Hijacking Movements: The Toxicity of Counter Cultures

     With every new social media movement comes another, opposite movement. These typically undervalue the previous movements and speak over them; which the movements often are stating in the first place.

     #AllLivesMatter came soon after #BlackLivesMatter; even though nowhere in the tag, or has it been explicitly stated, that supporting black lives means f*ck everyone else's life. #AllLivesMatter (and, grossly enough #BlueLivesMatter) are simply means of telling those in support of BLM to shut up, quite down, and stop caring. Stop speaking so outwardly about your beliefs, because my beliefs are not only more important but they're the right belief.

     However, not all of these tags/movements has to be so passive aggressive/toxic and when done well can actually facilitate a environment for conversation and learning. #MeToo brought along #MenToo. MenToo was almost a great movement; stating that the typical person using #MeToo is probably female, and that it felt exclusive to men, who are often silenced or shamed when they are sexually harassed by society. While it could be seen as speaking over female voices (which, maybe it was), it was interesting nonetheless; and brought to the table that we should consider male victims of sexual abuse/harassment. Unfortunately, it devolved into a hugbox of men (and women) blaming false rape accusations for the fall of men and their careers.

     Hijacking a movement where rape survivors share their stories to say "But what about US? The (not even, but hypothetically) falsely accused! Aren't we victims, too?"

     And yes, those who are falsely accused are victims; their reputations and careers are publicly destroyed and their livelihood is ruined.

     However, women already don't report their rape/sexual assaults because they're afraid no one will believe them, so spreading and acting like it's extremely common to falsely accuse people of rape seems counter productive. It makes it sound as though women have power by using rape, when really at the end of the day, much, much more women (and probably more men, if society didn't shame them into not telling anyone, unfortunately) are actually being raped than falsely accusing anyone of rape.

     Does counter culture have to be this toxic? Why is it that it is seemingly difficult to come to a median agreement, or to create movements that don't mock/mimic previous ones and therefore hijack them? Which often the movement is about, anyways? (Ex: gay movements, black movements, feminist movements are all told to "shut up" by other movements, even though the entire point is that they've ultimately been quite all too long and are now speaking and are given a voice)

     According to Siva Vaidhyanathan, Trump won the election because of Facebook. Take that in, take the time to input that information as you will.

     The thought being that Facebook is very geared toward you, what you need and like to be swayed, and can create an echo chamber of mass opinions that are essentially all the same, or at the very least, can find common ground.
   
    Spending time with people who only have the same opinions and belief systems as you can definitely create an environment where anything deviating from the norm and is "different" can be taken as "wrong". Alongside that, social media makes it very hard to feel "neutral" about anything.

     In this age, everyone is forced to feel passionately about something. Even our news is biased, we have stereotypical news outlets for different political beliefs (ex: What type of people watch FOX?), and we are more likely to seek out news we agree with (or disagree with, and go "this is crazy!), than neutral news.

     This is how "special snowflake", "I identify as an attack helicopter", "triggered" and other (questionable) memes became to be. Those who already feel uncomfortable about trans* people are likely to accept the bait of an extremist (and probably fake person) who identifies as something ridiculous (say a fox), and use it as fuel to confirm their transphobia. It's the same as before, where "If we let the gays get married, then people will start marrying horses!" argument. Ridiculous; but still used for the campaign.

     I am not saying that only conservative people fall prey for these traps. Liberals have their same extremest cherry pickings, such as Kent State Gun Girl (who most pro gun people do NOT agree with), extreme incidents of racism, homophobia, etc (doubtful that conservatives are all just sitting around, waiting for the day a gay passes their part of town to hurl insults at), and pegging them all as white/Christian/straight/rednecks, etc; when that's certainly not the case when there's "Gays for Trump" "Women for Trump" "Blacks for Trump", etc.

     As everyone develops these extremist opinions, counter culture movements begin erupting from anywhere. Hell, did you see how big the debate on if pineapples belong on pizza was? (though they briefly joined forces).

   
     To an extent, maybe the pineapples on pizza is a good metaphor for our current social media/political climate. Everyone is feeling extreme, but with a new extreme (like peas and mayonnaise), a productive conversation can come about. What that new extreme everyone can agree on will be (hopefully global warming), only time will tell.

