Do As I Say (Assignment #2)

Five reasons I choose to do the right things in digital society are:
1.  For me, reputation is everything.  Being involved in many activities that involve maintaining a good position in the eyes of others, I cannot be putting things out there in the digital society that may put these things into question.  I must avoid posting rude or hateful comments, cursing, or any inappropriate online expression that could give me a different posture, (and not to mention, it's just plain rude and I prefer to be as kind as possible).
2.Jail is not somewhere I would like to be.  So, hacking into websites or accounts belonging to other people is something I will not participate in.
3.  I see what happens to people who are put into embarrassing, cruel, activities online.  Suicide is a huge issue, especially today, where we go to our screens for everything.  Frankly, I just do not wish to be the reason behind someone else's pain.  To push someone so far that they believe harming themselves is the only way out, is the sickest of actions anyone could make.
4.  I value my computer and digital communication more than a lot of things in my life.  In order to keep my accounts and data safe, and as private as possible, I avoid all websites that could contain viruses that may harm my computers or other forms of technology.
5.  Being someone who puts a lot of effort into everything I do, I understand greatly the issues behind stealing the work of other people.  Being lazy is a terrible excuse.  Someone spent a lot of time on these things, whether it be music, writing, paintings, etc. and to illegally import them for yourself, and not give the creator the proper acknowledgement (whether that be money, or even a simple source) is inappropriate in my opinion.

Online Standards of Service Use: (Assignment #1)

After researching terms and conditions of use, I found quite a few scary terms many websites have, and use regularly.

For instance, one commonly used condition is that the company owners are not responsible for anything you do, or that is done to you, while using their site.  To put into a scenario, if someone sent you a message, and said they know where you live, and that they're planning to kill you, there is nothing the service owners are going to do to help you.  

Another frightening policy that is used frequently is one that states, that once you accept the terms of service, any changes that are made to their polices will not be notified to you, you will not be aware of these changes, but you will have already agreed to them.  Say you accepted the terms, then a few months later, they changed their policy to say that the company can use your private information in anyway they please, you will not know that this has happened.  

The fact that most people are unaware of these terms when signing up, (because lets be honest, who has the time to read the terms and conditions?)  is terrifying! Especially in cases involving most young children online.  Although, some of these policies may make sense (like ones involving no credibility to what the users do) because you do not want to be responsible for what others do, it is still unsettling that we really have no idea what we sign up for.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/27wtdm/what_are_some_scary_things_hidden_in_the_terms/

Journal Entry #3 (Digital Rights and Responsibilities)

 After completing the assignment on Digital Rights and Responsibilities, some of the things that I found surprising would include how often these ideas are ignored.  The fact that bullying online, using other people's work as your own, and hacking into other people's accounts, is such a huge issue right now is astonishing.  I did not expect most of these things to be so common, with all of the awareness around cyber bullying that there is today, you would think people would begin to think twice.

In my opinion I do not believe most people act responsibly when online.  I think that when most people use technology they are unaware of how much information they share, and often share too much.  People commonly use the internet in ways that can be, at times, malicious and cruel to others.  Gossip sites, and public media is only one example of irresponsible use of the internet.  Some can be quite responsible, when they are aware of the affects of their actions online, where others can be completely oblivious.

The one commandment I believe would be the most important is "Thou shall always give credit, where credit is due." To me, this is the most important of all because, not only is plagiarism illegal, but it is just plain rude as well.  For someone to spend all of that time on their work, only to have somebody copy it all, to pass it on as their own without giving the proper acknowledgements is probably one of the lowest things you could do.  There was valuable time spent on that write up, image, etc. and to just use their work for your own purpose without giving them credit is a terrible thing.

One of the biggest issues around digital rights and responsibilities with young people online, in my opinion, would be cyber bullying and neglecting their right to express their opinions.  Most of the time, this right is used in the wrong ways, in which others are harmed by their words.  It can, at times, be useful, but with the young people today, nobody really understands how much of their opinion is too much.

Assignment: Digital Rights and Responsibilities

Journal #2: Digital Communication

The most surprising thing I found about digital communication would be the ways that people use it, and how some believe it is an adequate substitute for social interaction. This surprised me because I always knew our generation, with our new found technology and such, were very disconnected, but I never could have imagined we were that much. We see digital communication as an accurate form of communication, when really, it lacks all the things that are necessary in conversation.




From the video I watched, I learned that it is actually considered rude to not reply to messages within 24 hours. As someone who has a lot of trouble replying to people, mainly just because I am terrible at realizing when a message is received, it gave me a new understanding of how people may view my responses. As well, I learned that when you send a document under say microsoft word 2007, the person you send it to may not be able to open it. I learned how to fix this problem by saving the document under a Rich Text Format.



BCC or Blind Carbon Copy is when an E-mail contains addresses of recipients of the message whose addresses are not to be revealed to other recipients of the message. It could be used when sending an important message to several people at the same time so that the other recipients of the message would not see the addresses of the other members. This would be important when the others may value their privacy and wish for the amount of people who know their address to be sparse.



