Rebecca's newstory reflection

Beware, ninjas, of how you name yourself online
Rebecca Chen

Nowadays, there are ton of “ninjas”, “gurus” or even “visionaries” on Linkedlin site.Linkedlin site is a website that is for professionals to search for jobs.People tend to name themselves as a lot of different kind of noun. It can end up giving people an embarrassing or conceiting image through their usernames.

For instance, a “visionary” wouldn’t really looking for a job through industry, as an he/she does not need to look for a job because the person already has an “vision” what kind of jobs are suitable out there.

Therefore, the writer reminds reader that, just because reader need to craft their online profiles for their careers; it is important to be creative but not self-aggrandizing.

Last but not least, the writer also admits that the username or information that people provides for potential boss is inevitably crucial.

People have entered into the advanced technology age by the cyberspace, people are forced to define themselves with words. People’s username or information that they have uploaded, are what their identities are.

As cyberspace is a communication medium which provides a space for anonymous to craft their gender, class, educational background when it comes to creating their own personal webpages; in other word, it provides us a platform to have multiple identities.

We all know that identity is always associated with how other think of us, or their impression on us. As Goffman states that, the self is a social construction (especially, an interactive construction). Internet generates the images of identity, that produce can be seen as a mind-eye projection of the “real”.

In this article, it brings out that cyber culture has brought us into a post-humanism age. Bodies are not as important as compare with the semiotic signs that left on the internet. In other word, human becomes bodiless on the internet.

Human identities are not a fixed feature of their lives, but a dynamic result under reshaping, interaction with others.

Week 10 presentation: Online Communities

Hello, everybody. It’s time for Lottie and Vinice to give a presentation. As you all have attended the lesson, you will know that our presentation will be something about the “Online Communities”.

An online community is a virtual community that exists online whose members enables its existence through taking part in membership ritual, for example Facebook. According to Howard Rheingold, virtual community is a “Social aggregation that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace”

In Julian Dibbell’s article, the “rape” in LambdaMoo was a virtual sexual offense. Mr. Bungle, who rapped those female characters, by typing words! However, the victims really feel hurt not only mentally, but also physically! Thus, some players asked for toading Mr. Bungle though they had already turned down the LambdaMoo’s principal to a technician. In our presentation, we will focus on two aspects: the boundary of virtual space V.S. real life and the regulation of virtual communities. In our presentation, we will focus on two aspects: the boundary of virtual space V.S. real life and the legitimacy in virtual communities.

Apart from the victims in LambdaMoo, there are numerous cases which online users gain real happiness, discontents, or even cry by the affection of virtual reality. We’ve discovered that people who influenced by the communities the most are the online games player. They claimed that they can do everything through this virtual world, for instance, killing people, destroying things, purchasing valuable things, etc. However, online game addiction can make people mix up virtual world and the reality. There was a news in 2003, a young boy suicide because of his sword stolen by the others.

Another point that we will include in our presentation is the legitimacy of the cyber behaviors. Cyber Manhunt is a common word in the cyber world. Netizens will disclose the personal information of the “Target” who did something wrong or immoral in order to draw support from the great power of other Netizens. People who being disclosed suffer huge stress or even want to commit suicide. Although there are rules that limit netizens to open the personal detail of the others, the situation is still cannot control. It brings several questions to us. Netizens always claimed that those “victims” are worth to suffer from those condemnatory comments. There is no responsibility about their condemnatory discourse. They can speak their mind without reticence. From the case of cyber manhunt, there are several questions want to discuss with all of you.

Should we regulate speech in cyberspace with the reality?
Should there any responsibility to our discourse on cyberspace?
Who has the authority to judge the behavior of others netizens? The webmaster? Or the other netizens?

More cases and details will be discussed during the presentation. See you all in tomorrow tutorial!

Lottie's reflection

Why undersharing online can work against you


Did you ever google yourselves? It is not surprise that you can find your photo, part of information. Cyberspace can bring lots of convenience to us, we use internet to search information for our assignments; we can through facebook to find old friends who did not contact for many years; we can also buy our favorite products through online shop. However, cyberspace also has hidden risks. Money loss during the online trade is an example but it only affects people who buy online. The greatest risk for people should be Privacy.
This article mentioned that many professionals handle their personal information very carefully. They may clear their personal online activity as they believe it can prevent their data remain in the internet. By the rapid development of cyberspace, it is no longer enough to protect ourselves. My computer teacher said there is no data that we cannot get. Once the data is visual on the net, there is method to get it. Take Facebook as an example, thanks to its mighty function. People can through friend connection to find their friend of friend. Although you can handle what you post online, you cannot control what people will publish. The flow of personal information became over-control, because you cannot control the thing that you do not know. So, all people should think more about privacy matter. Protect your information is also a way to protect yourselves!

Henry's reflection

 ‘Man pregnancy or within two years come true’

Man pregnancy is not a fantasy anymore. Nowadays, the technological development is very fast. The development of organ transplant and artificial organ is become mature and popular. The combination of human body and technology is very common. The human rely on machine in daily life. The people who wear glasses can be viewed as ‘cyborg’. The most important idea of cyborg is trying to go beyond dualism.