Social Media's Power (by Montrell Wiley)

When it comes to the proliferation of information and ideas, the internet is unmatched. Social media has been used as a vessel for people's ideas while also being used to dig those ideas into other people's minds. Social media single handedly revolutionized protesting in not too long of a period of time.

Thanks to social media, we have a few events that go down in history as important events or revolutions started from social media campaigns.

So does society benefit from the power that social media hands to us? Measuring this of course would be quite difficult, but we have all seen the type of influence that people can have on others when they are given a platform to distribute that influence. The author of Anti-social Media would definitely agree that social media has power over others, and would not believe this to be power that changes the world in a positive way.

Social Movements via Social Media

Social movements are key components for us as a society in order to reach towards our intrinsic values with one another. They are able to touch upon several issues that either hit closer to home or just at a given extent as to a particular person caring just enough about the certain topic in order to feel the need to say something about it in order to make perception needed about them to reconcile with their self image. Now whether that is true or not, social movements have created misconstrued rhetoric and it is difficult for them to be lasting impressions unless the severity of the movement is already huge enough for it to be lasting.

In 1973, Marlon Brando had won an Oscar for his performance in the iconic film series' first picture, The Godfather. Brando had not showed up at all to accept his award and had a Native American female kind fully reject it on camera while giving speech of Brando's take on why he would not be receiving the award. Simply in later interviews, Brando's take as to why he would not accept had been because his unsettling take on how he felt Native Americans had been viewed within the lens of Hollywood particularly. Now as Marlon Brando had been so ridiculed for this particular notion as seen as sign of disrespect, there were two sides of the coin. The marginalized population, but not minority in number, had been of inspiration towards the act and considering it to be of righteousness display for the specific culture intended to be represented.

http://cinemajam.com/mag/features/oscars-got-brandod

Now if the stir up within the media, Hollywood, film audience, and the public had been so mixed in emotion and perspectives, there had been too much rhetoric that had been misinterpreted on both sides. Brando did not hate Hollywood, he just had an intention to show that he wanted more for Native Americans in the industry and he had seen this as a potential opportunity to make something of it. While social media was of no relevance then of course, it had been displayed at some degree within the general public excitement of having "tea" spilled. The lasting effect however had not been so bold, rather it was short term which is what had been connected from Vaidhyanathan in the last chapter of his book, Antisocial Media we have covered for our Social media Class. The utilization of true social media had not been used within this time, but the narrative had been attempted to be created within the media at the given time and as we now use social media to exploit these attempted narratives, it is no doubt that it brings the relevance up to par in order to gain traction but does it really do enough in order to be life lasting if the bickering is existential and the ignorance remains consistent?  

Social Media and Social Entrepreneurship

I’m a social entrepreneurship major; this translated to nonprofit business for those unfamiliar with the title. My class is focused on making the world a better place to live in and providing support for those who lack it. A large part of our business  takes place in social media so that we may spread information as efficiently as possible.

                Our textbook is heavily against social entrepreneurship and explains that it is creating the idea that business is the only way to solve social issues. I agree that business won’t solve everything, but that society has to. In my opinion, I think he is missing the point of social entrepreneurship. We are taught to inspire people to take action to change our world. The problem with our society is that we don’t set our priorities which then bleeds into our political system which the society runs not business ( although that could be argued against now). For example, a recent movement that has taken over social media is the Me Too movement which inspires victims of rape and sexual assault to come forward and share their stories openly in confidence. On every platform of social media you can find the #MeToo. People are becoming more open with sharing their stories to empower others who have been through the same trauma. The hashtag is used to connect people across the world their stories and creates a community of comfort and transformation.  Our society thrives on  masses, once one person is bold enough to stand up for their rights others will follow suit. The movement isn’t about creating more funds for sexual awareness nonprofits, but bringing to light the significance sexual abuse has on our society and how prominent it is. The goal is protect others and make them aware that they are in control of their bodies.

