dennis-perry88-blog

[dennis-perry88-blog]

My Soulmate Google (Re-mastered)

Google has become one of the most powerful computer sites in the world. The question is asked by many of us: ‘How do search engines even make any money?’ They’re just really handy right? They don’t sell anything so how in the world can they make anything? The truth is shocking and it is the last thing that some people might expect, but their product is in fact; YOU. Google is a metaphorical soulmate to all of us. Every question we ask, it listens. Every question we have, it is always there with the answers. Recording every detail of our being, Google knows all of our habits.  Blissfully unaware we go about our day to day internet surfing, unaware of the fact that major internet webpages are looking over our shoulder, trading and swapping our interests like stockbrokers on wall street. These profiles provide advertising companies with the opportunity to wave whatever we like in our faces, encouraging us to spend spend spend. We take it for granted that everything is fine, it is safe. I mean, its Google right? Everyone uses it! Just stop. Stop for one second, open your mind and let me ask you a question. Are you really ok with that? Do you have any problem with the fact that google knows your likes and your dislikes? Everything in fact, stretching from your allergies to your favourite shopping site. If one random person in the world knew everything about you and you didn’t know them then would you be reacting so passively? My conclusive question is very simple. Are we allowing one major multinational company to know way too much information about everything that we think?

[dennis-perry88-blog]

Living through the wrong lens

One of the most amazing sporting spectacles that one can experience in life. A ‘Haka’ performed by natives of New Zealand (okay, so it’s not Rugby but it still counts!) I was lucky enough to enjoy this in London at a GB v NZ basketball match in 2015. It was so impressive that I took the liberty of getting my smartphone out of my pocket and video recording the performance so that I could share it on my Instagram page. I spent far too much time looking at my phone and trying to get a good video than enjoying what was something truly amazing. Do not mistake me, the ability to capture and save moments such as these throughout our lives is amazing. We are capturing images and taking videos of everything we can in today’s revolutionary world of media. In the park, at a concert, on top of a mountain even in a restaurant taking pictures of our food; we are constantly capturing snapshots of our lives and submitting them to the enormous photo album that is social media. My only worry is that it is seriously detracting from our real life experience of the world. I probably did not enjoy the haka as much as I could have. That person that I mentioned earlier? Who just climbed Ben Nevis? They didn’t think to stop and appreciate it. They just pulled a selfie stick from their back pocket took a snap and slapped it on Instagram. Then they zipped down the mountainside surrounded in likes of their new post, oblivious of the wonderful sight that they had just neglected. It is brilliant that we can capture more memories than ever and we can look back at them when we are 80. I am afraid to say, however, that they are just images. So stop looking through the wrong lens. Live in the present because soon it will be your past.

[dennis-perry88-blog]

The Mandarin is not a threat but ISIS are

The video above, I am glad to say was fiction. Ben Kingsley is not coming to assassinate the president of the United States (at least I hope not!) The idea of the video in the film ‘Iron Man 3’ is that it is to be sent to the entirety of the world using the internet and television, both features of New Media. With the idea of virality and sharing in mind, it has an aim to not only challenge the leader of our modern world but also to strike fear into the hearts of those that might view it on the internet. It would, if it were a real publication, strike fear into the hearts of many. It is a truly terrifying psychological tool. While the ‘Mandarin’ is not real, extremist groups like ISIS are.

Enwazzi making threats of British, American and Japanese governments

That was Mohammed Enwazzi ( or Jihadi John as he is more commonly known.)Unlike ‘The Mandarin’, his threat was very real. In representation of ISIS/ISIL he posted numerous execution videos of innocent people on the internet. Enwazzi was an international terrorist who relied on the virality of the web to strike fear into the people that did not support his views. He made demands of the Japanese, the British and the United States. Without the massive connected network that the internet provides, would he have been able to strike the fear into half as many people as he did? I doubt it. The internet provides terrorists with the ability to spread their ideologies on a widespread basis, influencing more people than ever before to join their causes. Cyberterrorism is a very real thing because of New Media and it truly is very worrying.

