Online Gaming

Prior to this course, I was completely unaware of the online gaming culture. I am amazed by the virtual world surrounding MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games). I am fascinated that so many people become addicted to virtual games. These addictions cost many people large amounts of time and money. Unfortunately, they can even cost people their jobs, relationships, and sadly, even their lives. The following is a link to an article about a young Dutch boy that committed suicide over an MMORPG. The boy was upset that one of his friends hacked into his account and ruined his gaming identity. Isn't it tragic yet interesting that a game can have such an impact on someone’s life?! http://forums.gamernode.com/showthread.php?t=2061

It is critical that more research be done on what effects these MMORPGs can have on someone's REAL life. Research has shown that these virtual communities can become a person's primary social outlet, and the community they are most comfortable with. In the case of Second Life, many people have spent thousands of dollars on their online identity to have a superior lifestyle in their virtual world. The one problem that I see with the addictions is that the users will confuse their online identity with reality. In Second Life there are concerns about how much sexual content there is and how prevalent sexual interaction is. Can you believe that this may be some users' preferred medium of sexual expression? Here is a news clip that discusses the problems with sex in Second Life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJw1rhg_5do

This is a Johari Window

The general idea is things that you know about yourself, things you don’t know about your self things others know about you and things others don’t know about you. Each side or topic intersects with another and becomes OPEN, BLIND, CLOSED, or UNKNOWN. Meaning open to self, blind to self, closed to others, or unknown to both self and others (I think this is the best one cause it shows there is still stuff to learn about your self and for others to learn about you ; - D )

Here are some personal examples: TESTING

Open: I am a girl!
You can tell this by looking at me or by my name…D’Lonika.

Closed: I am from a single family home
You cannot tell this unless you ask.

Blind: I can be over opinionated.
I’m not really blind to this I just don’t care…hehehe.

Unknown: I…HAVE…NO…IDEA..HAHAHA :-D


Here is a funny link that will show you more about the Johari Window
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZMYgUokFog

Who doesn’t have the internet?

Digital Divide: the gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without. It’s the unequal access by some members of the society to information and communications technology, and the unequal acquisition of related skills. The digital divide exists between groups of various genders, incomes, races and locations.[1] The term global digital divide refers to differences in technology access between countries. (Definition provided by wikipedia.org)



America as a society doesn’t always realize how blessed it truly is. I know I don’t. During the summer I moved into a new place that was fully loaded: electric, water, cable, fully furnished, and internet. I was juiced. But then the internet started acting up. I know a lot of people have experienced this problem but I thought never to this degree. The internet would not work from 9 am to 6 pm pretty much when the sun went up the internet stopped working, like peek hours or something. I thought this was hell on earth.

Recently I learned about the digital divide and found that not everyone has internet or even a computer. You would think I would figure this out after spending two weeks in India were you have to go to a little shop that houses computers and you pay for minutes used on the internet. Could you imagine how much money Americans would have to spend for using the internet if they were charged by the minute?

I mean we use the internet at out homes, jobs, in cafes (mainly Starbucks), in our cars even in the elevators. Wooo…could you imagine how much your bill would be? I’m getting chills right now.

VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

What is a Virtual Community?


I had the same question when I first heard of a virtual community; in fact I didn’t even know that a community could be virtual. The first thing I did was I went to my handy-dandy wikipedia.org and it gave me all the dish. According to them a virtual community is also know as an e-community or online community. It allows people to interact through different communication technologies such as: newsletters, telephones, email, online social networks or instant messages rather than face-to-face interaction.

It’s funny that they would say newsletters because I don’t really know anyone who writes a newsletter at least not on paper. Since the Blogs came on the since I don’t believe I have seen a paper newsletter. My friends went to Italy for a six month long internship and not once did they send physical letter to there friends and rarely did they send letters to there families. Instead they sent emails to everyone letting them know about their blog. We became a community by posting comments on the messages and pictures that they would send. I think I’ll do the same thing when I move after all there is only so much you can put on Facebook before it begins to look cluttered.