Social media has become superior to almost every other form of advertisement. It is faster and can be spread across the globe with no hassle at all.  People can translate anything with the click of a few buttons. Almost all other forms of paper and cable news have become extinct. But, the downside of the rise of social media in our social movements in the credibility of sources. Anyone can misconstrue sources over the internet because words and photos can be falsified so easily with how they are presented. However, social media holds its position as not only the main source of advertisements for business but for individuals and the issues the care about. An example is social media  playing a factor to the protest side of movements. Physical protests are still extremely popular and I think social media endorses this. People like to post pictures of themselves at rally’s to publicly show that they care enough about an issue to go out and create a scene. Protests these days are definitely more peaceful than in the past, at least in the USA, but these protests still create tensions in the community. The LGBTQ community has been known to hold many physical protests for their rights because in most of the country they still face discrimination. I’m from Houston and I know that recently they have instituted a pride day parade downtown for the LGBTQ community for them to express themselves freely. Around this time, my social media blows up with people’s photos from the parade as well as their home made signs that speak of justice and the end of discrimination and attached to these photos there is the matching hashtag to go with it. Across the globe you can find these pride days that celebrate the freedom of love and social media connects them all. But, as the internet always does it create a way to bring this community down. The more people post about a movement the more people are going to negatively react to them. Social media open up opportunities for people to backlash movements without facing the consequences of face to face reactions. People can feel entitled online and while there is the freedom of speech, society does have a problem with people being jerks.  If society could learn to be respectful then I believe the internet would be a much safer place for people to express their thoughts and persuade others to believe in them as well.

Social media can make a movement flourish, but can also bring it down. With the whole world being able to react to a situation, more opinions emerge. Our world can use social media for good; to connect the world in harmony and to support others and that day has yet to come. Hopefully with the next generations people can use social media to raise awareness to help the people who are lost. Social entrepreneurship will pretty much always be necessary and because of this social media will continue to hold a large portion of how our world reacts to it’s surroundings.

Alexa And Similar Devices: Are They Always Listening?

Throughout our everyday schedules, we use our phones as a digital planner that helps remind us what we have going for the day or updates us on the weather, the featured news, and so much more that contributes to our busy lives when we don’t have a chance to get to it ourselves. For some people, they use devices such as Alexa, Google Home, Siri, and so much more of them that verbally tell them what’s coming next. But when you think about it, HOW do they know what to say and when to say it? Are they constantly hearing what you are saying or is it just a coincidence? It’s kind of scary to think that a device that is supposed to help you and remind you of what is next on your schedule is saying things based on what you said the other day or how they are on even when you’re not saying anything is kind of creepy because again, they are ALWAYS listening and is ready at your command. You may think of shutting it off, but its almost like an everyday need because it does all the work for you and just tells you when it’s time to do this or that.

In connection with my last blog post about Facebook and how it has some sort of connection with our browser and throws ads to our face with the things we look up, how are these devices doing the same thing, but instead verbally saying it when not asked? These devices also store our information just like Facebook does without really asking for our permission and invading our privacy. But if we think about it, we let these devices into our homes and into our daily lives, so that’s pretty much all it needed in order to get our information. In the book we’ve been reading and discussing in class, “Anti-social media” by Siva Vaidhyanathan, talks about how Facebook disconnects us and undermines democracy. He mentions how though there are already many dangers with having Facebook alone, but it is even more dangerous having and holding all of this information on us just like these devices do. Anybody can abuse our information by somehow hacking in our devices and listening in to our personal lives that can be used for the purposes of public shaming, harassing, or exposing personal information to outsiders. In other words, its best to keep it away from our personal lives so we can prevent hackers/intruders from creating a false version/persona of us while monitoring our every movement and activity we make to use against us in later times.

Many people throughout the world have had some odd experiences with their devices especially the Alexa device where a family from Portland had a terrible one. KIRO 7 did an interview with the family that contacted Amazon to investigate their problem after their private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa, and that the recorded audio was sent to the phone of a random person in Seattle, who was in the family’s contact list. After receiving the call above from one of her husband's employees, who was in the family’s contact list, the family unplugged all the devices, and repeatedly called Amazon. An Alexa engineer was able to investigate. The statement made by the family about the investigation stated,

"We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house," she said. "At first, my husband was, like, 'no you didn't!' And the (recipient of the message) said 'You sat there talking about hardwood floors.' And we said, 'oh gosh, you really did hear us.'"

