This week I am looking at online relationships. There are advantages and disadvantages to forming a relationship online. A big advantage to forming relationships online, is that people can talk about things they may not feel comfortable talking about in real life. For example somebody who may have suffered from child abuse can join online websites such as oneinfor.ie and talk to fellow survivors. Such people can maintain there anonymity as-well as forming new relationships on such websites.
Also people can form online friendships with people that have similar interests. I follow people on twitter that I have talked with on Liverpool fc forums and they follow me. These people share the same interest as me. Although I am not friends with them, we have formed a relationship none the less. We only talk about football on forums and blogs but without the online medium, such a relationship would not be possible. I will never have to meet these people or know anything else about them other than the fact that they are fellow Liverpool fans. I enjoy talking on such forums with fellow fans that share the same passion.
However with advantages often come disadvantages. For example, although there are many benefits of dating online, there is always a risk of the person behind the avatar not being the person they say they are. There are always predators online that look to prey on victims. Child abuse is a problem when it comes to online relationships. These predators groom their victims and if they consider it safe, will arrange to meet their victim. This stage is known as exclusivity. Pedophiles are not the only problem. If somebody arranges to meet somebody offline that they have met online, they must always assesses the risk involved. There are always bad apples that let the side down when it comes to online dating.
Online predators are not the only example of the disadvantages of online friendships. Sharing a passion with somebody online is not always a good thing. For example there are websites online where people encourage hatred on a small minority or somebody with different skiln colour etc. Relationships that are formed on such sites can often lead to violence offline.
This week in class we looked at an example of a 13 year girl in america who formed a friendship with a supposed boy of the same age online. The girl, Megan Meier thought she'd become good friends with the boy 'Josh Evans'. However the boy turned viciously on the girl. Megan, who was attracted to the boy, was so distraught that she hung herself. The parents discovered after an investigation that it was a neighbour, mother to a girl who Megan knew, who had created a fictional account. The full story can be read here.
So does the possibility for deception naturally increase in an online setting?. . . .
There will always be deception offline. However, online is cheap, affordable and accessible. Traditionally deception requires courtship. Offline, if for whatever reason you decide you want to have an affair, you have to court the women/man. You have to impress them and even then there is no guarantee anything will come of it. Now there are sites such as haveanaffair.com , which make having an affair easier and more affordable. The fact there are no strings attached to such sites also make deception more appealing. However this is only one example of deception. The film catfish shows a mid aged women deceiving a young photographer. Without her online profile, it simply would not have been possible to carry out such deception because she was caring for her husbands sons 24/7. However at night time she was able to live a life she created for herself online. Without the online environment Megan Meier might still be alive.
Well thats enough blogging around for this week.
P.S
I forget.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Smells like Community Spirit!
This week I am looking at communities. Traditionally a community is associated with a certain group of people often living in the same area. To me the word community often creates a sense of belonging. I am part of various communities both on and offline, for example communities such as CMDKIT and LFC(Liverpool football club) both of which are on and offline. When I'm on campus in dkit, instead of seeing myself as a student of dkit, I feel like I belong to the creative multimedia community instead. It is much more intimate and personal. You have a network of close friends and the lecturers are extremely supportive of everything their students do.
As I am an LFC fan, I am part of the football community.The great thing about being a football fan is no matter where you go around the world, the first person you will talk to in a room of strangers is the person wearing the same jersey as you. Supporting the same football team gives you anchor to engage with a fellow fan. Somebody you have never met before doesn't seem like a stranger when they share the same passion as you.
Historically/traditionally, a person's community would be their neighbourhood. Your neighbour would know everything about you and you would know everything about them. If you needed a favour, you'd go to your neighbour. You didn't chose your neighbours but often you would befriend them. Traditionally the neighbourhood was intimate and local.
Now however, online communities are thriving. There are many communities such as fan, gaming but perhaps the biggest community at the minute is the social website Facebook. Today you can go onto Facebook and see what your friends are up to. Instead of popping next door and having a gossip with your neighbour, you can now find that same information on Facebook. Facebook is only one example, there are other social websites such as twitter and previously bebo. All support McCluhan's theory of the global village.
Today teenagers are hanging out on websites such as Facebook rather than in shopping centres or park benches etc. There are great advantages to this. Parents know where their sons and daughters are. They mightn't know what they get up to online. Teenagers are known for getting in trouble for hanging around in public places and some often rebel and retaliate because of it. Teenagers also like to drink when they hang out offline. This is less likely to happen when online although it has to be said the majority of teenagers will still always drink together offline. For teenagers, the best thing about hanging out online, is the fact that there is no limit on when the can chose to do it. Shopping centres close, social sites don't. Staying out late leads to questions from concerned parents. Hanging out online in your bedroom does not.
However hanging around online eliminates a lot of those problems. Sure there are a lot of new risks that come with hanging around online such as getting involved with online predators but the majority of teenagers have common sense with todays technologies. Of course it has to be said teenagers still do hang out on park benches and in shopping centres but perhaps its not as frequent as it once was. The online alternative is just as popular.
In the past are community was entirely offline. However today it is a hybrid of offline face to face human interaction and online interaction.
That's enough culturing about for this week.
p.s
I forget
As I am an LFC fan, I am part of the football community.The great thing about being a football fan is no matter where you go around the world, the first person you will talk to in a room of strangers is the person wearing the same jersey as you. Supporting the same football team gives you anchor to engage with a fellow fan. Somebody you have never met before doesn't seem like a stranger when they share the same passion as you.
Historically/traditionally, a person's community would be their neighbourhood. Your neighbour would know everything about you and you would know everything about them. If you needed a favour, you'd go to your neighbour. You didn't chose your neighbours but often you would befriend them. Traditionally the neighbourhood was intimate and local.
Now however, online communities are thriving. There are many communities such as fan, gaming but perhaps the biggest community at the minute is the social website Facebook. Today you can go onto Facebook and see what your friends are up to. Instead of popping next door and having a gossip with your neighbour, you can now find that same information on Facebook. Facebook is only one example, there are other social websites such as twitter and previously bebo. All support McCluhan's theory of the global village.
Today teenagers are hanging out on websites such as Facebook rather than in shopping centres or park benches etc. There are great advantages to this. Parents know where their sons and daughters are. They mightn't know what they get up to online. Teenagers are known for getting in trouble for hanging around in public places and some often rebel and retaliate because of it. Teenagers also like to drink when they hang out offline. This is less likely to happen when online although it has to be said the majority of teenagers will still always drink together offline. For teenagers, the best thing about hanging out online, is the fact that there is no limit on when the can chose to do it. Shopping centres close, social sites don't. Staying out late leads to questions from concerned parents. Hanging out online in your bedroom does not.
However hanging around online eliminates a lot of those problems. Sure there are a lot of new risks that come with hanging around online such as getting involved with online predators but the majority of teenagers have common sense with todays technologies. Of course it has to be said teenagers still do hang out on park benches and in shopping centres but perhaps its not as frequent as it once was. The online alternative is just as popular.
In the past are community was entirely offline. However today it is a hybrid of offline face to face human interaction and online interaction.
That's enough culturing about for this week.
p.s
I forget
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