Venting a Form of Shaping Identity?

By analyzing social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blackberry Messenger on a daily basis I have noticed that majority of individuals see these services as a platform to vent about almost anything. The question is whether or not this is a good or bad thing.

For instance, when people are happy, sad or angry, these emotions are publicly presented to an audience taking in the information and construing it in a way that THEY understand. Because social networking is a virtual sphere, it is inevitable that people may misinterpret the reality of another’s expression. Misconception of ones identity is thus the result if not interpreted objectively or with the knowledge of contextual background.  

Status updates evident of condensed emotions extracted out of context, cause audience to infer their own meaning behind the initial emotion. Hence building and constructing an identity or impression of the other.

The disadvantages of venting are self explanatory, as people may view an individual to be someone he/she is not. For instance when people are in a state of rage they say things that they do not really mean and find social networking to be the perfect phenomenon to express their anger. Positive and happy venting may not be all that bad, personally speaking I find positive and happy expressions to be some what inspiring and often motivational.

Even though individuals vent about how happy they are, it may not always give off a positive impression towards the audience. For example, an individual could be bragging or boasting. This may be a positive expression for the individual, where on the other hand the audience may see this individual as being full of him or herself.

The way in which we use our words plays an important role in the construction of our identities. Sometimes we are unaware of it, and sometimes our emotions gets the best of us that it becomes so easy to vent over these networks with the intention of gaining response. This is not always the best form of communication as we need to learn where to draw the line between the virtual world and reality. Whether people gain from venting or not, the reality is that it may have an effect on their identity.


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Social Networking: A Threat to Children If Not Monitored

There are many advantages that lay behind the use of social networking. Not only is it convenient but it also helps build and maintain relationships amongst friends and family. It is convenient in the sense that it is cost friendly (depending on how often you use it), easy to access and as technology is updated constantly there are new ways in which we are able to access information electronically.

Smart phones have become the most convenient cellphones across the world. We are able to send emails, browse the internet, chat, download applications and even chat within groups. There are certain social networks such as IM, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Mxit, Whatsapp. Blackberry Messenger and many more which allow us to interact with our friends and family confidentially aswell as publicly.

Behind all these advantages lay many dangers too, especially for the youth out there. The youth being very new to social networking, see it as a platform for freedom of expression in a public sphere. They are allowed to socialize with whom ever they wish in a cyber world.

For instance there are children ages 9-13 years old that are using Facebook without the awareness of their parents. As children are very naïve, they become possible victims of online sexual predators. Kids are easy to deceive and manipulate, and sadly this is the reason why we are faced with so many tragic stories about children being raped, kidnapped or sexually harassed because of social interactions with strangers or "deceivers" as we may call it.

According to Mail Online “sexual predators are increasingly using the internet to groom, befriend and lure young victims. In the UK for example, an ex-detective Mark Williams Thomas highlighted the dangers of children using social networking sites when he posed as a 14 year old girl and within minutes of the profile going live had been contacted by men aged between 20 and 40 seeking sexual gratification. (Mail Online)

There is a age gap between children and parents and this influences the understanding of technology. Majority of parents today are not well educated when it comes to technology, however since Blackberry cellphones have been in the picture, parents are slowly but surely becoming more and more aware of the social networking phenomenon.

Parents should be involved in the creation of their children's online profile's from the very beginning. In tern, this would prevent their children from making the wrong (naive) decisions when talking to strangers. Parents would thus be able to check up on their children’s profiles and guide them if they foresee any danger. Until their children have become adults, then only should they be allowed the freedom of social networking. Only then, would they be mature enough to judge who would be a threat online as opposed to friends and family.

Today however, we cannot always judge 100% as to who would be a threat online with fraud being another issue on these social networks. We should however stay open minded and always be cautious instead of being completely gullible and naive.

Reference:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260993/Quarter-13s-signed-social-networking-sites.html

Construction of Consensus through the Media

Everyday media has a way of highlighting particular issues very saliently in order to construct our consensus as the readers or viewers of the news. The way in which broadcasters are able to construct our consensus is through the selection of words and selection of what they feel would command our attention as the public. In other words, they attempt to construct the public interest.

For example, let’s look at a recent story written about a 15 year old South African boy (Shaun Van Straaten), who died in hospital caused by a fire at his home in the UK, after his mother’s ex-boyfriend set himself a light. We are presented with the headline “SA boy dies in UK after 'human fireball'” (news24), the selection of the words “human fireball” is attempted to capture our interest as we generally do not associate “fireballs” with human beings, thus achieving the public interest simply by using two outstanding words as indicated.

According to news24 the boys mother (Jone) and her ex-boyfriend’s (David Pott’s) relationship was apparently “stormy” and police had reportedly been called to the house on several occasions. Again, in terms of selection of words, the term “stormy” contributes to our consensus, constructing the motives behind David Pott’s self burning tragedy.

I’ve noticed how the specific article constructs views of the people surrounding this family; however there are no views or comments coming directly from the mouths of the victims of the fire. For example, Neighbors said they had woken to screaming and the sound of smashing glass (news24).

 This shows that the agenda of the specific article is not aimed at looking at the insights of the victims of the fire, but rather constructing an image of the effect, the surroundings and the actions. These aspects are constructed in such a way that it grabs our interest as the public. However we have the ability to either look at it subjectively or objectively.

Reference:

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/SA-boy-dies-in-UK-after-human-fireball-20110922

Can the spread of the London Riots and Looting be justified?

What interests us as the audience most about the London riots lies in the reasoning behind all of the chaos. It is clear now that it was initiated from the death of Mark Duggan, who was shot by a policeman in Tottenham. From here the riots had spread all over the UK.

So, if the death of Mark Duggan initiated the riots, why have the riots spread? Can the spread of the violence and looting be justified? If so, to what extent? If not, why not? I am sure that the London rioting had brought upon bewilderment all around the world. When one thinks of the UK we do not envision any chaos, violence or even the extreme of looting. We think of Royalty and a secured country.

The riots spread from London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, and Liverpool to name a few. So surely there should be something deeper to the meaning behind these riots, not so? Matthew Moran of Kings College London who spent a year doing field-work research on the Paris riots of 2005, said that “each set of riots is a unique combination of particular factors which are not always immediately visible and we need time to assess the underlying causes of the violence” (France24).

The riots can by no means be excused. One should however consider the context behind all of this, taking into consideration however that looting out of ignorance and criminal opportunity cannot be condoned. Amongst the many reasons behind looting and rioting of the youth in the UK, some of the youth had claimed that they have committed these crimes out of hatred for the police. An 18-year-old boy (Mario Quiassaca, 18), who admitted stealing more than a thousand pounds' worth of goods from Hugo Boss during the violence in London on Monday night was remanded in custody after a judge refused to grant him bail). (guardian.co.uk).

Some reasons behind the rioting lay behind education and policy. We can somehow sense that rioters feel marginalized which roots from the coalition that came into power in 2010, its policies and a backdrop of brutal cuts have sparked unrest that has not been present in Britain since the early 1980’s. (Top Secret Writers).

We can thus surmise that the outbreak of the initial riot which broke out at the protest in relation to the death of Mark Duggan, has been an explosion waiting to happen by the marginalized people of the UK. In my opinion, justice seems to be far from London society at the moment, by the looks of the results of the aftermath. Can justice ever be restored by government after so many years?

References:

http://www.france24.com/en/20110809-londons-burning-reasons-behind-riots-uk-cameron-fire-guggan-police-ipcc

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/12/london-riots-court-cases

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2011/08/what-were-the-true-motives-behind-the-london-riots/

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