Finale

On reflection, Net Communications has taught me that there is far more to the Internet than I initially thought.

I realized that there has been immense effort put in to make the Internet what it is today, in the form that our world tends to take for granted, and this subject has opened my eyes to this and numerous other issues that we, as a society, should probably be more aware of.

Practically instantaneous information at your fingertips – about anything, anyone… the Internet has the capacity to find an answer for almost any question you throw at it, and this makes it an invaluable resource for which we could be more thankful for than we currently are. Being able to “google” something, find something on Wikipedia, or “stalk” people on Facebook, we are not only able to get answers, but we are inundated with choice for how we go about it.

When I told my dad about this subject and my intended Media major, he decided to call it “University 2.0”, and while at the time I thought of it as just another dad joke, I understand some of his reasoning. The study of the Internet is a different type of subject to those with science, history and numbers-based content. It is both subjective and objective at the same time, constantly changing, and yet intrinsic to the way in which we live today.

So, daggy as it may sound, Net Communications may just be part of the beginning to a new generation of uni subjects that teach us about the Internet, things that should really become general knowledge for those of use who use it every day of our lives.

 

Thanks for reading!

Getting the creative juices flowing.

Recently I wrote an essay by hand. Not because I had been told to, or because I had to due to no-computer-at-hand circumstances. Just because I felt like it. I was sick of my laptop.

Weird, right? But also strangely satisfying.

I think there’s still something to be said for the written word, and the physical act of writing, rather than typing, ones thoughts on paper. Writing notes, then a plan, and then a draft on ripped out page after ripped out page of my notebook actually helped me to tap into the creative side of essay-writing – who knows why, but it did. And the satisfaction that comes with seeing a bunch of papers full of your own work is so much more rewarding than sitting at a computer screen for hours and only having a single, neat, black and white page staring back at you. It’s just… unnatural.

I guess what I’m saying is that I feel like I’ve been sucked into the screen-based society that we seem to live in, and only with a spur of the moment decision to pick up a pen did I change that perspective. I take lecture notes on my laptop, use my phone for reminders rather than post-its, and generally both work and entertain myself on the computer rather than ‘in the real world’. It was a nice change, and I found myself enjoying writing my essay – which for me, doesn’t happen too often.

So I think I’ll take up this habit for my next essay, next semester.

🙂

King Brocial’s on my hit list.

On perusing netcomm blogs (procrastination, but also sortof research? Win.) from some of the other classes (Susannah, Lizzy, Bridget), I was alerted to the scandal surrounding “The Brocial Network”, a Facebook group for men-only, created for sharing and rating photos of women. Sexist? Definitely. And somewhat misogynistic. And creepy.

The low-down: men who join the group must share a photo of an attractive female friend, preferably if they’re “reveal[ing] a little too much”, her name and a link to her profile page – if they don’t, they are deleted from the group by it’s creator “King Brocial”. The women have not been aware nor given their consent for these photos to be used. This has resulted in numerous unsuspecting women getting friend requests from men they have never met, and needless to say, I now feel a bit more hesitant regarding the power of social networking. In an article of The Age, “Facebook Trade in Female Images“, women whose photos were shared in the group voice their feelings about the issue, saying they feel “angry”, “sick” and “betrayed”.

Whilst I realize there is more than one side to this argument, I hate to think that people would support this group by saying things such as that the women put the photos online of their own accord. Any man supporting the group should imagine if it was their girlfriend, sister or daughter on the site. Not so cool now, huh? Photos uploaded to Facebook are generally expected to just be able to be viewed by your friends, not for them to share with strangers, and this has definitely opened my eyes to how easy it can be to breach someone’s privacy and not face consequences for it. I agree fully with Melbourne Uni lecturer Dr Lauren Rosewarne when she said “any website that has images of women posted, asking men to rate them, is revolting. There’s no excuse.”

I don’t know about you Mr. Zuckerberg, but this has got to be yet another problem arising from online sharing, rather than being solved by it.