student-communicator-blog

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Check out my video below for Assessment item #3 for New Communication Technologies. Click the play button above!!!

Be sure to share, comment, like and recreate this video. Show me your recreation by using the hashtag: #TheOldieChallenge

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The Privacy War in the Information Age

Being present within the information age has forced users to connect to one another through prominent social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Through the use of these platforms, the art of revealing interesting and appealing personal facts without full self exposure is one trick that many digital users have not yet mastered. Liking, sharing and commenting on social media posts has grown to be a habitual action for many civilians living within this age.  But when users are confronted about their online privacy settings, their posting privacy and their information privacy, no comment is left to spare. Through discussing social media and the importance of internet privacy, it is appropriate to understand the definition of these two terms. Internet privacy can be defined as, “Privacy and security level of personal data via the internet” (Techopedia.com, 2016) and Jacka and Scott state that “social media is the set of Web-based broadcast technologies that enable the democratization of content, giving people the ability to emerge from consumers of content to publishers” (2011,p.5). But more simply, social media is “websites and applications used for social networking” (The Oxford Dictionary, 2010).

 Although social media has had undeniable success with almost all digital users in our world, Misra and Such claim that “Privacy concerns have been increasing over the past few years” (2016). Thus this leads us to discuss how privacy on social media has diminished due to frequent user activity and undetectable storage of content on the world wide web. Continuing with this essay the topics of implicit user consent, user posting and user data collection will be discussed. Whilst many participants of these websites conditionally agree to all privacy and personal data consent, may users fail to understand the full effect of agreeing to these alleged terms and conditions.

Through the creation of a social media account content acceptance agreements and privacy policies are presented to users due to legal obligations but many users believe that they are not fully aware of what they are giving consent for. “It may be argued that users voluntarily sign away their privacy by using social media when creating accounts and putting their personal data online, it is not clear how consent actually works in these situations” (Custers, van der Hof, Schermer, 2014). As for all websites on the internet, social media platforms must present all privacy information to every user as it is a legal requirement. As chosen by most internet domains this information is presented in large forms of text with little visual appeal as they are aware many users will not have the patience or interest to read and understand it all. This leads users to unconsciously consent to their personal information, photographs, videos and all other shared personal content to be used by whoever chooses to access it. Once on this public stage governments, military, organisations, employers, family, friends and strangers all have access to the information that the users have posted online and subsequently given the unconscious consent for.

As Pollach explains “Internet users implicitly consent to a website’s privacy policy when they enter the site and the first pieces of data may already have been collected before they have had a chance to read the website’s privacy policy” (2005). With this implicit acceptance of the privacy policy, many online users do not understand the full impact of this information and their personal rights when faced with difficultly with privacy whilst online. Although multiple users are not consciously aware of their privacy rights, they continue to actively use accounts on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on, to post their most private and intimate reflection of themselves to their follower base and to the rest of the online community.  

When participating in social media activity frequently on such websites, users begin to believe the online community is securer than it actually is and begin to reveal more soulful information that differs from what meets the eye. “Social network users are uniquely unconcerned about privacy; and that over time, regular use of social media without any major negative experiences may lessen their concerns about sharing information” (Madden 2012, p. 4). This explains that when users are frequently interacting with social media accounts, they will continue to post further information regarding themselves, their interests, family, location and achievements. Madden also clarifies that as users become more comfortable with their profile and their online friends, consumers become less hesitant about their posting habits and the material they are enclosing into their digital timelines.  Thus leading users to reveal an immense amount of individual information, that is now accessible to anyone within the internet community, without the true realisation. When users mingle on these platforms regularly, their privacy barrier slowly decreases and therefore diminishes the notion of privacy in the online sense.  

