Essay

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“Social network sites such as Facebook have become increasingly popular in recent times.Discuss the “visibility” of Facebook in our lives by examining the various
advantages and disadvantages of its usage.”





Alex Short

Griffith University



Social network sites (SNS) have experienced a meteoric rise in recent years but do we actually notice this medium Facebook? Or do we now merely take it for granted as we do older medium forms such as the telephone, radio or television? Has Facebook become so absorbed into our media environment that we fail to notice its existence? Has Facebook also become “part” of us in the same way that the telephone, speech and the written word has for most of us? In this essay I will define what an SNS is, discuss SNS and Facebook history, briefly outline the structure and nature of Facebook and finally, by examining the positive and negative aspects of Facebook usage, attempt to make more “visible” this social medium that is Facebook. McLuhan (1964, cited in Keep, Mc Laughlin & Palmer 1993).
It seems as though almost overnight sites particularly Facebook have become an integral part of our everyday lives. This rise in popularity of social networks sites is comparable to the
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1930s with wireless radio or the 1950s with the advent of television and its broadcast to the mass audience. Social network sites are essentially web-based services which enable its users to create a profile so as to connect with other users within a community eg. their school, university or work friends, or indeed to connect with the wider public. Often these sites are not only communities of people at same institutions and work places but with other users that share common interests Boyd and Ellison (2007), Muir (2006).
In their infancy SNS were specifically aimed at smaller communities with Facebook itself being a Harvard University site that catered only for Harvard students. The first known SNS (that befits the definition of an actual SNS) was a site called SixDegrees.com which began in
1997 (although it is worth noting that online profiles did already exist on dating sites and other community sites) Boyd and Ellison (2007). From SixDegrees.com stemmed a flurry of SNS in the early part of the new millennium with sites such as BlackPlanet, CYworld Friendster, Couchsurfing and the first giant of the SNS, Myspace in 2003 which originally began as a video sharing site but quickly became a SNS for the wide community (and was the largest of the SNS until it was eclipsed by Facebook at the end of 2008). Other SNS such as Youtube which is largely for video viewing and sharing but is still classed as an SNS, and of course the most recent success story in SNS history – Twitter which began in 2006 and is now the sixth largest of all SNS Facebook Facts and Figures (2009).
Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg whilst he was at Harvard University as a hobby with merely the aim of networking with his fellow students there. Originally called thefacebook it quickly became popular (possibly because it was only available to students actually attending the exclusive university, as the requirement for membership was having a current Harvard email account) and soon spread to Yale and Stanford Universities. With the ensuing growth of its membership base over the follow twelve months, Mark Zuckerberg
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actually left Harvard in 2005 to work on Facebook full-time and the domain name facebook.com was actually in August of the same year, sold for two hundred thousand dollars Facebook-The Complete Biography (2009).
Facebook (2009) is a largely blue page when a user logs into the site. A first time user is instructed to open an account by firstly providing their personal details such as name date of birth address and current email address. The above tab has the home, profile, friends and inbox tabs for the new user to begin designing a profile (including a picture they can upload from their personal computer or mobile phone etc), as well as a settings function tab which allows the user to adjust the security levels they wish to adopt. Becoming increasingly refined Facebook allows the user to access to a wide variety of features such as a posting wall, where they or people they allow can post comments, a photo gallery where they can upload photos, video links where they can upload videos, an events link and a news feed link. The major function is of course the adding of friends and there is a search facility for the user to immigrate friends from other SNS. The user can email instant message or even “poke “ a friend and there is a constant friend suggestion side bar in which Facebook continuously suggests potential friends to the user. The above is the essential recipe for the online interface which is the Facebook medium, now the most popular SNS in the world (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).

