ALC201 - Digital Media influence towards online dating and online pornography

The how-to-do of my video is I talking for most of it expressing my views towards digital media’s influence to online dating and online pornography. With the help of quotes from scholars, I do hope viewers will be influenced to what I have to say. I adopted this strategy on my own, thinking that the ultimate ultimatum is for me to talk in front of the camera and not shy away by showing too many images or videos or statements.

The content of my video is to be able to influence people that digital media has lots of impact towards today’s online dating and online pornography. I keep on expressing my views of how most people uses the internet as primary tool for communication in their online dating world, thus throwing away major barriers such as social anxiety, self-consciousness and shyness. Along with it all, it becomes way easier to meet a stranger just by a click of a button.

There are quite a few challenges that I faced for this assignment. Because this topic is extremely diverse, it’s a bit difficult to explain within 5 minutes of video and compress everything in order to make sense of it all. I have to take many researches online and read many readings so I can get the full understanding of this topic and deliver it from my brain into a five-minute short video clip. What I learnt from this exercise is the creativity it offers to students to undertake many readings (whether online or library books) and have a good read and applies all of it to the assignment, needless to say that it also strengthens my video-editing skills and knowledge.

Throughout my readings (references), I have to find relevant quotes and statements that fully support my argument that digital media do strengthens the online dating world along with online pornography.

The content of my video are a mixture of myself talking in front of the camera, with the full statements and quotes of scholars that will support my argument towards this topic.

The way I drew on my readings are to find relevant materials that will connect my points to the statements that will deliver the topic smoothly. I have to read many pages from the readings and make sure that I write down the most important points.

To be honest, I found this assignment a major hurdle, as I have not done a video for an assignment before throughout my life here at the university. And in a way, I do overthink the situation as well and stressed a lot thinking that I might not get the job properly done. But after a few chatting sessions with my friends, I found to just do it and leave the fear of failing out of it.

After I completed my video and uploaded to YouTube, I was very impressed and proud of myself knowing that I’ve completed a major assignment properly and that I thought I won’t be able to do it. I do think we need more exercise like this as it helps improve student’s confidence in themselves to get things done and believe in themselves more than they should.

Reference List

Ben-Ze’ev, A 2003, Love Online: Emotions on the Internet, Cambridge University Press, New York.

Kang, T and Hoffman, L H 2011, ‘Why would you decide to use an online dating site? Factors that lead to online dating’, Communication Research Reports, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 205-13.

Waskul, DD 2011, ‘Internet sex: the seductive “freedom to”’, in Seidman, S and Meeks, C (eds.), Introducing the New Sexuality Studies, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, pp. 364-70.

ALC201 - Online Identity

All of us use internet. It becomes part of reality, part of life living in the 21st century. Cyberspace has become larger than what it was 10 years ago. Everything becomes much easier to access, whether for information or personal purposes. The Internet makes everything possible, without boundaries. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are among the most popular social media sites used all around the world for people to connect with one another, thus, creating a new concept and meaning of 'online identity'. Most of us by now already learnt and know what online identity is but still wondering how it comes to age. In reality, we have our own personal identity but in the cyber world , everyone can be anyone, giving the term 'online identity' a borderless opportunity. Smith and Watson (2014) explains the use of social media as " for young people to narrate moments in coming of age, for families to track and narrate their genealogical histories, for people seeking friends and lovers or those with similar hobbies to make connections, for political activists to organise around movements and causes." (Smith & Watson 2014, p.70).

From my experiences, I will use Facebook and Instagram as examples of tools that helps shapes my online identity. Facebook and Instagram are two very different social media sites, although yes they share one thing in common, that is they are social media sites, but the way consumers use them are very different. For example, in Facebook the user can almost do anything, in my experience, I can post random statuses, post photos and videos, or perhaps check-in at relevant places so my friends know where I am, whereas in Instagram the user can only post photos and videos of what they wanted. Instagram users don't have the luxury to post words or check-in at some place without posting a photo or video first. My Facebook online identity I can say is quite contrast in difference with my Instagram online identity this is because I decided to use Instagram more and more every week rather to use my Facebook, thus creating my Instagram content more relevant pictures and videos of my everyday life rather than Facebook. In Facebook , I'm very careful of my online identity because it's the most common social media everyone uses, so I wouldn't want anyone with simple access to Internet to access my Facebook profile, and am careful with the images (profile picture, for example) that I posted and status updates. In Instagram, as it's not as popular and massive as Facebook just yet, I feel more freedom to use it because not many potential employers or creepers out there can stalk, or perhaps even know the existence of my Instagram account. As Facebook attracts more and more users, potentially employers will use Facebook as their hunting tool to look for information for their potential employees. Also, more stalkers and creepers use Facebook more rather than Instagram as their number one tool for potential victims, which backs up my argument that my online identity in Facebook is more discreet in comparison to my Instagram.

Screenshots embedded from my personal

 Facebook and Instagram accounts respectively.

In Facebook, I choose only the necessary information for the use of my online identity that I will allow to show to the audience (my friends). As Facebook has more information options that I can use rather than Instagram, I'm being more choosy. In Instagram, your 'followers' can only see your contents and not your information (age, gender, school, hometown, etc.) compare to Facebook. In Facebook, your friends can look, like and comment on your profile picture but not so on Instagram, as they can only see the profile picture but not like nor comment on it, thus creating more security to those who are insecure of their profile pictures in social media. In terms of communication (chatting), Facebook allows it, which symbolises your online identity to a whole new level, whereas in Instagram the way you 'communicate' is simply by commenting on one of the pictures and hoping for the conversation to be alive and continuous. As in the 21st century, more and more people are using Internet instead of watching TV (especially Generation Y and Z), people becomes more aware of their identity in the online world and not so easily disclose information that could lead to themselves being harassed or harmed in that matter. Users now see themselves in the online world as a " recognition that these sites and the exchanges that develop on them are extensions in the production of the self and are vital to the maintenance of one's identity." (Marshall 2010, p. 42). These social media sites, whether it would be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn now works as tools that we use to shape who we are in the online world.

According to Claypoole (2012), " we are all entertainers and publishers now. We can all send thoughts, opinions and videos of ourselves throughout the world with the click of a mouse or tap of a finger." (Claypoole 2012, p.3). I totally agree with this argument as for all the power that comes within the Internet, it also gives us huge responsibilities with it, having said that we need to consider how easy it is for that power to be manipulated and for someone else to steal our identity and uses it for their satisfaction, thus giving a whole new meaning for the term 'online identity/identities'.

References:

Marshall, PD 2010, ‘The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as 

marker of presentational media’, Celebrity Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 35-48.

Smith, S and Watson, J 2014, 'Virtually Me: A Toolbox about Online Self-Presentation', in Poletti , A and Rak, J, Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 70-95.

Claypoole, T 2012, 'How did you get naked?', Protecting your internet identity: are you naked online?, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, pp. 1-18.