New technology communication final essay

How do social media change our understanding of individual identity, with regard to the kinds of people we have in our social networks?

In the present-day society, with the radical development of society and the progress of technology, online social network methods, such as Myspace, Cyworld, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, Bebo have fundamentally changed our daily life in many different ways (Howard 2008). Social network sites are most powerful socialized media impact different people in the world. It is obvious that tens of millions of people which are participating in these social work websites, sharing their information on line, creating new relationships and listing their online friends and so on (Brian Solis: Revealing the People Defining Social Networks 2009). The most convincing example is the usage numbers of Facebook. There are approximately 175 million people who log into Facebook everyday, which means 1 in 5 people on the Internet use Facebook in the world (Arrington 2010). The impact of this phenomenon on individuals has drawn widespread attention. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the definition of social network sites and the impact of these sites on individual social life, and also aims to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of online social networks.

The definition of social network sites

There are three definitions to illustrate social network sites (SNS). The first one is that individuals can establish a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system. The second one is that people are able to share the same connection from a list of other users. The last one is that it allows individuals to browse and transfer their connections’ list or those made by others in the same system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections could be different from site to site. While ‘social network site’ in a term is the name usually attributed to this phenomenon, another term ‘ social networking sites’ is also common in public discourse, and these two terms are normally interchangeable (Boyd, DM & Ellison, NB 2007).

Impact of social network sites on individual social life

In this day and age, social network sites have transformed our life style, which continues to increase pace by the minute. A multitude of sites on the world wide web provide networking on a social, and sometimes professional level has caused much debate about how and how much these kind of sites have changed our life. There is no doubt that social network sites have become an integral part of our daily routine (Impact of Social Networking Sites On Social Life2010). There are so many different network sites, which means they can influence people in distinct ways and in diverse areas. One illustration of this is that some people just use network sites to make new friends, or keep connected with old friends and family members. But other people have noticed that network sites are a good platform for business and marketing (Harper & Hall n.d).

The strengths of online social networks

It is a common belief that online social networks play an indispensable role in current society,and it is advancing at an astounding speed nowadays. Every coin has two sides. On one side, there are advantageous aspects: but on the other side, there are detrimental aspects. The first point with respect to this is that more and more businesses are implementing innovative social networking communities. Suppliers have matchless opportunities to find out what their customers want and to offer goods and services that make people’s work less time-consuming and more economical. However, this depends on individual needs (Grantham as cited in Romm-Livermore & Setzekorn, 2009, p. 61). Furthermore, Putnam (as cited in Phillipson, Allan & Morgan 2004, p. 14) states that ‘ social networks help you stay healthy’, which means people do have access to ‘ social capital’. More specifically, they can receive a variety of information, materials and some help from society, and at the same time, they can protect their private information from strangers as well. Last but not least, social networks could provide the chance to communicate with family members frequently, they can even join in friendship networks which can help them to build up an extended network and increase the potential for future employment opportunities (Phillipson, Allan & Morgan 2004).

The weakness of online social networks

However, in spite of these benefits of online social networks, the obvious negative impact of social network sites cannot be denied, there are still number of baneful influences (Phillipson, Allan & Morgan 2004). To begin with, it is manifest that people can easily lose their communication skills, because they spend too much time in front of computers. This means they use unemotional online conversation habits to communicate with each other. Then, many individuals are addicted to social networks. More specifically, for some people who require checking their personal pages everyday it becomes like a ritual, even an addiction. If they cannot check it, they feel deprived, that something is missing. More importantly, social networks could substitute for real communication; it is obvious that social networks can absorb a host of time from people’s lives, because people waste their free time online (Junior, DS n.d).

Conclusion

To sum up, this essay provides a definition of social network sites and discusses the impact of these on individual social life, and also examines the boons and banes of online social networks. On the basis of the above discussion, social networks are playing an indispensable role in humanity and are advancing at an accelerated speed in present-day society. In another words, many people living the modern world feel they cannot survive without social networks. Moreover, millions of people use social network sites to communicate with each other or to do their own business; such as e-mailing, posting advertisements and more. Nevertheless, people should carefully consider their use of particular social network platforms very felicitously.

