I feel that the Internet and Social Media have both brought an astounding number of benefits in terms of quick and easy communication.
The fact that, nowadays, we don't even have to leave our house to speak to our friends. I also find it fascinating that we can communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world, for free.
Aspects like privacy and identity do worry me - I would like for, one day, the Internet to be completely secure, but the points I have discussed in this blog do not provide much hope, due to its large scale and complexity.
I have thoroughly enjoyed researching for this blog so far - I have learned a lot of information that is relevant to my studies and I hope I can apply the knowledge I have gained to future projects.
Thank you for taking an interest in my blog!
Thursday 26 April 2012
Tuesday 24 April 2012
Corporate Use of Social Media
The above video certainly seems to be very keen for businesses to take to social media and not "miss an opportunity."
But why?
Social media has benefited businesses greatly over the past few years, mainly due to its ability to communicate personally with individuals within a worldwide audience.
Any previous method of advertising has had a one to many status.
With social media, users can personalise their profile and connect with the businesses they like. Every update from that business will then appear on the user's feed, meaning that social media has brought about a one to one method of advertising.
So if businesses are only communicating with people who have "liked" or are "following" their social-networking page, how is social media really benefiting them?
The above infographic mentions traffic.
The more Facebook users that "share" or "re-tweet" a business' message, the more people that will start to "like" or "follow" that page, driving more traffic to their website.
The infographic also states that businesses should be using both Facebook and Twitter, as Facebook drives traffic, yet Twitter allows for more customer interaction.
But what does customer interaction mean?
According to the infographic, "small business social media accounts get on average more comments that personal accounts."
Users have the ability to contact the business publicly using social media, as the posts they make are visible for all to see.
If a customer e-mails a business with a complaint, the business can choose to ignore it and, unless further action is taken by the consumer, no one has to know. But on social media websites, everyone and anyone can see if a complaint has been ignored or handled incorrectly.
Businesses have no control over what a users says about them on social media, so surely they'd like to grab the opportunity to respond.
This method of one to one communication has meant that businesses have become very popular on social media websites, as the negative comments make the business seem more real.
References
Online Video
SocialStrategy1, 2011. Social Strategy1 - Social Media Video [online video]. 20 April. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHLMGXaR0Io&kw=social+media&ad=10383246475&feature=pyv [Accessed on 24 April 2012]
Infographic from webpage
VOSS, C., 2011. How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media Infographic [online]. London: TheChrisVossShow.com. Available from: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthechrisvossshow.com%2Fhow-small-businesses-are-using-social-media-infographic%2F&ei=abGZT7bNGKep4gTow5zFBg&usg=AFQjCNF7HnWyBWMOQ7L3s-q_XKxm9rFZeA [ Accessed on 24 April 2012]
Adolescents
This blog post takes a view that contradicts the other points made in previous posts. This is due to naïvety of certain adolescents, who use social media in attempt to show off or look "cool," which often gets them into trouble.
But what is even more perplexing is that they seem to know that they will get themselves into difficult situations before they do it.
The London riots in August 2011 are a prime example of this.
As young people were breaking into shops and looting, not all of them were attempting to hide their identity. In fact, they were doing completely the opposite - taking to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to post pictures of themselves with the items they had looted and encouraging others to join in, as conveyed in the following article by Mail Online:
This is very interesting on a number of levels.
The other methods of online communication covered in this blog involve disguising or hiding the person's true identity to some extent. In a situation similar to the riots, when partakers are at risk of being reprimanded, you'd think they'd try to disguise their identity as much as possible, not broadcast their crimes online for all to see.
As portrayed in the BBC Three series, Our Crime, adolescents are committing crimes such as theft and mugging, whilst taking pictures and recording footage of them doing so on their mobile phones. They then put this footage onto social networking sites to look tough and to get people talking.
This is just making it easier for them to be caught, so why do they take the risk?
It comes down to adolescents' perception of "cool." In their mind, it's "cool" to commit a crime, and it's even "cooler" to get caught and be put in prison. Many young people nowadays see owning a criminal record as something to be proud of, which I cannot get my head around.
