Module 1: Topic 1.3 and Topic 1.4

Week 03 of NET102

Topic 1.3: Dating, Intimacy and Sexuality

Pascoe: Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media

p. 117-8

• Young people are at the forefront of developing, using, reworking, and incorporating new media into their dating practices ... teens have put new media tools to use in their courtship practices such as meeting, flirting, going out and breaking up

p. 120

• In their intimacy practices youth use three primary technologies - mobile phones ... instant messaging ... and social network sites
• Mobile phones provide youth a way to maintain private channels of communication, maintain continual contact, and also serve as a "leash" through which teens in a relationship keep "tabs on" one another
• Teens use instant-messaging technologies to maintain frequent casual contact with their intimates
• Social network site profiles are key venues for representation of intimacy, providing a variety of ways to signal the intensity of a given relationship both through textual and visual representation

p. 122

• It is easier to talk to girls there (MySpace) than in person, because one can manage vulnerability through what Christo Sims has termed "controlled casualness"

p. 123

• Teens' normative practice is not necessarily meeting strangers online but rather using these mediated technologies to get to know the friend of a friend or further get to know someone with whom one has had only a casual or brief meeting

p. 125

• Deliberately casual messages are evidence of what Naomi Baron describes as the "whatever theory of language" supported by online communication, in which people are increasingly using more informal linguistic forms to write and communicate

Topic 1.4: Health: What My Doctor Didn't Tell Me

Gunther Eysenbach: Medicine 2.0: Social Networking, Collaboration, Participation, Apomediation, and Openness

• The emergence and broad adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and approaches coincides with the more recent emergence of Personal Health Application (PHA) Platforms (also called Personally Controlled Health Record [PCHR] platforms or “health record banks”) such as Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault, and Dossia, where data is—at the request of the consumer—pulled from various sources (includingthe  electronic health records).

On the Scope and Definition of Medicine 2.0

• The ideal Medicine 2.0 application would actually try to connect different user groups and foster collaboration between different user groups (for example, engaging the public in the biomedical research process)
• Medicine 2.0 applications, services and tools are Web-based services for health care consumers, caregivers, patients, health professionals, and biomedical researchers, that use Web 2.0 technologies and/or semantic web and virtual-reality tools, to enable and facilitate specifically social networking, participation, apomediation, collaboration, and openness within and between these user groups. 
• Medicine 2.0 also stands for a new, better health system, which emphasizes collaboration, participation, apomediation, and openness, as opposed to the traditional, hierarchical, closed structures within health care and medicine.

Social Networking

• Social networking is central to many Web 2.0 and Medicine 2.0 applications and involves the explicit modeling of connections between people, forming a complex network of relations, which in turn enables and facilitates collaboration and collaborative filtering processes.
• enables users to see what their peers or others with a predefined relationship (“friends”, “colleagues”, “fellow patients” etc.) are doing
• enables automated selection of “relevant” information (based on what peers are doing and reading on the Web)
• enables reputation and trust management, accountability and quality control, and fosters viral dissemination of information and applications

Participation

• Wikis are the perfect example to illustrate that the “participation” theme is also relevant for other user groups, such as scientists or health professionals, and can be adopted for tasks like scholarly communication.
• These platforms provide—at least theoretically—unique opportunities to address directly the concerns of patients regarding secondary use of their data for research, and to facilitate obtaining informed consent for participation and data use in research studies in an ethical manner.
• PCHR platforms allow consumers to access and control their personal health information and provide the possibility to obtain consent in a different setting than during a clinical consultation: through the Internet, where it is contextualized by educational information. It can even be argued that patient-access to their own data is a prerequisite for engaging the public

Apomediation

• Apomediation is a new socio-technological term that was coined to avoid the term “Web 2.0” in the scholarly debate. It characterises the “third way” for users to identify trustworthy and credible information and services.
• The first possible approach is to use intermediaries (ie, middlemen or “gatekeepers”), for example health professionals giving “relevant” information to a patient
• The second possibility is to bypass “middlemen” completely, which is commonly referred to as disintermediation. Examples are patients searching for information on the web, or travelers booking their flights directly on the booking system of an airline, bypassing travel agents.
• The third way, prevalent in the age of Web 2.0, is a special form of disintermediation: an information seeking strategy where people rely less on traditional experts and authorities as gatekeepers, but instead receive “guidance” from apomediaries, ie, networked collaborative filtering processes
• The difference between an intermediary and an apomediary is that an intermediary stands “in between” the consumer and information, meaning that he is a necessary mediating agent to receive the information in the first place. As a result, the credibility and quality of the intermediary heavily determines the credibility and quality of the information a consumer receives. In contrast, apomediation means that there are agents (people, tools) which “stand by” to guide a consumer to high quality information and services without being a prerequisite to obtain that information or service in the first place, and with limited individual power to alter or select the information that is being brokered.

