The future...

As it has been said in the past, in ten years time we will no longer be required to leave our homes. Instead we will strap on a helmet and enter a virtual community allowing us to attend education and so forth electronically. However as ten years has come and past at a rapid pace we are still yet to see this so called helmet available to the wider community and we are still attending university and school physically, or by online correspondence.

I am still yet to see someone sitting in their pajamas at home attending a lecture with two hundred other students who are also sitting at home with some sort of virtual helmet strapped to their heads.

Technology is a rapidly changing industry. Developments are being made on a frequent basis in many industries of technology. Is it really that disappointing if we have to continue to have some sort of physical contact with other individuals in order to further our education or to carry out our daily lives?

There have been many technological developments which have changed the lives of many. These include:
the bionic ear
pace maker
automated limbs

Although we may never be given the chance to strap on this much talked about helmet, in all honesty would we want to? As winter sets in, in Australia and the typical Melbourne weather begins people are already complaining that it is too wet to go out. I then pose the question to you, why would we want to stay home with our virtual community, when at the end of the day we are still alone. We can already perform a various things online including start relationships, buy groceries and clothing, book holidays and air flights and much more.

This therefore brings me to my next point. The Internet is not necessarily an honest place. More often than not we hear stories of people meeting online who spend a large amount of money to fly to another country to meet their six foot tall, slim, blonde, model girlfriend or tall, dark and handsome boyfriend who they had met online only to find out they are an average looking middle aged man/woman.

The reporting of war throughout the media

Jordon Crandall (2004: 110) believes that the popularity of Reality TV has something to do with the change of attitude towards the reporting of war. Reality TV now constitutes over half of the top 10 shows in the United States. As reality televisions popularity increases we are now beginning to see the decrease in “real” news stories regarding the topic of war.

As Crandall said embedded reporters in the middle of the many current wars are under strict guidelines as to what they can and cannot produce. Rules of engagement for embedded journalists include details of military action could only be described in general terms and journalists are prohibited from writing about possible future missions, classified weapons or sensitive information. It is understandable that future missions are not to be written about for the protection of the soldiers and also the civilians of the proposed location. However when looking at the traditional ethical codes of conduct as outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists it can be seen that abiding by the rules of engagement all of their ethical codes of conduct cannot be achieved. They include to seek and report the truth, minimise harm, act independently and to be accountable. Embedded journalists are often put into a unit therefore being assigned a commander. The commander is then given the right to block a journalist from filing stories via satellite connection at any time

Are the images which we receive on a daily basis through the media a true representation of what is really happening all around the world? Or simply what the media regulators choose for the public to know? There have been many arguments put forward in regard to the reporting of war being staged. For example it has been said that footage shown to the public by the media had been pre recorded and also the wrong images
As the old saying goes a picture speaks one thousand words. However, how are these words being ‘spoken’ if the public are being deceived by the media who are the individuals responsible for reporting worldly events to us? It is probably unrealistic to think that we will ever be shown true representations of events from our media, especially scenes of war unless we went to the war zones ourselves.

Diasporas: maintaining cultural identity

Individuals generally speaking gain their cultural identity through means of religion, nationality, ethnicity and also cultural practices. Cultural practices can include language, music, sport, literature, art, popular culture, mass culture, costume and even food. Rules of social engagement also forms part of ones cultural identity, including etiquette, manners, gender, values, laws and norms. Diasporas can be used to maintain aspects of cultural identity.

A diaspora can be defined as dispersed networks of ethnically and culturally related peoples. The concept is concerned with ideas of travel, migration, scattering, displacement, homes and boarders. It commonly, relates to displaced persons, wanderers, forced and reluctant flight. However they are no longer characteristically produced by forced dispersal and reluctant scattering. Today, they can include business people, foreign students and academics, retirees and long term cultural tourists.

