Beyond Words

Does Internet promote violence or non-violence?
Nowadays, cybercrimes make part of daily events. Internet is like a dark street in an unsecure district, if you are not wary you can be abused. I talked in an earlier post about paedophiles and how they used cruelly the Internet. But, alone before their computer, people can be encouraged by the violence you can see on the web, because it has real influence. You can find a lot of incitations of violence like terrorist or racist ones. There is a lot of bad content. And for example, there is this story of the guy in Virginia Teck. Actually the murderer had "warned" the others students in a video, and nobody believed him. By getting people apart from the rest of the society, Internet can be a danger, but should we blame Internet for all that? Isn't just people making a bad use of Internet? It is one of the ways people express themselves and it is hard to think they will only do it peacefully. Actually, it is even impossible.Violence is kind of the proof of the real freedom of expression on the web...



But we also have to keep in mind that Internet promotes transparency ; it is difficult to hide during a long time, they will track you down. Moreover, linking people and creating networks, we are getting closer to everyone, this is promoting friendship, knowing each other, learning from each other. The peer to peer is a great example of the will of sharing. To me, it is kind of revolutionnary because I would not have thought such a thing could exist and actually work, because it is just solidarity and sharing for free. Freedom is the key thing on the web, thanks to sharing softwares. Some people can promote violence on the web, but the Internet itself is about sharing and creating a virtual place where everybody can cohabit. Of course you have to be wary and protect yourself cleverly.

Alexandre Astier  by  ceciliabertin

We all know that the new collaborative media are very practical. Indeed, everyone writes about what he knows well, and thus we can gather informations written by experts. But this ability to generate content can obviously become a danger, because this website has become a reference as a search engine in the web.
Jonathan Zittrain states "Wikipedia’s content can be copied, modified, and put up elsewhere by anyone else at any time" an American professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School. Indeed, the content is not checked enough by the administrators. For example, in the article I wrote earlier about Alexandre Astier, I made some mistakes on purpose, but they do not have been corrected.



But we can go further, the content on Wikipedia can be false, or worse, distorted to serve the advantage of some people. For example, the brands can totally modify the article about the company and the image of the brand, but also the figures about the consumers...

Moreover, as an encyclopedia, Wikipedia has an objective way of edit texts. But some people can modify an article about someone they hate and do vandalism on the page which is dedicated to this person/brand/political party/football club...

Therefore, Wikipedia is a weak place to obtain knowledge. But if you want to get information about something, it can definitely be useful if you are wary and stand back the subjectivity.

Let's check my wikipedia article here

Welcome on The Internet Land, or in antoher words : the I-Land. After getting a connexion, be sure to respect somes rules to behave yourself on the Internet!



1. Watch your back. Check your privacy settings, Internet can become a jungle.
2. Be ready to learn everyday, because things change non-stop on the web.
3. Open your mind and your eyes, don't stay behind.
4. Get rid of passive entertainments, be active in the Internet : be part of the web 2.0.
5. Share with your friends, interact!
6. Check up your sources when you gather information.
7. Experience online activities (shopping, learning, even dating...)
8. Think and act responsible.
9. Post comments on my blog.
10. Enjoy!

Books are part of our lives. I think about the tales our parents read to us before sleeping, but I also refer to the ones that changed forever our vision of the world, that formed our personalities, and the ones we could not detach from after midnight...



Now, the ebooks are part of this great phenomenon of digitalization of the human work. We are succeeding in realizing the myth of the Library of Alexandria : we are gathering all the information in one place, a virtual place : the net. If a long time ago we lost the human work because of a fire, I am afraid of loosing our culture because of mass media. Of course, ebooks would make things easy : we could buy books downloading files and so we would have a better access to litterature. But I recommend you another way : the book troc! You share your book list with other people, and you choose the books you want to read. It's free, easy and it creates human contact and community activity!


Anyway, ebooks are here and I might buy one for travelling. As I have a notebook, this lovely little computer, I could definitely have an ebook. It is really practical because you can have several books in one object. But I will never stop reading real books. I just love holding the object, I love the smell of old books...

