The Sims teaching Governance?

So today in class we talked about the participatory culture on the internet that youth today thrive off of. Kids today are more internet savvy then ever and our culture is changing to adapt to the dependence we have on media technologies in schools, corporate companies, politics and even just at home. In the Jenkins reading, a few kids were mentioned as new media protege's for the next great leaders and activisits of our time. These kids included a young girl who became the president of an large online Sims community, a girl who started "The Daily Prophet" the online newspaper for the fictional Hogwarts school, and the boy who created Firefox at only 14 among others. Jenkins notes that they aquired their skills; how to campaign and govern, read, write, edit and defend etc; by peer and self-teaching on the internet. A commonality that I noticed among these kids was that a few of them enjoyed playing The Sims online.

The Sims is an offline and online game of simulated characters which are controlled by the player. The Sims online is one of the largest online gaming communities that has expanded to podcasts, twitter, facebook, and youtube. Players of the Sims Online can create virtual characters and become part of a community where they can be as active of a member of the community as they want. It seems like this is where Ashley Richardson, the middle schooler who gained control of Alphaville, learned how to govern over a city. Alphaville is the largest city on the Sims online. Alphaville's reign ended in 2008, but the Sims online continues to be a large community of multi-player audiences. Although I wasn't able to find any current sims communities (perhaps you have to be a member?) this website details the newest version of the Sims community, in which you can download and share sims creations with your friends. I didn't find anything like Alphaville with an online governance, but in regards to the Sims, it seems a little rediculous to me.

From what I remember of the Sims, it was a fun game to create houses, make people and dress them up and then control how their lives went (where they worked, whether they got married, had kids etc.) When I was in middle school, it never became about interacting with hundreds of other people in order to run an entire city. You had your own sim, and that was it. I agree with most of Jenkin's optimistic outlook on the power of kids on the internet, but i am not sure that it is right to promote that kids are learning skills readily applicable to real world situations from Online games like The Sims.

Perez Hilton = bully?

One of my favorite blogs to visit online is PerezHilton.com, who recently has come under a lot of fire. Many know perez as the openly gay, self-proclaimed "queen of media". His blog is labeled as the most hated blog in hollywood. He regularly makes fun of celebrities by calling them unflattering nicknames, drawing on their faces, and insinuating things about them that may not be true. He's infamous for being witty and clever, but at the expense of insulting many people. Being an avid gay rights activist, he has recently addressed the issue of cyber-bullying and the suicides that have been committed as a result. He expresses disgust with those who bully via the internet, and offers resources for those who are victims of the bullying. He seems to feel strongly about the topic, however, he does not address the bullying that goes on every day on his website. While I personally am not quick to call perez a bully, because many of us make fun of celebrities and have our own opinions of them, regardless of whether we know them or not, many have called him hypocritical because of his constant use of cyber-bullying while he tries to stand against it. Because of this, Perez posted a video seen here, where he gets teary-eyed and vows to stop bullying and be kinder to celebrities. He says he used to justify everything as comedy and humor, but does not want to be called a bully. He even went on Ellen Degeneres to proclaim his will to change, which can be viewed here.

As I said before, I do not think that I would classify Perez as a bully in the same way that I would cyber-bullies. However, while I find a lot of what he posts about celebrities funny, mainly because they are all so distant that their worlds feel like an entirely different world from mine, I never thought about how they might feel about Perez's hurtful insults. I always assumed Perez's website was kind of a fun, guilty pleasure for people who wanted to be updated on celebrity gossip. I assumed those who he wrote about never read that kind of nonsense and therefore weren't offended by it. However, I see now that it was a type of bullying, and no cyber-bullying should be taken for granted. It will be interesting to see if Perez really does become "kinder" and whether or not he changes his ways.

"I like it...."

