Online Lives Research Articles

A Theology of the Body for a Pornographic Age

The Internet has become a normal and formative influence in the lives of emerging adults. Within this engagement, the consumption of sexualized content has become de rigueur. The regular use of pornographic materials has raised fundamental questions regarding online encounters vis-à-vis real encounters. Is an online engagement of sexually explicit materials simply a “virtual” experience or does it necessarily have a physical dimension? How are cyber-sexual encounters the same or different than physical ones? These issues call for an understanding of the body and sexuality that extends into the cyber-based versions of the self. Spiritual formation efforts will increasingly need to take into account the online lives and interactions of people. To that end, understanding the interaction of the body and soul, when engaging an online sexually explicit image, is an important task of the church. This article will lay the groundwork for a biblical understanding of being human and being sexual within an online context. The goodness of the body will be addressed as well as an exploration of the ways sin affects the whole person, particularly through the engagement of pornography. Together, this discussion will better equip the church to continue to assist Christians in conforming their lives, online or offline, to the image of Christ.

OA57 The digitalisation of dying, loss and grief on social media channels.

The internet and birth of social media channels have changed the way in which we deal with death, loss and grief forever. Our photo albums are now saved digitally and shared on Facebook. Our private thoughts are now relayed on Twitter. Each year we spend more of our lives online, this workshop will address what happens as we approach death and when we switch off. After building a relationship digitally they recently presented together at the Macmillan Primary Care Conference on the subject 'Can we Palliate Social media'. The outcome of the workshop can be viewed below: 'Can we Palliate Social Media' workshop (about) - http://deadsocial.org/blog/222-macmillan-primary-care-conference BMJ review/results of workshop - http://blogs.bmj.com/spcare/2014/12/04/palliating-social-media-a-seminar-workshop-at-the-macmillan-professionals-conference-in-london/ We will highlight how the digital landscape has changed to help evoke thought and discussion around the subject of digitising death. They will explore the ethical and moral questions regarding end of life within the digital context. The role of the HCP will be examined in relation to social media and patient practice. All attendees will be provided with a number of simple tasks to carryout online. This will again provide a better understanding around the conversations that are occurring online and the digitisation of death. An interactive 40 min workshop will be directed by us. This will conclude with a 20-minute discussion. Leaflets containing relevant tasks for HCPs to carryout online can be carried out after the workshop. Understanding of the main social and digital channels that we (in the UK) use today. Understanding of how online channels have changed how we communicate and behave. The different ways grieving, remembering and mourning occurs online How death, grief and loss is different online Examination of how social media is breaking down the notion of death Reflect on how could/should HCPs and EOL professionals engage online in relation to EOL matters. Understanding how our digital footprint will ultimately become our digital legacy. Each participant/attendee will have a basic understanding of how death, grief and loss are addressed online within the UK. Examples of how different patients (especially children) are using social media in hospitals will be provided to help highlight the catalyst for change that social media has become.

The Cyberpolitics of Music in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution

Between November 21 and December 26, 2004, nearly one million people protested in Kyiv against election fraud, media censorship, mass government corruption, and oligarchic market reforms. These large-scale peaceful protests have become widely known as the Orange Revolution, named after the campaign colors of Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate who ran against Viktor Yanukovych, a politician with a criminal record who was backed by Moscow and the sitting Ukrainian government. (1) Music and the Internet played crucial roles in the Orange Revolution. In the five years between 2000 and 2005, the number of Internet users in Ukraine jumped from 200,000 to more than 5 million in a country of approximately 48 million people (an increase of more than 10% of the population). (2) In the two months between November 21, 2004 (the day of the contested presidential elections that precipitated the Orange Revolution), and January 23, 2005 (when President Viktor Yushchenko was inaugurated), the number of Internet users in Ukraine tripled (Delong 2005). The significant role played by Internet streaming of audio and video in the mediation of political information, activism, and communication during the Orange Revolution can serve as a case study for a broader analysis of the relationship between cyberactivism (Kreimer 2001; McCaughey and Ayers 2003) and what I term cybermusicality: an engagement with Internet music and its surrounding discourses that has meaning in listeners' lives both online and off. In remarks before a concert by Ukrainian rock singer and Orange Revolution participant Maria Burmaka in the spring of 2005 at Columbia University, (3) ethnomusicologist Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier argued that music is not political in its essence. Rather, it is politicized through formal, ideological, cultural, and actions, configurations, and processes (Ochoa 2005; see also Ochoa 1997 and Street 2001). I will build on Ochoa's argument by demonstrating that the media through which music is disseminated partly determines how that music's relationship to the political sphere is established and understood within movements. In analyzing the relationship between music, movements, and technology, I draw on the paradigm proposed by Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison who argue that social movements lead to a reconstruction of processes of interaction and collective identity formation (1998:10). Though I will present some of the new popular music styles favored by anti-government organizers during the Orange Revolution, particularly one that I call TAK-techno, I am less concerned with the content on the Internet than with the Internet's use as a vital communication tool within socio-political events and music's function within that framework. In this analysis of the relationship between the Internet, music, and politics in post-socialist Ukraine, I argue that technology is not culturally or politically neutral. Rather, cybermusicality was undeniably vital to the Orange Revolution, drawing millions of Internet users into new online communities. During the Orange Revolution, the Internet offered opportunities for anti-government protestors to express and engage new understandings of self and community through music. The unprecedented use of technology by this opposition movement during the protests highlighted the significance of music as a powerful communicative medium for the expression of individual and collective dissent. More specifically, because the Orange Revolution criticized the reliability and authenticity of government discourse, the revolution's music and recordings invite an examination of the representative power of recorded spoken text in political song. Numerous political scandals involving technology greatly influenced the public's perception of words spoken by various pro- and anti-government political leaders in Ukraine. Protest songs re-inflected the official political discourse by using musique concrete techniques to incorporate vocal recordings of speeches by the presidential candidates. …

