Online Censorship

As well as The Digital Divide, online censorship is considered a barrier to access, as people cannot always view the online content they want to.

Social networking sites and the Internet, in general, are constantly under high surveillance, which is a reason why people may prefer to use alternative methods of communication.  But communicating online has its benefits when it comes to censorship. 

Users can post comments on web pages anonymously.  This means that, even though censoring all comments on the web is impossible, even if the comment does become censored, the guilty user does not have to be identified.  This makes cruel tasks like identity fraud and cyberbullying all the more easier to achieve.


Why is fullproof online censorship so difficult to achieve?


New content is being uploaded to the Internet and updated everyday.  Whether it is in the form of new websites, webpages, social-networking profiles, blog posts, YouTube videos or users comments, each new piece of material is making the web more and more difficult to manage.

It is simply impossible to analyse every piece of information on the Internet and judge whether it is suitable for viewers.  That isn't just due the extremely high amount of new content, but also to the diversity of Internet users in terms of age, gender, race, culture, religion, education, occupation and social class.  A piece of content that is interesting, humorous or educational to one viewer, may highly offend another.

This infographic conveys the most commonly censored content currently online:

So why is it that blogs take up 20% of all censored content? 

They are entirely user-generated.  Users create the blog posts and users comment on them.


This means that before the content is created, it isn't regulated or checked against any legislation.

International Government Organisations are completely opposite to user-generated blogs, which is why the exist at the other end of the scale - they do not require nearly as much censoring.

References

Infographic from webpage
PAVLUS, J. 2011. Infographics: Internet Censorship Is Rampant Around the World [online]. New York: Mansueto Ventures, LLC. Available from: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663164/infographics-internet-censorship-is-rampant-around-the-world [Accessed on 30 March 2012]

The Digital Divide

The Internet is certainly a popular choice when it comes to communication - it's quick, worldwide and often free.  But that doesn't mean that it's everybody's preference.  This blog post looks at why people will avoid the Internet, whether by choice or because of limitations outwith their control. 

This is called The Digital Divide, and I have put together a Prezi presentation that provides indepth detail below:



"We are social beings who seek communication with others.  We are lonely beings as well.  Despite our fear of having our essential humanity reduced through comparison with a machine, we begin to relate to the computer whenever it appears to offer some company."

- Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen

References

Book
TURKLE, S. 1995. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Touchstone.

Stopping Cyberbullying

The Cybersmile Foundation is the only cyberbullying charity in the UK [Weatherley, 2012]. It's aims are to raise aware of the severity of cyberbullying and to provide help and advice for anybody affected by it.

The charity's biggest aim of all is to change current legislation to make cyberbullying become a criminal offence.

To help the Cybersmile Foundation achieve this goal, you can sign a petition following the link below:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/28797

I think the campaign is fantastic.  The Internet can be an effective learning tool for children; social media provides everyone with another way of communicating. It may be the only way some people can communicate with friends or family who live far away from them.  Cyberbullies should not get away with ruining the great potential that the Internet has.

References

Webpage
WEATHERLEY, M., 2012. Cyberbullying Charity - The Cybersmile Foundation. [online]. Brighton: The Cybersmile Foundation.  Available from: http://www.cybersmile.org/index.html [Accessed 10 April 2012]

Cyberbullying

Bullying takes many forms.  Categories of bullying include physical, mental, verbal, and now - with the increasing use of technology and, in particular, the Internet - cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying involves abusing another person through the use of technology and is most common among young people.  Prank calls can be made from mobile phones, hurtful messages sent by e-mail and social media can be used as a platform for posting nasty images of other people (known as denigration) or hacking into their online accounts (informally known as 'fraping').

Due to the large variety of methods and ease of access, cyberbullying is now the most popular form of bullying in the UK. [The Telegraph, 2009]

But why?

It has always been said that bullies are cowards, showering those who they see as weaker than themselves with nasty comments, all due to their own insecurities.  And with cyberbullying - never has that statement been more true. 

Cyberbullies are hidden by an online persona.  This means that they are not only anonymous to their victims, but they can also avoid gaining any witnesses.  It takes someone very brave to abuse someone face-to-face infront of a crowd of people, all of whom hold the power to report the incident to somebody senior, like a school headmaster.  When online - this is not a risk.  The number of witnesses can be in its millions, but with the identity of the attacker hidden, no one is any the wiser.

It can cause a great deal of anxiety to the victim when their bully is anonymous as it also means that they may be unable to identify why the person is attacking them, where they are and if it is a gang of people or one person. It also makes it very difficult for the victim to report the bullying to a friend, family member, teacher etc., as there are no names or faces to act upon.

