A reflective moment....

I am still undecided on whether I loved or hated the blog tutorials. I must say that before we started them, I had thought that blog tutorial weeks would be like weeks off, in a way, as we didn't have to stick around uni, and could spend abit of time just typing up some thoughts on the topic/ readings. I though that this would be easy, as I spend alot of time on the internet during the week. However, I found that in reality, alot more work goes into preparing your post. In the end rather than having a tutorial discussion which branches off onto lots of different paths, covers lots of ground and which is over in an hour, you are faced with a blank page and a keyboard. I find that with these posts people (me included) put in alot more effort to sound more....I guess you could say 'scholarly'. There are no colloquialisms, and the discourse is alot less conversational- there is alot less room for discussions to become heated and interesting.
I must say that it was quite a relief to return to the offline classroom after the online weeks.

Nonetheless, there is alot of space for those who aren't loud and confident in class to express their opinions. I found it good in the way that an idea can be developed in an online situation- in class lots of good ideas and points can be cut short, with people cutting in with other points, and only one idea at a time can be extended and developed, as in tutorials only one person is really supposed to talk at once. On the internet, however, thre is opportunity for each individual to develop and extend ideas and thoughts, which is beneficial to the whole class.


Am I a cyborg? Yes. I would go into detail here, but the answer is a definite yes. I think the internet is amazing, and love the way it lets me explore the world, explore other people's minds, find (and purchase) (and sell) weird and wonderful things etc. etc. etc.


This unit overall has been really great and really relevent to modern life.


Have fun with exams everyone ! x

Reflection

I found using blogging to be a really convenient idea, not least because the asynchronous nature of posting means that late posts aren’t such a disaster! Of course, the time flexibility eliminated the hassle of hanging around for in-class tutorials and also allowed you to mull over ideas. I also found myself typing more, firstly because there was a requirement to post every week, and also because it didn’t involve ‘butting in’ in fiery tutorial discussions (something I’ve never been particularly good at)!

At the moment, I would have to agree that I am a cyborg because of my reliance on technology. This unit taught me that the cyborg experience can be positive, and give us new ways of perceiving the world. Despite this, I would still like to believe that being a cyborg is a matter of choice, and that I could go back to being simply ‘human’ – whatever that involves!

The best thing about the unit is that it complemented the communications units. Looking at the same themes from a cultural studies perspective was definitely enriching, as was the use of web-based resources. Overall, the unit felt like it would not lose its relevance any time soon. (And I’ve also learnt that my blog posts have a tendency to turn into novels!)

Thanks everyone!

Week 12's Reflective Post

I think I'm a more real-world person, at least when it comes to classes. Haha. Having our tutes on the web, I somehow kinda always forgot that I had to come post something instead of reading and reading.. And when I did type something out it didn't feel natural - it was almost like I was making a submission of an assignment. When you discuss it in words it feels like your opinion is judged more, that kinda thing? Compared to during a verbal discussion. And I guess that's whats put me off from discussions here a lil bit. I'm not quite sure who else here is in their first sem of uni as well - everyone's seemed to be really confident speakers/opinion-makers, but (confession here!) I've found it tough to follow the train of thought for alot of the topics in this unit and process the gibberish in my head into proper words for speaking. :/ But yea, have kinda enjoyed it all along with everyone's insights and sharings, it's been pretty eye-opening. Thanks everyone! From here, I realize there's a whole new level of online interaction out there, and it's something I have to try and get into.

Anyway, we were just talked about how virtual world is seemingly becoming real-life, and I picked up 2 articles today on that: a woman going to jail for 'killing' her virtual husband, and youths being publicly punished for stealing virtual items. lol now fancy that.

cyborg cheers to all. (:
good luck for the exams!

Reflective Post - Week 12.

I really enjoyed the use of weblogs for this unit. In fact I would say it was my favourite part! Apart from the convenience of it, it was interesting to watch a weekly tutorial function in a web environment. It was especially useful during my week for presentation as I was able to post my reading quite early and then monitor comments and discuss throughout the week. Perhaps the greatest advantage was being able to gain insight into the thoughts of everyone in the tutorial, not just those people who are confident speakers. This style forced ALL members to contribute so I believe discussion was more diverse. I am definitely a cyborg more then ever before! I think nowadays it is so much easier to absorb technology and register it into our lives so to me this is like the next level of web interaction and has given me insight into how I can represent myself through an online opinion.

Thanks for a great semester!

