Jessica Bennet's The Flip Side Of Internet Fame

There are few places on this Earth, if any, where the possibilities are truly endless. However, if you detach yourself from the physical world and emerge into the “online” world, you find that this just might actually be accurate in this realm. The World Wide Web has had so much to offer to us since the early 1990s, but with this comes controversy. Unleashed onto a plane of seemingly immeasurable freedom of anonymity, was the world ready for such responsibility? Since those early days when new emerging technology changed our lives immensely, have we at all become a better place, or have we bitten off more than we can chew, and doomed our human relations forever? Exploring these concepts are three in-depth articles, including: “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle, “The Loneliness of the Interconnected” by Charles Seife, and “Cybersexism” by Laurie Penny. Although it is thought that the Internet brings the world together, it actually does not help us politically, culturally, and economically like one would believe, as it makes us unable to be independent, isolates us from different points of view, and encourages real-world violence against women and other minority groups.

It is not uncommon for someone to exaggerate the truth or to leave out facts about themselves on the web. In fact, you may even find that the person you thought you knew on the internet is nothing like their profiles in real life. Whether it is to stand out in the crowd or to fool someone into thinking you are someone else entirely, you should not believe everything you see or read online. With photo enhancements, little white lies, and the scam termed catfishing, you just never really know who you are talking to or what their intentions are. Michele Fleming and Debra Rickwood, authors of “Teens in Cyberspace”, determine that parents and the public share the concern of teens encountering predators and pedophiles on the internet and could lead to inappropriate relationships on and off the web. The young generation typically communicates with peers and people close in age, however, Fleming and Rickwood advise “Even though many teens appear Net-savvy, they still need to be reminded of the potential dangers lurking online. There may be many friends in cyberspace but there are undoubtedly a number of

In the age of cutting edge technology such as the world in which we live, easily obtainable information has turned out to be a mainstay in society. The days of instant-gratification are upon us and waiting for any length of time since the advent of the Internet has become unacceptable in the technological arena. Because information is so easily available, this gives pause to security and privacy of personal identifiable information. With headlines screaming Identity Theft the disadvantages are clear. No longer can users post whatever they are thinking, doing, wearing, etc. without the profound knowledge that each post is forever solidified forever on the World Wide Web for anyone with an Internet connection to access. Those with less technological knowledge have yet to grasp this concept and this unfortunately has caused harm to their personal lives and professional careers, in some cases.

Viral videos have become wildly popular within the last decade. For some, internet fame has become a blessing. On the other hand, others have been shamed due to their viral videos. In “The Flip Side of Internet Fame” by Jessica Bennet, she makes her case on the undesirable effects of social media. Bennet uses a few of the many viral victims as examples to demonstrate what social media can do. Social media humiliates, violates privacy, and has long-term effects on the lives of the viral victims.

The internet is home to many dangers such as sexual predators and hackers, however the biggest threat to us on the internet is actually ourselves. People have unknowingly isolated themselves by connecting to the internet which causes a multitude of problems that not only affect our online lives, but person everyday lives. In The Loneliness Of the Interconnected, by Charles Seife, readers become privy that because of the information, power, opinions, and people that are available online to everyone results in society becoming even more isolated, ignorant, and misinformed more than ever before with every “like” button being clicked. . Life is a tough place where ideas and opinions can be smacked down by anyone at anytime, but because of the internet people can find a lifeline in others when they log online.

The author of The Cult of the Amateur, Andrew Keen states that; “the Internet is flooded with fake identities” and “the line between fact and fiction becomes blurred” (76, 17). Keen is arguing that social media sites are being misused by the world population and is damaging their judgment and development of character by exploiting untrue stories about themselves. Keen is a popular activist for the critique of the modern day internet and media, whose writings have been used by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and his column for CNN. Many people agree with Keen that social media is allowing users to create fake personas that can sometimes be undetectable because their judgment of what is acceptable has been impaired. This impairment is caused by the years of influence the internet and social media has over the millions of its users.

Chilling Stories of Fake online identities and why people created by Patrick Smith was a head scratching and eye opening article. The article contained multiple events dealing with people that had to go through identity thief. Another article that covers new technology is “Can people trust the people you meet online’’? by Gwendolyn Sediman. This article also gave us another point of view on how new technology can be used in a corrupt way. The average person wouldn’t usually understand how dangerous new technology can be if the wrong person gets a terrible idea.