It may also relate to the fact that many young criminals do not realise that the police use social networking in order to track them down. They seem to think that it's just their friends who can see the pictures they have taken and the videos they have recorded of their cruel acts. As DC Scott Vivash of the Metropolitan police states in Episode 4 of Our Crime, "It is out there, and if you're going to put it out there, it is open to our interpretation as well." [Freedman, 2012]
It may also relate to the fact that many young criminals do not realise that the police use social networking in order to track them down. They seem to think that it's just their friends who can see the pictures they have taken and the videos they have recorded of their cruel acts. As DC Scott Vivash of the Metropolitan police states in Episode 4 of Our Crime, "It is out there, and if you're going to put it out there, it is open to our interpretation as well." [Freedman, 2012]
I think that the punishment for committing a crime needs to become tougher, as adolescents are becoming less and less discouraged to behave in society. Breaking the law is something that they are going to seriously regret when they get older and are trying to achieve a place at university or get a job, and they need to be more aware of this.
Our Crime is on BBC Three on Mondays nights at 9. The series will available on BBC iPlayer for a limited time at the following link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00pj0m5 [Freedman, 2012]
"We are fighting a war with technology, and we're winning."
- DCI John McFarlane, Metropolitan Police [Freedman, 2012]
References
Online Article
DAILY MAIL REPORTER, 2011. Twit and Twitter: 'Looter' posts photo of himself and his booty online as police say tweets were used to co-ordinate riots [online]. London: Associated Newspapers Ltd. Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023667/London-riots-Looter-posts-photo-booty-Facebook.html [Accessed on 24 April 2012]
"We are fighting a war with technology, and we're winning."
- DCI John McFarlane, Metropolitan Police [Freedman, 2012]
References
Online Article
DAILY MAIL REPORTER, 2011. Twit and Twitter: 'Looter' posts photo of himself and his booty online as police say tweets were used to co-ordinate riots [online]. London: Associated Newspapers Ltd. Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023667/London-riots-Looter-posts-photo-booty-Facebook.html [Accessed on 24 April 2012]
Television Episode
FREEDMAN, D., 2012. Director. In: Our Crime. [television]. London: BBC Three. 23 March.
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Crowdsourcing
As stated in the above video, a technique similar to crowdsourcing is dated back as far as 1714, so it existed long before the Internet did.
Crowdsourcing involves lots of people working independantly on one project, then putting their ideas together to form a final piece. This blog post looks at how the Internet has benefitted this aincent technique of gathering ideas, and what new services it has brought.
Before the Internet, gathering ideas from individuals would have been a difficult task, due to the lack of mass communication.
Participants in a project would all have to travel with their ideas to the location where the project was being carried out. Now, with the Internet and social media, projects can be advertised to the masses, and ideas submitted online.
This means that a project can gather a lot more ideas and participants than it could before the Internet came along, as the whole concept has become much easier to carry out.
The success of Crowdsourcing compared to similar methods used before the Internet comes down to 3 things: high-speed Internet, a changed workforce structure and International payment systems [Eposti, 2011].
Internet useage is accessable in nearly every home, due to low, fixed prices. This means that participating from Crowdsourcing is possible from the home, too.
With unemployment levels being at the position they are in, the Internet has brought the opportunity of Crowdsourcing to those people who do not have a job.
And, with online payment methods being so quick and simple, rewards for Crowdsourcing can be given instantly. This also means that Crowdfunding is now possible.
Crowdfunding is a crowdsourcing operation that, along with many other services described in the video above, has been brought about by the Internet. It simply would not have been feasable before the Internet was invented.
Crowdsourcing is a very valuable tool to businesses, as the ability to gather ideas from a broad range of external sources means that it is extending its "business brain." Generating ideas from the public also means that the business will be able to target them more efficiently. Crowdsourcing also removes a barrier between a company and the public, as they are working together to provide a better, and far more effiecient, service than a business could achieve on its own.
