My thoughts about the class

I felt that this class was a great class. There were times I'd get worked up and I think all of us did when it came to some topics. However, I think that it was great that we were able to discuss so freely and pose arguments as a group. Going into the class, I initally did not know what I was getting into. I knew the title of the class was something about smart mobs, but first coming to mind is ooh mobs like Italian mobs (LOL). I feel that I got a lot out of the class. As we learned new things and read many articles, I got a better understanding of our society and culture today. I never knew about 2nd life, virtual communities, or anything like that. I had never seen the Colbert show before this class either, which may sound ridiculous, but now I have seen it and I think it is hilarious! This class actually made me feel sheltered from our culture today, but I have gained a lot from the class. It has allowed me to be more open-minded toward the internet and its positive uses instead of only focusing on the negative uses of the internet. I initially was getting frustrated with the blogging assignments, because I was not doing as well as I'd like. In the end I was getting the hang of the blogging and writing tactics! This class was not only eye-opening, but it was interesting. It was also fun to be able to get on 2nd Life and watch clips, such as The Colbert Show or from youtube! Overall, great class! :)

Pop Culture in the Church

This was a bit ago, but I’d still like to share it! While home for Easter weekend, I went to Sunday mass. At times, the homily can be a bit boring and repetitive, but this time it was different. Father was actually talking about something I could relate to in our class. The homily was about media and how it affects us. Apparently the 7 Deadly Sins were being misrepresented making people think that there was more than 7 sins and that they were somehow changing. Father, like myself, was appalled by this. How can the 7 Deadly Sins that have been with us for so many years change? Church, the Bible, and God do not just change. This is all based on tradition and history; if our history changes then how are we supposed to believe what is true and not? The whole point to this blog, is that media blew everything out of proportion making people think that the 7 Deadly Sins were changing, when actuality they were not changing just making known other sins and where they were to be categorized such as venial or less serious sins. It all sounds a bit confusing, but the fact that people were trying to make the Catholic church a fool is ridiculous. The media can definitely take things to far and strain the truth. The bottom line is that we have to take responsibility to believe certain things, and not let the media influence our lives completely!

My priest was also talking about Wikipedia giving false information, and we need to be careful! However, I can not remember all that was said. Sorry this post is not well-explained. I lost my writing from this inititially, but I thought it was interesting and surprising that my priest can also see where are class is coming from in terms of pop culture and media influences!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336330,00.html

Smart Mobs in the Classroom

Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs, is a great article to where our society seems to be heading to. Rheingold states, “Smart mobs are an unpredictable but at least partially describable emergent property that I can see surfacing as more people use mobile telephones, more chips communicate with each other, more computers know where they are located, more technology becomes wearable, more people start using these new medias to invent new forms of sex, commerce, entertainment, communion, and, as always, conflict.” Rheingold’s statement is definitely true. As we see today our society has emerged tremendously into a technology savvy culture. Smart mobs is what happens when technology, such as mobile devices develop. They have the power thru their techno-devices to drive communication and make things happen, such as the Filipinos toppling President Estrada through organized text messages. The example I found is on you tube. This video is of a smart mob exercise. It is a bit immature and informal since it is based in a grade school; however it is a great example of smart mobs. These students had to figure out haikus through text messaging. This just shows that, for one, mobile devices play a huge roll in society, even in the classroom! More people even a younger audience is experiencing the usage of mobile devises. This example actually was very surprising to me. Usually cell phones are a big No No in school, but this is one example that shows the usage of cell phones in the school environment. Anyone can be considered a smart mob with the use of smart mob devices. Rheingold makes a good point about smart mobs being unpredictable. I would never think that a smart mob would be considered a gradeschooler. With the more technology coming out, I am curious where our society is headed next!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOn5Am6Lt5E

