Things I LOVE!

So I decided I wanted to do a Rachel's favorite things today! I am in the mood for a little fun!! So here it is!

Well I would say that I am a girly girl sometimes. If you know me, you know that I LOVE make up! I love Smashbox Photo Finish Primer! It works so well and makes skin looking flawless! I think that more people need to know about this product!!

For hair to look so beautiful and smell amazing, I love Kiwi blow serum. It's great!
Lorac cosmetics makes awesome makeup! I love their blush! I love Nars too! I just bought Nars make up on Friday!! Love love love!
Other things NOT make up that I love:
I LOVE Carrie Underwood! She's so pretty and an amazing singer! I saw her in concert and oh my goodness she was AMAZING!!!! The song Undo It is such an amazing song!!

And finally, the Dell Inspiron Convertible...has anyone seen this?! I want it sooo bad! If anyone wants to purchase this for me, please feel free :)

Identity Management

In class, we spoke on identity management on social networking sites. I have been thinking about this topic a lot. Managing your identity online is very important now-a-days. Employers, law enforcement, coaches, etc., can see what people are doing based off of their SNS. Employers are checking these sites prior to hire, law enforcement uses them to find bad guys, athletes are being tracked by their coaches and athletic admin to see what they are doing. Maybe a person tells their boss that they are "sick" but posts an unflattering picture on their SNS and their boss sees it...such as that of the Facebook Fairy! SNS's are very much a part of our every day life. So how do you manage your identity on these sites? I think that often, people don't consider their identity online and how it can have impact on their life. A main thing for me, I like to keep my pictures fairly private. Tagged photographs can't be shown on my profile. I can see them, but others can't. I also like to stay away from those "unflattering pictures"....if you don't take them in the first place, then you have nothing to worry about! Sure everyone has a picture with a drink in from of them, but you don't need to take a picture completely "slizzard"....when you get intoxicated to that point, put the camera, phones, etc away! And the best advice....think about what you post before posting it! If you have to think about longer than 15 seconds....then you probably shouldn't do it! :)

Kim K

I was driving to work the other morning, and on the Bob and Tom show they were talking about the Kardashians. I must say, I do like the e! reality show. But on Bob and Tom, they said that Kim K got $25,000 for a Tweet that she mentions a link for a product! WTF?! That is insane to me!

I want to send out this statement:

To any company...I will GLADLY Tweet about your product if you give me $25,000 :)

Social Capital

In class, we discussed social capital, and it really got me thinking. Prior to this class, I thought that SNS's were for entertainment...but now I am really starting to see the benefits of SNS's. People can follow others (Twitter) or friend (Facebook, etc) someone that they don't really know that well. However, these "weak" ties can lead to opportunities that one wouldn't otherwise have.
From a safety standpoint, it is often advocated to not allow someone access to your profile and information, unless you know them very well. I have strongly believed that statement prior. But, now I am starting to see the advantages of social capital. The Internet provides a unique opportunity to meet others that you wouldn't otherwise have any access to. Somebody can be halfway around the world, and because of SNS's and the Internet, you can communicate with them. This can provided a multitude of opportunities. I use to think...'oh Twitter is creepy, you can follow what someone else is doing at any moment of the day'. I  use to believe that people just posted what they had for lunch, or 'oh the line at Starbucks is SO long today'. Granted, there are many cases of that (just as there are on Facebook too), but there is a lot that one can learn. I have had the opportunity to meet new people, to learn about programs and publications that I wouldn't have otherwise hear about, and broaden my knowledge in the field that I study. It is a powerful tool with a wealth of knowledge, and I must say, I am starting to really enjoy it!

SNS experience

So I had a Social Networking Site experience that I would like to share. On Wednesday, 2/9/2011, at about 6:40 pm, I had gone out to my car. I was at home and had to leave to go to campus for a meeting. Well, when I got outside, I noticed somebody had HIT my car! The bumper (driver's side), was hanging about 1.5" off, with a huge dent and a huge crack! I stood there and was in shock that someone hit my PARKED car!!! I immediately looked to see if someone left a note with their insurance details, as that is the RIGHT thing to do when you hit someones car. Well of course, there wasn't a note. I noticed a man in another car, who had parked and was just sitting in his car. I will leave his name and details about him out of this, but let's just say, I knew who he was. He was sitting in his car watching me. My analytical mind started racing...he never parks in that spot, in fact he ALWAYS parks in the spot next to mine. I immediately call the police and file a report. I went inside to get the number for the agency, and in that time (probably 1.5 min), the man was out of his car and somewhere else. He must have run! I told the officer (who was extremely nice, by the way) who I believed hit my car and left the scene. I told him why and that there was paint from his car on mine (paint color, obviously a paint analysis wasn't done). The officer asked me what time I had gotten home on Wednesday and what time I realized the car was hit. At first I wasn't exactly sure the time...but after thinking for a moment, I realized...hey, I wrote on someone's wall as I was walking down the stairs to my car!! So I got on Facebook and looked at the time stamp to see what time exactly I was walking down the stairs. I was able to give the officer the exact time.