References (Harvard):

Romm-Livermore, L & Setzekorn, K 2009, Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications, Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global), USA.

Brian Solis: Revealing the People Defining Social Networks 2009, viewed 15 October 2010, < http://www.briansolis.com/2009/10/revealing-the-people-defining-social-networks.htm >

Arrington, M 2010, Facebook COO: 175 Million People Log Into Facebook Every Day, viewed 15 October 2010, < http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/01/facebook-coo-sheryl-sandberg-world-economic-forum-davos >

Boyd, DM & Ellison, NB 2007, ‘Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 13, no. 1, article 11, viewed 15 October 2010, <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html>

Phillipson, C, Allan, G & Morgan, D 2004, Social networks and social exclusion: sociological and policy perspectives, Ashgate, England.

Junior, DS n.d., Advantages and Disadvantage of Social Networks, viewed 15 October 2010, < http://ezinearticles.com/?Advantages-and-Disadvantage-of-Social-Networks&id=4218076 >

Impact of Social Networking Sites On Social Life2010, viewed, viewed 15 October 2010, < http://www.islandcrisis.net/2010/09/social-networks-impact-life >

Harper, T & Hall, M n.d., The Impact of Social Networking Sites on People, viewed 15 October 2010, < http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Impact-of-Social-Networking-Sites-on-People&id=4711306 >

Howard, B 2008, ‘analyzing online social networks’, Communication of the acm, vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 14-16, viewed 15 October 2010, griffith library database.

A Final Entry on the Weblog that Evaluates the Course Overall

New communication technology is one of my favorite courses in this semester. It is very interesting, and it also very useful to my further course in Griffith University.

There are three aspects conclude in this course, the blog, the essay and the exam. It looks like normal course out line, but it has a lot of fun when I do the part of blog. I should write reflection of the lectures, tutorials every week or tutorial tasks sometimes.

During this process, I learned how to research information correctly and quickly. I also can put pictures and videos the blog. All the studies expanded my experience and vision.

The lecturer and tutor were really nice and friendly. Especially my tutor Lauren is very nice person, and she looks very young as well. At the first time when I see her, I think she is one of my classmate. She encouraged us to think independently and critically and to help us to learn information through understanding.

The teaching method is quite different from China. I prefer the method in Australia, because it is more flexible, and during the studying process students have some practices to enhance their understanding ability. Another thing that I want to mention is the team work. We had two tutetask videos that we need to work as a group. This is also my first time to cooperate with foreign students. We had very good time during the group work as well.

My culture jam project group members.

However, there is a final exam waiting for me. Actually I am little worry this exam, because I am not good at it,and I do not really like it.

To sum up, although the teaching method is different from China, I am trying to adapt the learning phenomenon, and I have confidence to do better in the future.

week 9 lecture

The week topic was about cyberpunk which related to our tutorial task on last week. Once again Daniel brought us some new information. Personally I like his accent, however, it was quite hard to catch the words sometime, because he speaks little bit fast. Anyway, this topic is very interested to me.

Firstly, he mentioned about the definition of cyberpunk is gritty aesthetic, high technology, questionable morality, hybrid genre. There are several points explain types of hybrid genre that I never heard before. Then, we looked at the people who wrote or writes cyberpunk, those names make me confused. But, william Gibson is very important people who influenced to cyberpunk very significantly.

William Gibson born in 17th of March 1948 in south Carolina, USA. He received a Bachelor of English from University of British Columbia in 1977. He has written many things, including several 'trilogies'.

Lastly, he discussed about burning chrome and the impact of cyberpunk. He pointed out that cyberpunk as s lingua france of digital culture has huge impact on imagining human-and-machine interconnections. Moreover, cyberpunk also has its own characteristic.