Online Lives 2.0: Introduction

Looking back to Biography ’s 2003 “Online Lives,” the coeditors reflect on continuities and analyze new developments in Internet-based auto/biographical production since the advent of Web 2.0. They outline recurring themes in the essays in Online Lives 2.0 , which include the merging of public and private life, online self-curation, the socioeconomic dimensions of online self-presentation, and the filtering and falsification of lives in social media, and they explore the implications of these issues for auto/biography studies.

Victim/Victor: Stalking the Subject of Online Life Writing

This essay notes an intersection between extreme acts of online stalking and everyday acts of online identity construction: both are marked by repetition. I propose an “ethics of interruption” to address the relational stakes of constructing and consuming online lives, broadening the scope of what counts as an act of life writing.

Designing a Theatre of Recollection for the Digital Age: Shifting Perspectives and the Autobiographical Eye

Elayne Zalis discusses how “At Home in Cyberspace: Staging Autobiographical Scenes,” the essay that she published in the 2003 Online Lives issue of Biography , influenced a novel that she later wrote, Arella’s Repertoire , in which the narrator stages autobiographical scenes of her own in cyberspace. Like the websites that Zalis examined in her essay, Arella’s Repertoire explores new ways to share personal and cultural memories in the digital age.

Are there birds in the library? The extent of Twitter adoption and use by Canadian academic libraries

Twitter, only eight years old, has emerged as an ever-present component of our everyday, online lives. This phenomenon is apparent in academic libraries as well, with a growing body of published reports on how libraries use Twitter, and other social networking tools, to engage with users. The extent of this adoption by libraries, however, is assumed rather than known, leading to the question: is it really a phenomenon? How many academic libraries are actually currently tweeting? In this paper, we report an investigation of Twitter adoption by Canadian academic libraries. We found that less than half of the main libraries currently tweet, with adoption peaking in 2009. While tweeting is not as ubiquitous as may be assumed and recent adoption has declined, findings do show that tweeting remains consistent and active for those libraries with established Twitter accounts.

Virtual World of Computer Games: Reality or Illusion?

Modern computer technologies are the representation of the connection between digital technologies and men's creative abilities. Often, the virtual world is so close to the real, that people cannot even find the differences between them. This applies primarily the various social phenomena, such as Internet - online network, which is so firmly established in the everyday life of a person, that we can say that man does not live one life, but two, and often more lives online. Communication, information retrieval, and entertainment are transferred from the real world in a virtual world. This applies not only to the use the Internet, but also to computer games, in which players can communicate (online games), lead battles, search for treasures, etc. i.e. do what in real life is impossible. The intersection of the two worlds is the moment when the fictional world of the person ceases to seem something distant and unreal, and he begins to realize their fantasies in everyday life: it can be expressed in collecting items of fantasy world (figurines, badges, etc.), role-playing games, cosplay, etc. Then the particles penetrate from the virtual world into real, it create a superposition of two worlds.

