Essay

Haha, just when I thought I was finished with this blog, I realise we have to post our essay into here as well... whoopsies!
And after researching the topic further I decided to change topic as well, so as for my Week 9 post, it has nothing to do with this.


Jessi Markham
New Communication Technologies
Due Date: 22nd October 2010

Why is privacy such a contentious issue for internet users? Discuss with reference to at least one social network service.

The word 'privacy' has become a loose term in today's culture and has become a contentious issue for many internet users. This essay will be discussing the lack of knowledge people have on the subjects of privacy and ownership in regards to their social network pages. It will also then talk about the implications that this lack of knowledge can create regarding identity. It will further discuss how a lack of privacy settings makes one more 'search able' on the internet and the negative occurrences that have resulted because of the information that people have posted online. Social networks were originally intended to create an easier way of communication between others but it can be questioned as to whether they are really doing this or creating more issues.

Social networks has been quoted as "the way the 21st century communicates today" (Social Networking, http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/, Accessed 18/10/10). Social networks are websites that have been created for people to stay in contact, via the web. People have the ability to blog, post pictures, comments and photos, play games, personalise their page, chat, etc, depending on which social network site one is using (Social Networking, http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/, Accessed 19/10/10). Because of the introduction of Web 2.0, it has resulted in "an explosion in the use of social networks..." (Brooks, 2007, pg1). Social networks have been developed into being a part of the social norm. To put in perspective how important these websites and way of interaction is in our culture, there has recently been a study that has reported that there have officially been over one billion virtual world users, and over half of this statistic comes from users under the age of 15 (Audrey Watters, October 1, ReadWriteWeb.com, Accessed 19/10/10). According to Hui-Yi & Hung-Yuan (2010) the social network website Facebook is first on the Top 20 social networking websites across the globe with a 54.76% of use. Facebook has over 500 million active users currently (Facebook.com, http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet, Accessed 19/10/10). These statistics show how important these websites are in our culture, and therefore how important the way one represents themself is going to become an issue.

Now that it has been established as to how many people use these networking sites, it can be discussed about the privacy issues that surround these websites. When people join a social networking website, most people neglect to read the terms and conditions or the statements of disclosure. But in regards to valuing safety, privacy and ownership, this is a norm that needs to be shifted. Using Facebook as an example, when reading the 'Privacy Policy', it states that Facebook is a website that is based on content (Facebook.com, http://www.facebook.com/policy.php, Accessed 19/10/10). It states that the website uses the content that someone posts on their page, to find out one's interests and then send them applications, events or other information about these findings. This is a demonstration as to how these social network pages are truly owned by the company, not the creator of the page. The content doesn't belong to the uploader, and nothing is actually private. This enhances the example as every part of content that someone posts, or like page, etc, you are working for Facebook and demonstrates why privacy is a contentious issue.

Privacy and safety are closely linked as without privacy settings a person is "less safe". The original intent for social networking sites was for people at college campuses in America to associate with one another. It was not about adding people that were not known to you or seeing how many friends you can add. Without privacy and being discreet about a profile, safety becomes an issue, especially with the younger generation. An example that caused great controversy and many parents to monitor their children's internet usage or force them to delete their profile happened over Myspace, (Myspace, http://www.myspace.com/, Accessed 19/10/10) in October 2006. Megan Meier, a 13 year old who made cyberfriends with a 16 year old boy named Josh, committed suicide because of his comments against her and him dumping her online. Unfortunately, it turned out that Josh was a made up character who was a neighbour. The woman had created Josh to see if Megan was being mean to her daughter. (Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312018,00.html, Accessed 20/10/10). This lack of safety and privacy can result in serious issues if not attended, and although this was an extreme case, it was valid and true. According to Elham and Nehmad (2008) there have been many cases of people adding strangers and it resulting in them knowing their timetables and finding out where they live. This is an additional result of lack of privacy.

An additional negative occurrence, that isn't so severe, but extremely common is job loss due to social networking sites. According to Brooks (2007), employers increasingly are looking at a job applicants' profiles on social networks as part of the recruitment process. The information that is posted, the comments displayed, language used and the pictures that are available to view can prevent applicants from receiving a job based on their behaviour, representation and attitude. Not only do social networks deprive people of receiving jobs, but it also has resulted in people losing their jobs. Examples of this are displayed all over the web. One example is, (Applicant, http://applicant.com/how-to-lose-a-job-via-facebook-in-140-characaters-or-less/, Accessed 21/10/10) a girl expressing her hate for work and boss on Facebook. She was oblivious or forgot that she had her boss as one of her friends. This resulted in her boss commenting on her status and she got fired. This again proves that privacy is a current issue on social networking sites.

