Online Identities and Hiding Behind the Small Screen

It’s hard to believe that today was my third last class of my University career. While my professor was giving the closing remarks for the class she did a quick recap of what we’d covered over the course of the semester. Something she said resonated with thoughts I’d been having for quite some time. She mentioned that we were a very quiet group in class and that she was surprised we were so vocal in our blogs. I knew right away that I was one of those people. I find it much easier to articulate myself via written language when it comes to educational discussions because it gives me more time to construct what I’m going to say and to make sure everything makes sense before I say it. In day-to-day life I am extremely sociable as well as outgoing and express myself at ease even in crowds. However when it comes to in class discussions and presentations I find it more difficult to have the same confidence and this has been a great frustration of mine over the last few years.

This ties in closely to the issue of online identities. Some people feel freer to say anything they think and feel online when they are hidden behind the safety of a computer screen rather then when they are face to face with someone.
The Internet provides this degree of anonymity where people don’t necessarily know that its you who is posting something so you don’t feel self conscious about speaking your mind. I find it very interesting that sometimes people feel so much more at ease while talking to complete strangers on the Internet then we do with people we know and are close to. This could be because we don’t care about what the people who don’t know us think about us. By posting in an online community in which you don’t know anyone but just want to have your opinions heard and have a discussion you would feel comfortable stepping on toes and would be free of the fear of sounding ridiculous. On the other hand I do however think it’s strange that people feel completely comfortable with sharing their life stories online and their day-to-day happenings that sometimes people really close to them don’t even know abou on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook that are widely accessible. People will give out all sorts of information about themselves on the Internet that almost anyone has the capacity to see but when it comes to face-to-face communication and relationships I think sometimes we are less inclined to share.

So my question is are we hiding behind technology to help us say what we are to afraid to say in “real life?” and is it damaging to our interpersonal communication with one another?

Journalism VS Infotainment

I was inspired to write a blog after reading a blog of a fellow classmate. The blog and comments addressed how someone recently twittered about Musician Gordon Lightfoot passing away and a news station picked up on the post and the news went viral. Poor Gordon Lightfoot was on the way to a dentist appointment when he heard the news of his own passing. What this brings up is issues regarding journalism and the ethics/standards that they are supposed to uphold. Journalists and public news broadcasters are our main source of information and the place that most people go to look for the truth on public issues. Journalists have a certain code of ethics and are supposed to set themselves firmly apart from gossip magazines that will report on anything they hear as factual in order to have a good story. News stations and real journalists(no I do not think that writing about Paris Hiltons new boyfriend counts as real journalism) are known for having more integrity and for taking the time to research their stories more thoroughly to make sure that the information they are giving the public is real.

There is a tendency now for news stations to include a great deal of “infotainment” which is entertainment stories about Hollywood celebrities disguised as news and as noteworthy. There has been a decline in journalistic integrity due to extreme competition within news stations and journalists are definitely feeling the pressure. In order to maintain a democratic public sphere people need to be able to trust that the news they are receiving from credible news stations is accurate and well researched. As the Gordon Lightfoot incident illustrates journalism is suffering and journalists may be becoming careless and not checking their facts before running their stories as thoroughly as they had been in the past. Although the public is becoming more and more interested in entertainment news there’s no reason that real hard news and journalism should suffer because of it.
This is not to say by any means that journalists are all lazy and only want to report on celebrity gossip as I am an avid watcher of the news and a large majority of it is still real hard news stories. I am just concerned with the ever-growing percentage of the stories that are tacked on to the news and the increasing number of nightly entertainment shows focused on celebrity gossip only.

This incident also brings to light just how fast the spread of knowledge is the news started by word of mouth, then spread via email, to social networking sites and blogs and finally to a news station. There has never before been such technologically advanced tools at our fingertips that can so quickly spread information from one person and within hours to all of the world.

When Fan Culture Goes Too Far

Has escapism into fictional stories gone to far or is it good for participatory culture?

Fandom and fan fiction of TV shows and films is something that has exploded across the Internet over the last few years. People everywhere(myself included) are becoming more and more involved in the characters in books, movies and TV series and the characters being portrayed. There are two sides to this story that I have thought a lot about.

