Precis #4

Cyber Bullying is a situation when people no longer verbally assault someone they use text and the web to attack another person. Cyber bullies use AIM, chartrooms, MySpace, websites, and emails to attack a person. There is a story that Frontline had covered about a young man who had a pretty good life with his family. He had a close relationship with his father and a couple of good friends. This young man was getting bullied at school and thought that is where it was going to end. However as he would log on to talk to his friends he would get attacked by anonymous users who decided to cyber bully him. Sometimes he would be bullied by one name, other times he would be bullied by groups. He even had the most popular girl in school embarrass him by pretending to be interested in him then telling that it was a joke. This was especially cruel because it was in text, she could share his embarrassing conversation with the whole school if she pleased. He was especially hurt by this. The cyber bullying became intense; there were homosexual rumors that had deeply disturbed the young man.

This story was brought out by the boy’s courageous and hurt father. After such an extended period of time of the boy being bullied at school and at home over the web, the young man searched for an unhealthy outlet. He had found another young man online who had a website that described and assisted in suicide. Because the boy felt that this was a never ending situation and because he felt so helpless this website seemed to be the only answer. No one knew how serious this young man took these online insults. Do to the high frequency of people insulting others online some children became numb to the insults. Not this young man. So he had studied this suicide website and continued to speak to the young man who created the site. The site creator kept encouraging the young boy to commit suicide and seemed frustrated when he prolonged the decision.

So with the encouragement and information from this young man and his website it left our victim with no choice but to commit suicide. When the victim’s sister found him and his parents had to grieve there was nothing but mixed feelings. The father had gone on his sons screen name to discover who and what had led to his son’s irreversible action. When the father had signed on he was attacked with upset friends of his son but then he was comforted with answers. The father had discovered old instant messages his son had saved and had the chance to actually speak to some of his son’s attackers. The father even had a chance to speak to the website creator and the main cheerleader to his sons actions. When the father tried to reach out to the family of the website creator he was met with a cold shoulder. He was never answered and he was never even called back.

This was a terrible story to me. Most children who have the internet have, been bullied, bullied, or witnessed it. You never know how serious it is until it is you who is being attacked. I have defiantly witnessed some online bullying when I was in Highs School. As someone who witnessed it, it could seem like childish teasing, verbal rough housing. I can honestly say within my middle school and High school years I would have never predicted an outcome like this from an instant message. Now as I watch the news I am able to witness a whole lot more and understand a lot more. We have children and adults partaking in online bullying. We have seen fights that have been the outcome of online bullying. Now we have seen online bullying evolve into video bullying. Children now record video of them beating another child or insulting them, then posting it on the web for the whole world to see and comment on. It is embarrassing enough to share a vulnerable moment with those in your town never mind the whole world judging you. I understand you can never stop freedom of speech, but I do believe children need to be educated and encouraged by their peers and parents to not permit bullying. You can never force a child to stop you can only encourage them. I believe a story like this is enough to encourage them.

Précis #3

There is an article on line describing an estranged relationship between a young man and his family and a less the normal situation for a family and a creator of an online radio show. In this article there is a young man named Tom who seemed to have had a normal life that he was unhappy with. He was part of a big family that had a mother, stepfather, two full brothers, and two half sisters. Though it seemed that he was surrounded by love, Tom decided that this was not the family for him. Tom had found a radio show online that he felt shared the same ideas and same feelings as he did.

                Tom had discovered a Podcast broadcasted out of Canada called Freedom Radio ran by a man named Stefan Molyneux. Stefan had quit his software job in order to become a full time host on a podcast radio. Stefan charges each member $50 a month which basically enables him to continue his life as a podcast host.  Stefan, though not an educated psychologist gives advices and his opinions on his radio show. People call into his show to receive advice on current issues or to share ideas. For those who claim to find issues within their personal lives Stefan tells them his opinion on the situation, and then offers them the option of defooing.

                Defooing is a term that Stefan came up with that explains the process of ridding yourself of your current surroundings. Tom who was only 18 felt as defooing was an option for him. Tom did not feel happy with his family nor did he feel connected to them. Tom claimed that he did not love them and did not feel the need to love them. When Tom had presented his situation to Stefan and Stefan decided to encourage Tom to leave. Stefan reassured Tom’s thoughts and helped Tom feel at ease with his decision to leave.  Tom made allegations of his father being abusive, and intimidating. Tom said that the mother was so passive aggressive that she would allow the father to do what he wanted. Tom claimed that he felt alone and unappreciated in the house.

                Tom’s mother stated in the article that she was very unaware of her son’s unhappiness. She saw he son no different from other boys his age. Tom’s mother claimed that though the father does get loud he was never belligerent, Tom’s brothers and sister seem to side with the mother.  Tom’s mother has been on a quest to make this Stefan’s “cult” known. She unlike other parents who have had children, who chose to defooe, has made her situation very public. Tom has refused to speak to his parents and he will only speak to the press if Stefan is there. Tom denies that Stefan is manipulating him in any way. Tom feels more liberated and happy after he has left his family.

