As I listened to Eric Hanberg's presentation, it made me aware of how everything I've ever posted online is a publication. The story he shared about privacy and Facebook is both alarming and quite unethical. He mentioned that he had posted a comment online which stated his opinion about a topic and interestingly enough, he ended up not getting hired for a job because of it.
In my communication classes, we discuss a lot of topics regarding social media and privacy. One topic that stood out to me that was very similar to Eric's experience, and it contained a woman who did not get hired for a job with an organization because of this Facebook status she posted online:
Every person conveys meaning in various ways. The Facebook status above may suggest that this woman went to a party, had one too many drinks, is hungover and possibly had allowed her children to also consume alcohol. The following week, the woman had a job interview for an organization who frequently used Facebook to "judge" their candidates. If you hadn't guessed already, because of this Facebook status, she didn't get the job. Want to know the real meaning behind her post? She was at her niece's sweet 16 party, ate the "special" entree and endured food poisoning because of it.
With many other cases that are similar to this, we can only hope that not all organizations practice the same hiring procedures. I mean, that IS what LinkedIn is for right??? More importantly, we should be well aware of the fact that whatever it is we put on the internet is published. Like Eric had mentioned, "if it's not on the internet, it never happened."
In the Machine is Us/ing by Michael Wesch, we see a form of transformation - from simple HTML to stylistic ones that intertwined form and content to be "inseparable," as the video describes. It shows how everyone that is digitally inclined, is also connected with each other. Upon viewing The Machine is Us/using Us, it sparked a memory of a documentary I watched in my Approaches to Mass Communication class called "Generation Like."
As an avid user of social media, PBS opened my eyes to an entirely new perspective of social media, marketing and the evolution of technology in general. Considering my major in Communication and minor in Business, I often am exposed to the ethics side of technology and the business side. While many people don't think twice about clicking "like" on Facebook or retweeting a tweet on twitter, businesses utilize those actions to help them generate awareness for their brands and eventually, profits. The power of technology is both fascinating and alarming at the same time. At the end of Wesch's video, he ends with the sentence: "We'll need to rethink a few things..." and one after the other, these words appear: copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, aesthetics, rhetorics, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family and ourselves.
In relation to Generation Like, the word ethics stands out to me. Generation Like shows how everyday consumers are used as marketers, specially through social media platforms. With every like, share and re-tweet clicked on, we as consumers are creating awareness and profits for a brand, new movie and etc. - without even knowing it! While many consumers, specially younger individuals, thrive in the satisfaction of likes or shares, they are unaware that their actions are a form of marketing. The thought of ethics comes into mind - is it ethically right that consumers are used as marketers, commentators, innovators (the list can go on and on)? Just as the title of the video says, The Machine is Us/ing Us - we are being used as technology evolves. But are we being used or are we encouraging the machines to use us?
I remember the first moment I used the internet. I was 11 years old and was thrilled when my parents finally allowed me to explore the world wide web via dial-up internet. Excitedly, I sat on the chair, turned the computer on and waited patiently as this sweet sound connected me to the internet:
As soon as I was connected, I quickly became amazed at how I could do things such as blogging in Xanga, playing virtual billiards with people from around the nation (with parental supervision) and being able to easily download video clips, music and photos (even if it took me 30 minutes to download one photo). Reminiscing about those days when I would get upset at a sibling because they would pick up the phone during my time with the internet, allows me to appreciate how much technology, the world wide web and the internet has evolved into something that is now so common in everyday life.
I registered for TINST 207 with the reason of only needing it to satisfy my credits to graduate in June, however, the lectures have sparked my interest with the history of these technological softwares and devices. As a Communication major and Business minor, I often see both the pros and cons that come along with the constant changes of technology, and how they affect the consumers. What I want out of the class is to learn more more about technologies that allow society to use the World Wide Web, the danger it may hold for younger generations and the ethics behind it all. Cheers to a quarter of discovering the answers to my curiosities and learning how dial-up internet means nothing now but a mere memory of the past!