In conclusion, privacy is a contentious issue at hand that needs to be thoroughly addressed. There are many pitfalls to the knowledge of privacy and ownership and this leads to things such as job loss, and in extreme cases death. Being oblivious to terms and conditions or who people are friends on social networks, have been ending on bad terms. Social networks are the way of communicating for the future, so warning people on the importance of privacy is clearly something that needs to be addressed.

(Yes, it's over!)

References

Audrey Watters,
Read Write Web,
Written 1st October,
"Number of Virtual World Users Breaks 1 Billion , Roughly Half Under Age 15",
Copyright 2010,
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/number_of_virtual_world_users_breaks_the_1_billion.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29,
Accessed 19/10/10

What is Social Networking,
Copyright 2009,
http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/,
Accessed 18/10/10

Facebook
Facebook Fact Sheet,
Copyright 2010,
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet,
Accessed 19/10/10

Fox News.com
Written 16th November 2007,
"Mom: Myspace Hoax Led to Daughter's Suicide"
Copyright 2010
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312018,00.html
Accessed 21/10/10

Today People,
Mike Celizic
Written 19/11/2007
"Parents of Myspace Victim Hoax Seek Justice"
Copyright 2010 msnbc.com
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21882976
Accessed 21/10/10

Facebook
Facebook Privacy Policy,
Copyright 2010,
http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
Accessed 19/10/10

Hui-Yi & Hung-Yuan, 2010, "Use Behaviors and Website Experiences of Facebook Community", 2010 International Conference on Electronics and Information Engineering, Taiwan, Copyright 2010

Lewis Goodings, Abigail Locke, Steven D. Brown, 21sy May 2007, "Social Networking Technology: Place and Identity in Mediated Communities", Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, Volume 17, Published by Wiley InterScience, Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons. Ltd, http://www.interscience.wiley.com/

Fogel & Nehmad, September 2008, "Internet Social Network Communities: Risk Taking, Trust, and Privacy Concerns", Elsevier Journal: Computers in Human Behaviour, Copyright 2008 Elsevier Ltd.

Luan Goldie, 7th October 2008, "Social Networks Open to Support Over Privacy" News Media Age Newspaper, Page 2, nma.co.uk, Copyright 2008, United Kingdom

Gary Brooks, 8th February 2007, "Friends on Social Networks Can Be a Threat to Your Privacy", News Media Age Newspaper, Page 16, nma.co.uk, Copyright 2007, United Kingdom

Jennie Starr, "Social Netowrks: Another Avenue to New Books and Friends", Searcher 16.6, (2008), Expanded Academic ASAP, Web, 19th October 2010,
http://find.galegroup.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=EAIM&docId=A179978774&source=gale&srcprod=EAIM&userGroupName=griffith&version=1.0

Lecture Summary Week 10

So week 10. How exciting, the last post for this assignment.

Media/ Technology- Environment

It isn't just all the trees and birds, it is everything that surrounds us. It is where we live, what we do, etc. It is practically everything.

We have to stop and look at what we take for granted. We have to learn to appreciate the environment around us. Ha. We took take the literal approach to "stop and smell the roses".

The Invisible Environment is was a big factor of this lecture.

It is what I got out of it most.

An intelligent man named MuLan in 1969 said, "Present is always invisible because it is the environment."

It is like that when we are breathing, we don't even notice it until someone points it out.

When something changes, it changes our reaction. Going on with the breathing example, when we are out of breathe, it changes our breathing pattern, and we notice because we are louder and we are puffed and cannot talk and breathe how we would like/prefer to.

According to MuLan, the invisible environment needs to become visible to us.

We are all producers and consumers of content. Due to the open idea of the internet. We can all upload and download, edit, post, explore, etc.

The internet encouraged the idea of creative commons and free software and it has made life a lot more accessible for people. These products are not under the control of everyone and it gives the idea that you, as a consumer, have choice.

This is the main points I got out of this lecture

Course Evaluation

Well, well, well...

Time to evaluate this course.
I could take the approach and suck up and say that I loved it but then I would be lying.
Being blatantly honest, these three hours a week were probably the most mind boggling and confusing hours of my university life.

The Lectures:
The lectures were very entertaining and motivated you to stay alert. I did not understand why we discussed some of the content that we did and it did take me some outside research to understand what most of the concepts were.
It was refreshing though to see some lecturers that were generally passionate and relaxed about their content, which made the presentation of the lecture not so typically boring.
I did learn a lot in the lecturers and I am glad that I actually attended all of them as without the lectures I do not understand how you would pass this course.