Furthermore, cyborg can breakdown the social norms and the values like reproduction. For our society mind set, reproduction is female’s duty which is a natural born duty to female. If she is sterility, she cannot carry out her duty. It is unfair to female. They are not a machine for reproduction. They are human too. They still have other duties which are as important as reproduction.

For recent technology, the scientists have researched on womb transplant. For this research, it claims that it can help the infertile women can become pregnant. It can help the infertile family. It is good news to them because by the surgery they can have their own baby. It can fulfill the infertile family’s desire.

In addition, the homosexual couples are the beneficial group. For the scientists, they will try to let male for man pregnancy. For the male homosexual couples, they can have their child also by the technology development. It is breaking through the society’s mind set of homosexual couples cannot give birth by themselves especially for the male couples. It is challenging the social norms. Male pregnancy can occur in the future. The social norms and the female nature duty of reproduction is being challenging.

For the technological development, it is improving human life. At the same time, it is affecting our mind set for the social norms like the womb transplant. The status of female on reproduction would be challenge if the research success. There are more and more hidden problems and issues break out. The morality of our acceptability is also affected. Remember that the idea of cyborg is going beyond the dualism. The identity of male and female, the family construction and the gender behavior will keep changing in our tiny world.

News reflection

Survey: File Sharing is More Immoral Than Porn


It is not difficult to understand why people think file sharing of music or film is immoral. So, downloading copyright music or film from Internet is against the law. However, Sharing porn is legal. In my opinion, it's a little bit ridiculous. Undoubtedly, those users download copyright music and film from Internet because they don't want to spend their money on these products. When they can download music online, who is willing to use their money to buy. On the other hand, people think sharing porn is moral. Firstly, people watch online porn because it is free like the theory that people can download music on the Internet. For porn characters, they need to show their body and their process of sexuality. In addition, many people can view their body. Moreover, it is difficult to differentiate porn is moral or not. However, when people think download music from Internet is immoral. I do think sharing porn on Internet should be immoral too. It is because the problem of porn is out of the problem of copyright. Porn contains characters' body and their sexuality. On the other hand, music is related to the creativity of the producer. Does it mean porn is something cheap or it should be free?
Also, I think people from different cultural background have different perception on these two issues. The value of porn is various. In Hong Kong, people may think both downloading music and porn is immoral. Besides, it is such a problem of power relationship.

Blog Discussion and Reflection

Facebook Photo Sharing: BAD

Facebook has penetrated our everyday life. We facebook after wake up, facebook during bus riding, facebook during lunch etc, any time any where people are “facebooking”, people are addicted to it.

We post and share every tiny thing in facebook, how’s the sun look like, how’s my shadow look like… We also share our life to people, what I have done today, what party I have joined…

Once people uploaded the photo on facebook, they can set their privacy level, which choose to show to everyone, only friends, friends of friends, only me etc. Most people believed this can really protect their privacy, however, by blogger from1stopIT.net, he/she points out that once we uploaded an image or comment on facebook, we have to consider possible "leaks" of them.

This blogger is a software engineer, he/she posted different links of his/her facebook, which he had restrict the access to only him/herself, but when we click in the link, we can still see things in the album. So this software engineer proved that when we upload things on facebook, we have absolutely no control of it.

Things that private actually is public, this blurs the boundaries between public and private. Actually not only facebook blurs the boundaries, but all online platform too. People can easily hack in the platform and see or even steal your information by using some computer program.

Moreover, private is difficult to obtain in this “facebook” world, everyone is on average approximately six steps away from any other person on Earth (Six degrees of separation ). Even you private all your albums or not upload photo, people may still find you in your friend’s photo.

So once get in the online world, in my opinion, there is not a thing call private, the boundaries between public and private has already blurred.

By Cindy Cheng

Newstory Reflection

How Social Media Can Induce Feelings of ‘Missing Out’

People today are deeply influenced by the technology. While the technology becomes more common, our relationship with technology is getting closer. As the social networking become more popular, especially among teenagers, visiting those social network sites become a part of their daily lives. It helps people to maintain their friendship. They can communicate with friends easier. Their relationships are connected by the social media.

Since a lot of portable instruments like mobile phones and notebooks provide channels to access to those social network sites, it is convenient for people to update their statuses and share the information easily. It reinforces them to participate in the sites frequently. Updating the news, people’s private lives are publicized. They are likely to show where they are or what they are doing at that period of time. All of their traces would be marked.

Nevertheless, people seem cannot leave the sites for a little while because they are afraid that they would be missing out by their friends. As people always take photos and post them on social network sites to let others know who they are hanging out with and where they are. It would generate a kind of anxiety of being neglected if their friends hanging out without you. Therefore, people may keep on checking the recent news of their friend. They cannot extricate themselves out of the social media.

Moreover, although people have the autonomy to visit the social network site, it seems they are being controlled by the technology at a certain level. The cyberspace creates an invisible gravitation and people have bogged down inextricably. They would feel ill at ease if they do not log in the social network sites. The notifications always remind the existence of social network sites. People would not actually get away with them.

It can be noticed the relationship between people and technology become very intimate nowadays. The role of technology seems to be more essential and it no longer is merely an object. It is able to influence an individual's emotion.

By Annie Cheng