While I was looking up Virtual Communities on YouTube I came across this guy talking about online communites. I thought some of his comments were hilarious. My favorite quote was, “I have the power to turn my computer off; I cannot turn my friend off “ if you want to see more CLICK HERE!
He talks about how his friends on the internet know him better than anyone he actually knows for real I thought that statement was interesting, if he can know people for real than how real are the current relationships that he has with the people he talks to on the internet?

Let me know what you think.

Virtual Communities

Virtual communities occur when enough people carry on a public discussion long enough via the internet. These discussions must include human feeling to form webs of personal relationships. How a community forms is without definition, but some identified aspects include the need of sufficient time to form relationships, the need to develop shared culture and norms, the need for veterans to give newcomers the history of the community, and include emotional ties which are lacking in a group.
The good thing about VC is that they are not confined by physical location as are offline communities. Unfortunately, with the positive comes negative. In VC a member has the ability to disengage without consequence. There is no need for members to work through differences, thus they may not respect the norms of the community, because there is no accountability for one’s actions. Also, members may become so involved in their online communities they can ignore their real life obligations. This can have negative effects on family, work, and offline social groups.
Certain types of governances and policies can be put in place to try and avoid the violation of norms within a VC, but they are in no way legally enforced. The worse that can happen is that a person can be shunned, or kicked out, by other members of the community. For example, Mr. Bungle in LambdaMOO was kicked out of the community after performing act of online rape. It was simple however for Mr. Bungle to return to LambdaMOO under a different name, and had he not said anything, no one would have known.
Ideally VCs should be a pleasant and welcoming place for a person to go and express themselves openly and comfortably. Unfortunately, just like everything else, certain people have to ruin it for everyone else.

The Third Place

Applying Oldenburg’s idea of “The Third Place” to myself I found that the internet does not really apply. The Third Place is characterized by having a neutral ground, being level, having conversation as the main activity, being accessible and accommodating, having regulars, being able to keep a low profile, and as acting as a home away from home. In my world only a few of these characteristics exist in regards to the internet.
The only way that I use the internet for fun is when I sign in to my MySpace account. The rest of the time I spend online (which is actually most of the time) is doing research or something else for school. However, as far as MySpace goes, it is accessible and accommodating, it is neutral ground, and I can keep a low profile, but that is about it. Its accessible because I can sign on anywhere because of internet service on my cell phone. It is accommodating because it is free and allows anyone to sign up. It is neutral ground because I can sign on when I want, as often as I want, and I am able to keep a low profile because I can say as much or as little as I want. But that’s it. Its hardly fun for me anymore, other than looking at friends and relatives pictures, and I wouldn’t consider myself a regular.
The idea of “The Third Place” seems more applicable to perhaps my relationship with my boyfriend. I can apply more of the characteristics, it brings me more enjoyment, and he is my home away from home. That is just not something that the internet brings me. I am grateful for it though. It allows access to knowledge, assignments, and contacts for my group projects. I can complete an entire research paper without having to live the confines of my own home, but it is not my fun place. Sorry Oldenburg, your theory does not apply to me.

My Thoughts about Online Rape

After reading the article about how rape occurred in a living room in LambdaMOO, I first felt the implications of how rape can occur online. Mr. Bungle (who was really students consisting a whole dormitory floor at NYU) utilized a VooDoo doll to trap fellow LambdaMOOers in the room and make them do horrible things to themselves, as well as to him. By VooDoo doll I mean something that gave Mr. Bungle control over the functions of other people in the room.
The women in the room were traumatized over the ordeal, more so than the man who was involved, and to me this makes sense. Other than the rare occurrence, women are typically the victims of rape in the Real World. Take our class discussion on this article for example. The opinions on whether or not a person can be raped online were divided…between male and female. The men in the room did not consider the advances online to be anything comparable to rape, but the women felt what was done and said in the living room was disturbing enough to make a person feel victimized.
Another perspective entirely comes from people who have actually experienced rape in the Real World. The idea of being raped online may seem to be an inconsiderate, as well as ludicrous, belief. Online you can walk away anytime you want? You are never in a position where you have to endure such torment? Just leave and go to a different chat room, website, or whatever, right? Wrong. People spend a lot of time online chatting with online friends or playing games. For someone who has spent time and money on an avatar for their favorite game to just quit and start over somewhere else because someone is harassing them is not an easy thing to do. If the person physically gets up and walks away from their computer the only thing that solves is them not having to see the rape occur, but anyone else around can still see it. That can be equally demoralizing. In the case of LambdaMOO, physically walking away from the computer was the only option, but utter disbelief may have kept the victims from averting their eyes.
I really don’t know whether any laws should be created to attempt to keep people from performing online acts of rape, because I have to say that I would like to think that people have more common decency than to do so. Rape is a disgusting act. Don’t do it. End of story.

