Is it possible for anyone to really have a private life?

What with sites online now such as, Myspace, Bebo, Google, Wikepedia and of course now the typical Facebook, websites where we are willing to let people know what we are doing, constantly. However, are we actually showing are true selves over Facebook, or are we hiding behind a person we want to be, only showing tiny parts of our day to day lives, but look to our friends and family as something with big impact. People without such social networking pages are almost seen as strange and perhaps even out of their time zone, but how has this developed and how is it affecting us?

I have heard some strange sayings lately, one being that, if your not "in a relationship" on Facebook, then your not actually in a relationship at all, totally blowing things our of proportion. Do we really need the internet to validate our everyday lives? Apparently so according to alot of the younger generation. It seems as though young people are communicating alot more within social networking sites than they do face to face, being able to say things they wouldn't usually say otherwise.

Since the age of 12 I have been using all sorts of public, social websites. I guess the fact that we can keep in touch with lost relatives and old school friends is a bonus, but should we be dwelling on the past so much? Go back 30 years, and if you lost contact with someone, that was it unless you bumped into them. Another question that constantly enters my mind is that, if we lived without phones for so long, why do we depend on them so much now? So many secrets and lies are hidden behind these private chat devices, couples cheating each other, friends gossiping about each other, and thats where the online arguing comes in, the fights and threats mostly covering over Facebook walls and inboxes.

I typed in Google and Youtube, "Fights over facebook" and I found myself in a realm of various arguments which developed over Facebook. People were arguing and fighting over some of the most ridiculous things, arguments that seemed to turn into real life confrontation. The video I have contained in this post is of a young girl that got murdered over $20, the argument began over Facebook, containing various threats via statuses. Is this really what our world is coming too? A world where people are getting killed for some of the most tiny and ridiculous things.

I remember when Myspace was one of the top crazes, I was about 14 years old and one of my friends had moved to Harlow, I would go there every weekend to see her at a club for under 18's. Somewhere along the way of these "exciting" visits full of J20 instead of Vodka I managed to make an enemy, her name I will not bring up, but we would argue constantly over Myspace, on Bulletins where everyone could quite clearly see what we was arguing about, it would start up huge arguments within alot of 14 year olds, and I'm telling you now, if there was no such thing as Myspace there would have been no such thing as the arguments.

Cyborgs

We all know the Terminator or Robocop, but whats the real Cyborgs of our time?
The term Cyborg was created in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used the word in an article about the advantages of self-regulating, human-machine systems, however the term has now been applied to an organism that has different abilities due to the help of technology!
Another description of Cyborgs I have taken from the Oxford Dictionary which explains them as "A person with physical tolerances or capabilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by a machine or other external agency that modifies the bodies functioning an integrated man-machine system".

I found a website online which talk about Ray Kurzweii, a 61 year old scientist who is completely convinced that we will eventually have the technology and biology to know how to be Cyborgs within 20 years. This could mean becoming immortal, imagine noone having to die in 20 years? The scientist has pointed out that artificial pancreases and neural implants are already available to us. He commented in The Sun saying "I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogramme our bodies' stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, ageing. Then nanotechnology will let us live for ever".

So there at two types of Cyborgs, the real ones we use today, and the Fictional ones we regularly see in Sci-Fi movies.

"Cyborgs" that we see around today (and yes they are around, not just in movies) are known to enhance humans normal capabilities, these are items such as:

• Artificial Limbs
• Hearing Aids
• Glasses
• Pace Makers

Without some of these items humans would find it extremelly hard to get on with everyday life, but really do we want to be so reliant on these things, we should actually be in fear of them taking the human body overall. We will then be completely controlled by computers, and I'm pretty sure myself that I do not want another person, a complete stranger in charge of me.

The Fictional Cyborgs are usually seen as "human" looking subjects with atificial robot arms and legs, they usually at some point decide to randomly take their skin off aswell. They always have the ability to take over the world, and are constantly alot more stronger than us.

