Week 13

Hyper Textual Essay Plan: How I got to thinking....

This week I have done hours of research for my hyper textual essay so that in the next couple of weeks when it is due, I won't be stressing to get it done on time! Because I am a little slower than others at using flash, it's important for me to start these things as early as possible so I have plenty of time to sit and make the same mistake over and over again, and have time to fix everything!! So so far I've got the jist of what I will be creating.... Intro goes a little something like this....

An important characteristic of most digital communication that occurs, in particular use of social networking, is that users are disembodied… Users can upload any representation that may or may not represent themselves (Kaveri Subrahmanyam and David Šmahel, 2011). This disembodiment creates an enigma behind the surface of social networking. As an open source tool of communication, as we sit in the privacy of our own home, we often forget that our own Facebook, Blogger or Twitter sites are open to the world. It is our somewhat naïve sense of false security that has lead to many instances where users, youths in particular, have endangered themselves or in fact los their lives. Social Networking sites and their avid users are blinded to the insecure realm of the World Wide Web and its integral form of product within today’s Popular Culture. Users are also unaware of the subconscious media logical influences that go hand in hand with Social Networking.

Researching for this assignment has been particularly interesting as I have done courses previous to this one that their main focus was the sociology behind things like social networking and the role that it plays in Pop Culture. At the beginning of the semester I stumbled across an article posted on ABC News.com. This article in a sense is what inspired my chosen discussion topis. The article was about a girl who had been a victim of crime via Facebook. She was murdered after she befriended a male who was posing as two men who worked for an animal welfare corporation. She met up with "them" and went missing and her body was found days later. It turned my interest to the nievtey of youth and their willingness to trust social networking sites so openly. I wanted to look at why this is occurring.

I think I have mentioned the article in my week 6 post somewhere.....