I Can Be Anything I wanna Be!

In today’s world it is so easy to be anyone you want to be because of the internet. Everyone is associated with some form of online identity on the internet. The problem is though, how do we know who we are associating with. The identities that people take on can be sometimes misleading. How do we know who the right people are and who are the bad people corrupting the internet? And the answer is, we don’t. We take risks each time we associate with people we don’t know on the internet, hoping that they are who they say they are.

Communicating on the internet is very different from communicating with another in person or over the phone. During these activities you know who you are talking to, unlike on the internet where you may have no idea who the person is that you’re communicating with or conveying information to. In Donath’s article “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community” he says that “knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating and interaction.” If this was true then why do people communicate with people online? And the answer is because you are able to participate in a whole new world that you might not be able to participate in, in the actual world. The point to most online Identities is to hide who you truly are and become and anonymous user. According to Wikipedia, with online identities, people are allowed to redefine themselves in any manner that they wish.

Redefinition of ones self can be a good but can also be bad. When you take on an Online Identity you are able to be someone that you aren’t or you’re able to enhance or better yourself. This form of identity could be good if you wanted to explore something that you felt you could never do being your normal self. A person could use Myspace or facebook to create a new image that would make that person feel better about themselves. Also, by pretending to be someone else, a person might gain the confidence to do things and say things that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to say. The downside of online identities is that because you don’t know who you’re communicating with, you may be taken advantage of, or be lied to. Everyone who is using the internet is not using it for good reasons. There are people out there who are using the internet to take your information, there are people there trying to convince you to do things you know are wrong. There are many different kinds of people using the internet, but you have no way of knowing who they truly are unless you know them and have met them in person.

One online identity that I use everyday is my Instant Message screen name. The name I use, haberb1872, is taken from my name and my address, but yet it still hides who I truly am. No one I talk to would know who I am unless I told them. It is almost impossible to know who I am from this ten letter identity, unless I gave them my information. With this screen name I can become anyone I want to be.

One problem though with having a screen name is that you have the risk of someone trying to steal your name and pretending to be you. According to the term “identity theft” on Wikipedia there are four types of identity theft. The one that would be associated with this type of identity theft would be identity cloning. Identity cloning is a person is trying to become you, in the sense of using you’re name but not you as a person. If someone took my screen name and started to pretend to be me, this could be bad because they could be using my name to send out bad messages or use it to harass other people. This in return would make me look like a bad person to other users. And this is never a good thing. No matter how hard you try to keep your identity yours, there is always a risk of someone intercepting it to use it for bad. There is no way to stop this from happening, you just have to try your best and go along with life.

References:

Donath, Judith (1997, November, 12). Identity and deception in the virtual community. Communities in Cyberspace, Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Identity theft. (2007, February 21). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:41, February 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Identity_theft&oldid=109824112

Online identity. (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:42, February 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999

Internet Privcy

Internet privacy is increasingly becoming a problem in today’s world. The best definition that I have found on privacy is “the state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs.”(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Privacy) I believe that this definition can also be used to describe internet privacy, with just one addition to the definition. I would define internet privacy as the state of being free from intrusion or disturbance on the internet with one’s private affairs and life. In an ideal world everyone should have this right to privacy on the internet to do whatever they want without having to worry about intruders. But in all reality every time you sign onto the internet your privacy will most likely be invaded.

Every time you enter the internet world, thousands of possibilities of people invading your privacy are there. From people using spyware to get your personal information, (Wikipedia, Intentet Privacy) to cookies that are dropped in your computer to track, and maintain specific information about you (Wikipedia, HTTP Cookies) to people using facebook or myspace to stalk you. No one is safe from invaders on the internet.

People think they are safe when they get internet privacy software, such as software’s that will hide the IP addresses, or delete cookies that are left on your computer (Wikipedia, Privacy Software), but there are other ways for people to get your information and invade your privacy. The people trying to get your information are very sneaky. They can pose as fake organizations or people and ask for you information, they can spy on you with cameras and they can also intercept information such as emails and instant messages.

