After reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations, a number of thoughts and realizations began to take shape. It was interesting, especially for the case with this Comm 360 class on digital ethics, because the Declaration does not focus on technology or the digital world. This forced me to draw some parallels between the document and how it might apply to the digital realm. This is a pretty important step to take, not just for me, but for everyone in general. There is no real document or declaration that states the rights and safeties guaranteed to us online. It's almost mind boggling to think abut really. This UN declaration, from way back in the mid 1900s certainly still applies to this day, but that doesn't mean our daily lives have stayed the same for the past 60+ years. Things have changed a lot since then. Back when the Declaration was written, our physical lives were our entire lives, and this document tended to the rights guaranteed to us in these physical, entire lives; Everyone is created equal, we can't be tortured, no discrimination, right to privacy, etc.
When you begin to realize how much more our lives are being intertwined with the digital world, it's important to make sure the rights guaranteed to us in the real world can also apply there as well. I feel that, of course, everyone should have certain rights online and these rights should be the same for everyone, without regard to economic status or anything else for that matter. I personally believe the right to privacy is the main concern. You should be able to decide who gets to see what you put out online, and more importantly, who does NOT get to see what you put out there. We have a right to privacy guaranteed to us, yet this right somehow does not extend to our digital lives. Right in the document it says that we shall not be subjected to arbitrary breaches of privacy. This brings up the whole NSA issue. They may claim that they were listening and tapping anyone in the country for terrorist threats as their reason to break this privacy, but how can it be deemed OK to say that about ANY one in the country. There is no legitimate reason to just listen in on people at random. That makes the reason arbitrary and therefore breaking the right given to us.
In my field of study and hopefully my career field, set of rights would be greatly helpful. As a Film and Digital Media major, it would be nice to be able to create things I have an interest in, while at the same time, not doing anyone else harm. Also, just being in a field that is digitally dominated, it would just be helpful to have a set of rules, rights, and responsibilities.
Monday, April 18, 2016
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Our Digital Lives
http://www.archivefilter.net/tenurefile/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/bInvisibleDynamics.pdf
The above article, written by Meghan Dougherty, was an interesting article in the way it made me reflect. It was one of those kinds of feelings where someone mentions something that seems overly obvious but at the same time makes you think about that obvious idea more so than you ever had. It's obvious that our lives are more and more intertwined with the digital world. But the more you think about it, the crazier it seems. The craziness is amplified when you think of how fast this dependence has evolved. Not that long ago, the internet, cell phones, computers, etc. were all almost non-existent in our every day lives. However, today, we take technology for granted. we use it for so many things. I use my phone to wake up. Then once I am awake, I use it to catch myself up with the latest news, sports, and happenings among my friends. This keeping up with friends, used to not be a daily thing at all. You would catch up with people when you saw them, if you saw them. Now, we seem to know what everyone is up to and what they did anytime, any day. We use Fitbits to help us and track us with our exercise and other daily doings. We integrate our schedules onto our phones, our laptops, now even our watches, so we can get reminders and not forget. Our homework in schools is almost always turned in electronically. We apply for schools online; paper applications are virtually a thing of the past. Even our happiness can be linked to our technology and digital lives; seeing stories or pictures online can influence our mood. Getting texts from certain people can brighten our day without us actually having to see those people in person. We can essentially live our entire day our week, even month without interacting with people face to face. Now, it's not an ideal or necessarily healthy way to live but it is seemingly more and more possible. This causes me a little concern, even though the potential is astounding and often technology is extremely helpful and convenient. It makes me nervous, thinking about the impact and gravity of a situation where something happens that might cause this technology to fail us. What if all of a sudden we lose control of it, or it just fails us and we lose everything it holds? What then?