I believe it should be considered by young people that your level of respect is greatly affected when using digital communication. When speaking to family or friends, or any level of authority, it could be considered rude to not give the respect of socializing. It is important to remain connected to people socially, so you do not lose that sense of "people skills" or else you will become someone who may even fear the pressure of social interaction. You must limit your usage of digital communication in order to obtain these results.

Acronyms Attack (Assignment Two)

Three more abbreviations that could be used to save time in digital communication could be, TFC (thanks for caring), OMW (on my way), and TBH (to be honest).

Four places you could NEVER use abbreviations when communicating digitally would be when creating formal writing such as a resume, documents to a workplace administration, book reports, or any form of school related homework, as well as when preforming tasks that require proper grammar and sentences.

Communication Compass (Assignment One)

Digital Communication is any electronic exchanging of information.


Four advantages of digital communication would include:

- If you have family/friends who do not live near you, you are able to connect with them in ways that don't involve travel.

- For people with employment that involves a lot of conference meetings, and things that involve expensive travelling, it is possible to use digital communication to avoid this.

- With digital communication it is possible to receive news from all over the world about important causes or events that have taken place.

- It is simpler to complete projects with your group members, with programs like Google Drive and even just Facebook messenger.


Four disadvantages of digital communication could be:

- The risk of releasing your personal information into the hands of a stranger

- Privacy becomes a huge issue when it is possible for anyone to view anything you do at any time. With the invention of camera phones, everyone has the ability to capture moments in an instant to share with anyone.

- Lack of emotion in conversation. You could mean one thing, but it could come across to the receiver in a completely different way.

- Distracts us from what is most important, like spending time with family and friends.


The three most popular forms of digital communication today are:
- Texting, or using cellular devices because it is convenient for everyone involved. You can talk anywhere, at anytime, all you have to do it click a few buttons.

- Social Media and other online connection sites are another very popular form of digital communication used today. People prefer internet related communication because you can share photos, videos, and ideas instantly through the web, without the stress of real social interaction.

- A third common form of digital communication that is used quite frequently would be online video calls such as FaceTime and Skype. This is most likely used more often by people who want to reach their family or friends quickly over long distances. As well, many people use these programs when preforming conference calls, etc.


There are many forms of digital communication that often remain popular for a while, but after enough time passes, become irrelevant due to new types of communication. Some forms I believe will become irrelevant over time, or less frequently used would include:
- For me, I believe Facebook will become a form of digital communication that will eventually die down. I know for a fact, the amount of people who have an account on Facebook today, and the amount of people who use it, are two completely different numbers. There is so many new ways to communicate being discovered that websites like Facebook are no longer as huge a deal as they use to be.

- Texting eventually, as more efficient ways of communication are developed will become a thing of the past in my opinion, because even today, texting is becoming less and less of a fad. Right now, even with things like iMessage, texting is being used sparsely, so in the future, when there is going to be even more technology created, texting will slowly disappear.

- Finally, E-mail is just one more thing that eventually will become irrelevant over time. It is rarely used today, so as time progresses, it will fade away just like many other things already have.


Five locations/scenarios I believe you should not communicate digitally would include:

- In a workplace that involves critical social interaction, such as a therapy office, teaching environment, etc. I believe these areas are especially important to avoid digital communication in because it is more convenient to learn or understand things when someone is physically there to speak/teach you. If you have any problems with understanding it is easier to explain yourself clearly in physical form than digital form.

- During a situation where someone's life is at risk, and help is needed, it is especially necessary for their to be physical attendance for the injured. It is almost impossible for someone to receive assistance over digital communication, for a fatal injury.

- At a funeral, it is completely disrespectful to use your technology during services like such, where you should be giving your full attention and respect to the people involved.

- While you are driving it is actually against the law to use digital communication. You will be distracted by your technology when you really should be focusing on the task at hand to avoid accidents.

- When spending time with family or friends. It would be inappropriate for you to pay all of your attention to digital communication rather than communicating socially.


In my opinion, two of the most dangerous forms of digital communication are:

- Online chat sites such as Omegle, etc, where you speak to strangers through video chat. Especially for younger people who don't really understand the dangers behind allowing a stranger to know personal information. It is possible to accidentally give out private details about yourself that could harm you in several ways.

- Most social networking sites can be quite harmful to a person's well-being. In situations that involve cyber bullying, and things like that, a person could be driven to the edge from constant interrogation, and embarrassment.


I think eventually the children of the future will discover their own healthy balances with digital communication. Even today, the severity of it all is clear to us, and I believe that over time as children will begin to learn more and more about technology, they will start balancing technology with work and necessity. They will find their own ways to handle technology and be taught not to depend completely on it.


If someone passes away or is too sick to use any digital communication I believe the accounts or pages should either be taken down, or given to a close family member to take care of, to save photos or memories for the family, and so on. It should be left to the family or closest thing to family that the person who passed has. I don't think it should just be taken down, but I do think if that happens, then all of their memories and such should be able to be saved or downloaded for the family to keep.