 By this decrease in personal privacy, the online community could potentially become a chaotic online space where users, organisations and governments use all personal information against one another or for the benefit of themselves. If this frequent posting of information affects and lessens all users concern for privacy, the internet will contain most users’ personal information that they can never retrieve and will therefore expose a large number of people in ways they have never been exposed before. This spotlight could reveal the smallest to the largest personal discrepancies and therefore hinder the employability and sociability of the targeted few. With users not being conscious of their posting habits and content, it is likely that they are not aware of the data collection and storage of their online presence.

Throughout our modern society, the issue of data collection and its relationship with user privacy is one that is increasing as each day passes. Once an opinion, comment, photograph or video is uploaded and posted to the online community it is collected and stored within our world wide web. As Pollach explains, “More data than ever before is being collected, while people have less control than ever over their personal data” (2015) Through this, many users continue to fail to understand that each and every piece of content posted on their online profiles is unable to be eliminated and will remain accessible on the world wide web until the end of time.

Through the frequent use of social media, the amount of personal information regarding each user is continuing to grow. This leads users to find it difficult to control their information and their overall privacy online.  With the act of data collection active in the online community, personal privacy is lessening as time passes as more information is available on each individual. Reflecting on unconscious consent, when the individual fails to read the privacy policy with the creation of their profile, the user verifies that they are incompetent on all knowledge about data collection and the impact and consequences it has on individuals in the digital community. Prominent companies obtaining this information from the web are able to store and distribute all information received until a time of need. Without this knowledge of data collection, users are unaware that their past, current and future content is being kept and is visible to potential employers, leaders and important personnel. This makes situations detrimental toward the user as their past online presence may not reflect their current values and motives.

Ultimately, through the use of social media the concept of personal privacy has diminished due to frequent user activity and undetectable storage on the web. Through the unconscious consent to the websites privacy policy and data agreements, users personal information is able to be retrieved and used by the platform which thus decreases the individuals privacy. As users continue to actively engage with the social media channels, their safety and confidence in the website strengthens and therefore users are less hesitant to post more information about themselves directly and what they are doing in their personal life. This leads the private interests, feelings, location, workplace and relationship of the users to become public aspects to their online profile.

 With the incompetency in knowledge about the websites privacy policy and data agreements, social media organisations are able to collect, store and distribute all past, current and future user information. This can therefore hinder the employability and social aspects of each individual and ensures that their private life and information is publically accessible to all involved in the online community. If participants within the digital community continue on their current path, the notion of privacy will completely disappear and no information will be classified as, private. These concerns of privacy on social media in our digital age are important for all users to comprehend so that they are able to distinguish the barrier between ones real and private life and their online and public life.

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Brain Storming my Research!

For week 8 of New Communication Technologies, I have chosen to use a website named Bubbl.us. This website was used to brain storm and visually show my research ideas and planning for my essay for assessment item #2. Check out my picture below of my research or click here to take you to the website. Stay tuned for next week for the offical, full text essay!!

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Creating an Essay

Hello again, I’m back! But only for a short time to express my topics for the next upcoming assessment item for New Communication Technologies here at Griffith University. For Assessment item #2, we have been directed into evolving an essay regarding modern issues that surround new communication technologies and their place within our world. The topic I have chosen for this essay is Privacy on Social Media. Within this topic I have researched and expressed many hidden dilemmas that arise when confronting the topic of privacy especially on social media platforms. 

In the next following week, I will be uploading the brain stormed version of my research. Following on from that my essay will be uploaded to this blog for you all to check out. 

Stay tuned for more!!!!

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References

To look at my references for each blog post for the past 6 weeks for New Communication Technologies, check out my references page on the right side of my blog. For a handy quick link to this page, click here.

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Are Politicians Using Social Media?

HOORAY, it's the final week of blogging for assessment item #1 for New Communication Technologies. To start off before I get in to the topic for this week, I would just like to mention how much more information I have taken from week 1-6 topics in this course just from posting and being engaged in this blog. By posting about the topics, it has forced me to think about the content a little more and encouraged me to explore the researching side of things. For instance, If I did not know what something was I would research about it and grow my knowledge in that field. That is one of the aspects that I have appreciated from creating and using this blog frequently for New Communication Technologies.