The family says the engineer did not provide specifics about why it happened, or if it's a widespread issue but said that the device just guessed what we they were saying. They also mentioned that the device did not audibly advise them it was preparing to send the recording, something it’s programmed to do. When KIRO 7 asked Amazon questions, they sent this response:

“Amazon takes privacy very seriously. We investigated what happened and determined this was an extremely rare occurrence. We are taking steps to avoid this from happening in the future."

In conclusion, I personally have had a few weird encounters with these devices but never one like the one above. Since this isn’t the first story to come out with a similar claim, me and my family do take precautions such as turning them off when not using them or just planning to never get another one at all. I believe anybody can hack into these devices and ruin peoples lives just like that. It’s better to stick with a paper planner or something that won’t “accidentally” ruin your life and just to play it safe because we never know what can happen.

Article used: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-24/unplug-your-alexa-devices-right-now-youre-being-hacked

They know everything...

They know everything...

Madison Alexander

The latest chapter discusses how advertisers struggle to get the attention of people due to the daily distractions in our world. Facebook is the “attention machine”; On Facebook everything is an advertisement. Rather a advertisement for: who to vote for, what to buy, what charities should we donate to, what type of person am I, what sports team should you cheer for, and etc etc… Internet-based advertising made labeling and sorting audiences easier and more efficient (instead of direct mail) Direct mail has become very outdated and cost money whereas online advertising still cost money you are definitely more likely to get your money worth. I agree that Facebook is a big source of our daily information. When seeing a ad that interest you on Facebook, I am more likely to interact with this ad if it interest me rather than just treat it as a regular ad and scroll past it. After reading the last chapter, I was curious to see what other people’s opinions were on the series of devices like Google Home, Amazon Echo, Siri (apple products) that are constantly listening and constantly learning about our (the owners) wants and “desires”. Another thing I will ask he or she is if they believe that there is a connection between the ads and these bots.

The first person I asked was my boyfriend Marty. I first asked Marty what he thinks about the “rumors” of Siri being able to hear everything we are saying. Marty says, “Apple says that Siri is not eavesdropping at all. Instead, the software's ability to respond to a voice command is programmed in. So, it's not really listening at all times. The iPhone can only hold a small amount of audio, and it only records what happens after it is triggered by the “Hey, Siri” command.” I was pretty surprised how educated he was on this subject. He says that he watched a Shane Dawson video that takes about being able to hear someone listening to him after he simply unlocked his phone. He didn’t really buy the whole thing so he did research over Siri and other “bots”. I then asked him if he thought that advertising on certain social media softwares are based off of the stuff we look up on the internet. He said he’s not sure but he guesses that definitely a possibility because the stuff he looks up (stuff he is about to buy) comes up on his instagram feed. I asked if it helps persuade him into buying whatever he as is covering and he said “oh yeah it definitely makes me regret not buying whatever it is and it convinces me to buy it or at least going to the website and almost order it (consider ordering the product). I wanted to see if I could get him to admit he is was in someone kind of suspicion about the Siri thing so I said, “Everyone is saying that Siri and Alexa "creep them out" yet they continue purchasing the latest apple product. It can't creep them out too much. Yes- you can simply just "turn Siri off" but how do we know that our phone isn't still listening to us?” He claimed that Apple “promised” Siri isn’t listening to our every word. The next question I asked him was “If social media is the only way of getting news out to our generation what do you do if you don't have social media? Do you resort to the paper media? it'll be pretty difficult to get the latest information... How far would our generation get without the aid of our phone?” He talked about how often he uses his phone for everything; from navigation to reminding you to do your homework. He does not believe that as a active citizen in the society he would get very far or be very successful. The next question I asked him was “Do you think as we grow older that newspapers and magazines will slowly go away due to technology? When was the last time you read from a newspaper or a magazine?” He claimed that he does not even know the last time he even read a magazine or a newspaper. I then asked him “So as younger adults use twitter, instagram, snapchat and older adults use Facebook, do you think you will eventually transition to using only Facebook with other adults? Do you think we will eventually stop using the social media we use now?” He said that he thinks snapchat will soon become unpopular and that he already uses Facebook pretty often to stay in contact with his family that lives in Houston.

In conclusion I would agree that Facebook is the "attention machine" and that everything on 

Facebook is just an advertisement. Advertisements on social media networks do in fact impact social media users.

