FIND:
Two online articles that address issues concerning Identity and/or Privacy online.
SUMMARIZE:
The main points of each article and the main questions each raises
POST:
One paragraph summaries of each article, together with a link to each, to the course blog
Cory Klems
Article 1
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264053/Catfishing-The-phenomenon-Internet-scammers-fabricate-online-identities-entire-social-circles-trick-people-romantic-relationships.html
In this article, “‘Catfishing:’ The phenomenon of Internet scammers who fabricate online identities and entire social circles to trick people into romantic relationships,” the verb ‘Catfishing’ is explained. Essentially, catfish mean: to pretend to be someone you’re not online by posting false information, such as someone else’s pictures, on social media sites. People attempt to catfish others for many reasons. Many perpetrators decide to catfish out of revenge, loneliness, curiosity, and/or boredom. Catfishers can be very precise in there attacks on unsuspecting internet users. They can fabricate life-stories and photos that seem perfectly normal to many. Catfhishers are basically the best liars of the internet age. The article also touches on how Nev Schulman created the “Catfish” television series, which follows people as they are being catfished. This article poses the questions: Why would someone try to inflict this emotional harm on other people? What events in a person’s life lead them to catfishing, and how do people work it out in their minds that this activity is justifiable? It has been found that on average, people who catfish only desire to talk to someone who truly wants to talk to them. They choose to talk to people online because they do not know how to interact with people on a face-to-face basis.
Article 2
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3078835/t/online-privacy-fears-are-real/
The article, “Online Privacy Fears Are Real,” addresses the fact that any information you put on the internet can be stolen and used against you. In one instance in 1999, a woman was stalked and killed by a man who found her social security number online. The killer purchased her social security number on an online information firm. The scary thing is that along with social security numbers, credit card information can also be sold online for as little as a buck a piece. This makes the identity of a person meaningless, for all a person is viewed as is just a number and a name on a computer screen. The article makes people ask themselves, “How could a person heartlessly destroy a person’s life like that?” One answer to this question is presented in the book, “Beautiful Souls.” Yes, for once a summer reading assignment actually applies to an actual class and to real life. In the book, the author describes a study done on people which poses the question, “How can someone hurt another being even when they know the person is being hurt?” The answer is that when someone is in direct contact with the person they intend to hurt, they are less likely to hurt that person, but when the hurter is out of connection with the hurtee, the hurter will almost always choose to do the bad deed. Thus, people do not care about who they are hurting by stealing their identity as long as it is done through a computer screen and not face-to-face. The article also states that information that is supposed to be kept secret is extremely easy to find and steal online. It is stolen so easily that it seems stupid to put certain information on the web. Thus, the article causes us to ask ourselves, “How beneficial can the internet really be to me, and is my identity actually that unimportant to other’s?”