Final Organized Research Blog :Work In Progress (Not yet finished)

Research Question: Why is Cyber-bullying so popular amongst school children?

Homepage:
-Introduction: Cyberbullying is a serious issue that is effecting more and more school children each and every day. Some children live in fear of being cyber bullied by there classmates each time they log onto the internet. The purpose of my web essay is to get the word out about Cyber-bullying, because before I began researching this topic, I knew nothing about it, nevermind know how serious it was. In this essay I will explore what Cyber-bullying is and how it works. I will explore the reasons behind Cyber-bullying as well as the ways you can get involved to help prevent it.

Page 1- What is Cyber-Bullying?
-What is it?: Cyber-bullying occurs when a person (often a child, preteen, or teenager) is bullied, harassed, humiliated, threatened, embarassed, or targeted in some way by another person (often a child, preteen or teenager). Cyber-bullying is much like traditional playground bullying where there is name calling and someone is getting picked on, except cyber-bullying is done through the use of the internet, cell phones and other forms of digital technology. In order for it to be catagorized as cyber-bullying, the intent must be to cause emotional distress, and there much be no legitimate purpise to the communication. Cyber bullying can be something as simple as continuing to send an e-mail to someone who has said they want no furter contact witht he sender, but it could aslo include threats, sexual remarks and hate speech. Though the use of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in cyber-bullying, it is not the same as sexual harassment and does not involve sexual predators.
-Who it effects: Cyber-bullying normally effects any child, preteen or teenager who has access to the internet, email, text messages, etc... Again it is much like traditional playground bullying where fellow classmates, friends, and even enemies attack one another with harsh words and threats. Sometimes the threats are harmless and victim is able to brush it off of their shoulders, other times the threats and attacks are much more painful and can result in depression and sometimes even suicide.
-Who does the bullying: Normally done from one child, preteen or teenager to another. Cyber-bullying is also sometimes done as an adult posing as a child, preteen or teenager.
-Why?/Reasons for Cyberbullying: Cyber-bullying.org gives this explaination for why kids cyberbully:
Who knows why kids do anything? When it comes to cyberbullying, they are often motivated by anger, revenge or frustration. Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands and too many tech toys available to them. Many do it for laughs or to get a reaction. Some do it by accident, and either send a message to the wrong recipient or didn't think before they did something. The Power-hungry do it to torment others and for their ego. Revenge of the Nerd may start out defending themselves from traditional bullying only to find that they enjoy being the tough guy or gal. Mean girls do it to help bolster or remind people of their own social standing. And some think they are righting wrong and standing up for others.
Because their motives differ, the solutions and responses to each type of cyberbullying incident has to differ too. Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits all" when cyberbullying is concerned. Only two of the types of cyberbullies have something in common with the traditional schoolyard bully. Experts who understand schoolyard bullying often misunderstand cyberbullying, thinking it is just another method of bullying. But the motives and the nature of cybercommunications, as well as the demographic and profile of a cyberbully differ from their offline counterpart.

Page 2-Cause and Effects (May not add this part)
-Causes:
-Effects:

Page 3-Sociological Research on why Cyberbullying occurs
-Research:

Page 4- Prevention/How to get involved:
-What can you do?

Page 5-Research on Cyberbullying

Page 6-External Links

Blog 10 and 11: Research Project

Outline for Cyber-bullying research project

Research Question: TBA

 I. Introduction

a. What is the purpose for my research

II. What is Cyberbullying

a. What is it 

b. who it effects

c. who does the bullying 

d. reasons for cyberbullying 

III. Cause and effects of cyberbullying

a. causes

b.effects

IV. Sociological Research on cyberbullying

a.

V. Prevention/Get Involved

a. What can you do? 

VI. Research

VII. Links

Cyberbullying occurs when a person (often a child, preteen or teenager) is bullied, harassed, humiliated, threatened, embarrassed, or targeted in some way by another person (often child, preteen or teenager) through the use of internet, cell phones, and other forms of digital technology. In order for it to be cyber-bullying, the intent much be to cause emotional distress, and there must be no legitimate purpose to the communication. Cyberbullying can be as simple as continuing to send an e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender, but it could also include threats, sexual remarks and hate speech. Though the use of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in cyber-bullying it is not the same as sexual harassment and does not involve sexual predators. 

In September of 2006 abcnews produced a survey done by I-Safe.org. The data was based on a 2004 survey of 1500 students between grades 4-8. The results were as followed

-42 percent of kids have been bullied while online. One in four have had it happen more than once

-35 percent of kids have been threatened online. nearly one in five had had it happen more than once. 