Is there such a thing as social media privacy?

Privacy is important. 

... Right? 

Eh, maybe not so much. Or at least, maybe we don't consider it as much as we think we do-- or should do. Every now and then a news story comes up that reminds us just how exposed we are on social networks but then a few weeks pass by and none of us really change our behavior with how we interact online. Whether we like it or not, the online world is one that we are eager to participate in and in the process, leave our own digital footprints behind as we go. Maybe because of peer pressure or obvious convenience, we join social media sites and order merchandise online without ever second thinking ourselves. Meanwhile, we don't even take the time to read through license agreements (boring!) and freely exchange personal information on Facebook and swap insults on Twitter, and enjoy popped up recommendations on Amazon that we can buy as long as we insert our credit card information. 

The internet has essentially taken our private, real world lives from offline mode to online. 

Practically everything someone says or does on social media and the internet is traceable and is able to be attributed to who we are and what we have interests in (bingo advertisements!). For example, it's no secret that one day you suddenly start talking about your need to buy a specific brand of headphones, then maybe you google search it, click on it, but then suddenly, every ad you see no matter what website or social media app you are on, there's a guarantee that a few of those ads will be featuring those specific headphones that you glanced at. The more you see it, the more likely you are to throw your hands up in the air, say screw it, and buy the damn things. We've all experienced this and it's no secret that people joke around saying "they're listening"!

It's an effective advertisement strategy but in terms of our private searches being used to manipulate ourselves, it's downright creepy. Just last year the entire world keyed in when Mark Zuckerberg was dragged into court and it's no secret that the privacy standards of Facebook have always been questionable, but when New York Times issued a report that showed Facebook had been sharing private information with their tech partners, it only highlighted just how out of hand these privacy issues have arised.

Siva Vaidhyanathan describes in the book how Facebook undermines democracy and essentially puts us into dangers that wouldn't have existed prior, mainly surrounding the concept of websites and internet platforms holding our personal information and using it to categorize us.  Vaidhyanathan explains that "privacy is more than the autonomy we exercise over our own information" meaning  that we have to put protection barriers into place ourselves to prevent our privacy being overtaken as well as being intelligent enough not to put every little piece of information about ourselves out there.

Putting these behavior into effect is important because we could think that we are private in a sense, and that the information we do put out there is secure, but the actual reality is that it isn't. Just last year Facebook was imposed upon a security breach that exposed the accounts of over fifty million of the platforms users. Everything about them was released; their addresses, contact information, friends, family, photos-- everything! With an event such as this, it really puts things into perspective on how easy it can be to really get ahold of someone's information when you know what you're doing.

With the world becoming more connected and internet savvy, social networks and any internet usage can become more vulnerable. Privacy online will always be a tricky concept and will take years to master (although, with the ever expanding rate of the internet, that issue will more than likely never be handled completely). This means that it is a person's own responsibility to take the necessary precautions so that the harms of the invasion of privacy cannot damage you as much as it can, if you let it. 

Facebook And Its "Privacy" For Users

Facebook is one of the top social media platforms used throughout the entire world and it is a way to share status updates about what were feeling, what we’re eating, check into places we visit and so much more while it is also well known for how much it puts into the privacy of its users to make sure we keep our profiles as private as we possibly can, but is it as safe as we think? From personal experience, people were able to find my profile by phone number or searching my name when one, my number was not connected with my profile, (which I thought it wasn’t), and two, I have my profile set where I can only find people and add them for my convenience. It was very odd that I have my account set to that, but people were still able to find me, but in my Social Media and Society class, I’ve learned how and why this happens and how Facebook and possibly the government can be in on this.

In the book we’ve been reading and discussing in class, “Anti-social media” by Siva Vaidhyanathan, talks about how Facebook disconnects us and undermines democracy. As sad as that may sound, it is very valid. He mentions how though there are already many dangers with having Facebook alone, it is even more dangerous having and holding all of this information on us and describes where they come from which is two surveillance petitions: peers and states. He gives an example for peers and how we handle the pictures we post when we tag someone who doesn’t want to be seen or found outside of their friend group but can be easily discovered even if their settings are to the most private it can get. This can especially become a problem when you are no longer friends with a person and that person can expose all the information on you that they know and can obtain because they know how private of a person you are. Anybody can abuse anybody else’s Facebook profile for the purposes of public shaming, harassing, or exposing personal information to outsiders. In other words, Vaidhyanathan believes Facebook is using us to show how it can create a false version/persona of us while monitoring our every movement and activity we make to use against us in later times.