Cyberbullies can still hold a strong power over their victims even if their identity is known.  In a school scenario, members of staff can keep an eye on the named bully during school hours, but they cannot prevent them from accessing their phone or computer when they are at home.  Young victims may hold a fear of telling their parents about the bullying incidents in case their parents remove or begin to monitor their access to their computer or mobile phone.

This video is a great example of the variety of media that can be adopted for cyberbullying:

In my view, people with a history of cyberbullying should have their Internet usage, both in school/at work and at home, closely monitored for a certain period of time afterwards.

Social media sites have made it a lot easier for cyberbullies to target their victims, so, to cancel out that fact, they should be making it much easier for victims to report their bullies.

The following website will be useful for anyone seeking help and advice on cyberbullying:

http://www.kidscape.org.uk/childrenteens/cyberbullying.shtml [Taylor, 2010]



References

Online Video
DarkMetalSkies. 2011.Cyberbullying: A real issue around teens [online video] 19 March.  Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB2t6jnELZo [Accessed on 7 March 2012]

Webpage
TAYLOR, D. 2010. Cyber Bullying and Online Safety [online]. London: Kidscape. Available from: http://www.kidscape.org.uk/childrenteens/cyberbullying.shtml [Accessed on 8 March 2012]

Bibliography

Webpage
OLWEUS BULLYING PREVENTION PROGRAMME. 2011.  What is Cyber Bullying? [online]. Minnesota: Hazelden Foundation.  Available from: http://www.olweus.org/public/cyber_bullying.page?menuheader=1 [Accessed on 8 March 2012]

Online Dating

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Developments in Communication

To begin, I am going to look at how communication has developed over the many years. I aim to gain understanding as to why each new form of communication that has been introduced has defeated the methods that existed before, and how social media has defeated them all.

Here's an infographic displaying the different forms of communication on a timeline:

This infographic is focused on Crowdsourcing, but we'll come to that in another post.

To begin - letters, a form of communication that is still very much in use today, although their use has decreased significantly. 

What the Internet brings is instant communication, something that letters have never been able to provide, nor will they ever.  Sending a letter always feels more personal for the receiver, due to the effort and cost involved in sending one.  But for a high level of convenience, sending a letter is not an option.

The telephone - defeated letters due to its instant communication factor. 

When using a telephone, users could talk to each other in real-time.  When asking a question, they'd recieve an instant response.  It was like having a conversation with somebody face-to-face, except you couldn't see them and you didn't have to leave your home.

So if the telephone allows for instant communication, why has it also been defeated by the social media?

When speaking to someone on the telephone, you can only hear their voice.  It doesn't allow for much expression, other than through tone of voice.  Social-networking sites allow users to transmit almost anything to the reciever, whether it be a document, a funny video, an inspiring picture - the list goes on!

Also, there is the wonderful development of Skype.  It's just like being on the telephone, except you can see the person too.  And it's free!

Telesales was very common before the 1990s.  It is still in use today, but the rise of the Internet, and particularly, social media, has meant that organisations can target potential customers in a wider area more efficiently.

Telephones are still highly used today, particularly amongst older generations who don't feel the need to bother with the Internet and are sticking to the methods of communication that they're used to.

E-mail next.  E-mail was invented to replace the letter with a more instant older brother.  It hasn't quite replaced the letter, but has certainly stolen the majority of its users.

In my opinion, e-mails are not as private as letters.  You can never trust the Internet - anyone could be recieving the information that users send out.  But they are still far more efficient than letters.

E-mail isn't instant, as it all depends on when the reciever is using their computer.  Although, these days, the chances of that being the case are far higher.

E-mail defeated the telephone as the concept is almost the same, just better.  After all, you can't telephone someone if they're not in.  With the telephone, you'd have to call back later, whereas an e-mail will remain in the receiver's inbox until they log on.

E-mail also allows users to send the same message to multiple people quickly and easily, without having to reconstruct the same message and send it individually.

This is an aspect that makes social media so popular, which is the last communication strategy I am going to discuss in this post.

So far, social media has defeated all other forms of communication in terms of efficiency.  Users can talk publicly, privately, quickly, send photos, videos, web links, etc.  They also have everyone that would desire to contact in one space, if they have an account on the same social-network. 

In terms of safety, I would never trust social media. 

But that's the same with any online service, yet I can't see an offline service defeating social media and winning the award of most efficient method of communication any time soon.

References

Infographic from 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]

Welcome

Welcome to Virtual Social Life, the blog that analyses and highlights the differences between the way we communicate with people online and offline.

I am a 1st year Media student at Robert Gordon University, currently learning about Digital Media Platforms and Practices.  I decided to start a blog dedicated to the analysis of communication, as it is a subject that is rapidly transforming due to the rise of social media.

This blog investigates how and why people of different age groups and backgrounds are increasingly using the Internet as a method of communication.  It also questions who people are communicating with online. Does anyone really know?