On one end of the spectrum I think that some super fans do get out of control and probably take it way to seriously getting extremely involved in the fictional world. There have been numerous public incidents of fans stalking celebrities or even attacking them trying to get as close as possible. A recent example of this is when a young female fan jumped on famous Twilight actor Robert Pattinson(see right for picture) while he was walking through a crowd. Obviously the girl wasn’t intending to hurt the actor but these sorts of actions can get out of control and become dangerous for everyone involved. There are tons of websites for fans to get up to date information on their favourite celebrities Perez HIlton is a common one as well as Gawker.com These sites although invasive into the lives of celebrities are relatively harmless.

The other side of TV fandom is that TV has been used as a escapist medium that allows us to get lost in a fictional world and step outside the stress and hardship of our daily lives. These fictional worlds often glamorize certain lifestyles or love stories that viewers can become really involved in but that they can still relate to on a social level. An example of a show glamorizing a certain lifestyle would be the popular CW show Gossip Girl that focus’s on the lives of a group of rich upper class people living in NYC. There are also popular movies again like Twilight or The Notebookk that have intense love stories that young girls fantasize about having themselves. There are various online communities that allow fans to talk to other fans about the shows and movies as well as create “fanfiction” and create there own storylines and attempt to predict what will happen in the future. This is where I make the distinction between going to far and fandom that can be good for participatory culture. When fans are joining online communities and bonding together over a love for a certain show it can be positive and a beneficial social event. It allows people to bond over common interests and come together to create their own culture and meaning from the TV shows and films. Its completely harmless for fans to create their own websites and post pictures and discuss the celebrities and plot lines on the shows in moves. Where this gets dangerous is when people are so wrapped up in a show that when it ends or when a beloved character dies for example they are devastated. There is a great article written called "When Fans Go To Far" by Steve Ryfle that discusses how fandom can be positive as long as its not taken to the extreme. He gives examples of people sending actors thousands of letters, spending hours of their day outside the celebrities houses waiting to catch a glimpse of them and people getting extensive plastic surgery to look almost exactly like their favorite actor or actress. This is seems absolutely insane and its scary to think the lengths that some fans will go and how far into these fictional worlds they have gone.

Facebook and Cell Phone Addictions: Do You Have One?

I’ve always known I was extremely attached to my cell phone as my main source of communication with my friends and family but I didn’t quite realize the extent of it until earlier this week. There was an incident involving my phone and a glass of water that no amount of leaving it in a bowl of rice hoping to suck out the moisture or praying for it to “come back to life” would save it. I’m one of many other University students and young people who our pretty much texting or on their phones for most of the day so I found it very difficult to be without my cell phone even though its now been less then two days since I haven’t had it. I go on facebook at some point every day but now that I don’t have my phone I find myself repeatedly checking it as I have to use it as my main source of communication with everyone and it’s kind of scary to realize how much I actually depend on my cell phone for social contact.

You always hear people say young people these days are addicted to their cell phones and that cell phones and facebook are a huge part of our identities and now I completely agree. We have these devices now and easy to use technologies that make instant communication possible; people become so encompassed in them and they become such a huge part of our daily lives and interaction with one another that it is hard to go from having them at the means of our disposal to not having them at all. It’s not necessarily a total loss of identity, I still feel like me without my cell phone and I wouldn’t say I feel like a part of me is missing I just feel…disconnected and out of the loop. You get used to being able to text your friends to make plans or if you just feel like talking to someone that without it or a home phone it becomes much harder to keep in touch with people day to day. I think it’s also worth mentioning that some people are so addicted to their cell phones that they forget proper etiquette in social situations. I was in the grocery store the other day talking to someone on the phone while in line and once I got to the front of the line I told the person I had to get off the phone as it was rude to talk on the phone while at a cash desk. The cashier thanked me and said its very rare for that to happen and that now a days most people just continue their conversations and ignore the person in front of them which is very rude. It seems as though we don’t think about the way our face-to-face communication suffers due to our obsessions with our cell phones and that maybe we all need a crash course in proper cell phone etiquette and when its appropriate to use them and when it’s not.

