Bernadine

OUR CHANGING SOCIETY

      The use of social networking sites has increased tremendously over the past few years. Sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, and Hi5 allow users around the globe to create profiles to connect with friends, send messages, upload pictures of themselves, and form different identities. However as the popularity of these sites increases, so does the lack of privacy. The more involved we are within those digital networks, the more information we reveal about ourselves, which in turn makes us vulnerable to many criminal acts such as stalking, identity theft, and sexual harassment. These new innovations are having a remarkable impact on privacy.

      Two of the most famous social networking sites are Facebook and MySpace of which members have been classified by some scholars based on their socioeconomic status and different stereotypes. The users of Myspace are said to most likely be the outcasts of the dominant society whereas Facebook members are considered more educationally advanced and are in better economic standing. Danah Boyd writes

                               MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens,

                               immigrant teens,'burnouts,' 'alternative kids,' 'art fags,'

                               punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids

                               who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity

                               paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to

                               college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high

                               school. These are the teens that plan to go into the military                                      

                               immediately after schools (Danah Boyd).

In her quote Boyd is simply restating all the stereotypes that has previously been made about the members of Facebook and Myspace. Facebook was primarily associated with college students with the intention of interacting with one another outside of campus, to share their common interests. Those were mostly from the middle class. Myspace on the other hand was believed to be more popular among those who according to Boyd never played “the dominant high school popularity paradigm”. Those less fortunate kids whose only choices are to get a job or join the armed forces after school were more likely to find a home within the Myspace network and find people who shared their common interests and that were in similar situations. However as Facebook opened its doors to different social groups who did not necessarily own a “.edu” account, more of the these “emos”, “art fags” , “gangtas” and others started to interact with those that we consider to be the ‘good’ or hegemonic kids as stated by Boyd. These interactions that take place online have caused a change in our values and among them is our definition of friendship.

       With the many technological developments, the world now works at a hasty pace. The United States for instance has become an “on the go” nation and that has affected the way people interact with one another. Our definition of friendship is an example of the many significant changes made to our social values. Carol Stuart gives us a fundamental definition of what a “friend”’ is or better said used to be.

                              A friend in my mind, is someone with common

                              interests, whom you spend time with, often sharing

                              common activities and discussing concerns of both

                              a serious and less serious nature. Friends know personal

                              information about you and are accepting of your flaws

                              and quirky behaviors (Carol Stuart).

In the old days a friendship was relatively a strong bond formed between two people who shared similar interests and activities or were members of a similar network such as school or the workplace. In order for such bond to form there had to be a certain level of trust between the two individuals. However with the emergent popularity of social networking sites that definition has somewhat changed. In her article Stuart states that in the past she was always reluctant of accepting her students as “friends” on Facebook because they simply did not fit her “friend” criteria. That certain level of understanding and acceptance of flaws was non-existent. Nowadays, the relationships formed online have also become a part of the “friends”’ classification. “How do you know this person?” is the question asked on Facebook when a friend request is sent, and even though an actual relationship doesn’t exist “We are Facebook friends” is always an option. It is perhaps a way of making people more comfortable accepting and exposing their lives to complete strangers that on Facebook can be considered “friends”. With these virtual relationships taking place one’s identity becomes less private.

         Although users might be concerned about privacy issues, many of them tend to overlook the terms of use and privacy policies of the above mentioned sites when registering for a new account.  As shown in the youtube video “Does what happens in the Facebook stays in the Facebook ?” by vishal agarwala, the Facebook Privacy policy states

                                             “also collects information about

                                              you from other sources, such as

                                              Newspapers and instant messaging 
                                              services. This information is gathered

                                               regardless of your use of the web site” (vishal).

