Essay

Social networks such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter have dramatically changed society’s understanding of individual identity by blurring the definition of what a ‘friend’ is. Today’s society is so closely entwined with the way in which it uses social networking sites. Because of this, privacy issues and social identity have become pressing issues which are still in the progress of an effective solution being found.

Many terms and phrases have been lost, or had their meaning changed because of social networking, so too has the aspect of the word ‘friend’. dictionary.com defines a friend as “a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard. This traditional meaning has been completely lost in the modern world of social networking. On Facebook, to have someone as your friend basically means nothing at all, it simply means you have access to each others information and photos. Marc Meyers states the new definition of “friend - means absolutely nothing anymore. All it means is that we have allowed the other into our networks, or vice-versa. Soon we will have to qualify what kind of friend you or they actually are.” He also believes because the definition of friend has been modernized, so has the definition of “relationship - the definition of the relation connecting or binding participants in a relationship would seem to closely align itself with today's social networks. However, some now think that relationships can be built on the thinnest of determinants.” Meyers believes the culture has changed so much because of the introduction of digital media and states “Like it or not, Social networking is redefining terms of “social endearment. It's forever changing the etymology of commonly used words; and I would say easily within a few years it will completely alter their understanding and perception as younger generations continue to evolve as digitals' new natives.” The use of social networking has created a whole new culture within the new generations.

There have been many cases, particularly on Facebook, where individual identity has been destroyed or used for irresponsible purposes. One such incident was the concoction of Kate Miller’s party, you can check it out here. Basically, a Facebook invitation was made for Kate’s birthday, the invitation however, was left open and not made a private invitation to only Kate’s friends. People then began inviting themselves and inviting their friends to this event. Before the event page was taken down the number of attendees had reached 60, 000. This caused major media attention and coverage over the internet and on television, even the police in Adelaide were preparing for 60, 000 people to arrive in the area the party was planned. Luckily only a few bored teenagers ended up arriving at the address, which was the best case scenario. Although there was no person named Kate Miller and the event was just a hoax by Adelaide prankster, David Thorne, exposing the flaws of Facebook’s privacy system, it just as easily could be real. The incident spawned hundreds of pages about Kate such as “Ted Mosby met your mother at Kate's Party.” “What happens at Kate's, stays at Kate's” “I need to go tracksuit shopping for kate's party” and “Sorry Kesha, The party actaully starts when Kate walks in.” Facebook absolutely ruined the individual identity of “Kate Miller” in just a few days. If she was a real person, she would never be able to get away from that incident with hundreds of the mock pages and such available for viewing on Facebook.

Another contributor to the way in which individual identity is changed and damaged because of misuse on social networking sites is Twitter. Stephanie Rice is an example of recent of damaging individual identity because of a social network. The Hearlad Sun reported that “Remarking after the Wallabies' two-point win over the Springboks in South Africa on Saturday night, Rice - who has left the Commonwealth Games team due to injury - tweeted: "Suck on that f--gots," adding: "Probably the best game I've ever seen!! Well done boys." This Tweet gained Australia wide attention and put the spotlight on Rice and her image. This ill-intended Tweet has cause major controversy for the Olympic athlete. A majority of the controversy came from Ian Roberts, an openly gay athlete and “one of only a handful of openly gay athletes and a devoted gay-rights advocate, dismissed it as "inexcusable". She is an idiot ... and anyone who continues to endorse her as an athlete is an idiot as well," Roberts fumed. "And I say that with a very sad tone in my voice. What a fool. And if her sponsors don't do something about it, they're fools as well." The controversy created has cause sponsor Jaguar to drop Stephanie Rice which will cause a blow to her current financial standing. All of this because of one little message posted in the heat of the moment, with no harm meant, can totally alter the publics opinion of an individual identity.

