Yet Another Joke

A professor is giving the first year medical students their first lecture on autopsies, and decides to give them a few basics before starting.

"You must be capable of two things to do an autopsy. The first thing is that you must have no sense of fear."

At this point, the lecturer sticks his finger into the dead man's anus, pulls it out, and then licks it.

He asks all the students to do the same thing with the corpses in front of them. After a couple of minutes' silence, they follow through with his disgusting command.

"The second thing is that you must have an acute sense of observation: How many of you noticed that I stuck my middle finger into the corpse's anus, but I licked my index finger?"

England Suck!!

Well after a night of watching the England team play crap and get beat 1-0 by Spain, and yes especially you Looney Rooney, I just thought id share with you all that im willing to start supporting a new sport. Your suggestions are welcome....

...Here's one im thinking of.

Kitten Kung-Fu

Week 8 - The Golden Rule of Netiquette

So the golden rule of netiquette is "Remember the Human". This means to remember that although you are using a computer you are still dealing with a real person, just via the computer. So you should express yourself in the same way as you would if you were face-to-face.

A number of behaviors can breach this principle, for example;

• Take advantage of anonymity - to post/say something bad that you wouldn't have dared to do before for fear of retribution.
• Be nasty/flaming - saying something to hurt someone's feelings that you wouldn't do if you were face-to-face with them.
• Take an easy way out - maybe telling someone some bad news over the internet as you do not want to be there when they hear it.
• Pretending to be someone else - masquerading yourself as someone else for unethical things.

Week 8 - Culture of Communities

Do communities have their own culture? Well in order to answer this we have to know what is meant by "culture of communities";

"The beliefs, ideas, traditions etc... of a group/community"

Personally i feel that on-line communities "can" have their own culture, i mean some people cannot think of a world without the internet as it is part of their daily life. Also with standards being developed and people having expectations of each other (like using "netiquette") doesn't this sound like a culture (using rules and guidelines etc..)?

But are these on-line communities "full blown" cultures or just following a number of guidelines for using the internet? well i feel that it is a mixture of both a real culture, and guidelines of use and conduct.

Week 7 - Theories of Group Formation and Behaviour

So why do we join groups or communities? what is it that we get out of them, and how does this affect our behaviour?

Well the main reasons we join communities are;

• For "Gains" or to get Rewards - this is behavioral psychology, as we want to get something out of it for ourselves, but if the cost on us of getting the information (not necessarily money wise) is more than the reward we are getting from it, then we leave.
• To Recapture Lost Family - This is Sigman Freud's theory that poeple join communities in order to try and recapture the family we had when we were children, i have to say i find this very interesting.
• Evolutionary - This is meaning that we need to form groups and communities in order for us to survive and evolve as humans.

The discussion in the tutorial about how an online group differs from a face-to-face one was really interesting. The Tuckman life cycle for face-to-face and Kat Nagal's for an online group are really informative and help a lot in showing why certain thing happen, and what will happen next. Although the lifecycles look diferrent they are infact quite similar, one of the main differences is that the storming (conflicts as roles are contested) starts quicker in a face-to-face group than an online one, i think this is because we can assess each other much better and quicker face-to-face, also this is usually before rules are established. An online discussion usually goes through a state of norming, where people work together and accept the rules, before storming happens. Another main difference is that in a face-to-face group it usually performs its purpose and then terminates, whareas an online group might terminate before it ever completes theirs.

If i was to analyse the current state of the online communities im currently associated with using Kat Nagal's life cycle then i would say:

FriendsReunited: Growth (Forming)
MoneySavingExpert: Community (Norming)

Module Encouraging Problem Behavior?

Personally I don't think that the module is encouraging any problematic behavior like internet addiction etc... but maybe thats just me, as im sure there are some addicts on the course and yes its all of you who post at 5am! :0)

Im sure it is getting more people sucked into the groups they have had to join though, but don't know if that is necessarily a bad thing as I have saved myself £50 from using some info from one of the communities I joined!

Week 6 - Abuse On-line

On-line abuse is another point which divides many people in the internet community.

"Flaming" is the most common type of abuse, flaming is saying a nasty comment/being nasty to someone. As i said most people are divided on this issue as some people don't like flaming, in some communities it is against the rules. Whereas other people like getting things off their chests and letting people know what they think of them, and there is sometimes a seperate part of the community (maybe a new thread in a forum) which is dedicated just to flaming (http://www.vgchat.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65 is an example).

In the tutorial we looked at a case study of an online community which was split in half when an act of "on-line rape" happened. One side were saying that it was unlike any real-life abuse as the recipient could just log off and ignore the comments, but on the other side the rest were saying that their on-line identities were like real life, so the abuse felt just as real.

My personal opinion on this situation is that it is ludacris, the recipient could of just logged off or ignored the user. I feel it would be up to the moderators of the community to sort it out "IF" the abuser breaks any of their rules. But i would also like to think that people on the internet would follow some sort "Netiquette" (an online form of etiquette - no flaming etc..) so this shouldn't happen in the first place!!

But thats just my 2 cents and what do i know :0)

Week 6 - Identity

The issue of identity on the internet is a big one as the majority of the people who use it are never totally truthful.

In our tutorial lesson we looked into the study carried out by Miller and Slater, they identified that there are two different, but related, ways that people put accross their identity on the internet.

"Expansive Realisation" = This is where people show themselves as an "idealised self", what they would like other people to see them as.

"Expansive Potential" = This is an "alternate persona", people make up an identity which is different to their own, and put this accross.

I have found this to be true in my experience on the internet. I have noticed a few of my friends put accross an idealised picture of themselves, especially when talking to new people.

Week 6 - Addiction

ARE YOU AN ADDICT?

I had never thought that maybe the internet could be addictive, but my eyes are definatly more open on this subject now!

In the tutorial we went through a few case studies where people were said to have been addicted to the internet, it seems that like any addiction it can caus major problems to your health and to your relationships with others.

So i took the online internet addiction test at NetAddiction.com and scored 32/100;

"You are an average on-line user. You may surf the web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage."

So it seems i havn't turned into a geek just yet then! Im definatly more aware now of how much time i am spending online, and i have to admit that i do find myself saying "Just a few minutes more!".

I don't really find myself agreeing though that it is actually internet addiction, i feel that the people are addicted to what it is that they are doing at the time, be it chatting, ebaying or gaming for example. The website where i took the online addiction test NetAddiction.com seems to back me up on this idea too, as there are a number of different internet addiction subject tests that you can take part in.

Cybersexual Addiction Quiz - A quiz to determine if you are addicted to cybersex or viewing cyberporn.
Internet Addiction Test - A test for on-line users to determine if they may be addicted to the Internet.
Quiz for Obsessive Online Traders - If you think you may spend too much time trading stocks over the Internet, then take this quiz.
Quiz for Compulsive Online Gamblers - If you spend too much time at the virtual casinos, then take this quiz to see if you're hooked.
Quiz for Online Auction Addiction - Do you spend too much time at eBay or uBid? Does winning the bid mean more than getting the actual item? Then take this quiz to see if you may be addicted to online auction houses.
The Partner's Addiction Test - A test for spouses or partners of potential Internet addicts.
The Parent-Child Addiction Test - A guide for parents to evaluate if their son or daughter may be dealing with an addiction to the Internet.

The NetAddiction.com website gives all sorts of good information on this problem and what to do to help someone if you suspect they are an addict!