My blog

Throughout my Digital Communications and Technology class, we have watched and read an innumerable number of shows and articles. For this blog post, I wanted to propose the addition of a show to the class syllabus. This show, only six episodes long, keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. I propose the addition of a Netflix original, Bodyguard. 

I watched this show about a year and a half ago and the only problem I had with it, was how short it was. However, for the purpose of this class, six episodes is perfect. Though, you should not be deceived by how short the show is. There is always a new plot developing. I promise you, students will be so intrigued by the show that they will actually want to watch the show and will not even consider it to be homework… the girls in class will particularly love it because the main character is played by Richard Madden… ooh la la.

The plot starts off quick. Sergeant Richard Budd is tasked with protecting Home Secretary Julia Montague at an important public speaking event. Montague had previously faced many death threats and even an attempted assassination at a previous speech. The hate she was receiving was over her new government surveillance bill. She hopes this bill will help her in her effort to oust the current Prime Minister. 

This show is perfect for this class because it is all about surveillance. In class, we read a couple articles about surveillance and people’s opinions about their loss of privacy. We also read The Circle which shows us how going completely transparent will almost always lead to a poor outcome. Now, although a little different, Bodyguard is rather similar to those articles and the book, just a lot more intense and interesting. There are several cases in which surveillance is used or presented to the public and there is a lot of backlashes. I think it would be interesting for students to see how governmental surveillance would impact us and further develop the student’s understanding of the impact surveillance can have on people and a population as a whole. 

As far as assigning the episodes for homework, I would have them watch and reflect. In class, we use Padlet and complete many blog posts (like I am doing right now). If I were the professor, I would have them watch one episode a night. Each episode is approximately one hour long some, being the nice professor that I would be, would only assign one episode at a time. I would then have them reflect on Padlet. I would ask them to write a sentence or two (maybe a prediction for the next episode,) then create a question relating to the theme of the episode. Finally, after they finished the series, I would ask them to write a mini-blog post of 250 words. This would allow them to further reflect on the show and draw in previous readings and discussions. I would also have students reflect on how this show may apply to real life. I know that a lot of this show is unrealistic and they will never be in Sergeant Budd’s position, however, I want them to analyze the show as if they were an everyday civilian in the show. This will allow them to predict what their lives would be like if the surveillance that exists in the show existed in real life today.

Overall, this show is all about surveillance and I think this would fit in very well with some of the readings from the Digital Self theme that I had in class. Bodyguard is a little violent and has a lot of PG13 scenes however, I think it is definitely appropriate for this course and would fit right in with the topics we learn about in class. 

Well, fellow bloggers, this is my last blog post. It has been a ride. I will miss all of my readers. Check back occasionally for a random post in the future.

Signing off,

Schnorrlax

Welcome back! For this blog post, I wanted to write about something different; I wanted to see how social media (Twitter specifically) would impact a pre-web2.0 political scandal. To learn more, I did some research on President Cleveland’s scandal and thought about how it differed if Twitter was around during the time. Nowadays, social media has all sorts of political uses, one of which is to gather information during scandals. Before the existence of social media, Grover Cleveland faced a scandal regarding a secret son of his during his Presidential Campaign. Maria Halpin, a Buffalo resident, spoke out about an incident regarding President Cleveland. She argued that he led her back to her room one night after dinner and forced himself upon her. In the consequently weeks, she found out that she was pregnant and claimed that her baby was Grover Cleveland’s. Cleveland denied these allegations and of forcing himself upon her, however, he claimed paternity to save his best friend’s marriage (Serratore). Investigators looked into the situation and a lot of details regarding the incident began to emerge. Eventually, the scandal started to be forgotten about as people were dismissing the event as a young man’s folly. Weeks later, Grover Cleveland became the 22nd President of the United States. 

 

If Twitter were to have existed, here is how I think it would have looked during the scandal:

 

@Maria.Halpin: NOBODY VOTE FOR GROVER CLEVELAND. HE IS A TOTAL ASSHOLE. HE FORCED ME TO MAKE LOVE TO HIM THEN STOLE OUR BABY. EVEN WORSE, HE SENT ME TO A MENTAL ASYLUM! I AM NOT A CRAZY PERSON!!