Social Cues

Social Cues

I was thinking about social cues and the argument that goes along with them, the Reduced Social Cues Model. Social cues provide information about the interaction and the situation, thus according to the model the lack of these clues makes CMC less effective than face-to-face communication. I disagree. This blog is bound to be more adventurous than I would ever be in a face-to-face conversation, and the reason for that is all the benefits to CMC, which I feel make it equally as effective.

Watch video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXY0XwDsQ6c

There are just some days where I need a few minutes break from the chaotic life I live. The fifteen units, forty hour work week, and hours upon hours I spend studying and doing homework catch up with me, but instead of reeling in the turmoil I can instead jump online and vent my worries away. I can talk to strangers, talk to friends, or post a blog such as this where only the random passerby will have the misfortune of reading it. Because the reader need not know what I look like or where I come from, what matters lies only in what I have to say. If they like it then they can communicate with me, if not ignore me. But maybe just maybe, I might open the gates to other student/worker bloggers who were waiting for the opportunity to tell their story too. This may sound a bit ridiculous, but I never feel as liberated as I do after writing all my thoughts and feelings down, even if I don’t think anyone is ever going to read them. Should they be read however, they will not be read with a predetermined judgment or stereotype of who I am and why I am saying the things that I am. All this is because of the lack of social cues in CMC.

Basically, I am grateful for the opportunity to complain. I can complain about school, teachers, homework, or whatever else it may be and no one I know and love will have to hear about it. Plus, without the face-to-face nonverbals, complaining comes off more as venting than anything else. If someone else wants to complain right back, they should feel free, it is nice to know that I am not the only one who feels this way. So whether or not I made the point about CMC being equally as effective I don’t know, but I will say that it is effective for me. It opens me up, calms me down, and keeps me going

Souseveillance In Our Global Society

The advancement of technology has greatly influenced the level of privacy we can enjoy.  With these advancements, there are two types of privacy that have emerged: surveillance and souseveillance.  Surveillance relates to people being watched from above.  Most stores you shop in now have surveillance cameras placed throughout the store.  There is usually someone behind the cameras watching the shoppers and employees, keeping a close eye on all.  It is evident when one goes to Las Vegas that their every move is being monitored by surveillance cameras.  It can easily be assumed that there is a team of people in the building watching your every move.  These surveillance cameras create a constant sense that someone is watching you.
  
Souseveillance is the idea that people are being watched from below.  This is a increasingly common theme in organizations as employees are monitoring the behaviors and performance of their superiors. Another example of souseveillance is when the public monitors and judges the actions of law enforcement.  Normally, law enforcement keeps a watchful eye on the community, and now communities are actively monitoring them.  A prime example of this is the notorious beating of Rodney King caught on video by civilians. Beware, here is a gruesome video of the Rodney King beating http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssg2IkIhbxU  

The definition of privacy is changing as more technological advances make way.  Cell phones now have video cameras, making it easier for people to record anything they choose. People can be filmed at any time without being aware that someone is watching.  These videos can then be placed online for others to view while the subjects are completely unaware that the videos even exist. And now popular sites like YouTube make it very easy to post videos online, further reducing ones level of privacy.  People are being watched all the time and there is definitely more souseveillance than surveillance in our global society.  

Online Identity

When I discuss with my parents their perceptions of their identity while growing up, it is vastly different than the way I perceive my identity.  In my parents era it was considered the "modern era" in which identity was much more fixed and stable.  There were distinct identity roles and they were aware of their morals and beliefs from as long as they can remember.  There was no experimenting with their identity.  My dad was always a studious, ambitious, and fun-loving brother, son, and friend.  Who he was with his family was the same person he was at school, at church, and with his friends.  His identity was constant.  Same with my mom, she was always athletic, outgoing, and nurturing no matter where she was.  

