Ever get into a heated argument with somebody over something they said on Facebook? Of course you have, but really can we take the tone of anything on Facebook seriously? Our generation has swindled down to communicating over Facebook for important matters.
I feel like with a social networking site Facebook is not an appropriate medium to address serious conflicts like if you are having troubles with a boyfriend or spouse you owe respect to yourself and them to not be slandering and posting all over Facebook for your 762 friends to see and spread around. The tone of which we have been accustomed to write on Facebook is usually friendly and happy, but now it’s being used to hurt people. We really need to tone it down on Facebook because it is really not fair for people to write a status about how a certain person is a bitch because everyone will see that and automatically side with you since you were the first one to say anything on Facebook. If someone doesn’t constantly update their Facebook , they could possibly be victim to slander and more ugly comments without any argument.
As a society, I believe technology has become so integrated in our life that we are not able to distinguish what’s acceptable for real life versus what’s acceptable to put on the web. People need to learn that having “Facebook fights” is not healthy and the best solution is always to talk one on one with no technological barrier. We just need to learn to tone it down on Facebook!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Online Shopping Safety
One of my biggest vices is online shopping. I am a huge supporter of online shopping and the economic and social value it provides for businesses and the public. From ebay to amazon, from TOMS to Walmart, I have provided all my private information along with credit card information. I believe the draw and convenience of it all is what has others also doing such things. I can imagine like 30 years ago if someone were to ask you for all your information you would think they were crazy even now if someone were to ask you for all your personal information including credit card information you’d think they’re insane, but we do it all the time on the Internet. How safe are the sites where we are buying that adorable Gucci bag from or that 500gb external hard drive. Are we really one hundred percent confident that all of our information will be safely secured from others?
Every time I type in my credit card information I am always a bit skeptical but from many years of experience I have realized that secured sites actually mean they are secure. I have purchased countless of items mostly clothing on ebay and I have yet to get any of my information stolen. I even have my credit card information saved on my PayPal account so now I don’t even have to have my card every time I make a purchase.
My online purchasing identity may be construed as a shopaholic but I do not care because great deals can be sought online and if I have to take the chance of my information stolen so be it. I am a die-hard shopper and always will be!
Every time I type in my credit card information I am always a bit skeptical but from many years of experience I have realized that secured sites actually mean they are secure. I have purchased countless of items mostly clothing on ebay and I have yet to get any of my information stolen. I even have my credit card information saved on my PayPal account so now I don’t even have to have my card every time I make a purchase.
My online purchasing identity may be construed as a shopaholic but I do not care because great deals can be sought online and if I have to take the chance of my information stolen so be it. I am a die-hard shopper and always will be!
Sexual Identity on the Web
WARNING MAY CONTAIN ADULT CONTENT
One of the prospering aspects of the Internet is the amount of places where one can express their sexual identity. There are numerous websites where someone can meet others for sexual encounters. There are others where you can chat with other people and experience sexual acts over the Web. Of course, there are websites just devoted for a person to watch others engage in sexual activities.
What kinds of people partake in this stuff? Is it safe to engage in sexual behavior over the Internet? It is considered sinful or morally wrong to look at porn on the Internet?
I believe what makes us human is what makes us unique. Sexual identity in each one of us is different and we choose to channel it in different ways using the Internet. Now the Internet is littered with various adult sites promising you free strings attached casual sexual encounters. Always getting those ads about how Cindy is 21 years old and is waiting for you tonight in Austin, TX intrigues men. They search on the site and create themselves a sex-web identity to hopefully entice Cindy or other like her to contact him and meet him tonight. A person’s sex web identity is very personal but many times men will lie about certain aspects because they want so badly to make it work, while women will humble themselves an say the worst flaws and qualities so when they do meet up with the guy, he is not disappointed as she has been making him expect the worst.
The psychology behind people’s motives to partake in this is interesting. In conclusion, due to the Internet, sexual identity is constantly evolving into other things let’s just hope it will be able to be a safe place for children.
One of the prospering aspects of the Internet is the amount of places where one can express their sexual identity. There are numerous websites where someone can meet others for sexual encounters. There are others where you can chat with other people and experience sexual acts over the Web. Of course, there are websites just devoted for a person to watch others engage in sexual activities.
What kinds of people partake in this stuff? Is it safe to engage in sexual behavior over the Internet? It is considered sinful or morally wrong to look at porn on the Internet?
I believe what makes us human is what makes us unique. Sexual identity in each one of us is different and we choose to channel it in different ways using the Internet. Now the Internet is littered with various adult sites promising you free strings attached casual sexual encounters. Always getting those ads about how Cindy is 21 years old and is waiting for you tonight in Austin, TX intrigues men. They search on the site and create themselves a sex-web identity to hopefully entice Cindy or other like her to contact him and meet him tonight. A person’s sex web identity is very personal but many times men will lie about certain aspects because they want so badly to make it work, while women will humble themselves an say the worst flaws and qualities so when they do meet up with the guy, he is not disappointed as she has been making him expect the worst.
