Morality Online

Much has been said about the perceived immorality of online culture. In the minds of many academics there is a growing concern that the internet is corrupting the morality of youths. This is a topic which concerns us "digital natives" as we seem to be the target of such criticisms. I find this claim to be a bit naive, especially coming from older generations who, by and large,do not share the same relationship with technology as we do. Andrew Keen in particular brings up all these horror stories of youths becoming addicted to online gambling, watching pornography, and developing extremist personalities through online forums. But what is there to suggest that these same people would not develop these same traits if the internet didn't exist? Keen brings up the example of a kid called Greg Hogan, now this kid was almost the perfect child, a musical prodigy, he excelled also academically, winning a scholarship to a prestigious Ohio college, as well as being the son of an Ohio Baptist Minister. However he became addicted to online gambling and robbed a bank at gunpoint. Keen goes on to point out that Hogan is not alone in this kind of behaviour with a further 1.6 million US college students gambling regularly. I agree that gambling is a major social problem but to demonize the internet over a claim like this is absurd, simply because for each of those 1.6 million students gambling there are far more that are not. Also, while the internet facilitates gambling, getting rid of internet gambling will not cure the gambling in reality, nor will it cure the online gamblers addiction to gambling. I feel these issues are not enough to negate the benefits of the internet, I think that while people tend to voice more extreme views on the internet people are relatively civil if you yourself are civil. In my experience it is usually better to behave as you would in reality online. Sure you may hit a few brick wall's but usually adopting a non-hostile attitude is better (interestingly, using correct grammar seems to play a major role in identifying civil discussion).

While i disagree that the internet is corrupting us I do think there is justification in the idea that we are becoming more immune to a lot of controversial information, not just things like porn and gambling but even to more mainstream information, stories and videos on news websites and the like. We have become so used to reading or seeing how bad things are I sometimes fear we do not appreciate the situation fully. However there are still that rare story that provokes far more reaction than others, and ones that just makes your skin crawl.

I see this fluctuation in responses as primarily a result of accessibility to far more information than we are capable of absorbing, it only makes sense that we gear ourselves towards more relevant news. Sorting data becomes an important skill one needs to negotiate such an environment, this is a skill digital natives have grown up with, one that is a lot harder for people with older generations to pick up.it's the reason we are so much more connected to technology then older generations. 

New ways to spend MORE money.

Over the last few years I have found myself buying more and more stuff online. At first there was something I wanted to buy online, a pair of shoes that were several hundred dollars in New Zealand and only forty in America, this was enough to tip me over the edge to acquire a credit card. Once this step has been reached and you have received your first online order, it is rather easy to descend into a degenerate cycle of blissful consumerism from the comfort of your own home. It seems that you can buy anything on the Internet these days, and usually cheaper than you can find in retail stores or the equivalent and, then you have the excitement of the anticipation of the parcel of stuff on its way to your door. The amount of products and services that are available online has been increasing as more and more people are getting over the fear of purchasing goods online and taking the plunge. Once the first order has been made, then it is very convenient to continue ordering goods online. If you didn’t want to you wouldn’t even have to go to the supermarket.

Not only are physical goods being sold online, but also various forms of media are now available in a purely digital form online. It is now possible to hire out movies online and either stream or download them in high definition. There is the Steam games network, which allows you to purchase various computer games, often at a much cheaper price than retail. Rather than being sent out a copy of the computer game, it becomes bound to your account and you can play it on any computer you wish, by logging into your account and downloading it. Then there is the Magic the Gathering. Magic is a card game that requires continuing card purchases cards to be able to compete in the game effectively. It is a rather unfortunate addiction I acquired, and one that got a little more unfortunate recently when I tried out the online version of the game. There are also websites that use the freemium model discussed during one of the lectures. This model means that some aspects of a product or service are free, but to tap the full potential out of it, you have to pay for it.

The question must be asked, how will all of this online consumption going to affect the way things work in the physical world? It is clear that many companies are going to fail and many more people are going to lose their jobs. The trend can already be seen, as formerly successful news and media companies, video rental stores and many other companies are collapsing. Even companies that deal in physical wares are finding it difficult competing with online outlets, which cut out the need of retail staff, allowing them to sell their products at a lower price. It will be interesting to see where things will end up, but for now I am going to go back to playing Magic Online.

Will we miss it?

With the end of newspapers in print looming over media as much as the All Blacks failure to win a World Cup in over twenty years looms over New Zealand, the question must be asked, will it actually be missed? The World Cup is obviously missed as many Kiwis threaten to riot in the streets if the mighty AB’s can bring home the Webb Ellis trophy, but does the world feel the same about print newspapers? It seems not.