Photoshop for Democracy

Henry Jenkins’, Photoshop for Democracy, talks about “a shift in the public’s role in the everyday life experiences of citizens; what they are talking about is the changing the ways people think about community and power so that they are able to mobilize collective intelligence to transform governance; and what they are talking about is the shift from the individualized conception of the informed citizen toward the collaborative concept of a monitorial citizen.” This whole shifting gears is very important in our society because it is taking politics to a whole new level. We were that informed citizen, but now we are not only that informed citizen but we are one that actually partakes and affects politics. Our society is one that is based on consumption, entertainment, and technology savvy. Politics anymore are finding ways to get us (the people) involved and be more in tune with democracy. For example Dean raised money online from small contributions “setting a model that John Kerry would follow to close the “money gap” with the republicans.” The internet is a huge means of getting people involved, such as blogging, advertisement, you tube, and etc. Technology is very powerful. It not only gets the word out there fast, but it also can portray candidates in a certain fashion. The example I found is one on you tube that is based on all photo shop. This video is called, Are you afraid of Americans. It basically shows pop culture mixing with politics and history. There are clips from music videos, pop stars, Bush, the war, and etc. This video shows where our society has come from to where it is today. It definitely portrays convergence culture and can be very influential in how we think. The video portrayed Bush riding on a bomb. This obviously gives us a negative image of our president. However that is just what media wants. Anything and anyone can be portrayed in a certain manner by simple photoshop. Just like in the candidacy, all the candidates sound good and appear so nice. However, it can take technology just one time to break or make them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJz5CLRa4E8

Facebook/Myspace...

The articles did not seem too surprising to me. For the most part, the majority of college students or people around the age of 18-25 (or younger) like myself engage in facebook or myspace. I could relate to the articles closely, because unlike second life and etc. I am an active participant on these sites. Danah's article posed an important question: Does a friend equal a friend? This sounds ridiculous, but it actually makes sense. In the past, I have been guilty of adding people I did not recognize, but I have also denied a friendship because I simply did not know them. In all, it is basically one's own preference of who they want to add, and how much privacy they want to have. In my case, I think one matures on facebook the longer they have been on and the older they get. I initially as a freshman would accept people I maybe did not know, or add as many people I remembered from class to simply gain more friends (popular status). Anymore, as a Junior I am a bit more relaxed and carefree in other words not so much eager to gain a friend if I really do not know them. Since facebook came about in 2000 it is a fairly new space compared to other spaces. It has definitely grown since then in terms of more applications, but also the privacy standards as well. Anymore, people who are on facebook do not necessarily have to be a college student or even a younger person; even parents can get an account! Honestly, it sounds a bit scary to me in where our generation is leading to! However, the topic I would like to put the most focus on goes back to privacy. I initially did not think I needed so much privacy having facebook or myspace. I mean I did not really think much of it. If I knew the person, I'd add them. If I did not know the person and they messaged me I'd ignore it if I wanted to; No big deal. However, After our class discussions, it really made me think how important privacy is. Privacy is all we have to protect us; if we give it all away, then what it left of ourselves? Privacy can be used to block off stalkers, people we simply do not like, our exes, professors, or even the company we work for! The example I have related to privacy is one that I got from my Career Development class (ASCS Q299). The funny thing about this is that after our class discussion of a professor posting "inappropriate" facebook photos amongst the classroom, I go to my next class and little behold the same thing happens to me! This particular class talked about trying to get a job, and how facebook infringes with that a lot of the times if everyone has access to your profile. My teacher directly puts a couple photos up of a couple classmates drinking or passed out luckily having their face covered. However, I was so shocked that teachers would do such a thing! I was embarrassed that maybe my face would be the next slide! It did give me a reality check of wow we are growing up and these things really matter and can effect our careers. It goes back to the Wired article of how an employee actually lost their job from these snooping companies. The question is what is considered too far? The answer would most likely be that we position ourselves in certain ways, a certain manner. If we do not want our boss or someone else seeing a particular picture or information one has to take into their own hands certain types of privacy or to simply not have them in open eye. What is posted online is bound to get everywhere, and that is what we really have to take into consideration. A friend once told me, do not give your whole self (all your secrets), hold a little back it may save a little pain.

