My Online Movie

Here is a cartoon I made last year and then posted onto youtube for the tutorial activity.

Is Myspace Safe for Young People?

Online social communities are an increasingly popular addition to the internet that have developed over a relatively short period of time. Two of the most well known websites that can be classified as online social communities are: ‘Myspace’ (http://www.myspace.com) and ‘Facebook’ (http://www.facebook.com). These names should be familiar to most people, but what clearly defines an online community and what is their purpose? Many debate whether these websites are safe or a healthy way for teens to spend their spare time. In order to find out what these sites are really about, their general safety features should be analysed, as well as how serious the risks are. Once this topic is explored thoroughly, it will be clear that these websites are a safe environment for young people, considering they know how to protect themselves online. This essay’s focus will be on myspace because of its popularity with young users.

First of all, what is an online social networking website? An online social network is easiest to describe as an internet area where a large group of people interact. Myspace easily fits into the category of online social network. It is a large website that can be used to create online profiles for anyone over the age of 14. These profiles are viewable by other myspace users and are usually for networking amongst friends, family, co-workers and people with the same interests. Personal pages on Myspace are customisable because they allow the use of html codes to design the pages. Myspace is free to join because it collects money from selling advertising space. Being a fairly recent trend related to the internet, not everyone knows if it’s safe or a real form of communication technology.

Without question Myspace is a form of communication. Even though it is used through the internet, it is not quite the same as other popular choices with young people such as msn. Myspace has more different ways you can communicate to other users. The I.M. (instant message feature) allows online instant chat to other Myspace users when they are online. Messages can also be sent which are private, compared to comments which appear on the other person’s profile page after they are sent. Communication on Myspace is usually different from having a conversation to someone on msn, this is because it all depends on when the receiver logs on to read your sent message. Issues regarding this communication that concerns most parents and teachers are the privacy of personal information and the general safety of teens.

Communication conducted on myspace is mostly up to the users. This means that personal information can be posted online for others to view, if users are not educated about online protection. There are rules that apply on myspace regarding cyber bullying and abuse, and the people who do this can be reported. There are also privacy options available for Myspace users. Profile pages can be made completely private excluding accepted friends. This ensures only people who the user knows can see their page. Also, Myspace has now narrowed the search options to users only over the age of 18. Even though Myspace is constantly trying to improve security on the website, parents and teachers are still very worried about the risks of online communication with possible strangers.

Parents and teachers are concerned about who are really on Myspace and whether it is safe to chat online. They also worry about these websites being a distraction from school work and generally teens’ lives. Most adults however, are completely unaware of how Myspace works and that there are privacy options and tips on how to stay safe online. The author of the book; “Own Your space”, Linda McCarthy has a few basic tips on how to stay safe online. These include: don’t bully other teens online, don’t give out physical information, don’t meet people face to face alone without your parents knowing and be careful of the age group you hang out with online. These are very simple tips, but if followed can save a lot of problems using a social network such as Myspace. It is fair to say that parents should be worried about their teens online, but do they know what they are dealing with?

Most young people are well aware of the risks involved with creating a profile online, and can tell whether something suspicious is happening. Some adults need to give teenagers some credit when it comes to looking after themselves. A study conducted by the University of New Hampshire states that unwanted online solicitations are down 6% from 1999 to today. Considering between these years social networking sites have risen in popularity, this proves that they are a safe environment for young people. Most parents aren’t sure what their children are doing online, because not all parents are aware of their teens using a social networking website such as Myspace in the first place.

Parents and teachers are very concerned with safety when it comes to Myspace and similar networking websites. Most are scared of online solicitations and peer pressure on these web pages because of the negative attention given to them by the media. This makes parents and teachers think that Myspace is evil and its purpose is to distract and corrupt teenagers. Because of this, most adults don’t know how significant Myspace is to new communication technology and think it is just a fad. But the reality is that it is undoubtedly a new addition to technology and is another modern way we communicate to one another. As well as being a significant part of the online culture of today, Myspace has its bases covered when it comes to safety. This investigation proves that young people who know basic online protection can safely enjoy online social networks.