I have been growing up more in the "post-modern" era, where identities are much more fluid, multiple, and socially constructed.  I am bossy and direct when I am with my siblings because I have been that way since I was a little girl and now that is how my family expects me to be. When I am with my friends I am much more passive and am willing to be a good listener.  At school, I am super focused on my classes and am conscious of how I spend my time, so I can be the most productive at all times.  Depending on where I am and who I am with I am a different person.  I try and adapt to my surroundings by changing what I identify with.  For example, the other day I was at my boyfriend's friend's house.  There was a handful of people over watching a football game.  I am not the biggest football fan and would never sit down by myself and watch a game.  Everyone at the house was cheering and hooting and hollering, so I soon found myself cheering just as loud as the next person.  Normally my identity would not consist of being a football fan but that afternoon my fluid identity allowed me to be a football fan.  

Living in this era, post-modernity, out identities are even more fluid when we add in the factor of the internet.  This generation is much more computer-savvy and is regularly online.  This has a huge impact on our identity and one must consider which identity is more salient, online identity or real life identity.  When I go online, the first website I check are my social networking sites, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter.  I realized that the way I decorated my profiles was based on what my friends did on their profiles.  My profiles are a collection of bits and pieces from each of my friends' profiles.  I will see a certain musician on one of my friend's profile and then I will end up putting a similar musician on my profile. When you look at my profiles you would never think that my page is based off my friends' profiles because there are only small similarities.  By me creating my profile that reflects what my friends' profiles are is an example of how identity can be socially constructed.   

Four Aspects of the History of the Internet

Four Aspects of the History of the Internet

When people talk about the Internet today, they mainly talk about the World Wide Web which is a network of networked computers. What most users of the Internet do not know is how this network began. Some people also blindly believed Al Gore when he said that he invented the Internet. Today’s Internet was not invented by one man or a group of men. Our Internet was and is a collaboration of many entities and users including you and me. Our use of social software influences the growth and shape that tomorrow’s Internet will be. But how did it all start? This takes us to the first of the four aspects, the Technical Aspect.

The technical aspect of the Internet begins in the Cold War era, 1957. The Advanced Research Projects Agency, ARPA, is formed with the Department of Defense in response to Russia’s launch of the Sputnik satellite. This fear of this unknown satellite and its capabilities spurred the research that eventually took form as the Internet. By the way, many Americans today hate wars, conflicts, military organizations and even our military members but through conflict, wars, and the military many inventions are made both in the field of technology and medical. In 1968/9, ARPANET is constructed linking 4 nodes; UCLA, Stanford Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. In 1972, Ray Tomlinson of BBN, created the first Email program. Also, ARPA was renamed to DARPA adding Defense to the name. In 1973, development began on the protocol that was later named to TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). This is part of the backbone of today’s Internet. This is not how we manage the Internet. That is done in other ways.

The operations and management of the Internet is done through Domain names. We all know at least one domain name even if we don’t know what it is called. Examples of some familiar domain names are Amazon.com, Sears.com, Nordstrom.com and Google.com. The domain name gives a name to a mostly numeric address on the Internet. This address is known as the Internet Protocol (IP) address. An example of this is Yahoo’s IP address of 68.180.206.184. This is one of many that they use. The first part of the Domain name is usually the company’s name. The second part (after the dot) is called an extension. This extension usually points to what type of organization that they are. Some familiar extensions and their purposes are; .com-used for commercial and non-commercial websites and is the largest extension in use, .net-used for Internet Service Providers, .org-used for organizations, and .gov-which is used for United States federal, state, and local entities. These last two aspects are interesting to some but the next two is where the majority of the Internet users’ interest lies.