-21 percent of kids have received mean or threatening emails or other messages

-58 percent of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. More than four out of ten say it has happened more than once

-58 percent have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online

BBC news produced an article in August of 2007 stating "Social networking websites are seen by some teachers as the latest weapon of the school bully-prompting unions to all for them to be banned" 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6924422.stmwithin the article there is a 

quote from a student named Nathan "When people are bullied they often don't feel confident about speaking to people face to face." 

-perhaps the reasoning for people cyber bullying is because they feel more confident on the internet so they can say what they would never say to someone in person. 

www.stopcyberbullying.org says:

Why do kids cyberbully each other?

Who knows why kids do anything? When it comes to cyberbullying, they are often motivated by anger, revenge or frustration. Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands and too many tech toys available to them. Many do it for laughs or to get a reaction. Some do it by accident, and either send a message to the wrong recipient or didn't think before they did something. The Power-hungry  do it to torment others and for their ego. Revenge of the Nerd may start out defending themselves from traditional bullying only to find that they enjoy being the tough guy or gal. Mean girls do it to help bolster or remind people of their own social standing. And some think they are righting wrong and standing up for others.

Because their motives differ, the solutions and responses to each type of cyberbullying incident has to differ too. Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits all" when cyberbullying is concerned. Only two of the types of cyberbullies have something in common with the traditional schoolyard bully. Experts who understand schoolyard bullying often misunderstand cyberbullying, thinking it is just another method of bullying. But the motives and the nature of cybercommunications, as well as the demographic and profile of a cyberbully differ from their offline counterpart.

may 2007: signs that a child may be a victim of cyberbullyinghttp://mblog.lib.umich.edu/cyberbulling/archives/2007/03/signs_that_a_ch.html

teenhealthandwellness.com is a website where teenagers can go to learn about problems going on around them including cyberbullying. they have to have a username and password to access the website but they can ask questions about their concerns, perhaps questions that they cant ask adults

I-safe.org is one of the most credible websites for cyberbullying information. New Jersey has a website just for prevention of cyberbullying www.njbullying.org/cyberbullying.htm on the NJ website they say that I-safe has been used by a number of NJ schools to make children aware of cyberbullying. 

I spoke with my boyfriend's cousins (ages 12 and 13, grades 7th and 8th) and some of their friends about cyberbullying. I spoke with 7 girls individually and each of them told me that they had experienced some type of cyberbullying at some point or another. A few of the girls took it to heart and were very hurt by what people had said to them. A few of the girls also told me that they had done some cyberbullying of their own that they weren't so proud of. The girls told me that a few times they had been cyberbullied they were able to brush it off without getting too worked up over it. "It is just typical teenagers trying to get at each others feelings" they told me. I asked the girls if they knew how dangerous cyberbullying can be, they all seemed to agree that it was, but you know how teenagers can be just yesing you to death until you shut up. The girls all go to school in Brick township, their school has taken time to provide assemblies for the students to make them aware of the dangers of cyberbullying. The school had informed them of the 2006 Megan Meiers incident as well as other cases of cyberbullying in our areas. The girls were aware of the website I-Safe.org as well, because the school had provided them with the website names. 

Analyzing My Patterns for Attention

1Q. List the kinds of media you use/read/engage with on a daily basis. Is your pattern for interacting with media the same or differnt than it was when you were 5?10?15? Give short descriptions to explain.
1A. I love to read, I always have a book with me and I read probably every day whenever I find a few spare minutes and also before I go to bed at night (it makes me more tired and I fall asleep easier). I go on the internet daily and I'm logged onto AIM 24/7 but I very rarely sit in front of the computer and chat with people for hours. I will normally log on to my e-mail accounts and facebook about two or three times a day, check it out for no longer than 10-20 minutes, then log off. The TV is always on in my room if I'm home but I'm very rarely watching it. I have satelite radio in my car which I'm constantly listening to when I'm driving but I'm normally listening to Howard Stern and talk shows rather than songs.
-When I was 5 years old all we really had was tv. I know I definitely didn't have a computer in my house just yet but I didn't have a tv in my room so my parents probably regulated how often I watched it.
-When I was 10 years old I had a tv in my room as well as a stereo system. I listened to music a lot and watched tv more than I did because it was in my room.
-When I was 15 years old I think I listened to the radio more than anything else, I've never been the biggest fan of television so I wasn't glued to it all the time. I had a computer in my room at this point and probably spent most of my time being a dumb teenager and gossiping with people online all day/night.

