Week Five Lecture

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend this lecture or the following tutorial so I missed out on the actual presentation. However I have read through the available notes in Course Content.

I found the notes interesting about social media and the idea of Web 2.0 or the read-write web. It is the internet in a more interactive way. I will admit that I check my facebook account almost everyday... At first I think I was a consumer because I was new (from Myspace) and everything was different and I didn't know how to operate my account properly, now I feel I am a creator- perhaps not to the extent of some though.

I use facebook and social media for exactly that- socialising. When I graduated high school and all my friends went separate ways it became increasingly difficult to stay in contact and meet up when we are all together due to the demands of work, study, sport, family and life in general. Facebook helps us chat to each other and organise those rare outings and keep each other updated. I have 'friends' on facebook who update just about everything except maybe their bowel movements. I feel that isn't utilising facebook properly.

Everything I post I like to think I own. They are usually my thoughts, my words, my opinions, my photos, my friends in the photos (the important word being MY). I created these original pieces of work and I suppose I would like to feel as though they would remain mine. I remember someone telling me that Facebook 'owns' your photos and can use them however they desire. I think that if the picture is on your account only friends can view it and if you want to delete photos or even delete your account; all traces are deleted with it. If Facebook really has that much control, why is there so much cyber-bullying occurring at the moment??

I'm kind of going off track as a new thought pops into my head, but all these issues are related. I think if I were to lose my account tomorrow I would be ok because the photos etc are from my own personal collection already saved on my computer and I don't use the 'wall' to talk about anything serious or really personal, but I would still like to think that everything would be erased from the cyber world.

This is a really interesting topic and I'm annoyed I missed the lecture! I think it's really relevant to today’s society, especially when the age of internet users are constantly decreasing and privacy is becoming more and more harder to protect.