I turned deaf in one ear after having a virus when I was younger, does this mean when I put a hearing aid in, I then become a Cyborg, if so... Cool.

Neil Harbisson, born in 1982, is a young man who claims he is officaily a Cyborg, was diagnosed with Achromatopsia, which is a disease which means you can unfortunately only see in black and white. In 2002 Neil moved to the UK to study at Dartington College of Arts, where in his second year he started to attend a class called Cybernetics which was given by Adam Montandon. After introducing themselves and Adam finding out about Neil's condition, the pair started to work on what they called an "eyeborg project". It was a camera on Neils head which picked up colours and converted them into sound waves.

So will Cyborgs actually take over the world as we not, will there be a whole new species of humans in 20 years time. I think not for now, we should leave it too the movies.

Interfaces

Deffinition on an Interface= A concept which refers too interaction between to concepts, this may be machines, devices and computer programmes.

 I wanted to point out the fact that interfaces are everywhere, wether we like it or not, what with video cameras and of course now even our mobile phones can track everywhere we go. What with interfaces getting more and more advanced over the years, is this a good thing? Do we really want to have this skill of being constantly tracked? I think not.

We generally don't realise it, as humans we always think we have control over ourselves, however, it is completely true when I say that most modern day interaction and entertainment is made through screens. If you sit on a train, as soon as it comes out of the underground, it seems everyone instantly rushes to get out their phones, and you suddenly have a music tracks of ongoing ring tones.

Anyone in the world today is completely capable of creating a website by using HTML.

As a complete begginner at creating any kind of websites, unless you want to include my amazing MySpace page in that catergory, when my teacher decided to let me know we was going to be creating website pages from bassically complete scratch, I felt a tiny explosion in my brain. We began by using HTML, which is a description of what something is, I remembered when I would use myspace that I would type in simple things such as <b> meaning things would then become bold </b> and <u> making things underlined </u> so I knew the very much basics of HTML. However by the end of my class was was eventually able to create something that looked slightly like a website by using Komodo.

All over the world there are many different types of interfaces, but to sum it up here are the main groups:

• Off Screen
• Hand Held
• Detection
• Desk top/ Screen Based

All of which everyone can generally use.
It seems to me that in the end, there will be more computer based items than there is computers, is it healthy to be that connected with these items?

21st Century News

We have come along way from how news would originally have been transmitted. We can now capture any news story that has come out in an instant, through mobile phones, iPads, TV's and laptops and since these devices were created, news has become alot more in the publics interest. Go back a couple of years and news would have to be orally transmitted or peer-to-peer transmission, some people wouldn't find out news for months, it would also be impossible to read newspapers if you wasn't in London.
Luckily news now comes out frequently and regularly, theres almost nothing we don't know about.

But is there ever any hazards of having 24 hour news? How about the pressures on the journalists that are having to keep up with all the regular income. We may find that because they are wanting to write all the stories up so quickly, we could get some misleading impressions and wrong information. There is also of course the cost, 24 hour news is extremely expensive to keep up with.

However with all the different websites and channels, such as Youtube and Twitter, almost anyone can now become a blogger. Alot of people on Youtube have made Channels where they will take stories they have seen on the news and give their views on it. The video I have uploaded is a clear example of public journalism. A person of the public has seen the incident and took a video to broadcast from the scene. Bassically, if you have a mobile phone, with a video camera, congratulations! You are now a journalist.

Are we loosing are traditional ways, such as news papers to the internet? I think so, it is just so much easier to get to now, and the stories are alot more visual. Although we have no decision on what news is aired, interested in it or not it will be shown, as typical humans, we have more concern in our lives than others, but is the news making us decide what is important to us, and how we should judge it?

Overall without news we would have no idea about what is really going on in the world we live in today.

What is Technology doing to us? (Part 2)

The world of technology is constantly changing and expanding, but is it changing who we are today? And actually affecting the way we are originally "meant to be". Technology, as great as it is, and as much as it helps every day to day task, is affecting the way humans communicate and work.

