Wait...Was that REALLY you?

How many times have you met someone over the internet, had conversations with them, saw their extreme or very exuberating pictures under their profile and when you met that person they were nothing like what they presented themselves? Or when you did meet them in person, you could tell that they were actually trying to act out how they projected themselves to be on the internet? This unfortunately happens to thousands of people on a daily basis. People abuse their online identities to make others believe that they are not who they really are. Abuse is sort of a harsh word. People take advantage of the fact that they can create a personality and a "character" of someone who they wish that they could be.
Being apart of an online community does not always have to be a bad thing. I am not implying that it is. I am just bringing out the fact that there are so many of us who take full advantage of the internet and these online communities. Just about everyone has at some time or another gave a little false information about themselves in a profile or a picture or even just in a caption. But my point is being brought out by those people who make a whole profile about some fictional person and make this person seem so real so that they can meet different varieties of people and talk to people who they might have never had the chance of speaking with. The tricky phenomenological issue with real versus fantasy self is this: what is one's true identity? We usually assume it must be the self that you present to others and consciously experience in your day to day living. But is that the true self? Many people walk around in their f2f lives wearing "masks" that are quite different than how they think and feel internally (Suler, 2002).
I'll admit, I was one of the many faithfuls on facebook and myspace. The difference between me and most of the cyber world was that I was totally honest with my profiles. Because of my honesty, I meet a lot of people that were like me and had the same values and interest. On the other hand, being honest caused me a lot of frustration and unenjoyment of these online communities. First it started out with the false impressions of people on facebook. With facebook, you can see exactly who your talking to because most of your friends go to the same school that you are going to. I would meet somebody new and when I finally saw them on campus, it was an astonishment because the person that they presented themselves to be wasn't really the person that they were in real life. I went through this a couple of times. The person was not really outgoing as they mad themselves seem, or they weren't as fun as they made themselves seem, or in some cases they weren't even the person they had themselves as in the picture on their profile. After going through this problem more than just a couple times, I decided that I would save myself the trouble of being in a online community and just leave facebook and myspace alone. I still use aim, but aim can be just as bad. There is no pictures with aim and so you never really know who you could be talking to.
Not all people see the virtual community from my point of view though. Some people believe that it is exciting and important to society and people's self confidence because it allows people to see themselves in another light with a different attitude. "Identity in online environments are still poorly understood. As online cultures becomes an increasing part of everyday culture, it becomes more and more important for us to understand how it affects who we are." (Berman, 1999) Online culture allows people to expand their personalities and create new "thems." They create new confidence in themselves and transfer that confidence to their real lives.
To me, the whole cyber internet communities is fake and I'll never really trust it. So that is why I constantly pose the question, Was that really you?

Donath, J. (1996). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved February 23, 2007 from Ublearns.buffalo.edu

Sutler, J.R. (2002). Identity Management in Cyberspace: Level of Fantasy or Reality. Retrieved February 23, 2007 from www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html

Berman (1999). Your online Identity: Researchers study Human Interaction online through game played in virtual community. Retrieved February 23, 2007 from gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/TGAME.html

NO COOKIES IN THIS COOKIE JAR!

