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Author Archives: gee.elle
Posts: 7 (archived below)
Comments: 4
creepy
“Even cars are gettin creepy wid it. Erryones a d*mn stalka now.” Although my friend isn’t so gifted with the words, he’s definitely right.
And people really need another distraction while driving? I know we’ve all see people eating, on a call, texting, or putting on their make-up while driving. Now they can check their facebook too?
Digital City
It’s no secret that technology has become an important part in nearly everyone’s live, whether directly or indirectly. In class, we’ve discussed how it affects our social lives, interactions, and relationships. An while technology has been used by both the private and public sector, it seems that the two have now combined.
In an annoucement made on Monday, May 16th, Mayor Bloomberg has pledged to make New York City the “No. 1 Digitial City”. Using the popular social networking sites of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and FourSquare, the goal is to make the City of New York more Internet accessible. It is also to redefine the presence of New York online, redesigning its website and plans to “to acquire a .nyc suffix for Web pages”. The city has also hired it’s first ever Chief Digital Officer.
After reading several articles, the point of all this is still unclear to me. The only explanation I could find was a quote from Mayor Bloomberg: “We want New York City to be the nation’s premier digital city – in how local government interacts with New Yorkers, in how New Yorkers have access to and capitalize on new technologies, and in how our tech and digital media sectors evolve, grow businesses and create jobs”. This, to me, seems pretty vague. The city appears to just be expanding on the general purpose of the Internet: to connect people more quickly and efficiently.
With all the budget cuts (including education cuts which have forced Baruch students to visit Albany and lobby to keep our Pell Grants and block outrageous CUNY tuition hikes), Bloomberg’s goal just seems pointless. He even flat out states that the city does not have the money to complete this task on its own and will look to companies for aid.
Don’t you think that the money can be better put to use? What about restructuring the MTA so we have fewer corrupt officials and more service? This may seem cynical but at the end of the day, the city is constantly trying to bring in tourists and improve the things that RESIDENTS have no concern over.
Posted in Assignment 5
Tagged digital city, Facebook, Foursquare, new york city, Social Media, Social Networking, tumblr, Twitter
1 Comment
I may never use a public computer again.
Last week, a couple in Wyoming filed a lawsuit against Aaron’s Rent to Own. The couple, Crystal and Brian Byrd, is citing an invasion of privacy. The suit was filed after it was revealed that the company had installed spyware in the rented computers. The software was able to record keystrokes, monitor private communication, and even TAKE PICTURES REMOTELY of the users using the webcam. The couple was made aware of the spyware only after an Aaron’s employee showed them a picture of them using the computer. (Aaron’s was trying to reposses the computer because they thought the Byrd’s were behind on their payment. The couple had actually paid their bill in full and were not in committing any violation.) However, the employee did not inform the couple of how the picture was obtained. But ”the couple’s lawsuit alleges that pop-up boxes regularly appeared on the rented machine, claiming they needed to “register” software. Each time that happened, the suit claims, a Webcam image of them was taken without their knowledge, and transmitted to a firm that managed tracking software for the rental company.”
I can’t imagine how this couple must feel. From the point of the company, I can understand having software tracking general use of the computer or the computer’s location. Being able to track the computer would ensure that the company is able to find it’s property, as well as prove that a computer was in use despite a customer being behind on his payments. But they flat out cross the line when it comes to secretly photographing their customers in their home. A person’s home is supposed to be their “sanctuary” of sorts, where they are free from the intrusion of others, free from the public eye.
I feel like this situation is just the tip of the iceberg. How long has this been going on? How many other companies out there engage in the same spying activities? Who’s to say that the computers in the library don’t have the same type of spyware on them, tracking students?
Posted in Assignment 4
2 Comments
True or False?
As Professor McKinney mentioned in class today, the news that Osama Bin Laden had been shot dead was all over Twitter before the mainstream media or President Obama made any official annoucement. Although the news did not come from the White House directly, it has been reported that the information came from reputable sources associated with the White House with former ties to the US government.
Professor McKinney also commented on how quickly the information spread and that even the President has no control over the spread of official information. This reminded of the kid’s game Telephone and how the Internet is just a giant version of this game. In my opinion, modern technologies and the type of communication they allow for is less fact-based and more about hear-say. There is no real control of the type of information posted anywhere on the Internet. As a result, people are free to post the truth and its corresponding lies. They can also make up anything about everything. Or they may simply misunderstand the information they receive online.