ELECTRONIC MINDS If you read a Cyberpunk manifesto, by Christian Kirtchev, you probably noticed the intro and outro addressing a group, called "Electronid Minds". The intention was to bring forward a group by presenting its manifesto. By the time manifesto was published (1997) digital underground groups were ruling the Bulletin Board System (BBS) domains of data and information exchange. Electronic Minds however was never announced elsewhere as a group in digital underground quality or otherwise. Instead Electronic Minds was a borader concept, designed to stretch beyond social bonds of interaction. For that essential detail of the cyberpunk manifesto and its meaning, Kristiyan Kirchev has dedicated a small paperback book available online under the name, "Electronic Minds: Hypothesis, Observations and Theory on Preprogrammed Digital Sequences in Natural Evolution to Cyberspace". Chemical Illusions New book on cyberpunk from post-communistic digital and street realities is the anthology of 13 post-cyberpunk stories and tales from Eastern Europe, by Christian As. Kirtchev. CYBERPUNKS: REBOOT YOUR BRAIN With a Cyberpunk Manifesto from Christian Kirtchev, Timothy Leary's revision developes the notion that ourbrains are only in operation when they are slamming bytes and bits of information back and forth—multimedia communication. They want to hook up with other brains. In his semi-anarchic philosophy, Tim Leary's editor describes a future where we don't do cyberwear to pilot the electronic fields. Work and creating will take place in `Screenland' - another word for Cyberia, cyberspace. Taking off our cyberwear to confront another human brain with naked eyeballs will be a precious personal appearance. Book: Spook Country by William Gibson The latest book by William Gibson is a follow-up to Pattern Recognition: a modern view over the cyberpunk subject in today's day. Interview with the author about his new book. Postmodern Motifs and Ambience in Cyberpunk Films ...on the Example of the Wachowski Brothers' The Matrix. An essay by Paul "nEo" Martin. Dec 15, 2000 The Singularity of AI in the Eyes of a Jester A Comparative Analysis of the Inevitable Dawn of Artificial Intelligence as Presented in William Gibson's Idoru and Masamune Shirow's/Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell. An essay by Paul "nEo" Martin. May 11, 2000 The Mutated Child of Punk Analyzing industrial (or cyberpunk) subculture as an extension of the punk movement. Examines cultural aspects, fashion, music, etc. By Jason Lawrence Fulghum. January 26, 2000

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�	Latest Changes and Additions	�
�	Chemical Illusions: Anthology of Cyberpunk Tales from Eastern Europe Added new book to the books list, by Christian As. Kirtchev. December 2009 Get-it! (a bookstore) As the list of avaliable sources of information on Cyberpunk, grew -it became impossible to keep track of it all within the framework of the project. This intelligent book-store is always updated with the latest titles in video and text. Acid Human Project New book aded to the books list, By Kenji Siratori. April-May 2006 a Book: Phineas Poe Woke up with your kidney replaced by a bag of heroin just to meet some Psychotic Women, Urban games, Goth punks? Kill me Judas! April 13, 2006 Michal Marshall Smith Added author in the books list. October 8, 2002 Time Has Come Today An article of definition, by Sourcerer. September 30, 2002	�

http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/

week 9 tutorial task & tutespark

I cannot believe we've already passed half semester. After ruminating over the list of topics we need to pick one for our next step task--essay, and I have decided to choose the topic number 5-

How do social media change our understanding of individual identity, with regard to the kinds of people we have on our social networks?

Here are several reasons that why I choose this topic. The first one is I think this topic is very close to our current life situation. It is very obviously that social media is playing an important role in people's life.

The second point is I can understand this topic easily. Because this is my first essay in this semester, I prefer to do easy one, and analysis it deeply. I really hope that I can have a good start. After reading the list of topic, I think this one is easier than other topics and quite interesting.

Last but not least, I have researched this kind of topic on line and library, and there is such a lot of information about this topic area. So I think those materials will provide to me more references in my essay, and help me to figure out what I need to know and write in the essay.

The plan of this essay will be to research some examples to prove social media change our understandings of individual identify. Furthermore, I will explain why social media change our individual identify understanding. In addition, I’ll claim what kind of people we have on our social networks, and how social networks affect them.

