[W6a] New Media, Second identity?

Since the new technology era arises, having an account on social networking website is popular among the people. However, people might do not use their own identity to create their account on SNS, they can own the SNS identity whatever they want the identity to be, there are no limits on it. Thus, second identity which means that is another identity owned by the same person.

Why second identity?

People do have a different perception and purpose of using SNS. There are people enjoyed themselves and being themselves in SNS. They love to share about their life, communicate with friends, doing the thing that used to be done in SNS. But, there are also people use a second identity on SNS different  purpose. These are a few examples of using their own account on SNS but being as their second identity. 

A Facebook fan page apparently is purposely created by a person, but is not appearing as his or her own identity, it is created for another objective.

A Facebook page created, but do not expose as his or her identity.

The admin showed up to say that he or she is busying with the schoolwork and unable to run this page actively. 

Post from admin.

From the post from admin, the user can guess that this admin is a student, but the demographic of this admin is still unknown.

Besides that, there are user of SNS to create a second identity for their own business, to earn money.

Online business on Facebook

Online business on Instagram

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There are also user who likes to use YouTube to express their second identity by making videos to attract peoples attention and get fans from it. 

Ryan Higa is one of the YouTuber like to make videos, in his video he likes to play different roles, so which one is the real him? Ryan? Regina? Hanate? Or R-Dizzle?

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Moreover, there is an online avatar game named Second Life, developed by Linden Lab was launched on June 23. This is a free accessed virtual world open to all. Second Life users can generate a virtual character of themselves, which is called avatar. Users of Second Life are able to discover the world in this game, to build the house or building they like, to shop and buy the virtual object, and they also able to trade and purchase services in this game.The main function of Second Life is that the users are able to interact with other users, in an avatar way. Second Life also owns their virtual money, which is exchangeable with the real world money.

Here is a real life story of Alice Krueger. Krueger is an active user of Second Life and she thinks that Second Life can make her life better. In real life, Krueger is 63 years old and she is in a wheelchair. She has been diagnosed numerous sclerosis and difficult to walk. In the virtual life, she creates an avatar that she calls Gentle Heron. As Gentle Heron, she has no restriction on her physical activities. She can walk, dance, ride horse and even fly. She said that she met friends in the virtual world, they were talking about their lives, sharing their thoughts with the people who has the similar situation with her. She said that she did not want to just sit in her room doing nothing because of her disabilities, the thing she can’t do in the real world, she can do in the virtual world.

Kruegre living her dream in Second Life
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This phenomena, creating a second identity are being done due to many factors. One of the factors is that Internet is freely accessible by everyone. People want a platform or an opportunity to do the things that cannot do in the real world. For those business owners created SNS account for their business, it is because SNS platforms are free, it is useful for them to run their business online with no financial problem. And for Kruegre, she is living her dream in Second Life instead of real life. 

Criminals on second identity

However, second identity on the internet may be unsafe. It’s usually easy involves cybercrime happened. SNS such as Facebook has become one of the criminal tools to commit crime like rape, murder, kidnap, death threats and fraud by a temporary second identity. 

Here is a kidnap, rape and murder case happened. Peter Chapman, the rapist uses a fake profile on Facebook to commit the crime. He posed as a good looking boy by using a fake profile photo to trap a 17 year old girl, Ashleigh Hall, into his trap. He met Ashleigh up by acting he is the father of the boy which he posed in Facebook. Right after Ashleigh entered his car, he attacked her. Ashleigh’s body was discovered dumped in a farmer’s field.

Read full story here

In 2014, a woman cheated of RM250K by a Facebook lover. This case happened in Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu. A 48-year-old single lady had a love relationship with a foreign friend from Facebook named Henry John. She helps her boyfriend make the payments to cover the procedure fees of transferring the cheque worth US$7.5 million under her boyfriend’s name to finance his project in Malaysia. Unfortunately, she found out this trap after she failed to contact her boyfriend after the payments.

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No one knows the real identity of the user, people only able to observe, view and watch them through online. SNS have been used by almost everyone in the world, it is beneficial to the people because we are able to connect with our friends and other people from different places or countries. However, there are many criminals are using SNS to commit the crime. SNS has no restriction on the quantity of account, as long as the user register it with their email and put the user name they like. The demographic of the user can be anything, no one knows that is a real or a fake information. Only the users themselves know about it.

Therefore, meeting new people on SNS is not safe. However, this issue has gone beyond the control of a state. Have you experience any issue regarding this article? Or did you create a second identity for your own? What is the purpose of it? In your opinion, how this issue can be reduce or solve?

[W5b] Evolution of mobile music: a new way of enjoying favorite songs

The evolution of mobile music as we can see has brought us into a new level of development in technology. From the beginning, the emergence of the first mobile music known as Walkman has completely change the way people listened to music. We could listen to our favorite songs whenever we wanted anywhere. Started with tapes/cassettes and later on, changed into CDs where the features of the mobile music also change to a new identity, known as the Discman. It became a trend during that time where those who possessed the Discman will be associated with stylish and modern lifestyle. Years later, MP3 player arose and the listening habits towards music changed again. Simply said, the entire library of CDs was transferred into a device that fit neatly in the hand. Awesome isn’t?  Where ever we travel, the size of the MP3 player is convenient to be placed in our pocket. 

 

 Source: Google image

Evolution of mobile music leads to music piracy

If we look back to the first two types of mobile music, the Walkman and the Discman, both of these players need to be completed with tapes or CDs in order to listening to the music that we wanted. Meaning to say, we have to buy the tapes/cassettes or the CDs that containing the album of the groups of bands/ singers that we loved. The album (songs) that we bought whether in the shapes of tapes or in CDs will determine the profit that will be gained by the parties that participate in creating the album/song. In other words, we are supporting our music industry by possessing the album in a legitimate way. Sadly, the birth of MP3 player has brought an unbelievable change that in some points, it can be considered as the evolution of music piracy. When Apple introduces Ipod late on, the music industry can be seen as more apprehensive than before. The problem that arose here is from the people themselves where they practicing illegal download of songs. The invention of Ipod was done with all good intentions at the first place but it became the opportunity for those who possessed the gadget to get involves with illegitimate downloads.   

The menace is even more threatening due to the free transfer of music from one device to another. Earlier, the Ipod and other music player such as MP3 player needed a computer interface in order to make the transfer. But now, the devices itself have inbuilt Bluetooth technology that later on became the worst nightmare in which it makes the transfer easier. For the Ipod users, it has been a boon but for the music industry, it was a disaster!

Music Piracy versus Copyright Act  

Copyright is the set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. The work in this context means the song that was illegitimately copied (downloaded) and distributed (shared via Bluetooth) or in other word, pirated! The advanced in technology helps to expand and increase the possession of copyrighted opus. Tough this illegal activity was strictly prohibited and those who practiced it, if been caught can be charged under Copyright Act 1987 (in Malaysia), this unstoppable phenomenon keeps on running. Are you one of the ‘criminals’ that support the music piracy and against the copyright act? To whom the blame should be put on? The answer is in your hand