So...I'm pretty confused about this whole "blogger" system at the moment , even though it seems like such an easy tool. I've tried to spruce up my profile by adding page elements etc but the "add a page element" is unfortunately nowhere to be seen in my layout! So please forgive my 'less than amazing' profile for now until I sort myself out...
I'm Josephine and I'm majoring in psychology and possibly minoring in coms this year, I'll keep the personal info short though because I'm currently itching to go home and eat.
This week in class the topic of users identities caught my attention the most. Thinking about how we all construct identities online through things as simple as the language we use. It makes me think of the things I read on sites like bebo or myspace which have comments like "hEy bÂyBee! mIsSiN U hEaPz hUn!" which absolutely make me cringe. I guess I immediately create an image in my mind of the person doing the typing based on little more than a few capital letters here and there. Is that me just being judgmental or am I forming my own identity in relation to other identities? Who knows!
David M. Berry's article brought up interesting points about the issues of privacy on the Internet which made me question how appropriate the Internet really is for online groups and communities who wish to keep their activities private from outsiders. While I understand that the Internet is an amazing tool in the way it has no geographical limitations and can therefore bring members of groups from all corners of the world together, I also think that "lurkers" or "harvesters", as creepy as we might find them, do what they do simply because the Internet has made it so easy for them to do so. To protect private groups and communities I think that
"Herring's (1996) attempt to outline an ethic that "... respect[s] the privacy of individual participants while preserving the academic freedom to criticize" is something that needs to be looked into further and perhaps more Internet laws regarding ethics should be created. This said, I think it is important to preserve one's right to examine online activities for research purposes, especially when, as described in the Ian Miles article, technology is gaining such prominence in present times that its effects are so huge and have the need to be examined. Because online services are no longer "mainly restricted to a few professionals", studies of the Internet have great relevance to a large proportion of society these days so this paper should be very interesting and useful and I am looking forward to getting into it!
See you in class
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