 

@TheRealGrover: We don’t even know if that boy is mine. You sleep with so many dudes that the odds he’s mine are very low. The only reason I claimed paternity is to save one of my friend’s marriages. Also, I did not force you to do anything. If anything, you forced me to make love to you. You couldn’t keep your hands off me all night!

 

@NBCNews: BREAKING: Grover Cleveland accused of sexual assault and abduction. More to come in the coming hour.

 

@Maria.Halpin: BRUHHH. HE’S YOURS. STOP ACTING LIKE HE ISN’T. YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE I SLEPT WITH DURING THAT TIME. YOU NEED TO STOP ACTING LIKE A CHILD AND START ACTING LIKE THE FATHER YOU ARE!

 

@TheRealGrover: @BuffaloMentalAsylum Can you please take this psychopath back. 

 

@BuffaloMentalAsylum: Nah. She’s not psychotic she’s just weird. 

 

@TheRealGrover: Ugh.

 

@Maria.Halpin: CAN YOU KNOCK IT OFF GROVER. COME GET YOUR CHILD. STOP TELLING ME I’M PSYCHO. STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME LOOK LIKE THE VILLAIN IN THIS SITUATION. 

 

@RepublicanRebecca1: Ma, ma, where’s my Pa? @TheRealGrover

 

@VeteranVoter22: @TheRealGrover how could you do that to her? She is so beautiful! Her complexion and her eyes… she’s perfect. Can’t believe you’d do this to her. SMH #notgettingmyvote

 

@DontheDemocrat: These goddamn republicans man. Obviously just some girl making up a story to draw votes away from Grover. Stop making fake news. #GrovertheGOAT@NBCNews: UPDATE– The baby’s name is Oscar Folsom Cleveland. 

 

@DontheDemocrat: 

@NBCNews: UPDATE– Grover Cleveland is being defended by Henry Ward Beecher. 

 

@PastorCrabbe: I’ve known this man for a little while now. Trust me when I say he is bad with women. The baby is definitely his. #LordpleasehelpGrover

 

@NBCNews: BREAKING: Grover Cleveland wins the presidential election by 2000 votes! Welcome to the White House, President Grover!

 

@RepublicanRebecca1: Ma, ma, where’s my Pa? @TheRealGrover

@DontheDemocrat: Off to the White House, ha ha ha!!!

 

As we have seen through this little experiment and on Twitter today, social media has a large impact on politics. It is very easy to voice your opinion on social media and because of this, we see a lot of political issues get blown out of proportion by third parties. Another reason this happens is because of fake news. People can go on Twitter and create some ridiculous story that people will believe because it aligns with their feelings on a certain issue. In my Digital Communications class, we did an exercise where we tried to discern fake news stories from real ones and not one group categorized all of the headlines correctly. Because it can be difficult to tell what news is real and what is fake, it is hard to find out what actually happened during a political scandal. The information we receive through social media is also usually biased. People will write in a way that aligns with their opinion so they can get more people to change to have the same viewpoint as them. Long story short, finding out the truth through social media can be very difficult. The way people use Twitter varies so much that it is often untrustworthy. I hope this post and the flow of tweets above can help you become more aware that what you’re reading may not be the full truth because they are trying to persuade you into taking their opinion.

Citations:

Serratore, Angela. “President Cleveland’s Problem Child.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 26 Sept. 2013, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/president-clevelands-problem-child-100800/.

In 2016, Snapchat’s net worth was nearly $22 billion. The social media platform has recently made a huge comeback as it’s stock price has more than doubled since the start of 2019 and continues to rise. Largely popular among adolescents around the world because of the convenient, short chats, Snapchat has made its mark in the social media industry. Snapchat now serves as more than just a communication platform for it’s users. Third party companies are now getting more and more involved which has allowed for a more personal user experience than ever before. Because of the recent personalization of the app, I decided to read deeper into what really goes on within Snapchat. In my opinion, the best place to start, their privacy policy. 

Snapchat is what I would consider a very tech-savvy company. They know all about what the people want and how to provide users with the best experience possible. At the beginning of the privacy policy, Snapchat offers its users a brief summary of the article. They realize that users would rather utilize their time doing something way more interesting than a full privacy policy that probably will never affect them throughout their time using the app. Now that’s what I call knowing your users.