Although I have incorporated Face book into almost every blog so far, there was a topic this week that I could not pass up. One night last week, I received a number of Facebook messages with the breast cancer "I Like it Campaign" challenge. In order to support breast cancer, the campaign was to send out a series of messages to all of your friends asking them to post where they like to hang their purses. That night, there were hundreds of statuses with the quote "I like it...... on my bed" or "In my car" etc. etc. Of course this was only the statuses' of women and it left many of the men on face book feeling very confused, as it alluded to a certain other activity. It was amazing to me how fast this trend caught on, and how many of my face book friends were actually posting their statuses as such. Many of the statuses I saw were meant to be funny or a joke, some were serious. And the more statuses there were, the more boys on Face book started to get fed up. One of my guy friend's status' read "If I see one more "I like it" status I'm going to kill myself". While a little extreme, the overload of status updates were starting to get annoying. I didn't really understand how posting such a telling status was professing your support of breast cancer, but I also figured that at least people were becoming more aware. The Times Newsfeed said ".. What exactly does provocatively saying where you like to keep your purse or bra have to do with a horrible disease that has challenged the lives of so many?". Regardless, the campaign was catching on, and gaining a lot of supporters, which is what social media is all about in our generation. The spread of news and information over the course of hours and the ability for this trend to catch on and create such a frenzy, gives light to the power of social networks. This article explains that the idea is to leave men in the dark and that the "I like it" trend is an attempt for women to unite around the cause in a top secret way. While some think that this demeans breast cancer, I think it is a clever way to raise awareness and there is no better way to spark people's interest than to start the trend via facebook.

When online bullying goes too far..

In last semester's new media class we talked about the effects of cyber-bullying. The internet gives kids free reign to endlessly torment their peers without actually having to do it to their faces. The victims of cyber-bullying are often too embarrassed to tell an adult, or they just don't want to be picked on more. Kids bully each other in chat rooms, through websites where they can post anonymously, or within groups or face-book walls. Unlike face to face encounters, cyber-bullying has no boundaries. More recently in class we talked about how any photo, video or status that you put on the internet will be there forever, for anyone to see, no matter how embarrassing or unflattering it may be. People need to be more careful of what they put online because it could end up having terrible consequences.

For me personally, I didn't think cyberbullying existed in my generation. I thought that kind of teasing and gossiping stayed in high school and ended with high school. However, the recent and horribly tragic death of Rutger's student Tyler Clementi proved me wrong. This link from the new york times describes the lengths to which online bullying can push someone. It talks about something we've touched on in class, which is how online you can say anything, or be anybody and you can believe that there won't be in any consequences. (In my opinion, 18 is far too old to find "cyber-bullying" funny or even morally right) Why make fun of someone in person when you have the ability to humiliate them on a much larger scale? The author points out the fact often, the line between what is real and what is online is blurred. These kids acted online thinking that there would be no consequence for their behavior, because they were sitting safely behind a screen. Unfortunately, it takes something as horrendous and vicious as this case to get people to stop and think about cyber-bullying and the effects that it is having on the victims.

Lastly, I wanted to post this video An Important Message - From Ellen DeGeneres (Gay Suicide) made my Ellen DeGeneres that I have seen everywhere from Facebook to twitter to Youtube. Ellen spoke out on her show, but through the power of the internet, millions more were able to see her important message. As devastating as some of the effects of the internet can be, the widespread sharing of this hopeful video shows that the Internet can be as helpful as it is harmful.

