Technology in our Everyday Lives

Being watched, CCTV and other forms of everyday unknown filming

... good or bad?

... positive or negative?

Everywhere we go we are being watched, filmed, photographed; from speed and security cameras to home video and personal photographs. Today's world is all about technology that revolves around being recorded.

On something as simple as a phone, you have: a camera, video recorder, voice recorder and video chat. All of which allow you to record yourself and/or others in one way or another.

There is ongoing debate about whether CCTV is a good or bad thing in society. Some argue that it helps keep the streets safe, where as other say it is an invasion of privacy.

I think that although it is uncomfortable knowing that almost everywhere you go you are being viewed or recorded on camera, they have been put in place for good reasons. I do believe that they help to protect people and additionally help catch those doing wrong, breaking the law ect.

Other points:

Above are bullet point lists of positives and negatives I created to clearly show the good and bad points of having CCTV cameras. There are clearly more positives than negatives as CCTV helps to make society a safer place. With the threat of being caught on camera less people are likely to do something against the law as there is always the chance they can be caught and have video evidence held against them.

 

Although this is just a clip taken form you-tube, from the film Scary Movie it makes you think, to what extent do people respect CCTV and the ideas revolved around it.

Even today  when CCTV is a big part of peoples lives , some don't respect it... Have you never stuck your tongue out at at a camera when you see the sign 'CCTV in process'? People just can't help going against rules or having a laugh when it comes to being on camera. 

For example, when seeing a sign in a shop that says 'do no touch', I automatically want to touch it, just for the sake of it, because I can. This is what some people are like when they see other signs for example a 'no smoking' sign or a 'do not park here sign they feel as though they cannot be controlled when they go against these 'rules'. The same happens when are in front of a camera. Although it is clear to everyone that there are CCTV cameras everywhere people still do things like urinate in public places and commit acts of vandalism such as graffiti even though they no that there is a possibility that they are being recorded.

Technology has evolved so much that it is very hard for you to not get caught commuting a crime, especially in highly populated areas. 

The more people that live in an area, the more likely there are video cameras, this also goes for places of importance. The more cameras the easier it is to catch people.

People have seen CCTV as a joke, but for some when it comes to filming, the jokes on them. 

This was the case for three people when they decided to joyride a BUS!

                                                          (Click image for link to the full story)

Okay, yes some may find joyriding a bus fun, and they did beat the system when it comes to being caught on CCTV, but to show your own identity on film and then taking the time to posting an act that breaks the law on YOU-TUBE, viewable by ANYONE is kind of stupid!!

Above are images that I took from google images and clip art, I added captions (think and speech bubbles) in order to show the story clearly as the video was later (unfortunately) removed for you-tube.

Technology in our everyday lives overall has a lot more positives than it does negatives. This is obvious because if the negatives out weighed the positives there wouldn't be 'an estimated 5 million CCTV cameras; that one for every 12 citizens'.

Britain alone has 'more than 20 percent of the world's CCTV cameras' even though Britain is only 0.2 percent of the world's land mass. 

http://www.newstatesman.com/200610020022

Interface, Idenitiy and Representation

"User Interface is a means by which people interact with a particular machine, device or computer programme." http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/user_interface.html

iPad, and any smart phone (such a blackberry or iPhone) can be classed as interface, because you can do multiple things with it- including interact.

Devices like these enable people to use the Internet, download (apps or) applications, as well as use the phone, text and use instant messenger. With Blackberry for example you can use 'Blackberry messenger' (BBM).

A divide labelled as interface is powerful as it has more than one use,it allows someone to use more than one system of communication at once the term interface includes the layout and how the controls of the device respond. This is mostly because it is interactive, the user can touch and interact with the screen . Almost as though your finger is a magnet and inside the device there is another magnet and when they connect the device comes to life

...

The definition below is taken from an online dictionary full explains the world inside the computer, known as the virtual world...