The Tutorials:
I liked the structure of the tutorials. It was awesome that we had access to the computers.
It was good to be challenged and I did get to learn a lot of new skills. Firstly, I had the opportunity to learn how to use an IMac, which is completely different to the typical PC.
I never would have considered ever doing a blog, so although I found it more frustrating then anything, it was good that I got to have a go at doing one. I learned that I would not bother making one for personal use because they constantly come up with having technical problems, or having a HTML error.
I also enjoyed when we debated about certain topics that we had to evaluate in the TuteSparks. I found it really interesting to see what others thought on the issues, especially the people in our lectures that were from other generations.

Overall:
It was a pretty good subject and was glad that it turned to be compulsory as I would have missed out on these opportunities if it wasn't.

Week 9 Tutorial

The tutorial task this week was to look at the essay topics and to discuss the ideas about it.

I was looking at the topics, and this one appears to be the most appealing to me:

How do social media change our understanding of individual identity, with regard to the kinds of people we have in our social networks?

Well, this is just kind of a brainstorm:

• On social networks people can represent themselves in any way they like, to an extent by the pictures they post, the links they like, etc.
• People represent themselves even through small things like punctuation. You are usually seen as illiterate or 'cool'. 'Howes yu dai?' or simple 'how r u?' is different from 'How are you?'
  
• People may have different accounts that certain friends don't have to represent themselves in different ways. Like on Facebook, someone biography may be completely different to the biography they display on a dating website. And they can get away with it, because unlike Facebook or Myspace, their close friends who know them really well cannot tell that they are faking their identity.
• Does this create a type of schizophrenia or paranoia? And is it difficult to keep up with the different personalities?
• Does this relate to sociology and it's concepts to being able to adapt to certain environments?
• Do people refrain from saying certain things on their social networks in fear of offending people?
  
• People do have different groups of people on their networks. For example they may have religious friends or party friends or ethnic friends and therefore restrains them from expressing their personal and actual opinion.
  

Clearly this needs to be researched and built on but this is my brainstorm. :) Good start I think, now to execute the essay...

Week 9 Lecture Summary

CyberPunk and William Gibson

The lecture this week was about the genre of 'Cyberpunk' and an author of the genre named William Gibson.

Originally I thought cyberpunk was a person or a subculture that existed of some sort of technical speak for 'hacker'. But not quite. I was a tad far off.

To my personal understanding the concept of 'cyberpunk' is actually a genre. Like romance and drama, it is a genre. It is actually a sub-genre of sci-fi. It is a hybrid genre that tries to make sense of this world.

But back to the lecture...

Cyberpunk was described as a gritty aesthetic. It is surrounded by decay and lust. It is surrounded by high technology that humans are fused to machine.

It has a questionable morality. It revolves around opportunism, theft and murder. It is very selfish.

It is kind of like technology. Even new technology, something brand new and it still breaks or crashes.

There is no 'love' in cyberpunk. It is all based on seduction. It is all about getting what you want. You want information (in this case, technology) and this information is everywhere, yet no where, all at the same time.

Although cyberpunk is meant to make sense of the world it believes that the world sucks: existential malaise. We just live but there is no point.

William Gibson writes cyberpunk literature.

List of books: http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/books/books.asp

He is very important for this genre, as his books comprehend the idea of this genre properly.

He is aware that the world won''t get shiner or better and that once information is online, it can never properly be deleted. So he incorporates these ideas into his books.

PRINTED TEE DAY!!

So today has been a very successful 'Printed Tee Day for a Good Cause' to raise awareness of 'Supporting an Age Restriction (16) on Energy Drinks'.

We had 206 saying that they were attending and 65 maybes.

We took photos of some people with their supporting signs, which are posted on a group page.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122432564473500

It has been a really fun day, fun experience and all for a good cause.

Week 8 TuteSpark and Activity

This tutorial is really difficult because cyberpunk is still a foreign term for me. I understand what it is, but I am still finding it difficult to understand its depth.

Negative Impact of technology on humanity: In a cyberpunked near-future, technology runs rampant, and usually manipulates most societal interactions. Dystopian near futures are very common, but so are futures where the impacts of specific technologies are played out in a world only slightly different from the present. Sacred societal boundaries are often crossed with regularity. Often the earth is severely damaged. Crime and drug use are often key supporting themes.

Fear. It is a really common element in the world. The fear of sickness, death, etc.

Although millions of people communicate through mobile phones, many people fear their effects.

One negative impact on technology was through the video that went viral, about the popcorn.

'>http://www.youtube.com/v/V94shlqPlSI?fs=1&hl=en_US"> name="allowFullScreen" value="true">'>http://www.youtube.com/v/V94shlqPlSI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385">

This video went viral through emails when it came out, showing what the radiation of our mobile phones can do to us. This creates so much fear in people, that it actually created a small drop in the amount of calls being made, and text messages statistics went up slightly.

http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/mobile-phone-makers-accused-of-hidden-health-warnings-10535

is an article about radiation and the hidden health effects that the radiation of the mobile.