Real or Fake

The social network I am connected to is Flickr, and when I signed up the only information

I had to supply to get started was my name, my email address and password, unlike Face book

where you have to give, your information as before, as well as things like what kind of music you

like, your birth date, your religion just to name a few.

According to ( McNeil 2012), Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerburg thinks that there is a clear difference between someone's authentic and fake identity, and that people are authentically themselves on face book, but who can know what's authentic and what's not. On my social network,

flickr, you could give a fake name if you wanted, but, I think there is really no need to. You are only uploading photographs and flickr are not asking for personal information, other than your name, email address and password. Facebook asks for more information all the time and it's a worry as to why all that kind of information is needed.

The trouble in supplying all your personal information to a social network, or anyone for that matter, is it's left open to abuse by cyber criminals, according to (Lewis, 2017) can steel your personal information and use it for financial gain. Zuckerburg said it's necessary for certain kinds of performance of self,and in which identity is more complicated. Facebook uses personal information to increase their market flow (Kuttainen, 2017). My social network doesn't have the same problem because they only put photographs on their site to further the skills of photographers and to critique their photos. It is where they can put their photos for friends and family to enjoy them.

Fig 1: Fake or Real (retrieved from photobucket.com.)

In a article called Facebook Fakes, “The Dark side of Social Networks” (Prince, B. 2012),

“The problem is that most Facebook profiles are unverified,” according Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. That's not just a problem on (Facebook), it's an issue for other social networks too. Even if you do link up with a genuine profile, you can't always be sure that it's a real person talking to you as their account could have been compromised. I don't think Zuckerburg is right because there is so much wrong with Facebook and the way it is run. I think there should be more government control over social networks. McNeil has some good points he bought up about Facebook and its founder.

Fake or Real? Colossus the baby kitten [Image] Retrieved from http://photobucket.com/images/fake%20or%20real?page=2

Kuttainen, V (2017). BA1002: “Virtual self narratives: slide 9”, [Powerpoint slides] Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-2859204-dt-content-rid-5847203_1/xid-5847203_1

Lewis, K. (2017). How social media networks facilitate identity theft and fraud. Entrepeneurs Organisation. Retrieved from https://www.eonetwork.org/octane-magazine/special-features/social-m

Prince, B. (2012). Facebook fakes: The dark side of social networking. Retrieved from http://www.securityweek.com/facebook-fakes-dark-side-social-networking

Blurring the lines between real and virtual world

Blurring the lines between real and virtual world

Lines between virtual and real worlds have become more unclear an harder to define, making it easy for people to get confused with what real is. The more we are immersed within the virtual world of social networking, not having any real way of knowing weather real people are the ones running the virtual world.

        BEING HUMAN: BLURRING LINES BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE VIRTUAL (2017)

 With no physical being in front of our eyes to confirm that something is real. we are living in the constant illusion that the one on the other side of the screen is the same as us, or what they display on their pages that at least they are a real human not just some robot, who’s one job if surging popularity for whatever it is that is in right now. In some case you do have a person on the other end of that screen but they are just a virtual person an alias, photo or the hole of a person there is always something that can be hidden. This is explored and brought to light by the television program catfish(MTV,2016)  discovering the cyborgs that we use and use us in the virtual world that we are calling real.

  The virtual world has become the new real, with everyone now online with things from errands to representing ourselves on software applications (McNeill,2012, p66). Only diluting the already confusing image that people of the technological age perceive as real with the perceived view that it is human, that created the software or machines that makes the programs run the way they do. Fixing our mistakes, providing us with images and having the answers to all our questions. With the control, the question of reality on the use of these network how much is an illusion of the real that is out there away from the want of the software, (Kuttainen, 2017) making a reality that is all visual making everyone anyone that they want to be. 

Skewed now is the thought of what can be consider real and virtual anymore with the world revolving around the screen, causing the realness of something or someone to be taken into consideration. Trying to become human again and try to connect with other humans instead of being a software platform that is run by machines with no part of an actual human identity with in the real world that is portrayed in the visual.

Kuttainen, V. (2017). BM1002, Lecture 6 Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place [slide 10]. https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au

McNeill, l. (2012). There is no “I” in network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto/biography, p65-82. 

