Digital Privacy: If You've Done Nothing Wrong, Do You Have 'Nothing to Hide'?

Plenty of people will tell you that you don't really care, or shouldn't care, or need not bother caring, because the protected space of our personal lives disappeared in the olden days of the 1990s. These people do not have your interests at heart. They depend on the hope that you'll forget about privacy the same way you forget about that camera in the elevator. Oracle's Larry Ellison ( "the privacy you're concerned about is largely an illusion") is the guy who wants to supply software for a national ID system. Facebook's Marc Zuckerberg (there's no more "social norm" of privacy) owns a multibillion dollar business based on extracting your intimate details. (Here's an illuminating graphic that shows how Facebook does it.) Google's Eric Schmidt, whose company depends on promiscuous data collection, endorsed the FBI equation of secrecy with wrongdoing: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Everyone has something to hide. Privacy is relational. It depends on the audience. You don't want your employer to know you're job hunting. You don't spill all about your love life to your mom or friends. You don't tell trade secrets to your rivals. We don't expose ourselves indiscriminately, and we care enough about exposure to lie as a matter of course. Among upstanding citizens, researchers have consistently found that lying is "an everyday social interaction" (twice a day among college students, once a day in the Real World). Remember the disasters that befell Jim Carrey in that movie plot that left him magically unable to fib for even one day? Comprehensive transparency is a nightmare.


Self-protection is a powerful instinct -- we try to safeguard our families, reputations and careers -- but instinct alone won't protect you in cyberspace. Digital security is full of trade-offs, a shifting balance of risk and cost and convenience. Your choices will depend on the stakes and threat as you see them.

This Semester.....

This disclaimer has nothing to do with the following post but I just wanted to post Dec. 1 because my birthday is in twenty-five days. Let the parade commence….you may continue.

My reasons for wanting to go down this EMAC path became ever clearer over Thanksgiving break. I went with my mom to get her hair done on black Friday. The woman was talking about her and hair. She went on to ask me what I do and once people hear that you’re in school they go on to ask the usual questions. What are you majoring in? Really? What do you want to do with your degree once you’re done?

I told the lady about my interest in EMAC and how my ten year goal is to start a magazine geared towards minority youth. I told her that I chose EMAC because it studies all sorts of new media and the impact they have on society. The lady then went on to tell me that she has brought several books to improve the quality of her businesses Facebook statues. I was like really… She told me that basically what I studying is what she is trying to learn now.

That got me thinking about businesses that have been around before the internet came into play and how they’re readjusting to this new and constantly expanding digital age. They could go back to school but most don’t have time for that so they buy books such as Facebooking for dummies, books about putting out quality statues, books about how to reach the consumer and bring them online.

This goes on to say that there will always be a job opening/position for those studying new media because most older companies don’t have time to go back to school but instead hire someone to do it and bring their company into the digital community.

Knowing that others outside of the program find what I study and research interesting just as I do is sort of like an energy boost. I came into this program open and willing to learn about new and evolving social media/ networks/digital communities. With this new understand it has even caused me to focus in on what I really want to do with my life. From the readings to the blogs to the tweets to the constant research has opened me up to so many new possibilities.

Questions:

1. How has the program impacted your life and/or way of thinking?

2. How does the knowledge that you will acquire at the end of this program effect your current or future employment endeavors?

3. What do you want for Christmas?

Fast Forwarding Through Commercials

I can’t remember the last time I watched something on live TV.

Do people with DVRs even watch the commercials? I have a friend who doesn’t like to fast forward through the commercials because for him it “messes with the flow” of the program. I’m in the “fast forwarder” group. So does this group even see the commercials?

There are studies that confirm commercials that are fast-forwarded are seen and have good recall. The theory on this is you have to pay even closer attention to the commercials so you stop the fast forward in time to not miss any of your show. I couldn’t agree more—I’ve even found myself repeating lines from commercials while fast forwarding through them!

With the widespread usage of DVRs and expected continued growth are TV commercials obsolete? My answer would be no. While the media mix for advertisers is changing to include more social media and two way conversations, TV commercials remain one of the most effective ways to advertise for many business categories.

Hmmm…When will we see commercials designed to be viewed on a DVR or specifically geared to DVRs with a message? A great example would be a commercial with graphics that works without sound.

The best ads created today look great and still communicate a message in fast forward and without sound. Gone are the days of minimal text and cool music catching people’s attentions. If you can’t tell what the brand is in triple time, then the commercial is failing.

Entry Under Construction

I'm having a bit of difficulty wrapping my mind around this weeks topic. Also my mind has been going so much this week that its difficult to stop and get a decent idea in. So I'm hoping that if I allow my mind some down time today that it will allow me to blog about convergence.

May I Have a Piece of Your Attention Please?

Disclaimer: This blog was brought to you as I watched Spongebob, listened to music, washed clothes, surfed the internet, texted and drank some juice. Enjoy!

Every morning I wake up I reach for two things—my phone and the remote control. I check text messages, missed calls and emails on my phone. While the local or national news is going on in the background. It has gotten to the point where I don’t like silence there has to be some kind of noise or something taking place in the background. Whenever I go to sleep the T.V. is on but on low.

