Self-Presentation and facebook ads

Self presentation on the internet is a far cry from the reality's of our actual personality traits. Using social media, we depict a warped view for the world on us as an "individual" which doesn't always show the truth behind the name and pictures, in essence creating a group of actors. This could potentially be seen as the users breaking the terms and conditions which state users must use "real information". But why should the users have to provide all real information? Do we not have a right to be anonymous online anymore? Furthermore Freedom of speech goes hand in hand in the present day with anonymity. This issue is becoming more and more prevalent every day with law makers making new laws and acts around the world which shake the very core of internet ethics and censorship, such as the China style law called SOPA which the U.S congress is debating.
 
Social network users may and often do provide core basic information that is truthful due to registration forms and other formality's. But i think after registration a lot of the time this is where a lot of real information gets held back and a new persona is born. Some of your identity is lost but also a new online identity is created which contributes to your daily attributes. The way users portray themselves will most probably not portray the real them because everyone is in the open for attack. The defense mechanism is to watch the social collective and play your part in the order of society to "fit in". Erving Goffman (author and sociologist) says "the social actor has the ability to choose his stage and props, as well as the costume he would put on in front of a specific audience. The actor's main goal is to keep his coherence, and adjust to the different settings offered him. This is done mainly through interaction with other actors. To a certain extent, this imagery bridges structure and agency, enabling each, while saying that structure and agency can limit each other". This is evident of social networking today as we can see to a certain extent how people will portray themselves to other people (the stage), status updates and photos which can be used to boost their portrail(props and other actors), and when maybe someone like an embarrassing mum or aunt comments on your status you put on a mask to "shield" your friends from potentially a fire on stage that could end dramatically for your social status. But i would add that the actor has a backdrop of stages for any audience. Some of the users friends may not be able to see another status involving other friends, enabling the actor to use a different identity, blinding unwelcome guests.  

At the same time as users molding their self-presentation they are being targeted by add campaign's on Facebook which could be deemed to be invasive and actually against the terms of conditions. The company olla comdoms advertised its products by making fake facebook accounts of the targeted users and using their name with Jr tagged on the end. This video shows an advert for the campaign.

  In my opinion this is crossing the line as it is invading your private life. It's core aim is to strike fear into the user who gets the request in order for them to think about buying the product. This is morally wrong as they are manipulating the thought processes by playing on your fears.
Facebook is right to ban fake accounts because this is immoral and manipulating. As well this bullying can be a cyber tool for people wanted to hide behind a curtain which should be stopped.

On the other hand, people should have the right to anonymity if they abide by the law, because if your doing nothing wrong then their is no need to keep such a close tab off who you are. Freedom of speech is helped by anonymity because a person cannot be penalized immorally if they have brought a topic to light that's in the public interest. For example, Wikileaks released hundreds of thousands of U.S government cables showing the detrimental effects the country has had all over the world, for example the massacre of Iraqi civilians. The information was passed to Wikileaks through a whistleblower. When the alleged whistleblower (Bradley Manning) was eventually found he was put in to military confinement and condemned to torturous conditions and is currently under trial. This is one reason why anonymity on the internet should prevail as it promotes democracy.

Web 2.0

In the early millennium (around 2001-2002) the internet interface and capabilities expanded dramatically resulting in a rebirth of the internet for a new generation of users. With the release of "Web 2.0", the internet transformed the way in which internet users used the internet , along with the purposes for going online. Tim O'reilly and Medialive International first held conferences defining the new direction of the internet. With the dot-com collapse many new websites were registering every day with pioneering ideas which O'reilly says was a call to action for Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 was a new way for users to interact on a social level on the internet, enabling them to have more influence on the websites itself and to participate in an up and coming social collective of ideas.One of the new main core values was that each user could share with each other, thus,creating thriving communities that interconnected. Some of the most popular web 2.0 brain child's are sites such as Youtube, Facebook and Blogger which have become a flourishing success.

This is a graph by Tim O'reilly showing the evolution of Web 1.0 to 2.0, although Tim Berners-Lee the creator of the internet dismisses this saying "Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. 'It was an interactive space, and I think Web 2.0 is of course a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along." and that "Web 2.0" was a buzzard for corporations looking to get increased revenue. 

