Mitchell Goliber blog #4 prompt

Dangers of new media

            There are many dangers that people must be aware of if they use new media.  Some examples include cyber-bullying, cyber-terrorism, trolling, spam, and cyber-stalking.  But, I feel that the biggest danger to new media has to be cyber-bullying.

            I believe this is the biggest danger to people using the web because people can get seriously hurt by what people post online about them.  “Cyber-bullying presents unique challenges in the sense that the perpetrator can attempt to be anonymous, and attacks can happen at any time of day or night” (Landau).  I mean take the case of Brandon Turley, who lived in Oregon.  According to an article on the CNN website that was last updated in April 2013, he was bullied online over the internet in middle school; students that he never even spoke to face-to-face were calling him names like “fag” or “fatty.”  When he questioned why they would say those things, they responded that “…he should stop going to school and die” (Landau). 

            Now, I can honestly say that I’ve never had a problem with cyber-bullying.  This is mostly because I grew up in the ‘90’s when cyber-bullying wasn’t really an issue at the time.  It seems to mostly affect young people in school.  I think that dealing with this problem is really up to the parents to try to protect their kids from being bullied either online or offline.  Kids should also have the courage to tell their parents about this if a situation does come up.

            As I have stated previously, there are many dangers that are associated with using new media.  However, I believe that cyberbullying stands out a top the rest of them.  Kids and parents really need to be united and tell each other about what to do when a cituation like this comes up

Works Cited:

Landau, Elizabeth. "When bullying goes high-tech." CNN. Cable News Network, 15 Apr. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/27/health/cyberbullying-online-bully-victims>.

Blog Prompt #3

MySpace should close

            The social networking site known as MySpace has been around for quite some time.  However, some people believe that it should be shut down entirely.  I find myself to be one of those people.  Allow me to give a few reasons as to why this site should be shut down.

            The first reason I’d like to discuss is that the company that makes the site has steadily been losing staff members, so it looks as though it might be going out of business anyway. (McCarthy) In 2011, News Corp., the company that owns MySpace, announced what the CEO called a "significant organizational restructuring that will result in a 47 percent staff reduction across all divisions globally and impact about 500 employees." 

            Another reason that I believe MySpace should shut down is that hardly anyone seems to use it anymore.  Other similar sites like Facebook and Twitter took away a majority of MySpace’s users.  However, MySpace did try to get some of its thunder back.  It got revamped with the “New MySpace”; but it, in a sense, is the same site just with a flashy new paintjob.  And it’s also be reworked to something that is totally different than what it once was.

            That something is that it’s now more of a media sharing site, like YouTube.  This started some time after Justin Timberlake begun to be a part in the main operations of the website.  Now, people can still get connected with one another, but now all the discussions are about what music they are currently listening to, what videos they’re watching and things like that.

            I guess what I’m saying is that if MySpace is on the verge of being shut down; just get it over with already.

Works cited:

1) McCarthy, Caroline. "Should MySpace just die already?."CNET. CNET, 12 Jan 2011. Web. 1 Apr 2014. <http://www.cnet.com/news/should-myspace-just-die-already/>.