When I was watching “May I Have Your Attention Please” I realized that she was talking about me. In the beginning Linda Stone asked a series of questions and I could answer yes to every single one of them. Stone went on to talk about continuous partial attention(CPA) and how it is different from simple multitasking. With CPA your full attention is never fully given to one subject or task that you’re doing causing a artificial sense of constant crises. The brain is always thinking that there is something to be done and never powers down. Even when you’re sleeping your brain is in full effect thinking about what needs to be done tomorrow and the days following. Stone goes on to describe how CPA can leave one feeling unfulfilled, over stimulated and over whelmed.

Now with simple multitasking its more productivity centered. Stone describes how one or both activities are automatic/routine. For example talking on the phone and washing dishes it is communication centered vs productivity centered. Both activities require cognition.

Then Katherine Hayes goes a little further and talks about hyper attention and deep attention. Hyper attention is more adaptive than deep attention and the example she gives is an air traffic controller. The traffic controller needs to be able to switch between screens and change tasks quickly.
What things or tasks require deep attention though? Reading a book? Writing a paper? Studying for a test? What? What activities in your life require a person just to stop and focus on that one event?

Hayes goes on to explain how these things are creating even shorter attention spans in generation m. So many children are being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD that it’s a quick solution and diagnoses. I believe that it’s a easy way out for parents and doctors so they can just give children medicine to calm down but that’s another topic for another day. Hayes goes on mention that the trend in hyper attention will accelerate as the years pass and society calls for us to do even more task at once.

What I got out of this weeks reading and video is that even though various levels of multitasking may be necessary its still being over done. I made a comment to someone that I feel over stimulated and how I want to disappear from this place if only for a day to collect my thoughts. I also said how I have so many things going on at once that I feel spread then. I would rather do one project well at a time than do million projects at the same time and they turn out mediocre.

Hyper attention or deep attention which is better? Simple multitasking or continuous partial attention which one is the lesser of two evils?

When I write anything I break it down into small paragraphs so that one the reader will understand and two to hold their attention. Also, over the years my attention span as grown shorter and shorter. I love reading but I just can't find the time to stop and read a book. If I stopped how would things get done? I'm laughing to myself as I type this too.

I think that I have rambled on long enough and I believe my ADD truly came into effect. So if I haven’t held your attention long enough I hope you enjoy this little video.

My________

Guess who is back and better than ever? One of the original social networking sites Myspace. According to Mashable.com they rolled out at a whole new look that started today and will continue until November.

I find this to be interesting because in the back of my mind I’m constantly questioning what the heck happened to Myspace. It use to be on then Facebook blew up and it fell off. When they came out with “Social Network” about Facebook I also wondered if they were going to make a movie about Myspace. It could be titled “The Life and Death and Rebirth of a Social Network.”

Myspace will no longer contain the million templates that one could choose from. The user now has a choice of just seven templates. Do you remember when you put so many graphics on your page that it would cause it to load slowly? It was like there was some kind of race to see who could have the most random graphics, songs, displays and everything else on their one page. Their format is more of a block style so that its easier to follow what is going on in certain topics and trends.

One thing that I really like about the revamping is now they are exclusively focused on a certain group. If you’re between the ages of 13-35 then you can be on there. I say that is a good age group especially since Myspace will be much more focused on entertainment and artist rather than just being all the way random.

See, Myspace saw that they had a problem and was being out done by other social networks. They didn’t completely die off but they fixed it or accommodated to the new social media atmosphere. Most of these changes are just the tip of the iceberg and they will be continuing their changes.

Does this mean that I will go join Myspace again? Most likely not I feel over connected now and wish not to create any other accounts. I’m glad that they could accommodate and stay in the game with todays ever changing media.

I Steal and You Can Too

Hello, my name is Danelle and I illegally download and watch movies and music online. It’s really not a hard task. Come on in and let me tell you about it.


When it comes to technical, coding and hacking I guarantee you that I’m very basic at it. I was first introduced to this thing called downloading music off the internet for free a long time ago. This had to be one of the greatest inventions. No longer did I have to obtain my music legally, I could download a little program and let the sharing begin. Now don’t look at me like that, I know what you’re thinking but its okay as long as you don’t get caught right. Right?


With the way the internet is developing why not get everything for free offline? I do see the issues of downloading music offline and how it can effect that persons records sales but if we figured out a way for it to work for us, why can’t they.


Now not all of my music downloading is illegal, lately I have been using a lot of torrents. As I was reading through some of the blogs and Twitter comments I found it hilarious that some people were worried, dare I even say scared, to even use torrents. Torrents are not bad for you; they make finding and sharing music and everything else quite easier.


Okay, I have to confess I’m not really illegally downloading all this music. It’s more like file sharing and that’s better right? Right?
I don’t have an issue with the way I acquire my music. I can’t tell you the last time I bought a CD. If music artist are not doing as well in this ever growing and changing digital age then they should find a way to make it work for them.



Discussion Question:
What was your recent illegal or legal download?





And just in case…