Rememeber that wonderful place called the libary? My parents used to constantly take me there as a child, I would enjoy all the different genres and stories I was surrounded by, but now-days people don't even think to take a trip to the libary, why would you when all the information you need is now found on the oh so famous, Google! I Libarys dissapeared, would anyone even take notice?
How about sitting with the family watching a Video infront of the TV? Bet you haven't done that in a long time, but yet again, why would you need to when you can download any movie online. We no longer feel interest in finding out news and interesting facts, because we can find everything we need to know quickly and easily without even reading the rest of the facts.

It has also taken to my notice, that instead of meeting with old friends face-to-face for lunch, we find ourselves communicating over the internet on such websites such as "Facebook" and "Myspace". It's the same with arguing, people who are now called "Keyboard Warriors" do not confront with people in real-life, but instead send messages online, sometimes seen as "Cyber Bullying".

Only a few decades ago the internet didn't even excist, so why would we find it so hard to live without it now? A couple of friends from University have said that they find it hard to concerntrate on work because they constantly seem to end up going back on socail websites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. They have become more interested in local gossip than their own education.

I have never been good at maths, but with cheap calculators selling everywhere, why should I be?

Words are spelt for us with spell check, food is blended for us with a blended, communication is made within seconds with a phone.
Technology is making us lazier and fatter, we are no wiser just because we find all our information on Google. Sometimes I think its a good idea just to put all technology down for a moment and take a look at the greater things in life, the real world.

Cyber Space, Good or Bad?

"CyberSpace" a made up term created by science fiction author William Gibson in the early 80's, an effective buzzword, that when first thought up, no one completely understood what it was all about. Like anything to do with Digital Technology, CyberSpace deffinately has it's positives and negatives. We can communicate freely with hundreds of friends from school/college within seconds via websites such as "Facebook" and "Twitter", but what about when it comes too cyber bullying within young children, and videos of explicitness that certain ages should not be seeing?

CyberSpace can take us into new worlds, made up fictional worlds where we can take on second lives, other personalities almost even making your own dreams come true by building this other world. However we find today that even with all these magical and wonderful programmes online, how do we know when we are communicating with strangers on the internet, that theres not a completely different person sitting behind the computer screen?

The main range of people that end up using Cyber Space are "young adults", a group of the public who are creating and exploring themselves, trying to connect with who they are, and generate their own personalities. Whilst adventuring Cyber Space, you can usually find yourself interacting with all kinds of different people, you may also find groups of stereotypes aswell which at the stage of becoming a young adult, everyone wants to be part of. An exceptance into a group is every young adults dream, they then know they fit in, away from bullying and judgmental eyes. But what about when we get too close to people over the internet. Noone likes to talk about it, Cyber Sex, a hobbie that is constantly going on, wether people know whos on the other side of the computer or not. This is where real danger can come in. Do you know who your friends or family are communicating with online?

Overall. yes we can enter new worlds, vent our opinions and ideas, but are we communicating over Cyber Space more than we do in the real world? Will we end up constantly behind our computer screens? My only advice to give about the Online world is not too put so much information up on websites such as, Facebook and MySpace, you never know who might be reading.

What is technology doing to us?

I have been online researching the world of Digital Culture and by doing this I have find a video blog page on youtube, that looks deeply into the world of Media and thoughts of the public, within this blog I found a video that can really get you thinking about what getting sucked into the world of the internet is actually doing to us.

http://youtu.be/VwNY_-FiwYU

This is all work done by RSA Animate.

Does History Help Us Understand Digital Culture?

History has obviously had a major impact on today's world, it is about how we got to where we are today, who thought up these extreme ideas that would change how people got their information and communicated forever? No one could see it coming, people would laugh at the idea of being able to search information at the tip of your fingers, but look where we are today.

In the 1980's the World Wide Web was born, a portal of information that any person of the public can use if connected to the internet. It includes viewing web pages of all sorts of multimedia from all over the world, wether it be images, videos or just TV programs you need to catch up on. Yes, there is a side to the World Wide Web which gives a sense of freedom and knowledge, but how about our own privacy. We all have our own social networking page, to interact with family and friends, but what about all the private information we put up there, how sure are we that it will stay private.