The social aspect of the Internet is where we, as users, interact with other users. The most common interaction tool that we utilize is email or electronic mail. We can all get our email through the computer but now it is even being delivered to our PDA’s and cell phones like the Blackberry. Another common interaction tool that we use is instant messaging (IM). If email is like a prerecorded television show then instant messaging is like a television show that is filmed live. The most common IM programs are AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! An old school way to communicate was through chat rooms and message boards. These are still used but not as much as they once were. Examples of these are AOL, MSN and Church Media.net. The new school way, and very popular with the younger generation, to communicate is through social software such as Second Life, YouTube, MySpace, and FaceBook. These are great for communicating with your friends but what about shopping.

The biggest explosion on the Internet is Internet shopping. This is the last aspect, the commercial aspect. Almost every brick and mortar store that you can walk into is online. There are even stores on the Internet that you cannot walk into, and these are not no-name stores. Amazon.com and Dell.com do not have a storefront that customers can walk into. All of their business is conducted online. The Internet has given the public access to worldwide shopping and many other things.
The Internet has allowed its users to travel the world, get information from any source, talk to friends around the world, and buy from many different retailers. Its founders had no idea of what was to become of their ARPA net. We thank them for their efforts. Now, enjoy a video that our group put together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJzAiYEJRFU information was taken from: http://www.davesite.com/webstation/net-history.html

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality

According to Google, “Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet.” As with any issue, there are always at least two sides of the issue. In this case, one side is for the freedom of the Internet and is led by the Open Internet Coalition and Save the Internet.com groups. On the other side of the argument are broadband providers and telecommunications companies.
Is net neutrality a new issue? The same issues were examined when the telegraph was our means of communication. According to Wikipedia, “In 1860, a US federal law subsidizing a coast-to-coast telegraph line stated that…
…messages received from any individual, company, or corporation, or from any telegraph lines connecting with this line at either of its termini, shall be impartially transmitted in the order of their reception, excepting that the dispatches of the government shall have priority.
They further mention the fact that in 1888, an automatic telephone exchange was created to eliminate biasing by telephone operators who would divert unsuspecting callers to preferred businesses.
This demonstrates the drive to keep the Internet free and neutral. Companies such as Google have thrived due to the neutrality of the Internet. Some would say that due to these same companies, the Internet has thrived. Supporters of this view say that without laws to protect the neutrality of the Internet, some content and/or content providers could be blocked or degraded by the companies providing the access.
Telecommunication companies have invested heavily on the infrastructure and “backbone” used by its customers to access the Internet. They are in a catch 22 scenario in which customers demand high-speed service while they cannot restrict those who use extremely high bandwidths that reduce speed to other customers. They would like those that use high bandwidths to pay extra, allowing them to invest more money into the architecture to increase bandwidth.
This is an issue that will be debated by both sides for years to come. What is going to be the outcome is anybody’s guess. We can only state that both sides have valid concerns that need to be addressed.

Johari Window

Johari Window

Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham invented one of the most used models that describe human interaction called the Johari Window. The Johari Window describes four “panes” or types of personal awareness. The four panes are open, blind, hidden, and unknown.

The open pane is what is known to me and what others know about me. I know my name and I know what class I am writing this paper for. By reading this paper, you also know my name and what class I am writing this for. This is what is meant by open.

The next pane is blind. Blind is when others know things about me that I do not know. This seems illogical at first glance. How can others know something about me that I do not? Well, this happens to many students in college when they have to give a presentation. Most people are nervous at the thought of public speaking and they react in many different ways. They might rock back and forth or say “umm” a lot. This is something that they do not know about themselves but is quite evident to others.

The third pane is hidden. The Hidden pane is much more obvious and understood. This is what is known to me but not known to others. There are many things about ourselves that we do not share with others. It may be because it is embarrassing, it is private, or we just may not know the person well enough yet.

The last pane is much more elusive. The Unknown pane is what is not known by me or not known by others. As we said in the previous paragraph, there are many things that others do not know about us but what don’t we know about ourselves? Well, there are many things. There are situations that we have never experienced and we do not know how we would react to them. We may think we know but we don’t. Many of those heroes of 9/11 never would have thought that they could do the things that they did until they were placed in that situation. There are many other things that we do not know about ourselves. Fears are one of them. There are some fears that we may not know until we are faced with them.