This leads me to wonder: what, then, is the purpose of the Internet if there is no security and confidence in the information we receive? Personally, the vast amounts of information available on the Internet and anonymity of the people posting this information makes me paranoid about the whole situation. If there are so many false accounts of information out in the world, who’s to say that we won’t eventually forget the truth?
(This is somewhat unrelated, but this Tumblr post shows how information and images can be easy altered to deliver a message or convey a feeling.)
Everyone Knows Everyone
This isn’t intended to be an official post, but I thought it was funny that an artist who has benefitted from the way information spreads over the internet (at least that’s how most of my friends have heard of him) is complaining about how connected people are because of it.
“I can’t stand,
that we’re all connected.
and I miss the days,
when I only knew my friends.
The whole world,
thinks they know all about me.
But they’ll miss the day,
when they only knew without me.
I can’t stand
without seein’ your
pretty faces.
And I miss the days.
when I was excited,
about seein the new things.
it seems so long ago.
Now we’re all,
virtually connected.
and I miss the days,
when I only knew my friends.
I can’t stand
without seein your
pretty faces.
Now we’re all
connected.
Seems so far beyond.”
Posted in Uncategorized
9 Comments
holy matrimony
Social media has definitely changed the world of communication and how individuals approach their real life relationships in the public sphere. Take, for example, marriage proposals. Proposals are meant to be a show of love and affection, to prove to your significant other how important you are to them. This no longer means popping the question in front of all your friends and family; it means alerting the entire electronic world. Can you imagine being proposed to through twitter? Living in the public sphere has obviously affected the intricacies of private relationships and the role that outsiders play in these relationships.
As Tanya explained in “We Live in Public”, when a couple is arguing, it’s more beneficial to step back, try to understand each side, and to compromise. But when the argument occurs in public, it becomes about egos and who “wins” the fight.
A 2010 survey shows that four out of five matrimonial lawyers claim that an increasing number of cases involve the use of social networking sites to provide evidence. One case I found shocking was the story of a woman who had her husband arrested for bigamy after seeing photos of his second wedding on facebook. The couple had been separated for a number of years, but had never officially gotten a divorce. When he deleted said wife from his friends list, he did not alter his privacy settings and she was still able to see the photos from his second wedding. She then had him arrested for bigamy.
Clearly social media has the ability to build relationships and tear them down. Ultimately it’s up to the user to determine how they use the interface to affect and influence their real world relationships. But will this have permanent effects on socialization and communication in the future? Does providing an alternate source of communication allow for freer expression or does it mimic the purpose of greeting cards (allowing us to defer the responsibility of communication by saying the words we physically can’t)?
Blogs v Facebook
“What complicates analyses of blogs is that they are both the product of blogging and the medium through which the blogger produces their expressions. Blogs emerge because bloggers are blogging. And yet, what they are blogging to is the blog itself. Consider this in terms of another medium. Radio is a medium in which people express themselves, but the act of speaking to be broadcast is not radio-ing, nor is the product of speaking radio. Radio only exists when people’s speech is broadcast through radio waves. And yet, blogs are the bi-product of expression and the medium itself.”
I found this excerpt of Boyd’s “A Bloggers Blog” interesting in the way that it reflects language’s ability to adapt. Boyd states that “language is a medium” and that “mediums are also connected to and built on top of other mediums.” She indirectly supports this argument when she clarifies the terms blogging and blog, explaining how they are uniquely related. Blogs are built on the medium of language, and the term “blogging” was developed from the term “blog”. This reminded me of the way the term “facebooking” has come into the medium of language and is now a common verb in most people’s vocabularies.
But while both blogging and facebooking are common words in today’s vocabulary, both blogs and social networking services seem to serve different purposes. Blogs and social networking sites both serve the human need for acceptance and recognition (as we discussed in class), but Facebooking seems to have a more negative connotation than blogging. When most people think of blogging, they think of expressing one’s opinions or daily life. There is no negative or positive aspect to blogging. But when most people think of Facebooking, the connotation is negative. Facebooking suggests that someone is wasting their time checking their newsfeed every five minutes, creeping on someone else’s page, or constantly editing their profile. What’s strange to me is that both types of sites require the publication of private information, and in most cases, blogs are far more personal than Facebook profiles.
What does this suggest about the future of the internet? Will personal blogs continue to grow in number or will Facebook continue its domination over social media?
Also, to some degree, the development of Facebook and other social networking sites are based on the popularity of blogs. Why are social networking sites like Facebook far more common now than personal blogs? Do we prefer shorter, more concise status updates about generally trivial matters to the long, explained posts on different topics?