No one is safe from invaders on the internet. Not even me. When I was younger I learned this the hard way. I had an instance where someone stole my AOL screen name and password and was sending out thousands of pornographic emails. I don’t remember all the details of what had happened because I was so young. I remember AOL telling me that the cause for all my problems was that someone had sent me an email pretending to be AOL and asked me for my password, which I willingly gave up because I believed them to be officials from AOL. From here the person posing to be an AOL official took my screen name and used it to send out thousands of emails containing porn. Once the real officials of AOL saw that I was sending out thousands of emails at once they became suspicious and shut down my AOL account, which prohibited me from getting on my screen name. Once this happened, I remember my mom calling AOL to see what was happening and why I wasn’t able to log onto my name. This is when they told us that my name was sending out thousands of emails a day with pornographic pictures. After explaining to AOL that I wasn’t the one sending the emails out, AOL worked with me to re-enable my screen name. All I had to do was change my password. I am happy the situation was easily fixable. I could have had something much worse happen to me t because I wasn’t careful about who I was giving my information to.

When this experience was happening to me, I didn’t realize how unsafe the internet could be. I had no idea that something like this could happen to me. From this I’ve learned that not everyone who is using the internet is using it for good or legitimate reasons. I also learned that not everyone you talk to or communicate with is who they say they are. Today, when using the internet, I am very careful of who I give my information to. I know that I am not 100% protected, but I know that I am at least protected against something that can be easily avoidable

References:

(2007). Privacy. Dictionary.com, Retrieved February 15 2007,

HTTP cookie. (2007, February 13). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:12, February 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HTTP_cookie&oldid=107837619

Internet privacy. (2007, February 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:14, February 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Internet_privacy&oldid=107292821

Privacy software. (2007, February 13). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:11, February 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Privacy_software&oldid=107858791

There's Nothing Like a Gift

Gift economies are very extraordinary things. A gift economy is defined as an “economic system in which participants give away things of value to the shared benefit of the community” ( http://www.thetransitioner.org/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Gift%20Economy). According to this definition, one gift economy that I feel apart of is that of helping the less fortunate at a local soup kitchen.

A couple of years ago I started to work at a local soup kitchen in a neighboring town. I started to do this because I needed community service hours for my schools National Honor Society. Going into this situation I was uncertain of how I was going to feel about working at a soup kitchen. As the hours started to go by though, I found that I started to really enjoy myself. I loved helping to serve the food and loved meeting all the people that showed up. After this first time I was hooked. I loved the whole idea of helping the soup kitchen and loved the people that were there. It made me feel good to be helping the community. Ever since this first time going to the local soup kitchen my friends and I have bee going every time that we can get.

The last time I went to the soup kitchen was over Winter Break. My friend called me up last second to go because the group that were suppose to be working that sift at the soup kitchen had to cancel and they needed some people to work. Knowing that we have worked at the soup kitchen numerous times before, the coordinator called my friend up and asked her for our help. That day, a bunch of my friends, who I haven’t seen in a while, got together to hand out lunches at the local soup kitchen. This was a great experience because I was helping others, but also in return, I got to feel good about myself and I also got to see my friends that I haven’t seen in several months.

Working at a local soup kitchen is considered to be a gift economy because you are providing people with a warm, healthy meal and expect nothing in return you except to have the joy of helping the less fortunate out. According to Wikipedia, a gift economy also requires you to get something in return without asking for it or really expecting anything in return. A gift economy is like a secret treaty between people. The secret treaty that I had with the people at the soup kitchen is that I would hand out found in return to feel good about myself, like I have done something worthwhile. If no one helped these people out, they would be going hungry and I would feel that I was to blame because I didn’t do anything about it.

To be considered a gift economy, there also has to be motivations for contributing to the cause (Kollock 1999). For me the motivation for working at the soup kitchen is as easy as just to help out. I love helping people out. When I help out the community I not only feel good about doing it but I also love to meet the people that are there. I love meeting new people. It’s probably one of my favorite things to do. Most of the time the people I meet while helping out around the community are the nicest people because they are they because they want to be there and no ones telling them to be there to help out. These are the main motivations that I help out at places like the soup kitchen.

Gift economies are very important in the world that we live in today. Without them many people would not have the services or help that they need to get. I believe that the idea of a gift economy will last well into the future.




References:
Gift economy. (2007, February 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:50, February 8, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gift_economy&oldid=105681971

Gift economy. Retrieved February 9, 2007, from The Transitioner Web site: http://www.thetransitioner.org/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Gift%20Economy

Kollock, Peter (1999). The economies of online cooperation: gifts and public goods in cyberspave. Retrieved February 6, 2007, from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm