internet, new media & self

asdfghjkl; i am caitlin and this is what i think

[caitlinthrum-blog]

crowd funding

Today in New Media, crowdsourcing is becoming a means in which projects can achieve the money they need for their project without having to approach financial institutions or private investors. A perfect example of the use of crowdsourcing is the to be released 2012 film Iron Sky.

  In 2010 the creators of the film released a short teaser trailer, and then asked people if they wanted to have the film actually made then they could donate towards the funding of the film.  Each person who contributes towards the funding of the film then receives a small percentage of ownership of the film, which is how the creators of Iron Sky are enticing people to give them money.

http://www.ironsky.net/site/support/therace/

On the website for the film they say, “We’re about to embark on a journey to find out how deep a successful crowdfunding campaign can go, using available crowdfunding platforms. We have launched Iron Sky on 10 different crowdfunding platforms, and our goal is to race them to 50000€ each.”

  Joshua Atterton-Evans made a good point when he states in his blog “Crowd sourcing shows the potential that new media has to radically alter the way in which we work, and gives us the potential to have a greater impact on the products we consume.” (2011) I think this really relates to the film Iron Sky because by donating money people are funding a film they really want to see.

References

Atterton-Evans, J. 2011. KCB206 Blog. http://joshattertonkcb.tumblr.com/. [accessed 29 April, 2011].

Iron Sky. 2011. http://www.ironsky.net/site/support/therace/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KEueJnsu80

[caitlinthrum-blog]

narrating and branding online

I would like to start this week with a point that Chloe Hume made in her blog New Media: Internet, Self and Beyond,

“We are presented with so many different and easier ways to live our lives through the use of new media that we are so quick to accept this way of life, this reality, and don’t truly consider the amount of privacy we are sharing online and who has access to this information.”(2011)

This point could not be truer. Today in new media, the line between “real” and “virtual” life is becoming almost invisible as they converge together to form one world. The online game Second Life is a fantastic example of this convergence of realities.

The game allows players to form an identity for themselves and live a “second life” in the game. People become so involved in the game that they forget what is real and what is online, and with so many people creating themselves online it has become hard to decipher whether a person is who they say they are or who they want you to think they are. Mark Deuze was correct when he said, “media cannot be conceived of as separate to us, to the extent that we live in media, rather than with media.”(2011)

A Man and his Second Life character

  References

Deuze, M. 2011. “Media Life”. In Media, Culture & Society, Volume 33, issue 1, pp. 137-148

Hume, Chloe. 2011. New Media: Internet, Self and Beyond. Accessed April 8, 2011. http://chume206.tumblr.com/

http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/secondlife1.jpg

http://blog.bioethics.net/second%20life.jpg

[caitlinthrum-blog]

the internet told me im sick

How many times have you felt a bit sick, decided to Google your symptoms and come up with the conclusion that you are either possibly dying, have some ridiculous disease or in the case of females, are pregnant. I know one too many times I have tried to self diagnose myself from information on the Internet, and then been told by my mother I am ridiculous and I am not dying of some horrible disease. I am a bit of a hypochondriac might I add.

These days the Internet is where most people go for everything, so why not go there for health information as well. I mean come on, when did the Internet ever lie?  The only problem with this is how do we know or trust the information we are reading. Are these people really doctors providing us with a real diagnosis? Tania Lewis from the Monash University Australia says that there is “potential for the web to produce an ‘epidemic of misinformation’ among lay people” (2006) and I believe she is very right in saying this.

 Through many studies it has been found that a large percentage of users accessing health information online are young people, and myself as a young person falls victim to this too. Sometimes it's just so much easier to Google than to make an appointment and see a real professional.  She then goes on to say, “As a group associated both with high rates of internet use and with a tendency to avoid dealing with the ‘mainstream’ medical system, the internet would seem to offer a relatively easy way of anonymously accessing a wide range of lay and expert health and medical information.” (2006)

  Although the Internet can be very useful for most things, it is usually best to see a real doctor for answers than trying to figure it out for yourself online. Just because it’s on the Internet does not mean it is true.