As i said before, I am not really comfortable with new technologies. Yet, I really want to learn because it is such a necessary knowledge, not only to communicate but also to find a job and to enjoy the many possibilities they offer.


And the first thing I have to confess is that I have no idea how to download files. To me Peer to peer is an unexplored territory. I always ask my friends to do it for me, I bother them and I am still ignorant. Moreover, it seems to be so easy that I actually should stop writing about it and just act and learn...

People can share files, music and films connecting their computers. The social impact is thus that they not only link each other computer to computer but also human to human. But should I remind you that it is illegal? This aspect does not seem to stop this process. But from now on, the P2P only represents the 50% of file sharing on the web. Indeed, streaming is growing fast and is about to stand in for P2P. But still, to me it is an important side of the web networks.

I have already spoken about the unstoppable transparency on the Internet, and the impossibility to control the data about us. But one of the most serious consequences is that someone can take advantage of this. For exemple, it is widely known that paedophiles use the Internet to met children on MSN for example. They make the most of the naivety of children who surf on social networks to make friends pretending to be a 13-year-old girl and hiding behind an avatar. This cyber crime is totally due to a carelessness from the parents but also from the websites...Yet, we all know these crimes happen all the time and the young victims' lives are often taken away.



On the other hand, teenagers don't seem to be aware of their image on the web. Social networks are full of dating sections where they publish snaps and information about them. For example, MyLol is a social network and dating website aimed at teenagers. Users have the option to add unlimited photos to their profiles. These can be commented on by other users, as well as rated upon a 5 star basis, and this can increase your popularity points. Of course, they all want to be the more popular teenager, thus, they add a lot of increasingly provocative and catchy photos...that can include clothes off.

That's why parents begin to be afraid of their lovely children's growing interest for these networks. They tried to forbid their progeny to surf on the evil web, but too late... the Internet is everywhere even at school.

Recently, Apple has commercialized an Iphone application to show you registered sex offenders living around you : it's called Offender Locator, and except in California you can check the exact addresses of registered paedophiles in the whole USA. Ok, it's a gadget, but it's the beginning of a witch-hunt. Can't we just realize that a little girl does not have to display publicly pictures of her only wearing underwear?

The real decisions to make are about the networks themselves : they have to put boundaries, because the teenagers won't. They have to prevent from abuses checking the profiles of online people and maybe forbidding grown-ups to chat with young people. But how to verify if Sissy3269, Tennessee, looking for a relationship is actually a young girl? Well, the last solution is to deal with the heart of the problem, to talk to your girl and to explain how people can be mean, and why she has to slow down with the Internet. She will understand.

Create your network, anticipate your precious opportunities.

Online, the word « friend » has a special meaning. Your friends are not only your folks or the people you know personally, but also the ones you are connected to online. All these people constitute your own network. The Internet has made things so easy about relationships. Communities as Flickr or Twitter are the result of the hyper-communication fashion nowadays. People need to talk about their lives, to know what happens in their friends’ lives and to interact. These friendships online seem to offer only advantages. Indeed, the more contact you have, the more you gain : your range of action is larger. If you are looking for a job, a baby-sitter or if you need some electrical work done in your house, you can ask for favours...that you will give back. It can help you to find the perfect person at the right moment.



But be sure to put the social networks to good use. Of course, knowing people all around the world and maintain close relationships is more than an fame,it is a great resource, a precious opportunity. Nevertheless, this will to be linked anytime to everybody can become a society issue. Will independence and autonomy come to an end? Is the human being losing the pleasure to be alone? Do we systematically need to define us in relation to someone?

Whether you want it or not, on the internet, the transparency seems to be unstoppable. With the IP address or the data bases, we are unable to control the information about us.
For example, according to the links we clicked on, or the information we gave on surveys, we can see particular adds on our web pages. In this tough economic period, brands are more than ever using viral marketing thanks to the Internet. It is cheaper but it is also a better way to reach their audience. Indeed, if your finances are tight, it is way more effective to obtain awareness on a social application like a Facebook page than to pay for a TV spot. Marketing is much more easier when you have a deep knowledge of your audience because they are talking about their motivations just as a focus group. To me transparency can become a real invasion of privacy.

