Final Post!

So I just heard this crazy story from my roommate that relates to our research project of Facebook privacy perfectly. So one of her friends from back home has a Facebook, but found out somehow that someone is using her identiy on another Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, but with a different name. So the friend tried calling the police because the person is stealing her identity basically, but the police said there’s nothing they can do. That’s ridiculous. This impersonator is using her pictures, her life, her family, but all with a different name. Nothing is private on Facebook, or even the Internet. This is a scary reality check for many people. There are some crazy people out there. They could be using your identity right now.

Guest Speaker/Media

Today in class we had a guest speaker. He talked about how in different countries many protests over the government are organized over the Internet such as Facebook and Twitter. He went on to explain social network is not just for socializing, but for social movements as well. I thought this was interesting because we were told that the US helps the activists who are videotaping the protests with encrypted things so the government can’t trace back the videos to the activists. This shows that the US can help in many ways without the army coming in.

We then went on to discuss as a class Culture Jamming which is taking things and putting a political spin on them. She gave us an example of the Nike email. Basically someone wanted to personalize their Nike shoe with “SWEATSHOP”. Nike would not agree to this because they called it inappropriate slang. I thought the series of emails were very interesting because in the end Nike ended up not responding because the person asked for a photo of the 10 year old girl making his shoes.

Interview with Older Generation

For this assignment, I interviewed my dad. He was born in 1961 just so you know.

Q: What new technologies came out during your lifetime?

A: Home computers, cell phones, satellite phones, iPod, microchip, calculators, color TV, CD’s, cassettes, A-tracks, cordless phone

Q: Which ones affected you the most?

A: Microchip because without this we wouldn’t have most technology listed above.

Q: Which ones did you have?

A: Calculator, color TV 21, A-track cassette player

Q: When? Recently? Childhood?

A: Childhood.

Q: What technology did you like the most?

A: Cell phone with internet capabilities-so many uses

Q: Do you still use it today?

A: Yes

Q: How often?

A: Daily

Q: What are your feelings on Facebook?

A: Good social medium for people getting in touch. Cool concept, but some people take it too far.

Q: How often used?

A: Once a week

Q: Comfortable putting information on it?

A: Yes.

Q: Private or not?

A: The users can control the amount of privacy, some people expose everything and take it too far.

It was very interesting interviewing my dad. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the technology brought about during his lifetime. It was most interesting when he talked about Facebook though. He rarely gets on it, but when he does he witnesses people putting a play by play of their life for the world on Facebook. He concluded saying that Facebook is as private as people make it. If people put their life story out there then it’s not private. But if one limits the amount of information put on Facebook then it’s as private as can be.

Observation 5

So the past week or so on Facebook things have been very strange. Pictures of naked people have been appearing all over on people’s newsfeeds. But instead of people taking some sort of action about it they just complain about the mass porn on Facebook. It’s quite frustrating because all you have to do is report the photograph and it will be removed from the newsfeed.

People on Facebook have to be smart about what they put on there, because everyone can see it or share it. Many people are finding this out the hard way especially when it comes to jobs. I’ve heard of a couple people who have been fired/denied jobs due to the inappropriateness on their Facebook page. When it comes to Facebook,

Facebook Research

This week in class we assigned the parts of our research paper for our group members. We have six different parts, and my part is to research the background of facebook. We gave ourself an due date for this which is Nov. 22. I plan to go about this reseearch process by looking up articles, dissecting the facebook page. It shouldn’t be too difficult.

Guest Speaker

Today in class, we had a guest speaker. She mostly talked about virtual identity. She gave examples of people who have multiple identieis online, like different names, hobbies, personalities, etc. The speaker referred to the book “Alone Together” and how it invloves interpersonal interactions. She also showed a very interesting video clip. It was a documentary about the younger generation on the internet and how they have different personalities online, feel more comfortable and can be thereself more, and the dependence on technology. The speaker left us with the thought of the “virtual footprint.” Basically saying that things on the internet can be there forever, and can harm our future. Do we want that?

Peer Review/Interview

Today in class we had our interviews with the people whom we wrote about in our paper. I interviewed Lauren and Ginny, and was interviewed by Mike and Devan.