Overall, the most significant thing for this essay is more research to tell readers. All the research materials can make this essay more persuasive. I will do my best to finish he last post for this blog.

week 8 tutespark/tutetask

This week tutorial task we were need to research a theme cyberpunk , find current news which link the topic that I chose, then reflect them use own language. I choice the theme of ' negative impact of technology on humanity, which usually happen in current society around world. With the development of technology, more and more new technology productions are invented by human. Some of them can be reasonable to use, but the others may bring serious influence to society. I found a electronic book on line called ' Visions of the Human in Science Fiction and Cyberpunk', the author claim significantly about this topic and the other information about cyberpunk which can help me to understand this topic easily.

Negative Impact of technology on humanity: In a cyberpunked near-future, technology runs rampant, and usually manipulates most societal interactions. Dystopian near futures are very common, but so are futures where the impacts of specific technologies are played out in a world only slightly different from the present. Sacred societal boundaries are often crossed with regularity. Often the earth is severely damaged. Crime and drug use are often key supporting themes.

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/visions1ever1a4040810.pdf

Visions of the Human in Science Fiction and Cyberpunk

From DNA to TCP: Humanity and Evolution in Cyberspace

Robin L. Zebrowski

Imagine, for a moment, that your body is simply an illusion. You believe you are reading this page with your eyes, and holding a book with your hands, but in fact you have never even possessed eyes or hands. You are nothing but a brain, suspended in a vat of gelatinous goo, and a scientist pokes and prods your neurons expertly to simulate the activities of a body that you do not have. More extreme than the Matrix, in which people have bodies but never fully use them, in this scenario your mind is much more like a computer, only able to obtain the information given to it by those who control it.

The true is that our brain like big machine system. It can controls our every part of body, let us conceive of it at moment. If people only have brain, which means people's body without hands, eyes, legs and so on. Scientist make our an absolutely fresh body through to stimulate the activities of our body. Unlike people use brain very regularly, people can not use their body very enough. It really easy to find out that our mind very similar to a computer.

Heritability simply means that offspring must resemble the parents in some way. In the case of humans, this happens through genetic combination. Mutation is the notion that there is some change between parent and offspring, and in the case of humans it often occurs by accident. Lastly, competition for resources is necessary for evolution to occur. There must be more offspring than can possibly survive, which drives Darwin’s notion of natural selection – the idea that only those organisms best adapted to their environments will survive to pass their own genes on to the next generation.

The topic of genetic appear in the cyberpunk frequently, heritability as a new concept is discussed by people. It does not mean the offspring of parents must similar with each other. The situation of genovariation often arise the development of human society. Offspring have to competitive with each other, only winner can survive in the competition. ' the idea that only those organisms best adapted to their environments will survive to pass their own genes on to the next generation by Darwin's notional of natural selection.

What this leaves us with is that there is exactly no way to know what it means to be human in cyberspace, since our humanity is intricately connected to our bodies, and they are by definition forbidden to ever enter the space itself. We can discuss those parts of our humanity that are relinquished when we enter cyberspace (in many cases this includes inhibitions, morals, and accountability) or we can discuss those parts of our humanity that are squeezed between the cracks into our text and then actually make the journey to be cast off into cyberspace. These are both important discussions (although space limits them here). Yet it will always return to the fact that our bodies define us, and without them, we are less than human.

People still need to figure out the meaning of cyberspace, because we do not know it very much. Our bodies have relation between humanity, moreover, the definition of them can not enjoin to the space itself. Which means when people surfer on line and join the cyberspace, it involves inhibitions, morals, and accountabilities and so on. In addition, people can talk about those aspects, get in to cyberspace. The most important thing is that our bodies give our definitions, if we have not them, we are less than human.

The fossil extremely record shows very clearly that there is no central line leading steadily, in a goal-directed way, from a protozoan to man. Instead there has been continual and intricate branching, and whatever course we follow through the branches there are repeated changes both in the rate and in the direction of evolution. Man is the end of one ultimate twig. The housefly, the dog flea, the apple tree, and millions of other kinds of organisms are similarly the ends of others.

According to the fossil record, actually central line leading is non existent.The end of the ultimate twig is man, even the branches which changes again and again, both them in the rate and in the direction of evolution regularly. The other kinds of organisms have similar ends, such as the dog flea, the apple tree...

