Essay

The Contempoary internet user

Since the emergence of the internet not only has the content and application of it changed and expanded, but so too has the contemporary internet user. With the internet boom in full swing we have seen a new generation of internet users created, defined as the “digital natives”. Experts have attempted to categorise the contemporary internet user or “digital natives” as they are referred to, with various opinions arising. Articles by both Marc Prensky and Dave Weinberger represent views of the contemporary internet user, both portraying different representations, but both true within themselves. These articles set a benchmark for considering what implications the internet has on us as individuals and society.

When the term ‘internet user’ arises, many of us can associate both negative and positive connotations. Marc Prensky’s article “the emerging online life of the digital native” summarises one view of the contemporary internet user. Prensky (2004) suggests that digital natives are inventing new and interesting ways to do each activity online based on the technologies they have available to them and their online life has become more than just the internet, it has become a strategy to survive in the twenty-first century. Digital natives have changed the way they do virtually everything on the internet, from the way they communicate, create, coordinate, exchange, learn and most importantly socialise (Prensky 2004). Prensky (2004) claims that these changes signify more than anything that the digital native generation is moving ahead in its own direction and it’s incorporating technology in everyday life in unexpected ways. A survey of 200,000 U.S students concludes that “Students are not just using technology different today, but are approaching their life and their daily activities differently because of technology” (Netday survey 2004). The overall impression we as readers take away from Prensky’s article is that the internet is allow us to express our creativity on a larger scale and expand the possibilities of the internet for generations to come to benefit from. There is positive impression of the contemporary internet user conveyed through this article.

Weinberger’s article “A New World” takes a very different angle on the contemporary internet user than Prensky’s article expresses. Weinberger (2002) suggests that the web is this version of a ‘new world’ and society in general have issues distinguishing between the real world and this virtual world (the web). As internet users we are continuously rewriting ourselves on the web, we’re saying and doing things we never expected and we’re meeting people we never dreamed of meeting, but more importantly we’re meeting new aspects of ourselves (Weinberger 2002). But this virtual world is affecting more than our shopping experiences, it’s affecting the way we are social. “The web is a world we’ve made for one another. It can only be understood within a web of ideas that includes our cultures foundational thoughts” (David Weinberger 2002). Weinberger (2002) believes this virtual world or the web as we know it is corrupting our mind and our ability to interact in the real world. As readers we are positioned to believe that the internet is a affecting our ability to interact in the real world and corrupting our minds by allowing us to enter this virtual world. This article associates negative connotations with the internet and its impact on users.

Despite the fact that both of these articles conclude different views of the contemporary internet user we can see accurate portrayals in both of them. Prensky’s article suggests that internet users today are using their access to internet to advance technologically and also creatively, on the other hand Weinberger’s article suggests that the internet is affecting our social skills and corrupting our minds. Within society Weinberger’s view is more commonly supported especially among the digital immigrant population. What is far more interesting is the increase of a neutral view of internet users, with experts claiming it’s the user that determines how the internet affects their life and not the other way around. A BBC article titled ‘the effects of the internet on society’ takes a neutral position on how the internet affects us claiming “the Internet is here to stay, and it's really up to us how it affects society and whether it enhances or ruins our life” (BBC 2001). I believe this statement by the BBC to be incredibly accurate, majority of us can admit that we’re addicted to Facebook or Myspace or even YouTube and we always communicating with friends on the web and yet we are still the same people. The affects of the internet I believe depends entirely on the individual. Articles by Barry Wellman (2002) and Angie Guan (2009) support the fact that the internet is a part of everyday life and it’s only growing as technology advances. Barry Wellman’s (2002) article ‘The Internet in Everyday Life’, explains that regardless of the negative opinions of the internet viewed by people within society the internet isn’t going anywhere fast and it’s up to users to determine how they approach it. In the 2009 article ‘Youth Internet use: Risks and Opportunities’ by Angie Guan it is said that there are risks involved in using the internet, like becoming anti-social, socially incapable or even disturbed, but if society solely holds these risks as the only outcome of using the internet that is what’s going to happen. In order for people to be able to overcome the issues on the internet society needs to work together to see the internet as a better place, there will always be risks but the more aware users are the less likely it will occur (Guan 2009) There are internet users out there proving the opinions by Weinberger and Prensky, some of us are using the internet for creativity and technological creations and then some of us are being affected psychologically by the effects of the internet,

So it can be said that while there are varying opinions of the contemporary internet user, both Weinberger and Prensky’s views are accurate because they both identify aspects that internet users can relate to. In saying this, I believe it depends on the user as to how they are affected and the internet can’t hold a single stereotype for every internet user, the web is incredibly broad and so too are the range of internet users. The contemporary internet user cannot ultimately be classified as either of the opinions expressed, but they express aspects that relate to internet users that are present within society.