Virtual World Definition: A virtual world is a genre of online community that often takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment, through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. Virtual worlds are intended for its users to inhabit and interact, and the term today has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of avatars visible to others graphically. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three dimensional graphical representations, although other forms are possible (auditory and touch sensations for example). Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users.

Below is a spider diagram I created to show different forms of identity and how one person can have different [arts to their identity.

Cyberspace, just much do people's avatars really resemble and truly represent themselves?

(Do we have an audience when connected to these sites? Do we have different identities for different websites? and Who is accessing your information online?)
 

In cyberspace you can be your own person, everything is virtual, you can even give virtual hugs and kisses, basically cyberspace is a place where you can exaggerate your personality.

Many sites on the inter allow you to create your own person/ image of yourself, Facebook for example has programs like  ‘Farmville’ linked to it, where you can make a mini character of yourself. You have the ability to change skin tone, hair styles, clothing ect. Like the video game ‘The Sims’ you can be who you want to be in the environment of your choice.You can even create and design you own house.

The above image shows a birds eye view of 'Sims' house that someone has created, complete with a Sims family inside showing just how advanced the 'cyberworld' can be.

Farmville is not the only place you can create a virtual character there are many other sites of similar aim; ‘Habbo Hotel’, ‘Ciytville’ ect. 

For example, I created a Habbo Hotel account, 7 years ago when I was in year 8, and haven't been on it since year 10 so that's 5 years! Some how I managed to remember my account and password and so I've just logged in. Wow, it's changed, the overall idea of the site has remained the same however the communication and socialising rooms have completely changed, everything has been modernised. 

In terms of identification I have the same user name that I had created 7 years ago 'Devil111', this is just comical! The fact that I created this so long ago explains my ridiculous character name. At the time I created it I think I wanted to come up with something interesting, different and a bit 'out there'. Its funny because during the time I made it, age 12/13, I was innocent, never got into trouble or didn't anything reallyyy bad, I hardly every even got detention so the fact that I called myself 'devil' I just have to LOL!!

Its interesting, 'Habbo Hotel's caption/ moto is, 'make friends, join the fun, get noticed!' and at a young age I wanted to do exactly that. This just shows that anyone can misrepresent themselves, even without intending to. People don't always show there identity in a true way. There are so many ways to deceive people. Intentionally and unintentionally. There are so many options when creating your 'mini-me', you can be any one, create yourself in anyway you like. Different categories give you the option of being anything you want, and updating 'yourself' at any time. Skin colour, hair colour, clothes, shoes, accessories, even facial features; you can give your character a big nose or a small one, green eyes or even purple eyes, it's all up to you and your personal choice.

Since starting uni I haven't really used 'Farmville' but as it wasn't long ago that I stopped using it I think that it would be a very good example.

Below is an image showing one of the options that you can use when creating your mini person, it's so simple, go through your options, pick your favourite or what most suits you and at a click of a button it's done.

Below is the avatar that I created to represent me on Facebook, I've also included a picture of me that I once had on my Facebook profile as a comparison, I chose this (kinda weird pose but oh well) photo to show the similarities and differences between the way I look and the way my character looks.  I like my avatars to as much like me as possible =) .

                                                                                                      ...


Having different games and sites that cater to every means that everyone is happy. It’s great that there is a place for everyone to make their own ‘mini me’ on the net, whether your into films, sports or chess, it’s just another way to socialise.

                              

                               Above is an image of my avatar in the 'Farmville society'.

In a way our audience on a site when we represent our selves through characters  is the other people connected to that site. Everyone makes their profile knowing that other people are going to see it or read it, that is what makes our audience people that we interact with. Old friends, new friends, family ect.

Most people have separate identities for different sites without even realising it. It’s like having a password, or homepage, we often have more than one and in terms of home pages they are not always in the same layout. For example a person may have a different layout, picture or overall persona on a social networking site like Facebook compared to their Bebo or Myspace. I additionally depends on what is on offer form the sites as a site like Myspace is more free in layout and design that Facebook where everyone is equal as everyone is as human.