Hacker penetrates T-Mobile systems

A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor U.S. Secret Service e-mail, obtain customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, SecurityFocus has learned.

Twenty-one year-old Nicolas Jacobsen was quietly charged with the intrusions last October, after a Secret Service informant helped investigators link him to sensitive agency documents that were circulating in underground IRC chat rooms. The informant also produced evidence that Jacobsen was behind an offer to provide T-Mobile customers' personal information to identity thieves through an Internet bulletin board, according to court records.

Jacobsen could access information on any of the Bellevue, Washington-based company's 16.3 million customers, including many customers' Social Security numbers and dates of birth, according to government filings in the case. He could also obtain voicemail PINs, and the passwords providing customers with Web access to their T-Mobile e-mail accounts. He did not have access to credit card numbers.

The case arose as part of the Secret Service's "Operation Firewall" crackdown on Internet fraud rings last October, in which 19 men were indicted for trafficking in stolen identity information and documents, and stolen credit and debit card numbers. But Jacobsen was not charged with the others. Instead he faces two felony counts of computer intrusion and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer in a separate, unheralded federal case in Los Angeles, currently set for a February 14th status conference.

The government is handling the case well away from the spotlight. The U.S. Secret Service, which played the dual role of investigator and victim in the drama, said Tuesday it couldn't comment on Jacobsen because the agency doesn't discuss ongoing cases-- a claim that's perhaps undermined by the 19 other Operation Firewall defendants discussed in a Secret Service press release last fall. Jacobsen's prosecutor, assistant U.S. attorney Wesley Hsu, also declined to comment. "I can't talk about it," Hsu said simply. Jacobsen's lawyer didn't return a phone call.

T-Mobile, which apparently knew of the intrusions by July of last year, has not issued any public warning. Under California's anti-identity theft law "SB1386," the company is obliged to notify any California customers of a security breach in which their personally identifiable information is "reasonably believed to have been" compromised. That notification must be made in "the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay," but may be postponed if a law enforcement agency determines that the disclosure would compromise an investigation.

Company spokesman Peter Dobrow said Tuesday that nobody at T-Mobile was available to comment on the matter.

http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/analysis_of_cyberpunk_subculture.html

Week 8 lecture

The lecture in this week talked about virtual philosophy which made me a little misunderstanding, once again Daniel brought this fresh topic to us . We started from talking about Plato, and those people who live in the caves. According to the lecture notes, I realised that the people in the caves were seeing real objects, and they were just seeing the objects's shadows. Through this phenomenon, we can see virtual philosophy has similar concept with it, it, sometimes people think their idea is real, however, actually it is not real.

Descartes and Cartesian Dualism were discussed by us in next part. Actually I do not know about psychology at all. But I did some research in this part on line that can make me to understand easily. With the materials claim that dualism is a set of views about relationship between mind and matter, which begins with the describe that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical.

Descartes' famous saying epitomises the dualism concept. He said, 'cogito ergo sum,' 'I reflect therefore I am.' Descartes held that the immaterial mind and the material body are two completely different types of substances and that they interact with each other. He reasoned that the body could be divided up by removing a leg or arm, but the mind or soul were individual.

http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/cartesian-dualism-faq.htm

Virtual Reality as a concept which has been connect human's bodies. Imagine that people just have brain, which our body without hands, eyes, legs. In that time, our brains are more like computer system. Our bodies's behaviours ordered by our brain, we can make something real or not real through our brain.

week 7 tutespark

This week tutespark is write down the reflection of using free software, and claim our opinion about the free software.

Personally, I've using free software since when I buy the first computer. I use this software named 360 antivirus software. It is quite popular free software in China, and the feedback of this antivirus software is really good.

At the beginning, I do not trust it can works very well in my computer. I just try it, and if it does not good, I will change it to another one. Unexpectedly, 360 works very stable in my computer, and protect my computer very well.

However, sometimes the software makes my computer system is getting slow down sometimes, and it also cannot update very often. Overall, 360 antivirus software is a valuable software, and I have been use this software more than 5 years. As a free software, I think it is good one.

This