2Q.Rank the relative amount of time you presently spend with each medium-be as specific as you can.
2A. Reading-About 2 hours or more each day
Television- I probably only watch about 3 hours a day, maybe less
Radio-Depends how long I'm in the car for, probably 1-3 hours a day
Computer-1-2 hours a day

3Q.Describe any media associated with how you perform the following school related tasks:
3A.
Do math or other calculation-based homework-math is my worst subject, I don't take math, but if I did I'd probably concentrate more than have any media
Read assignments-the tv is on, but volume low
Write a paper-Tv is on to keep me awake, sometimes is a distraction
Study for an exam-tv is on, but volume low

4Q.Describe any media associated with how you do the following task:
4A.
Drive-radio has to be on, even if I don't like what I'm listening to, it must be on
Eat a meal by myself-TV or computer always on
Eat with my family-tv is usual on because my stepdad doesn't ever want to turn it off, eating with my friends we're ususal out and tv or other media is not on
Household chores-TV or music is usually always on

5Q.Describe what you do to relax or in your free time- and how you relax
5A. In my free time I usual read, again the tv is normally always on in my room for the background noise, even when I fall asleep to take a nap or to go to bed the tv has to be on, but I'm usually not watching it. When I have free time I like to get out of the house and do stuff like go for walks, which I always bring my ipod, or go to the gym-bring my ipod there too or I watch TV at the gym. It depends, if I'm reading a really great book all of my free time is devoted to that, otherwise I spread my free time around and do things that probably always involve some sort of media.

My ratings are as followed:
math=1
reading=2
writing a paper=4
studying=2
thats 9, divided by 4=2.25

drive=5
eat meal alone=5
eat meal with friends/family=3
chores=5
thats 18, divided by 4=4.5

relaxing I gave myself a 3

Reflection on Megan Meiers Case

Fake myspace account-is it legal? Should it be legal?
Contacted (13 year old) -underage--> should there be ratings on websites, penalties or should some government issued id be needed to access these websites

Posters pretended to be Josh Evans-Mrs. Drew, her 18 year old employee and 13 year old daughter. peer to peer-different standards for adults and children?

Establish relationships under false identity- friendly for months (Josh and Megan)-Are friendly relationships legal (obviously if Josh had never said anything mean to Megan she never would have committed suiced and we wouldnt even be having this conversation.)

"Josh" turned on Megan [happened within 24 hour period]--->Megan commites suicide

Who should be responsible for underage kids having access to myspace?
Myspace
Parents
ISP
Advertisers

Features of Internet
-Anonimity
-Information intensity
Interactivity Immediacy
Flash Mob reactions


What needs to be done about this?
-Do parents need to better educate their children about what and who is on the internet?
-Do we need to inforce laws to prevent children who are under the age of 18 from accessing Myspace and similar sites?
-Should the sites that allow these kids on them without monitoring what they're doing or without really checking their ages, should they be penalized in the same way that cigarette and alcohol providers are when they serve underage children?
-If we can't say what we want to on the interent it is violating our right to freedom of speech so how can we hold it against these kids for saying mean things over the internet?

Blog 9: Cyberbullying Research

After doing our Wikipedia projects I realized that I had a much greater interest in the subject of Cyber-Bullying than I did in the whole Multiple Personalities on the internet. I felt that I was only choosing the topic because I had nothing else to pick. I did my Wiki on Cyber-Bullying and I felt that I found much more information on this topic than I did on anything else, so I'm sticking to it because a lot of people seem to be unaware of the dangers of cyber-bullying. I know I was unaware that the problem even existed until Dr. Chandler brought a certain subject matter to my attention which I will be using as part of my research. 

Because I have not yet presented my Web Page layout, I am going to set this entry up in a way that is similar to my web layout and also in a way that will help me begin to organize my information in order so that I can refer back to this entry and use it as my beginning guidelines for this project. 

On my home page of my webpage I will give an introduction to my Cyber-bullying project and I will give a small background about why I chose this topic and what I hope to achieve by introducing it to my classmates and other people. 

Pg 1: What is Cyber-Bullying

On this page I will give an indepth definition and description of what Cyber-Bullying actually is. Cyber-Bullying is much like traditional bullying in the school yard, only it takes place online. On this page I will cover the main bullet points that are followed:

-What is Cyber-Bullying

-Who it effects

-Who does the bullying?