The majority of websites have pass codes/ passwords as well as the option to change your setting, even Blogger does. People have the right to privacy, if someone didn’t want another specific person to see something on their profile it is possible for that person to be blocked. I believe this to be very important as everyone is individual and some people prefer more privacy than other so the option should be available.

The Birth and Death of Cyberspace

How and why cyberspace was created and what impact does it have? (The birth and death of cyberspace and how it relates to real life)

Cyberspace = the creation of a new world.

                                (google images showing the electronic world, cyberspace that later creates world that resemble the one we live in )

The creation of a new electronic world. A world of which anything can happen, away from the normal world. The term cyberspace was first used by William Gibson, it's all about science and electronic communication.

To understand the idea of cyberspace i found that thinking of  the 'Matrix' helps as it is along the lines of that.

Its a virtual world, the characteristics of which are made up by the computerised environment.

Virtual worlds are common nowadays, it's like a separate online community, they can be found in online games and video games such as 'Halo' and 'Second Life

"cyberspace is socialising however through a computer, it's all quite technical when you look at it in depth"

(Charlie Nelson, computer graphics expert)

Birth:

The creation of cyberspace itself, when the whole idea was made real. People being able to connect and interact in a virtual world with a character as to represent themselves.

When the cyber/ online world was created/born.

Death:

The world of cyberspace is now seen as so normal, ordinary and like an everyday thing that it is starting to loose the its label. Before cyberspace was a whole new world, away from real life. But no, cyberspace is real life, it is the way of the world. 

People now use Internet social networking and online sites as though they are a part of everyday life and so the term 'cyberspace' is being used less and less.

How is cyberspace similar and different to real life?

similar:   Every one is presented visually as human

                 anyone and everyone is welcome

different: Online 

                 Everyone is more friendly

                 Not face to face

                 No full contact or interaction

                 have to access via computer

There was recently a documentary on channel 4 about a boy addicted to porn. You may be thinking what has this got to do with cyberspace... well... he would connect to the porn sites through chat rooms and virtual sites. Additionally he would watch avatars/ virtual world characters have sex like in this image below taken from the website wwww.moove.com.

This obsession lead to him loosing his girlfriend as she could understand how someone could happily stay in the house 3 days in a row watching porn instead of going out with her! 

 The sites are a world that does not exist although he knows this he found it more interested in meeting people and connecting with them on websites rather than in real life. He claimed that 'it's easier' people out there on these particular sites no what you want and you no what they want. In some way this proves to be true, the link below shows the story of a man caught by his wife having avatar intercourse.
http://men.webmd.com/guide/virtual-sex

Second Life is the perfect example:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruMi3MAGkvc&feature=related

This link takes you to a great explanation on you-tube of second life, how it works and who uses it. This video was made and uploaded in 2008, and second life has adapted and changed since then however the overall aim for this part of second life is the same.

 Peoples opinions of second life vary, below is one person opinion after seeing the you-tube video.

It is clear that this person either dislikes the overall idea of second life or is just very opinionated about the people who use it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

                                

Many people have strong views about cyberspace, it's all based on the individual. It's also up to them the impact of which it has on their lives. Some people rely on cyberspace to pay the bills where as others have absolutely nothing to do with it.

Old to New Media

How and to what extent has the world wide 
web influenced people?
(Where would we be without the Internet today and what would come of the world if the Internet was taken away)

The World Wide Web is a global information medium that is accessed via the Internet on the computer. Launched in 1990 this system of interlinked documents which has become a world of knowledge. The terrific idea of a web browser allows people to quickly and easily find what they are looking for.

Many would see the world at a loss without the Internet today, as it is so important and influential to so many peoples lives. Billions of people use the Internet everyday day; at home, at work, in education centers (such as college or universities), people even carry the Internet around ion their pockets and use it on their phones.

The Internet can be described as a revelation, greatly altering the way in which the human race do many things, including communication between one another. 