Members of diasporic groups can be dispersed widely, even into remote locations, but still pick up news from home on a satellite dish or cable in those places where they are more concentrated or in cases where homeland news and information transmission is undeveloped, suppressed or radically contested, they may access video letters, websites or special delivery orders flown in on a regular basis. Alternatively, they might rent a movie or popular television series which has come to their local store along with fine capillaries of distribution which emanate from their place of ethnic origin, or even from one of the new centres of diasporic media production now springing up in the west. Diasporas create ‘a place where social issues are discussed and debated, especially because socio-political policies, processes, and tactics affect various nations, social classes, and genders differently’.

These are people on the global frontier looking for a connection with their places of origin rather than with the community in which they now live. National boundaries have now lost their sharp edges and are beginning to blur. Groups are now able to remain connected to their cultural roots and share a sense of community that once would not have been possible. Many people wish to learn about their culture because they want to recapture the power to name themselves.

Cultures, nations and identities are constantly being redefined in both real and virtual life, actively constructed and maintained through various media and the sciences. Diasporas are simply a way of utilising technology to enable the development of cultural identity for individuals no matter where in the world they reside.

Internet Porn: Worse Than Crack?

According to clinicians and researchers, Internet pornography is the new crack cocaine, leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs and erectile dysfunction. Mary Anne Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Cognitive Therapy, called porn the "most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today."

Layden said "the Internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused and have role models for these behaviors." The drug of choice, pornography, can be pumped into the comfort of your own home 24/7, free of charge. With the youth of today’s society being technologically minded, many know how to use the Internet better than their parents. Furthermore as porn is now ubiquitous, it may increase the degree of difficulty for parents in stopping their children from being exposed to such explicit material.

No longer do pornography users need to make an embarrassing trip to a local newsagency, video store or an adult shop to feed their addiction, instead individuals can simply log onto the Internet to receive their fix (which does not discriminate against age, even if it is a legal requirement).

Layden also said “pornography addicts have a more difficult time recovering from their addiction than cocaine addicts, since coke users can get the drug out of their system, but pornographic images stay in the brain forever”. Similarly, Satinover (a psychiatrist) said "pornography really does, unlike other addictions, biologically cause direct release of the most perfect addictive substance”. Pornography causes masturbation, which causes a release of the naturally occurring opioids (doing what heroin can’t do).

Due to pornography’s increasing use, it has been argued that to reduce the prevalence of pornography use, federal money should be allocated to fund brain-mapping studies into the physical effects of pornography and also fund health campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of pornography, by means such as bus signage including “sex with children is not OK”. Many psychologists would like to see more money devoted to research on sex. However this is unlikely as studies intended to show the harmful effects of pornography must contend with ethical rules prohibiting harm to human subjects, while sex researchers have a hard time getting any funding, unless their study is specifically HIV-related.

This being said, there is no consensus among mental health professionals about the dangers of porn or the use of the term "pornography addiction." Many psychologists and most sexologists find the concepts of sex and pornography addiction problematic. Psychologists argue that people who have compulsive and destructive behavior centered on pornography can not be marginalised as this can also happen with other activities such as gambling and shopping.

Pornography is a safer form of sexual activity as, when used alone it has no risks of health issues such as sexually transmitted infections (STI), unlike physical sexual activity which has associated risks such as pregnancy and STI.

At the end of the day pornography use is not illegal (unless it is images of children) for adults to use (aged 18+), unlike cocaine which is illegal. Therefore it is unlikely, even if pornography is addictive, that it will be able to be controlled in the same way in which drug use is controlled.

Extremists’ utilisation of the Internet

An extremist is characterised by dogmatic intolerance, expressed mildly or violently, and inclines towards an inflexible obedience to an accepted authority, shaped by a common ideology or sense of group unity (Gardner, 1997).

Extremist groups were among the very early users of electronic communication network that eventually evolved into the Internet. Like many individuals, extremists have utilised the Internet to recruit new members and to spread their message. The Internet may be an especially powerful tool for extremists (Gerstenfeld, et.al., 2003). The Internet allows eExtremists to become anonymous members, unbound by gender or race or even international boarders. The Internet also allows for the linking of diverse extremist groups and also maximum image control.