With such a high amount of social media users, teenagers can spread awareness about certain situations happening in the community and come together to make a change. For example, in Kelly Wallce’s article “The Upside of Selfies”, she mentioned, “kids…creating Rainbow Loom bracelets to raise money for cystic fibrosis, and taking "selfies" and using the hashtag #unselfie to promote awareness of "Giving Tuesday," the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which is billed as a day to promote giving to others during the holiday season.” These teens were empowered by what they saw on their social medias and decided to join, increasing the amount of people aware of the situation. Social media sites such as instagram have a huge amount of followers. One single

In the United States of America, over 85 percent of people use the internet more than once in a single day (Internet Society). Why is it that this sensation called the internet is becoming such a phenomenon? Simply because all the services that the internet has to offer, but how could this fantastic internet be composed of only positive services? Here’s what is kept in the dark. The internet, also known as cyberspace or interweb, has an impeccable memory. With this said, this means that the internet stores every piece of information ever logged in the depths of the web. The web catches everything that comes in contact with it like a spider’s web, hence the name web. At first thought, this may not seem bad, but this information is permanent

The internet is one of the most important technological advancements of the 21st century and its increasing effects can be easily observed. Most of the consequences of the Internet have been beneficial and created a whole new realm for means of communication. The internet has allowed people from all over the world to communicate and exchange information in the blink of an eye opening up a virtual world for us to live in. With all these people communicating online through forums, social networks, chat rooms, and other endless ways, it is become impossible to determine who is who. There is no answer to this simple question because through the internet people are living multiple lives. It sounds very appealing to live

The Internet is the technological genius of the computer age. Although the Internet is a phenomenal tool, providing access to the world, it has also become a Shangri-La for criminals. The Internet because of the ability to remain anonymous is the perfect playground for this type of mayhem. This

In the 1990’s we witnessed a tremendous change in technology by the advancement in computer systems and the internet. The Internet is the world 's largest computer network and has revolutionized electronic networking. The number of people using the Internet continues to double annually, with at least 50 percent of all Americans “online” in 2000 (Cliffnotes). It’s used for online dating, business, as an informational tool, and many more key attributes to daily living. The Internet has provided endless possibilities for electronic communication, yet there is arguably a dark side that exists to this informational tool.

The Internet is a connection of computers across the world through a network. Its origin dates back to the 1960s when the U.S Military used it for research, but it became more available to the public from the late 1980s. The World Wide Web was created in 1989 and browsers began appearing in the early 1990s. Over the last 24 years, the Internet has enabled people to shop, play, do research, communicate and conduct business online. It has also become cheaper and faster in performing different tasks. As much as the Internet has done immeasurable good to society, it has also dominated people’s lives and brought with it an array of cybercrimes. According to Nicholas Carr in his book The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way we Think,

The Internet is an ocean and we are the fishermen. We immerse ourselves in a myriad of appealing fishes, all competing for our attention. We’re enticed to keep making our way across the water to seek more, and sometimes fail to catch anything. This is exactly the marvel of the web, but it is also a problem. Nowadays the Internet is no longer a want, rather, it is becoming somewhat of a necessity. The rising popularity of this artificial intelligence has led to an ongoing debate regarding its influence on people’s lives.

With the internet’s popularity rapidly growing, anonymous communication between people has become easier than ever. Anonymous communication can include setting up fake social media pages, creating webpages, or even just chatting on online chat sites. Although anonymity may not be a new thing, the internet’s popularity has increased the ease at which someone can become anonymous. In recent discussions of anonymity on the internet, a controversial issue has been whether or not anonymity is dangerous to society. On one hand, individuals like Jaron Lanier disagree with the idea of anonymity. Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget, believes that anonymity only brings out the worst in people. Because anonymity allows users to exist without proving their identity, it makes it near impossible to tell a troll from a real person allowing users to get away with saying and doing just about anything. This has resulted in an increase in leaked personal information, cyber bullying, security problems, online transactions problems, and the list continues. On the other hand, individuals argue that anonymity allows, and often encourages, people express their thoughts and ideas (freedom of speech) due to the privacy provided by the internet. Individuals are more likely to voice their opinion (in a non-negative way), seek advice, or even look up personal information if they are not judged like they would be in person all because there is no name behind what they