BEING HUMAN: BLURRING LINES BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE VIRTUAL [Image]. (2017). Retrieved from image http://socialmediamatters.in/real-and-virtual/

MTV. (2016, September 1). Catfish: The TV Show (Season 5B) | ‘Andrea, Alex & Andrea’ Official Act 1 (Ep. 17) | MTV. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNZX9Eg88gM

  

Networks and their Narratives

Networks and their Narratives

By Rhys Ferguson

Image Source: http://i.imgur.com/rYxfT3x.jpg

This blog will attempt to look at the concept of ‘Narratives’, within that of social networks. So, firstly I’ll start with ‘what’ a narrative is. A Narrative (by its definition/s, as stated in www.Dictionary.com, 2017) is “a story that connects and explains a carefully selected set of supposedly true events, experiences, or the like, intended to support a particular viewpoint or thesis.”

Our ‘personas’ that we portray to others when we make use of the social networks that we are all fond of (whichever one/s that we may have a personal preference for), are often, a little or sometimes quite different from the ‘selves’ that we display out in the open, out in the real world. When looking at how people act and associate with others, within the social network of my choice (that being Crunchyroll), I noticed that the way some people speak can be quite bold or even seemingly quite outrageous in their views, speak patterns and general mannerisms.

McNeill (as cited by Victoria Kuttainen, 2017) says “Some self-narratives are more acceptable than others. Facebook acts as a ‘shadow biographer’ (McNeill), directing users about how selves should be constructed.”
The first part of the aforementioned, could, be interpreted as a need to (potentially) have multiple self-narratives or portrayals of oneself (if you will), throughout the various contexts of different social networks. The reason being is that, (Victoria Kuttainen, 2017) “Certain narratives that don’t match the norm are ‘silenced.’

There’s a concept that somewhat relates to the previously talked about self-narratives that I’d like to touch upon. The concept of “The cyborg self”, (Laurie McNeill, 2012) “The cyborg self of social networks has tremendous potential for rethinking the human, but also as Facebook’s templates and mandates suggest, the capacity to reproduce its traditional limits. It creates opportunities for new ways of thinking and creating selves and stories, but also reinscribes conventional categories and values of human experience.” 

I think it’s an intriguing and interesting concept, that should definitely be given some thought.

On a bit of a tangent, I found an interesting YouTube video (see link here) about Personal Identity and “The Narrative Self”. It brings up some interesting points about identity and in particular how we choose to identify ourselves to the world.

References

Narrative Definition:

             http://www.dictionary.com/browse/narrative

Victoria Kuttainen;

BA1002 Week 6 Lecture PowerPoint, page 10. https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_84764_1&content_id=_2759369_1

**Kuttainen’s McNeill reference

McNeill;

**BA1002 Week 6 Lecture PowerPoint, page 10. https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_84764_1&content_id=_2759369_1

                There is no “I” in Network: Social Networking Sites and Posthuman Auto/Biography

https://masterfile.jcu.edu.au/masterfile6/jsp/viewfile.jsp?as_session_id=3224552C19E3F78DB27EE739B539961EA3C9720&as_id_nr=65005&as_page_nr=1&file_type=.pdf&as_acknowledge=Y

Pictures:

             Link used to display: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lcIqoN9oRgo/maxresdefault.jpg
             Source: *The video below

YouTube Video:

Elisabeth Camp; PHILOSOPHY - Mind: Personal Identity (The narrative self)

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIqoN9oRgo  

Note: Started to get sick whilst doing this, so it's shorter and perhaps a little less coherent than I intended.

Which Filter should I use Today?-Jordyn Hutchinson

Which Filter should I use today? 

Snapchat enables its users to have face filters on all of their images.  Most of the filters that can be used can change the look of your skin, so you can look like you have no blemishes or marks on your face.  Most people who have Snapchat love using these filters, because they are a lot of fun and they can make someone laugh.  A lot of people pretend to be completely different people online to what they are in real life, they quite often give a false sense of identity.  It may give people a false identity, but it can also help people to feel better about themselves, because the person they are on social media is a ‘better version’ of themselves. 