I think facebook is also something that people are “addicted” to. Many people find themselves needing or wanting to check facebook multiple times a day. There is again this feeling of being disconnected or out of the loop. People are extremely interested in finding out more intimate details of each other’s lives through pictures, wall posts etc. Facebook is a good tool for reconnecting with people you may have lost contact with and for keeping up to date with what your friends are doing. But I think this has gone too far and sometimes people are abusing it as a tool to snoop further into the lives of others and sometimes people they don’t even really know. Do you think you’re addicted to facebook and cell phones?

Is Racism Old News?

I think that there is a tendency for people in North America(and Canada more predominantly) to think that race is an issue of the past. Slavery was a long time ago right? Well although that’s true and we are past more overt and outright racism like slavery and things like extremely segregated schools racism is not as obsolete as one might think. There have been many public issues of racism in the mainstream media like when actor Michael Richards famous for playing Kramer on the 90’s show Seinfeld in a comedy routine made an extremely offensive and racist remark and no one can forget Kanye West’s outburst that “George Bush doesn't care about black people”. Stand up comedy is a genre of TV programming that often touches on issues of racism or use race as the “butt of their jokes” so to speak. Both Russell Peters and Dave Chapelle come to mind as they attempt to use racist humor in their routines to both educate and poke fun at how ridiculous some stereotypes of certain races are.

Recently I came across an episode of the TV show Kenny VS Spenny that pins two friends against each other in outrageous competitions. One episode was entitled “Who Do Black People Like Better” in which the two men got to spend a day with three black men and at the end of the two days the men got to vote about who they liked better: Kenny or Spenny. Kenny and Spenny go two very different routes throughout the competition and the episode touches on some really important issues of racism. Kenny takes the men to a comedy club and lets them all perform stand up comedy routines where they make racist jokes about African American’s. The three men go along with it and at the end Kenny goes on stage and spends a good ten minutes spewing out joke after joke about African Americans. Spenny on the other hand takes the men on an anti racism retreat where they can bond and talk about issues of race to set the record straight. However even though Spenny’s approach seems like it would be a good way to shed some light on the issue of racism he ends of dressing up as a white supremacist as a joke.

I was really shocked that the men didn’t seem bothered by it at all. Some of the jokes were in extremely bad taste and the fact that People still commit hates crimes and people still discriminate so why is it funny or acceptable for people to be depicted in the mass media as overtly being racist and have it be a joke? Racism will always be an issue and I feel like this issue is undermined when comedians continue to make a joke out of it. Yes it may be a less prevalent issue but glorifying racism and making it seem like something funny and acceptable is a horrible message to send to people. I was curious to see what other people’s thoughts were on racist comedians and Google searched it. I found mixed reviews on the subject. A lot of people raised some interesting points that the comedians are just trying to poke fun of the stereotypes in an effort to help people realize just how ridiculous they really are which is a valid point. However there were a lot of people that shared my view that racism is never funny or acceptable. Racism is a touchy subject that I think people avoid at all costs but my question still stands, are comedians who make stereotypical jokes about all races the focus of their comedy routines doing more harm then good? or are they meeting their goals of showing just how stupid and ridiculous the stereotypes really are?

The Other Side of Trolling

After just learning about the internet term trolling and all the negative connotations surrounding it it occurred to me that maybe certain kinds of trolling are not as bad as they are made out to be in the world wide web.

Trolling is a term taken from fishing lingo and means to bait your line and let it sit in the water until someone bites. In regards to internet communities it is used in a similar way and is defined as someone who baits a web community or discussion board by posting something inflammatory. The goal of this behavior is to get a rise out of people and cause an argument over the material leading to an emotional response and to disrupt the normal discussion of the community.

Trolling is usually seen as a negative thing because it becomes difficult for community members to decipher what material is true and what is false and made up by the “trolls”. Trolling can create a negative environment for members of an otherwise peaceful community. Also Trolls can try to somewhat infiltrate a newsgroup or site with their own opinions, beliefs and ideas but can this be seen as something positive for us to have a participatory culture and democracy?

