Buy, Borrow or Steal…?

I’ll buy the hard copy if it’s any good… I’ll support locally produced products… I can’t afford to buy it from the shops...

“Increasingly, internet communities set their own norms and standards and define their own specific rules and duties.” (Hamelink 2006, 119) How you justify it to yourself is up to you, but either way downloading content off the internet is illegal.

We’ve all seen the ads saying you wouldn’t steal a handbag or you wouldn’t steal a TV and had a laugh at how ridiculous the comparison is. When it comes to these types of physical objects, for the most part, our moral compasses points true and we would never imagine stealing them. It seems to be a different story when it comes to downloading files online. As Hamelink (2006, 117) states, “The anonymity makes lying very easy and difficult to detect…It raises the problem of “moral distance” with extra urgency. The greater the distance to potential victims, the more readily will people inflict harm that they would refrain from in face-to-face situations.” It’s as if because you don’t have to physically take the content from a person, it is somehow acceptable.

From a young age I, like most people, was taught about morals and what it meant to be a good person within society. I was told to always be honest and that stealing was wrong. Like Elisha, I too have illegally downloaded content, so I am in no position to judge anyone who has done the same. Regardless I can’t help but ask the question why, when we all know that stealing is wrong, do we continue to illegally download content?

Hamelink, C. (2006). The Ethics of the Internet: Can we cope with Lies and Deceit on the Net? In Ideologies of the Internet, K. Sarikakis & Daya Thussu, pp. 115-130. New Jersey: Hampton Press

Al-Shagra, A. 2010. The Arabic Online Music Industry Is Learning…Slowly. The Next Web. July 1.

iTunes, iPods and iPersonalities

You are what you listen to. Classical = arrogant snob. Heavy metal = angry. Pop = simple minded. Punk = emo.

There are so many stereotypes that come part and parcel with the music you listen to, made even more apparent with sites like Top five music fan stereotypes. As Levy (2006, 25) said, “When I was in high school in the 1960s, you were labelled by whether you listened to Motown or the irreverent noises of Dylan, Hendrix, and the Lovin’ Spoonful. Since we didn’t have iPods, we tipped our tastes by clothing: the Motown crowd wore highboy collars and the folk-rock “dirties” wore T-shirts and jeans.”

Like Jacob, I have a wide variety of songs and genres in my music library. With my electronic music library consisting of over 13000 songs my collection is quite sizable. With the shuffle feature in use I can go from listening to Calvin Harris to ABBA to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. I struggle to put myself into any one specific stereotype or single out specific personality traits that accompany the music I listen to, but I have identified with all at some stage. While I have no hesitation listening to my music alone, I always wait for the judgement or surprise that comes when people are looking through my playlist.

Levy summed it up nicely when saying, “playlist is character.” (2006, 41) The music you listen to can say many things about you. It can represent your personality, your past experiences, your culture and so many other aspects of you. There is no point being embarrassed about the music in your music library when people are able to easily access it with the browsing technology available. Your music is a part of you, even that Celine Dion. We need to allow our iPod’s to be a “rich personal narrative, navigated by click wheel.”

Levy, S. (2006). The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness, New York: Simon & Schuster, pp. 21-41

Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2007). The content and validity of music-genre stereotypes among college students. Psychology of Music , 35, 306-326

Me, Myself and Who I Want You to See...

1 new friend request!

The notification is emphasised on your Facebook main page. You have no idea who this person is though. So do you add or decline? I know I’ve been in this position before. Donath and Boyd (2004, 78) were correct in saying, “the networking sites make it much easier to form some kind of connection with other people. On many of them, a simple click on the profile of a person who intrigues you is all that it takes to launch an email to them, stating that you would like to be their ‘friend’ or ‘connection.’” We think we can see who people really are through these sites, but are we seeing the real them?

I would say no. Online you can be who ever you want to be. It is so easy for users to create profiles that are not true representations of themselves. As Pearson (2009) said, “users manipulate these communicative codes, with varying degrees of skill and dexterity, to create not only online selves, but also to create the staging and setting in which these selves exist.” Online platforms allow users a space to express themselves, comparable to a stage in a theatre. This adds to the idea that whenever we use social networking sites, we both perform for an audience, as well as becoming the audience members to the performances going on around us.

We can portray ourselves in any way we wish, effectively creating perceptions and beliefs about ourselves to seem more appealing or socially acceptable to others. While some people may simply lie about a sporting involvement, as Erin Ryan suggested, others can deceive on much larger scales. Donath and Boyd (2004, 74) reported that “there have been numerous reports of identity deception in such sites, ranging from the relatively innocuous misrepresentation of personal appearance and achievements, to more serious deceptions about marital status and intentions.”

So the next time you’re online be more aware; aware, not only of your own performance, but of the performances you’re watching. Just make sure you don’t get deceived by any over convincing actors.

Pearson, E. (2009). All the World Wide Web’s a stage: the Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks. First Monday, volume 14, Number 3.

Donath, J. and Boyd, d. (2004). Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal, volume 22 (4): 71-82.

Facebook 2011. Accessed 14 March 2011 at www.facebook.com

Taylor, D. 2011. How to Find Your Friends On Facebook With The Facebook Friend Finder. http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_find_friends_facebook_facebook_friend_finder.html (accessed March 13, 2011)