I shall start with examining some of the positive aspects of Facebook. Why would it not have become so popular if it did not offer so many positives to our lives? The first is the fact that we are by nature “social creatures”. Facebook offers us a faster and more efficient way to communicate with each other as we can communicate with text, pictures and even video from great distances (this is of course of great benefit to those that may be isolated geographically
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or due to incapacitation etc). With broadband internet becoming less expensive and more accessible this is clearly a positive aspect to not only to internet users but to users of SNS notably Facebook end users. In a study by Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe (2007) it was deduced that Facebook may infact increase social capital. Social capital has been linked to public health Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe, and their study found that increased social capital is linked to lower crime and greater participation in civic activities. Their research showed that Facebook’s ability to promote bridging capital was an invaluable resource for people to keep in contact with old acquaintances such as school friends and former work mates. It was found from their research that an increased bridging capital enabled people of Facebook to seek and find employment etc easier and more affectively as they found it easier to stay in contact with university friends upon graduation (their experiment being conducted using N=286 undergraduate students at Michigan State University). Their research also found that increased social capital was positively correlated with an increase in life satisfaction and self esteem and that it did not replace traditional forms of social capital but actually enhanced older forms and acted as merely an extension of them Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe. These findings were supported in a study by Birnie and Horvath (2002) who found that SNS enhanced rather than replaced traditional forms of social interactions.
Facebook, like all forms of media before it whether early forms such as sign or spoken language, later forms such as written communication and ultimately radio and television media (to name merely a few), has its problems. The first problem I’ll examine is the compulsive nature of Facebook. Is Facebook addictive? And if so, to what extent and why? It seems that wherever one looks nowadays someone is chatting on Facebook. As long ago as 1998 researchers were questioning as to the addictiveness of the internet. In a study by Kandell (1998) “Internet Addiction on Campus: The vulnerability of College Students, this
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issue was examined and it was found that the subjects (students at The University of Maryland) were using the internet at ever increasing levels. The participants exhibited a “withdrawal” effect from its absence, an increased tolerance to the effects of being online and denied much of their problematic behaviour. An article by Muir (2009) indicates prolonged usage may cause certain side-effects. In his article, the “virtual reality” invaded his reality via hallucinations of characters, people and graphics.
During my tutorials and lectures as a student, whilst the lectures and tutes may be very interesting, students are chatting on Facebook. (This is clearly ironic when the actual lecture is on social networking!) Employers are becoming continuously more frustrated with employees doing the same. This is why they like to monitor the use such sites Jones and Soltren (2005). The issue of security is perhaps the most talked about issue or problem with Facebook. Many people choose not to open Facebook accounts at all or they choose give incorrect information in the personal information page when they first open an account changing their name date of birth etc. This is due to the fact that they do not wish to have the general public know personal information about them as they do not have the confidence that they have altered these setting properly or that these security controls are adequate to begin with (nor do they wish to have their details used for marketing), and there have been cases of intruders exploiting security holes and password interceptions made upon unsuspecting users. Acquisti and Gross (2006). In addition to the security concerns of the personal information given when a new user opens an account, the information and comments they post on their profiles and walls, the news feeds, the videos they upload the many other applications they may utilize may contain (and very often do) highly sensitive information about a person. The concern is that these will (and there have been cases where they have) affect the user’s future employment etc. The issue of cyber-bullying and the making of false claims about another
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user(s) is also a major concern for many users with respect to its possible legal consequences, as well the creating of false identities by many users prompting us to question who we are actually networking or communicating with.
If it is free to join then how does Facebook make money? Facebook it is a very large marketing tool. Facebook sells its users information to large corporations, so they can use it for marketing purposes to the surprise of many of its users (most of whom fail to at least adequately, read the terms of conditions in which this is fully stipulated) Boon and Sinclair (2009). This issue is best described by Marshall McLuhan:
“In our new global village the consumers will become the producers.” McLuhan (1962, cited in Keep, McLaughlin & Parmar,1993).
In conclusion, Facebook looks like it is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. It is no longer just a fashionable site to be a user of but it in fact has become an integral part of our lives and an important media form. In this essay I have defined what a SNS is and I have reviewed its short history as well as the even shorter history of the phenomena that is Facebook. I have examined the various advantages and disadvantages of Facebook’s usage and although I discussed many of its apparent faults, its benefits clearly still outweigh its apparent flaws. Facebook is, and I believe will remain, an invaluable tool for us as it will continue to enhance the many areas of our lives. It is due to this importance to us that if it were taken away we would surely notice its absence. And it would be by this noticeable absence that it in effect, would become more visible to us.