Circulation is down, profit is down, and free internet access is up. People around the world the world don’t see the point in paying for something they can get for free, and would rather not inconvenience themselves with a, sometimes, hard to grasp bunch of paper that will need to be discarded after twenty minutes. This then raises the issue of those that don’t properly recycle their papers and just throw them into the rubbish, causing even more harm to the environment. A lot of environmentalists around the world will be glad to see the print newspapers go.

I must admit though, I am one who will dearly miss the newspaper. Don’t get me wrong, I love the free and easy access the internet provides just as much as the next person, but there was something about waking up before school every morning and reading the paper with my old man that was really special to me. That was a long time ago though and, as they say, times change. With more and more people becoming reliant on technology at even younger ages, the news is becoming increasingly easier to access via mobile phones and other similar platforms. Nonetheless, it will be a sad day when print newspapers are a thing of the past and I for one will definitely miss those annoying bunches of paper.

Not-so-common wealth

Delhi, 2010. History in the making.

This years commonwealth games have caught a lot of media attention and publicity…and with good reason, too. The tremendous media and public uproar that occurred following the exposure of photographs depicting the living conditions of the games villages was humiliating for India, to say the least. Photographs that made media headlines showed leaky toilets, stained washbasins and dirty beds – all intended for visiting athletes. What followed was an embarrassing international condemnation of India and the Indian government, inevitably established by the refusal of several athletes to participate in this year’s commonwealth.

But there’s another side to every story. Truth is, India has come a long way. What really exists in the country’s capital today are stadiums, arenas and villages of international standard. First class and quality products created and hosted by a ‘third world’ nation. But nobody ever told us that.

Thank heavens for blogs, facebook and youtube. The past three weeks has seen a complete shift in media representations of the commonwealth games. Thousands of Indians, enraged by the negative publicity that India was garnering went on a rampage of pro-India propaganda, determined to show the world what else was really happening. They were citizen journalists empowered by new media. Bloggers going on frenzy and filmmakers with a new found passion. My Facebook news feed for the past half a month has been clogged with groups, videos, photographs and status updates all showcasing and rooting for the newer, cleaner, more developed India. Possibly for the first time in the Indian context has the indi-media and non-mainstream broadcasts engaged so many people and elicited such a response.

Today, (finally!) all the Indian mainstream media have hopped on the bandwagon and are on a pro-India rampage.

Thank you, new media. On behalf of all the Indians of the world, thank you.

Googlezon

"EPIC 2015" is a mix of recent internet media history and speculation on the future. It was posted in 2007, so some of the speculation concerns the present. It is a fascinating look into where exactly media could be headed in our not so distant future. As the title mentions, the predictions are made for the year 2015. The original was titled “Epic 2014,” and due to the passing of time and developments in media it had quickly become outdated.

The movie speaks for itself, but there are some pertinent points that link to things we have been discussing in class. The notion of the public becoming their own reporters and broadcasting directly to other users via an IPod or mobile device is an interesting idea, but in actuality may be too “noisy” to really work. It would require some sort of labeling system to sort the posts, which would rely on the broadcaster to accurately tag their information. The potential for abuse and too great a focus on the individual seems like this promotion would be unlikely.

Another interesting point in the film is the idea of a merger between Google and Amazon. The search capabilities of Google mixed with Amazon’s suggestions would revolutionize the way we interact with the internet media. This complete personalization of our media consumption being chosen by third parties is a frightening concept, and one that is becoming more of a reality every day. While it seems unlikely that this would completely replace normal news outlets, it certainly is a potential future and one that we need to seriously think about before it’s upon us.

News, news, news.

New media offers us so many more options to news. News has transformed from a push into a pull media, where the individual has more control. Years back news was only fed to us at certain times of the day. Imagine only having access to current events in the daily news bulletins or the arrival of your Herald in the morning. We are spoilt with the immediacy and convenience of news in todays society.

New media now allows us to access news whenever we want to, via our phones or laptops. There are online news papers as equivalents, eg. New Zealand Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz/). - these even eliminate us even having to purchase a paper. Countless websites provide news reports, even your favourite social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook can provide a news element. These sites can go even further by providing an aspect of 'citizen journalism' one which provides the citizen to take part in the news reporting. This participatory journalism can be seen in sites such as Indymedia (http://www.indymedia.org.nz/) I think this is a great idea. Being able to put your opinion forward is a total highlight of this kind of news.

Sometimes it is hard to beat the traditional forms of news. The familiarity is reassuring. It is sometimes exhausting searching for relevant or unbiased news articles in the world wide web. Often you are faced with information overload. A case of having to much info on offer. Offline news gives it to you short and sweet, but new media offers so much more variety.

They both have their advantages. In the online world you can personalise and pick and choose what you think is newsworthy. I like having the options. I love knowing technology is there for me if I wish to have news that way.