 The focus for this week (6) was politics and the politicians use of social media within our world. When asked what politician I thought played an important role on social media, Barack Obama and in fact the white house Obama family came straight to my mind.  Through following him on Facebook and Twitter, I believe that Mr Obama used social media to has advantage. I believe that Barack knew his target demographic for his campaigns to gain votes and he targeted this demographic directly through social media and online platforms. When thinking about Australian politicians on social media, I can’t really think of any that I follow for political updates. The only three that come to my mind are Tony Abbott, Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. But these are only visible on my social media timelines due to numerous meme’s that have been made about them. I believe that this does not give politics in Australia a positive outcome and seems to me that all younger demographics, that own social media, think Australian politics and politicians are joke and laughing worthy.

For the task this week, I chose to sign an e-petition regarding recycling bins in the Brisbane region.  I believe that using e-petitions allows the organisations to reach more people as the access to these petitions is easier. This will therefore allow the organisation to receive more feedback on these issues. Here is the link for e-petitions for the Brisbane City council.

http://www.epetitions.brisbane.qld.gov.au

Although I have already followed Barack Obama on Twitter, I chose to read more into his tweets/posts to better understand the American economy. Barack Obama is frequently posting on his social media accounts so there is always new information to read. Check out his twitter here.

Finally I also chose to send my local member of parliament my feedback on their latest speech. My local member of parliament is Mr Sidney Cramp. I emailed him regarding his latest speech which was in 2015. Find out who your local member is and how to get in contact with them here.

I chose to not complete the rest of the tasks as I feel I do not have a strong enough political opinion to answer the questions/tasks to a satisfactory level. I believe I am not as interested in politics especially in the Australian country as none of the politicians in high power are interesting enough to keep up with. I have no interest with following Tony Abbott on social media as he does not connect with me. I feel that this theory can be applied to many millennials in our society. 

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The Anonymous Group

During week 6's lecture, we discussed the world of cyber hacking and the hacktivist (hacking - activist) motions. Online groups such as WikiLeaks and Anonymous are currently the ‘top dogs’ of public hacking in our time. Through discussing this topic I was exceptionally interested in the cyber group know as Anonymous. As I have never heard of this cyber activist/hacking group before I decided to research more into the group and what they do for the public and their acts of ‘greater good’. Whilst discussing this cyber group, questions arose regarding whether this online group is doing their work for the interest of global civilians or whether they are acting this way to promote fear or discomfort for governments, military groups and extremist groups in an online space. The theory of Anonymous producing ‘acts of fear’ has lead them to be class as 'cyber terrorists'. In my opinion I'm torn between both options. Some instances involving Anonymous I believe are performed for the greater good and in the interest of the public but then looking at the opposite end, I believe they prove to be feared through some of their acts/work that affect many countries and people and potentially put many lives in danger through the release of classified information.

 A fellow student addressed this concept of Anonymous and claimed that they shouldn't be classed as 'cyber terrorists',  but that their work should be classed as 'Cyber teasing'. This theory is relevant as a lot of Anonymous' work does not delete or remove the threat/issue completely, it just changes content and almost 'threatens' the organisation by showing them how powerful Anonymous really are.  I found this concept by my fellow student interesting and agree with this completely.

 If you have not heard of Anonymous before, I encourage you to check the cuber group and the work that they do. Below I have listed a link to their YouTube channel that examples the majority of their work/acts.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AnonymousWorldvoce

http://anonofficial.com

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Hate Speech through Research

Through researching Hate Speech on social media, I came across this article by Robert Mark Simpson regarding the dignity, harm and act of hate speech online. This article explores and examines the act of enacting legal restriction of hate speech as it is an infringement against people’s dignity.  Check the article out here, its defiantly worth a read. Unfortunately I was unable to link this chapter due to Griffith University restrictive access, but all the information is listed below for you to google. Happy reading!