[dennis-perry88-blog]

Patrick Starr: The attention thief Poor Patrick. He fell over a banana peel, span around in space for 20 seconds and then caused an explosion the size of one similar to an atom bomb, all to the tune of shooting stars: the famous meme backing track. In total, you wasted 32 seconds watching that meme. Undoubtedly you have seen many like it on Facebook and you are wasting your time watching pointless memes everyday rather than using your time wisely.

I am no stranger to it. I spend way too much time watching mindless memes like the one of Patrick. We all do! We cannot focus on one thing for more than one second without checking our newsfeeds. Between the start of this post and here I have checked my Facebook about five times. That’s five times in about twenty minutes. I literally just opened it, watched a fat dog fly through space for twenty seconds and then I closed my phone again.

Facebook is filled with pointless little videos of Fred the fat flying westie and Patrick the spinning starfish. We are all aware that these graphics are absolutely useless! Yet so many of us waste precious time dazed by this hypnotic process. We could be writing essays, reading books on history or current affairs. We could be spending our time more wisely.

 Instead, these pointless memes about irrelevant things steal our attention and divert our focus to things that do not matter. We need to break out of this and start engaging with real world issues.

Much like the rest of the important tasks that many Facebook users now undertake, they are drawn out because we want to reach out for our phones for just one more video. One more Meme. The accessibility of a quick fix of ephemeral entertainment is prolonging our working time, reducing our productivity and as a result destroying our ability to retain essential information.

So if you chose to read my blog post out of countless others on your Tumblr news feed because of the video at the top then take a long hard look at yourself. It is time to start engaging with the real world, not wasting time watching pointless junk.

[dennis-perry88-blog]

Troll... Keyboard Warrior... Let us have peace.

I stumbled across this study in my readings. It claims that 81% of children believe that cyberbullying is easier to get away with than physical bullying. While 42% of teens suggest that they have been bullied online. It is clear that on the basis of these statistics from 2012 the presence of bullying is intensified by the presence of social media. The study also highlights the fact that this online micky-taking surpasses the confines of a school playground. It stretches out further into our community, to people of older generations and those in the public spotlight. What it does not do is it does not provide a hypothesis as to why we behave in this way online. So, here is my hypothesis, why it happens and what should we do about cyberbullying? Read on to hear my side….

Let me first state that I am not trying to put the entire responsibility of bullying solely on the internet. It is an innate human behavior to compete with others. I believe some members of our society will always try to bring others down in an attempt to climb the hierarchical structure of human communities.

 Social Media heightens the presence of Bullying. This is because the absence of physical emotion can minimize an awareness of the consequences of people’s actions. We are not aware of the hurtful affects that our online posts can have. In a face to face interaction, I am more inclined to believe that bullies are less likely to name call quite to the extent that they might do online because they are more aware of the hurt that they are causing.

In further addition, some social media platforms, like ‘ask.fm’ and ‘snapchat’ have particular features that allow bullies to take limited responsibility. Ask.fm allows the sender of the message to be anonymous. Some bullies use this anonymity to hide their identity. Secondly, Snapchat’s auto deletion feature means that an abusive comment is destroyed as soon as it is read, with again: NO EVIDENCE. There is therefore, no evidence of who the sender might be. Removal of this means that the bully cannot be discovered and they will not receive any punishment.

We would never be so rude in person.

The way that we behave should not be governed by the format of a communication platform, we should stay true to our ethical morals no matter how others behave. Just because a social media platform removes any evidence that it was you does not mean that it hasn’t happened. When using social media use it the way you would want other people to use it in a message to you. The next time you are considering sending an abusive message;

STOP AND THINK. YOU WOULD NOT BEHAVE THIS WAY IN FACE TO FACE INTERACTION. A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM IS A REFLECTION OF ITS USERS. USE IT THE RIGHT WAY.

[dennis-perry88-blog]

Media is evolutionary. It is reflective of our ever changing ideals and requirements.

[dennis-perry88-blog]

An alternative opinion. (See my earlier blog post for my opinion)

[dennis-perry88-blog]

The rapid emergence of emoji’s described by the article is not dissimilar to the production of a new dialect. Like dialects, in order for emoji’s to become widespread, support was and continues to be imperative. Its success is indebted to the massive population that make use of its multi modal features, as noted in the article: a following in China and the youthful members of our communities. 