-Reasons for Cyberbullying

 

Pg2- Cause and Effects of Cyber-Bullying

On this page of my website I will be exploring the cause and effects of Cyber-bullying. I will be providing some factual stories for example the Megan Meiers tragedy of 2006. Where a 16 year old girl committed suicide because her friends mother made up a fake profile online pretending to be a local boy. The "boy" said very hateful things to Megan and his final words to her were "The world would be a better place without you." Though these things were actually said by a grown woman, things like this occur everyday causing innocent young boys and girls to take their own lives because of the hateful messages passed along to them on the internet. 

I will also provide general causes and effects that have been found out through surveys amongst school children. 

Pg3-Prevention/Getting Involved. 

Cyber-bullying, I am not finding out, Is a much bigger problem that many of us think. Especially because we are college students and many of us are not surrounded by this issue anymore. But, its a very big problem in our communities and everyone should know what to do to prevent cyber-bullying. Some of us have siblings and nieces, nephews or cousins at home that could be victims of cyberbullying and I will provide ways that we can give out more information to younger generations to either help them if they are victims or to talk then out of seriously hurting another person if they are the ones doing the bullying. 

Pg4-Research

This page will show additional research that I did not add into the other pages and will probably show some statistics that I have found.

Pg5-Links to the pages where I got my research from and other sites with helpful information about cyberbullying.

This is basically my page layout for the time being. For my next post, Blog 10 I will add more specific information for each of the points that I will be making on each of the pages. 

Wikipedia Blog

Original Wiki on Cyber-Bullying: Cyberbullying is the recurring or repeated harm willfully inflicted through the medium of electronic text.Cyberbulling, much like traditional bullying in the school yard normally occurs amongst children,preteens, or teens. In order for it to be cyber-bullying, the intent must be to cause emotional distress, and there must be no legitimate purpose to the communication.[1] Cyberbullying can be as simple as continuing to send e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender, but it may also include threats, sexual remarks, pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech). Cyber-bullies may disclose victims' personal data (e.g. real name or workplace/schools) at websites or forums, or may attempt to assume the identity of a victim for the purpose of publishing material in their name that defames or ridicules them. Some may post victims' photos, or victims' edited photos like defaming captions or pasting victims' faces on nude bodies. One famous forum for disclosing personal data or photos to "punish" the "enemies" is Hong Kong Golden Forum.

My Wiki Edits:

Cyberbullying occurs when a child, preteen or teenager is bullied, harassed, humiliated, threatened, embarrassed, or targeted in someway by another child, preteen or teenager through the use of internet, cell phones and other forms of digital technology. In order for it to be cyber-bullying, the intent must be to cause emotional distress, and there must be no legitimate purpose to the communication.^[1]Cyberbullying can be as simple as continuing to send e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender, but it may also include threats, sexual remarks, pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech). Though the use of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in cyber-bullying, it is not the same as sexual harassment and does not involve sexual predators. Cyber-bullies may disclose victims' personal data (e.g. real name or workplace/schools) at websites or forums, or may attempt to assume the identity of a victim for the purpose of publishing material in their name that defames or ridicules them. Some cyber-bullies may also send threatening emails and instant messages to the victims. The content in these messages are often so strong that a victim may commit suicide. Some may post victims' photos, or victims' edited photos like defaming captions or pasting victims' faces on nude bodies. One famous forum for disclosing personal data or photos to "punish" the "enemies" is Hong Kong Golden Forum. One example of suicide from being a victim of cyber-bullying is the Megan Meier Suicide Controversy[1]

What I basically did here was gave a more defined definition of what Cyber-bullying is and added some more examples. I also, further into the entry, added some links to sources as well as removed some of the old ones which no longer were working or ones that I felt did not provide 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-bullying content. 

my wikipedia name is Lrn886

After I didn't watch my entry for about a week because I was away on vacation. But luckily when I returned my entry was still there. The only revisions that were made to what I actually wrote were grammatical corrections. Of course a few times people had gone on to the page and added some profanity here and there which quickly was deleted from the page. From the time I posted there was also some additional information added to the page in the research section and causes as well. This assignment was very interesting for me because I was never really sure exactly how Wikipedia worked, and now I know. While I like the fact that Wikipedia provides real content, working on this project has made me realize that you cannot always trust your sources online. 

