the Illusion of Privacy

Sounds like a good song title to me. haha. Anyways, on a serious note, its a big deal. Having privacy in the modern virtual world should be on the top of every users safety list. Not just for adult users, but for kid users as well. There are good and bad reasons behind the illusion of privacy

The good side is primarily projected towards the adult users. A user can create an account and hide their personal information. Users can limit their account to just their friends. For the users who do a lot of shopping on online, it is recommended to not use a credit card number and use gift cards instead. Gift cards, like the Visa gift cards, have a fixed money limit once, so if a hacker gets the number, they won't get very far on the spending.

The bad side is projected toward, both adults and kids. Anybody can create an account, and because of this, other users don't know the identity of other users. So, if a user just randomly adds someone they don't know, their whole identification is at jeopardy. This is what brings on to cyber-bullying and other really bad things that you hear on the news all the time.

My recommendation is just not to put personal information on the internet. It is way to easy to get your information out into the wrong hands. Don't put out phone numbers, email addresses, even current city, unless you monitor who you add as a friend on your profile.

Social Networking, Good or Bad?

If you have heard of facebook, Myspace, and twitter, chances are you have probably heard of the recent trend that has swept the world. Social networking can keep people close together, even if they live down the street or across the world. Critics agree that social networking sites can serve as a positive role in the users lives, especially in the lives of the primary target, teenagers. But, critics will argue that it can also provide a dangerous environment, not just for teenagers, but for adults as well.

The positive side of social networking is a place where the user can chat with friends and stay up to date on current events. Users can keep their current relationships strong, connect with people from their past, or do a little of both. Users can also join groups that spark their interest or can relate to something, such as a group based on the town you live in or the high school you went to.

The negative side to the whole social networking bit is that users can be stalked very easily by people. This happens when users just put their personal information out there in the public. The information doesn't have to be just words, it can be what is in the pictures posted online. Pictures can give out clues where the users location is and what the user looks like.
Another negative is the most recent, cyber-bullying. It happens when a user posts their thoughts online and then get slammed into rejection by other users, just in the same fashion in schools across the United States.

So, even though the bad out-weighs the good, as long as a user take the appropriate precautions of not giving out their personal information, users should have fun while on social networking sites. That is the reason why they are there, so users can discover new people and have fun in the complicated world of the Internet.

Picture reference:
http://williamtodd.us/blog/2009/02/testing-blip/

The Classroom of Tomorrow?

I'm thinking everybody has heard something related to online classes. Whether the feedback be good or bad, the experience can be quite interesting. After studying my options when registering for classes, I decided to try a couple of them. My experience with the online classes is quite positive because there is no set time when to be at school and you can work on assignments at your own leisure.

What I look forward to in the future of on-line classes is there might be no physical classrooms, just video lectures. Also, the student will have 100% control of when their work is due, and there might be no more instructors and professors. I can't predict the future but looking at the popularity rate of the online classes, I start believing that it may be possible someday.

Net-neutrality

I think we should keep neutrality for the the Internet, but it needs to have some sort of regulation. Since the beginning of the Internet, every time we log on,we are completely oblivious to the numerous content on line. This is where the companies and government come in, companies such as Time Warner use a specific broadband connection that completely blocks out any content that does not pertain to Time Warner. The government is wanting to pass legislature on regulating the content found on the web.

Personally, if you buy the Internet, if automatically are aware of the dangers and the content on the Internet. So, I think that the government doesn't really need to get involved at all. As for the business stand point, I can understand why they went to the specialized broadband connections, they want money. But they shouldn't block all content. The purpose of the internet is so it could be free for all to use, regardless of what the content is. However, I do agree that the Internet does need some sort of monitoring of the content, but it is the responsibility to the person posting the information to control what is being posted.
Resourses:
http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/144
http://www.savetheinternet.com/faq
http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-101