Some Snapchat Filters
Retrieved from: https://au.pinterest.com/pin/450148925241012206/ 

Identity can have many different forms, but there are two main forms to be discussed, self-identity, and community identity.  For most people who are a part of a social media platform, who they are online, and who they are in real-life is completely different.  I am not one of these people, I have a simple approach, accept me as I am or leave, I don’t care either way.  A lot of people in modern society have an urge to be liked by everyone, so they will do everything in their power to edit out most of their flaws.  Community identity is different again, this happens when it is not just an individual is involved.  In an interesting reading by McNeill, (2012), Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, said “Having two identities for yourself is an example of lack of integrity”.  Having two different identities to most people is considered normal.  If a person is themselves on social media, it is frowned upon, and questioned. 

People sometimes feel more comfortable on social media.  This may be because they are uncomfortable about something in their real life, so they ‘put on a mask’, so to speak, to hide what is really going on.  Filters are a way to successfully hide the way you truly look.  People may as well wear make-up everywhere they go.  Using a filter is just the cheaper version of wearing make-up that also doesn’t take hours of scrubbing to get it off. 

Post-humanism is an idea that came about in the late 20^th century.  The idea challenges the boundaries between the mechanical and technological, and the major metaphor for this is the idea of a cyborg.  (Kuttainen, V., 2017).  Post-humanism is becoming a bigger problem in modern society, because there are fewer and fewer people who have a smart phone.  Furthermore, most people who have a smartphone traditionally can’t go for more than a day without it.  So, in most cases people consider them an attachment, thus we as a race can be considered cyborgs.  Amber Case, explores the idea of cyborgs further.  Cyborgs are all around, everyone is a cyborg in one way or another.  I’ll admit, I can’t go one hour without checking my phone. 

Refernce List:

 

Who is really in control?

The freedom of the internet allows people to express their views, thoughts, and even produce multimedia that can be shown to an international audience. Instagram is a good example of this freedom and accessibility to a wider audience, though Instagram itself monitors the content on their site to avoid disturbing and offensive images appearing. People can begin to create their own narrative on their Instagram page.  Users may include pictures and videos from their life experiences or they may choose to post multimedia from other sources, regardless of what they choose these users are creating a timeline of stories, adventures, and emotions that embody what this user is online. Though not all that appears could be true, with the rising popularity of Instagram and the number of people using it, users are looking for specific blogs that cater for their own specific needs or wants. With this, users that aim to earn fame or money, choose specific things to post that will fit into this demand, often cutting out parts of their life that may not be as glamorous or fit into the style that is required. McNeill stated that online lives "provide rich sites for thinking through concepts of the posthuman, and trying out theories of Posthuman auto/biography" (2012) which explains the gap between human lives and manufactured experiences. The pressure from this need was so great that  model and Instagram user Essena O'Niell decided to delete all of her posts and keep only 96 of her 'True' images. 

"Censored" Rubber Stamp (2009)

Though these people may choose what they want to post and say "You are not the only person constructing your identity." Kuttainen, V. (2017). Instagram monitors and reviews every image, video, comment, and caption that is posted onto their site. This means anything that may be disturbing, hateful, or offensive may be pulled offline and the user could even be banned or suspended from this platform depending on the severity of the issue. This monitoring acts as a filter for people online who wish to use the platform safely but as well as that, Instagram can use your previous data of hashtags, likes, comments, and searches to bring posts with Similar themes to your attention. If a person had looked up a post with #Bordercollie then posts containing the breed or something related would appear in the users suggested search. While this may seem helpful as many users wish to see more and more content that is specific to them on this platform and to not be shown unsettling images, it is obvious that though we may believe we are posting what we want and seeing what we want but it is actually Instagram itself who allows us to post and to see. This tactic though is not specific to Instagram, such pages like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and even Google, filter content and uses your data to show you things they think you want to see. So really, who is in control on Instagram? The user, the trends, or the platform itself? 

Kuttainen, V. (2017). Space and place. BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 6 notes [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_84764_1&content_id=_2759369_1 

McNeill, L. (2012). There is no "I" in Network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto/biography. Project Muse, 35(1), pp. 65-82. doi:10.1353/2012.0009 

Speed, B. (2015). Lies of Instagram Retrieved from http://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2015/11/lies-instagram-how-cult-authenticity-spun-out-control 

VaGla, P. (2009). "Censored" rubber stamp [Image]. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Censored_stamp.jpg