Blog 6: Research Plan

Research Question

Why do people feel the need to have multiple personalities on the internet? In particular, d0 people get a thrill out of acting as though they are a different age or gender? Are they using it dangerously (sexual predators, stalkers) or are they doing it for fun or to make themselves become more outgoing and outspoken? And is it wrong to pose as someone you aren't on the internet if you aren't doing it to be hurtful?

Statement of Purpose

I hope to discover a better understanding of what people are using MySpace, Facebook, Chat rooms and Instant Messaging for. I hope to be able to show in my research why people feel the need to pose as someone other than themselves on the internet and maybe find a way for others to avoid such people if they are using it in a dangerous manor.

List of Information to be Gathered

-lots of chatroom and blog feedback

-research on occurrence of sexual predators on above mentioned websites

-personal experience stories

-find out why people are doing it. Are they doing it dangerously (sexual predators and stalkers) or are they doing it for enjoyment?

Preliminary Sources

(still narrowing down my sources, I've found a lot of them but they are mostly blog sites and tv news reports. I'd like to sit down and look at them a little more closely to see which ones are most helpful but a few of them have been posted on my previous blog)

Plan for Gathering Information

I plan to look more closely at blogs that I have already found. Some of these blogs have anonymous post from users saying how they feel about having multiple identities on the internet. I want to narrow them down and find the ones that I like the best. I also want to look into news stories that will tell me more about sexual predators on the internet. Finally I will look more closely at Facebook and Myspace (and similar websites) to see how exactly people are using them and if people seem to have a different or more outgoing personality on the internet than they do in real life.

Research Plan

1. Familiarize yourself with the topic
My topic: Why do we feel the need to be someone we are not on the internet?

2. Identify some questions
-Why are people going on sites such as myspace and facebook and posing as someone they aren’t?
-What types of people (age groups) are being attracted to these websites? And what is it about the site that attracts them and makes them want to open up?
-Is there a thrill do it? Do they get something out of it?
-Are these people posing as different genders? Different age groups? Different Interests?
-What are the dangers?
-Are young children revealing too much about themselves on the internet and allowing pedophiles to find them much easier?
-Are people more outspoken on the internet then they are in real life?
-Can people open up more and reveal personal issues on the internet that they can’t share in the real world?
-Do people have more friends on the internet than they have in real life?
-How are people presenting themselves on the internet? (How do they dress, who are their friends, what are they doing in their pictures, what do they say about themselves in subject categories?)

3. Decide what you need to know to answer your research question:
I need to find websites that offer information on people being more outspoken on the internet. I need to maybe talk to people or survey people to see how they feel about the subject and maybe get anonymous information about who these people are. I probably need to go on MySpace and Facebook and similar sites to see how people are using these sites and how people allow these sites to control their lives and how people view them on the internet. Perhaps I can find some news articles that relate to the dangers of people posing as different genders or ages on the internet. I need to find chat rooms or forums where people discuss their feelings about opening up on the internet. I can also relate what I know from personal experience.

4. Formulate a research plan that includes:
Detailed statements of your research questions:
Statement of purpose(what you hope to show/discover)
List of the information you need to gather
Preliminary list of sources
http://abcnews.go.com/technology/story?id=4272721&page=1
Maintaining multiple personalities online…abcnews.com
http://animeost.new/f205/do-people-have-different-personality-internet-31789/index3.html
Blog site; feedback on people explaining their feelings about having multiple personalities online and being more outgoing/outspoken
http://www.fbbook.com/fblog/category/from-the-book/your-story/
Website/blog based on a book written about the effects of facebook, the blog has people
Sharing their personal stories and feedback on how they related to what they read in the book, some very interesting points are made based on what I’ve experienced myself on this website and feelings that I’ve heard other people express about the website itself.

Plan for gathering your information
-Find sites on the internet that hopefully explain people’s desire to be someone they aren’t on the internet

Blog 5: Web Essay Topic Info

Before I started my researching I was stuck between two topics. Thank you to those who commented on my subject; from that I was able to narrow it down a little more easily! 

The topic I chose is the concept of how the internet or cyberspace is taking over our lives. Everything that we do, we do, or can do, online. In my essay I want to explore the different avenues of what we can do on the internet and just how much it effects our everyday lives. 

For example: Communication (email, instant messaging, facebook, myspace...); Daily Chores (shopping, groceries, ordering dinner, develop pictures, refill prescriptions...) 

I of course will narrow that down a little bit more when the time comes but those are currently my ideas for my essay. In class we did Exercise one on page 19 of Johnson-Eilola. 

