Week 2 - Tutorial Task

Greetings!

 

(Find the videos here)

Did You Know 4.0 is a short video in a series that list interesting facts, by Shift Happens. Each video is a remake of the last, the video posted here being the most recent, and has the most recent statistics and information. I chose to post this video because it has a lot of interesting facts about social networking and the internet. 

 (Image found here)

The internet allows people access to 1,000,000,000 webpages!  But, as the internet is ever evolving, some users have created their own ways of making their favourite websites better. This can range from simple techniques such as Wikirank, which allows you to analyse trending topics on Wikipedia to find information faster, to Ebay Snipers, which are a automatic cheating bot that posts bids on items in the final seconds, allowing you to sneak in and buy an item that normal users would miss out on. 

Another example is a Poker Bot. Poker Bots allow users to set up a computerised online poker player, which, after paying a certain amount, assure a percentage of winnings in return. Bots used in this manner is a form of cheating, although the bots can also be used as legitimate opponents for players. Either way most cardrooms forbid the use of bots.  

These webpage bots are everywhere, for many websites. Some enhance the website, for the better of the community, other’s are cheaters providing only for the one user.




PART 2:

How long have you been using these communication technologies? What influenced you to start using these particular technologies?  How did you find out about them? 

My dad has been a computer technician since I was 3 years old, so I received basically anything I wanted in terms of electronics while growing up. I had videogame consoles and computers. So right from a young age I’ve been very fluent with computers, and, in turn, the internet. I grew up on these communication technologies.

Is privacy an issue for you when using new technologies?  What do you think of companies like Facebook and Google who collect information about their users?   (How do you deal with issues around privacy?)

Honestly I am rather a private person when it comes to the internet, so I personally am not very bothered by Facebook collecting information about me. I don’t put enough information out there for it to really affect me.

                                     

Do you have friends whom you know only from the internet and have never met in person?   Is this different to people that you know in person?  Describe the difference.

I have a few people I talk to on occasion that I know only through the internet, but I am not sure I would consider them friends. I am not quite close enough to them – personally not geographically even though they are from Chile and Canada! I think the difference would be that I don’t talk to them that much, so I feel detached. And when we do chat I’m very conscious of what I am saying. When I am with my friends in person everything is just so natural.

Separately my brother actually has a lot of very close friends that he met over the internet, playing videogames online together. He talks to them all the time and recently one even visited Australia, and he went and spent the day with him.