Entry 3: Essay Question re-decided ..

Hello Everybdyyy,

It’s the last week of my study break before all the madness continues. For the last whole week, I spent my holidays in Hong Kong with my family so now that I’m back, assignments are prioritised. I’m a little worried about the amount of time I have left, but I can do thissssssss.

So, on my blog Entry 2, I wrote and confirmed on essay question number 4 regarding privacy vs greater national security. On the surface, the question seemed so interesting. But after speaking to my lecturer, he fired questions and terms at me that I have never even heard of. And when I did my research into it (for example: Edward Snowden’s privacy laws, the European Union and its history, privacy acts in Malaysia), it’s mostly so boring but it’s vital to know for this chosen question. 

Moving on, there is not much I can do but to change my essay question. 

On our previous lesson, Internet cultures were talked about with the involvement of youtubers. It never once hit me that youtubers are considered as a form of digital culture. I would’ve went with question 6 already! Hopefully this will be my last decision I hope I don’t regret.

Question 6 - Identify a form of digital culture (e.g. leet speak, memes, Youtube unboxing videos, glitch art, cyberbullying) that also has a distinct local or regional characteristic. Trace its history and using notable artefact(s), explain how this digital culture may be of significance to designers. 

But I had a problem: the question is a little confusing. I know I am picking Vlogging as a form of digital culture, but what does it mean by it having a distinct local or regional characteristic? I also don't exactly understand the word ‘artefact’. When I turned to my lecturer for help, he advised me to blog about my problems and best guess to the answers and also, going through my classmates or seniors’ blogs may help. So I’ll be writing about my research / findings and my understanding on the question as best as I can on my next blog. Stay tuned(!).

Entry 2: Essay Question Decided!

Hi again, 

My second blog entry sorta continues from the first. In this blog post, I will be writing on my second choice of assignment question! and that is:

Question 4 - Must we sacrifice our privacy on the web for greater national security?

This question is pretty straight forward. But everything that you think is easy is actually tricky and ..far from easy. One of the major problem I’m facing right now is that I’m having a hard time relating this question to graphic design. Where do graphic design fit into this?!??!!!

Anyway, in my first lesson of Internet Cultures, these 3 words — ubiquitous, omnipresent and omniscient were introduced to us. And then after doing some research, the term omnipresent seems to be a really important word. It has the definition of ‘presented everywhere at the same time’ and that is the perfect description to describe the Big Brother Society. 

The definition for Big brother is: (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a person, organisation, etc, that exercises total dictatorial control (The Free Dictionary, 2015). What Big Brother does is they snoop on us, listening in on our phone calls, reading our emails… Basically, everything we do on our smartphone will generate some kind of data so from there, they know where we live, what we do, who we love and hate etc. They are literally watching us each passing day except we don’t see them. (Creative Reviews, 2015).

Do people actually give in to that? Why would anyone want to sacrifice their privacy for Big Brother, for greater national security? It all comes down to one main reason. Feeling safe. Safe from terrorist attacks, from unexpected bombs and deaths. Nobody would want to put his or her life in a threatening and unstable position so therefore, if it feels like government surveillance makes people safer, they will support it. But only when they are less worry, when the government stop feeding people with threatening information of attacks and deaths, they see surveillance as an invasion of privacy, rather than protection (Ropeik, 2013).

And so, it still comes back to the same question, must we sacrifice our privacy on the web for greater national security? This is a question I question myself too. Can we trust the government to find a healthy balance between protecting the country and privacy? Some people who have nothing to hide do not worry about sacrificing their privacy at all, but most of us do. And even if the government has the rights to collect data from us, would they abuse their rights and go beyond privacy invasion? There are many questions to ask and maybe because I’m so eager to find out, I’ve decided to pick this question as my essay topic. 

Reference:

Creative Reviews (2015) “Selfies, surveillance and infographics: Big Bang Data at Somerset House”. Available at: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2015/december/selfies-surveillance-and-infographics-big-bang-data-at-somerset-house/. (Accessed: 5 December 2015).

Ropeik, D. (2013) “Big Brother IS Watching, and I Feel Fine.”. Available at: http://bigthink.com/risk-reason-and-reality/big-brother-is-watching-and-i-feel-fine. (Accessed: 5 December 2015).

The Free Dictionary (2015) “Big Brother”. Available at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/big+brother. (Accessed: 3 December 2015).