Just a few of the things I found

http://www.fbbook.com/fblog/category/from-the-book/you-story/

 This website is actually a blog for a book that a person wrote about facebook and how our lives are very consumed by facebook. I found some very interesting information on the blog because someone made a post talking about relationships. She makes mention that a breakup is not official until you change your status on facebook. I don't know about anyone else but I know this is an on going joke between my friends and I. We feel the exact same way, once you change you facebook status, everyone starts becoming so concerned about your life. 

the second website i found was for Information Week, Defining the Business Value of Technology

http://www.informationweek.com/showarticle.jhtml?articleID=196902629

on this site I found an article that talks about how Americans are spending too much time on the internet. The header of the article is "Report reveals 65% of U.S are spending more time with their computers than with their significant others." It goes on to give a few more facts about our internet usage and so on, but I felt that that quote alone was very significant for my research. 

The third site I found was actually a site for Parents, 

http://parenting.families.com/blog/do-you-kids-spend-too-much-time-online

there was an article on the site asking if Parents felt that their children spend too much time on the internet. The site offers information to parents to regulate their child's usage of the internet as well as ways to protect them. A very interesting fact, though I'm not sure I'll use it, was this: "80% of the parents reported that their kids grades had not gone up or down with their child's internet usage" and "Americans 66 and older remain the most disconnected. For all other age groups at least 74% are online with the largest concentration(99%) being those who are 18 and under"

I'm still in the process of developing my idea and researching some more for it. Dr. Chandler and I have discussed me polling some of my friends, family and university students to get their opinions and internet usage patterns. If anyone has any comments or suggestions please leave them, I'd very much appreciate it!

Blog 4: McCloud

Are humans really a self-centered race? Scott McCloud seems to think so, and I think I agree with him! In his work, The Vocabulary of Comics, which is basically a comic strip, McCloud uses a series of pictures and symbols and compares them to humans to show us that we can be very self centered individuals and also that not everything is what it seems.  

In the beginning of his comic, he has the narrator explaining to us that what we are looking at (a pipe) is not actually a pipe, nor is it a painting of a pipe or a picture of a pipe. It is a copy of a picture of a pipe. The point McCloud was trying to make is that not everything is what it seems. Just because we see a picture of a hamburger doesn't mean it's actually a hamburger, it is simply a symbol or a representation of the real thing. 

He next shows is pictures of faces some of which are cartoon characters that we know very well. He shows us that we see ourselves in these characters because they have human characteristics. For example, When we see a picture of Charlie Brown, we don't really see a cartoon character, we see a little boy in a yellow shirt. McCloud calls us a self centered race because we put ourselves in everything that we do. He later shows us a picture of an electrical outlet which is basically a representation of a face (this is where he states "we humans are a self centered race") .

I very much have to agree with all of the ideas that McCloud presented. I think humans are indeed a very self centered race. I also now realize after reading this what he meant about symbols and that not everything is what we think it is. I'm sure its a concept that I've always known was true but just something I never really thought about. 

Free Writing for Cyberspace Project

What do I do in my spare time?: In my spare time I work a lot. Especially on the weekends, I work at Coach in Bridgewater mall. When I'm not working I spend a lot of time with my boyfriend Mike. Mike and I like to go to the bars in New Brunswick with our friends. We also enjoy staying home and watching movies or just relaxing. I love reading, reading is probably my favorite thing to do. I love books, I collect them and re-read them as often as possible. I do used to enjoy going on the computer a lot, on websites such as MySpace and Facebook, I'd check my email a few times a day and sit online instant messaging my friends. I no longer enjoy doing these things, they have become a bore to me. I still check my email about once or twice a day and every so often talk with friends and log onto Facebook.

What Ideas Interest Me?: Something that interests me the most that I'd like to write about for my cyberspace project is the idea that the internet is controlling our lives. As I said earlier, I no longer enjoy spending a lot of time on the computer, browsing the internet and interacting with people online. Don't get my wrong I'm not a big phone person. I don't love talking on the phone, I'd rather send a text message or an email. But I don't understand why people are using the internet and allowing it to take over their lives. People pruchase their groceries online, they can create a whole new persona for themselves on the internet.

What Do You Plan to Do With Your Education: Although I am currently an English/Special Education major, I think my main topic of interest is actually speech therapy. I would love to work with children who are deaf or have a speech impediment. I want to help those children learn the tools they need for communication with others. I wouldn't mind being a teacher, after all that is what I'm going to college for but I feel like I can do so much more to help people,especially young children.

