Just checking that everyone knows, this blog is assessed, and we are required to write about 300words per week. I was reading through the other tutorial blogs and Katherine from Thursday at 5pm posted a good set of questions in relation to the cyber-stalking text. I thought I'd borrow them and see if they can get some conversation started here too.
SO: some questions to get the ball rolling!
Does the internet need regulation?
What sort of laws (if any) are appropriate for a medium whose very foundation is in its capacity to diminish space and create a global online community for sharing and interacting?
How do you feel YOU interact online: are you comfortable in an online environment, do you think the fact that you have a relative degree of anonymity online changes your interaction (if any) with other users online?
FACEBOOK: friend or foe? Is Facebook a total invasion of privacy? And again harking back to the “online identities” concept, what facets of your persona do you choose to convey online on your profile? Do we have an “ethic of care” for ourselves, our friends, and other internet users? Or is this an impossible concept in an online community of millions? How do the internet communities and relationships we form online reflect those we make in real life?Happy blogging!
~ posted by Katherine2
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2 comments:
Reponse to question:
1) I'm not so sure about the word 'law' for online interaction. Law implies (to me at least) that you will be punished for breaking it. While in extreme cases you will get punished for online abuse and harassment, any laws on the internet don't appear as clear cut as they do in real life. The internet is a sort of "grey, foggy area" in terms of law. For eg: if you were to steal another person's work published on the internet and then publish it on your own website, I doubt you would receive the same harsh repercussions you would in the the real world.
2) When I am online I never give away any details about where I live. Country, state or city is as far as I would ever be willing to go. In chatrooms, you can get away with a lot. I don't know what other ppl find, but certainly on IRC (internet relay chat) people will always assume you are male, unless you say so, and especially if your username is ambiguous.
3) Going back to chatrooms and forums for the "ethic of care" question/idea, moderators will ban you from the room/forum or even the server completely if you are too abusive. However, I've seen it work both ways, where a chatroom have collectively poked what they seemed to think was innocent fun at a new user. The user had logged off within about 5 minuets and didn't come back.
In regards to the Facebook part of your post - I think stalking gets thrown around a lot very lightly, especially in regards to Facebook (I know that I'm part of two different groups dedicated to "Facebook stalking" which probably says a lot about me haha). When people talk about Facebook stalking someone, we all know what this means. Do you think, though, that this, say, demeans what people who REALLY get cyberstalked go through? Or can everyone recognise the difference? We wouldn't throw around the word rape so quickly (not that I know of) but why is being like "lol I am totally stalking this guy on facebook right now" acceptable?
I personally reckon I'm the same online as I am off it - mainly cause I use facebook & lievjournal to talk to real life friends and they'd call me on it if they thought I was being a whole lot different/making myself out to be someone I'm not - either better or worse. I think a lot of it depends what kind of online communities people hang around on, though. Facebook is fairly benign because it deals with mainly people you'd know in real life, whereas anonymous chat rooms and message boards can allow for much worse behaviour.
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