If the Internet were to be taken away from people in today's society, there would be uproar. Dependent on the Internet, people of today that have it would be lost without it.

The Internet is not only a source of education but also a factor of entertainment. With so many different type of websites int the net its no wonder people have been labelled as 'addiceted' to 'surfing the web'.

Social networking sites such as ms, Facebook and twitter have proved to be more popular than sites that provide information for academic enhancement.

Using the Internet has become a way of life, almost automatically people wake up int he morning and one of the first things they do is use the net, for some it comes even before brushing their teeth!

To check the weather, to see whether or not there traffic, to listen to the radio. For many people the Internet falls into their daily routine- some even feel like they couldn't live with out it.

Survey:

For this weeks lecture I decided to do a simple survey asking 12 students at random from the University lounge area whether or not they could go a whole day with out any technology

1 Question Interview:

Myself:           Do you think you could give up using the Internet... forever?

Student:          I actually don't think I could go the week without using the Internet, let alone my entire life. It's

                      abnormal. I just have to use facebook or update twitter... and how am I supposed to do

                      extended research for my subject without google!

In some respects people are people are just building on old media to create new media realising media and technology that is just the updated version of old media, rather than completely new media being created. I think this is partly because people often stick to what they are familiar with rather than branching out and using something completely new. For example the Xbox Kinect. Its an updated version of the Xbox with wireless controllers which was the updated version of a console connected to a controller.

On the other hand, technological wonders Wii are completely new as they introduce the idea of exercise as well as a game which has been a good seller in its recent years of production.

There is however a continuous pattern where the technology either gets smaller or of better quality which definitely classes as new media being built on top of old media. 

Media is all very different now. Media today is all interlinked, you can navigate between these links and different types of media using hyperlinks. These hyperlinks link different types of media that together are also known as multimedia, this includes, text, photos, videos, sound clips, illustration, animation ect.

  

How old media led to new Media...

                                             (google images grouped together to show different types of media )

Reasons:

• Wanting improvement
• Social change
• The need to update technology- making new things possible as well as quick& easier.
• Modern society
• People wanting to revolutionise
• Wanting to be educated
• Wanting more ways to communicate

How it all started...

• The printing press and movable type
• The telegraph and telephone
• Recorded content: music > film
• Radio signals and broadcasting radio broadcasting TV

I decided to do some background and research work.  I chose a sample of 12 students, again from the university lounge area and asked them whether or not they could go a whole day with out any technology and would they find it easy living without ever being able to use technology...

Results:  

9/12 people said they could go a whole day without technology.

                                             and

1/12 people said they would find it easy to live without technology.

The results show just how much people, especially students, are  linked to and dependent on technology, particularly the ones that believe they cannot live without it.

After seeing the results I came to the conclusion that the web has taken over peoples lives, not nessarrly in a bad way but a productive way; there is now new sources of information.

The internet has had a massive effect on the world, a lot of peorple use it everyday and would their jobs and day to day life style difficult if they were without it, they almost depend on it.

The News

How important is the New and how does it effect peoples lives and judgement?

The dictionary definition of the word ‘news’ is “a report of events or previously unknown information”. It is actually a lot more complex than that, News is now not just about giving out information. It can  also about informing people, making them aware of specific issues, educating people or alerting people about important happenings or events in their home town or globally.

Although it may seem like ‘The News’ is very wide spread, it isn’t there are many issues that are not raised in the daily news as it just wouldn’t be possible to include every type of interesting news that has occurred in one newspaper or one television broadcast/newscast; so information that would be of public interest rather than individual interest would more likely to ‘make news’.

‘The News’ that the public see is chosen by media experts, as well as the press, those that own/ run newspapers and reports. Everything is very selective; the global new is based around people collectively from all parts of the world, whereas local news can be distributed to people in a weekly paper to in their area.