Reference list
Prensky, M, ‘The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native’ 2004

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Digital_Native-03.pdf (link to display in blog)

Weinberger, D, ‘A New World’ 2002

http://www.smallpieces.com/content/chapter1.html (link for blog)

BBC, ‘The internet’s affect on society’ 2001

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A650684 (link for blog)

The Internet in Everyday Life, Barry Wellman 2002, Blackwell publishers Ltd.

link

Youth Internet use: Risks and opportunities 2009 Shu-Sha Angie Guan

link

Websites related to internet users

This is an article by Cate Swannell on internet users (April 2009)

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/04/03/65695_cate-swannell-opinion.html (accessed 16th October 2009)

Psych Central, John Grohol, ‘Internet Addiction’ 1999

http://psychcentral.com/netaddiction/ (accessed 16^th October 2009)

BBC, ‘Sci/Tech caught on the net’ 1999

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/427674.stm (link for blog)

Implications of the internet on Global society and culture http://www.coolavenues.com/cafe/articles/shubham_1.php3 (link for blog)

Future of the internet and how to stop it blog http://futureoftheinternet.org/

Essay Topic and guidline

Assessment item number three: essay.

We were given 6 options to choose from for our 1000 word essay. below is a summary of all the choices available.
1. Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and Dave Weinberger's "A New World" both present different views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.

2. The idea of the internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time, particularly in the popular medium of film. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society? Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.

3. Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time. Where does this leave 'professionals' and highly-skilled artists? Choose one area of creativity and discuss some of the challenges facing practitioners vs amateurs in producing digita lcontent.

4. What are the uses/limits of the internet in terms of politics and/or democracy? Should we rethink the nature of the political? What happens to the nation/state in the age of networks that have the potential to span thewhole planet? What has happened to the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media? Discuss with an example.

5. Creative Commons is both a solution and yet another failure to deal with authorship and copyright on the internet. Discuss and give examples.

6. Any other challenging topic related to the lectures that is approved by your tutor. To be approved, your topic should be unique and be based in your own interests in the online world and the theory that relates to it.

When it came to choosing the topic for the essay I found that all of the essay appeared to be somewhat confusing in the way they were presented. I ended up choosing option one for my essay: 1. Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and Dave Weinberger's "A New World" both present different views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.

We were provided with a guide for the essay as it was only 1000 words long and we were required to provide ample information with short word limit.

These simple steps will guide you through the essay writing process:

Decide on your topic.

Prepare an outline or diagram of your ideas.

Write your essay statement.

Write the introduction.

Define the terms that you are exploring.

Write the body.

• Write the main points.
• Explain the terms/points with quotes and your own take on these.
  
• Write the subpoints.
• Elaborate on the subpoints.

If possible include an 'If/then' statement of your own to propose a solution or alternative.

Write the conclusion.

Add the finishing touches. eg. References, Bibliography etc. (you have to remember to record where and what you look at/study while preparing to write and while writing)

The great game

So this weeks topic was 'studying video games'... my first thoughts on this lecture was... this is going to be so boring, but as the lecture progressed I was proved wrong.

Video games can be broken down further into specific types, pc games, console games, online games, arcade games and mobile phone games. These types can also be broken down further into first person shooters, puzzle, fitness and many more.

Demographics for video games were originally 18-25 year old males, making up 80% of the gaming market.
In 2005 Neilson active game study conducted new research. They found that there had been a massive boom in 25-40 year old male gamers. So this new data concluded that the 18-40 year old male gamers made up 59% of the gaming market and female games made up 49% which is pretty even.

It was seen that females dominated the mobile phone games and males predominately dominated the remainder aside from arcade games.

Josh raised a very interesting point... video games are very much like real life... you are required to earn, learn just like in every day life.

