Participation and You!

So according to Time Magazine, You are the 2006 person of the year. But how did we all do it, how did we get there?

Of course Time Magazine was calling attention to the increase of user-generated content online. Sites like Youtube, Myspace, Wikipedia, Forums, Blogs, all revolve around user-generated content.

An issue that van Dijck points out in the Users Like You? article is that these sites are all mediators of content. Sure, I can upload a video to Youtube, but will anyone watch it? It depends on what Youtube decides to do with it. Will it be a featured video, or will Miley Cyrus be featured instead? Will it be 'recommended' to certain users? Well, that depends on "high-tech algorithms".

What van Dijck is suggesting here, is that user-generated content is still at the mercy of the commercialised leanings of these sites (well, perhaps not Wikipedia). Youtube, Myspace, Blogs, and much other site hosting is for-profit, either through advertising or data-mining. Even now, as I use InternetExplorer (because Firefox was having issues with Blogger), my default search engine is Bing; even the interface through which the internet is accessed is influenced by commercial, parent company, interests.

I guess what I'm getting at here is the myth of the democracy of the internet. Sure, everyone can have their say, can generate a video, or post a comment, maybe even contribute to a blog. But who is reading? What determines redirections from (default) search engines, to access the site? And once on a site (such as Youtube) how is the user-generated content orgainsed and advertised? We can all contribute online, that is not the problem. The problem is in how the viewers access; who determines how the viewers get linked through the masses of user-generated content.

Online then, where free-speech and user-generated content is widespread, (to the point of 'over-filling' online environments,) power comes not from controlling who says what, but from controlling who hears what.

So according to the Time Magazine cover, we "control the information age". Well, maybe. But if so, it's a control mediated through Google search algorithms, data-mining, user-specific advertising, and economically orientated content promotion.

(But hey, we still made the cover of Time Magazine!)

Facebook, Privacy and Control.

Danah Boyd's article "Facebooks Privacy Trainwreck" alerts readers to many things we may not of noticed before...
Before everything is stated lets breakdown what Privacy actually means... Privacy can mean a lot of things to many different people it can mean personal space, secutirty, having control over the information shared with others or as Boyd describes it privacy or the concept of "private" is simply a single bit that is either 0 or 1 meaning the data is either exposed or not....
now lets examine the role of privacy in social networks...when we are on Facebook we dont stop and think who will read our posts, view our pictures, post on our wall...Why?? well we have the right to make our page as private as we can right?? meaning only our friends can view our pictures or our posts however we dont stop to think about other people who may also have indirect access to our pages...for instance your friend accidently leaves her Facebook open in a private setting and your page happens to be open..everyone as a result can view the page (without permission) but can do so anyways..so no matter how "private" we make our information on social networks such as Facebook we are left with little control on how much privacy we actually have...
A discussion was bought up in Tutorial about an instance in which a person posted pictures up on Facebook of himself on a trip the same day he called in sick at work?? so if the manager happens to stumble across those pictures do they have a right to give that person a warning?..fire them?... in my personal opinion individuals have to be really careful about what they choose to post on public social websites...at the end of the day what we share was our choice..no one forces us to share things we would rather not share to the public therefore we all make rational decisions which sometimes have repercussions.
so in social networks such as Facebook what is the barrier we cross in order to decide whether we are willing to give-up some of our most private moments to other individuals?
one can simply reply with friends and family...however how many people can actually go on their Facebook and declare that every person on their friends list is worthy of knowing all the details they wish to share...to be honest this may be a mere handful of people.
So at the end of the day we as individuals have to take a step back and examine how much Privacy we actually control...yes it is true that you can always deactivate your Facebook, delete all your information and pictures but your account still lives on in the vast world of cyberspace waiting patiently to be reactivated with the push of a button.
Therefore whether we like it or not our information lives on long after we are gone.

Is technology "killing" us?

Recently, a young girl was tragically killed by a car when she attempted to cross a road – also whilst listening to an iPod. As a result of the phenomenon of Facebook, I heard this news first when my friend’s new status popped up on my Homepage:

“If a girl steps onto a pedestrian crossing and is hit by a car the car killed her, if the girl is listening to an ipod when she is hit the ipod killed her. With all due respect to the poor girl I think you are being a bit sensationalist NZ Herald.”

I also agree with my friend’s point of view, the reporter was being a little exaggerative. The iPod did not kill the girl. There are still many logistical questions needed to be answered about the case such as the speed of the car before and during impact, and whether or not the victim was actually on the pedestrian crossing etc.

This got me wondering about our dependence on new media and the control that it can have over us and our day to day life. To be frank and please no judgement - I like writing essays. There is nothing like the feeling of having completed a piece of writing that is coherent and eloquent in all aspects. But with the rise of social networking sites, mainly Facebook, I have become addicted and spent a lot of unnecessary time procrastinating by stalking other people’s pages and photos. Is Facebook just a new medium for putting off our assignments or have we always distracted ourselves with other meaningless fluff?

This situation can be referred to the “master-slave dialectic” as coined by G W F Hegel who said that “those who enslave others will become enslaved themselves.” Let’s hope he wasn’t thinking of a Facebook World Domination when he made this statement!