Reports and the News can be a very sensitive thing, information has to be expressed correctly and to the right audience as topics to some may be more sensitive that some topics to other such as news to do with race, religion or culture.

News can be dangerous: too more information can lead to social uproar and moral panic where as too little and the public may think that something is being kept form them, when working in the news sector that has to be an even balance.

Examples of popular news sources:

BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
ITV News:  http://www.itv.com/news/
Newsround: http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/
CNN: CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/

Due to technology and a wide range of communications news can now be spread in various different ways:

Above I've shown examples of how news travels in bullet points as there are so many ways, most of them involve some form of technology.
Technology has had a massive impact on the news. The 9/11 bombings for example where mostly filmed from mobile phones as the actual collision of the aeroplanes and the twin towers was all very sudden, camera crews would have not made it in time to film it as well as put themselves in danger if they tried to do so. 

Video recordings on phones where the most effective form of footage with this massive incident as people who watched it from their homes on the news would feel more connected to the actually event as it was people that where just going about their everyday lives filming a horrific scene instead of it being an emotionless news report.

Another news story, of much less importance was filmed through a families own CCTV.  In this specific case many people have seen this news to be ‘quite ridicilous’, where as other were actually concerned for the welfare of the cat.

This news story is about the woman who gently stroked a neighbours cat shortly before leaving it for 15 hours in a wheelie bin!

Story below:

                                                          (video taken from you-tube)

In my personal opinion I don't think that something like this should be on a newscast, although very interesting as it shows how insensitive people can be, I do not think this should be classed as 'News'. I actually think that there should be a separate program where news that isn't classed as 'life changing' should be.

Maybe it’s because I am not an animal lover but I just think that a national broadcast should be of more importance for example showing missing children, or informing people more about topics that are going to affect their lives now and in the future.

Video clips and stories like the woman putting the cat in the bin I think should be left to television programmes such as ‘rude-tube’; broad casted on channel 4 and presented by Alex Zane the comedian showing the top 50

you-tube videos of interest or of which are comical, alongside videos such as 'charlie bit my finger'.

(Click on pic for link to site)

Rude Tube is a television programme that shows video clips that the public have uploaded themselves onto you-tube. The funniest, most strange and most watched video clips are shown on the program.

The news is informative information, so that can account for anything, it's just up to news companies what is shown and what isn't shown on television. They determine what's the most and important and what the world needs to know about.

When looking at whether or not the news can effect a person and their opinion the media always comes into it. The media overall can have a massive impact on what people think or believe, it can even influence someones opinion on situations in the way it covers a story.

A good example would be Jade Goody, also known as Jade 'Baddy' shortly after being evicted from the 'Big Brother House' . People loved  to hate Jade Goody. She even received hate mail and death threats, accused of being racist and exploited by the media. This was until it was later discovered that she had cancer, it was during this time that 'the people' changed their so called opinion of her and began to not like by love her. 

Was this because the people had generally forgiven her for talking about Indian actress Shilpa Shetty ? No, it was only because all of  a sudden a young woman was dying, loosing not only her hair but her life to cancer that people realised that she is only human. People instead of death threats began to send her flowers. The tables had turned. Why was this, was it because the public thought they had tormented her enough, no, it was because the news chose to change their headlines from hate to love. They showed Jade in a new and positive light and because of this she was liked again. It was not because people had changed their own opinions and emotions, it was because they had their opinions and emotions changed for them.

Overall, the news is a very important part of peoples everyday lives, available in many different forms (radio, television, Internet websites and newspapers) it informs and educates people, giving people knowledge about events in the world. No matter what kind of story it is, whether is about terrorist attacks, cats or people with cancer it is all informative and important in some way. A level of importance of a news story is different for different people, it depends on the individual, for example an animal rights person or cat lover would want to know about the 'cat in the bin' story where as others may not.

In addiction to the news being informative it is also very influential it can lead people to think a certain thing and can also alter peoples personal opinion on the different subjects that it talks about. Again, it is all down to the individual and how that interpret the story.