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REFERENCES

Acquisti, A., & Gross R. (2006). Imagined communities: awareness, information
sharing, and. Privacy Enhancing privacy on the Facebook Technologies, 4258, 36-58 Retrieved December 6, 2009, from blues.ius.cs.cmu.edu/Ralph/.../acquisti-gross- facebook-privacy-PET.pdf
Birnie, S. A., & Horvath, P. (2002). Psychological predictors of internet social communication. Retrieved December 6, (2009) from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol7/issue4/horvath.html
Boon, S., & Sinclair, C. (2009). A world I don't inhabit: disquiet and identity in
the Second life and Facebook. Educational Media International, 46, 99-110. Retrieved from www.citeulike.org/userbhsieh/article/5495562
Boyd, D.M., & Ellison,N.B., Social network sites: definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 11. Retrieved from http://jcmc.indiana .edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook friends: social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4),1. Retrieved Dember 6 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html
Facebook (2009) Retrieved December 6, from Facebook.com
Facebook Facts and Figures (2009) Retrieved December 6, 2009, from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/facebook5.html
Facebook- The Complete Biography (2009), retrieved December 6, 2009, from http//mashable.com/2006/08/25/facebook-profile/

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Jones, H., & Soltren J. H. (2005) Facebook threats to privacy (2005) Retrieved December 2009 from groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/student-papers/.../facebook.pdf –
Keep,C, Mclaughlin, T. & Parmar, R (1993). The Electric Labyrinth. Retrieved December 6,2009, from http://www2.iath. virginia.edu/elab/
Kandell, J., J. (1998). Internet addiction on campus: the vulnerability of college students. CyberPsychology & Behaviour,1. Retrieved December 6 from www.counseling.umd.edu/Personal/~kandell/iacpbart.htm -
Muir, A., (2006) Internetwork Ecology. Retrieved December 6 from http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/
Muir, A., (2009). Virtual strangers, imaginary friends. Retrieved December 6, 2009. From http://www.griffithreview.com/edition-3/115-essay/504.html
Twitter Lists, Resources and How-Tos. (2009). Retrieved December 6, 2009, from http://netybloggy.blogspot.com/2009/04/twitter-lists-resources-and-how-tos.html

My overall assessment of this course was nothing short of fantastic! Imean this genuinely as our lecturer adam muir was intersting and helpful at all times. He made the lectures as intesting as possible which is obviously very important even when some of the content may have seemed dry or difficult (as many of us are not IT students). He always explained things as simply as possible and made an effort to steer away from technical terms and concepts so as to cater for the students from the many different fields they came from eg psychology nursing etc. and was more than helpful in the tutorials making a concerted effort to keep the work load to a realistic level so as to keep within the strict time limits of the intensive course allowing everyone a realistic time limit to complete the tutorial tasks.

Todays lecture began with a discussion of the invisable environment. media ecology is essentially the study of the media environment and more specifically how the media and the person interract. marshall mcluhan is a notable researcher in this field. one of his publications "media as extentions of man" outlines this concept in that teh media becomes in a way part of us and as a result we may not entirely notice it around us although it may fill our surrounding environment. Another researcher in the media ecological field is neil postman. his focus centred mainly upon language literacy and education whilst marshall mcluhans son eric has continued research in this area with research into ancient languages eg ancient mesopotanian and egyption languages whilst more recent studies by researchers such as adam muir have delved further into the media ecological field researching further into the nature of its existence its causality and its impact and significance upon our lives, proposing many various questions that we can ask so as to make the media environment more visable.