References

Lewis, T. 2006. Media, Culture & Society. Vol. 28(4). SAGE Publications.

[caitlinthrum-blog]

beliefs, politics & ethics

Although the Internet today is used as a medium for free speech, some people are taking it too far expressing their opinions to the point where it becomes unethical. A few days after the Japan Tsunami hit, a young girl posted a video on YouTube about how she felt blessed that God answered her prayers to wake up the atheists.

This video created a backlash against this girl, with people going as far as death threats. This young girl has taken her religious beliefs a little too far and it has backfired on her.  Although everyone has the right to say what they want to say on the Internet, people should really think about what they are saying before they post it online, especially when it is such a heated subject such as religion.

The following video I found is a small exert of Hilary Clinton's speech about Internet Freedom. In this video she talks about how some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their people from accessing portions of the Internet. She states that

"Virtual walls are cropping up in place of visible walls."

I believe that everyone has the right to view what is published on the Internet and should not be restricted by what their countries leaders believe in.

Hilary that goes on to state,

"All people have the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

This next video is just an interesting video I found on Youtube about Internet and ethics. The guy in the video talks about how ethics comes down to you trusting the person who posted the information you are reading and also about whether there is a true code of ethics when it comes to computer use. In today's day and age almost anyone can upload information to the Internet, so how do you know who is credible and who is not. If people are honest about who they are and where the information has come from, it is very easy to see that this information is legitimate, however; when people hide behind lies which is very common online, you really can never tell.

In summary, I believe that everyone should have the right to view what is available on the Internet, but it is up to the people who post things to think about the ethics of the Internet and whether what they are posting is appropriate.

References

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP-sSeqPywI&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxfLdeu-3TU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em6wyNqx4Kg

http://www.tntmagazine.com/tnt-today/archive/2011/03/15/tamtampamela-video-god-is-so-good-for-japan-s-earthquake-and-tsunami.aspx

[caitlinthrum-blog]

playlist is character

This week we discussed the topic of personal downloads and music playlists and how they define us. How many times have you jumped on the bus or train, and all you see is a group of people sitting in silence, all wired in to the same accessory, the white earbuds. It is sad to see what has happened to society since the invention of the iPod causing less and less social interaction. This stems back to last week's topic about social networking and how instead of meeting new people in public social environments like waiting for the bus or on a train ride, people are meeting online. This has caused people to become less social and not understanding how to interact with people in a public forum.

When you look at someone's playlist or download history, you are getting a peek into their life as these records and tracks display aspects of a person's personality. Steven Levy states "People have alwys judged and been judged by what they listen to" (2006). People are often afraid to share their playlists and download records in fear of being judged for the kind of music they listen to or the kinds of things they search for online. Rather than having a conversation, people would rather separate themselves into their own little bubble and enjoy their music without someone else's opinion.

This video makes some very good points about how iPod's have become one of the most popular cultural artefacts of the 21st Century.

iPod: A Cultural Artefact.

References

Levy, S. 2006. The perfect thing: how the iPod shuffles commerce, culture and coolness. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. New York.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIxvIYtr9Fc

[caitlinthrum-blog]

living inside a glass bedroom

This weeks lecture focused on the construction of one's self through online social networking sites. The concept of the "glass bedroom" was mentioned and is something I found very interesting as each and everyone of us using new media live inside one. We put all of this personal information on the internet forgetting that big brother is watching and that we are leaving ourselves open for anyone to look at. This is a growing concern with new media as we forget that putting all this information about ourselves online is making ourselves vulnerable to strangers and that our privacy is non-existent anymore. When we choose to upload personal information and photographs of ourselves onto our online profiles to share with friends and family, what most people forget is that you are also inviting strangers into your private life. Alot of the time we are offering more information than we first intended. Online users can claim to be whoever they wish to be, depending on the information you choose write about yourself. There are those who are aware of this lack of privacy and try to make themselves look better than what they really are because they know that anyone could be watching. This brings about the question about what is real and what isn't, and because of social networking, no one really knows anymore.