"Who would watch you without your permission? It might be a spouse, a girlfriend, a marketing company, a boss, a cop or a criminal. Whoever it is, they will see you in a way you never intended to be seen - the 21st century equivalent of being caught naked."(Bob Sullivan, 2006) The Websters New World Dictionary describes the word privacy as being private; seclusion, secrecy and one's private life. It also describes the word private as not being open to or controlled by the public.
"When you are surfing the web you may think you are anonymous, but there are various ways that information about you or your activities can be collected without your knowledge or consent."(Privacy Threats on the Web, n.d.) Some ways that your information can be received is through cookies, downloading freeware or shareware, search engines, email and spam etc. The information that caught my attention was the cookies. I've seen them pop up before on my computer and I didn't know what they were until I started this assignment. A cookie is a piece of information that an Internet website sends to your browser when you access information at that site(Privacy Threat on the Web, n.d.). The way cookies work is that it allows website operators to assign a unique permanent identifier to a computer which can be used to associate the requests made by the website from that computer cookies indicate to a website that you have been there before. Providing personal information about yourself or buying something online may be recorded by the cookies on that website and can be used to build up a profile about you and your interest.
Cookies give web developers the ability to save information from forms onto the client machine. The easiest way to secure yourself against the supposed dangers of cookies is to get one of the latest browser versions and turn off cookies(Jennifer Kyrnin, n.d.).
When I first moved onto campus here at U.B., I set up my computer. I set up all my programs and got everything situated the way that I wanted it. The only thing that was left for me to do was to get on the Internet and start surfing. When I went to turn on the Internet though, it wouldn't work. It wouldn't work because of the schools secure network. It would not allow for me to have cookies on my computer. Until today, I did not no why but I have finally found out. One incident where I was skeptical about my privacy is when I was buying a pair of sneakers online. I had to give my credit card information and my home address. I felt so uncomfortable putting all of my information out there like that. I made up in my mind that I wasn't going to put anymore of my information on the Internet ever again when one day I received a random phone call from America Online stating that I owed them $140.67 on an account that I never opened or knew anything about.
Some people might consider me to be scary or a cautious individual when it comes to information over the Internet, but hackers are hackers. And no matter how secure and safe people think that these networks are, there is always the possibility that the secure network can be breached and I don't want to be one of the individuals who suffer or get effected by it when it happens.

1.) Kyrnin, J. (n.d.). What are HTTP Cookies? Retrieved February 15, 2006, from webdesign.about.com/cs/cookies/a/aa082498a.htm

2.) Sullivan, B. (2006). Privacy Lost: Does Anybody Care? Retrieved February 15, 2006, from msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095

3.) n.a., n.d.. Protecting your privacy on the Internet: Privacy Threats on the Web. Retrieved February 15, 2006 from www.privacy.gov.au/internet/internet_privacy/

What a GIFT does for the Heart

A commodity, "a product of human work produced for the purpose of trade." (www.wikipedia.com) This doesn't really fill the category of a gift does it? A gift is a compassionate expression of feelings for the heart, from the heart. In my lifetime I have been apart of many gift economies. A gift economy can range from a variety of different relationships. A gift economy can be a friendship, a gift economy can be a charity or a soup kitchen. A gift economy can be a church organization affiliated with helping others. A gift economy has a large variety of possibilities. My most recent gift economy has been being on the basketball team. Now I know that some people may be thinking how is a basketball team a gift economy? Well on my team here at the University at Buffalo, we give to the communities and to the students of this university. We've done numerous amounts of community service and have had student affairs. Two examples of community sharing that we've been apart of and stick out in my mind is, one, in the summer as students were coming back to school. My teammates and I stood outside in the hot weather in front of the dorms with open arms offering help to anyone who had an over whelming amount of luggage.
We carried luggage big and small, short and tall for hours. We did this not because we wanted tips at the end of the day, not saying that wouldn't have been nice:-), or because we wanted recognition, but we did it from the sincerity of our hearts that we wanted to help others. We didn't need anything in return. Another example is when we sign autographs for people. Signing autographs is the best feeling in the world to me. When my team and I sign autographs, you can just see the joy that it brings to the peoples face whom we are signing for.
One person might say, "Can I have one for my son and daughter, they love you kid." To hear those words uttered by a proud parent or to look at the smile of a kid who is inspired by you and thinks that you are the best player in the world is priceless. Nothing can replace the gift that we give to those people. NOTHING.
Peter Kollock refers to a gift as "unique."(Peter Kollock, 1999) The Encyclopedia describes the word unique as unlike anything else. It is to be particularly remarkable, special, or unusual..."(www.encyclopedia.com) In the article, "The Gift Economy," it states that the sign of excellence in a new world of the larger self is not vast profit or possessions, but sufficient material successes to allow large and thoughtful contributions to society. (Clifford Pinchot, 1995) I think that this statement is unbelievably true. People tend to use their status and their contributions to society to just boast in them and receive glory for their accomplishments. And non of those things really matter. What matters is being able to make a difference. People should use their popularity and their respect to help get others in need of help what they really need. People with a highly praised status in society should be working towards using that status to make a contribution to society.
I KNOW THAT I AM!

