The darker side of Second Life

After discussing Second Life on Tuesday I wanted to take a deeper look into this alternate world. I found an article published in time about the problems that Second Life deals with. The list of problems that Second Life offers are more than we saw in the video during class. According to this article from Time, the FBI had to shut down the site for a bit due to their illegal gambling as well as issues with child pornography.
I find these issues more than appalling so I took a deeper look into the alternate sex life that Second Life offers to its users. I found this video on Youtube that the Early Show did about this interesting, to say the least, way that people have found to engage in questionable acts.
People use Second Life to engage in sexual behaviors and even purchase sex. Prostitution is very common in Second Life. A mom of two reveals that she is, for lack of a better work, a pimp on Second Life, and the most disturbing thing about this woman is that she is also on the PTA, and doesn't care enough that people could trace her back to her house, not even for the security of her own children.
Sex in Second Life is quite desirable. After reading this article and watching this video I thought about all of the scary issues that surround Second Life. Someone could potentially design their avatar to look younger than 18 for older, child rapists, to engage in sex with. I remember discussing digitally created child pornography in Media 321. A judge ruled that since digitally created children for child pornography did not have a victim, and also due to free speech and expression, and therefore could not be deemed child porn. To me it seems that courts are having difficulty keeping up with the internet and new technology. Second Life may be an outlet for rapists and sexual perverts to express themselves, all of this is just extremely frightening to me.

Group Formation

After class on Thursday I was thinking about all of the different groups that I have joined on facebook. I do not have a twitter or anything else so I took a closer look at the groups that I have joined over the past four years of my facebook user-ship. Honestly, I have no idea why I joined some, and the scary fact is that these people now have access to my page. I guess I was not as aware as I thought about joining groups on faceook.

When I googled, "how to make a facebook group" pages upon pages popped up instructing me, even video's on youtube came up visually showing me how to make such a group. Since it seems so easy to create groups on facebook I wondered what else was out there.

I found google groups and yahoo groups.



Anyone can join these groups. People with common interests can come together, whether it be scrap-booking or race car driving, there is a group for everyone out there. There are both positives and negatives that are associated with online groups. Networking is more than a positive, but the major negative is the lack of privacy and know-how of who can get your information. Next time I accept a facebook group invitation, I will think hard about whether or not to accept it.

Laptops in the Classroom: Good or Bad

After watching the section on the documentary in class about the school in New York that assigns a laptop to each kid for their own personal use, made me think about the necessity of laptops in the classroom. They have claimed that since the children have had personal access to their own computer their grades have been better and daily school attendance has also increased. Ever since I saw how the students were using the computers when they were supposed to be doing school work I thought it would be interesting to look around at other students in my classes, not in a creepy way, to see what they were really doing during their class time. I noticed that for the most part people were using them to take notes but I also noticed that kids were checking email and other sites. In my own opinion I think that it is the students responsibility to pay attention in class and if they need laptops to take notes, then so be it, and web surfing and email checking is going to happen, as long as students do not abuse this right, I think that laptops in class are a great idea.

I wanted to see what other people were saying about this laptop debacle and I found a blog from "The Wall Street Journal: Law Blog" that has also taken an interest in this growing debate.

Thehttp://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/06/14/laptops-in-the-classroom-debate-rages-on/tab/article/

The blog states states that another newspaper has reported that Harvard Law School is debating whether or not to keep laptops in their classroom for the temptations to steer from note taking and class participation. Even though the university has not officially banned laptops from class some professors have already jumped on the band wagon and forbid their students from using laptops. There is also a third point they make, that students have laptop accessibility but there Internet be cut out. It kind of feels that even though these students are adults they are treating them like children.

People have also commented on the article, and for the most part people agree that laptops in class are a good idea, some do agree that the Internet should be cut off to prevent temptation but others like the Internet because they can look up articles and readings during class that can further their ability to comprehend what they are learning. Either way you put it some people are going to like laptops in class and some people aren't. Technology really isn't going anywhere but it is interesting to see how people would react if laptops were banned from classrooms.