The psychology behind people’s motives to partake in this is interesting. In conclusion, due to the Internet, sexual identity is constantly evolving into other things let’s just hope it will be able to be a safe place for children.
Web Images of Yourself
Should you have the same picture on your Facebook profile as the same as your Linkedin profile? Does it really matter that you have a red cup in your hand in a picture? Do employers really care about the content picture wise you have on Facebook? Your web image is the first thing the web community sees about you, and if you tell me, it’s a very strategic move to have just the perfect profile picture between my Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter account. Let me break down exactly what a Facebook profile picture requires to be effective.
Now, I am heavily apart of an organization on campus called Planet Longhorn. We provide a service where we help incoming international exchange students, and before every semester when a new round of exchange students come I will individually send them Facebook messages describing Planet Longhorn and what we provide for exchange students. I know for a fact that the exchange students, who I never met, will be judging me and making assumptions about me just about my profile picture. They are grateful I’ve sent them a message expressing my help, but they are too afraid to add me on Facebook yet, so all they can really perceive about me is my profile picture, which I take a while to consider it, but I will usually leave the same picture up for awhile. I have definitely evolved from my first Facebook profile picture to what it is now. I used to think it should just be all about me and I had the webcam shots of me looking cute and coy, but I realize that is not as cool as I thought it to be. In reality I think it’s kind of cocky and silly for me to just take a picture especially for Facebook, so I realized using pictures that were taken by others is the way to go whether it be at some party or downtown at the clubs this way your profile picture says “oh she goes out. Cool.” Instead of oh she just stays in her room on her webcam all night. I always like to have others in my profile picture as well because it shows I am an interactive social person. Also, I enjoy it to be quirky and fun because it shows I have a goofy yet approachable side. I take all of this into consideration when choosing my profile picture. I also have to make sure it is censored at least from my family members because I have them on a limited profile view so all they can see is my profile picture, so I cannot have a picture of me drinking or wearing anything low cut or scandalous or else my brothers will show my mom and she’ll get angry.
Basically my Facebook profile picture is just the same as if I was going out meeting someone for the first time. I take into serious condition what I am wearing, how I am acting, and whether I am in a position where if I ran into my mom she would disapprove.
Now, I am heavily apart of an organization on campus called Planet Longhorn. We provide a service where we help incoming international exchange students, and before every semester when a new round of exchange students come I will individually send them Facebook messages describing Planet Longhorn and what we provide for exchange students. I know for a fact that the exchange students, who I never met, will be judging me and making assumptions about me just about my profile picture. They are grateful I’ve sent them a message expressing my help, but they are too afraid to add me on Facebook yet, so all they can really perceive about me is my profile picture, which I take a while to consider it, but I will usually leave the same picture up for awhile. I have definitely evolved from my first Facebook profile picture to what it is now. I used to think it should just be all about me and I had the webcam shots of me looking cute and coy, but I realize that is not as cool as I thought it to be. In reality I think it’s kind of cocky and silly for me to just take a picture especially for Facebook, so I realized using pictures that were taken by others is the way to go whether it be at some party or downtown at the clubs this way your profile picture says “oh she goes out. Cool.” Instead of oh she just stays in her room on her webcam all night. I always like to have others in my profile picture as well because it shows I am an interactive social person. Also, I enjoy it to be quirky and fun because it shows I have a goofy yet approachable side. I take all of this into consideration when choosing my profile picture. I also have to make sure it is censored at least from my family members because I have them on a limited profile view so all they can see is my profile picture, so I cannot have a picture of me drinking or wearing anything low cut or scandalous or else my brothers will show my mom and she’ll get angry.
Basically my Facebook profile picture is just the same as if I was going out meeting someone for the first time. I take into serious condition what I am wearing, how I am acting, and whether I am in a position where if I ran into my mom she would disapprove.
Universal Username: Innovative or Dumb?
Now like many of the tech savvy people of this generation, I belong to many social networking sites, blogs, online stores, university sites, etc. All which require a unique username and password. I can’t even count the endless times I’ve had to type in my username and password a day. How much easier would it be to have a universal username for everything you use on the Internet? You wouldn’t have to constantly click on “Forgot Username” and having emails sent to you to change it. It’s constantly annoying to try and remember all the usernames you have for everything.
I recycle through three usernames I usually use: vtaupradist, vtizzap, and strikervanda11. But there are some sites where I’ve signed up with completely different usernames that I completely forget about. I sometimes just can’t keep up with all my usernames and I think sometimes it would be such an innovative idea to have a universal username for all the various things you are on.