TETRAD old media form -radio- it enhances audio communication- it reverses face to face speach- it retrieves orration and musical performance and it obsolesces it makes the absolute necessity for public orration obsolete.

An new form of media- mobile phones- enhances telephony communication- reversrees being incommunicable whilst away from lined communication - it retrieves the need for vocal communication - whilst making obsolete the inability to vocally communicate at long distances or when in a remote areas.

In todays lecure a mr jason nelson gave us a overall lesson on the internet which really was to say the least fascinating! e looked at various things such as what teh internet is from a new and different perspective. we loked at the speed of teh interent and we lookked security. we discussed downloading and free software not microsoft!!! at the end of the lecture we viewed and discussed some of his digital poetry works. his works as discussed in yesturdays blog is very differnet and intersting. it combines visual sonic aspects as well as traditional text fromat and communication very well. it also involves interraction by the "viewer" or in this case it may be better to call them a "participant" in his art. he outlines why he believed his work to be so successful asnd he explained the different ways things may become better for him as well as more difficult. in conclusion i should say it was amazing! a fascinating guy who has produced fascinating work. as a musicain i learned much of the capabilies of the the internet as well as the many pitfalls and challenges that it can impose for not just "artists" (if i call myself that!) but for everyone.

1. jason nelsons first work that i looked at was one of nine it made me feel imaginative and a little strange in a way. it was confronting and made me think about the internet in regards to online games where users are "enemies" as well as the aspect and issue of piracy on the net with him saying that "he made this u watch this we are enemies." he utilizes different froms of media such as music and visual to convey his ideas. 2 stunningly harmful songs made me feel annoyed and uncomfortable. it lived up to its title of "stunningly harmful songs!" he also utises video game technolgy and ideas to convey his ideas. 3. superstitious appliances was thought proking in that it was quite intelligent. it looked at superstitions from and intelligent perspective and was at times quite amsing! the differnt areas of a gothic city, when clicked displayed different appliaces and objects that are often associated with superstition and within these screens there was a jumble" of words in rhym that conveyed an intelligent and often whimsical idea. once agian jason utilises text visual and sound to convey his ideas. this is of course comparableto tradition poetry that only ulilizes text.

todays lectures centred around firslt of all internet restrictions that have been proposed by different authorities and governments around the world. the liberal party first proposed the concept being proposed in australia a couple of years ago but it is the current government rudd which had entertained the idea and obviously has the power or at least the potential power to enforce such policies. we discussed the ethical aspects of internet restrictions of how and to what extent these restrictions should be imposed. countries such as swedon and the UK are two countries whcih have relatively strict restrictions already as compared to most other countiries. wll australia follw them? the second half of our lecture looked at copy-righting on the internet. the legal and illegal downloading of music and movies particularly was discusssed and the potential for government to impose laws to restrict this "pirating" of other peoples material and intellectual property.

epetition.org allows me to sign a epetition. nataliegs777's davespress.com is a site which allows me to sign epetitions. Openforum.com.au 2009, http://www.openforum.com.au/taxonomy/term/38>
https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/EPetitions_QLD/Confirmation.aspx? tells me when my local member last spoke in paliament
http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/09/the-mustread-book-for-obamas-war-team.html>
http://twitter.com/> tells me whoat obama is up to today.
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/legislativeAssembly/documents/memberBio/InauguralSpeech/Attwood.PDF
is sa site which allows me to find out what my local members of parliament are up to today. and to let tehm know what i think of their recent speech.
the governments plans to censor the internet with their so called clean feed is a very complex issue. they wil need to be mindful of freedom of speech which is of course a right and and an integral part of constutional law in this country and many other democracies of course.

todays lecture centred upon democracy and the internet, notably cyberpolitics and edemocracy. we looked at how the internet and politics combine so as to operate together. the rapid growth of new communication technologies has impacted geatly upon most if not all areas in our world not least politics. it has connected our large world and made it smaller and has given more people a political voice and made it easier and faster to communicate with people in general and therefore with political institutions and politicain. it has recently influenced elections. most notably last years presdential electon. obama and his followers used the internet very afectivly. obama girl was a persfect eg of theis reaching the mass audience of youtube. kevin rudd and his supporters utilised the internet to keep upto date with new communication technologies. the recent ETS has been influence by the internet. politican have actually changed their stance on theis policy due to thousands of emails from people in there electorates and this has even signalled a leadership debate within the liberal party.
todays lecture also discussed the nesecity for people to be computer literate for the above reason so as to be better able to be polically active.

