Saturday, April 4, 2009

Henry Jenkins, Discussion: MySpace and Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA)/Gabriel Sherman, Testing Horace Mann

Discussion: MySpace and Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA)/Testing Horace Mann

In the MySpace article, Henry Jenkins expresses that MySpace can be a very public online communication tool. It has its perks but there is a downside to it as well. People of all ages are using MySpace and that is a cause of concern. Jenkins says, "In some cases, teens and adults have developed different notions of privacy: young people feel more comfortable sharing aspects of their lives (for example, their sexual identities) that previous generations would have kept secret. In some cases, teens do not fully understand the risks of making certain information public.". The sexual images and images of underage drinking are another cause of concern. The point is that MySpace can be an easy accessible tool for people with hidden agendas.
In Gabriel Sherman's article, he expresses upon the risks of using MySpace and Facebook. He points out that these sites should be separated from school communities because teachers and students can get easily affected by them. It is easy for students to make derogatory comments on teachers by using these online tools. They figure that, by going online, they can get away with a lot more. It is easier for them to sit behind a laptop than to actually face their teachers in person. Personally, I feel that certain behavior is downright wrong and cowardly.

When I was reading both articles, nothing confused me at all. I understood the messages behind these articles. The first article relates to Marc Prensky's Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants because they both touch upon generations of people in the media world. The second article relates to one of the articles I found on media literacy. The article is called Why is Media Literacy Important from Wikiversity. Both of these articles touch upon the relationships between students and teachers. Overall, I have to say that I do not use MySpace because I have no interest in using it. However, I do use Facebook. I am very careful with how I use it and I enjoy being on it. Recently, I became "friends" with three actors from my favorite soap opera, "The Young and the Restless". That made me very happy.

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