Lauren & Ginny:

I asked them to be more specific with their topic, and they said it was now the effects of smart phone usage on the college campus; pros and cons. They just narrowed down their topic recently (after my paper was written). Lauren gave some examples of pros and cons, like checking weather, email from a professor, etc. but some cons being texting and driving, texting in class, basically the phone being a distraction. Lauren gave me the reason why the topic was chosen which was since smart phones are popular on campus, and just recently became available, they wanted to find out the effects of these phones. Ginny went into detail about their research techniques which included interviewing and observation. My suggestions for them was to narrow down their topic, which they already had done, and to begin researching articles, which Ginny had already began.

Mike & Devan:

When being interviewed by these two I had to explain my research topic since it was recently narrowed down to the privacy available on facebook. Both of their suggestions to me was to blog more. But, they said that my blogs were very detailed and were easy to understand.

From interviewing and being interviewed, I now have more of an idea of how to go about conducting my research f

Second Life

My username for secondlife is dpierzc. It is not anything special. It is just the first letter of my first name then half my last name. It’s my bgsu email so I decided to keep it uniform. I chose the girl avatar becasue it was the only thing that resembles me in any way. I visited the beach and a night club in class. I also tried changing clothes but I failed. I changed her facial feautures and body though. I have no idea how to post pictures or whatever we’re supposed to do. Secondlife was really annoying. It was slow. It made my computer really hot which freaked me out. And it sent me annoying emails. I am going to uninstall it since it is giving my computer problems. I am not a fan of Secondlife.

Sources relating to Facebook privacy

I found two articles relating to our topic of privacy on Facebook.

1.)  http://con.sagepub.com/content/14/1/13.full.pdf+html

2.) http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:J5ux5odnsZcJ:scholar.google.com/+lack+of+privacy+on+facebook&hl=en&as_sdt=0,36

The first one I printed out and highlighted important things, while the second is 76 pages so I decided against killing a million trees by printing it out. Hopefully they are useful to us.

Privacy

In class we discussed the issue of privacy, or lack there of on the Internet. I had no idea about there not being a delete button on gmail when it started, I found that to be very interesting. I don’t like the fact that people can look through your emails, that’s not right. And when it comes to Facebook, I feel like there is barely privacy on there. There are some settings to make your profile a little more private, but when the company and everyone else knows where you’re from, what school you went to, etc., it’s a little freaky.

Guest Speaker

On Thursday in class, we had a speaker come in named Debbie. We first went on the Internet and looked up the Dominican Republic and wrote down how it looked from the Internet, the kinds of people living there, and the culture. The places showed on the Internet were beautiful beaches with clear water and many fun water sports to take part in; the epitamy of a touristy location. We then watched a documentary of her experiences in the Dominican at a little school. It was eye opening. The school was run down, the kids went hungry, and there were not enough supplies for the school to function, not to mention the inconsistency of the electricity. Debbie interviewed the worst behaved children of the class. They were asked what is important in their culture, if they could change anything what would it be, etc.

The children and the documentary really made me apprectiate what I have here in America. Not saying I take things for granted, but I just don’t value things as much as people would who don’t have stuff like we do everyday, like electricity. The children talked about how they share everything with one another, not even giving it another chance. They talk about how they value education and have such big dreams for themselves.

Immediately after class, I called my parents and thanked them for everything they have done for me. For raising me the way they did, for giving me things, and making me work for others. I told them I appreciated everything and that I was sorry it took me so long to realize this.

Thanks to Debbie’s documentary, I realized not only how lucky I am. But also how the Internet shows different things for the real world. The Internet beautified the Dominican making everything seem beachy and perfect. When in reality, that’s not true. Media confu

Hip Hop 2.0

Summary: In this chapter of Learning Race & Ethnicity, the author describes many things about hip hop. She first explains about a website guerillafunk.com. This is a music label site used for listening to music, getting more music, and something else unexpected. This unexpected link goes to a page about global politics, hip hop culture, and learning. There are many more of these sites. People use them all the time to talk about what is going on in the world and how it relates to hip hip. Artists like Kanye West and Mos Def  even include this events in their songs; they are considered the “politically conscious artists”. Basically, the chapter goes on to explain how hip hop culture is changing to relate to political events, turning controversial.

Observation 4

Last week, Facebook changed it’s format once again. And as usual, people freaked out about it. They were saying how it’s too similar to Twitter now, which I have no idea because I have never been on Twitter. They complained that Facebook is confusing now, even though it still requires common sense to navigate it as usual. Basically what has changed on Facebook is there is a little bar on the right side of the screen that says what people are doing right at the minute. To update your status now there is a button that says “Update Status.” The photos page is different because the pictures are bigger and not four across. And the main news feed page has changed by new posts not being put up immediately.