There are three specific ways to study a video game
1- Social science approach - which is studying the effects games have on people (violence)
2- Humanities approach - which is studying the meaning and context of a game. What is the story the game is trying to tell.
3- Industry and engineering approach - which is the development of games and new technologies.

In the last five minutes we did an experiment testing the three ways to study a video game. There was a male and female gamer volunteer in which Josh quizzed on the types of games they play and then tested out the ways of studying a video game... it was pretty funny overall... and it was established that 'video games have no impact on the people playing them'. It was acutally funnier to watch as many would know.

Evaluation of the course

So the blog task is slowly coming to an end... it's been a long semester with many assignments and exams and with the end being so close I guess we should probably add in a final word in regards to the course.

Over the ten weeks I have so far been enrolled in this course I have learnt numerous new skills about technology advancements, cinematic advancements and even democracy's place on the internet. The lectures have been creative and entertaining... especially the ones given by Jason... he just always managed to give the lecture a quirky edge, especially with his steps to learning software... it was awesome, funniest lecture I've ever had.

Over the last few weeks we've done some pretty awesome activities within tutorials, the ireport movie, the short films, sketch cast, open source software and so many more.

The lectures provided adequate information about each topic, in which the tutorials expanded on, enabling us to learn and take in the content.

I rate this course very highly in academic standards, and I would recommend it to students interested in it in the future.

Art work

So this is something I made for a friends birthday at the beginning of the year. it took me forever to make for her, with the wood being so delicate. It is comprised of her three favourite colours and some of her favourite pictures. I made this primarily becuase when i asked her if there was anything in the world she could have what would it be and she said happiness

How to use software

So this week was meant to be a lecture on cyber-utopia with Jason Nelson, but... instead Jason gave us a lecture on software and how to effectively teach ourselves a new software. He explained a 14 step process of using a software program.

step 1- Find the most simple and easy to use software to do what you want to do.

step 2- Maybe what you think you want to do is not actually what you should be doing. Exploring the software is what learning is all about. Exploring what industry standards and expectations are if search for employment with certain software.

step 3- So you've figured out you need something advance... so how do you teach yourself how to use software in a few days.

Step 4- Software is designed to be deep. Meaning that you might be able to open and save something or re-size or make an audio clip.

step 5- Begin by playing. Make something, anything. The best way to begin learning something is to open it up and look.

step 6- Look at what the common features are, most commonly there will be about 15 - 20% that you already know.

step 7- Save your work. Do not write over the same file, it protects against corrupt files and errors. Make sure to give your work appropriate file names.

step 8- Use the help file if a problem arises.

Step 9- The help section SUCKS. the help tool is not ideal for the beginners.

step 10- Search the problem. Don't start by search the entire web, find a specific site(s) with content and use specific search tools within the site.

step 11- Join forums and ask questions. This is an excellent way of getting answers, only thing is it takes a while to get a response.

step 12- Once you have learnt what to do, don't fear the tutorial book or videos.

step 13- don't take a course just to learn how to use the software, you will learn the same thing that you have just learnt.

Remember that we often learn how to use software to do something specific so it is always about content. The only problem with software is that it is often updated and upgraded quite often which makes learning and maintain certain skill levels difficult.

As you can see from these steps this lecture stood to be quite entertaining... pretty self-explanatory but worth the fun in all.

Political Possibilities

Political possibilities and edemocracy.

When we define Cyberpolitics it means the politics that exists predominately on the Internet.

By Edemocracy we mean the internet's intervention in and contribution to real world politics that exists in mainstream society or off the internet. Edemocracy consists of everything from political campaigning on the internet and the governments use of the internet to raise awareness.

So it can be said that democracy holds large importance on the internet.

Lets consider free speech and censorship...
Deliberation and discussion are key attributes of democracy, maybe talk is the most important element of democratic activity. The ability to convince and the willingness to be convinced are what provide the give and take that makes democracy something for all citizens. And that requires access to free speech.

Is free speech a basic right? In Australia we don't have the constitutional right to free speech... that's Americanism. The battle between free speech and censorship of the internet still prevails...

But where do hackers come into the equation...

Hackers have a bad name... but the word 'hacker' has various meanings that reunite in the work of the hacker: it suggests both cutting through thick foliage and managing or coping with a difficult situation, often with an appropriate application of ingenuity or a creative practical joke. Can you hack it?

Hackers seek to free information.