Griefers

Julian Dibbels article talks of those people who pose as furries or goons that cause controversies in virtual communities such as Second Life. These avatars simply do it for the Lulz, which means just for laughs. Those that do get harrassed do not think it is funny at all, and they report the confrontations by "griefing." Some people that either harrass or have not played do not take it seriously. However, once they get griefed they understand how mentally traumatic it can be. People, like myself, who have never played see this harrassment as ridiculous and obnoxious. Many questions that were getting thrown out in class were: Why do people do this? Are they sick in the mind? and etc. For me, I do not understand the point of these furries and goons besides it initially comes off as being humerous. In the end, there are definitely more negatives than positives. Yes, it is all for laughs, but these people are hurting others. It is very disrespectful and immature. Where do people get the guts to be this sick? The reinacting of the twin towers was a huge discussion in our class that posed many arguments. What some people were saying was that, "It is not real, so it is not a big deal," but others were offended tremendously because it brings back traumatic memories. What I am wondering is why would these people want to hurt other people? I know it is just role-playing and false identities, but there has to be some truth in there. It is hard to understand that these people causing the griefing are perfectly respectful and nice individuals in real life. Even if they come off that way, maybe they still think negative and horrible thoughts about people. You just never know the truth or what is false anymore, and I think that is a frightening factor when dealing with these virtual communities. The example I found is from Youtube. I found many videos related to griefers. The one I chose was Patriotic Nigras vs. Youtube Poops: Concert's closed. This video was similar to the one we saw in class. It had posters of Bill Cosby along with african american individuals holding guns in order to provoke control and "black power." To me, it is hard to understand the videos. I get the gist of it, but it just seems obnoxious and stupid. Along with this, it is very racist and stereotypical which i thought our society was trying to get away from. I can see how these people get offended and hurt by these griefers whether it is real or not. The bottom line is that it is disrespectful, hurtful, and definitely not necessary. I think the people that participate in these activities have insecurities about themselves, therefore they hurt other people to make themselves feel better. In the end, they look stupid and immature in my eyes. It is hard to get these individuals that grief out of these virtual communities, so I think people need reconsider second life if they can not cope with the mentally traumatic experiences they may encounter!
http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=all

A Rape in Cyberspace

Julian Dibell's, Rape in Cyberspace, was mind-bottling to me. The article talked of this virtual man, Mr. Bungle, virtually raping girls in LambdaMOO. What makes this so argumentive is the fact that the two girls that had gotten raped were emotionally distraught. What makes this mind-bottling is that it was not a "real" rape; there was no physically contact involved. However, people that are in these virtually communities get emotionally involved. These characters mean so much to them, because they actually invented them and with that they build this bond. Whatever happens to their character, feels like it is happening to them as well. The arguments that were posed was whether this would be as bad as a real rape (because emotions were involved) and whether punishment for Mr. Bungle is necessary? Honestly this is disturbing. It is sick first of all how someone would come up with this idea of raping girls virtually. I mean, it makes you think if he is possibly anticipating this in real life...that is what makes it frightening! What Mr. Bungle did definitely would be considered a form of sexual harrassment. Another argument that was brought up in class was that why wouldn't these girls just sign off if it was that hard for them to see?

I think it is an issue that Mr. Bungle did something like this, but I also think people getting so involved online is also an issue. So many peopel are worried about pornography and online predators, it is bound that these type of people are going to end up in these virtual communities. I think if people can not handle the consequences they maybe should not be participating. I found an article that talks about virtual rape, and whether it is a crime or not. The author, says that it is not a crime but it definitely can be traumatizing! She also mentions that people do not change although their social settings and communities may. It is just a shame, but there are people out there that do have issues and sexual tendencies. People like Mr. Bungle may have a sick fettish or problem that they just take out on innocent women on the computer. In all reality, there are people out there and one just needs to be careful. It is very naive to think that this will not happen to you if you are actively engaging in online chatrooms or virtual worlds.

I think one of the biggest reasons why I am so bias about online activity is because I know what can go on. There is much out in cyberspace that is unbelievable and it can also be dangerous. I have dealt with online consequences and it is very emotionally unbearing. There are a lot of people that can mess with your mind, and it is scary what these people are capable of making you do. It is like a voodoo just like Mr. Bungle used to capture his prey. In conclusion, cyber rape can be very hurtful and traumatizing mentally, but real rape is more than that. I just hope people are smart about what they are getting theirselves into. Yes, there are postives to cyber communities, but honestly all im getting from this is everything positive backfiring. In all in all, I think it depends on one's own personal experiences. It is all up in the air what may and may not happen to you in the cyber community!

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/sexdrive/2007/05/sexdrive_0504