Rebekah.

Week 10: The Virtual Community

“The richness and vitality of computer-linked cultures is attractive, even addictive”.

A quote from Howard Rheingold’s The Virtual Community, that quite aptly I found, summed up this reading for me. Rheingold talked about his experience of participating in the online community of WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), and how he’s seen it grow from a community of barely a few hundred members in 1985, to more than 8 thousand in 1993. He talks about the way virtual communities have become a part of his life, how it’s put him in touch with people from all over the world, and how the virtual world has transcended into real life for him. Stating how “people in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but ‘they’ leave their bodies behind”, Rheingold goes on to discusses society’s uses for virtual communities and why it has become such a phenomenal part of society.

Some discussion points:

In the reading, Rheingold came across as somewhat of an addict to his virtual communities to me. He mentions how he can spend all day at his computer and his family has gotten so used to it, it’s even normal for him to be laughing and swearing at his computer as if he were talking and relating to an actual person in the room. He seems to be more towards, in his words, “living a life that does not exist outside a computer”.

As virtual communities expand and more people become drawn to them, does it have a negative impact on society? For example, are people cutting away that real space and real-life touch of human relation, and turning it all virtual?

Rheingold made me think of how in offices these days, colleagues sitting next to each other don’t open their mouths to speak, but instead sent an msn instant message and say “Lunch time, let’s go!”. Has it gotten to a point where virtual reality beats human communication, human real life relations?

On the other hand, does communicating via virtual communities honestly help you, and is it exactly the same as communication in real life?

A good example of this point would be this unit’s blog. Being virtual gives you the opportunity to be the person you want to be, the opportunity to think before you speak. In class we might have had the fear of speaking up in case we said something out of context, or get laughed at, or had simply feared being shot down by another classmate or the teacher. This illustrates Rheingold’s idea of virtual communities changing our experiences in the real world; we become more articulate and confident of our views and opinions through this veil known as cyberspace.

Works the same for guys trying to chat up girls I guess. Though I don’t actually have evidence per se, I’d say it’d be easier for a guy to approach a girl online and strike up conversation – where he can plan his right words with his possie of friends and gather the confidence he needs slowly – than if it was in real life. Virtual and real life – sets quite a different stage.

What are your own experiences with virtual communities, and do you think virtual communities are positive or negative upon our society?

I find Livejournal to be a great site for communities that flourish. Like how Rheingold described finding WELL to be like “discovering a cozy little world that had been flourishing without me, hideen within the walls of my house”; so I felt the same when I first joined Livejournal. I was part of a shopping/trading community based in Singapore – I actually recognized or knew some of the people I met online here. I was part of a music-sharing community, they were as good as having Limewire; every music need I had, they provided. I enjoyed the pockets of people who all shared the same interests as me; it was like having instant friends!

I believe virtual communities are positive; they can exist in correlation with real life communities. It shouldn’t be a case though, of real life communities diminishing while virtual ones increase. I agree with what Rheingold said about there being a “hunger for community” in people, but disagree on the stance that more and more informal public spaces are disappearing from our lives. There are shopping communities out there, people who’d exchange movies or programmes with you out there. We just need to be out there looking for these public spaces, not cooped up in front of our computers all the time. It’s something easier said than done at this time and age, I know... convenience and wariness make it hard to do so I’d guess. But I don’t think that it’s impossible. People can and should learn how to converse naturally again.

Week 10: Why Youth ♥ Social Network Sites

I found Danah Boyd’s article to accurately cover many important issues surrounding a relatively new social phenomena- social networking (MySpace, in particular) Boyd begins by discussing the logistics of the MySpace profile page- a user’s personal homepage which includes pictures, lists of interests, friends and comments. She notes how friend lists allow users to surf from “Friend to Friend to Friend” (p6) in an endless network, which she says can become both a source of entertainment and motivation for social voyeurism.

The issue of online visibility really alarmed me and got me thinking. Boyd says, of MySpace: “friends are publicly articulated, profiles are publicly viewed, and comments are publicly visible” (p7) The article describes how what would have previously been private messages written between two friends (such as “I’ll meet you at the movies at 7”) are instead written in a public space- as a publicly viewable “comment” on MySpace (or alternatively-a “testimonial” on Friendster or a “wall post” on Facebook)

It makes me wonder what our motivation is behind such actions? There are private messaging facilities available on all social networking sites, yet users still choose to post messages of a personal nature in a public space.