1. an article by danah boyd and nicole ellison (2007) social network sites: definition history and scholarship from the journal of computer mediated communication defines and explains the history and innovation of social networking. it briefly discusses teh different types of social network sites and their basic roles or functions. it is relevant to my essay as it directly relates to facebook the biggest of all the social network sites.

2. an article by ellison steinfield and lampe "the benefits of facebook friends" looks at the benefits and disadvantages of facebook. this is clearly relevant to my essay as the various positives and negatives indicate the overall impact facebook may be having on our lives.it discusses teh bonding and bridging benefits of facbook as well as maintained social capital ( the ability of a person to stay connected to a previously inhabited community eg an old school job etc. the journal also discusses benefits such as improving self esteem and overall psychological well being.

3. an article by stuat boon and christine sinclair " a world i dont inhabit: disquiet and identity in second life and facebook" examins some of the disadvantages of facebook in education eg schools universities in particular the affect that teh "disquiet" of these sites have as well as the existence of users commonly having virtual personalities.

4. an article by harvey jones and jose hiram soltren (2005) "threats to privacy" examins the security aspects of facebook to its users. the reality of marketing by large firms and the use of perosnnal information for marketing purposes by firms. it discusses teh difffernt measures that facebook takes to allow its endusers to make their perosnnal information only availble to teh peole they wish it to be made available to although information is stil used by firms for marketing purposes.

5. an article by sarah birnie and peter horvath (2002) " psychological predictors of internet social communication examins the psychological aspects of online communication and social networks in particular the role it plays upon a users tendency toward sociability and shyness but more importantly it supported the theory that internet communication and social networks were merely an extension of traditonal social forms and didnt necessarily replace them.

6. an article by jonathon kandell (2009) " internet addiction on campus: the vulnerability of college students" outlines the exisence and the nature of addictive internet usage among many college students and the possible reasons for this addictive behaviour.

7. alessandro acquisti and ralph gross (2006) :imagined communities: awareness, information sharing and privacy on facebook. discuss the various implications both positive and negative with facebook in particular negative aspects such as the availablitity of personnal information that many endusers provide publicly on facebook.

todays lecture centred upon video games and their role and importance in todays society. video games were first used as far back as 1954 although as primitive and as simple as they were they were also hidden and not widely known or spoken of with one of the earliest being a game called "spacewar". a video we watched aired by bbc4 proposed teh idea that video games would eventually overtake other larger media forms such as telvision and cinema as the leading forms of entertainment. the history of video games was discussed with reference to other possibly more serious applications such as military purposes particularly with reference to simulation (notably war games) as well as simulation for medical purposes eg distance operations.
different schools have differing ideas or philosophies on teh nature of video games. one school (the narratology school) propose that video games must tell a story. the ludology school propose that they must be graphical whilst an alternative another school propose that they are infact a combination of and that they must involve simulation and an adherence to a set of rules.

In todays lecture we looked at virtual philosophy. The question as to wheether the virtual world is infact a real world in the sense that it is part of of our everyday life. In the movie the matrix which was made back i the mid nineties, this questions was brought to the large or wider audience. It seemed to suggst the way in which technology was heading and therfore the direrction in which all our lives were heading. the french philosophers , Dleeuze and Guatttanis ideas were discussed and it was proposed that if there ideas were supported then virtual reality is infact or at least is probably best considered a real and genuine part of our lives. Finally the video on "Second life" also prooposed that all of us would have a "second life or a virtual life. further supporting the concept that the virtual is infact real.

computer rage

this video was part of a turorial exercise to make out own video. ive only ever doen music ones where i record live so this was fun just for the exercise. its just a compilation of pictures with a voice-over telling a silly little story about a cat trouble shooting my computer after i develop bad computer rage. hope u enjoy!