Banaji, Shakuntala & Buckingham, David (2013) The civic web MIT Press (Cambridge MA & London) isbn 978-0-262-01964-4 185 pp £20.95 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/civic-web

With the sub-title “Young people, the internet, and civic participation”, The civic web recognises that youngsters are now well along the path to fully and seamlessly integrated offline and online lives. How can we ensure these young people become and remain fully engaged in their wider society and worlds now and throughout their lifetimes? It applies to teachers insofar as “digital media are part of the taken-for-granted social and cultural fabric of learning, play, and social communication”. There is some relevance to formal learning technology here, but the recommendation is that you borrow a copy for thought-provoking “spare-time” reading. Eric Deeson

Facebook and dramauthentic identity: A post-Goffmanian theory of identity performance on SNS

Early and persistent scholarly concerns with online identity emphasized the ways that computer–mediated communications have allowed new, inventive, and creative presentations of self, and the lack of connection between online identity and the facts of off–line life. After the ascendency and following ubiquity of Facebook, we find our online lives transformed. We have not only seen online identity reconnected to off–line life, but we have seen, through the particular structures of social networking sites, our online lives subjected to newfound pressures to unify self–presentations from various constitutive communities; pressures different from and in some ways greater than those of off–line life. After describing identity in computer–mediated communications prior to Facebook, and investigating the kinds of changed conditions brought about in social networking sites, I put forth a dramauthentic model of post–Facebook online identity. This model is comprised of three methods of exposure through multiply anchored self–presentation (mixed, agonistic, and lowest–common–denominator) and four strategies of interaction (spectacular, untidy, distributed, and minimized), each of which are employed non–exclusively and at different moments by most social networking site users.

English

Mobile learning in higher education in Turkey is on the rise. University students use their mobile devices mostly for self-directed informal learning rather than in the formal academic context, creating challenges to acquire an accurate picture of academic use. In this study, we collected data about ownership of mobile devices among students using a diverse sample from various universities in Turkey. We also explored students' language learning practices with mobile technologies and focused on the interactions among technologies, contents, and pedagogies. The results indicate that learners need better access to academicfriendly devices such as tablets and additional support to integrate mobile technologies for language learning purposes. The findings also help shape future directions of faculty development. Instructors must integrate these innovative technologies into the curriculum with sound facilitation and assessment strategies, as well as be able to support the mobile practices of students. Digital Natives in Higher Education Related to Language Learning Mobile devices’ role in young generations’ lives are growing more and more important day by day. Today, an average university student has spent fewer than 5000 hours in his or her life to read book, yet has expended over 10,000 hours playing video games, Facebooking, Tweeting, messaging, emailing, and online gaming. These are unmovable parts of their lives now (Prensky, 2001). In this paper, the ownership and usage of mobile devices among university students in Turkey is determined in order Digital Natives in Higher Education Related to Language Learning 108 to guide future research in adopting and developing technology in language education. This research creates awareness for educators as to the characteristics of the new generation of natives. International Telecommunication Union (2013) defines “digital natives” as young people born during the age and growing up using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). While 30% of youth are natives today, the report shows that within the next five years, the native population in the developing world will double. Defining “youth” as young people aged 15 to 24, this means that 30% of the world’s youth have been active online for at least five years. However, less than a third of the world’s young people today are natives. Prensky, the first official user of the term digital native, defines natives as “native speakers” of the language of computers, video games, and the internet (2001). Furthermore, he defines “digital immigrants” as those not born into the world but who will, at some point in their lives, become fascinated by and adopt many or most aspects of the new technology. Prensky (2013) asserts that young people have invented new ways to spend their lives online. They communicate via instant messaging and chat, they share on blogs and social networking, they buy and sell through eBay, they learn through Wikipedia and YouTube, they meet in Second Life, they game online on their cellphones, etc. As educators, we must be acquainted with this online life where an increasing number of youth are involved and engaged. As immigrant educators, we should believe that this new generation of students, can learn through watching TV or listening to music and that learning can be fun. If we do not believe in these approaches to learning, it may be because we have not learnt this way previously, such as spending our formative years watching Sesame Street (Prensky, 2001). Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics 109 Many students claim that they use keyboards more than pens. With children and teenagers moving towards the internet and away from television for their recreational and informational needs, the next generation of citizens is already here. According to (Pew Research Center (2012) 95% of all teens from ages 12 to 17 are online; eighty percent of those use social media regularly. Prensky states, “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” (2001). Students now want to be and active learners.

The transmediated self

We are spending more and more of our lives online. Meanwhile, the combination of constant connectivity and ubiquitous computing is folding the material world itself into an expansive ‘Internet of things’. As a result the line between life online and life off-line has become blurred in an existential equivalence of the digital and the analog. In this networked ecosystem, the old Web 1.0 notion of an anonymous digital persona that is separate from off-line, analog self-identity is no longer applicable. A new paradigm for conceptualizing the dialectic of digital–analog self-identity is needed. To that end, I argue that in our age of networked connectivity, self-identity is being fashioned according to the aesthetics of transmedia production. I conclude that the transmedia paradigm, taken as a model for interpreting self-identity in the liminal space between the virtual and the real, reveals a transmediated self constituted as a browsable story-world that is integrated, dispersed, episodic, and interactive.