Topics Discussed in class:

Digital Literacy

Properties of digital spaces: Immersion Remediation Hypermediacy

Global Villages

Virtual Realities- telepresence

Cyberspace can make things happen in the real world

Smart Mobs

Computers are taking over our lives ***My Topic for Cyberspace Project

Contagion-Viruses

Fan Fiction

Potter Wars

Copyright Issues-Intellectual Property

Why is fan fiction "illegal" while satire is not?

Emergent properties-what makes many independent being act as if they are a single organism

New ways to use launguae-digital writing as more like talk than talk is talk

New Ways to use images "visual rhetorics"

How do interest groups find/form each other on the internet?

Brainstorming for project:

Poll people from different age groups such as

ages 13-18

ages 18-25

ages 25-40

ages 40 and up

-how often do these groups of people use the internet

-how do the older generations feel about the use of the internet as a whole

-why is it so important that we are constantly attached to our computers

-what types of things are these age groups using the computer for? (myspace, facebook, shopping:groceries, clothing, appliances,etc...emailing, chat rooms, cooking tips ...)

-do any of these people go on the internet to feel like they belong? Do any of them belong to networks that allow them to interact with other people?)

-While on the internet do you feel as though you can be someone you are not, more outspoke...more outspoken, another gender, another age

Blog 3:Summary of Rheingold

Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs:The Power of the Mobile Many was probably one of my favorite articles we've read so far this semester. Rheingold discusses how something as simple as an email or a text message can become something so complex. In the beginning of his essay he discusses the overthrow of Filipino President Estrada in 2001. The Filipinos were not happy with his control of the government and decided to take matters into their own hands. This was all done through mass text messaging (where one person sends a text to a friend and it keeps on going through a chain) and emails. 

He goes on to tell us about the term "Smart Mobs". Smart mobs (the technical term being mobile ad hoc social networks) are groups of people that are formed from chain text messages, emails, chat rooms and so one, to perform some group task. Sometimes the smart mobs are formed to over throw a government as Rheingold exemplifies earlier on in the text, or it could be just for fun. 

During class Dr. Chandler had us search for Smart Mobs on the internet using search engines other than Google. The results were very fun and enjoyable for everyone to watch, I think. I found that there will be a mass pillow fight in New York City on E 14th and Broadway on March 22 at 3:03pm. Anyone and everyone are invited to attend, the only directions given online are to be there on time, to tell anyone you know, and to keep your pillow in a bag until the set time. Once the fight begins you are only aloud to hit other people with pillows (unless someone without a pillow asks to be hit). We also watched a video on YouTube.com in class that showed some young Japanese men chasing after older Japanese men for seemingly no reason at all. 

Blog 3:Summary of Glister

Paul Glister's Digital Literacy is about the differences between print (such as books, newspapers, magazines, etc...) and digital literary works (things we read online). 

Glister points out that in most print, the words on the pages are very final and it could take a very long time to correct a mistake never mind the costs. For example, if an author publishes a book and misspells a word, it could take a long time for a reader to notice the mistake. Once the mistake is pointed out it could be a very long process to recall the misprinted books and replace them with a corrected version. It would also cost a lot of money to fix the mistake as well. With digital literacy, when we notice a mistake on a webpage it is so easy to fix it. It can take a matter of seconds for the author to log onto the page, edit it and save the newest copy. It is the least time consuming and costs nothing. 

Another difference between the two is this: Factual information is constantly being changed and updated. It is a very long process again for books to be edited and published. So when factual information in an encyclopedia needs to be changed, it takes time for it to be done. Whereas in places on the web such as Wikipedia, information is edited and changed within minutes. It is a much faster and efficient way to get up to date information about most subjects. 

Blog 2:Summary of Heim

Michael Heim's VR 101 gives us an idea of what virtual reality means, and what we have come to view virtual reality (or VR) as. I felt that there was no better way to explain what he meant by this than to quote him directly. He explains that "Our culture intentionally fuses- sometimes even confuses- the artificial with the real, and the fabricated with the natural. As a result, we end to quickly gloss over the precise meaning of virtual reality and apply the term "virtual" to many experiences of contemporary life."In this he further explains this concept in the idea of an ATM machine. While an ATM may seem like a virtual reality, it is really only virtual. ATM stands for automated teller machine and Heim explains that while it is not actually a bank teller, the machine can perform the same duties as a bank teller.