References
Online Video
CrowdsourcingOrg, 2012. Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding Explained [online video]. 15 March. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-38uPkyH9vI [Accessed on 17 April 2012]
Webpage
ESPOSTI, C., 2011. Why Crowdsourcing? Why Now? [online]. Los Angeles: Crowdsourcing LLC. Available from: http://www.crowdsourcing.org/editorial/why-crowdsourcing-why-now/5570 [Accessed on 24 February 2012]
Friday 6 April 2012
Education
The Internet has done wonders in allowing ease of access to education. Search engines are extremely quick to use and provide far more results than an encylopedia would. But the rise of online learning courses has meant that people don't even have to leave their house to get a degree.
But is this method of learning really more efficient than traditional methods?
Efficient - yes. Effective - not necessarily.
Online courses fit around people's everyday lives - they don't have to travel to and from lectures. Submitting coursework all happens in the home, through e-mail or online submission. But lack of face-to-face communication with lecturers has got to have a negative effect on the quality of work produced.
I completed an Open University short course last year, in my final year at school. It was the most bizarre learning experience I have ever endured. Instead of having friends whom I could discuss the work with in order to gain a better understanding, there was an online forum in which users would post questions and comments about the course.
The forum was fantastic as a place where all users could turn to if they had a problem. But without having been given the opportunity to get to know the people who were studying the same short course, how could I trust them and their answers?
Often, arguments would break out on the online forum if one person disagreed with what another was saying. People felt brave, knowing they could say whatever they like and gain no reputation in the real world. This is a form of cyberbullying, which, as I have previously discussed in this blog, is a form of bullying that is easy to accomplish anonymously.
Another odd situation that occurred quite often was that someone would pose a question and recieve no answer. If people don't know the answer to that particular problem, they can just ignore it - something that could not happen in the real world. This is the reason that I, and I suspect, many other people, felt very iscolated whilst studying the course. It wasn't like I could ask any of my teachers or schoolfriends, as they had no clue of the content of the course.
That's where the tutor comes in. The only way in which a tutor could be contacted was by e-mail, and in special circumstances, telephone. I was never in a situation where I needed to contact my tutor when studying the course, but many of the questions posed on the online forum were because the tutor had not responded to that person soon enough. In the real world, you can go and see your tutor or lecturer and recieve an answer instantly. This is where the Internet's 'instant' trait falls flat, as one tutor to hundreds of people from all over the world is not sufficient.
The following infographic contains a great detail of information, not just on online learning, but e-learning as a whole, including a mention of the Open University, with whom I studied my short course.
This infographic certainly supports the idea of e-learning, and I do too, due to its ease of access and the way it can be carried out at the user's own speed.
But I'm not sure if I would recommend e-learning as a method of achieving a degree. Online courses just don't provide participants with appropriate learning materials - I think it is good to have a mixture of online materials and also physical class activities and tutorials.
But everyone learns in different ways, so I'm not going to judge too harshly.
I think for young children, pre-primary school age, e-learning is a fantastic way to teach them basic skills like maths and spelling, before they are thrown into a physical learning environment.
References
Infographic from webpage:
JACKSON, N., 2011. Infographic: How the Internet Is Revolutionizing Education [online]. Washington: The Atlantic Monthly Group. Available from: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/06/infographic-how-the-internet-is-revolutionizing-education/240338/ [Accessed on 6 April 2012]
But is this method of learning really more efficient than traditional methods?
Efficient - yes. Effective - not necessarily.
Online courses fit around people's everyday lives - they don't have to travel to and from lectures. Submitting coursework all happens in the home, through e-mail or online submission. But lack of face-to-face communication with lecturers has got to have a negative effect on the quality of work produced.
I completed an Open University short course last year, in my final year at school. It was the most bizarre learning experience I have ever endured. Instead of having friends whom I could discuss the work with in order to gain a better understanding, there was an online forum in which users would post questions and comments about the course.
The forum was fantastic as a place where all users could turn to if they had a problem. But without having been given the opportunity to get to know the people who were studying the same short course, how could I trust them and their answers?
