Last Week's South Park

Last week's episode of South Park dealt with Facebook and mentioned ChatRoulette. It mentioned how people can get sucked into Facebook (literally) as well as the inappropriate sexual nature of ChatRoulette. The episode is called "I've Got Nobody," and subtitled: "You have 0 friends."

http://southparkstudios.com/episodes/267112/?xrs=

Second Life as Fantasy

In my opinion Second Life should be treated almost exclusively as fantasy. People have different fantasies of flying, being a supermodel, or being a professional athlete, and it is possible that these people get a certain amount of satisfaction by creating an avatar that can become these things. If I remember correctly, the PBS documentary also had a story of a video game convention where several people met up who had previously played with each other online. Some of the players described a joy they experienced from being something different then their real self. If people experience a certain happiness from Second Life I have nothing against it, but I have no need for it.

In my ethics class, someone brought up that a couple was so obsessed with their Second Life avatars that their real-life baby starved to death. When Second Life becomes so involved in real life, it is no longer a fantasy. In addition, I see the benefits for business meetings, but sexual acts seem rather strange. As strange as it is, if it's a single (not married) person's fantasy then I have no problem with it. However, when it involves married people, or people with different identities, ethics becomes an issue. I think we should treat Second Life as fantasy only unless it is used for practical business practices.

We Are Important, but Not THAT Important

My most intriguing point I found in Chapter 7, Facebook, was on the removal of photos Facebook deemed pornographic, which were pictures of a mother breastfeeding. My first reaction was why would anyone put up pictures of them breastfeeding? Then upon realizing, maybe I just don't get the view point of a mother, I decided since it is legal to breastfeed in public in 40 states it can't be that bad. Plus, who really cares if there are pictures like that up?

Levinson used this as an example however to present the idea that while new new media is seen as an extension of ourselves, we can only go so far some times. The internet is also an extension of Facebook in this case who have certain powers to remove user created content at their disposal. We have to realize, as users of the internet, we are pivotal to its existence because we create content for it, but we are never beyond the powers that guide the internet.