But isn’t transparency one of the main principles of Web 2.0?

I am thinking particularly about the social networks. When people interact they must be outspoken. When you log in, you reveal a private part of your life, but it appears natural because everybody does the same thing. It does not seem to be serious but at the end I can’t help but imagine how much data people provide to these networks. You upload your profile picture and one thing leading to another, you publish your mail address and your holidays snaps…
We reveal our lives on social networks because they become virtual places where we feel comfortable. But in my opinion it is exactly social networks’ aim : they encourage us to confess and thus to interact because it creates activity on the network. Thus, we forget that we are displaying our lives and that people can judge our pictures, our status…
The hugest error to make is to add a professional relationship as a contact, on Facebook for example, even if you consider this person as a friend. Let’s imagine your relations deteriorate, this person can use these information against you. Moreover it’s important to manage your privacy settings on these social networks. If you don’t, a potential recruiting officer can visit your profile without being your « friend » and dislike the way you display yourself on this platform.

Socialize yourself, but mind the gap between your job and private life.

Nobody doubts about the Internet’s ability to break habits. For instance, two years ago, downloading a picture from a website took couple of minutes. Now it is a matter of seconds. The way we surf on the Internet changes constantly. To me, it is even more obvious since I was not really comfortable with new technologies. Today, I am on Twitter and Facebook, I write on this blog and I go online everyday... I try hard to adapt myself, but one of my deeply anchored principles was not to use my credit card online. I used to be stubborn about security on the web. Now I have understood that it is very convenient, and moreover it makes life easier for so many things. Even the government uses the Internet to make the tax paying system more accessible.

Yet, I can't help but think we are dehumanizing our lives. We used to go to a library with no precise idea but buying a book, asking the booksellers for some advices. Nowadays, the advices are little rating stars on online bookshops. I think the very consequence of this loss of sense is an absurd world. If I am not afraid anymore by this constant revolution, I still mistrust this wind of change.

This morning, I got up with a song in my mind. I wanted to get it off, just listening to it. A brief connexion on the Internet, and… done. Something which seems as natural as drinking a glass of water.

Internet established the worship of immediacy, especially when it comes to music. If you are craving to listen to a particular song, it is now possible to quench it in a split second. Just connect to one of the many online radios, (Deezer, Jiwa…) and there is no need to download anymore. The streaming music does not only give us the possibility to listen to the whole world’s music but also to do it legally. From this point of view, Internet has freed the music from its economic model and from the actors who (used to) control it. Because music is not a matter of money, at least not always. We don’t have to pay to enjoy cultural goods.


The social networks have had a great impact on online music: they gave a wide visibility to music but also to musicians. From Facebook to My Space, an international musical web has been created on the Internet. If you play on a group,it’s good for you to put your songs on a blog to increase your network and your reputation, more than that : it’s necessary. Actually, if you’re becoming famous and that people don’t find you on Google, it means you’re nobody. On the contrary, people will believe in your potential talent if you write on a blog regularly and you broadcast your music on your Twitter, My Space and Facebook accounts.

To me, it’s necessary to put boundaries to this growing phenomenon. If anyone can expose his art on the web, everyone can become an artist. Here is a paradox: only a small part of the population really deserves the name of artist. If everyone is an artist, then nobody is. What happens next to the people who have real talent? How can they break out? Do they try reality shows on TV? What if they don’t want to humiliate themselves? How will we make the difference between a real musician and a person who just takes advantage of being an Internet expert to become famous? The actually gifted people are the victims of mass talent murder.

Internet has crashed music into its own already existing crisis, and now there is no way to go back. Now, the audience controls everything and becomes the main actor. The Professionals won’t be able to get back in control in this mere anarchy.
The public is the only decision maker in this process. No one can really do anything about it.