Even though a person was to use all the privacy restrictions and tools provided by the administrators of Facebook, they themselves are somehow invading every registered member’s privacy regardless if they use the website or not. They are collecting and storing information about different classes of people and passing them on to third parties such as major corporations that are trying to get to the public in order to sell their products. Aside from being a place where people can connect with old friends and form new relationships, SNS have become a place of market and advertisement. Even when we think we restrict our profiles deciding who we reveal our information to, these marketers and advertisers are always keeping an eye on us, to know when our credit cards are used and what type of products we purchase in order to reach out to our needs. In a way social networking sites have turned us into consumers without our formal consent by using us as intermediary to make their profit.

          Alongside with the marketers, stalkers and sexual predators are the law enforcers for which the use of Myspace and Facebook are becoming more popular and effective for investigation purposes. Upon sending messages, posting comments, a person automatically grants Facebook permission to do whatever they please with that information and that includes sharing it with other parties such as the government.

                                   However, a week later the police received

                                   a tip that several students had posted pictures

                                   online of themselves and their friends celebrating

                                   on the field after the game. Using this information

                                   campus police identified and referred around fifty

                                   alleged offenders to the university’s office of juidicial

                                   affairs (Hodge).

Law enforcers are starting to use these Social networking sites as sources for their investigations. The Myspace and Facebook evolution has led the court officials to pass amendments in order to determine to what extent they should hold the information provided online as valid and reliable proof. Officials should keep in mind that SNS allow users to invent identities. Many members tend to recreate themselves in order to portray a personality that is accepted upon the group in which they want to be a part of or ‘fit in’ and using profiles as an investigation tool can sometimes be misleading.

          The use of social networking sites has and is continuing to grow as the years go by. They are used by different age groups from different socioeconomic backgrounds. But as the use of these sites increase so does the lack of privacy. Although there are many privacy restrictions and policies offered by the different sites, upon registration a member naturally volunteers to give information about their identity which in the long run gets shared with third parties for different purposes including but no limited to criminal acts. The rapid growth of these social networking sites is also changing our culture in terms of our definitions of friends and what it means to have privacy. 

I think we all at some point dream of  a perfect life at one point of our lives and even when those dreams aren't necessarily rational we have them nevertheless because they somehow keep us going. My life would be perfect if only I had a lot of money and didn't have to worry so much about an education being my only way out to living a comfortable life.  Knowing that school is like a visa to the wonders that I want to explore makes it so stressful for me because I know I can never slack off and I can never afford to fall behind at any time. It is true that money doesn't fully buy happiness but it accounts for a lot.

As humans we tend to think of ourselves as free beings. The ability to make choices concerning our lives leads us to think that most of the times we have power over what will happen and what paths our lives will take. We do not believe that it is fair to be judged or be held morally responsible for anything that happens beyond our control. Many times we can excuse ourselves and are forgiven by others when certain behaviors occur due to a lack of alternatives which raises the subjects of determinism and indeterminism.

      Determinism is the belief that every event including human behavior has a cause. Everything that happens is the result of a previous set of actions. Indeterminism however is the belief that some events are not caused  and if either of them were to be true then do people really have free will and if so to what extent? This is also known as the dilemma of determinism. The dilemma states that if determinism is true than we can never really act any differently then how we do therefore we are not responsible for our actions. If indeterminism is true, certain actions are inevitable and random and did not freely occur consequently we are not responsible. Only one of them can be true and as a result humans are never responsible for their actions and therefore never free.

       There are three possible ways one could respond to the dilemma. One of them being compatibilism also known as soft determinism which is the belief that determinism is true and that people also have free will. There is also hard determinism that accepts determinism to be completely true and denies moral responsibility and free will.  The third one being libertarianism also called interventionism which is the principle that determinism is false but actions are not random either hence there is also free will.

As opposed to Rationalists, Empiricists such as Locke and Berkeley believe that knowledge comes from experience. Everything that we consider “knowledge” or experience is a result of our senses.

