Virtual Death

The story of Kaycee is so horrible, how could someone create such a hoax and not feel a bit of guilt.  It is true, online you have the capability to create any identity imaginable.  In this case this woman decided to write a blog about a girl battling and dying of leukimia.  When it comes to blogging, you follow a blog that most interests you.  People were saddened by Kaycee's story and followed her blog and wrote comments to wish her well.  Within this blog about Kaycee a community was created; a community of people who all shared sadness and hope for Kaycee to get well.  When it was said that she died and later found out that the whole thing was a lie, it is no surprise that these people would be outraged.  Their emotions went into this blog and they were sincerely hurt by the news of her death.  This kind of story really scares me.  It just further shows that you cant trust everything you read online.  People are not always who they say they are and that really bothers me.  Hopefully people will learn from this article and that no one tries to pull a prank like this one in the future :(

"The New Family Album"

After reading the Virtual death and how communities are formed through blogs, I decided to find an article related to that subject.  I found an article in Time Magazine titled, "The New Family Album".  This article discusses a specific type of blog, parental related blogs.  This one woman decided to start a blog about her growing family.  She wrote posts during her pregnancy and found that most of the people who viewed her little blog were people who were also experiencing the same life changing experience.  This article explains how parent related blogs help mothers especially as they are able to vent as well as hear from other mothers who are experiencing the same things with their children.  If a mother needs tips on how to get their baby to sleep through the night, they have a community to turn to for advice- a community of mothers and fathers.  According to the article, "Pregnancy, childbirth and parenting are times of great personal change and uncertainty, and that enhances our desire to reach out...Blogging helps parents connect in a convenient, efficient and stress-free way without the time and obligation of a face-to-face meeting,"( Time, 2004).  Even though these women dont know each other personally, they feel a certain comfort within the community to express their concerns and fears as well as share their accomplishments and happiness.  I think a blog is a great way to "meet" like minded people and have the opportunity to get answers to your questions and have a place to turn to when things get rough.  Sometimes it easier to talk to strangers online than it is to confide in your own friends and family.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993832,00.html#ixzz1dSsg7ryF

The World Wide Web

I really enjoyed reading this text and found it a little humorous.  This article goes into detail on how to basically use the Internet.  They explain the basics like how to conduct searches or what is a URL.  There was one part that said that if you havent experienced the World Wide Web, then you should try it.  I find that statement really amusing, to think that at one point people had no idea how to use the Internet.  Our generation has been exposed to this technology at such a young age that it has always been apart of our lives.  I keep forgetting that my own parents had to live a chunk of their lives without this technology... how they survived, i am not quite sure.  The Internet has completely changed the way we communicate. It has brought the world closer together making communication easier and more efficient.  There are still things that I am not 100% knowledgeable about with the Internet; like i still really have no idea how to make a website; haha.  I can only imagine how hard it must have been for people to adjust to using the Internet. 

Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy

I am not a big blogger; actually this is the only blog I have every created :).  I have read other blogs, cooking blogs, photography blogs, and travel blogs.  After reading this article I thought the results of the study were interesting.  Although the blogs I mentioned above are not very personal blogs, the authors have revealed some personal information in their posts.  This does raise a concern for privacy.  The article stated that after gathering the results from the survey, "the importance of expressive privacy to bloggers is evident because 62.6% of respondents claimed that social interaction through sharing of personal experiences was their main reason blogging, despite the privacy risks. One of the most important functions of expressive privacy is its ability to allow meaningful relationships to develop",(p.9).  According to the article expressive privacy is the ability for one to freely express themselves and interact with others.  I do think that this kind fo privacy is would not be as much of a concern because the whole point of blogging is to express your thoughts and give your oppinion on other blogs.  People do need to be careful of what private information they put on their blogs because once its on the internet, chances are it will always be.

Facebook and Privacy

I found an article on wired .com called "Report: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Doesn't Believe in Privacy."  Privacy is a huge concern among internet users especially those who have Facebook accounts.  The information that we put  in our profiles is not only public for your friends to see but to other internet companies and users.  According to the article, "But we wouldn’t recommend posting anything there that you wouldn’t want marketers, legal authorities, governments (or your mother) to see, especially as Facebook continues to push more and more of users’ information public and even into the hands of other companies, leaving the onus on users to figure out its Rubik’s Cube-esque privacy controls,"(Wired, 2010).    The Facebook icon can be found on almost all consumer websites.  Just by simply clicking like, Facebook now has the opportunity to use that information to put similar ads on your Facebook page.  Now this kind of privacy isnt so much of a safety concern but it does concern me that every move  we make online is being tracked and recorded in some way by other companies.  This article is a little dated but I do feel it is still relevant.


http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/report-facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-doesnt-believe-in-privacy/

The end of Books

I was not a big fan of this article.  I read and reread the article to understand what hypertext is because it didnt give an obvious definition.  I finally looked it up and i understand what it is.  It is true that the written text like books and newspapers are making the move to the Internet and other technology.  I am not an avid reader but I do know that people still prefer reading their hardbound novels than reading something online and being distracted with ads or even hypertext.  I actually really like hypertext.  I like that when reading an article it points me in another direction; another source to get more information.  I can understand why the article would say that this is taking away from the authors vision and ideas but I think it is more desirable for the readers to have several options.  Now I think hypertext is ok for media like newspapers or magazines but when it comes to books, I think the authors words should be the only ones available.  In the end, I feel that there is a time and a place for hypertext.  I dont think that novels/ books are going to totally be phased out (people still prefer a physical book to the Ipad or Kindle).