Exploration and discussion of New Media

A student's required blog for a college course.

[kkilgor9]

How to opt out of tracking

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION I honestly don't mind having ads tailored to my preferences on social media sites. I have found some of my favorite websites online through advertisements on Facebook. I am, however, getting slightly uneasy about how many sites will have access to my browsing history. Luckily, I found this site that can help users "opt out" of certain sites tracking his or her web history. 

A QUICK SUMMARY OF THE WEBSITE So basically, this website put together a list of sites that can track users and provided links to allow users to "opt out." They also provide instructions to manage the settings in browsing services like Mozilla FireFox and Google Chrome to better protect yourself from unwanted information being stored through the browser. 

This article also weighs the pros and cons of our usage being tracked. One example is Google using search history to adjust our results. The good thing is the results may be more in line with our interests. The bad thing is it may result in a "warped search result." 

MY THOUGHTS I am definitely a fan of more privacy on the Internet but I acknowledge that nothing on the Internet is really private at all. With the advancements in technology, I treat my computer like a distant acquaintance: We are civil and we talk but it will never hear any of my secrets. That being said, I will personally opt out for every kind of tracking I can. Shortly after typing this out, I will be spending the rest of my morning altering all of my settings. 

[kkilgor9]

The consequences of being unprofessional online

This article explains how Jofi Joseph, a previous White House security official, lost his job over controversial tweets. 

According to this article, Joseph is responsible for an account that hurled insults at various other White House employees. One exact tweet included profanity. It said, "'Has shitty staff.' #ObamaInThreeWords." Obviously, this twitter account was deleted and Joseph gave a public apology. 

My thoughts about this issue divided in half. The one side is that social media like Twitter provide a public space for people to express their own thoughts and opinions. Being fired for an amendment right is unfortunate. 

The other, and more heavily weighted side, is that its unprofessional to publicly insult your employers. I have a serious issue with this guy insulting coworkers and his government leader. I think that people need to remember that nothing is private on the Internet anymore and one should be professional online. Even under "anonymous" names, one should be leery of placing offensive statements about his or her employer. It is only a matter of time before it gets back to that person. 

[kkilgor9]

Life Story in Six Words or Less

The article I selected was all about a challenge started in 2006 by Smith Magazine called "The Six Word Memoir." With the rising popularity of Twitter and other new media involving a restricted number of characters to express a thought or opinion,I thought this article was very prevalent.

Smith Magazine inspired a 6 word challenge trend to spread through class rooms and has made its way to Twitter. Birthed was the "Six Words Festival" where Twitter users are invited to use six words to describe their story and use hashtags to allow celebrity judges to decide who wins. 

The article mentions a legendary story supposedly by Ernest Hemingway that goes "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn." I have always loved the idea of a powerful story being told in few words. Less is more. I love that Twitter challenges us as users to use fewer words to express intricate thoughts and ideas. I think it challenges me to widen my vocabulary so I can use less words with more of an impact. Learning to share thoughts in fewer words is a very useful skill everyone should learn. 

[kkilgor9]

Discussion of privacy within social networking sites

During class today, we discussed the pros and cons of advertising on the Internet. One of the cons mentioned was the lack of privacy we as consumers feel when websites like Amazon and Facebook violate our trust by peeking into our search history. 

This article discusses the privacy controls on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo and Badoo. Apparently, research confirmed that these sites have discrepancies between their privacy policies and the privacy controls. 

The article mentions that without this violation of privacy, Facebook and other networking tools like it could not profit as much. I personally think that if you place anything on the Internet, consider that anyone could gain access to it. I think we need to be smarter online users and not trust that online networks will help to conceal our information. They do not have a personal interest in keeping our secrets for us so I think it is best to keep secrets offline.