For those of you who are curious, the officer was able to get the guy to admit that he did it. He tried denying it at first, but after some convincing, he admitted to it. Thankfully...and yes he had insurance. I just thought it was cool that I used SNS's to check my time, to give a more accurate time!

Article Review #2

My second article review for Tech 621 is titled Internet Prevention Messages: Targeting the Right Online Behaviors. The purpose of the article is to examine if sharing personal information online leads to victimization. The article further provides tips for pediatricians to assess children's online behaviors and how to talk to children about their online activities.

BACKGROUND: There were a few interesting statistics which started this article. The authors stated that 9% of youth are estimated to be targets of harassment, and 13% are targets of unwanted sexual solicitation. Being a victim can lead to psychological problems, such as depression, distress, and victimization offline. Pediatricians are usually asked to consult on children's online safety. 

The article focuses on 5 online behavior for this survey. Disclosure of personal information, aggressive behavior, talking with unknown people, sexual behavior, and downloading images using file-sharing programs. The research questions were: what are the prevalence rates of risky behaviors, Are behaviors which are targeted in safety prevention messages associated with online victimization, do psychology and behavioral problems account for these associations, and does the total number of online behaviors engaged in affect the association between specific behaviors and victimization.

METHODS: The sample was taken from the Second Youth Internet Safety Survey (YISS-2). The survey was conducted on the phone, over a 3 month period. 1500 youth were interviewed for this sample. They had to be English speaking and used the Internet for the past 6 months, at least once a month. The ages ranged between 10-17, with the mean being 14.2. 

MEASURES:

Online behaviors- this section of the questions asked if the children posted personal information, such as name, phone number, school name, age or year born, and/or pictures. Aggressive online behaviors were asked if the children ever made rude or nasty comments to someone online, or harassed or embarrassed someone that they were mad at. They were also asked if they met people online that they did not know in person. 

Online interpersonal victimization- this section included unwanted sexual solicitation or harassment online. 

Psychological and behavioral problems- this section asked if they had been sexually or physically abused on and offline. The abused could include being attached, hit, jumped, hit by peers, picked on by peers. They were also asked how frequently a caregiver nagged, yelled, or took away their privileges. 

Internet use and demographics- this section asked how often the child was online (days/week and hours/day). They were also asked how often they blogged, used instant messaging and chat rooms.

Questions were asked in either a yes/no format or on a 4-point likert scale.

RESULTS: one in five (20%) of the children had unwanted interpersonal victimization in the past year. 75% of the respondents had engaged in at least one of the behaviors being assessed. Nearly 30% engaged in 4 or more types of online behaviors in the past year. The most common online behavior was disclosure of personal information: posting personal information, which was done by 55% of the sample. The next common behavior was meeting someone online, which was done by 43% of the sample. The least common behavior was talking about sex with someone known only online. In regards to sending personal information, the most common posting was disclosure of age/year born. 

The article concludes by providing advice. The best statement, in my opinion, of the article, was: "many types of online behaviors considered risky are becoming normative." Over half of the sample has given some sort of personal information, which validates the prior statement. The authors also provide, what they believe, to be an effect approach to discussing online dangers with youth..."I know many young people your age are meeting people online. You probably know how easy it is to hide your identity. be careful and know that you can discontinue a relationship any time by changing your login name or blocking someone...Acknowledge too, that some online relationship can be positive and a source of social support; nevertheless, wariness is warranted. We need to acknowledge the online world youth are living in and arm them with the tools to reduce the risk that some of their behaviors may entail."

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My thoughts on this article: I really enjoyed this article. I think it provided good tips and insights into how children are behaving online. As the article states, risky behaviors are now becoming normal to youth. It is not a good message to say...don't talk to strangers online, because that is unrealistic, but it is best to tell children facts about online crimes and how to be safe and avoid becoming a victim. The only thing I didn't like about the article, was the talk about pediatricians talking to children about online crimes. I think if that is the only one available, then that is fine, however, I believe that law enforcement officers or other advocates should be delivering the message. A lot more research needs to be done in this area. There is very limited research available currently. More needs to be done to understand online crimes, psychological aspects, and victimization. It would be interesting to see this article replicated and see how the statistics ended. I personally feel that the results may not be 100% accurate, for a few reasons. If someone is asking you a question that you are embarrassed about or didn't want to own up to, chances are you won't be truthful. There wasn't a way to measure lying in this study. For instance, if a child had been a bully, but their parent was standing near the phone and could hear the responses, the child may not say that they have bullied someone before, in fear that they would be in trouble. Perhaps, if the study was done again, using the Internet to assess children, the results may be different. It would be VERY interesting to see the results. All in all, I really enjoyed this article.