What are your thoughts on this?

An important part of the article is that in which Boyd discusses the difficulty involved in defining “public”. She talks about how “the public” can be read as synonymous with the “audience.” but she is careful to point out that there is not “the public” (one public). There are multiple publics, separated by social contexts, so we must talk about “A public”. (p7) The public on MySpace is what Boyd defines as a networked public because its members are bound together by technological networks (p8) Boyd also notes that a networked public is actually a type of mediated public.

Networked publics are special because of four properties…persistence, searchability, replicability and invisible audiences (where the infinitival nature of the audience means that we can cannot know WHO might come across our expressions in a networked public space) (p9) There are no geographical /temporal constraints on networked publics (p9)

I found it important that Boyd pointed out the fact that MySpace is primarily used to strengthen, enhance and maintain social action between already existing friendships. Boyd describes in detail the steps a teenager typically takes when joining MySpace. She talks about how the creation of an online identity is a highly important and premeditated step to take. Boyd notes that more often than not, a newcomer to MySpace will first examine friends, and friends of friends’ profiles, to work out the social conventions of online identity (i.e. what is acceptable/unacceptable, what is cool/uncool) Profiles can then be created and manipulated in order to create an online self.

A central idea which Boyd revisits throughout the article is that of impression management- the way in which people use “contextual cues from the environment around them” to gain an understanding of which behaviour is and isn’t appropriate. She notes this process as vital to socialization into society, and is in no way limited to the offline sector, it is also highly applicable to the building of a “digital body” or identity. (p12)

Boyd discusses how on MySpace, friends are connections, and a friend network displays these connections to everyone for scrutiny. “ For better or worse, people judge others based on their associations” (p13). The article describes dramas that are common amongst teens which emerge out of the “Top Friends” feature. I think it is important to note that online and offline are inherently and inseparably linked. Online actions can translate into real life fights/dramas.

Finally, the article had a strong focus on privacy, which is necessary in a discussion of teenagers online. However, I found Boyd’s take on privacy problematic. In my opinion, it seemed to be based too much on the child/parent privacy issues, and gloss over the child/predator privacy issues.

In her conclusion, Boyd makes the point that parents, as adults, must allow teenagers to “ make mistakes and learn from them” in public life (and in a networked public)(p22) Of course I understand that Boyd is suggesting a supportive parenting approach rather than a restrictive one, but I must confess that in my opinion, online mistakes and offline mistakes are very different things. And as social networking is a fairly new social phenomena, a lot of these “mistakes” are ones which teenagers and adults alike are not fully prepared to handle. I don’t disagree with Boyd’s conclusion, but I find her manner of brushing over the seriousness of the issue of online bullying, child predators etc slightly difficult to swallow.

Any other opinions on this?

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article in depth :)

A further question to consider from the reading: What is consumerism’s relationship to angency in online participation on social networking sites? (adapted from p5)

All quotations etc taken from:

Boyd, Danah. (2007) " Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life." MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning- Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Week 10: Theres No Place Like Myspace…..

So, just separately from my core post, I thought it would be interesting to test out Danah Boyd’s theory that

“ In essence, MySpace is the civil society of teenage culture: whether one is for it or against it, everyone knows the site and has an opinion about it” (Why Youth ♥ Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life, p3)

As most of us were highschool/teenage aged when MySpace was released, I wanted to test this, and find out whether, in fact, everyone knew of/ had an opinion about the site. Furthermore, I thought it would be interesting to find out which of Danah’s categories of MySpace users/non-users did you (or do you) fit into if any ….

1. MySpace teen

- those who sign up, create an online body/virtual identity and participate in a network public

2. Disenfranchised teen

-those who don’t have a MySpace Account because of lack of internet access

- those who don’t have a MySpace Account because the only internet access available is at school/public places where social networking sites are off limits

- those who are banned from the site by parents/guardians

3. Conscientious objector

- those who refuse to sign up in a protest against the corporate ownership of MySpace

-those who respect or agree with the moral/safety concerns of parents

-those who either feel not cool enough (maginalized teens) or too cool for these sites (Boyd,p3)

I will answer my own question by saying that in highschool, I was definitely a MySpace lover/addict (but have long since abandoned it for the new social networking mecca-Facebook) In parts of the reading I cringed a little, for it reminded me of my former self !

Have some fun, I would especially like to hear from those who fit into category C :)

Boyd, Danah. (2007) " Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life." MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning- Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press