By creating a virtual community the basic drives of white extremist groups can be shared including racial purity, political hegemony, Anti-Semitism, Anti-Liberal and Anti-Government

The website Southern Poverty Law Canter Intelligence Project (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp) has counted 803 active hate groups in the United States of America in 2005. A map is even included to detail how many reside in each state. For example South Carolina holds the majority of hate groups with 46 found. These include Neo-Confederate, Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, Black Separatist and other groups, with the majority being Neo-Confederate. South Carolinas’ population stands at 4,113,961 people. This is made up of the following races:
White: 67.4%
Black/African American: 28.5%
American Indian/Alaska Native: 0.3%
Asian: 1.1%
Native Hawaiian/other pacific islander: 0.0%
Other: 1.5%
Two or more races: 1.1%
(American Fact Finder, http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en)

Texas, has 43 known hate groups including every type of group (Black Separatist, Christian Identity, Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Confederate, Neo-Nazi, Other and Racist Skinheads).
Texas’ population stands at 41,521 people. This is made up of the following races:
White: 71.9%
Black/African American: 11.0%
American Indian/Alaska Native: 0.5%
Asian: 3.3%
Native Hawaiian/other pacific islander: 0.1%
Other: 11.6%
Two or more races: 1.7%
(American Fact Finder, http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en)

With both states having a high population percentage of white individuals it is easy to see why such large numbers of hate groups associated with race have been found, as the minority groups are out numbered greatly. The website also has a function which can show where particular hate groups are located such as Black Separatist, Christian Identity, Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Confederate, Neo-Nazi, Other and Racist Skinheads. This function could potentially assist in new members sourcing a local hate group to join.

The introduction of the Internet has allowed such groups to spread their messages to anyone who is looking for particular hate groups, or even those individuals surfing the net and just happen to stumble across one of the many hate group sites from around the world.

Violence and video & computer games

There have been growing concerns surrounding computer and video gaming over the past years. Many individuals and community groups have displayed fears that computer and video game play may encourage aggressive behaviour, or foster undesirable problem solving skills that glamorise and glorify violence. Is this the case? Or, is gaming simply a recreational activity, in a similar category to sport, reading and other hobbies.

Video and computer gaming has been blamed for many social disturbances such as school shootings. For example Columbine High School shooting undertaken by two youths, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killing 13 and wounding 23, was said to be the result of both boys being avid gamers. As accomplished players of the somewhat violent computer/video game Doom, it was said that the gruesome massacre, made their computer game a reality, by bringing death to many and also to themselves.

In the days following the Columbine High School massacre, the country went on a panicked hunt for the oddballs in High School, a profoundly ignorant and unthinking response to a tragedy that left geeks, nerds, non-conformists and the alienated in an even worse situation than before the school shooting (Morris, 2003). Computer games found themselves the objects of suspicion and disrespect.

Relatives of people killed in the Columbine massacre are seeking damages from the computer game makers, claiming their products helped bring about the killings. The group filing the lawsuit say investigations into the tragedy revealed the influence violent computer and video games had on the two teenagers who carried out the shootings, with a total of 25 companies being named in the lawsuit, seeking $5 billion in damages (Ward, 2001). The text of the lawsuit alleges “absent the combination of extremely violent video games and these boys’ incredibly deep involvement, use of and addiction to these games and the boys’ basic personalities, these murders and this massacre would not have occurred” (Ward, 2001).

Columbine was not the first United States high school shooting, nor was it the first in which forms of contemporary youth culture were held to blame, but it prompted a huge amount of media attention and speculation. Similarly a 19 year old in Germany, 2002, conducted a 20 minute shooting spree leaving 17 dead including himself. These and at least 12 other murders since 1997 have been linked to violent video games (Muir, 2004).

This being said, could other recreational activities not also be blamed for other social disturbances? For example, many non fiction literature is now in circulation written by both victims and offenders of serious crimes such as rape and murder, featuring step by step descriptions. If an individual was an avid reader of such literature and then was involved in a similar crime to Columbine High School shooting would books be blamed? I think not.
Is the underlying issue that older generations are simply afraid of ever changing technology and the keen interest young generations have within it?

Welcome...

Welcome, as a first time ‘blogger’ who only recently found out what exactly a blog is this is quite a new experience making the first post. Feel free to check my blog in the following weeks as more posts are added.