In spoken language, unique factors of dialects make them what they are. L-vocalisation makes me recognisable as someone from Essex for example. Individual elements of dialects give us a sense of pride, a sense of identity. Many dialects, despite their obvious variations, use the same words, the words of our language. The English Language. Our global language, used by billions, adapted into thousands of branches of one enormous Germanic language tree. Just like our pride in our international language, we should take pride as an international community for the tiny little graphics that are the face of our generation.

Of course, Emoji’s cannot be produced in spoken language. That is not what this post is about. They are not like Estuary English and they are not accompanied by an accent that is a product of some ethnic group brought about by an historic event that lead to one social group in a particular community.

What they are is a dialect of written language. A kind of branch of the vast web of connections that we know as the internet. Their creation is a product of the affordances created by media in our modern day community. Emoji’s are used to aid our communication, in expression of a deeper emotional meaning than simply the bare expression that can be captured by words. The power of words is of course, undeniable. Meanings, pragmatics and semantics can be used in our wonderful language that is testament to the highly intelligent evolution of the human brain. However, we cannot express emotion through letters alone. Emoji’s are a cyber representation of paralinguistic features. Facial expressions and body language are now a facility across messages thanks to the introduction of Emoji’s.

There are those who argue that the English Language is being replaced by emoji’s and online text speak. This is a prescriptivist attitude. The English Language is irreplaceable, a global language that is so ingrained in society that it would take more than a smiley face and a pile of crap to replace it. The evolution of our communication system is beautiful. It is representative of an ever developing path that does not only head North and South, wrong or right. There isn’t a correct way of using language, simply that which satisfies the needs of those who are using it best. So what, emoji’s are being used by a chunk of the planets population to communicate. If that helps them to create the intended message then excellent.

Emoji’s are not an issue, they’re just another dialect of a rapidly growing multi-modal community. Not the first and certainly not the last.

[dennis-perry88-blog]

The wonderful versatility of smart phones.

It was not so long ago that we were all using fax machines. Sending messages by post and relying almost entirely on face to face conversation for social interaction. A memory of the distant past, things have changed. The modern world now revolves around one tiny 15 inch screen that is essential to all of our lives; the smartphone. Sat on my train to London this evening I am surrounded by a number of weary travellers, all glued to their phones. They're not just texting either, they are using a wonderful array of applications that previous generations would be entirely unable to comprehend. The man to my left is watching a film, the man in front of me is chuckling as he discusses his day with someone through radio waves and I am not one hundred percent, but I'm pretty sure the lady next to me is enjoying a pretty intense game of candy crush. For playing such a pivotal role in my life, for waking me up for my 9ams for allowing me to speak to my mum while I am away at uni I say thank you smartphone. We salute you.

[dennis-perry88-blog]

A world in which we rely on 10 second facial expressions more than direct face to face interaction.

[dennis-perry88-blog]

My Soulmate Google

Google has become one of the most powerful computer sites in the world. The question is asked by many of us: ‘How do search engines even make any money?’ They’re just really handy right? They don’t sell anything so how in the world can they make anything? The truth is shocking and it is the last thing that some people might expect, but their product is in fact; YOU. Google is a metaphorical soulmate to all of us. Every question we ask, it listens. Every question we have, it is always there with the answers. Recording every detail of our being, Google knows all of our habits.  Blissfully unaware we go about our day to day internet surfing, unaware of the fact that major internet webpages are looking over our shoulder, trading and swapping our interests like stockbrokers on wall street. These profiles provide advertising companies with the opportunity to wave whatever we like in our faces, encouraging us to spend spend spend. We take it for granted that everything is fine, it is safe. I mean, its Google right? Everyone uses it! Just stop. Stop for one second, open your mind and let me ask you a question. Are you really ok with that? Do you have any problem with the fact that google knows your likes and your dislikes? Everything in fact, stretching from your allergies to your favourite shopping site. If one random person in the world knew everything about you and you didn’t know them then would you be reacting so passively? My conclusive question is very simple. Are we allowing one major multinational company to know way too much information about everything that we think?