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Alison Toothman
Professor Ballentine
Engl 303
September 17, 2012
(Original Copy)
Reflection #2 – Privacy, Anonymity, and Your ‘Rights’ Online
Many people have become attached to the internet sources that they frequently go to, to
express themselves online. I tend to spend countless hours just searching through facebook for
new information on people or to think of some precious memories. For the last few weeks I
spend way too much time sitting at my desk with a cup of hot tea sitting next to me as a look
through old pictures of my dad. As no one knows yet who are attached with this course my dad
passed away a month ago. It’s been a struggle just to concentrate on one specific topic. Not
saying that I concentrated well beforehand but I did do better. I am like many people when my
number one source for entertainment is atlas Facebook. However there are some other websites
which include: Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and so forth. I have come to the conclusion as well
that many people put up this front or I guess better terminology could be persona to keep their
true self private. Through the privacy settings online and the thoughts of cognitive styles, one
can come to the conclusion that because of the continuation of new thinking patterns it could
cause people to not take the time to try and keep everything they put online private enough to
keep themselves incognito.
A few of the earlier readings for this course had multiple scholars coming to the
conclusion, that our thinking patterns and which areas of the brain that function the most is
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changing as our technology progresses. A few studies of the brain have shown that our brains use
more areas to stay attentive when using technology than our brains use when reading a novel. All
of this goes back to the idea of our thinking becoming more cognitive.
When it comes to my privacy online I do not become aware of it until I notice people
trying to backstab me or people who keep on knowing things about me that I haven’t told them.
I have had to have multiple talks with family members about things I put on Facebook because
they want the context of what I am referring to within my statuses. Once things like this start
occurring I become more aware to where I end up blocking people or deleting things.
Additionally, I do remember when Facebook was changing settings on the profiles to where you
could put your hometown, current living location, work place, and such things as that. Facebook
does provide services to give people our personal information who we want to know our
information. It also gives us the opportunity to learn about others and stay connected with old
friends. However, it does have a tendency of sometimes giving out too much information that
we weren’t willing to share with everyone. An example of this would be my cousin’s twitter
page, where she has 2,975 followers. However, she lives in a small town and expresses where
she lives through her twitter. This privacy she doesn’t think about because she lets her tweets
place her locations. However, it could also be that she doesn’t care because some of the photos
and tweets she puts online say what county she lives in and her specific location. However,
someone like me do care, I won’t put up specific things such as my address. I do have people on
my friend lists and such that I don’t want them to have my address but I don’t mind talking to
them.
Moving on to another source, which is Wikipedia, this is a site that lets people come
together in a academic style setting through the web to share valuable information with the
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world. However, it is just that, a site where just about anyone can put information up of any
information? So, the creditability isn’t always there. Furthermore, it does twist our views of
privacy. If anyone feels like they can put information up that they feel is true online then how do
we know what is true and what is false? Plus, a site like Wikipedia shows just how many people
from any walk of life can add information to a site. It takes more of a privacy setting away, I
believe personally. With sites such as university sites or major corporations not everyone has
access to them so they have a major privacy setting compared to other sites.
In the article Users hate Facebook’s approach to personal information. They’ll get over
it. One can see how some people place their privacy on Facebook very high up. Especially,
when the people who run Facebook are changing things around, this is when more people realize
the changes and get upset over it. I think most people do not think about things they put on the
internet on a daily basis unless they know their image can be affected greatly by it, take such
people as celebrities who watch their every move.
Going back to the idea of the brain function and how the technology changes our brains
back to a more cognitive style we can see a trend. Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s people’s
lives tended to be more private, even back in the Myspace days we can see the change in
personal information. On myspace many people kept a lot of things more private. However,
when it comes to Facebook we can put everything on the site that we want too. With having
access to putting almost anything we want online changes how we see things. We might not
think putting specific things online can change things.
From the beginning of the class to the present moment all the information comprises the
other with how it affects each other. When looking at brain functioning and how our learning
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mechanism has changed and how we look at things we can see how that can affect how we view
the internet. Since everything is within a good distance to say whatever we want then we can
become more accustom to saying what is on our mind at any given hour. Furthermore, with the
idea of The Juggler’s Brain, it is stated, “Dozens of studies by psychologists, neurobiologists,
educators, and Web designers point to the same conclusion: when we go online, we enter an
environment the promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial
learning.” (Carr) This is basically describing what cognitive style is. This can all be wrapped up
into the idea of privacy on the internet. When we are too busy thinking about other things to do
online then we forget exactly what we are doing when multitasking. This can make the
conclusion that we might care about how much we put online but we do not necessarily think too
deeply about it because of inability to stick to one specific thing online.
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Works Cited
1.) Henry. "An Internet Where Everyone Knows You’re a Dog." An Internet Where Everyone
Knows You’re a Dog — Crooked Timber. N.p., May-June 2010. Web. 18 Sept. 2012.
<http://crookedtimber.org/2010/05/14/an-internet-where-everyone-knows-youre-a-dog/>.
2.) Manjoo, Farhad. "Users Hate Facebook's Approach to Personal Information. They'll Get over
It." Slate Magazine. N.p., May-June 2012. Web. 18 Sept. 2012.
