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
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,
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
Copyrighting is a tricky and controversial topic.Many people are against copyright laws, but there are also many people are for the copyrighting laws that are set today.For me I have started to lean toward the later of the two.Long before being assigned to read and write a blog about copyrighting, I thought that the copyrighting laws were stupid and useless. I felt that the Copyrighting laws were limiting people’s scope and creative ability. But now reading the articles assigned in class, doing outside research, and talking to my brother about Copyrighting, I have changed my mind. I believe that the laws set in place to protect the creators creativity is necessary a worthwhile.
People apposed to the Copyrighting laws say that person to person file sharing has increased sales because it has allowed the users to “learn about music that they would not otherwise be exposed to,” Oberholzer-Gee, Strumpf, 2005). Others claimed that with copyright laws, people are limited with their creativity.An example of this is the American Edit album that was put out on the internet(Carapult, 2007). They claim without the ability to use other people’s music to play around with, new and interesting things will never be able to be created.I believe that both these claims are bogus.If a person wanted to be exposed to new music or things, all they have to do is to pay for them. The creators have spent a long time working on the finished product and deserve to collect the benefits that they have earned. Plus with songs only costing the buyer less then a dollar a song and music stores online making billions of songs available at a click, it shouldn’t be hard for the public to be exposed to new music.The other claim people say about the Copyright laws hindering creativity shows how naïve the people are who say this.You don’t need to take from someone else to be creative.If a person says this to me I think that they only have a limited outlook on things. People need to learn to think outside of the box and come up with new and original ways to create music instead of taking other peoples ideas.
Downloading Music
Downloading music for free is stealing, which is illegal. If you do download music for free, from site like LimeWire, DC++, and Napster, you should also know the consequences that come when you click that download button.
Here is a clip from SouthPark showing (a bit exaggerated) what could happen if you download music illegally……
If you get caught downloading illegal music you could be fined up to $150,000 (Ovalle, 2005). I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t have that kind of money to throw away on downloading something that costs less then a dollar on music stores such as iTunes. Also, if you believe that you wont get caught you are mistaken. Below is a case where a kid was caught and fined for his mistake of downloading illegal music.
Like I mentioned in the last paragraph, having to pay a fine for downloading illegal music is stupid. You are better off just downloading a song off of iTunes. It would be cheaper in the long run because you would always have that possibility of being caught. This is why I think that iTunes is the solution to the problem of people downloading illegal music.With iTunes you are able download millions of different songs, movies, shows, and audio books for cheap (Wikipedia, 2007). You are also able to either buy a whole album or show or you can just buy one song or episode that you want. ITunes is also cheap.No longer do you have to spend 15 dollars on a CD, $20 on a DVD or $40 for a season of a T.V. show.
As of right now though, people aren’t using iTunes as much as they should be because downloading music for free is still too easy to do.I think that the government should go after a lot more people who are downloading music.Right now I think that they are being too relaxed about it.I feel that if they can catch people stealing things from stores then they should be able to catch people stealing music off of music sites.Only then, will people start using iTunes more out of fear of being caught.
In an ending note, here is a video that I thought was interesting from when the iTunes store was first opening.....
E-mailing has changed the way we communicate today.I know for me, that over the past year I have sent out more then twice as much Email’s then I have actual letters.
E-mail was created in 1965, for users of a mainframe computer to communicate among each other.Almost a year late in 1966, E-mail was extended to convey messages between many different users on separate computers.One computer network that has changed the way we send E-mails today was ARPANET.ARPANET which stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, was the first tocreate packet switching, which could use one link to communicate with more than one computer or network by putting data into “packets”.
The first major E-mail carrier was AOL.AOL kicked off around the year 1988 and was the first server to allow mass individuals to have an easy to use, communication system.Today, AOL has paved the way many other E-mail servers popped such as Yahoo, MSN, and G-mail.
E-mailing is quite simple. Servers like AOL, Yahoo, and G-mail have created a simple, easy to use system that allows even the most computer illiterate people to send E-mails with little difficulties as possible.Bellow is a diagram that shows the how the process of emailing actually works.
I believe that E-mail has changed our society in many ways.Lately our daily lives rely on the fast pace actions that technology has offered us.Anything that takes a couple of days to send is not tolerated anymore.We expect things to happen at a fast pace because we have gotten to rely on technology to help us through our everyday needs that in the past, may have taken longer to do.In this way email has drastically improved the fast pace lives we uphold for ourselves.People no longer have the patients to send mail through the postal service on a daily basis.E-mail has also given us a relatively cheaper way of sending information and letters.With email, many providers have offered free emailing, while postal service still requires you to pay for stamps to put on letters.E-mailing has also let us stay in contact with many people that we might have lost touch with in the past.It is much easier to get a persons E-mail then having to take down a whole street address and then sending a letter to them through the post office mail.E-mailing has changed the way we live and communicate today.No longer do we have to suffer through all the long and gruesome pains of communicating like people of the past did.
The only disadvantage that E-mail offers is that of personal touch that comes with sending a letter through the postal service.I know personally that when someone sends me a letter in the mail I get more excited than I do when someone sends me a letter in an E-mail.Sending a letter through the mail has a special personal touch that has been that way since early history.I believe that at this point no amount of communication technology can give you that feel of personal touch like a letter that has come from someone though the mail.
E-mail has been one of the greatest inventions that have come about since the creation of the Internet and World Wide Web.With E-mail people are able to send and receive messages fast and are able to stay in touch with a wider amount of people.Without E-mailing the world that we communicate with would be very different.E-mail is possibly one of the biggest inventions this world has seen so far.Everyday people are constantly checking their E-mail, not just once a day but every hour.Every business, school, or group communicates through E-mail.Today it is impractical to not have an E-mail account.Life has come to depend on it.
My name is Hilary and I’m a freshman here at University at Buffalo. I’m an intended Communication student and am interested in either pursuing a career in Web Design or Advertising. I am also looking to minor in Photography.
I want to pursue a career in Web design or Advertising because these careers allow you to be very creative.Something that I feel I am good at.I found out that I liked Web Design after I took an introductory class in high school.I liked Web Design because I am able to be creative, I would get to do a little writing, I would be able to take pictures, and I would get to work with computers.A career in Web Design would allow me to incorporate all of these interests into one career.I am interested in Advertising because I would love to see some of my creative ideas become reality.With Advertising I feel that I will be able to be a business woman while still being able to be creative and still have fun.At this time though, I am leaning more towards being in the Web Design field.I think that it would be a better fit for me in the long run.
I am also very interested in Photography.I am primarily a digital Photographer, but I also enjoy doing some film Photography.My favorite thing to shoot is nature, though I have tried Portraits and abstract Photography.I would major in Photography, but I’ve see that a person needs to have very good pictures to be able to make enough money to survive just from a career in Photography alone.This is why I would love to minor in Photography.This way I can make the money I need to live with a job in Web Design or as an Advertiser, but would also I would have the option of running a Photography business in the side.
Here are some of the Photographs that I have taken......
I have many hopes and expectations for this Introduction to the Internet class.One hope is that I am able to get a good grade.I always shoot for an A, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.That is why I hope to at least get a decent grade in this class.My other hopes for this class is to just have fun, and really learn about the internet as a tool for communication.At the end of this class I hope to further my knowledge on the Internet as a tool for communication.
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. 