After a few brief paragraphs about the company and the background of it’s privacy policy, the article begins to list what kind of information is collected. This section talks about the information users supply along with the information collected by using Snapchat’s services. The information users supply is pretty generic for any social platform. The company only collects your name, username, password and birthday… only the essentials to create an account. In this section, the policy also states that it may ask for credit card information if a user requests to use certain services though it is not mandatory to enter any of this information. After talking about the information users supply, the policy pivots to talking about what information Snapchat collects. This data includes items like usage, content information (custom stickers, for example) and device information (browser type, IP address, etc). There is other information that Snapchat may collect but that requires the users permission (contact book, location, etc). Finally, the policy talks about what data Snapchat collects from third parties. The company may collect data from your Bitmoji, certain advertisers, or in-app games to enhance the user experience by customizing what each individual sees to create a fully personalized Snapchat for all of its users. 

The policy then completely switches gears to inform readers about how they store information and who they share it with. The policy states that the company likes to live in the moment so once a Snapchat is opened, it will most-likely be automatically deleted from their servers. However, there are occasions in which Snapchat will save something in it’s cloud for an extended period of time. This information includes things such as the locations of your favorite places if you gave the company permission to view your location, and personalized stickers created by the users themselves so they are readily accessible. They also store basic information like your username and password until users ask the company to delete them. After talking about information storage, the policy makes it clear who Snapchat shares your information with. Snapchat shares very basic information with other Snapchatters and the general public as a whole. This information that is available to anyone willing to look for it includes your name, username, Bitmoji, and birthday. However, there is other, more important information that Snapchat may share with business partners and third parties. Snapchat says they may share information about you to optimize your experience. This information can include what ads you look at and device usage information. They also may share information to ensure the public’s safety and security. The only other reason they would share information about users with third parties is if there is an acquisition or merger. 

After reading all about the privacy policy, I immediately had many questions. How can we ensure that Snapchat doesn’t save any private pictures meant only for another user? Will Snapchat maintain your privacy in the court of law? How many third parties are receiving my information? Is Snapchat always listening to me even when I’m in the app but not recording? These are just a few of the many many questions I have about Snapchat’s privacy policy. 

We have had a lot of conversations about privacy policies in my DCI class. The main thing we talk about is how people never actually read the privacy policies for social media platforms so they don’t know how to protect themselves online. The common person does not know what kind of information is being collected about them and that data is essential in protecting themselves online. Many of the major social platforms are trying to enhance the user experience by personalizing user accounts so that they only see what is relevant to them. While this is sometimes helpful, it is also creating major issues especially in the news world. I would say that the majority of people now get their news online so personalized sources bias people on different issues. The general public needs to understand how much power these social companies have and need to learn how to protect themselves so that their data does not get spread to tech companies all over the globe.

Attached is an interview I conducted regarding privacy policies.

You can find almost anything on the internet. Just one key word will generate over five billion results in less than a second (unless you have poor service). For this weeks blog post, I hopped on the web and searched around to see what information I could find about two of my professors.

I first researched Professor Mary Abdoney. I read a lot about her career path and how she ended up with me at Washington and Lee University. She was born on June 16th, 1976 and grew up in and around the Tampa Bay area. She attended H.B. Plant High School before moving on to attend the University of Florida. There, she majored in Anthropology but also studied Philosophy and Secondary Education. After her time at the University of Florida, she then went to the University of South Florida for graduate school where she earned a masters degree in Library and Information Science. Around the same time, Professor Abdoney was a graduate intern for the USGS Society. Later on that year, she got a job at Eckerd University. A couple years later, she then arrived here at W&L. She now works as an Instruction Coordinator/Science Librarian/Associate Professor. Then, most recently, Professor Abdoney was married on September 29, 2012 to Ned Norland in lovely Rockbridge County.

Before I move onto Professor Teaff, I want to share a couple fun facts I found on Professor Abdoney. First, she was part of the Alpha Xi Sigma Sorority at the University of Florida. Second, she used to play violin and cello. Third, she was a ballerina. And finally, she is a sparkling white wine enthusiast (preferably Cava).

Now for Professor Teaff. She was born on June 16th, 1974. She attended Gloversville High School in New York where she then continued her education at Fulton-Montgomery Community College. She spent two years there before she then attended the University of Potsdam. From there she then continued on her path to Virginia Commonwealth University where she majored in Art History and Museum Studies. Professor Teaff then finalized her education through classes offered by the University of South Carolina. It was then that she got her first job at Rockbridge Regional Library where she served as a cataloger. Then, in 2003, Professor Teaff arrived at W&L where she still works today.