Digital Addiction

After watching the PBS Dateline documentary, “Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier,” and witnessing the growing issue of Internet addiction in China, I thought it would be interesting to see what programs and information were available for this addiction in America. Before this documentary I never really considered Internet addiction a serious problem, but after observing the amount of time my friends and I spend on the Internet, it does consume a large amount of time.

I found an article on “Psychology Today” titled “Do you have a digital addiction?” which addresses the issues of digital addiction first acknowledging the problem facing China and now considering the problem Americans share with them. This article is short and addresses the fact that before digital technology people would have to manually compose things such as letters when today in a matter of minutes, we can email anyone, with the same amount of satisfaction that we would receive from the old school version.

There is a link to another site, “Restart: Internet Addiction Recovery Program,” where anyone can participate in a survey to figure out whether or not they are addicted to the digital technology. After completing the survey, I am happy to find out that I am not addicted to digital devices but I also do not think that I could necessarily live without, quit cold turkey. “Restart” is also a site for information and help for those struggling with the addiction.

Even though having an addiction is hard to admit to, it is interesting to take a step back and really look at our lives without technology. Could we just take an afternoon off without checking our smart phones, emails, and laptops? It isn’t a bad idea to leave the phones and laptops at home and take an afternoon to absorb life without digital technology.

Links to both of these websites are available below.

Apple's Newest/Ultimate Tool- The iPad

In the most recent of years, Apple has created some of the most technologically advanced tools including itunes, the ipod, the iphone and its newest, the ipad. Resembling the popular Amazon Kindle, the ipad is basically a mini computer, but has all the same functions that the iphone has to offer.



I was curious to see what the critics thought about Apple's latest development. Surprisingly, I found that many were not too thrilled about the ipad. Many critics talked about the shortcomings that the ipad offers.



This review may not be partial, since it comes from PC World they may not be in favor of Apple products.

It got me thinking though, Apple has produced some of the most marketable media products in the past, like the ipod which is a necessity for most as well as the iphone which I believe is the best selling smart phone out there. Has Apple reached it's peak? Is the ipad just another version of the iphone, that has many shortcomings and for the price is not worth the hassle?

Apples latest invention does not seem to live up to the expectations that many had.

Will there come a time when the newest inventions don't surpass the old ones?

Bridging the Digital Divide in America

After presenting in class the other day I got to thinking about how we take the Internet for granted. Attending Catholic University and being in DC is definitely a privilege. If we have an assignment due, there isn't a problem for students at our university in terms of Internet availability. I can't even think of anyone without their own personal laptop.

Internetforeveryone.org really opened my eyes to the amount of Americans that are without personal Internet access. I was more aware that there were more people outside of the US that were without Internet but I wasn't aware of the amount of people within our own country that lived without it.

For such a big issue I felt that there was not as much out there being done to help those without Internet capabilities. Websites such as Internetforeveryone.org and Broadbandforamerica.com give people the information they may need to be fully educated about the lack of Internet for Americans.

Youtube.com has provided videos from other sites like Internetforeveryone.org to help inform people about the issue of the Digital Divide.

"After thinking about all of the different ways we experience personalization within the internet I remembered all of the advertisements that I see on my Facebook. The advertisements that I commonly see are those for college loans, clothes, shoes accessories, etc. These advertisements are directed towards me and what I enjoy so I wanted to know what other people encountered when they logged onto their Facebook page.
I explored my husband, Nick’s Facebook to see what advertisements he received. Similar to me he received advertisements for college loans but specifically directed toward military men, which makes sense since he serves in the Marines. I also found it interesting that there was an advertisement for motorcycle equipment, which almost scared me because he is also involved with bikes as a hobby.
It almost seems scary to me how well my Facebook knows me and my loved ones. Luring me in with shoes and purses as well as motorcycle gear for Nick seems is more specific than the general advertisements for new restaurants… Just something interesting to think about."