As we have stated above, these windows are not static but dynamic. They can and will change constantly. The opening up of the open window is also known as self disclosure. We typically see this with political contestants. They tend to have to disclose a lot of personal issues including yearly incomes and income taxes.

The Johari Window is a great way to do some personal inventory and analysis. I encourage everyone to take a closer look.

Identity Play

Identity Play

Have you ever thought about living life as the opposite sex? Afraid of the embarrassment of your family finding out? Maybe you do not want to live as the opposite sex; you just want to see how they are treated differently in certain circumstances. Maybe it’s not about the opposite gender, but you want to hide something about yourself such as balding, overweight, too tall, or even too short. Due to the anonymity that is provided by the Internet, you can participate in what is called Identity Play.

Identity Play is defined as pretending to be someone else or portraying different aspects of yourself. If you are a man, on the Internet, you can act as a woman just by creating a screen name that identifies you as a woman. The reasons for Identity Play can be innocent, like the ones that we have already discussed or they can be devious and used for foul play. It can also be used to catch those that are using it for foul play.

One use for Identity Play that has received a great deal of air time on the news is to engage in sex with minors. This can be in the form of a middle age man pretending to be a teenager in order to meet both teenage boys and girls. By time the real teenager finds out that their “friend” is an older man, it is usually too late. The person that is using Identity Play can also pretend to be female. One way that authorities are using to combat this use of the Internet is by using Identity Play themselves. Officers, both male and female, pretend to be a teenager in order to set up a meet and arrest the perpetrator. But not all Identity Play is bad.

In most cases, Identity Play is used to hide an embarrassing aspect of yourself. If you are older and balder than you used to be, you may send an online buddy an older picture of yourself in order to hide that fact. Identity Play has also been used by psychiatrists in order to relate better with their patients. Lindsy van Gelder, a journalist with Ms Magazine, tells the story of an American psychiatrist who used this technique to become a woman and help women deal with problems through an online chat room. (Chester)

Identity Play is like many other items such as handguns, it can be both harmful and helpful depending on its use. The technique of Identity Play should not be blamed for its misuse; those that misuse it should take the blame.


Works Cited
Chester, Dr. Andrea. The Real Me Online: Identity Play on the Internet. 24 10 2008 <http://www.odr.info/unforum2004/chester.htm

Daily Me

Daily Me

According to Wikipedia, “The Daily Me is a term coined by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte as a daily newspaper customized for the individual tastes.” Negroponte’s idea dates back to the 1970 are when the Internet was new. His idea has built steam now that the Internet has grown in popularity as well as in infrastructure. Companies like Amazon.com and Google have moved in the direction of Negroponte’s idea. They keep track of their customer’s previous choices and makes recommendations for future purchases or web pages that would interest them.

A full blown Daily Me Internet experience will bring you the information that you want to hear. If you are into national politics and a Democrat then your news would contain news stories that centers around Democratic issues in the national arena. If you are a Chicago Bulls fan, your sports report would be centered on basketball and the Chicago Bulls. If the stock market was your interest, you would get news about the market but not the entire market. You would only get information about the market that you are in like the New York Stock Exchange and your particular stock holdings.

The idea of Daily Me has both positive and negative factors associated with it. The situation described above would provide you with the news that you are interested in. You would not be inundated with news that you are not interested in like soccer games. This could be a very positive situation. You can become more productive and your time can be spent more wisely. The negative side to this is that you would not get the other side. Your arguments in politics or religion would be bolstered by the information that you receive but you are not getting the entire story. I often tell my children that in any situation there are usually three sides, your side, the other side, and the truth somewhere in the middle. If you were in a situation such as the Daily Me that supported everything that you said and did, you would start to feel a false sense of knowledge and security. This is known as the Echo Chamber effect.

The Echo Chamber effect is similar to you being in a cave and the only voice you hear is yourself. There is no one to contradict you or say that you are wrong. I have had several managers over the years that loved to hear what they wanted to hear. Unfortunately, there are many employees that gave them the information that they wanted even if it was not true. I used to tell them that I could tell you what you want or I could tell you the truth.

It is important for our personal growth and the growth of our society to gather information that both support and oppose our views. This knowledge is how we make rational decisions. The most appropriate decision may not be the one that we support.