Religion 3.0

As seen from today’s class discussion, religion has been diminishing from newer generations because of the introduction of the internet into our society.  There are outlets on the internet that have made expressing religion easier. These outlets are seen from apps designed for religion itself or just the use of social websites like seen in this article I found here.

Link: http://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/christianity/5-ways-social-media-connects-religion-to-younger-generations

On the other hand, where traditional religions are stagnating on bringing in new members there has been some new brand new religions birthed through the internet. For example there is a religion based off of file sharing on computers. It is even recognised as real religion in Sweden.   There are some even weirder ones out there that you don't have to look far on the internet to find; however you’ll probably be the judge on their authenticity.  

I found the file sharing religion here, It is number ten, the first one shown so you don’t have to watch the entire video. This is just for citing where I found it and the guys who make these videos cite their sources and from my experience on youtube seem to be that they aren’t really biased and are more concerned with facts.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=461IR-Pa2JI

Darkode and what happens on the dark side of the web.

Darkode and the dark side of the internet. In this weeks story we followed an old woman and her experience from being hack and the tale of how some of this dark side of the internet culture started. It began as a kid in his parents basement with an interest in computers and then over the course of time blossomed into the world’s hub for black market computer hacking. I won’t get further into the story because as a class we all listened to the same story this week.

Physical: With more and more people gaining education on how computers work some use their knowledge to prey on others for financial gain in the form of file/data ransom or by other means. The FBI took down this black market website darkode and made a large number of arrests; however, due to the nature of the internet the site sprung right back up again just two weeks later. When I talk about the nature of the internet in this sense I am talking about how anyone from anywhere can make an input to create and add code to something like a website. Computers and the internet have been a great tool for man but as seen with any tool, it can be used to create positive or negative aspirations and we as a people need to educate ourselves and others on how we can protect us from these attacks.

Temporal: The timing of when darkode was taken down was just three months ago. We will see more events like this were a governing body will try to stop or lay siege to places on the internet’s dark side in an attempt to help people from criminal activity, but we do not know when the web and computers will be safe if ever from vicious persons.

Cultural: Computers and the web have created a diverse cultural of people from those who like pictures of cats to people who ransom anonymous innocent users for untraceable currency. I see it as being very ironic that some of these people doing these crimes has a sense of power now when ten or twenty years ago they could have been the geeks and nerds picked on in highschool. Since computers are constantly being upgraded and updated the culture of us as people I feel like update and upgrade with it but at a slower pace.

Social: The way the internet works in layman's terms is that computers talk to one another to create this network of information. That in a sense makes computers probably close to as social as us maybe? Anyhow the acts of cyber terrorism are being more seen today through the news and other media outlets which can better enlighten people about the dangers they face with their computers.

Psychological: These events I think can be very psychologically disturbing. For those who use computers but don’t know a lot about them they can see this as never being safe again from criminals. The evolution of internet crimes has evolved from spamming, to viruses, and now to file ransom; so that asks the question what is next? The only limitations it seems are what these hackers can think up next in their imaginations. Will we see real life kidnappings from people’s cars being hacked as they drive them? You may laugh at this assumption but care to think how close we are to self-driving cars. They can already track where you are from your phone, you know that device which everyone has from seniors to children have now. We know they sell or rent the technology to anyone relatively cheaply. So what will happen when it falls into more sinister hands?  It really calls for a voice of concern on how we can protect ourselves from these criminals.

Thanks for reading.

Privacy 2.0, The beginning of no privacy?

In our present day we live beside computers, not above them, beside them literary. I was taught in school from an early age how to be “Proficient” when using one but what they didn’t teach me is how monitor the privacy setting on it so that any joe off the street could hack into the computer I was using and see everything I’ve done on it and probably more some. Now to be clear computers are not limited to your at home PC or Mac laptop, they are found in your phone, your car, your child’s tablet, even in your credit cards there is a computer chip in there too. I found this video where this guy is interviewing a man that attends ,every year, this convention of hackers and government associates that work in the hacking of computers and privacy and how the mission of these conventions are to enlighten the public on how easily they are vulnerable to cyber attacks. CAUTION: this video does contain some strong language due to its unprofessional nature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq3_7ahmjJY