I honestly don’t think the changes are a big deal at all. Facebook always changes, you need to get used to it; adapt. It takes like 10 minutes to get used to the new format. I don’t know why everyone freaked out like it’s the end of the world because Facebook changed again. Basically, it changed, oh well, it’ll change again probably in a month.

Observations 3

Today when I woke up I immediately went on the computer. My home page is set to bgsu.edu and I wanted to check my email because I am expecting a message from my future employer. But since I am using wifi at BGSU, we have to sign in to use it before we’re allowed on. To sign in we have to go to a different web page, and which did I choose? Facebook of course. So I signed on to wifi then had to go onto Facebook since the page was already up. I checked my notifications immediately and I received a message from my cousin about a trip to Chicago over Fall Break and a friend request from some person I have no who they are. So, I responded to my cousin saying I can’t go to Chicago anymore for various reasons and denied the stranger from being my friend. Finally, after all that, I went back to bgsu.edu to check my email, which was my purpose for getting on in the first place.

Facebook is so distracting sometimes, as shown above. I went on the computer for one purpose and ended up on Facebook before I even knew it. I need to figure out a better way so I am not drawn to Facebook every time I have to sign on to BGSU’s wifi.

Social Life

The definition of social life to me may be different than other peoples. I believe social life is the what people do to be social, how they behave out in public, and what they do to have fun. Social life is connected to Facebook in my opinion. People make plans on Facebook and contact people through it as well. I believe Facebook enhances your social life. It is just another way people socializin

Learning Race & Ethnicitiy: Chapter 1

Summary:

In this first chapter of Learning Race and Ethnicity, race is discussed from the Internet. The three main websites that were concentrated on were AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente (for Asians, African Americans, and Latinos.)  These websites are popular social networking sites for those specific races, and no one else. Many times throughout the chapter they gave examples where people who posted on that website and were obviously not that race were shouted and told to “get out of here if we don’t understand you.” People on these sites feel very strongly about their race and if you’re not Asian or African American or Latino you need to get out right away. These sites are places for dialogues about their race and ethnicity.

Observations 2

Over the weekend, I observed a guy friend of mine get on Facebook. He has a girlfriend who goes to a different college than him. They try to stay in contact as much as possible. But when he gets on Facebook, he checks his own notifications, then immediatly goes to her page to see what she’s been posting. It is another way in their relationship to stay connected, over the distance.

I realized that people use Facebook not only to catch up on previous relationships between family, friends, etc., but they use it to keep their relationship going. Families use it to keep in contact with relatives far away, as well as friendly relationships. Facebook is a way to keep your social life going, it mixes in with “real” social life and social networking sites social life.

Observations 1

For our project, we decided to observe ourself and others using Facebook. Here are some of my observations since last class Tueday. I realize I log onto Facebook at least twice a day to catch up on people. I like to look at their photos and chat with them. Yesterday, on Facebook I got to talk to my two best friends, and made plans with one of them to visit MSU in October. Facebook makes making plans so much easier and faster since you can chat with someone and they respond immediately.

Last night I was watching a movie with my friends, and one of them brought their laptop in to start a paper for her GSW class. Without even realizing it, she logs onto Facebook and searches around and talks to people. Then all the sudden she realizes she brought her laptop in to write a paper. She says she goes on Facebook like it’s second nature, doesn’t even think about it, it just happens.

Race & Ethnicity Intro

The introduction of the book Learning Race and Ethnicity was quite informative. In the beginning it talks about race and discrimination in the media world. The book will deal with questions regarding ethnicity issues in the twenty first century. The second part of the introduction lays out what the book will be dealing with in chapters. The one chapter in particular that discusses hip hop on the Internet and artists using them to share their political views will be very interesting to read about.  I am quite eager to do some reading in this book as it seems very informative.

Facebook vs. Social Life

I’ve been on facebook for about four years now. I get on maybe once a day when bored to look at pictures, profiles, etc. I enjoy seeing what my friends and family are up to since I don’t see everyone as often anymore.

I think socializing on facebook is similar to socializing in real life. People still communicate, just posting on peoples walls opposed to face to face. People still can catch up on facebook.