We want...Information!!!!

This has to do with the election and the internet. I mention a view or two of mine. Big deal.

I don't know what people did during an election year before the internet. How did they find out about the candidates? It must have been excrutiatingly difficult if you missd the candidates TV appearance or if no one canvassed your street. This was the first year I ever really payed atention to politics. I guess I could have been considered complacent beforehand, but oh well..I'm not anymore.

So...at the begining of the year, I was really juiced up about Ron Paul. I learned about him through a friend and decided to check him out. I wen to his website a bunch, watched all his interviews on Youtube, looked at his stances, yad yada yada...I did all I could to find out about the guy. ****I also looked into the other GOP candidates, but RP kept my entusiasm through the course of the GOP debates and primary season. I bypassed the democrats, mostly because I figured they'd win anyway and I wanted to keep tabs on my guy. I became increasingly excited as time went on. I was glued to the TV for every second of the debates, on the internet all time and I even donated a small amount to his campaign.

All that aside, I got all my info about al the candidates (I just realised the word "candid" makes up most of "candidate"...interseting epytimology there haha) from the internet (youtube was a popular stop) and TV which leaves me wondering...what did people do before the internet? I know this is a silly question, but there's actually a grain of sincerity to it.

Second Life as used by businesses and education

I read the article on Scond Life being used by businesses and education. I know I always say this in regard to virtual world phenomena, but I'm not surprised that is has taken the path it has, or at least that many are using it that way. Second life is fun. I consider it to be like lucid dreaming. That where you're dreaming and realise you are, so you egin to manipulate the dream in a way. Can you see the paralell?

Whenever I'm on there ad I see someone cruising around, I like to fly up to them and ask what they're doing or just other smal talk. I've talked to people from al over the country doing this. I haven't had anything that amunts to formal dialogue yet, though. It's usually just "Hi, what the heck is going on here?" and then flying away soon after. I think I'd like to participate in a class setting on there if given the opportunity.

I read game communities

I have never been involvd in any kind of virtual world, MUD, MMPORG, or anything like that. I've never even played Xbox live. The idea of it turns me off. Like it said in the article, many players want the virtual world to be their own private space. I guess I'm the same way. The idea of geting blown away within the first five minutes of lay is not too apealing. I suppose it is like anythng else, though.

I'm not surprised that the gamers have tried to form what amounts to a constitution or bill of rights. Otherwise, you'd have anarchy, right? That makes sense. Of course, with the degre of anonimity offered, and as it said in the article, some people are gonna run around and misbehave, uch to the dismay of the serious gamers. I'll give them a try and see how I like them.

Facebook Studies and Popularity

I read the thingabout how scholars are using Facebook as a field for their social science studies. I'm not surprised. I don't how successful they'll be. Most of the people on here have private profiles, so a stranger can't view them and find ou about their stuff. Oh well...more power to them. I think Facebook is public domain, as is the rest of the internet. Facebook is just a virtual public, only it allows the user the options of anonimity in viewing others, and privacy in others viewing them.

Now...why is it so popular? Human curiosity. I've said before that Facebook and Myspace allow you satisfy your curiosity and allows extreme efficiency in gathering important social information. People have called me to enquire as to why I changed my status on Myspace. They didn't have to call or see me to know I was 'smitten' . I myself have done similar things. You can keep tabs on 40 people simultaneously while sitting in one spot. It's all about the info.

Facebook + School

I read the thing about facebook becoming a hub for businesses and school. Well, I'm not surprised. I think it's a fine idea. Facebook is kind of fun, and when you can make any obligation more fun, you will obviously enjoy it more and people will respond and participate more enthusiastically.

I think this frees you up as well. I can contribute to important discussions whenever I want. Also, it allows you jot something down when the idea is fresh in your mind, making it available for everyone to view and digest before you forget about it.

I think it would be great if there was a meeting in a couple weeks, and the boss says Ok, everyone post ideas on Facebook before the meeting and participate with one another. In that time, the people could feed off each other's ideas, allowing for collaborative thinking, which will be available at everyone's own convenience. It's great, in my opinion. I hope the company I work for could adopt something like this.

You can't say that in public (Rachel Collins case)

I believe the girls were wronged. Before I begin my rant, let me say that there is no doubt that what she and her friends did was juvenile, stupid, and malicious. I agree with that much. In fact, I fantacize about punishing (an actual punshment, not just ignoring them or using relational or social aggression) people when they behave this way. I think it's awful and is even perhaps indicative of some kind of bad human condition. I'm a wuss, or maybe just too imaginative.

However, the internet, and Facebook.com are public domain, which is where free speech reigns. The comments were (I actually thought they were funny) mean and spiteful, but they weren't directed at the professor. They were directed at an effigy of the professor. They posted a little picture of her and said gross things and that's it. There is a difference between the actual professor herself, the tangible flesh and clothing version, and the intangible, pixalted version. I think defamation of character doesn't apply to the internet. Maybe I'm crazy, as most people might think when reading this.

The kids set up that dumb group as a virtual punching bag for the professor who was, even for decidedly stupid reasons, consistently aggravating to the students. Kind of like group therapy for people who share a common grievance, albeit a dumb one. This was comiseration in action. That's fundamentally it, in my opinion. If they were sending hateful or harmful emails to the professor, that would be another thing. I think the whole thing was blown out of proportion.

Social networking and the lurking menace

vesselsSocial networking sites are an everyday phenomenon these days. So much in fact, that a young person without a page on Facebook or Myspace is borderline anomolous. I got a Myspace about three years ago. After a year or so, I deleted it because I felt like I relied on it too heavily for information about my friends, when I could just call them. After a while, I made a new one and still use it. It's easy to think of it as a guilty pleasure, but then again, maybe it isn't.

Humans have a natural curiosity about one another, and with MS or FB, this curiosity is easily satisfied. Plus, one can browse through a wide array of subjects (people) while sitting in one place. Also, they offer people the chance to study a person in anonimity. You can check someone out without being caught staring. It's all extraordinarily convenient, so it's no wonder these things have taken off the way they have.

If there is a cohort that is particularly enthralled by SNS's, it is undoubtedly adolescents. Now, we all remember high school and it's boundless collection of social booby traps. So, with this in mind, many are concerned with the SNS's potential hazards as they offer kids instant access to other kids, which they will certainly use to scrutinize and punish one another. But, haven't kids done this forever? In high school, I was on both sides of the bullying. I dished it out, and I took it. Myspace didn't even exist yet.

I view SNS's as vehicles or vessels for social phenomenon, not advocates or proponents of them. The amount of bullying online, in my opinion, is no greater than the amount occuring in the lunchroom, playground, gymnasium, or hallways. One can criticize a SNS by saying it harbors teenage cruelty. The same can be said for the aforementioned locations.

Of course, there is the more serious threat of online predators. This should be taken lightly. There is the option of making profiles private, or unviewable by people 18yrs+, but that alone is not enough. I imagine, though, that successful predation would be both very rare and very difficult. There are lots of obstacles an online predator faces. Most kids are savvy to online predators. A kid in Chicago getting a message from a kid they've never met in Indianapolis will be suspicious because they know that this is the likely disguise of a creep. Most of them pose as children, because they know that if they tell the truth about their age, the kid won't talk to them. Most children and parents are educated about online predation. Besides, the kids are watch each other's sites. If Suzy, 15 gets a comment(a message that is viewable to all) from Joe, 27, Suzy's friends will undoubtedly raise Hell about it.

I have this stance because I've witnessed these things happen with my younger brothers and their friends at our house.