Social networking websites let a person become whoever they want to be. That’s what many people find so alluring about it. But many people do not think about or even register the risks involved when using a social network site. Social networking sites have the ability to change, destroy or create individual identity through many ways. This is why users must be smart and careful when using individual identities because they can easily be targeted as what you say on the internet will be there forever.

References:

<www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/friend

Meyer, M 2010, Social networks are redefining what a friend or a relationship really is, viewed 20 October 2010, http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/203682>

Ramadge, A 2010, Kate's party hoax takes aim at Facebook privacy, viewed 19 October 2010, <http://www.news.com.au/technology/kates-party-prank-takes-aim-at-facebook-privacy/story-e6frfro0-1225858792605>

The Herald Sun, 2010, Ian Roberts slams Stephanie Rice's anti-gay twitter comment, viewed 19 October 2010, <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/confidential/ian-roberts-slams-stephanie-rices-anti-gay-twitter-comment/story-e6frf96x-1225914489396>

course evaluation

I have found this course to be very intersting and has provided me with knowledge and skills i did not have before. There was so much information to go over in such a short time, i feel like we didn't really get a chance to go into anything with too much detail because of time restraints. But overall the lectures were really fun but still gave us the information we needed, even if sometimes it was a bit all over the place. Another unexpected thing was the amount of talent with technology that was needed for this course. All the uploading, embedding and filming was a bit difficult to begin with, but in the end it has now become another skill I can take away from this course. It has really made me think about the way technology affects and influences people from news stories, to blog and culture jams. It was a really good course, both entertaining and not too difficult. Probably my favourite subject this semester.

choosing essay question

After looking over the essay questions many time, i have worked it down to two. Now i just need to pick one. The first one is "Why is privacy such a contentious issue for internet users? Discuss with reference to at least ONE social network service (or other web2.0 service)." and the second one is "How do social media change our understanding of individual identity, with regard to the kinds of people we have in our social networks?"
As a member of Gen Y, these topics are basically our first language. Facebook has become every teenagers mst used website without doubt. Because of this, I think I'm going to go with the essay question, "How do social media change our understanding of individual identity, with regard to the kinds of people we have in our social networks?"
This should be an intersting topic to do it on.

weel 9 lecture

the week 9 ;ecture was all about cyberpunk. The works of William Gibson really interests me also. I hadn't heard about him until the lecture. The whole concept of the dystopian world is obviously ver popular, just have a look at a lot of the box office hits. The language was a bit complicated duing the lecture but overall i think i understood the concept and the main reasons we are learning about it.

week 8 - tutespark

Cyber Punk

Combing a news story on artificial skin with the film, iRobot.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/robotics-breakthrough-scientists-make-artificial-skin/story-e6frfro0-1225920548036

Scientists make artificial skin that can feel touch

By Richard Ingham in Paris From: AFP September 13, 2010 10:02AM
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BIOTECH wizards have engineered electronic skin that can sense touch in a major step towards next-generation robotics and prosthetic limbs. This advancement will progress the already rising commercial success of U.S. Robotics (USR). The highly anticipated new NS-5 robots being developed by USR will incorporate this new technology.

Important hurdles remain but the exploit is an advance towards replacing today's clumsy robots and artificial limbs with smarter, touch-sensitive upgrades, they believe. The lab-tested material responds to almost the same pressures as human skin and with the same speed, they said in the British journal Nature Materials.

"Humans generally know how to hold a fragile egg without breaking it," said Ali Javey, an associate professor of computer sciences at the University of California at Berkeley, who led one of the research teams. "If we ever wanted a robot that could unload the dishes, for instance, we'd want to make sure it doesn't break the wine glasses in the process. But we'd also want the robot to grip the stock pot without dropping it."

If this is the case, the advancement from the current robots on offer from USR would be radical. Current robots available for purchase act simply as babysitters, house sitters and skill lacking housekeepers. This new advancement of human like skin would be a much awaited advancement that, when applied, will be a commercial success.

