Week 6

This week's lecture discussed the topic of politics, democracy and the future. We explored the origin of democracy, free speech and censorship, but what really got me was the topic on citizens hacks and the whole concept of 'anonymous'.

Anonymous was a loosely associated network of hacktivists.  They became known for their series of well publicised hacks. Originated in 2003 from the image board 4chan, Anonymous represented the concept of online and offline users who existed as a radical, digitised ‘global brain’ (Lander, C 2008).  In its early form, the concept was taken on by a online community acting ‘anonymously’ in a coordinated manner, usually toward a self-agreed goal and mainly focused on entertainment.  ‘We [Anonymous] just happen to be a group of people on the internet who need...just kind of an outlet to do as we wish, that we wouldn't be able to do in regular society. That's more or less the point of it, do as you wish. There's a common phrase: 'we are doing it for the lulz (Peacock, T 2008).'

This group really was the catalyst for this whole concept of anonymity on the internet. Whole social networks devoted to helping us hide behind our computers, like Tumblr for example; have really provided users the ultimate power: complete identity disguise. As a tumbr user, it seems to me that the whole ‘anon’ option is quite a dangerous feature to have as people are allowed to say whatever they like, consequences be damned. I’m not too sure if anonymity is exactly a good thing, you can practically get away with murder! As Hannah Furness states in her article, ‘the physical limitations of body language protect them from sharing their thoughts in real life, it no longer applies behind a screen (2013).’ Instead, a lack of empathy from the anonymity of the internet has created these ‘trolls’ that have no sense morality when issuing threats or showing ‘the worst side of human nature’. Kind of scary to think about that ANYONE can post whatever they like and have not a single regret because of this anonymous shield...although I speak with a very cynical view and shouldn’t detest all anonymous users because not all of them are trying to take over the world one troll at a time.

References:

-Peacock, T (2008). Search Engine: The Face of Anonymous.
-Landers, C (2008). Serious Business: Anonymous Takes on Scientology (and Doesn’t afraid of Anything). Baltimore City Paper, retrieved 29/08/2013.

-Furness, H (2013). Anonymity of the Internet to Blame for the Rise of Online Trolls. Retrieved 29/08/2013 at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/10242703/Anonymity-of-internet-to-blame-for-rise-of-online-trolls.html

Tutorial Task:
1. This week's task was to find out what political position I have by completing the voting compass for the 2013 Australian Election. I found that I was closer to agreeing with the Liberal Party than the Greens or Labor.. which kind of surprised me because I think Tony Abbott is an idiot. I doubt I will vote for either of those party's in this upcoming election, though it did help me decide where I stand on some political issues within Australia.

2. There was also the task of signing an 'e-petition' which I do quite a lot on subjects that concern me the most. The lastest petition I signed was in regard to: "Canadian Government: Don't ruin live music with $425.00 charge per international artist per performance in Canada".  I support the local music scene in Australia or otherwise and would hate to see internationally touring artists that want to play in Canada to suffer by paying extra fees on top of touring costs and also the venues in which the play in to shut down because of the new regulation.

If you guys support local music too, feel free to sign the petition: here

3. With last week's task of creating a survey revolving around social media, I based mine around the time in which people spent on social media websites, what websites they actually used, what they used them for and whether it would impact their daily life if they chose to eliminate them. I have not yet received enough responses by this stage, but it has only been a week. The responses I did get were expected, where people either stated they use social networks to keep in contact with friends or the ease in which they could use them and could spend up to 5 hours a day on them.