1.) Kullock, P., (1999). The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. University of California, Los Angeles.
Retrieved February 9, 2007 from www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kullock/papers/economies.htm

2.) Pinchot, G., (1995). The Gift of Economy.
Retrieved February 9, 2007 from www.context.org/ICLIB/Ic41/PinchotG.htm

3.) Commodity. (2007, February 8). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Retrieved February 9, 2007 from www.wikipedia.com

4.) Unique. (2006). Unique, Highbeam Encyclopedia.
Retrieved February 9, 2007 from www.encyclopedia.com

Copyright This! Copyright That!...Legal is Back!!!

Copyrighting has become one of the single most frustrating issues over the Internet. Copyrighting does not just involve music that people download over the Internet. Copyrighting has to do with anything that is copied and used for someone else's personal use. Plain and simple, if your not given permission to use something without giving credit to the person who created it, then you are STEALING.
Personally I do not download music from the Internet, nor do I double cd's using a computer. I feel that I am fortunate enough to have the money to purchase original copy Cd's by artist whom i chose. I do understand that accommodating both the interest of content creators and the public is a very difficult task. It is hard for a person to decide what site is legal and what site can be detrimental to their future. They just surf the web looking for free music and what pops up is what pops up.
Playing music is perfectly legal. It's where you get the music from that is the big problem. Sharing and swapping music files on non - licensed Internet sites or burning music to Cd's and selling or giving them away is illegal (www.whatsthedownload.com). Sites such as Limewire.com are considered to be illegal.

iTunes is considered to be a legitimate site.
From an outsiders point of view, I think that there needs to be someone or some organization that comes up with a solution, not just a big debate, about the whole copyrighting problem. There is thousands of sites on the Internet that allows viewers to download free music and free videos. The problem is, is that some of these sites are legal and some of these sites are not. There has to be a symbol or some kind of attribute that solidifies the legalness of the site. Everyone can get a copyright symbol on a site. Not everyone can make their websites legal.
For some, copyrighting may not mean a thing to. But to artist or an author, officially copyrighting gives you rights. Copyrighting gives you the ability to sue and statutory damages (www.benedict.com). Statutory damages are pre - established damages for cases where calculating a correct sum is deemed difficult. In intellectual property cases, it is often difficult for plaintiffs to determine the exact volume of infringement. Thus, statutory damages are often calculated as a multiple of the price for the use of the infringed right (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_damages). Without copyright on your work, you are basically asking for trouble. People can infringe your work as much as they please unless you copyright it. You can not sue an infringer without copyright.
SO COPYRIGHT!!!
Copyrighting is a legal matter. For those Internet downloaders who think that what you are doing is okay and that you can not get in trouble for it, YOUR WRONG. The Copyright Act of 1976 sums it all up. In this act there is five exclusive rights that are granted to copyright holders. Within these basic rights of the copyright holder, it basically states that the copyright holder has the right to sell, advertise, copy and perform their work publicly. This protects against copyright infringement (www.wikipedia.com).
As I stated before, I am not a downloader of music or any other source from the Internet. I do know that it has become an extremely stressful problem in the music and media industry. That is why I stated Leagal is Back!!! Downloaders have the choice to download the right way. Legally.

References:
n.a. (n.d.). The lowdown, here's your "Downloading 101" resource. Retrieved February 1, 2007 from www.whatsthedownload.com

n.a. (n.d.). Why Copyright your work? Retrieved February 1, 2007 from www.benedict.com.

n.a. (n.d.). Statutory damgaes, The Copyright Act of 1976, Copyright infringement. Retrieved February 1, 2007 from www.wikipedia.com.