Next Heim describes the three "I"s of VR; immersion, interactivity, and information intensity. Immersion is explained as an isolation of a person's senses to make them feel as if he or she were really in a particular place. Interactivity or interaction is created by a computer's ability to change a scene as quickly as a person's mind can change it's perspective of something as well as a physical position. And Information intensity is the idea that the world of virtual reality can almost create a different life based on intelligence. He also says that Information intensity of VR can create a Telepresence. A telepresence is when "a VR system succeeds in creating the interactive feedback loop between or perceptions and the real environment, then we have full telepresence."

Heim next introduces us to Helemt or HMD (head mounted cameras). HMD allows a person to put on a helmet type device and see and hear only what goes on in the small space inside of the helmet. Special gloves can be worn to feel around inside of the virtual space created by the helmet to inhance the feeling of actually being there. The HMD creates the "six degrees of freedom" which follows the dimensions of the body and allows the camera to move the same way we do.

Finally he talks about CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). The CAVE throws away the idea of helmets and gloves and replaces it with graphics that are projected onto walls of a room. It is a surround sound and surround screen projection in a large room rather than a small screen and headphones inside of a small helmet. The idea of the CAVE is to immerse into the environment portrayed on the walls with a much more open feeling of actually being there.

Blog 2:Summary of Bolter and Grusin

In Bolter and Grusin's article "The Double Logic of Remediation" the two introduced to us the idea of how society is trying to erase something we've all seen in media, and then multiply it in a new form. For example a book being made into a play, and then into a movie; so on and so forth. The next thing always needs to be bigger and better than the last while trying to make you forget the last thing at the same time. But while doing so, the old media that first created the concept has to remain strong and come up with better ideas to stay in the competition. In the article they bring up the concept that filmmakers will often spend millions just to make sure that when you're sitting in the theater watching a movie, you feel like you're actually there. So then every filmmaker after that must spend even more money and use even more amazing techniques to make their movie feel even better to you. 

Another idea that they bring us is that newscast are becoming more and more like websites. Whenever you watch the news, as a new story is being introduced the newscaster will usually have a small graphic over their left or right shoulder that narrates what the upcoming story will be about, almost to sort of draw our attention to that news story just because of a pretty little picture created by a web designer. 

The article continues to give different examples of how the medians are constantly using immediacy to lure people into their way of doing things. And each time a new median comes up with a creative concept it will always get built up to something bigger and better. 

Blog 1: Woolley

Chapter Six of Woolley's Virtual Worlds A Journey in Hyper and Hyperreality is Woolley's explanation of cyberspace. He begins by telling us about the concept of a global village and that electricity is needed to transport information rather than time or space. Woolley repeatedly went back to the idea that cyberspace or rather technology as a whole is an extension of our bodies, just as the telescope is an extension of our eyes; the phone is an extension of our ears and mouths; cyberspace is an extension of our nervous system, being able to transport signals from one place to another. Woolley then went on to explain that just as our bodies and nervous systems can attract virus's, so can networks in cyberspace. He used the example of the AIDs virus attacking a persons body and how quickly it can spread from one person to another; it can also attack one person's computer and spread from one to another. Next he compared two similar incidents in the stock market involving computers, one which occurred in 1987 and another in 1989 to show that it is the effect of the computers and that one person alone cannot help or hurt the situation. 

What I felt that Woolley tried to express the most in this chapter was that, though cyberspace can be a wonderful thing and can help us considerably in everyday life, we cannot always rely on it. We have to be able to stand on our own to feet because any random day our computers can crash and we could temporarily be without access to our bank accounts, stocks, emails, etc... 

Blog 1

I think that writing in cyberspace and writing in meat-space are two completely different things. We have tools in cyberspace that allow us to constantly check and recheck our work, such as spell check. We have access to email which allows us to send out writing to other people to have them check our work. And others have instant access to our work which in tern gives us immediate feedback on what we're writing about. In meat-space the only way to check our work is to do it ourselves or if we're fortunate enough at the time, have someone check it for us. But humans aren't always as efficient as computers and we don't always catch every detail as easily. 

I also think that immersion, interactivity and information intensity being available will not make for "good" writing. I think that people rely to heavily on cyberspace nowadays and do not focus on the aspects of learning things. No one goes to the library anymore to research anything, it's all done online. No one worries about grammatical errors because everyone trusts that the computer will fix it for them. I feel that future generations may be able to write a perfect essay using perfect punctuation and grammar on the computer, but when asked to write it down on a piece of paper they barely remember to add a period at the end of a sentence.

First Blog

Hello. This is Leyna, and this is my first blog!