Author: Robert Mark Simpson

Book: Law and Physilosophy, Volume 32, Issue 6, pages 701-728

Date Book Released: November 2013

Date (Article Online): 27 November 2012

Database: Springer Link

DOI: 10.1007/s10982-012-9164-z

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Hate Speech on Social Media

For this weeks (5) entry, I have created a survey regarding Hate Speech’s online presence. After discussing social media throughout the tutorial many other students began addressing the aspect of hate, inequality and hurtful posts. This lead me to think about who out of my friends on social media have been affected by hate or who has conducted hate speech whilst on these social media platforms. Hate speech is defined as “speech that offends, threatens or insults, groups and individuals, based on race, colour, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other traits”(American Bar Association, n.d.,pg.1) -American Bar Association 

 Through analyzing my responses, I have found that 50% of responders have been a victim of hate speech online. Whether it be hurtful comments, insulting posts, humiliating photos or hurtful messages made directly to them. This statistic is eye opening. To think that,hypothetically, out of 10 friends, 5 of them have been a direct victim of hate speech on social media. From this question I enquired on how they were ‘attacked’. Through this I found that 60% of responders were attacked directly through their personal message and 40% of others were attacked publically through comments/posts. In my opinion, this shows that majority of those conducting the hate speech are on a personal level as they are only presenting their opinions, thoughts and hate to the victim directly.

Question six in the survey asks responders if they have ever conducted hate speech themselves, and 100% have NOT conducted hate speech online or that they would not classify their ‘act’ as hate speech. This demonstrates that all of the responders were confronted without their own intervention to ignite the hate. Interesting. So therefore, the people who antagonized the victims obviously had a problem with them as a person, or the content that they were posting and the ‘hater’ felt they had the right to contact them in hateful ways to express this opinion to them.

 Interestingly enough, Question eight reveals more information regarding the purpose for conducting hate speech. When asked if you have ever posted a humiliating photo/video of another person on social media, 30% said that they have and they did so because they didn't think the victim wouldn't like it. This leads me to think that this 30% of hate was posted by accident or without intention to directly hurt this person.

And finally, the one question that focused my mind whilst talking about hate speech on social media was what others thought was the platform that publically exposed hate speech the most. 50% said that Facebook and its side application, Facebook Messenger exposed hate the most. Running close second, 40% said that Instagram exposed hate publically as well. In my personal opinion I believe that Instagram publically exposes hate speech the most as most of the comments are about appearance or interests and many users fail to use the direct message function to express their hate to therefore they publically display it on the victim’s photo comments. I find that ‘haters’ on Facebook will personally message the victim more than post public comments on their content.  

I have found that through doing this survey I have grasped more understanding on the issue of hate speech in social media, how it affects the victims and the motives behind posting hate speech online.

Check out my Survey here: --> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FSJRDCW

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The Evolution of the Cyberpunk Genre

This week I have chosen to make a timeline outlining the many significant events that lead to the emergence and importance of the Cyberpunk genre. As many of these events began to occur the wider public became more and more aware and interested with the genre and what it entailed. Within no time, the Cyberpunk genre had its own fan club and multiple novels and movies released to reenact its dystopic features and sorrowful settings.

 Check out my timeline here and leave a comment what you think!

My Cyberpunkn Timeline

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Is Burning Chrome become our Reality?

This week I have chosen to talk about the weekly reading of ‘Burning Chrome’ by William Gibson. When initially reading this short story I was utterly confused by the complex language and the overall focus of the plot and the characters. One point whilst reading ‘Burning Chrome’ that grabbed my attention was the innovation of Simstim. This is a ‘player that records the whole sensorium of a person’ (Derra, 2016, pg.1).