In todays lecture we loooked at 1. the community 2. collaboration and 3. choice . with respect to software. we discussed rcreative commons first of all . creative commons (or CC) was creatied by lawrence lessig in december 2002 with the purpose of enabling some rights to intellectual property and software property rather than having all rights reserved.within this community anyone may copy and distribute so long as the licensee credits the creator and licensor but must 1. be totally non commercial 2. make or produce no derivatives and 3. share and share alikejthe intellectual content.
Software is separated into first of all proprietary software and free software. A free software community called GNU ( which stands for GNUs Not Unix) was created by Richard Stallman in the 1981 so as to make freely available software to the world. This is comparable to proprietary software eg Microsoft. The open source community was thus established and it was named so as to avoid the use of the word "free".

1.he wore a gas mask whilst riding his bike. (caslon analytics biographies)
2.the 1st email was sent in 1971 by ray tomlinson between 1 computer at UCLA and another at stanford research center. (inventors.about.com)
3. bill gates was born on the 25th october 1955. he sold his first soft ware at age 13. (inventors.about.com)
4. the www was invented in CERN Geneva switzerland. (w3.org)
5.the computers used 30 years ago were obviously a great deal less powerful and slower the memory was only about 120 gb and the speed was dramatically slower..(articlesbase).
6.18lb 6 oz (vintageassessments.com)
7.159. the tweed R is in nsw because in 1859 on the 6th june letters patented on this date show that teh border was to lie between the point danger and the rivers to the line of parrallel 29 degrees south.(ga.gov.au)
9.lord byron is still remembered in venice because he lived there. (englishhistory.net).
10.stephen stockwell the black assassins.

In todays lecture we discussed new media first of all. we discusssed themes from internet studies. first of all we discussed the virtual community and the individual identity. this is examined in depth in Howard Rheinholds book the Virtual Reality (1993). The individuals identity is also examined in Sherry Turkles book "Life on the Screen" (1995). It was put forward that the internets social media sites have developed from being specialised sites from the early days in the 90s where people would chat online mainly if they were infact using the internet at all to huge sites that we have today that millions of people use eg facebook etc. it was also noted that people obviously upload pictures and create profiles to portray differnt alternative profiles to other than who they really are.
the year 2000 saw the advent of web 2.0 due to the dot com crash. this event saw the innovation of various including tagging, user generated content and open API.
Social media essentially includes 1. weblogs/blogs eg microblogs and twitter. 2.social network services eg facebook, and 3. content sharing communities eg youtube. social media has taken a leap in the last five years or so from "geeky" to "normal" as a person almost feeling out of place in todays society if they are not savy to sites such as facebook etc.

Like millions of people around the world i use facebook, myspace and also msn for socialisng purposes. I have been using them really only for a couple of years before that i really only emailed. As a busy person i discovered that chatting online was not only good to stay up to date with new communicaton technologies but also as a time saving tecnique in which i could chat whilst doing work for uni etc. i found out thru word of mouth as well thru mainstream media. Privacy was as still is a huge issue for me. i am vry careful what information i post on my facebook page. facebook asd the like make their profits from advertisng as well as selling peoples details for marketing purposes. these companies should be more open about what they do with our information and make sure it is kept as securely as is possible. i have some friends that i only chat with online. i personally find it far more boring than knowing them in real life. online these people sem to only be a picture and lines of text rather than an actual person in some ways.

This used to be new technology for my grandparents its seems communication technology has improved at an expenential rate. I chose this video because its fascinating how things have changed in telecommunications.