Collaboration

• Collaboration specifically means to connect groups of people with each other who have not, or have insufficiently, interacted with each other. In the “researcher” corner of the Medicine 2.0 triangle, this may refer to bringing together scientists using tools and approaches
• also involves encouraging collaboration between diverse user groups, including for example fostering public participation and engagement in research issues, and user engagement in health care decisions.
• Collaboration between researchers on one hand, and the public or health professionals on the other hand, also means improved possibilities for knowledge translation and getting research findings into practice.

Openness

• On one level—the technical level—Web 2.0 stands for transparency, interoperability, open source, and open interfaces
• What is perhaps most significant about this development is that the “openness” philosophy of Web 2.0 tools will also raise the expectations of the Facebook generation in terms of dealing with their health data.
• Patients 2.0 will demand full control over their data
• On another—societal—level, Medicine 2.0 also implies openness and transparency which enables access to other kinds of information and data the public has historically had limited access to, for example research and research data (open access journals, open data etc.), and which even allows the public to engage in the research process itself (open peer-review).

Module 1: Topic 1.1 and Topic 1.2

Week 02 of NET102

Topic 1.1: Music: I want my mp3

Laughey: Music Media in Young People's Everyday Lives

pp. 173-175

Private and Public

• Intertwining relationship between the public and private : young people's bedrooms seen as productive spaces where publicly available resources (e.g. pop music) are shaped into personal objects of self-identity and creativity
• 'Zones' : multi-layered pathways governed by social, reflexive, active agents that flow between public and private realms of influence. E.g. media technologies can function as zones in the bedroom space by introducing public dimensions (a television program) amid more privatised zones (a dressing table)
• Music = pathway out of the private sphere of the bedroom and into the public sphere of the city for teenagers as they prepare to go out at night
• Personal stereos/iPods
• User accounts of people losing themselves in public and becoming distracted/disorientated
• Personal stereos are intended for use in public environments but reconstitute the private-public divide by altering the sensory experience of public environments
• Personal stereos = 'involvement shield' in public interactions
• Music can enable a feeling of occupancy and control in public and private spaces

pp. 175-177

Intensive and Casual

• Intensive, concentrated listening is associated with emotional events in people's lives and demonstrates music's ability to invoke past feelings and ways of being
• Intensive use of music media in more public, social networks : individuals who collect bootlegs are in general the most committed fans that an artist has
• Hayes argues that young vinyl collectors use their LP records to regain a level of agency in resisting the 'ideal consumer' type favoured by profit-driven global music industry

pp. 177-179

Alternative and Populist

• Mass-mediated music is dismissed by those with alternative music tastes as shallow, commercialised trash
• Niche media are considered to be integral to the creation of subcultural capital
• Message boards - like MySpace - empower fans to exchange news, information and recommendations; word of mouth is an important part of online communication
• Most significant cultural impact of the iPod results from its capacity to store vast music collections
• Often associated with intensive, personal use, although these technologies retain a public use dimension
• That is, although it can be played over stereo systems, 'favourites' lists can be created, and emotions/memories are attached to particular songs/albums

pp. 179-180

Music Media Uses (2): Music Television and Radio

• Radio is often the preferred soundtrack for young people in public places
• Music television channels are often a background presence in communal areas of schools/colleges/public bars/shops/restaurants
• Music media also function in private contexts as forms of domestic entertainment that require little mental or physical exertion

p. 182

Questions

How is music interlaced with our everyday lives in general? What has been the impact of the Internet in the way music is used by young people privately and publicly (and the way this intermingles)?

In general, music has become a way of discovering and expressing our identity. The Internet has enabled a higher degree of access so we are not just told what music is good through mainstream media, making us more individualised in our tastes.

The Internet has also transformed how people connect through music - there are social media websites dedicated to music fans, so you can discuss, recommend and learn about music with other fans. Something which you experience privately can now become a public experience.

Last.FM

I created a profile and added approx. 100 of my favourite bands/artists randomly. I then downloaded Scrobble to integrate into iTunes (as this is what I use to listen to my music). I connected my profile with my personal Facebook account to get my profile picture, name, location, gender and birthday.

My profile: http://www.last.fm/user/Rinikins

My review: This has a similar vibe to Amazon, where new music is recommended to you based on your chosen preferences. You are able to listen to music directly from the website, so you can know immediately if you like the music or not.