        John Locke discards the Rationalists idea of “innate knowledge” because of his belief that from birth the mind is a blank slate or “Tabula Rasa”. A blind person for example doesn’t have knowledge of color because he/she never experienced it.  According to him, we get knowledge through simple ideas which combine in many ways to form complex ideas. Knowledge comes from sensation and reflection. He tries to unite the material and immaterial world by categorizing our ideas of things into primary qualities such as shape and secondary qualities such as color. He argues that primary qualities are found within the object itself and are constant whereas secondary qualities are dependent of the primaries which in turn produce sensations in us that give us different ideas of the material world depending on how they appear to us individually.

       Berkeley on the other hand thinks that there isn’t such a distinction between primary and secondary qualities since they are both dependent of the mind. He does not believe that there is a material world that exists independent of us. Instead he thinks that the world exists in our mind and things are exactly as we perceive them to be or as he puts it “esse is percipi” (To be is to be perceived). Ideas, sensations, and perceptions cannot exist alone or outside of the mind. He states that God is our ultimate source of knowledge and ideas and also arranges them in a way so they can appear lucid in our minds. 

         Locke and Berkeley are both empiricists because they strongly believe that knowledge and ideas come from our experiences. Yet Berkeley opposes Locke because he thinks that his theory leads to skepticism.  He does not think that ideas can exist independent of our minds whereas John Locke thinks that there is an external world that exists and that its primary qualities simply resembles those that are produced in our minds.

A Wandering Mind

     My name is Bernadine, a 19 year old young lady living in New York City. I am currently a sophomore at Queens College, majoring in Elementary Education. Born and bred in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, I am a very open minded individual with an amazingly out going personality. I am very curious about different cultures and languages. I take great interests in knowing how different societies function and how their cultures differ from my own.

    Growing up, I always dreamt of traveling around the world. From Europe to Africa, my biggest aspiration is to explore all the places where significant changes have taken place and to expand my knowledge on a variety of topics ranging from religious to political.  However my preference tilts more towards Italy for various reasons. First, as a Catholic I am vastly conscious of the many symbolic aspects of the religion that are located at the heart of Italy. Starting with the Vatican to the great paintings and other art works related to the birth and development of Christianity have all captivated my mind.

      Another reason is the urge to discover the fascinating Italian culture, to learn the language and what better way to do so then to be in the center of it all? To be able to get a taste of their fine cuisine, their exquisite fashion style, and a view of their antique monuments and historical places? By far Queens College has helped me prepare for the incredible journey that I plan on taking.

       With a 3.5 GPA, I have taken some of the diverse courses that Queens College offers in order to enrich my mind and further expand my knowledge of the Italian culture. Courses such as Art 222 which covers the entire Italian Renaissance, and World Studies 101, Introduction to Anthropology and other History courses have all taught me about different societies and how the Roman Empire for example was affected by other cultures and how they themselves affected other countries around the world. Last but not least, I have taken two semesters of Italian which has given me some basis of the Italian language. Also, interacting with the different groups of students found on campus is a journey within itself.

     Since my interests vary widely, my activities do not only stop at the academic field. I am also a member of the United Black Leaders club on campus which has different sub categories such as the Haitian Student Association, Caribbean Student Association, and the African Student Association. By being an active member, I am able to interact with people of my own race but of different backgrounds. It also gives me an opportunity to give a little bit to my community by conducting different fund raisings. Since we make up a very small percentage of the student body, my membership has given me the chance to take initiative by planning different events that help represent us as peoples and bring our different cultures to the other groups on Campus.

       Outside of Campus, I also offer my volunteering services to my Church where I help to feed the poor on holidays. I also help conduct food and clothes drives for the less fortunate. Since I am an Education major, I also tutor different subjects to the kids of the Church including bible studies to those who are preparing for their first communion.

       I am using all the resources available to me in order to achieve my goals and I strongly believe that all my academic and extra curricular activities are giving me a basic idea of society and how it works in different places and how to manage.  I have prepared myself and will continue to do so in order to have a successful study abroad experience.