Bibliography

Boyd, Danah, “Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace.” (2006) American Association for the Advancement of Science, http://www.danah.org/papers/AAAS2006.html <viewed 25th May 2008>

Chan, Adrian. “Myspace Case Study Draft” http://www.gravity7.com/articles_G7_SID_case_myspace_v2.html <viewed 9th May 2008>

D’Andrade, Hugh. “Is Myspace Safe for Kids?” http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/04/myspace-safe-kids <viewed 9th May 2008>

Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D. California State University (2006) “Adolescence in Myspace: Identity Formation, Friendship and Sexual Predators” http://www.csudh.edu/psych/Adolescents%20in%20MySpace%20-%20Executive%20Summary.pdf <viewed 9th May 2008>

McCarthy, Linda. 2007, Own Your Space: Keep Yourself and Your Stuff Safe Online, Addison-Wesley.

Myspace, “Privacy Policy” <2008> http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/Privacy.aspx <viewed 9th May 2008>

USA Today, “Children less likely to encounter online predators” (2006) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2006-08-08-kids-online-survey_x.htm <viewed 9th May 2008>

Essay Outline

Essay Outline

Theme: Online Social Communities

Topic: Online social communities such as myspace are a safe communication environment for young people.

My argument is to prove that the negative publicity social networks (such as myspace) have is over the top. I think parents and teachers worry too much about safety online, and if you are careful, social networks are a fun and safe place to spend time.

I will also look at the other side of the argument which includes parents and teachers worrying about students losing interest in normal life because myspace can be considered a distraction.

I have researched so far only on the internet for studies/articles related to the introduction of myspace to normal teenage life, and found more than I first expected.

Most of the research I have conduced so far is in favour of my argument, however there are definitely other sides of this issue available as well.

I will explore some of the following ideas in my essay:

• What is myspace
• Myspace as a form of communication
• Is this communication safe
• Is there enough privacy
• Do young people understand the risks
• Are parents fully aware of this as a new form of communication
• Overall the acceptance and safety of myspace

Hopefully through these topics, I will be able to prove my argument and convince others that myspace is a fun and safe communication environment for young people, considering they know basic privacy defence.

References:

Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D. California State University (2006) “Adolescence in Myspace: Identity Formation, Friendship and Sexual Predators” http://www.csudh.edu/psych/Adolescents%20in%20MySpace%20-%20Executive%20Summary.pdf <viewed 9th May 2008>

USA Today, “Children less likely to encounter online predators” (2006)

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2006-08-08-kids-online-survey_x.htm <viewed 9th May 2008>

Adrian Chan, “Myspace Case Study Draft” http://www.gravity7.com/articles_G7_SID_case_myspace_v2.html <viewed 9th May 2008>

Hugh D’Andrade, “Is Myspace Safe for Kids?”

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/04/myspace-safe-kids <viewed 9th May 2008>

Myspace, “Privacy Policy” <2008>

http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/Privacy.aspx <viewed 9th May 2008>

Internet Field Trip

(Part Two)

I chose to compare MSN Messenger and ‘IMVU’ for my blogging task. I believe that apart from the obvious 3D differences between the two forms of internet communication, there are differences between the forms. I find that talking on MSN is very personal and familiar. You can choose who you have on your friends list, and you have to approve other members before they can talk to you. I find this makes me feel safe while chatting online. It is possible for others on the internet to easily make up a fake account or imitate someone else you know, so it isn’t 100% safe just because of the security options.

After checking out IMVU, I found that the 3D chatting environment is a lot different to using MSN. Apart from having your own character and the ability to perform actions, I find that it is a more anonymous type of internet communication. No one on this type of internet chat room uses there real name or image, so it’s impossible to tell if you are talking to a genuine person online. I find this sort of environment a bit weird and at times boring because most people don’t hang around for long.

I don’t think this would be the best environment to have a long conversation with friends for a few reasons. It takes a long time to load the surroundings for each chat room and other characters with this program, so it would be bad for people with slow internet connections. I think the communication lags because every message has to load in a bubble and appear in the 3D world. I also think this would be bad for conversations with friends because anyone can join in and listen without needing permission. IMVU would be more suitable for people who wish to meet people around the world and maybe have casual conversation.

