Eavesdropping

No this isn’t a post about Big Brother or anything like that (sorry to disappoint). It’s either a larger or smaller scale issue than that depending on your perspective.

I often kept a quote book in college. Yeah I’m a nerd. But most conversations I took the quotes from were ones I was having with others, and they never went outside of the lines pages of my grungy personal journal…unless it happened in a yearbook meeting (yeah, I was also a yearbook nerd get over it). Now that I look back a those pages, I almost wish I had made them into a blog or something (more people would probably read that than a computer ethic blog). But then again, a few things have come across my iPad screen that have caused me to think again about those feelings.

There are a few Instagram sites that have come to my attention recently that offer bits of conversations overheard in public places as featured entertainment. A kind of quote book, but much more public. Now I follow the one that I am going to share with you from an article on Design Taxi I read and it is pretty funny. Human conversations are often odd to eavesdrop on. But I was contemplating the ethics of such behavior. Do you think it is ethical to post pieces of “out of context” conversations for entertainment? Even if the person isn’t aware you’re going to do it?

Think about it. Most of what you say, you think is pretty secure. People assume no one is paying attention to the things they say in public places because their agendas are their own, but if we look deeper into the matter, perhaps we are a little too quick to enjoy what seems to be entertainment, when in actuality it is a kind of invasion of privacy.

But then again, if NSA does it, why can’t we?

I consider it this way even…is this not only a privacy issue, but also an intellectual property issue. If the words are not your own, does the person saying them have intellectual property or do you for publishing them as “original works” against the terms of agreement on Instagram? Mind you, not everyone posts original work as they ought to, but that in and of its self is an issue of privacy. Or further, is this a form of online bullying? Perhaps the work isn’t considered harmful or wasn’t posted to be intentionally so, but some of the things posted are going to receive backlash of some kind or another right? The “curator” isn’t going to have complete control over what viewers comment or say, or even if they do, they may not be able to keep up with the volume of comments to regulate what is actually being said that could potentially be harmful.

Perhaps I’m over thinking this?

Thoughts?

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Women, Technology, and Freethinking

I just finished reading a fascinating article about how sexism has been an issue within the athiest movement. It’s a controversial subject, not only because it speaks against world religion, but also because it talks about issues women have had with technology use and how quickly and devastatingly it leads to harassment and threats towards other human beings on the grouds of gender and/or sexual orientation.

 

I am am not personally an athiest, but I wanted to share this article on the basis of computer ethics. It describes how hotstile the online world is towards people who are passionate about their beliefs, and how that can fuel the fire and bleed outside of the virtual world into our physical lives. Basically, it talks about one of the most mainstream forms of bullying. You know, the adult kind of bullying, where police can get involved and entire movements can be formed or brought down and either help or hinder entire people groups. It also describes some of the ugly of wester culture, which is also controversial. To to be a culture of innovation, sometimes we have to let go of the old ideas and build towards something newer and better.

This article is littered with graphic descriptions of “alleged” events, lots of swearing, and hints of the use of technology as a means of harassment as well as a means for change. Click here to read the article “Will Misogyny Bring Down The Atheist Movement?:
The continuing debate over a murky sexual encounter at a 2008 convention for cheekily anti-establishment skeptics underscores a broader dilemma: How can a progressive, important intellectual community behave so poorly towards its female peers?”

A Piece About Social Media and Privacy

A Piece About Social Media and Privacy

Been a while bloggers. Absence makes the data stream grow deeper doesn’t it? 

Just wanted to share this well written perspective piece about technology. Gives some good insight into the user perspective of social media privacy. 

I can’t say I’m any different…

I came across a comic strip on my news feed on Facebook. It’s almost ironic and bittersweet that we find information that tells us exactly what’s wrong with us, using some of the same tools that are the cause of what’s wrong with us.

This is a social commentary. One on our use of social networks as a means of affirmation that generations before us didn’t need. At least not to the massive scale we need it. It challenges the idea that we have not matured even as people because of our need for constant communication and affirmation. A social trend even I, an individual who enjoys researching and continually combating such behavior, has to admit I fall prey to.

Why?

Because its socially acceptable.

The issues social networks present are astounding. It seems for every single effort a programmer and idea caster bring to fruition, there are at least 10 problems that present themselves that are never foreseen. Users are becoming users and abusers. Privacy becomes publicity. The world gets smaller, and everything becomes personal.

Why?

Because now we can.

I encourage you to check out the comic strip link above.