Often, arguments would break out on the online forum if one person disagreed with what another was saying. People felt brave, knowing they could say whatever they like and gain no reputation in the real world. This is a form of cyberbullying, which, as I have previously discussed in this blog, is a form of bullying that is easy to accomplish anonymously.
Another odd situation that occurred quite often was that someone would pose a question and recieve no answer. If people don't know the answer to that particular problem, they can just ignore it - something that could not happen in the real world. This is the reason that I, and I suspect, many other people, felt very iscolated whilst studying the course. It wasn't like I could ask any of my teachers or schoolfriends, as they had no clue of the content of the course.
That's where the tutor comes in. The only way in which a tutor could be contacted was by e-mail, and in special circumstances, telephone. I was never in a situation where I needed to contact my tutor when studying the course, but many of the questions posed on the online forum were because the tutor had not responded to that person soon enough. In the real world, you can go and see your tutor or lecturer and recieve an answer instantly. This is where the Internet's 'instant' trait falls flat, as one tutor to hundreds of people from all over the world is not sufficient.
The following infographic contains a great detail of information, not just on online learning, but e-learning as a whole, including a mention of the Open University, with whom I studied my short course.
This infographic certainly supports the idea of e-learning, and I do too, due to its ease of access and the way it can be carried out at the user's own speed.
But I'm not sure if I would recommend e-learning as a method of achieving a degree. Online courses just don't provide participants with appropriate learning materials - I think it is good to have a mixture of online materials and also physical class activities and tutorials.
But everyone learns in different ways, so I'm not going to judge too harshly.
I think for young children, pre-primary school age, e-learning is a fantastic way to teach them basic skills like maths and spelling, before they are thrown into a physical learning environment.
References
Infographic from webpage:
JACKSON, N., 2011. Infographic: How the Internet Is Revolutionizing Education [online]. Washington: The Atlantic Monthly Group. Available from: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/06/infographic-how-the-internet-is-revolutionizing-education/240338/ [Accessed on 6 April 2012]
Thursday 5 April 2012
Privacy
We would never approach a stranger in the street and tell them all of our likes and dislikes. We would never contact a known criminal to tell them our exact location on a night out. And we would never bring out a photo album full of drunken photos to show our grandparents when they come to visit.
So why do we have a Facebook account?
Nothing on social media is completely private.
Before the Internet came about, we had control over all things listed above. And we still like to pretend that we do. We are in denial.
Yes - Facebook allows us to control our privacy settings, so only the people we select are able to view our profiles.
But Facebook also allows our friends to control their privacy settings, and, effectively, ours too.
The above screenshot from Facebook.com displays Facebook's current privacy setting options, regarding a user's profile and tagging.
The circled option refers to our friends.
So in the case of our friend's privacy settings, that option will refer to us.
So whatever we post on our friend's wall could be available to a worldwide audience, and we wouldn't know.
It is impossible to exist online to a selected number of people. Having a Facebook account opens up hundred of doors that people can open to access your personal information.
So the default settings are the most open, meaning that users will have to instantly change their settings if they wish to remain as private as possible.
Why is this?
The above screenshot from Facebook.com states that the information is available to anyone in order to maintain the idea of the "social network." If these settings were private, people would never be able to connect.
In truth, most people are aware that their privacy settings online are not full-proof. So why do we take the risk?
I'll finish this blog post with a simple answer to that question from John Friedman, Marketwatch media columnist:
"We're hooked. I am hooked. People are addicted to Facebook. It's like a narcotic. People love being on Facebook. They like having their artificial friends and their universe and they won't leave."
References
Online Video
jeetz05. 2011. Social Media Privacy [online video]. 24 October. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9pFMSKPXSk&feature=related [Accessed on 5 April 2012]
Wednesday 4 April 2012
Identity and Behaviour Online
This post looks at how we portray ourselves on social-networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
I'll begin by getting straight to the point - we always convey ourselves in way that comes across best.
If a friend tags us in a photo that we consider to be "ugly" or "embarrassing," the first thing we do is untag ourselves from the photo, or beg them to take it down.
