The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Today’s Internet Use
Maybe I’m a bit biased about the mash-up music industry because I love well executed mash-ups so much, but I don’t believe that an artist who combines multiple musical compositions must give a portion of their earnings towards the original artist. I do believe that they may however need to ask for permission before doing so, but technically they are not using the exact song. The original artists almost always get credit within the new title. For example the mashup artist The Legion of Doom has a song entitled “Crazy as She Goes (Gnarls Barkley vs. The Raconteurs)” Which gives credit to the original artists so that if a listener enjoys the mashup they can check out the brainchildren of the original work. I think that they should have to ask permission to use the song prior to doing a mashup because without that song, the new one wouldn’t be able to exist. It is of another’s creation and it is somewhat of plagiarism.
On a sidenote: Thank baby Jesus that the “Forget-me-not Panties” thing was a joke because at first I was incredibly weirded out at the idea. After a few sentences I figured it was an online scheme for some sort of advertising, but I won’t lie that at first I was wondering why I had never heard of the ‘newest form of GPS tracking for you and your loved ones.’ haha.
Stalk-a-razzi
I liked the part in Andrejevic’s article about how what would once be considered stalking is no longer an imminent threat to others, just a way we pre-screen dates or use the internet to find out about others what we could simply ask them. Throughout the semester when learning about social media I have always had in the back of my mind the thought of how FB posts, statuses and check-ins give some people the opportunity to know exactly where you are and whom you are with. It’s a way that robbers use with the aid of your Facebook in order to find a pattern in your daily life and see when is the best time to break into your home. For example, some have used it to see where a person is. If my status says “In NYC for so and so’s BDAY with my roomies, be back tomorrow.” It’s pretty much a guarenteed 12 hours they know I’m away. They would even know (given that they know where my apartment is) how long it would take me to get back from NYC, around an hour. That means even if I left just then, they had an hour to grab everything of worth in my humble abode and get out. I think the internet is a wonderful thing that can contribute a lot of intelligence and collectiveness into our lives. On the other hand, with all its resources it’s easy for internet users to misuse it for something immoral, or even stalk others. Or as in this article, robbers used a FB post to their own benefit to know that a specific person had recently received a very large cash settlement.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_6e525d58-96c5-11e0-a10a-0019bb30f31a.html
In Castranova’s article, it states that anyone can use the internet to learn how to run a city or anyone can use it to relive any history. This may be true, but the part about anyone can make use of the internet in order to experience a life of solitude in an empty wilderness, really? Does the author seriously believe that the two experiences can even be placed into the same category? For one, when you’re trying to experience the empty wilderness and nature, which includes weather, sitting inside on your couch staring at a computer screen doesn’t really give that effect. You may be seeing water dripping down from between the HD leaves and trees but are you really cold and wet from it? No. Although you may be alone in your house attempting to experience the solitude of the wilderness do you really feel all that alone? Maybe your family is out for a few hours, maybe you live alone and your neighbors are right next door. Your friends are only a phone call away. You are, essentially, online so you could connect with any other person online if you so wish.
Analyzing the part about how relationships may be strained by one partner’s overuse of the internet or virtual worlds, we cannot solely blame the internet for this. The same thing happens with boyfriends (or girlfriends) and COD or Gears of War. They become so intertwined in the world that they spend the majority of their free time playing the game when a significant other is right there. But this is not the fault of the internet’s addictiveness, it can happen with any person’s hobby or even career. When one partner is feeling left out, the relationship tends to suffer as a result.
