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