One situation in the book that really proved how sketchy Facebook can be is when in 2017 Kashmir Hill noticed a very curious phenomenon. Facebook was recommending that she “friend” people she hardly knew or did not even know at all. She brought up certain examples from her readers where they’ve encountered similar experiences that led to awkward or possibly harmful encounters as well. One example would be where social workers and therapists reported being connected with clients despite never exchanging private information with them, but somehow was still able to find them. This is when Hill discovered that a Facebook feature called “People You Might Know” urged people to upload address books from their computers or phones. Those email addresses and phone numbers served as identifiers to Facebook profiles and because Facebook’s social graph traced connections among profiles, the People You Might Know feature had the ability to connect people who were quite distant, estranged, hostile, or even violent towards each other. Because no user could control what information lies in another’s address book, no user could opt out of the feature. This is quite scary and invading our privacy because though some of us may have allowed our address books to be used by Facebook, we did not give them permission to link them to us and be discoverable of each other because some of the contacts could be people we don’t speak to or ended on bad terms with and Facebook is just bringing back bad memories someone does not want to be reminded of. Facebook’s invasion of our privacy needs to stop because this could possibly lead to bigger issues such as murders and kidnaps because information was leaked to the wrong person.

For a few years that I’ve had Facebook, I have an experience quite like this where my privacy was invaded, and I did not give Facebook permission to do anything with my information. I was not aware that my phone number was connected to my profile and that I somehow was able to be found by it as well. People would text me or call me by my own personal phone number and I felt extremely invaded because I did not know who these people were contacting me, and I felt I could do nothing about it. I went to my settings to discover that the setting to be found by my phone number was on and I was very confused because I did not allow that to happen in the first place. I then turned it off and disconnected my phone number and I now use Facebook on my tablet only where my number is nowhere connected to it and the only way to contact me outside of Facebook is by email. It was such a scary thing because my personal information was out there, but I was glad to be able to get to the bottom of it sooner than anything bad could’ve happened.

In conclusion, I believe Facebook has some type of connection with the government in order to gain access to our personal information and share it with others without permission. It is something that needs to be brought up throughout the world and people need to keep close on what they share and who they let see what they share because there is always going to be someone out there who wants to maybe steal our identity, bank info, hack into our profile and so much more. We as frequent social media users just need to be more aware and be safe online and offline as well. Anything can happen and its better to be safe than sorry.

Social Media Privacy controllable?

Private property, private constraints, private land, private conversations, and the recent of private concerns deals with private social interaction via social media.... How do we as a society overcome our fears or come up with enough depositions in order to show that the privacy we have is limited? It is very hard to say the least, as we have discussed within our social media class within our last few meetings that seem to generate the same ideas that seemingly go in circles, which means we do not know how much privacy we have, but we do hold enough comprehension to the point that we are in control of our data at least to the amount to keep ourselves safe and as well as maintain a "clean cut" personal image through our social platforms. Though it is still hindered through the uncontrollable actions of others around.

 Now, that is a bold statement to make in regards to privacy not having such a clear position for us social media users, especially if one is very certain that they are sure no one will ever be of a consumer towards any of their private means, but the hardened truth is that everyone is curious at some degree. "Visual exposure" represented to us in texts in order to push our class into conversation is in effect. Whether individuals are so curious to push the "stalkerish" level for whatever twisted or just darker reasons they may be, or semi curious to just want enough Intel to gossip about; everyone wants to know everyone's spiel in order to create some deeper meaning to their image. It is fair to say that this is played into account from the utilization barriers that are overstepped everyday from people with cameras. Who are those people? literally everyone around you in our current stage of the twenty first century. The visual exposure is pressed on more often than not, as the transparency of seeing detail within image is much more pressing for an individual to be a true consumer of what is in front of them either just as much or more than what anything else they see to give them gratification.

