Where to now?

I apologise in advance if this blog post becomes long-winded and rambling.  I have learned so much over the past 12 weeks, so many thoughts swirling around in my mind, so many unanswered questions.

Each topic that we have covered has inevitably brought me back to the theorists we covered in the first couple of weeks.  Sherry Turkle's concerns about our 'connected' lives resulting in us becoming disconnected from people in our physical lives.  Is this the reality that we have to look forward to?  As we become more and more reliant on our digital devices are we becoming less able to interact with people on a face to face basis?  Are we heading towards the kind of world envisaged by Baudrillard, where our online lives become better than our real ones? 



The Daily Galaxy

We use online games like Second Life and World of Warcraft to create more interesting versions of ourselves, our avatars representing the person we would like to be.  In such worlds we can fly, teleport, become heroes, fight great battles, form relationships with other avatars, but at what cost?  Our online lives are becoming ever more real to us, and our real lives becoming like a pale, washed out reflection. 

Social media has allowed us to connect with people on a wider scale than would likely be possible in reality.  For myself, there's no way I could keep up with 200 odd people and maintain that many friendships.  I'd never get anything done!  We post tid bits on our news feeds, insights into our daily lives, and yet we are selective about what we post.  Eager to show the best side of ourselves, how many of us leave out the mundane reality that probably makes up the majority of our lives?  The cleaning, the vaccuming, fighting with the kids to get ready in the mornings, or put them to bed at nights.  Paying bills, working 9-5, none of this is interesting to anyone else?  Yet it is reality.  Are we becoming dissatisfied with our lives because we see everyone elses seemingly 'perfect' lives with their perfect homes, perfect children, perfect family holidays?

Living YOUR perfect life

We are so reliant on being connected that it can be devastating when we are not.  A couple of weeks ago, the server went down where I work.  I spent almost an entire day, sitting at my desk, completely and utterly disabled.  I couldn't check my emails, couldn't access the internet, couldn't access any of the documents I'd been working on.  My world literally fell apart.  Cyberterrorism is an ever present threat, hackers working to penetrate the servers of governments and military.  What happens when they succeed?  Where are we if they manage to infiltrate our banking systems, our tax file records, our confidential information? 

Don't get me wrong - I see a great deal of good in the technology we use today.  It's so easy now to Google an answer to a question, to find pretty much anything we want.  We can shop online, bank online, book holidays online.  Our lives are no longer lived 9-5, and we need to be able to do all these things outside of usual business hours.  In my busy life - working, studying, raising two children, there is simply never enough hours in the day to do everything.  I rely on my access to technology in order to keep my life running smoothly, well I at least try to have my life run smoothly!

So many questions, so many unknowns.  Who knows where we will be in another 10 years?  Even another 5!  Look at how popular android devices and iPhones have become.  Five years ago they didn't even exist, and now every second person seems to have one.  I don't have a crystal ball, I can't predict what the future holds.  I can only hope that our deep internal need to be connected to other people keeps us away from the dystopic world of Baudrillard, that we continue to have interactions and relationships as we have always done - in the physical world.  Because no matter how advanced our technology, no matter how 'perfect' our online lives, there will never be a substitute for the sheer and utter beauty of our unpredictable, completely flawed physical world.  The uncertainty and unpredictability of it all is what makes life exciting, it's what teaches us about who we are as people, and what I will always cherish and enjoy. 

So it's goodnight and good luck!  See you around.

Adios Amigos!

Leave me alone!

Say No To Cyber Bullying!

Katie sits down at her desk and opens her laptop. She's in the last term of Yr.12 and has a ton of assessments on the go. There's a busy evening of studying ahead of her, but she opens her Facebook profile to check out how her friends are going, thinking perhaps she can get some help if she gets stuck on that algebra problem. As her news feed loads, she gasps. The sight on her laptop screen is too awful, too horrifying for her to take in all at once.
'You slut, I wish I'd never met you'
'Who do you think you are?'
'watch your back, we're comin for ya'
'wouldn't be at school tomoz if I waz u'
'do us a favor & go jump off a cliff!'

Tears stream down Katie's face. What had she done to deserve this? These girls were supposed to be her friends. Why were they being so horrible to her? She slams her laptop shut, and curls up in a ball on her bed, shaking with sobs.

News.com.au

Whilst the story above is fictitious, this is not a fictional situation. Bullying has moved from the school playground into the homes and bedrooms of children all over the world. Email, text messaging, social media and instant messaging services are the new forum for bullies. It means that for those experiencing cyber bullying, there is no escape. Not even home is a safe haven for them. It's no wonder then that the fallout from such experiences can include depression, anxiety, poor academic performance, school drop outs and in some extreme circumstances, has even led to suicide (Teach Today, 2008). This is a problem which will not be easy to address, and which requires a broad approach by many parties. Schools need to develop policies for dealing with bullying, a difficult task given that much of cyber bullying takes place outside of school grounds and school hours. It is imperative that a culture change take place, that we, as a society, stop regarding bullying as a normal part of childhood that must be lived through and endured (Campbell, 2005), and recognize the devastating impact it has on the victim, their friends, and their families.
Parents need to be more aware of what their children are doing online, and encourage open and honest communication, so that they are quickly apprised of any problems their child/ren might be experiencing. Simply taking away their access to technology is not a helpful solution. Young people are digital natives, raised on phones, internet and computer games. Taking away their technology is like cutting off a limb. Victims themselves need to find the strength within to tell somebody. As the saying goes, 'a problem shared is a problem halved'; once the victim shares their problem they are no longer alone and isolated.  Many ISP's and even Facebook and MySpace now have anti-bullying policies in place which mean that bullies can be tracked through their online presence and held accountable for their actions (Youth BeyondBlue).  This is a problem that will not easily be solved, but if all stakeholders come together with a common goal, some inroads can be made to ensure that more lives aren't lost.

Epic Fail!

I can't help it - I love a good laugh at the expense of others!  As a kid I always laughed hysterically over Funniest Home Videos, while my Mum sat, fixing me with a look of disdain, wondering what on earth I thought was so funny.  But to this day, I find endless amusement in watching people do stupid things (or trying to do cool things and coming off looking stupid).  Thank God for YouTube, as now I can feed my appetite for people failing anytime I want to.

 

 

Sometimes it's the predictability, that sense of impending failure, that amuses me.  Why would they think that was going to work?  How could they not see what was going to happen?  Some of my favourites include a guy trying to 'bomb' into a frozen pool, and landing hard on the unbroken ice.  Ouch.  Skateboarders trying to do cool tricks to impress their friends is always good too, as are the plethora of videos of people jumping off roofs into a pool (that never works either)!

 

The many and varied 'fail' compilation videos to be found on the Net today are a prime example of what has been termed 'produsage'.  The term refers to a shift in the method of production from traditional producer-distributor-consumer to a process where the consumer and the producer are one and the same (Produsage: towards a broader framework for user-led content creation).  The produsers of these compilation videos are exactly that - they've found short clips of people doing stupid things, and from that, edited them together into a new video; thereby turning them into producers.  Examples of produsage can be found in many other places - Wikipedia is another one of the most common forms, where various people compile entries on various topics, which are then edited and added to by others in a constantly evolving piece of work.  The process of produsage remains continually unfinished by necessity, and infinitely continuing (Produsage: key principles), so that new content is added all the time, and then picked up by someone else and used to create something else new. 

 

In the meantime, I'm off to laugh at some hapless individual falling off a swing, or a boat, or a bike, or face planting into their loungeroom floor after attempting a flip from standing, or smacking themselves in the face, or unintentionally knocking over or breaking something, or... well, you get the picture!