To me, MSN seems more suitable for those who are wanting to talk to friends and family conveniently at any time without having to wait for the program and other avatars to load. Proper private conversations are not possible in IMVU, but 3D characters and actions are not available using MSN. I believe the popularity of 3D chat rooms could lead to much more advanced chat rooms in the future.

After looking around at IMVU I would definitely have to stick with my MSN messenger preference, I find it’s more suitable for my needs in a chat program and it’s less distracting.

Working with Programs

(Part One)

Microsoft Word

Our task was to complete several small exercises in Microsoft Word. I found most of these extremely easy, I however found the last exercise a little confusing because I haven’t used the mailing option in Word before. I find this program very useful in many ways. I use it to format photos before printing, writing letters, assignments, editing html code, making checklists and much more. I find the software simple and easy to use and it is one of the most used programs on my computer at home.

I didn’t come across any problems while completing the exercises, but if I did I would have used the help option to sort it out. I think Word is great for so many different things and it can be used to make some really creative things. I have also used it to create flow charts, diagrams, word art and palm cards.

Microsoft Excel

The first 3 exercises related to Excel were very easy for me to complete, but I had trouble with the last task and failed to successfully follow the instructions. With the sections I could complete, I also found it straight forward like Microsoft Word. It was easy to enter figures, charts and formulas. There were also options that allowed time saving like being able to click and drag the formulas. This program could be used to great effect as a way to keep track of business accounts, or just personal finance tracking. I think I would easily be able to use this as a way of keeping track of my money, or creating my own budget.

Wikipedia

For this week’s blog we have been asked to search wikipedia for 2 topics we are familiar with and answer some questions about the information available on each. For my first topic I chose to look up information about the computer game the sims 2. I picked this because I enjoy playing this game and I think I have basic knowledge about it. After I search the words ’sims 2′ a page dedicated to information about the game appeared. There was much more written on the page than I expected there would be.

I found that the information about the game was accurate (to my previous knowledge) but I did find out something that I did not know earlier. I found out from reading the article in wikipedia that the makers of the game are planning on making a live action film based on the sims 2. I searched this on Google to find out if it was true. I found that other websites also claimed that the makers announced this information in 2006 and the film would most likely be released in 2009. This taught me that using wikipedia to find out whether ‘facts’ on the site are true is a good way to help you learn how to research online for other sources.

To evaluate this article, I will answer the questions for this blog entry. I found that this was an accurate article of information. It does cover all the basic facts you would need to understand about the game, plus additional information that is not required. I believe that this article is balanced and not particularly biased to one side, because the article is mostly about game play etc. I don’t think that I would need to make any changed to this article to make it better for the wider wikipedia community.

The second topic I have decided to look up is the website Ebay. Being an Ebay user, I thought that I had some basic knowledge about it in general. I found that this wikipedia article seemed to have a lot of accurate (as far as I knew) information about Ebay. I feel that it contained adequate knowledge about the website and the features included. I feel that it did have a bit of a negative spin in some of the chapters due to them mentioning fraud and unsafe shopping on the website. But I think this is just part of the risk of buying online, so the information doesn’t really make the piece biased.  I believe that this page is easy to read and would not need to be changed to suit the wider wikipedia community.

Contemporary Digital Media

It is common knowledge that nowadays, just about anyone who owns a computer and camera can make a work of ‘art’ in a few simple steps. Contemporary digital media is a large part of modern day life since most young people have online website profiles etc. But is it ok to call any digital photo graph or photo-shopped image real art?

Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1936) explains that art was originally copied by Greek people long before the digital devices we use today. But apart from what they could reproduce, anything else made was unique and different. Benjamin’s idea was that something made by the creator first hand had an ‘aura’ that disappeared after it was copied. This meant that anything mechanically reproduced broke tradition and decreased the worth of the piece. It would be easy to say that Benjamin believed that copies are not real and valuable art.