The golden ticket: P, NP, and the search for the impossible

The P-NP problem is the most important open problem in computer science, if not all of mathematics. The Golden Ticket provides a nontechnical introduction to P-NP, its rich history, and its algorithmic implications for everything we do with computers and beyond. In this informative and entertaining book, Lance Fortnow traces how the problem arose during the Cold War on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and gives examples of the problem from a variety of disciplines, including economics, physics, and biology. He explores problems that capture the full difficulty of the P-NP dilemma, from discovering the shortest route through all the rides at Disney World to finding large groups of friends on Facebook. But difficulty also has its advantages. Hard problems allow us to safely conduct electronic commerce and maintain privacy in our online lives. The Golden Ticket explores what we truly can and cannot achieve computationally, describing the benefits and unexpected challenges of the P-NP problem.

“It's Common Sense That It's Wrong”: Young People's Perceptions and Experiences of Cyberbullying

The use of the Internet, mobile phones, and social networking sites by some young people to harass and intimidate each other has led cyberbullying to become a significant concern for parents, educators, and policy makers. The existing literature on this behavior is largely quantitative, with only a small number of qualitative studies addressing this issue. This study examined perceptions and experiences of cyberbullying in a series of 18 focus groups conducted with young people aged 9-19 in the UK. The results suggest that cyberbullying is perceived to be problematic and serious but relatively routine part of young people's online lives and interactions. The results also highlighted the influence of the characteristics of technologically mediated communication on the dynamics of the behavior. The role of anonymity in determining victim-perpetrator relationships and the seriousness of the behavior was discussed by participants, though the influence of disinhibition and inability to view the direct impact of victimization were perceived to be of greater importance. The implications of the results are discussed, and areas for future research suggested.

Addressing the policy challenges and opportunities of “Big data”

Addressing the policy challenges and opportunities of “Big data”

Casting a Wider Net Networked Life 20 Questions and Answers by Mung Chiang Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012. 504 pp. $45, £27.99. ISBN 9781107024946.

In this text intended for both classroom and online learning, Chiang uses questions about our online lives to explore the technology and computer science behind the Internet, wireless, and Web industries.

Tell Me Another Story, Granpa! Requirements for Sharing Lived Lives Online

Abstract This paper investigates the requirements for a technology helping elderly to share their memories with acquaintances in terms of narratives. We report the findings from a literature review, a market review and a focus group and draw some principles informing the design of reminiscence-oriented technologies.

Aren’t you a doll! Toying with avatars in digital playgrounds

As recognized play theorist Brian Sutton-Smith points out, we have entered a ‘ludic age’ in which a playful attitude is embraced at all ages and play has increasingly come to mean play with toys. Documentations of the material, creative and social dimensions of toy play are increasingly seen in the playgrounds of digital media such as the photo management application Flickr. Dolls are considered as one of the earliest playthings, and in contemporary dolls, fantasy and reality blend into each other as their materialness and the design-storytelling are challenged by adult players/prosumers. A doll may play a part in self-expression and style; owners may customize, photograph and display the toy or share the visual documentations of their play sessions in various digital spaces. In some cases a doll might even become an avatar for the player himself or herself. This article examines how adults use doll characters as avatars by exploring visual narratives in social media environments. This is done through a visual analysis of doll images shared on the Internet-based Flickr and by analysing player created content on websites dedicated to the popular doll Blythe. Through examining the ways of toying with contemporary dolls in the playgrounds of social media, the aim is to build a new understanding of adult creation of second lives online.

Speaking Ill of the Dead: Anonymity and Communication About Suicide on MyDeathSpace.com

From birth to death, many individuals chronicle their lives online through blogs, pictures, games, Web sites, and social networks. Online spaces, created by the living about the dead, provide a glimpse into often invisible or silent grieving practices. To investigate the role computer-mediated communication (CMC) plays in influencing communication surrounding the often private and taboo topic of suicide, we analyzed the comments sections of MyDeathSpace.com. Our results suggest both a breaking down of social taboos (speaking ill of the dead) and a reaffirming of strict social norms (enforcing a narrow range of acceptable presentation of identity and purpose in life), highlighting how anonymity as a characteristic of CMC can influence our online communication about death.

Coney Island, Michigan

Research Article| August 01 2012 Coney Island, Michigan christina olson christina olson christina olson's first book of poems, Before I Came Home Naked, appeared from Spire Press in 2010. Her poetry and nonfiction have recently been published in Wake, Passages North, Water~Stone Review, and Anti-. She lives online at www.thedrevlow-olsonshow.com. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Gastronomica (2012) 12 (3): 72–73. https://doi.org/10.1525/GFC.2012.12.3.72 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation christina olson; Coney Island, Michigan. Gastronomica 1 August 2012; 12 (3): 72–73. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/GFC.2012.12.3.72 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentGastronomica Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2012 The Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved.2012 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.