In todays lecture it was noted that theres is a marked difference between the internet and the web, the web being merely a part and a function of the internet. The terms "cyber" and "cyberspace" were discussed and we considered the "reality" or indeed "non-reality" of the internet and how it can create illusions within peoples lives in terms of there social lives particularly. In 1972 Karl Hopper believed that there were three "worlds" that we lived in 1. the physical/material world. 2) the subjective consciencious eg feelings. and 3. The public structures that allow people to communicate with each other eg. the internet.

In our lecture today we began with the history of computers. It is widely believed that the very first computers were investned in primitive form as early as the 1700s to perform mathematical functions and thus were simple calculators. In the 19th century Charles Babbage and his partner Aida Byron (daughter of Lord Byron), were believed to be the parents of what we commonly know as the computer although it wasnt until World War 2 that these machines were utilized in a more practical way with Alan turings cracking of the Germans enigma code.
In the 1940s IBM were the first company to produce computers. Although it is not officially recognied until the 1950s.
At Zerox PARC in the early 1970s the invention of the mouse, drop down lists and graphical interface began i new age in information technology although in the 1970s Bill Gates claims to be the real inventor although many believe he was only the first to patent theses innovations rather than actually invent them. Gates BASIC computer language was the first of its type in world and this invention co insided with his starting of the giant conglomerate Microsoft.It was at this stage that computers took a giant leap in their development with other pioneers such as Apple co founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak aslo producing what we commonly refer to as the personal computer or the "PC".
The internet was invented in a very simple form forty years ago in 1969 (yes it would have been very slow then!) It was initially called the Arpanet and it was soon after this in 1971 that Ray Tomlinson invented and sent the very first email (and in 1979 the usernet was invented and 1979 saw the advent of the first emoticon (the smilie).

If any of you are interested please go to www.youtube/stopkillingwhales to see my music videos (for free!). These were just recorded for a bit of fun in my loungeroom. There are covers as well as originals please enjoy. I will endeavour to record some more music and upload some mp3s in the near future. I did have some on jjj unearthed last year and will hopefully enter some more in the competition there in their next competition next year (just for fun of course). Please stay posted on here for updates on this exciting news!

As a new blogger i am fascinated to learn of the many worlds this could open for me. Although i am of course familiar with facbook and other social networks blogging is in reality my own website in effect. this opens up a new world to me in that i can convey not only what i want to type in text for people to read but as a musician, this is another way i can allow people to listen and download my music and/or video clips (assuming they want desire to). Perhaps i could steer my family and friends toward my blog although it needs to be said that most people i know are more likely to search me on facebook or myspace to see my music or videos as most people i know are quite familiar with these sites and are of course more intersted in "surfing" on them they they are in surfing bloggs such as these! I hope that maybe one day people actually pay to download my mp3s as i also own the rights to these. Problem is, how badly do they actually want to own a copy of my music? Afterall my friends can already watch my videos on youtube for free anyway as indeed they can quite legally for just about any of their favourite artists nowadays.

opening blog

Today marked the first day of the summer semester course "New Information Technologies". It also marked the opening of my first blog account as i have never blogged before. Nevertheless, like everyone in this course (and the most of the wider public), I am relatively well-versed in major modern technologies (not an expert by any means) but I of course utilize the internet and its many dimensions particularly social networks eg facebook etc. on a daily basis.
In our initial lecture we briefly outlined the major forms of modern information technologies, eg mobile phones, emails, instant messaging etc. were discussed. Additionally, we discussed the history of communication itself and its primitive communication forms such as simple visual and phonetic communication progressing to more advanced language. We then examined technology and its movement from its older forms such as the written word to print, progressing to radio, film and television then finally into what we have today in the internet. The nature of the internet was also reviewed in Jonathan Zittrain's video "the kindness of strangers" which looked at the security of the internet and at how large sites such as youtube and wikipedia have been saved from hijacking by the "kindness of strangers" on at least one occasion. These people seemed to be doing this for merely altruistic purposes rather than for payment or recognition.