So is it really important for us to know about the World Wide Web? Well yes, it is human nature to want to understand what we are using and how it was created. But we must also remember how important it is too look into the future and make an impact on technology already created.

We have to know where things have come from too predict how they will develop in the future, how would we know how to re-make things, if we didn't know how they were made to begin with? And how do we know things within in the world of Digital Technology won't get completely out of control?
Eproxiamtely every two years, the speed of computing is going to double, yes we all have our in little internet would at the of our fingers already, so what else could be within our reach around the corner?

Technology is constantly changing so rapidly and changed the face of the world as we know it.

What Kind Of Blog Am I Writing?

Writing a blog involves having knowledge and interest in a certain subject area, and announcing this information to the general public via blogging. What better way to get your thoughts seen to people other than the internet? The internet has a such a large impact on our generation today that almost everyone spends a good hour online browsing.
This is now my second post to this blog, a blog which I wish to use to inform people about the Digital world, Digital Culture.
There are many different types of blogs online, some talk about celebrity gossip, news and information, my blog being more of the informational type, hopefully entertaining and fascinating.

By using videos, quotes, links and images I hope to engage and fascinate my audience, hopefully to help you learn new things you have never heard about, and draw you in to my side of interests, whilst also commenting different views or arguments.

The way that a blogger decides to write may also differ, some people may decide to write theres in a more interlectual manor, whilst others will take "easy-reading" side to what they are writing, usually depending on the type of blog you decide to write.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=digital+culture&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1192&bih=492&tbm=isch&tbnid=jVB2UedwCkcXNM:&imgrefurl=http://thesingularityprinciple.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html&docid=W_hHbknX_62r7M&imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PC8Qphgy_MU/TLsr2demSaI/AAAAAAAAAJo/QAv4swx-y-4/s1600/stelarc3.jpg&w=365&h=371&ei=bAGqTuHhA8mLswacnzA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=177&sig=107938479821990191501&page=1&tbnh=138&tbnw=136&start=0&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0&tx=67&ty=68

Why Study Digital Culture?

Technology is having a constantly growing affect on on the world and our younger generation, who are instantly introduced to technology as soon as they pop there head out into a hospital surrounded by all sorts of instruments and mechanics.
The idea that humans used too literally carry around bricks for mobile seems ridiculous, but back then it was all the craze, now, in 2011, we boast over wether we have the latest update of the iPhone!

So why excatly am I studying the great world of digital culture? I guess the idea of knowing how technology is constantly expanding and affecting our day-to-day lives is something I would like to know about. Should we worry about how much technology is taking over our lives? I certainly thing it's something to take notice of.

As a student that hopes one day to become a Magazine Journalist, it's in my interest to know about the changes in ways journalists are posting their stories, wether it be on the internet or with apps on the iPhone.

It is deffinately compulsary that every type of person of any age who is living in this time atleast learns how to use a computer or a phone, we seem to think that without these two items, how could we possibly ever get by? I have yet to meet one person who doesn't have a creepily loving connection with their mobile phone, will we end up having a better relationship with our phones than our partners? Will we dissapear into Online Gaming, rather than deciding to really experience real life.
Young adults today find themselves racing to buy the latest games console, smart phone, or hair appliances, because without these items people think they can never fit in with the "cool crowd". Children during their high school years have recently been introduced to the fact that they will have to do a ITC GCSE, this is just instantly pointing out how important computers and the world wide web is becoming to our younger generations lives.

Technology helps realese news all accross the world, but how can we be sure that the news and stories we hear are all true, does technology such as TV's and computers leak false hope? Were loosing real, natural human nature and common sense because were spending half of our lives in cyberspace.

If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger. ~Frank Lloyd Wright
A quote that truely says it as it is. Technology is so important to humans, but how do we know were not getting to close to it? Technology could most certantly have power of humans, think of life machines, they have total control over wether our loved one continues to breathe.