The Last One

This class was one of my all time favorites. The class provided me with the opportunity to study the wonderful cyber world. I think by understanding the difference between face to face conversations and on-line conversation can help individuals become better communicators.
In the beginning I was kind of lost in what was going on. Although I had a Google account I had no idea how to make a blog or anything of this nature. After creating my blog and realizing how easy it was I begin to post weekly. Posting blogs was kind of scary at first because I’m not to comfortable with people reading my writings. As a couple weeks went by and I received a few replies under my blog I became a lot more comfortable with posting my writings on line.

The assigned posts that we had to write on were some good ideas. My favorite assignment had to be the one in which I was able to join an online family. I got a thrill out of this. I had always read on the site but never thought about actually joining it. This course provided me with the opportunity to join the online community that I had been interested in.

Another assignment that I was pleased with occurred during week four. I got a chance to write two letters to two influential people in my life. This assignment provided me with the opportunity to write to two former coaches of mine. I think this was the perfect assignment for me. It provided me with the opportunity to express my appreciation to both my high school and college coach. These two men have helped shape me into the football player and person that I am today. The assignment was easy to relate to for the simple fact one coach was living in the same town as I was and the other was down in California. I emailed the coach down in California and sent my coach in Corvallis a hand written letter.

The assignment that really didn’t sit well with me was the research paper. I don’t mind researching a topic but the fact that I had to put aside my lazy ways and go to the library and used the book catalog was frustrating. It was the first time of my college experience that I used the catalog thing. This was frustrating because I’m used to doing my research on-line or with books I own.

This class was my favorite this term and I hope it’s taught again.

As I did a little research on internet miscues, I found out that there was a lot more than what I expected. I chose to write my blog on an event that dealt with the solicitation of children via internet. I was really unaware of how much of this goes on. I’ve heard stories of this occurring but I never knew how high the numbers were for this crime. The article was about an FBI posing as a thirteen year old girl on the internet. The article talks about the numerous busts of predators that this agent catches.

The purpose of this article is to inform parents about this crime and a way to preventing it. Net Nanny is software that was created by the company Net Nanny International Inc., to help prevent and provide an awareness of these events of what may be occurring with their children. The Net Nanny provides a parental control device in which the parent is fully aware of what is being said during internet conversations. The Net Nanny has an instant scanner to scan words or phrases that are sent and received by all members of the conversation. The scanner focuses on words or phrases that could possibly harmful or leading to an unexpected event. Examples of these words and phrases include; names, telephone, swear words, credit card numbers, addresses, and sexual and/or violent terms, invitations to communicate by "phone" or to "meet" in physical locations.

The program was created after a 1994 case involving the solicitation of a minor in a chat room that took place in Florida. With the wide vary of different chat rooms and instant message programs out there; NET Nanny felt that this program would offer the best solution to stop these acts of solicitation of children by these predators. Net Nanny felt by giving the parents total access to their children’s conversation they can be aware of what is being talked about. While the conversation is going and the parent doesn’t like how the conversation is going, they can simply terminate the conversation. After the conversation is terminated it is up to the parent to re-establish the network connection for the children trying to access the internet. According to this report, Net Nanny feels that by giving the parent total control they can have the last say of what’s tolerant for their child and what’s not.

I think this is a great solution to catch these online predators. This program allows parents to be in total control at all times. This can potentially help avoid situation before they a rise. I think if my parents would have installed something like this on my computer when I was younger I would have been upset thinking more about my privacy instead of my safety. As a parent, I understand that safety is important and I would do everything possible to keep my child out of any kind of danger. The Net Nanny program allows internet conversations to be monitored and children can be much safer.

Good Relationship Gone Bad

The internet is a very dangerous tool. I say this because things appear throughout the internet can be very deceiving and misunderstanding. I have had several incidents in which my words or a photo was misunderstood by someone. Although there have been several issues in which the internet has made me out to be a bad guy, the one that sticks out like a sore thumb would have to be one in which I almost lost my girlfriend.

Back in the good old high school days I was in this lovely dovey relationship for three years. It was your typical high school relationship in which everything was perfect and my soul mate had been found. The relationship was perfect till the internet came through to the Drayton household. I created an instant message screen name on A.O.L. so that I would save my parents some money by not sitting on the phone all day running my mouth. Instant message was huge at the time everyone had a screen name. Instead of exchanging phone numbers we simply exchanged screen names. Well everything was cool till some of my conversations were read by the girlfriend.

The conversations were between me and my best friend that happen to be a young lady by the name of Kelly. Kelly and I had grown up together but attended different high schools. We talked frequently on aim and often told each other how are day went and plans that we had for the weekend. It was nothing more than friendly chit chat amongst us. Well, at least that’s what I thought. Things got out of hand when my girlfriend came to the house and read one of the conversations that had occurred between myself and Kelly. The conversation ended with two three word phrases, “I love you” and “I miss you.” These two phrases were all the fuel my girlfriend needed to ignite her fire. We argued for days about this conversation. It was difficult to convince her that these were words spoken by a best friend and they weren’t intended to be relationship phrases.

After all the fighting and arguing I thought it would be best if I had my girlfriend and best friend talk to one another. This was the best thing to do to resolve this issue. The two talked and Kelly explained that to my girlfriend that she meant no wrong when she ended the conversation with her two phrases. It was simply a friendship thing between the two of us and nothing more.

When the conversation was over my girlfriend did the unthinkable, she was had apologize to me for over reacting about the whole situation. Her and Kelly became good friends and kept ion contact throughout the years. In fact, Kelly introduced my ex girlfriend to her new boyfriend, how ironic is this.

To sum this up, this whole conversation would have defiantly been different if it had taken place face to face rather than online. The two phrases that Kelly used would have had non verbal cues that would’ve communicated a strong friendship between the two of us. The conversation would have featured a little friendly punch to the shoulder or a pat on the head, something friends would do.