In colle

Celebrities and Facebook

Talking about privacy on facebook in class this week got me thinking about those people in society who have perhaps the least privacy of all....celebrities. A while ago when I was a freshman in high school and had just joined myspace, I remember one of the big "fads" was to post your pictures on worldisround.com. This was right around the time when the tv show, laguna beach had come out. Obviously this show became a hit fast, and to myself and most other 15 year old girls (the target audience), the people on the show became instant celebrities. I remember being at my friends house one night, when she told me she had found one of the show's characters worldisround account pictures. This was a huge deal to us and to everyone else who we showed, because it was like a personal insight into these kids lives, which revealed things that the show did not. However, a soon as the show became a big time hit, the pictures and account were removed.
Similarly today, as soon as someone becomes famous, their facebook account is bombarded with requests, messages etc. etc. As fans people tend to view facebook or online accounts as personal, private insights into these celebrities lives. Most really big timer celebrities (think julia roberts or tom cruise) don't have any sort of social media spaces. They get enough attention as it is. However, people who are lower down on the popularity scale have taken advantage of facebook's Fan Pages. Facebook fan pages are another way for celebrities to interact and connect with fans, without it being a total invasion of privacy. They can update funny statuses and pictures and receive hundreds of comments. This is usually a one way street, as they typically don't respond to those who write on their wall, and you are not a personal friend of the celebrity but one of thousands of fans who "like" them. The amount of people who become your "fan" can be directly linked to how popular you are in the media at that moment. for example this link talks about how lady gaga surpassed president obama with facebook fans. A testement attributed mostly to the types of people who are on facebook and who actually like celebrity fan pages. As of this past summer, when Gaga was perhaps at her highest peak of celebredom, she managed to rack up 10 million facebook fans.
In regards to privacy, celebrities are not able to have the luxury of having private facebook pages, as we have seen firsthand through class discussions that that rarely works. Pictures posted of celebrities on facebook are just one more way for the media to obtain them and for the rest of the world to see, which has happened numerous times. However, fan pages have become a new way, along with twitter, blogs, websites and other social media forms, for fans to feel like they can have little taste of their favorite celebrities day to day lives.

Internet = A Dangerous Outlet

Some people use art to express themselves, others do so through sports or yoga, but today increasingly more young people are finding their identity through internet blogs and sights such as myspace and face book. Its no secret that most of us spend way too much time on the internet. But as seen in this weeks reading, many young people have started to use the internet as a space to express themselves through pictures, blogs, statuses, quotes etc. It is a way for kids to get away from their hectic daily schedules and socialize in a free space, where they can do and say what they want. Some people take this to the extreme, and use the internet to expose every detail of their life, to post inappropriate pictures or to vent about a problem they are having. Talking about this in class reminded me of my senior year of high school, when we had a speaker talk to us about "cleaning up" our images on the internet, before we started applying to colleges. In other words, we were told that it would be smart for us to take down any pictures of underage drinking, or other inappropriate behavior, cursing on our page etc. Back then, I didn't really think much of it, but as my younger brother starts applying to college, I thought I'd do a little research about just how many colleges actually check Face Book or MySpace. I came across this article, which basically says that today, one out of 10 college admissions officers checks applicants Face books, and 88% of recruitment officers. Because of this, the Internet may not be a space for kids to socially connect and express themselves anymore. Anything kids today put online could be held against them, which, in many cases, they do not understand.

Private or Public?

In class this week we talked a lot about privacy online. In a world where almost everyone has their own personal online space, it is hard to define where to draw the line with what information you make available and to whom you make it available. Pretty much everyone that you meet nowadays can be searched for on Face book, Linkedin, or even google. This is where the privacy in the real world verses online becomes blurry. For example you may meet someone briefly in person, and form your opinion on them based on that meeting. From that meeting they may seem like someone who is quiet or someone who is reserved, but when you search for them online (Face book) their pictures could present an entirely different persona. They could have pictures of them dancing on a bar or taking shots with friends that rival your initial opinion of them. Privacy on Face Book can be controlled. The reading on SNS argues that such sites "do not provide users with the flexibility they need to handle conflicts with Friends who have different conceptions of privacy". This could create trouble for offline relationships. If someone was to make all of their information private, it could offend those who can no longer see their information.

Privacy can also affect personal offline relationships in other ways. For example a good friend might find out that you are engaged at the same time as someone you barely know, because of Face book. This complicates relationships, because you would obviously want your good friends to know of your happy news before anyone else. However, this is all a part of "social networking". I think that in time, people will learn easier ways to bridge the gap between their online and offline relationships.