So how can you keep yourself safe against criminals that want to spy and use your data? Well you could seek further education and become an expert into how computers work or just google how to avoid having your information stolen on computers but there is more to it than just that. Websites collect your data without you even knowing about when you use them. Ever care to read that twenty page document that pops up when you first use some software or a website called the “term and conditions” ? Inside that legally binding document is a contract that you sign when you click you’ve read it, which allows them to do whatever they want almost since you agreed to it. It almost begs the question is there such a thing as privacy anymore let alone a new form of it called privacy 2.0? Yes you have curtains and doors on your house that block people from looking in but if spy movies have taught us anything, that is if someone want to listen in or look in on you they’ll find a way. Maybe the only true privacy we can fathom now is if one were to move to the last frontier, Alaska or some other extremely out of the way place, but then again there are satellites looking down at you and if you don't think there is just go to google maps, and in street view you can find a picture of your house.

In some of my other classes such as Voice and Civility in Public Discourse we have been studying Edward Snowden and how he has blown up the discussion and attention toward privacy and how the US government was ignoring the fourth amendment when it collected billions of data on its citizens with them knowing about it. From these other classes I have gotten a somewhat of a background to how privacy works today; however I’m not sure if anyone really has it all together when they talk about privacy because the tools in which it is broken are constantly being updated. I had almost no knowledge of metadata or how privacy is viewed today before I came to college this semester but after finding out more about it, it can be pretty scary to think about not knowing who’s listening in on your phone or computer’s webcam. So that begs the question, Is privacy 2.0 the era of no privacy?
Thanks for reading.

OTM: The Pope is Not a Politician

During this week pope Francis visited the United States. He is only the third papal ever in history so far to come to the US so it would seem that the media would pay much attention to him and respect his messages, however this is not the case as seen through this week’s on the media show. Listening to the program they showed, or since this is a radio show played, that the media was covering the pope and his visit as if he were a politician running for office. Some newscasts went as far as saying that the pope’s approval ratings were low instead of just conveying his message for people to be more compassionate and to promote peace.

Physical: Pope Francis visits the US and during his tour is made into an “larger than life character” for the media to over-analyze while misinterpreting and contorting his messages.

Temporal: This event happened last week so it's very relevant and that this is only the third time the pope has came here it would signify that this event should have received better coverage in light of just listening to what he had to say instead of portraying him as a political figure.

Social: I feel like this could make people see the pope and the catholic religion in a bad way since the media has shown him in a light that depicts him as a governing body influencing political agendas including elections for presidency. The people viewing the media when trump called out the pope saying that the things he was saying were going to make isis go after him could cause backlash around the world seeing that at this point in time trump has the best shot for being the next president.

Physiological: This event could cause people to totally misinterpret the pope’s message of be nice to others and promote peace into him becoming a communist. The image of the pope inside the minds of people viewing the media could cause them to make a change from seeing him as an advocate helping humanity to dark person trying destroy america.

 Cultural: What can be said about our culture if we paint the pope in the media the way we do? Media is thought to reflect the ideas and morals of society. In this case did we really care to listen to the pope or did we make him a figurative punching bag like an escape goat for the political runners to point fingers away from themselves?

Thanks for reading.

Democracy 2.0 The online constituents presence

Democracy 2.0 / Democracy and political influence in social media.

As I was researching this topic I came across to links that helped me understand it more thoroughly that what I had known about it before. Here are the links

http://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/digital-democracy/social-media-influence-politics-participation-engagement-meta-analysis

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/impact-social-media-democracy-0911687

The articles tell us that social media or what they call Social Networking Sites (SNS) undoubtedly have the ability to bring people together and create democracy like what was seen in Tunis and now in Syria but on the opposite side of the scale, SNS usage of democracy and politics is less certain. From data collected we know that around sixty percent of adults in the United States are on some form of social media and engage in posts and comments related to politics when they become large public discourse agendas; however from the research collected so far these waves of information in the political sense away from revolutions don’t ster up much difference in voter turnout or gaining or losing votes for a person running for office. Its seems like more research is needed in order to conclude these topics. There is one segment of these studies that shows significant amount of voter turnout and political involvement is the youth crowd as seen in the 2008 election of president Obama.