The above article, written by Meghan Dougherty, was an interesting article in the way it made me reflect. It was one of those kinds of feelings where someone mentions something that seems overly obvious but at the same time makes you think about that obvious idea more so than you ever had. It's obvious that our lives are more and more intertwined with the digital world. But the more you think about it, the crazier it seems. The craziness is amplified when you think of how fast this dependence has evolved. Not that long ago, the internet, cell phones, computers, etc. were all almost non-existent in our every day lives. However, today, we take technology for granted. we use it for so many things. I use my phone to wake up. Then once I am awake, I use it to catch myself up with the latest news, sports, and happenings among my friends. This keeping up with friends, used to not be a daily thing at all. You would catch up with people when you saw them, if you saw them. Now, we seem to know what everyone is up to and what they did anytime, any day. We use Fitbits to help us and track us with our exercise and other daily doings. We integrate our schedules onto our phones, our laptops, now even our watches, so we can get reminders and not forget. Our homework in schools is almost always turned in electronically. We apply for schools online; paper applications are virtually a thing of the past. Even our happiness can be linked to our technology and digital lives; seeing stories or pictures online can influence our mood. Getting texts from certain people can brighten our day without us actually having to see those people in person. We can essentially live our entire day our week, even month without interacting with people face to face. Now, it's not an ideal or necessarily healthy way to live but it is seemingly more and more possible. This causes me a little concern, even though the potential is astounding and often technology is extremely helpful and convenient. It makes me nervous, thinking about the impact and gravity of a situation where something happens that might cause this technology to fail us. What if all of a sudden we lose control of it, or it just fails us and we lose everything it holds? What then?
Monday, April 4, 2016
The Digital Divide
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6196/5187
The above article, written by Emily Hong, details a rather interesting situation that is taking place in San Francisco's Chinatown, although the situation is certainly not restricted to just that neighborhood. The issue of internet access is never one I have ever really considered, at least not for more than a moment or two. This may well be because I have had internet access for as long as it's been normal to have it. Shoot, I remember as a little kid, when I wanted to tell my grandma something, anything at all, I would just tell my mom and we'd get online and send an email. That easy. No hassle. It was just any other day. For this reason I had never really considered what it might be like to live in an area that did not have very good, or sometimes any, internet access at all. What multiplied the shock of this article was that Chinatown is a result of racial dividing from decades ago that is still being perpetuated over and over again. It's crazy that these people are living in conditions that prevent them from accessing a free, public service. The internet has become increasingly important in our everyday lives and for people to not have any way to access it is wrong in my opinion. What makes it worse is that this is not even really the fault of the people. The government gave them this little section of San Francisco decades ago and it is now far below living standards and near tenement conditions, with no way to have internet in place. Looking at research done by Pew Internet through 2015, they found that 97% of Asian Americans use the internet (http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/06/26/americans-internet-access-2000-2015/). That is astronomically higher than those residing in Chinatown. Why is this the case? Why does location determine your right to a public good. And, going off of that point, if locataion gets to determine your right to said public good, how come the government can place you in these areas and not even help out when living conditions become outdated. There just needs to be more done to make sure everyone can have access to the internet, especially with more and more of our daily lives being integrated with the digital world.
The above article, written by Emily Hong, details a rather interesting situation that is taking place in San Francisco's Chinatown, although the situation is certainly not restricted to just that neighborhood. The issue of internet access is never one I have ever really considered, at least not for more than a moment or two. This may well be because I have had internet access for as long as it's been normal to have it. Shoot, I remember as a little kid, when I wanted to tell my grandma something, anything at all, I would just tell my mom and we'd get online and send an email. That easy. No hassle. It was just any other day. For this reason I had never really considered what it might be like to live in an area that did not have very good, or sometimes any, internet access at all. What multiplied the shock of this article was that Chinatown is a result of racial dividing from decades ago that is still being perpetuated over and over again. It's crazy that these people are living in conditions that prevent them from accessing a free, public service. The internet has become increasingly important in our everyday lives and for people to not have any way to access it is wrong in my opinion. What makes it worse is that this is not even really the fault of the people. The government gave them this little section of San Francisco decades ago and it is now far below living standards and near tenement conditions, with no way to have internet in place. Looking at research done by Pew Internet through 2015, they found that 97% of Asian Americans use the internet (http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/06/26/americans-internet-access-2000-2015/). That is astronomically higher than those residing in Chinatown. Why is this the case? Why does location determine your right to a public good. And, going off of that point, if locataion gets to determine your right to said public good, how come the government can place you in these areas and not even help out when living conditions become outdated. There just needs to be more done to make sure everyone can have access to the internet, especially with more and more of our daily lives being integrated with the digital world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)