main points made by the authors was to highlight the fact that prevailing technologies do not necessarily need to be the best, but simply good enough; the factors stated that are most helpful to a technology's success are price, availability, and open standards. This is interesting because humans are inherently lazy with certain mental processes. For example, if we know a certain way to get to a final destination, we usually take that route instead of finding the fastest because our knowledge is 'good enough.'

Another main point of the article explains what the world wide web defines. It defines a boundless information world where all information can be received and re-referenced as necessary through the address system (URI). There's a network protocol that helps increase performance and features of the markup language (HTML) used to transmit text or images.

The third main point I've chosen to highlight involves the system's future as the developers hope to construct it. Many of these future hopes have been met like more exciting interfaces, access to for-profit services (online shopping), real time features (conferences/gaming), and the ability for non-professional users to also publish online.

A Virtual Death and A Real Dilemma

Facebook becomes a Dogooder Partner!

Finally! I've been complaining much of my last ten years alive about consumers' lack of concern with issues regarding environmental and social justice, humanitarianism, and purchasing local goods from local retailers. According to an article posted by David Cohen, a site called TheDoGooder.com offers discounts for Facebook users so long as the things they purchase as ecologically/economically friendly.

Reading this post brought a smile to my face because people always love wasting their money, but rarely focus their funds towards bettering our planet. Hopefully this website's discounts are incentive enough for people to start spending more of their money more consciously. The conspicuous consumption of global north countries is the leading cause of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere and also forces people in the global south to live in impoverished nations.

Check out this post if you're interested.

~T

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-deals-greem-2011-11

Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy

Karen McCullagh's article Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy, had some interesting information regarding bloggers. Unfortunately, they can be properly generalized for all bloggers due to their non-random participants.

One main point of the article was regarding the cluster concept of privacy; there exists three aspects according to McCullagh. First is informational privacy, which states that an individual has the right to control their personal information and who else this info is disclosed to. Second is accessibility privacy, which should protect people from wiretapping, peeping Tom's, or other physical encroachments. The third aspect is expressive privacy, which states individuals should have the ability to freely act and interact as they desire without fear of scrutiny or being forced to conform to the existing social norms.

Another point the author makes is that one third of the participants were concerned with privacy of personal information. This relates to both their blog's audience and the things they chose to post. Audience members of a blog could be known to the blogger (real life friends) or they could be some random people in cyberspace. Bloggers explained that personal info, emotions, sex, relationships, arguments, financial info, work, health info, illegal activities, politics, and religion were all topics that can at times be too private to post.

Finally, I believe one of the study's main points is found in the discussion where the author talks about the archiving of blogs and how it could lead to issues later if tracked back to the blogger. By assuming privacy, bloggers are at greater risk and should consider the privacy mechanisms explained in the article. Without them, one day an old naive post could negatively affect the changed and grown blogger.

~T