From what I gathered from my research is that these new tools of social media and SNS are bring more people together in political events that in turns strengthens democracy for the people participating because not only can they get more information and share it to educate more people but from voicing their thoughts makes them better at civility. There might be a negative side to this aspect as well the more I think about it. Many people who are proficient in social media often customize their news feeds to show only the things they like to see and read, because of this they might only get a biased portion of a candidate or bill instead of looking at it from both sides to truly understand it; hence they are left with only their partial knowledge and this could be harmful to democracy. So with social media and democracy one might have to take it all in with a grain of salt.

Thanks for reading.

OTM: Exxon's History of Climate Change Research

This week’s On The Media story I chose to cover is Exxon’s history of climate change research. I found this topic to be quite interesting because it seems that the changing of climate due to pollution is getting ever bigger in the media world. So here is so back story to the report. Throughout the 1970’s Exxon was not just doing research into climate change and how the ocean absorbs Co2 from the atmosphere but they were leading it. Thats right, through found documents one of the biggest oil companies out there was in front calling for change and more research knowing that if earth’s global temperature increased it would have massive negative effects on living things on the planet. Then after the price of oil sank in 1986, Exxon had to layoff hundreds of workers including those scientist researching climate change. Not until the year 1989 was the topic of climate change brought up again did the media see Exxon have a stance in the issue claiming they knew nothing of the topic and founded groups to defend and question the claims of climate change.

Physical: Exxon went 180 degrees from leading and calling for action in climate change research to denying it not knowing anything about it. Pollution from the burning of fossil fuels makes the air we all breath toxic along with changing the climate faster than what most organisms can adapt to.

Temporal: The topic of climate change began in the 1970’s with little coverage of the research and today is one of the biggest issues and problems facing our society today. Also nearly 100 percent of scientist around the world are concerned about the effects of climate change.

Social: What we are seeing from Exxon, a large oil company, is almost a direct parallel to what happened with the tobacco industry. The companies themselves knew of the danger of their products well in advance to the general public and then hind or denied evidence of harmful effects.

Psychological: Exxon has lied about their research and its finding even when they knew the consequence the whole time. This is a textbook scandal when in part infuriates the public and governing bodies finding out evidence that they were lied to which reflect a negative public image of the company occurs. After an event such like this one it is hard for those companies like this one to recover for example look at the BP oil spill and the negative backlash it had both environmentally and in public discourse.

Cultural: I feel like once this information of negligence becomes better known to the public we’ll see people coming together both in protest and in social media to support better understanding of climate change and what we can do to help stop it. This could also be seen as people writing to their government representatives asking for more regulation or more research in helping the matter at hand.   

Thanks for reading.

Learning 2.0: Innovating the way we teach classes.

Learning 2.0, what happens when I think about that term is that this second version should be better than the one before it. So thinking logically Learning 2.0 should stand as learning in a new and better way. As I was researching this well informed topic I was starting to notice something. We as a class represent Learning 2.0 because of our means of coursework and research. We’ve all created blogs and posted to them along with our own facebook pages. This is totally different than anything I have done in a classroom setting before so this course is unique to me. I believe that just from this first third of the semester that I’ve learned things in a new and better way than traditional course work and I think that more and more class throughout k-12 with colleges will adopt this new set of learning tools. I also read this article here which helped me understand how their new forms of social media can enhance the learning experience.  http://www.edudemic.com/how-to-use-social-media-as-a-learning-tool-in-the-classroom/

I remember going into the third and fourth grades and learning how to use a computer. Looking back my parents must have been astonished that I was learning how to operated such equipment at such a young age because that how I felt when I found out ,a year out of high school, on the local news that children in younger grades than I had been in at the time were learning how to use an Ipad and do their class work on it. These new forms of education through technology and social media will create faster and higher levels of education. Thirty years ago most people didn’t learn algebra until upper level college courses and now in our present times kids are learning to do algebra in middle school. Its interesting to see what will fit into our general education systems in the next ten years and I think technology and social media will only boost its potential.

Thanks for reading