The posts we make on our social networking sites are always of a humorous nature, or focusing on our achievements. We wouldn't create a post just saying we'd failed our exams or lost our job, unless we were looking for sympathy, of course.
The profile picture we choose is always one that we consider we look our best in, as we know it is the first photo people are going to see when they access our social-networking profile, so we want to make a good first impression.
But is it really worth trying to convey ourselves online in the best way that we can?
No one's online persona is an exact match to their persona in the real world.
Why is this?
It could be due to ambiguity - a lot of what people say online can be interpretted to mean something else.
This is because when we are communicating with someone in text form, eg. by e-mail or social-networking sites, there is no tone of voice or facial expression coming into play.
Elisha Tan states in her article Why Are People Rude Online:
"Your speechless is silence offline but online it can be reflected as ‘…………….’ or simply the lack of reply... Moreover, the absence of speech offline lack can be seen as pondering, not wanting to argue further or ignoring depending on the accompanying body language, but ‘………….’ can be interpreted as a rebuttal, a roll of the eye or an act of eliciting laughter and you’ll not be able to confidently know which one it is"
Another aspect that makes our online persona so different may be due to the fact that we are hiding behind a computer screen.
No one can see us.
No one can hear us.
So why not speak our minds?
The keyboard brings us confidence. We use it to channel our emotions and anger - something we cannot do so freely using the telephone or when interacting face-to-face, as it would be considered inappropriate to the reciever.
The following article discusses the burst of confidence that we find ourselves obtaining when we connect to the Internet:
http://phys.org/news193046619.html
To finish, here is a video that contains some humourous points about the language that we use when communicating by text or online:
I'll begin by getting straight to the point - we always convey ourselves in way that comes across best.
If a friend tags us in a photo that we consider to be "ugly" or "embarrassing," the first thing we do is untag ourselves from the photo, or beg them to take it down.
The posts we make on our social networking sites are always of a humorous nature, or focusing on our achievements. We wouldn't create a post just saying we'd failed our exams or lost our job, unless we were looking for sympathy, of course.
The profile picture we choose is always one that we consider we look our best in, as we know it is the first photo people are going to see when they access our social-networking profile, so we want to make a good first impression.
But is it really worth trying to convey ourselves online in the best way that we can?
No one's online persona is an exact match to their persona in the real world.
Why is this?
It could be due to ambiguity - a lot of what people say online can be interpretted to mean something else.
This is because when we are communicating with someone in text form, eg. by e-mail or social-networking sites, there is no tone of voice or facial expression coming into play.
Elisha Tan states in her article Why Are People Rude Online:
"Your speechless is silence offline but online it can be reflected as ‘…………….’ or simply the lack of reply... Moreover, the absence of speech offline lack can be seen as pondering, not wanting to argue further or ignoring depending on the accompanying body language, but ‘………….’ can be interpreted as a rebuttal, a roll of the eye or an act of eliciting laughter and you’ll not be able to confidently know which one it is"
Another aspect that makes our online persona so different may be due to the fact that we are hiding behind a computer screen.
No one can see us.
No one can hear us.
So why not speak our minds?
The keyboard brings us confidence. We use it to channel our emotions and anger - something we cannot do so freely using the telephone or when interacting face-to-face, as it would be considered inappropriate to the reciever.
The following article discusses the burst of confidence that we find ourselves obtaining when we connect to the Internet:
http://phys.org/news193046619.html
To finish, here is a video that contains some humourous points about the language that we use when communicating by text or online:
References
Online Video
ComedyTimeDir. 2010. Text Talk: Comedy Time [online video]. 18 June. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOXZhlbvcnE [Accessed on 3 April 2012]
Online Article
MILIAN, M. 2010. Real-life personas rarely match real-life behaviour, observers say [online]. Los Angeles: Phys.Org. Available from: http://phys.org/news193046619.html
[Accessed on 4 April 2012]
[Accessed on 4 April 2012]
Online Article
TAN, E. 2010. Why Are People Rude Online [online]. Singapore: Tech In Asia. Available from: http://www.techinasia.com/why-are-people-rude-online/ [Accessed on 4 April 2012]
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