This invention allows characters within Burning Chrome to live the life of a famous being through their own eyes by the implantation of cameras/screens in their eye sockets. This gives characters the ability to follow their favorite human or celebrity and live an identical life to them through the Simstim. This aspect within the short story has focused my thoughts onto the future and whether the human race can evolve through technology to get to such a point. The Simstim invention within Burning Chrome has created and implemented a virtual reality for those who use it, but the users are unable to eliminate the ‘virtual’ aspect to return to their initial reality once the Simstim is embedded. This factor leads me to think about whether the human race will evolve entirely to ultimately live a reality that is a virtual reality, that has no turning back. This scares me quite a bit. Thinking of how far the human race has advanced with technology already, leaves me no doubt that the invention and implementation of Simstim could be known as the normal in our near future.

 Below I have listed a review and glossary of the ‘Burning Chrome’ novel by William Gibson. I encourage you to read it and then read it again. Reading this novel a second, third and even fourth time allows our brain to delve deeper into the cyberpunk reality that William Gibson has created and make sense of this crazy technological world. Through reading multiple times, different factors or aspects grasp our attention and leave us to think about these factors in our everyday life.

  Happy Reading.

Review - Here 

Glossary - Here 

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With this week’s focus being heavily on social media, the internet and communicating through these platforms. I was interested in finding an article on how these platforms impact our communication and whether academics believe it is beneficial or detrimental for our business and or social communication abilities. Take a look at the link listed above to view the article about our second virtual life.

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Communicating through Technology with Loved Ones

When being asked do I communicate through new technologies to family and friends, it pushed me to really think about how often I do communicate with abroad members and what platforms I use to communicate with them. Since having a sister that lives in America, my family and I enjoyed using the social platform’s of skype and Facebook. Skype was helpful for catch ups as the visual footage and the sound allow us to remember her face and voice more prominently. Facebook was usually used for more frequent quickly daily chats and to keep up with the photos she posted about her time overseas. While my sister is classed in generation Y, she has grown up with the technological platforms and understands the platforms of social media on a more personal level, my uncle on the other hand does not quite grasp these concepts.  My uncle lives in Switzerland, my grandmothers birth place, but sadly does not use these new technologies to communicate to us here in Australia. Instead he opts for a telephone call that probably costs $1000 thanks to international call rates. Understandably these phone calls only come every month or so, but if the older generations understood the new communication technologies such as social media platforms, he could communicate with us more frequently and with more accessibility.

I believe that communicating through technology and especially ones that are new enables the world to connect more frequently and easily without extra costs or difficulty. Through communicating with loved ones overseas, I believe it is essential to maintain the emotional/mental connection through video calls and frequent chatting whilst they are physically out of reach.

(Here is a little picture of my family, without my sister that is overseas, at Christmas just to spice up my blog) 

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Another video that was found regarding technology in human life. This brand video posted by Huawei that captures the different uses of technology in humanity and how it improves our communication and our access to one another. I see this video as a positive representation of technology compared to Gary Turk’s video posing the negative impacts of technology on the human life. I truly enjoyed watching this video and to teach myself to understand that technology is a necessity for many jobs in the world we live in.

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For Task 5 of week 2, I was interested in finding a video that addressed the topic of dependancy on technology. The way that our generation and generations to come are dependant on technology and are more interested in posting a status than speaking to their parents across the dinner table. This video by Gary Turk focuses on this topic through his spoken word and images presented throughout the video to match the vocabulary. I hope you enjoy.

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Fellow Communicators

Head over to my fellow communicator tab to check out some of my class mates blogs also about New Communication Technologies. Each name has the link embedded in it so click on their name to be redirected to their blog. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

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For part three of week two in New Communication Technologies I created a certificate with Word. I thought I would create this certificate to celebrate and show that I am a qualified Google Superstar. Since I have never created anything like this before, I began to play with the application and I ended up looking at the internet for inspiration on what I could create with the Microsoft processing application. So I went looking and found THIS.

I hope these cool tricks ignite your Microsoft Word curiosity and inspire you to do more with this application.

P.s. This is a screen shot of the certificate