A different approach was taken by a team led by Zhenan Bao, a Chinese-born associate professor at Stanford University in California. Professor Bao's team's approach was to use a rubber film that changes thickness due to pressure and employs capacitors, integrated into the material, to measure the difference. It cannot be stretched, though. "Our response time is comparable with human skin, it's very, very fast, within milliseconds, or thousandths of a second," Professor Bao said. "That means in real terms that we can feel the pressure instantaneously."

In our already advanced society, the mass public has been waiting long enough for competent and reliable robots for everyday use and practicality.

In the search to substitute the human senses with electronics, good substitutes now exist for sight and sound, but lag for smell and taste. Touch, though, is widely acknowledged to be the biggest obstacle. But hopefully not for long with USR's efforts of combining robotics with reality.

Even routine daily actions, such as brushing one's teeth, turning the pages of a newspaper or dressing a small child would easily defeat today's robots.

Professor Bao added important caveats about the challenges ahead.

One is about improving the new sensors. They respond to constant pressure, whereas in human skin more complex sensations are possible.

This is because the pressure-sensing cells in the skin can send different frequencies of signal — for instance, when we feel something painful or sharp, the frequency increases, alerting us to the threat. After much discussion, we have decided not to include a sense of pain to the upcoming NS-5 robots. Robots which feel pain are impractical. We are not trying to create sub-humans, just purely robotic machines."

In the near future, artificial skin will be studded with sensors that respond to chemicals, biological agents, temperature, humidity, radioactivity or pollutants.

"This would be especially useful in applications where we want to send robots into environments, including space, where it could be dangerous for humans to go," said Professor Bao.

"They could collect information and send it back."

week 7 - tute task

Research and provide short answers to the following questions. Provide references where applicable.

1. What is creative commons and how could this licensing framework be relevant to your own experience at university?
A: "A set of licences intended to offer the consumer more freedoms than traditional copyright."http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
These licenses make program using and information gathering much easier for everyone, university students included.

2. Find 3 examples of works created by creative commons and embed them in your blog.

3. Find an academic article which discusses creative commons using a database or online journal. Provide a link and a summary of the article.

http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/uflr55&div=45&g_sent=1&collection=journals

The article basically says how productive and colorful work was before strict copyright laws had come in and how now everything is difficult and ineffective because of these laws.

4. Have a look at Portable Apps (a pc based application) – provide a brief description of what it is and how you think this is useful.

"A portable application (portable app) is a computer software program that is able to run independently without the need to install files to the system it is run upon. They are commonly used on a removable storage device such as a CD, USB flash drive, flash card, or floppy disk."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Apps

week 7 - lecture

This weeks lecture was about software and code, primarily open source (free) software. Our generation obviously is very familiar with these. Programs such as limewire are the norm while it is now very strange if someone we know buys their music off itunes or from a music store. The legal way has been forgotten. I believe people chose to go with these open source programs and they are more relevant and effective for them. proprietary programs are created by the corporations, while open source programs and created by the people who have used the proprietary programs and believe they can improve it for the user. This is probably why the general public finds open source software so appealing. It is made by fellow users who feel the same frustration at flaws and glitches in the proprietary software. Proprietary programs include Internet Explorer, Photoshop and MS-windows. Open Source programs include Linux, Firefox and VLC. i know VLC all to well, a couple of months ago my itunes unexpectedly crashed when i went to update it. I have tried everything i can think of to restore it but it just wont work. So now i have been using VLC for months. It is no where near the quality of itunes but it will have to do until i find a way to fix it. The main aspects of the lecture focused on community, collaboration and choice. Community is based on people who want to share and do something good so the whole community benefits as helping your neighbour is not a crime. Collaboration is the idea that instead of going against copyright and breaking the law, people can work together to create something good. Choice is the ideology that you paid for your computer with your hard-earned money , it is a tool for creating and communicating. Don't let companies like Microsoft and Apple tell you how you can use your computer. As a computer user you have a choice, it's your right.