                                                         Web 1.0           Web 2.0
                                                  DoubleClick     -->     Google AdSense
                                                             Ofoto     -->     Flickr
                                                         Akamai     -->     BitTorrent
                                                       mp3.com     -->     Napster
                                          Britannica Online     -->     Wikipedia
                                          personal websites     -->     blogging
                                                              evite     -->     upcoming.org and EVDB
                             domain name speculation     -->     search engine optimization
                                                    page views     -->     cost per click
                                             screen scraping     -->     web services
                                                     publishing     -->     participation
                       content management systems     -->     wikis
                                  directories (taxonomy)     -->     tagging ("folksonomy")
                                                      stickiness     -->     syndication

Youtube offers a service like no other on the web. The creators made a platform with a basic skeleton which had a user friendly format and then let the public make the database content by uploading videos of just about anything. This was one of the first ways for individuals on a global scale to communicate and share to each other or just observe using video's. After one year of operating, in mid June they had 65,000 uploads per day showing that this was an internet phenomenon which was going to grow.Google who now own Youtube makes money with it's ads on the webpages. In the past year, they increased the presence of adverts by automatically playing an advert video before the user can watch their desired video which is a blow to the user but a great asset for Google revenues. Youtube is a success story, as it truly harnesses the Web 2.0 idea of the user population making the content and publishing it, in turn helping bring the idea of a social internet closer.

Web 2.0 is not only a great way for company's to make money but also for the average civilian too. Youtube now has thousands of "normal people" who have made themselves youtube celebrities with Vlog's or sketches. By having a theme or some kind of gimmick they can capture the audience who will in turn, sometimes subscribe. Many users have seen to get promotion deals or sponsorship when there video views get into the hundreds of thousand mark creating a lucrative market for an average civilian. For example Fred Figglehorn became a Youtube partner, meaning they would give him money depending on how many users watched and subscribed to his videos.  

Sorry to make you watch this but he has 2,361,767 subscribers and 877,781,979 video views. Impressive stats, but its unfortunately a waste of time for me to watch but a great money maker.

On the other hand, whilst Web 2.0 boomed and created new markets of it's own, it often helped narrow other corners of the market where they used to be market leaders. This is especially concerning to me as a journalist because News company's and their papers are seeing a decline in readership in the millions. This is a result of sites and other attributes such as Twitter and Digg,  who also successfully harnessed the user population to spread news or link to articles the individuals deemed as important, which in turn helped the rise of the citizen journalist resulting in a decrease in a need for a Newspaper.

Interfaces

An interface is where two systems interact with each other creating an application(window) for the user to use. This can be likened to a middleman where the interface acts as a communication tool for the user and machine. We commonly use an interface to manipulate a system such as a machine or computer and it's software. The rise of the "user interface" has contributed to humanity progressing into the future as it has made many systems easier to interact with, such as, writing software for programs. The main groups of interface are as follows : Handheld, Detection, Off-screen and Desktops.

With the birth of the GUI "graphic user interface" by Doug Englebart between 1965-1968, there was a race against time for the corporations to release the most user friendly machine with an active GUI. The first computer with a GUI, was released in 1981 selling 25 thousand units which is reletively small. Sine then the market for this product has grown tremendously.   
But now, thousand of products are sold every day to the public with the GUI being the main function, enabling the consumers to use their products. The GUI is a must have!

There are many systems now with GUI such as mobile phones, desktops and tablets. This allows us to perform many tasks such as, social networking, news, emailing, blogging, gaming , watching videos and much more. As the GUI's keep evolving, it potentially increase's the amount of time you spend using a device which is the corporations goal. This way, your more likely to buy its product the next time their "ground breaking product" is released as you haven't got bored of the current product.
You undoubtedly have to give credit to the invention of the interface, because without it, great products such as these could never have been made or even thought of.

There are also systems though that the public does not interact with such as power stations and nuclear stations. These interfaces are vital for the technicians at the plant to monitor the station's processes. One small error could cause a castrophe. With this tool they are able to monitor levels all over the plant and even test them, potentially saving lives.



The Detection side of the interface group has produced products such as CCTV cameras. Some cameras even have the capability of using face recognition software to log who you are. This is a great advancement in decreasing levels of crime and keeping order. On the other hand, this could be a great tool for a police state to track down activists and keep an eye on them. For example, in America, they have Fusion centers all over the country which gather information and share them between agencys but also spy on civilian trends and lifestyles. If you are deemed to be very left wing or an anarchist you would be logged down in the records just because of your political position. Face recognition cameras can be used to log down your movements. Is this a good thing?