Like Professor Abdoney, I also found some fun facts on Professor Teaff. First, she roots for the Ohio State University Buckeyes. She also enjoys collecting Funkos and watching shows such as Botched.

After completing this assignment, I really am starting to recognize how powerful the web is. You can find almost anything just with a quick one second search. Whose to say that people aren’t researching things about me the way I just did to my professors? In class, we talked about how there are certain programs that will notify you when your name or something associated with you is searched. Google has a program like this called Google Alerts. Prior to this project, I was not too worried about people searching me and didn’t think that I would be searched all that often but now, my mindset has completely just and my curiosity shot through the roof. Google Alerts will send you an email when someone posts something about you but there are other security programs that will notify you for other privacy “violations” (ie. your name is searched on the dark web). I now feel like I need to set up Google Alerts and I’m even considering setting up something similar to Google Alerts but for Twitter. I don’t know everything that is out there on the web that involves me but now I’m curious to see what I will find and what people are searching and posting regarding me.

Second, I wonder what students from other areas would have found on my Professors. In class, we talked about how everyone’s access to the web is different so people won’t have the same search results, even if they search the exact same thing. Because of this, I wonder how much other students findings would very from mine. Would they be better, or worse?

(All photos on timeline are from Google and are marked for reuse.)

 

As far as I know, the web has been treating me well. I’m always on either my phone or my computer usually trying to pass time by streaming useless videos to try to get myself to laugh. Just to further expand on the things I watch during my downtime, some of the recents from my search history include: “longest ya boiii ever,” “funny vine compilation 2019,” and “Tik Tok Funny US UK.” While all these videos are super fun to watch (and I honestly wish I was watching some right now), my love for watching silly videos sometimes makes me procrastinate way more than I should.

However, just because I procrastinate does not mean I don’t get my work done. All of my classes heavily involve the web so I am very active on all of the Washington and Lee websites. I use platforms like Box, Canvas and Sakai every single day. Other than that I also have a lot of online reading. It’s interesting because when I look up articles that I need to read, my advertising will change to whatever that specific article is discussing. I had ads involving Bison fora whole week after writing one paper on them. However, I have come to notice that this is a normal for everyone and that it isn’t all that bad. The Bison advertisements actually made me do less online shopping and even prevented my procrastination habits. The one issue I have with the whole tailored advertising scheme is that you need to be careful with what you do online as it can quickly come back to bite you if you are posting or looking up the wrong things. You may even want to turn on a private browser, especially if tailored ads are creeping you out (but who is to say that corporations can’t collect data on you even while you’re browsing privately?)

To further show you what I do during my day that has to do with media, I looked at my daily phone usage. Today, my battery usage was 49% Snapchat (lots of background usage), 10% Safari, 10% Instagram, 4% Messages, and 27% miscellaneous apps. Although the high battery usage for Snapchat may seem like I always need to interact and talk to people, that is really not the case. I use snapchat primarily to watch the side stories and catch up with some of the quick news sections that are available. I promise, I’m really not that social. Behind Snapchat, I also use a lot of battery for Safari and Instagram. As I alluded to earlier, when I’m not doing work, I generally am watching funny videos on Safari or even looking at memes on Instagram. This is mainly why these two apps use up so much of my battery life in a day. Finally is messages which honestly I don’t use too much. If I ever need to talk to someone, I generally won’t text them. I prefer to call or FaceTime people as I find it way easier to communicate with people when I can clearly hear their voice. It is not very common in this day and age for people not to text but for some reason it just isn’t my thing… mostly because I don’t need media to socialize.

So after all my rambling about my social media use, the real reason for this blog is to talk about how our inter-connected web has altered my life. Honestly, the web has made my life easier yet harder as well. The web made my “harder” because now a lot of communication comes through social media instead of face to face interaction. Personally, I find the best way to communicate is face to face but there are also times in which email is a necessity. For example, if I am ever trying to do homework and have a question, I can quickly email my professor instead of having to wait until the next day to talk about. For that reason along with others I can also say that the web has made my life easier. A lot of my school work is now online so it helps me stay a lot more organized, especially as the school year progresses. So, long story short, the web is generally pretty helpful, but I’m not too savvy with social media so I live a not so social (media) life.

 

 

(Please enjoy this math meme as I thought it related quite well to my uses of media)