Finding friends is not difficult. If your profile is connected to Facebook, you can find friends from who also use Last.FM via Facebook. If you are looking to find people with similar tastes in music, listed on the page of each artist/band are people who are "top listeners" of them. There are also groups which you can join based on these artists or genres of music. 

Last.FM has successfully integrated the private and public personas of music fans.

Topic 1.2: Games: At work, no one knows I am a wizard

IGEA: Interactive Games and Entertainment Association

What can you say about the role of gaming in general, and online gaming more specifically, in Australian life?

According to IGEA, gaming is a huge part of Australian life. Children and parents both participate via different avenues. In my family, mum plays on her laptop (Facebook), my brother plays on the console (PS3) and I play games on either my iPad or Playstation. 

Games aimed at young adults are the ones which have Internet connectivity and social networking capabilities. It is becoming the norm to be able to communicate with others while playing the same game on consoles - that which used to be only possible with online role-playing games.

This could be an indicator that Australians see the Internet as a way to connect with friends, and this has caused these technology advancements.

TED Talk - Jesse Schell: When games invade real life

Module 1: Introduction - Studying the Internet

Week 01 of NET102

In this topic we look at:

• The connections between our individual experiences/perspectives of the Internet with universal, broader statements made about the role the Internet plays in society + people's lives;
• Exploring how our own experiences and "everyday Internet" may be different from other people's + the implications of this for studying the Internet; and
• The questions of the relationship/s between the Internet and everyday life.

Study Guide

Introduction: Ubiquity, or, The Internet is Everywhere

• Technology is interwoven into different aspects of life - work, shops, games, phones
• Internet has penetrated our work, schools, homes, commuting, banks, government agencies, shops
• Ubiquitous nature of the Internet is the result of the incorporation of the 'online' world with the 'offline' --> distinctions become superfluous

The Internet and Everyday Life

• Everyday Life: the daily, mundane, commonplace experiences, objects,, habits and routines
• Everyday Life: the daily lives of "ordinary people" - people from working/middle classes
• When something becomes so commonplace that people do not normally think about it very much, that is when it is most powerful, because the power that operates through it is invisible and unexamined

The reasons for studying the Internet and everyday life:

• To understand ourselves and our society better
• We can discern the patterns and undercurrents that structure our lives + rules that people don't question or talk about
• To identify and understand effective progressive/conservational tactics
• In understanding the nuts and bolts of how power and control operates in our society, we can recognise ways of improving it
• Also, the study of the everyday includes examining ways in which people may subvert the limitations of their world
• To recognise and understand change
• It is possible to see the role the Internet may play in people's sense of identity, how groups are formed/sustained + how power is distributed in society

Multiple Perspectives

• One person's everyday is not the other person's everyday
• Draw from your own experiences, but also take into account that one's experience does not necessarily mirror that of everyone in wider society
• The everyday is historically specific and located. The everyday shifts.
• The everyday we each have is specific to a certain time, place and social context
• Perspective matters
• Be aware of the different contexts of the writing and thinking, the different interests and motivations, and what each perspective has to offer

Berger: "Sociological Theory and Cultural Criticism

p. 163

There are three points to be made about how sociologists of everyday life work:

1. "...they study social interactions by 'observing them in natural situations...'"
2. "...they focus on observing people interacting in face-to-face concrete situations..."
3. "...they focus on the meanings that people find in their lives..."

The difference between 'everyday' and 'anyday' experiences: the latter refers to things that can happen to a person on any day, contrasted to things that happen to them every day.

p. 164

Everyday life is shaped by advertising; phenomena such as fads, fashions, styles, and commonly used expressions, as well as our routine viewing of television, listening to radio, and reading of newspapers and magazines.

Bakardjieva

p. 61

Approaches to the Internet in Everyday Life:

• Statistical: Who is online? What do they do online? How much time is spent online?
• Interpretative: Why do people go online? What does it mean to them?
• Critical: Is Internet use empowering or oppressing people? Does it alienate and exploit people?

CONCLUSION

I avoided SGY110 and find that I end up doing another Sociology unit anyway.

I agree with the sentiment that the Internet is ubiquitous and that the online realm has leached into the offline one - they are not separate entities in our society any more. As we become more reliant on technology that uses the Internet, the more that distinction becomes blurred. This is not necessarily a critique, just a statement of the inevitable. The fact that it is part of everyday life just shows how normal it has become - it is synonymous with brushing our teeth and eating dinner at a table at a certain time of day. I know that one of the first things I do in the morning is check my Facebook and e-mails - it has become a daily ritual.