<http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2010/05/can_we_get_some_privacy.ht
ml>.
3.) Carr, Nicholas. "The Shallows." Community.wvu.edu. West Virginia University, n.d. Web. 17 Sept.
2012. <http://community.wvu.edu/~bdb026/303/Fall%202012/carr.pdf>.
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Alison Toothman
Professor Ballentine
English 303: Multimedia Writing
December 6, 2012,
(Revised Copy)
Privacy, Anonymity, and Your ‘Rights’ Online
There are 800 billion Facebook users who use social media as a way of expressing
themselves through a media outlet. I tend to spend six hours on Facebook alone. For the last few
weeks I’ve spent more time on Facebook. Many people use social media as entertainment value.
Some of these websites include: Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and others. People put up this idea
of themselves on Facebook or I guess better terminology would be a false persona to keep their
true self-private. Through the privacy settings online and the thoughts of cognitive styles, one
can come to the conclusion that because of the continuation of new thinking patterns it could
cause people to not take the time to try and keep everything they put online private enough to
keep themselves incognito.
A few of the earlier readings for this course had multiple scholars coming to the
conclusion that our thinking patterns and cognitive styles are changing as our technology
progresses. All of this goes back to the idea of our thinking becoming more cognitive.
When it comes to privacy online people do not become aware of it until they realize there
are altercations on their privacy. Once things like this start occurring people become aware of
privacy settings. Additionally, there were Facebook changes in their settings on the profiles to
where you can put your hometown, current living location, work place, and information as that.
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Facebook does provide services to give people our personal information on who we want to
know our information. It also gives us the opportunity to learn about others and stay connected
with old friends. However, Facebook’s privacy settings have been altered to give out too much
information that we weren’t willing to share with everyone. An example of this would be my
cousin’s twitter page, where she has 8,245 followers. However, she lives in a small town and
expresses where she lives through her twitter. My cousin doesn’t think of the privacy of her
tweets because it places her locations. Some people do care; people won’t put up specific things
such as addresses.
Wikipedia is a site that lets people come together in an academic setting through the web
to share information with the world but it isn’t a social media site such as Twitter or Facebook.
The creditability isn’t there for all Wikipedia information. It does twist our views of privacy. If
anyone feels they have information that they feel is true they can put it on Wikipedia but then
how do we know what is true and what is false? Then, a site like Wikipedia shows how many
people can add information to a site. It takes privacy settings away because it doesn’t keep a site
blocked like other derived academic sites. With sites such as university sites or major
corporations no one has access to them except the employees so they have a larger privacy
setting compared to other sites.
In the article “Users hate Facebook’s approach to personal information. They’ll get over
it.” People place their privacy on Facebook to a closed to the public setting. So, people who they
do not know can’t access more personal information. Especially, when the people who run
Facebook are changing things around, this is when people realize the changes and get upset over
the changes. Most people do not think about the things they put on the Internet on a daily basis
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unless they know their image can be affected by it; take people as celebrities who watch their
every move.
Going back to the idea of the brain function and how the technology changes our brains
back to a more cognitive style we can see a trend in web use. Back in the 90s and early 2000s
people’s lives tended to be more private, back during Myspace there has been the change in
personal information. On MySpace people kept a lot of information more private. However,
when it comes to Facebook more people put everything on Facebook that they want too. With
having access to putting almost anything we want online it changes how we see things. We do
not think on a daily basis how our internet use effects us in our futures with jobs and other events
that can come up later where we are effected by what others can be see online.
When looking at brain functioning and how our learning mechanism have changed and
how we look at things we can see how that can affect how we view the Internet. Everything is
within a good distance to say whatever we want then we can become more accustom to saying
what is on our minds at any given hour. Furthermore, with the idea of The Juggler’s Brain, it is
stated, “Dozens of studies by psychologists, neurobiologists, educators, and Web designers point
to the same conclusion: when we go online, we enter an environment the promotes cursory
reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning” (Carr). This is describing what
cognitive style is. This can be wrapped up into the idea of privacy on the Internet. When we are
busy thinking about other things to do online then we forget what we are doing when
multitasking. This comes to the conclusion that we care about how much we put online but we
do not necessarily think deeply about it because of inability to stick to one specific thing online.
Toothman 9
Works Cited
1.) Henry. "An Internet Where Everyone Knows You’re a Dog." An Internet Where Everyone
Knows You’re a Dog — Crooked Timber. N.p., May-June 2010. Web. 18 Sept. 2012.
<http://crookedtimber.org/2010/05/14/an-internet-where-everyone-knows-youre-a-dog/>.
2.) Manjoo, Farhad. "Users Hate Facebook's Approach to Personal Information. They'll Get over
It." Slate Magazine. N.p., May-June 2012. Web. 18 Sept. 2012.
<http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2010/05/can_we_get_some_privacy.ht
ml>.
3.) Carr, Nicholas. "The Shallows." Community.wvu.edu. West Virginia University, n.d. Web. 17 Sept.
2012. <http://community.wvu.edu/~bdb026/303/Fall%202012/carr.pdf>.
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