Upon reflecting on this course, i have realised my perception of identity and social networking have changed. From my time with everyone in the course, i learned our different and diverse views regarding the internet and various aspects like twitter which shows how teh whole world is connected,flikr which shows people posting various pictures and shows how a persons percepton of a destination can change based on how the photo is taken, photoshoped etc. and social networking whcih asked the question who we are online. My group project is based on identity and i will be coming coming out of this course realising the notion behind identity online and how people my name can be perceived as a terrorist victim when searched on google !

Mike Wesch Analysis

Is this a viable way of disseminating ideas?

I find this video very interesting, Wesch tried to make a point, on how students spend their time, what they value, conclusions they reached through this survey is very interesting. I find very important points raised like

-"i buy hundreds of dollars of books which i never read"

This relates to my dissertation. This falls under the catagory of conspicuos consumption, whereby advertising and various media forms bombard people with messages and urges to consume. Which ultimately leads to a form of 'waste' whereby people keep purchasing even though they might no actually need the product.

- "i will read 8 books this year but surf 1281 facebook profiles"

This shows the level of addiction and impact facebook has had on people. As people add and socialise on facebook they become more and more attune to their friends private lives and interest. A person cannot physically interact and know every single friends update. This causes a level of addiction as you constantly join to be updated with who uploaded what photo, wrote on whos wall, went where. You become a spy and intruder to your friends life which takes over your life.


-"this laptop costs more than some people in the world make in a year." apple lap top

This questions the relevance of having a high tech expensive lap top. Do people really need a mac book air? is it just because its so light. I am not disagreeing with teh convenience it provides but as soon as you buy a new lap top, camera or mobile phone, a new one has come out and you are constantly wanting to buy whats new. This quote shows how technology is tied with capitalism and modernity as you strive to be a modern person which you are judged for by what you buy.

-some have suggested that technology alone can save us..

some claim to go on facebook whilst in class. i must admit i have done that in our class, which i unconciously just go to facebook and enter my accound as though im addicted or will be missing out on something.

this makes me question whether technology has helped make peoples life easier or worse? people can now do their work on their mobile phones, as businesses realise they can exploit their employees working hours in their free time, by emailing them which shows the level of interferance being made. Technology and communication has made people lose their sense of individuality as you become the victim of a world of simulation as Jean baudrillard puts it.

who am i online ??!!!

my name is abeer salman. I entered that on google to see what people could found about me if they were to enter my name online. To my surprise a girl named abeer salman was at a terrorist attack site ! The article headline was "At Least 7 Killed as Muslim Terrorists Bomb Jerusalem Campus" and it stated :

"As emergency workers cleared the site, Abeer Salman, 19, a student from the Arab village of Beit Safafa, sat on the plaza steps, stunned.
"I was across the plaza," she said. Abeer claimed "My friend wanted to get something to drink. After two minutes we heard a blast, and we can't find her."

This not something i would like people to associate me with as i am not that same girl. Especially that i am arab and if i were to apply for a job in Europe or any western country, people are already skeptical of arabs, let alone for them to see me ina terrorist site! However, my familly name can be salmanpour, pour meaning 'the children of' in persian, which is more helpful as the slmanpour familly is a small familly and directly related ot me which makes all the links related to salmanpour more associated with me.

This has helped me alot, as now i realise when i apply for jobs in a western country i would maybe be more safe and not judged if i were to put my name as ' abeer salmanpour' instead of 'abeer salman' which relates me to a terrorist attack !

This shows that people should be more attentive to how their name is published online and since someone with the same name could be asscoiated with something that is negative like my case which could affect me in many ways.

Facebook is not as PRIVATE as it says it is !!

According to the article from BBC by Jon Stewart, Facebook is being monitored which has allowed many people to take advantage of that like sociologists who study peoples relationships and emotions based on the applications they add, which helps they identify the different tastes people have. UCLA and Harvord university professors are studying students that are being open about their information as they are not adjusting their private settings, allowing anyone and everyone to view their profile.

The facebook web site claims that people have their right to privacy as they can limit any one from monitoring or viewing their profile . This seems very worrying as some students are either oblivious to the fact that any stranger can view their profile and use valuble information which could lead to fraud or other implictions like using photographs for blackmail. People are not aware of the danger of being too open and honest about themseleves on facebook especially when people from the same network can view their profile information.

That raises teh question whether it is safe to be this open on facebook, whereby teachers can have access to students personal information and have their life be used for a specific research which students may not want to be a part of.

Manufacturing locations

the first picture is kuwaits twin towers while the second is the marina crescent in kuwait

these images are flikr's images of the same two places as above.

Today, we went through different websites like flickr, and twittervision wereby we saw how people in different parts of the world can know where they are and spot different peoples daily events just by clicking on their country. On flickr, people have posted various picktures of different locations, towns and cities, the pictures dont seem to represent the locatioon itself as pictures are modified and some are glammed up. The angles pictures have been taken from changes the whole view of how people see the place. This shows how people can manufacture a location by modifying an adjusting the image so the viewer sees the town, city or country in the eye of the photographer. Some areas are very dull and the photographer would make the area look funky and hip by using photography techniques and playingg with the colores.

Social networking sites don't deepen friendships (NOT)

British Association Festival of Science 2007
Social networking sites don't deepen friendships

i do not agree with what the article states. Merely because i am a very big facebook fan, and appreciate its fundamental purpose. Facebook is a website that connects people and that is exactly what it is, people are in touch with each other, they can tag pictures to each other, send each other gifts, see whos their celebrity look alike. It thus serves to entertain as well as connect.

However, the article states that "Although the numbers of friends people have on these sites can be massive, the actual number of close friends is approximately the same in the face to face real world," said Will Reader at Sheffield Hallam University. I dont agree with this statement because i personally have made close frienships with people i have never met and we are merely facebook friends but very close maybe even closer than my real life face to face friends. I also know people who have gotten engaged through meetin on facebook!! Many people use facebook as a tool to get close to those they dont know and for very close frienship with them only through facebook.

I therefore disagree with the statemnent and assumptions the article makes because it is partially true that people have many aquaintances on facebook and there are people we hardly talk to! But that doesnt necessarily mean that i cannot form very close friendships mayeb even close than those of real life only through facebook.

DNA group

me, naz, and dimi welcomed jonathon to our group, and we had a discussion on what we want in out project. We decided we will focus on identity online and we have broken up different assignments to each other. We will establish between online and real life context. We will focus on three different aspects, facebook, sexuality online and dating services.

We will be focusing on how people represent themeselves and how they distort their images and information because the internet has opened the gat for people to freely express their thoughts and evaluate certain aspects their intereted in like politics, life, health and so on.

We will be analysing how identity is portrayed online and how that affects the way peopel perceive things. We will analyse how identy is established and what are the charachteristics of it.

We will also look at who will be researching, and analyse all teh various contents of our research and focus on what we find interesting teh most.