Those levels of invading or just simply playing with the perception of others by having content of them and twisting it into a "playful" matter, does not necessarily sit well with many in the contexts of exposure through visual content. Vaidhyanathan explained that point throughout his book Anti-social media, in the early chapters that do captivate particularly what is wrong with the basic logistics of how we in our society do tend to invade without even realizing we are doing so. My personal theory from that point can also be included in terms of egotistic dilemmas. He explains by giving quote, "It demands our attention to render sights around us for later consumption.," referring directly to our cell phones as being the initial producers for content unintended or intended to be very demeaning to other individual's essential privacy.


http://oceanup.com/2017/12/06/queen-of-instagram-selena-gomez-makes-her-account-private-after-dramatic-outburst/lock-the-gates-queen-of-instagram-selena-gomez-goes-private-after-dramatic-post-private-account-pic/#.XJfGA5hKiM8

The image given shows a celebrity giving into the action of putting her account on private. To say that this is a controllable act of her privacy would be true to a certain extent even giving her overall status in pop culture.

My point throughout this post is actually very simple excluding any point about the government that I promised myself I would not engage into any detail about. You control your privacy from people it needs to be controlled from,  if you want to not post something because of the severity it might hold behind it for data that does not need to be relevant then restrain from posting. But what can hinder that are many things that one may not control and that has to be a point accepted. Selena Gomez is going to have things she will never have known about her whether private or not so why can't you? ;)

My Porn Star Friend Deserves Privacy

If there’s any population that value their right to privacy, it’s cam girls.

Yes, you read that right-- cam girls prefer to keep their lives as private as they can;

much more than the average person; despite a not so private career.

Because of all of these precautions-- camming is actually a relatively safe profession.

With celebrity stalkers, it’s easy to “find” them because you can just google where

they are. Where they’re shooting their latest film, where they like to eat, if

they’re traveling-- celebrities every moves are made public and are very

susceptible to stalking. Stalkers can even plan preemptively if they know

that celebrity will be at a particular event. Singer Christina Grimmie was

killed at her own concert.

It is actually because of this career (or any career within the adult entertainment industry)

that they need to protect their privacy more than anyone (or most people). Celebrities

can afford security guards, police escorts, etc. Cam girls can afford to live just like anyone else.

A-Listers have their fair share of stalkers (Jackie Kennedy, Rebecca Schaeffer,

every K-POP idol), but what about the girl next door?

What about the girl you can pay to do what you want? Or the girls who income relies on when

you decide? The only girl who’ll ever talk to you (probably because of the fedora and

cheeto dust)? She’s the perfect girl-- but there’s one problem; she’s behind a computer

screen (as well as most likely not really interested in you, but that’s not a problem when

you’ve already created a fantastical romantic relationship in your head).

The girl who’s real life could be destroyed if it’s discovered what she does online for money?

You can see how it’s easy for cam girls to have stalkers and obsessive fans.

There’s too much (implied) power given to the person on the receiving

end of their services. It’s much safer to hide their real names, locations,

ages, boyfriends, etc from the audience as opposed to giving them any

true information about who or where they are.

A friend of mine who has made a career out of both camming and porn,

has had this happen to her. Despite having no relationship with the man

outside of the camming site, using a fake name and location-- doing all the

“right” things to protect herself-- she still could not avoid stalking.

The man sent very explicit photos and videos of her to her parents. While they

actually don’t mind the path she’s chosen in life after finding out, it was still

upsetting that

1) they were forced to see their daughter in a way that they never wanted

and

2) their daughter was in active danger.

He also revealed her relationship to the

internet-- that she’s not single and is actually married

(since the day she turned 18!), which is said to ruin a lot of the “fantasy” for customers.

She could not have a private life outside of camming and was violated

by a man who decided to doxx her and publicly post things she’d

otherwise kept secret.

Tell the average person this story and they’ll say “Well, what does she expect?”

or some other (probably more crude) slut shaming type allusion to her career choice.

These stalkers are by no means the traditional stalker, now with everything being online,

but can still actively ruin lives. There’s been similar stories as my friends, but that did

not turn out as “well”, not all stories turn out as such.

So here’s the thing-- we have no privacy. Only perceived privacy. Did my friend feel secure

when she began her career? No, and that’s why she took the steps she did to stay private.