This means that in today’s world, the definition of art is much more complicated then what it used to be before technology. Now it is hard to know what is original compared to what is copied. According to Benjamin’s ideas, digital photography shouldn’t be considered real art because it can be printed multiple times, which would decrease the aura of the work. If digital media was considered as real art, it would mean that it is easier to make and copy. According to Benjamin, the pieces would not be worth much artistically, but realistically, more people would be open minded and consider the more modern forms of art as just as valuable.

Another issue with modern day technology is whether ‘photo-shopped’ images are authentic. Photo shopped images are usually described as photographs that have been edited using computer software to create a more ‘perfect’ image. Magazines commonly use photo shopped images on their covers, this is to create the illusion of perfection. I believe the original photograph taken with a digital camera is authentic, but the changed version is not. This is because there has been a process in between the photo being taken and the photo being printed that makes the picture lose the real subject being captured. If a digital photo was able to maintain the aura of an artwork, the photo shop process would definitely remove it.

Digital things do not have an aura in Benjamin’s words because they can easily duplicate the original product. This detaches the artist from the work and breaks tradition.

More Answers

1. How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?

Search engines find pages that are about your key words and try to make the most relevant options appear first.

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2167961

2. Who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?

A location/frequency method determines how relevant a page is for your search results. If your keywords are in the title or address of the page, the search engine assumes that it is more relevant, and it is at the top of the results. Also how often the words appear on the page adds to the ranking process.

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2167961

3. What are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?

My favourite search engine is Google. I think this is because it is very simple and you don’t get distracted by news stories and images as soon as you go on the page. I am always able to find what I am looking for on Google, so I never really need to use any others.

Scavenger Hunt

1. Who was the creator of the infamous “lovebug” virus?

Onel de Guzman, from Manila, Philippines.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/06/08/010608hnbug.html

2. Who invented the paper clip?

William D. Middlebrook
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/paperclip.htm

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?

The virus gets its name from a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
http://ebola.emedtv.com/ebola-virus/from-what-place-did-the-ebola-virus-get-its-name.html

4 What country had the largest recorded earthquake?
The largest earthquake ever recorded occurred along the Pacific coast of Chile in South America in 1960.
http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/earthquake_worldbook.html

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?

There are 1,073,741,824 kilobytes in a terabyte
http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff/tanya/hwtute/How_to_measure_data/measure.htm

6. Who is the creator of email?

Ray Tomlinson
http://www.livinginternet.com/e/ei.htm

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?

It is a worm that is attached by email and whoever opens it becomes infected. Between 1 and 50 million computers are infected worldwide.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/10/the_storm_worm.html

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of australia directly, what is the most efficient way?

Send mail to Parliament House addressed to him.
http://pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm

9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?

The Black Assasins
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas.htm

10. What does the term “Web 2.0″ mean in your own words?

Better internet
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Technology I Use

I use new communication technologies to talk to friends and family mainly because it’s convenient. Mostly I use my mobile, myspace and msn messenger to communicate. I think I also use these particular forms of technology because they are common and easy to use on a daily basis. I have been using a mobile phone and msn messenger to keep in touch with people for around six years. I have only had a myspace account for a bit longer than two years. I prefer having a myspace account to keep in touch with friends who don’t live in the same town anymore. Posting comments is easier than sending e-mails because my friends tend to check their myspace page more often, so I get a reply sooner.

I think I started using these methods of communication because everyone I know have the same technology. I believe that privacy may be an issue with mobile phones. Unless you constantly delete all of your messages, people can easily read you texts without you even knowing. E-mail, msn and myspace have more privacy protection because they have passwords and other options. I don’t think that privacy is a major problem for me regarding the technology I use often.

I think that using new technology is useful when it comes to socialising because you can organise your time better. Since everyone uses mobile phones, it is easier to send a text to them wherever they are so they can read it when they are not busy. If I didn’t use a mobile phone, my friends and family would find it hard to communicate with me when they want to. I don’t think that new technology takes too much away from talking to people in person, I find it generally helps me.