As I think about how easier life would be without remembering several usernames and just having that one that will define who you are on the Internet, I begin to think of the negative possibilities. People who take advantage of a universal username subject themselves to having a difficult username because everyone else could possibly take their idea. For example, Alex Henderson might want to use a.henderson, but of course that’s taken, leaving him only a.henderson389047129038479283279354923. Now that is annoying! Another concerning problem, probably the biggest problem, is the possibility of identity theft. Just think, if someone were to get hold of your universal username and password, you would be completely and utterly screwed. They’d have access to everything you are on the web. Your entire identity would be stolen from you and basically you would be nobody and going through that process to fix that problem would be time consuming and annoying.
Overall, while a universal username seems like a good idea to those are too lazy to type it in at every login box or come up with a new username for different sites, the possible consequences are simply too dire for anyone to embark on.
I recycle through three usernames I usually use: vtaupradist, vtizzap, and strikervanda11. But there are some sites where I’ve signed up with completely different usernames that I completely forget about. I sometimes just can’t keep up with all my usernames and I think sometimes it would be such an innovative idea to have a universal username for all the various things you are on.
As I think about how easier life would be without remembering several usernames and just having that one that will define who you are on the Internet, I begin to think of the negative possibilities. People who take advantage of a universal username subject themselves to having a difficult username because everyone else could possibly take their idea. For example, Alex Henderson might want to use a.henderson, but of course that’s taken, leaving him only a.henderson389047129038479283279354923. Now that is annoying! Another concerning problem, probably the biggest problem, is the possibility of identity theft. Just think, if someone were to get hold of your universal username and password, you would be completely and utterly screwed. They’d have access to everything you are on the web. Your entire identity would be stolen from you and basically you would be nobody and going through that process to fix that problem would be time consuming and annoying.
Overall, while a universal username seems like a good idea to those are too lazy to type it in at every login box or come up with a new username for different sites, the possible consequences are simply too dire for anyone to embark on.
Entering the Infosphere with Michael Vlahos
Vlahos, Michael. "Entering the Infosphere." Journal of International Affairs 51.2 (1998).
Print.
Entering the Infosphere
Michael Vlahos’s chapter entitled Entering the Infosphere in the Journal of International Affairs describes the growing importance of integration of technology from the Internet into every person’s life. Vlahos best describes this integration through what he calls an Infosphere, which is “the fusion for all of the world’s communication networks, databases and sources of information into a vast, intertwined and heterogeneous tapestry of electronic interchange (4)”. Vlahos compares this Infosphere to a network ecology, in which people partake and affect it by doing things like any other ecology. Vlahos believes through the Infosphere the alien environment, which we refer to as the Internet will eventually become less foreign to us and we’ll be able to communicate in groups without being restricted to certain sites instead it being open and free to anyone.
Vlahos goes into descriptions about what a “place” is to people. He relates it to being an actual permanently physical place like Stonehenge or Versailles, but he argues that a place can also be something not physical like cyberspace. Though Vlahos says cyberspace is a place it is not a “new human place” yet (22). He says for cyberspace to be a human place it must contribute and enhance society in some way and support vital functions for its livelihood and must be permanent and perpetual instead of temporary and limited.
Another aspect Vlahos comments on are the threshold of being in these new places. According to Vlahos, now the virtual world has reached that point where it is very much like the reality. The innovative environment the cyberspace has created has intricate details to make it seem that you are actually there when in reality you really aren’t. Another aspect Vlahos comments on are the ease of congregating with others from different cultures on the web through online video games. Vlahos points out that it is not necessary the real self we should be showing while meeting new people but actually our virtual self or avatar. This way our virtual self can comfortably assimilate into the virtual environment. He concludes that online games are not really games at all but a very intertwined social network for people with the similar interests to interact comfortably in this virtual world. He notes the importance of virtual identities in online video games joining clans and groups. According to Vlahos, “Four things stand out here: the ease with which the players inhabit cyberspace; the rich rituals of group, identity and camaraderie; the high sense of shared focus; and the immediacy of action and involvement. They revel self-consciously as young primitives in their new world (39)”.
In conclusion, Vlahos states that the Infosphere will create a migration of the Great American Middle Class and help them have a higher standard of living. However, Vlahos denotes that some Americans fear the new virtual world taking over, as he says that people fear that their will lose their emotional comfort zone and be exposed something foreign and alien to them, which will take away all their memories of the good times growing up. He depicts many Americans being skeptical of progress in America especially on the technological front because they believe it will be a loss of identity something of the past. According to Vlahos, people must accept that progress will happen and it will eventually lead to cyberspace being permanent human place.
Print.