                The current state of the family is that the mother and father are now divorced and Tom’s siblings are left sad and confused. Tom has no plans going home and is very comfortable with the life style that he has chosen.  Unfortunately his family is not, they all hope that he will be coming back home soon. No charges have successfully been brought upon Stefan because there is no physical gathering for his “cult.” Also Stefan brings in 50,000 listeners but not all of them are regulars, he receives a profit but not enough to make him rich.

                I personally think this Tom child is definitely not thinking straight. At the same time I am very aware of the fact that I do not live in his house therefore I do not fully understand his situation. Tom should have tried to find another source of comfort besides excluding himself. However this seems to be a method that works for him. If this is what it takes to keep tom happy and safe then I guess this is what should happen. Though I do not agree with what and how Tom did what he did, I can see that this works. I would never want anyone to feel stuck in a situation that did not work for them causing them to do something dangerous to either harm themselves or others.  I just don’t agree with the fact that he is letting someone who has no degree and barely knew him tell him more about himself.

                I will say that Stefan should be very cautious with what he does or says on his radio program because I can see this situation becoming very ugly and very dangerous as well. Someone might want to harm him or one of his listeners because they might misinterpret what he is advising. I do not mind him sharing his opinions but I do mind on how he is doing it. People are very impressionable so you need to be aware of your affects on them. I think Stefan enjoys the power his station brings him and Tom was just one of his puppets. I know I am not a psychologist therefore I cannot tell the real effects of how Stefan helps or hurts his listeners but I do think he should stop while he is ahead.

Précis #2

Fire Fox is a non- profit web browser that has always looked out for the users and not for their wallets. They have researched how to serve and protect their customers by looking at such small details as in what buttons the users use the most. Or what viruses and hackers are out there. Fire Fox does not seem to be focusing on how to look the coolest but how to be the most users friendly. With the Fire Fox version 2.0 there were Over 1.6 million downloads the very day of release. So expectations were pretty high for the June 17^th release of their 3.0 version. Fire fox was attempting to set a world record for most downloads in a day. With the assured speed and basic design making it faster and easier this should have been an easy accomplishment. Fire fox seems to be targeting online hackers to make sure that the average person does not have to worry about advanced security methods. They have new address bars that make searching easier and they have a device that will notify you on the illegitimacy of a website.

                Internet Explorer is about to release their newest titled IE8 which is supposed surpass the Firefox browser. The PR department for internet explorer has explained that this version is now faster and easier to use. This aspect was stressed due to Internet Explorers poor performance in comparison to its competitors for its past few years. Over the past years IE’s stocks have been decreasing bit by bit. It wasn’t until last year IE had some bad news. IE’s stock had gone under 70% for the first time ever. In order to boost IE’s demand they have worked on security and user friendly buttons.  IE also has added little web bots to help search the web for your demands. The pages refresh automatically to try to make sure that you are looking at the most recent additions to the web. IE8 is produced in hope to bring back the users who have left to Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.  IE8 has web slices that constant web slices that constantly keeps users informed on their stock, eBay auctions, and the weather.

Both of these browsers seem quite similar to me. I think what users are most attracted to be the speed of a page and how easy it is to get what you want off the page. As long as these browsers progressively get faster and easier than people will stay dedicated. Something about people is usually that they are subscribers. They find something that works and most likely stick with it. Just like brand dedication for apple users whatever apple puts out they get. So once you lose a customer to for example Firefox then most likely you have lost them for life. Also people do what their friends and family do. So if a couple of people notice and enjoy a browser their friends and family will most likely join. Hopefully Internet Explorer can do something dramatic to steal their customers back and continuously progress so that their users stay.

                As advanced as this attempt on YouTube was, many complained about the one way communication. Obama’s committee defends the one way communication with the claim of protections. Obama’s committee states that they made the YouTube clips one way because there are plenty who would purposely disrespect the president with uneducated comments. If they were positive that each response would give an intellectual input or debate they would allow it. They did not want to open the floodgates to the public who wanted 15mins of fame or to present shock value. That worry is the price to pay for using a new vice to reach certain voters. McCain had a very different approach therefore he had a very different outcome.

                Many disagree with how open and advanced Obama is. There were complaints that his videos are a one way tube. Many felt as if they were supposed to be able to respond to his remarks not just listen to his lecture.  This article touches both on the fact that Obama has made a new step towards political evolution in communicating with the groups that are usually not reached by using YouTube, and the fact that he is a typical politician by only wanting to spread his opinions without the hearing the opinions of others. I would like to agree with Obama’s committee though. Time and time again the general public has presented itself as hateful fools. I do appreciate the fact that Obama has tried new venues t o reach his public. I think it is very effective.

Obama has been speculated to be the current day Moses. Many have made it seem like he will be the one to bring us to our promise land. We have all been made to feel like the bush administration was the pharaohs, I will accept that only because that is how people feel they are not claimed to be facts. However  to say that he will reboot the white house I will say that is a stretch because things that drastic takes  a lot more time than the assumed 4 years he will have. Do I believe he will get the ball rolling and encourage others to do more? Yes I do but it will take time and it will have to be baby steps.