Digital Idenity

This lesson was all about identity online and focused on online video games. The main one that was mentioned was a game called 'Second Life'. A game that was launched in June, 2003 and has lasted for nearly 10 years. It is currently one of many online games that are free to play, which attracts a lot of people who are interested in just trying the game out.

It is intended for people aged over the age of 16, but has many different things about it that attracts those of any age. To sum the game up, it is a virtual world recreated online where somebody can create an avatar and literally have a second life.

From watching videos like the one above, it can clearly be seen that there are no restrictions. Whoever you want to be, no matter how the appearance can be created. A player could even go as far as to create a fictional world and even work in your dream job that you have always fantasized about. This game seems to cater for almost everybody, whether you be a gamer, a loner or you just want to be yourself and make friends. This game states that a player could live your fantasies from the comfort of your own home.

There is a film called 'Surrogates' which starred Bruce Willis playing the starring role as somebody who was almost forced into being an avatar in everyday life. The main pay off was that he had 'no risk or danger' as when his virtual form died, he could just buy another one. Almost like in a video game when you would just respawn. The film goes into great detail about people and how jaded they are when it comes to looking after themselves.

The other main protagonist in the film is a plastic surgeon who removes the avatars faces and then works on them in a rather Gorey way. This could be seen as representing todays real life obsession with plastic surgery and the constant need to want to change the way we look.

A different film that was also mentioned in class was the film 'Avatar', where Humans find a civilisation and use an avatar to try and understand the culture and twist it for their own needs. It's not an original story, and has been seen 100 times in many different forms of entertainment. Like Pocahontas but with blue people instead of indians.

Week 6: Personal Lifetime Storage – the debate

In this lesson, the class was tasked with taking sides between two arguemenets. The side of the people who were 'for' the personal lifetime storage with the leading argument that 'It already exists.' The main things that were discussed was how it could truly effect our memories and how we try to 'recreate our lifes online'.

The class discussed about how a camera could take a picture every minute and upload it online. The people who were against it said that they could be doing something illegal and get caught, and the other half of the class basically pointed out that this could already take place today. Big Brother is always watching.

Week 3.

Digital Immigrants vs. Digital Natives.

The class spoke about who was a 'Digital Immigrant' in today's online society, Also compared and contrasted wasx those of the digital Natives.It was also discussed how most people in modern society's parents are digital immigrants because of the time period that they were born in. Most peoples parents, were born in the 1950's amd didn't have what most have today. They barely had TV's for the longest time. At least without color.

This would also include any other older generations. Anyone who was born before the 1980's are considered 'digital immigrants' were as being a 'Digital native' would be somebody who was born in the 90's. Somebody who was born within the 1990's and was given the chance to grow up with the technology advancements that we've seen in recent years. Most are up to date with the latest technology and trends..

Lesson 2

Digital Identity Part 1

Social Networking and the creation of Self Online.

Identity is what makes a person who they are. It could also be perceived as who you project online. It can also stand for who you are not and instead who you pretend to be. This could also been seen as your 'Persona' which is when a person plays a role, either to fit in or just to act.

The things that make up a persons identity could be seen as many things, from Race to hair color to gender. As well as eye color. The other things to think about nationality, friendships, music taste, sexuality, appearance, student status, family, relationship, religion etc.

How does a person see Gender (in terms off biological sex)? Could it be through what a person once was? Body shape? Mannerisms? What about a persons genetics vs our upbringing and what we've learned. What about how we eat? And when we eat culturally.Our emotions too play into this. It reminds me off the the boy who was born and had his genitals cut off.

How do we define what race is? Is it due to our culture? Is it due to the color of our skin? Of because of our past experiences? Our Trauma plays a big part in our Gender and our race, but our History is what plays the biggest role.

Lesson 1

What is Network Culture?

A networked culture can be described in many terms, starting with being part of a social website, for example MySpace, Facebook, Flickr or Tumblr. It is all about being part of one big connected society. The coming blogs shall be looking into how society has evolved through the internet over the years, and if it is doing more to help us against making things worse when it comes to people interacting with each other.

In this first lesson, the class discussed different ways that people are connected. We spoke about how a large number of people in the world are connected to Facebook, a social website that has almost everybody connected and is almost killing off the mobile phone in terms of instant messaging. There are also video and photography websites where we can see so much that different people have to offer in terms of outlooks, opinions and artwork.

The first lessons main task was to find an example of this. An example of Twitter was shown, a website where people post public messages that are known as 'tweets' that are instantly corrected by others that sit and watch the 'twitter feed'. I wondered how these people are spending their life's correcting others.

This should be seen as a great example of how the world is connected through the internet and shows how people have become diluted and tainted by the mistakes of others, almost possessed into correcting people. Somehow they must be convinced that they can get their hands on money, or even online popularity through correcting those that they find worthy.

The class also dealt and discussed Old Technology vs New Technology and touched briefly on the subject. The nature of 'Text', 'Reader' and 'The Audience' has changed drastically between 1990 and 2000. Mainly because of YouTube and User-generated, Low-Tech stuff. The class spoke about how people were used to slow, yet convenient but have become jaded by the Quick/Instant internet of today. Life online has changed from tactile, more personal to becoming less Personal. This also tied into our discussion about private against Public/social/sharing sites.

One of the main things that promoted and pushed public/social sharing sites were when things went wrong in life. 9/11 was the best example, when things became too real for even television to show, the internet and social media came to the rescue. People who were scarred and had recorded it on their phones were the ones that the press went too for their information.