Entering the Infosphere
Michael Vlahos’s chapter entitled Entering the Infosphere in the Journal of International Affairs describes the growing importance of integration of technology from the Internet into every person’s life. Vlahos best describes this integration through what he calls an Infosphere, which is “the fusion for all of the world’s communication networks, databases and sources of information into a vast, intertwined and heterogeneous tapestry of electronic interchange (4)”. Vlahos compares this Infosphere to a network ecology, in which people partake and affect it by doing things like any other ecology. Vlahos believes through the Infosphere the alien environment, which we refer to as the Internet will eventually become less foreign to us and we’ll be able to communicate in groups without being restricted to certain sites instead it being open and free to anyone.
Vlahos goes into descriptions about what a “place” is to people. He relates it to being an actual permanently physical place like Stonehenge or Versailles, but he argues that a place can also be something not physical like cyberspace. Though Vlahos says cyberspace is a place it is not a “new human place” yet (22). He says for cyberspace to be a human place it must contribute and enhance society in some way and support vital functions for its livelihood and must be permanent and perpetual instead of temporary and limited.
Another aspect Vlahos comments on are the threshold of being in these new places. According to Vlahos, now the virtual world has reached that point where it is very much like the reality. The innovative environment the cyberspace has created has intricate details to make it seem that you are actually there when in reality you really aren’t. Another aspect Vlahos comments on are the ease of congregating with others from different cultures on the web through online video games. Vlahos points out that it is not necessary the real self we should be showing while meeting new people but actually our virtual self or avatar. This way our virtual self can comfortably assimilate into the virtual environment. He concludes that online games are not really games at all but a very intertwined social network for people with the similar interests to interact comfortably in this virtual world. He notes the importance of virtual identities in online video games joining clans and groups. According to Vlahos, “Four things stand out here: the ease with which the players inhabit cyberspace; the rich rituals of group, identity and camaraderie; the high sense of shared focus; and the immediacy of action and involvement. They revel self-consciously as young primitives in their new world (39)”.
In conclusion, Vlahos states that the Infosphere will create a migration of the Great American Middle Class and help them have a higher standard of living. However, Vlahos denotes that some Americans fear the new virtual world taking over, as he says that people fear that their will lose their emotional comfort zone and be exposed something foreign and alien to them, which will take away all their memories of the good times growing up. He depicts many Americans being skeptical of progress in America especially on the technological front because they believe it will be a loss of identity something of the past. According to Vlahos, people must accept that progress will happen and it will eventually lead to cyberspace being permanent human place.
Facebook vs. Myspace: The Epic Showdown…or is it?
Facebook and Myspace are constantly pitted against each other, but in recent years, Facebook has just become the thing to do. Facebook’s sleek layout and ability to look at your friend’s profile without having to strain your eyes because of all the sparkles and other annoying graphics on their Myspaces makes Facebook more appealing for those who don’t want to bullshit and just want to see comments and conversations others have with another.
However, for me at least, lately I’ve been frequenting Myspace because of my love for music. Whenever you google for any band, the first result is always their Myspace and being able to listen to full songs for free makes Myspace very appealing for bands and fans that will always have full access to the songs on any computer. Myspace has attracted new followers and resurrected old ones through secret Myspace shows. During South By Southwest (SXSW is one of the biggest music festivals help in Austin every year) this year, popular bands were using Myspace to post secret shows or perks like MGMT and Muse were Myspacing where fans could go to get a special show. I must admit I was glued onto Myspace during that week because I wanted to be in the know of all things that are music happening in Austin. Not only does Myspace attract music enthusiasts, but also Myspace is more prevalent in inner city teens because through Myspace they can express their individuality. Also, Facebook is primarily based around high school and universities networks, so many inner city teens feel uncomfortable using it.
Overall, Facebook is the winner in social media aspect because of it’s easy and organized layout and profile which makes users happier about than Myspace’s free for all layouts. Even though Facebook overtakes Myspace, Myspace owns the online music audience and without them Myspace would be drowned in a toilet.
However, for me at least, lately I’ve been frequenting Myspace because of my love for music. Whenever you google for any band, the first result is always their Myspace and being able to listen to full songs for free makes Myspace very appealing for bands and fans that will always have full access to the songs on any computer. Myspace has attracted new followers and resurrected old ones through secret Myspace shows. During South By Southwest (SXSW is one of the biggest music festivals help in Austin every year) this year, popular bands were using Myspace to post secret shows or perks like MGMT and Muse were Myspacing where fans could go to get a special show. I must admit I was glued onto Myspace during that week because I wanted to be in the know of all things that are music happening in Austin. Not only does Myspace attract music enthusiasts, but also Myspace is more prevalent in inner city teens because through Myspace they can express their individuality. Also, Facebook is primarily based around high school and universities networks, so many inner city teens feel uncomfortable using it.
Overall, Facebook is the winner in social media aspect because of it’s easy and organized layout and profile which makes users happier about than Myspace’s free for all layouts. Even though Facebook overtakes Myspace, Myspace owns the online music audience and without them Myspace would be drowned in a toilet.
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