But even those steps were not enough, because we have IP trackers, and other things

of that sort. Are these men violating her privacy when there is none in the first place

(the answer is yes, and it’s gross)?

“Privacy is more than the autonomy we exercise over own information,” says Siva

Vaidhyanathan. Privacy isn’t just what we do to protect ourselves, but how we

behave in different environments.

Our identities (yes, multiple) are formed and framed within different situations

in order to fit best. Identity work (Humphreys) is necessary to form our individual self.

So, our work identity and our identities when visiting friends vs families, etc,

are all completely different; as well as typically kept separately.

You ever throw a birthday party and invite all your friends? Your band camp friends

meet your pothead friends meet your weeaboo friends and it’s all disoriented

and awkward because you don’t know what identity to portray as.

I think you can see how the “adult actress” identity and the “beloved daughter”

identity should probably never meet each other and stay seperate, privately.

You shouldn't only be aware and protect your privacy from strangers, but aspects of your life and identity you keep private from people you do know. Privacy is a term that, without context, people see as suggested or implied, when it instead actually has to be enforced.

Privacy?

Does it scare you that everything you see or do online is being monitored? Would it change the way you acted online? These are the questions we have been discussing this week and I don’t really think there is a clear answer on how to stay private anymore. It is pretty know that everything on the internet will stay on there forever and that we should be careful, but sometimes we don’t have control of what the internet chooses to use against us.

                In our generation, about the worst thing a person can do to another person is block them on the internet. This has become the grandiose punishment for lost friendships and broken relationships, we simply chose to cut them out of our life. However, this does not mean our interactions online will end there. Revenge posts are becoming increasingly popular with the expansion of internet relationships whether friendly or not. Spam accounts have great examples of these posts. People will create separate private accounts that only certain friends are allowed to follow so they can gossip about the people they know. Just because this account is private, doesn’t mean the information isn’t shared outside of this certain group of followers. Posts can get shared around by word of mouth or screenshots that can them be shared publicly. Sometime people will be confident enough to show their beef with people on their public page. A famous example of this would be with Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. After a long sporadic time of people claiming lyrics in different songs were disses on each other and coming back to social media to then deny these claims came to a head when Cardi B posted a video that went viral that  explained Cardi B’s true feeling towards Minaj. This only fueled the fire more and the two female rappers will go down in history with hard feelings. While these celebrities used the press to boost their own brands many people are bold enough to post this type of content without hesitation. This content can destroy people so we must all be on our toes with what our internet footprints look like and be cognizant of what others put online of you. If society could all learn to be respectful and not use the internet to bully people then maybe this problem could decrease, but for now we will have to do our best to monitor online to the best of our abilities to protect our image that is ever so important to us.

               

                Our lives our not private, we know that, but somehow we are all comfortable with this. We accept that everything we say and do online can be used against us. Our phones are always listening, which is how we are assigned the ads we see every day. There was a viral video in 2016 of a couple who thought Facebook had been listening to their conversations which then used hot words from those conversations to trigger ads. This couple then tested the theory by talking about cat food and given that they have never owned a cat they figured this would be the perfect word to see if their phones were listening. Sure enough after some repetition of the word cat food in conversation, the wife received an ad for cat food on her Facebook feed. I also feel like  I experience this, but I don’t necessarily do anything to stop it. Why is this? During class, we emphasized how most of the students in the class were comfortable with our phone recording our conversations and how odd that was. I believe this stems from the idea that Google and Facebook won’t bother doing anything to hurt us as individuals because why would they bother picking out us as one person of billions. We never know when Google could screw you over and post the most embarrassing pictures from your childhood that you begged your parents not to tag you in. People also mentioned that there should be know reason to be scared of our AI overlords because they have nothing to hide, which is a valid argument, but we all have something on our phones that we would not like to post publicly. Possibly, that video you watch at 2am in the morning when you get caught in the YouTube spiral. Our phones have all the information they need on us to keep us connected to them and to remind us that they have rule over our lives and image.

                We can do our very best to keep our information private and off the internet, but there is only so far a person can go. We have to trust that the online community and government will only use this information for business reasons instead of ruining our lives. Happy searching!

P.S. If you want to be terrified by this idea of online security watch the Black Mirror episode called “Shut up and Dance” viewer discretion advised.