There is a saying in the internet world “DNFTT” – meaning Do Not Feed The Trolls, but should we?
I think that trolling can be seen in two different lights. If someone is trolling and spewing useless information on the internet then it can divide a group and just make people angry and frustrated and more likely to completely ignore the information all together once it has been realized that the person is a troll. However I think people going into online communities, blogs and chat rooms and stirring things up can also be beneficial. I know this might sound a little ridiculous but think about it; these chat rooms and online communities are usually quite specific and more then likely all members share the same view that has bonded them together in the first place. By throwing someone in the mix whom has completely opposing views, as ludicrous as they might seem in some instances, forces people to think about things in a different light. This is very important to an active participatory culture and democratic public sphere. It causes arguments and forces people to step outside their comfort zone within the community and consider conflicting beliefs, which can be very beneficial to public debate and critical thinking. People have a tendency to seek out information online and in the media that reaffirms their previously existing beliefs and avoid information that might disrupt or disprove their current beliefs. However these trolls to a certain extent are creating a somewhat uncomfortable environment in which people are forced to consider other people’s opposing opinions and keeps them from being able to hide in the safe confines of their own group and shared beliefs. Furthermore it may also work to bring members of a community closer to one another by causing this small emotional stress and allowing them to bond together to defend their positions and beliefs against these non- believers and troublemakers.

So yes trolling can be something negative to online communities and make it difficult to decipher what’s real and what’s fake. But I think it can also be something positive if you look at it as a challenging of normal beliefs and as a tool for a critical self-analysis of your own beliefs in order to get people to “think outside the box”.

Unfair to the artists or greedy: would you stop downloading?

Intellectual Property rights is something that is becoming more of an issue everyday because of the internet and the wide range of information, songs, videos and images that are available to us as users. There have been many very public instances of copyright infringement in the media and the most obvious topic of discussion is the realm of P2P(Peer to Peer) file sharing. Thousands of songs, TV shows and movies are illegally downloaded everyday across the world without a second thought or any guilt from most downloader’s. I know personally that I never really think about the fact that what I’m doing is illegal and I think this is partially because it has become so common without punishment. It is as if there’s an unspoken law among the masses and consumers that we can download songs without paying for them and that we shouldn’t feel bad about it even though there are institutionalized laws saying that we shouldn’t.

There was an instance back in 2000 when downloading music first became popular where well known artists Metallica lashed out against Napster(the first big P2P downloading host) and sued them for illegally distributing their music. Below is a link to Metallica's attack against the downloading of their music. They took part in a skit that was directed at university students comparing students stealing their music to someone coming into the student’s room and stealing their stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miIIgxXiyU8

This was seen as a slap in the face to Metallica’s fans that are primarily young people and university students as the band alienated them in the media. If you think about how much money the band actually makes from each CD that is sold in retrospect it’s probably not that much for such a well-known and popular band as Metallica. It makes them appear money hungry and although it is somewhat understandable as their whole album was pre released for free on the internet, I think they went about it the wrong way by personally attacking students/ their fans on live television.

There are certain bands whose albums I always go into a store to buy because they are smaller, less well known bands and I think they need the money more then a big band like Metallica or Britney Spears who are already extremely wealthy and have a huge fan base while raking in millions of dollars from world wide tours every year. It’s important to keep in mind that auxiliary markets like concerts, branding and merchandise are the main sources of income for popular artists. Less well know bands need the exposure so they are very happy to post there music on their websites with samples and links to where people can purchase their songs if fans want to. The internet is a great tool for getting yourself heard and I think it was a poor decision on the part of Metallica to alienate their young fans. Metallica saw the error of their ways a few years later and embraced the internet as a tool that can create a larger fan base for them by posting a Metallica you tube channel for fans to post covers of them singing Metallica songs. Even this band that was initially so against the downloading of music is coming to terms with the fact that it is here to stay and that the internet is a great way to interact with their fans. Here is the video from Lars front man of Metallica where he thanks fans for covering there music and making it there own: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWpPozcFSGc

The way I see it is P2P downloading is something that is pretty much unstoppable. There are an endless number of downloading sites and bit torrent sites that post and stream TV shows and movies hours after they are first aired and albums posted the day after they are released in store. There are so many accessible and easy to use technologies and software for people to use to put songs, images and materials that are not there’s and that they have no copyright ownership to be distributing it on the internet. It would be almost impossible to control all the content and distribution of materials without charging a large portion of North America with copyright infringement.

Would YOU stop downloading?