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Television Online

A lot of times I miss my favorite scheduled programming like Gossip Girl and 90210. These two shows are on Monday nights from 8 to 10 and often times I have way to much work to watch it when it is aired. After talking about Hulu and streaming sites, I realized how much these sites are contributing to the death of television. I happen to use Surfthechannel.com and usually choose the the Megavideo links to watch my favorite sitcoms. Many times these links are slow, hard to hear, pause many times while playing, have viruses, or are removed due to infringement. This site also allows people to watch new movies, old shows, and new sitcoms. When you click on each show and episode, Surfthechannel will provide any user with a list of possible links.

Juicy Campus and College ACB

This week in class the topic of gossip rumor websites was thoroughly discussed. I found the points were presented to be very accurate and highlight many concerns of victims on these vicious sites. I know that I was personally a victim of Juicy Campus many times my Sophomore year at Catholic University. The site had proved to be a booming fad on campuses all over the country, it existed as an anonymous collaboration of posts that ripped girls apart physically and emotionally. The problem with the anonymous aspect was that any victim would walk around campus humiliated and questioning who write such mean and possibly untrue things about them. I will til this day remember every post about me that clearly was written by upper class man girls that utilized the Juicy Campus fad to bring younger girls down and feel insecure. One of my best friends had it way worse, there was a column written about her daily and the titles were so cruel. She cried for days on the phone with her mom and dad begging to go home. The site was impossible to escape and slandered many students names yet it was virtually impossible to get the posts taken down. The creators say that the site was made for students to make connections about funny events on campus but why did they not ban the page once it became a display of pure cattiness? I remember telling my dad when I first found out to find ways to stop this site but he quickly found out there was not any way. Schools were interested in banning but due to creation logistics the site was not going anywhere. Even my friend in Ohio was a victim at some point. There were girls all over the country disturbed by the existence of this site, driving some to commit suicide. The owner's did not realize the emotional impact that it has on a person to search a website and find their full name posted and up for interpretation for enemies, friends, or strangers to comment on. I personally an so glad that the site was taken down, although a site that is almost twice as cruel has replaced it, College ACB. The addition of pictures makes it all the more horrifying. When will the creators of these type of sites realize that they are going to far to achieve popularity and create a new booming social medium?

Learn about the Juicy Campus debate at this site

The Adventures of Formspring... and Cyberbullying.

This week we briefly covered the topic of cyber bullying during presentations. Cyber bullying is a complete breach of privacy, which unfortunately has become a common fear for American teenagers and adolescents. Due to the fact there will always be newer technology emerging that makes different kinds of communication quicker and easier, children will always use their involvement with such mediums as social networking sites to say things they would never ordinarily say to people's faces. Cyber bullying is extremely cruel, it can either happen between two people or it can occur between a large group of people due to the fact these sites make every aspect of life public. This adds to the humiliation that these victims feel. Formspring makes this bullying ten times easier, formspring is a website attached to someone's facebook that allows anonymous questions to be asked to the owner or the facebook.
The anonymous aspect is what gets this site into trouble, people can post disgusting questions and posts to hurt a classmate and get way with it. Formspring has also been known to experience quite a bit of hacking using IP addresses. This allows people to further disguise their identity when attacking others online. Formspring is a very dangerous tool to give to students or children in middleschool because it can misused and have serious emotional damage on its victims. Formspring reminds me a lot of the campus anonymous web directory, Juicy Campus, which was very popular in 2007.
Juicy campus allowed people to anonymously post anything or any stories on this site for people to comment. Of course the medium started out to be a fun way for college students to share crazy times, it quickly flourished into a site covered in awful anonymous posts bashing college girls and humiliating them over the internet. The site had to be closed down due to recent suicides because of its existence. This is a huge concern due to the over zealous amount of suicides recently due to bullying. The first time I saw a formspring last year, people from my old high school were posting humiliating questions to this girl and openly mocking her on her own website. I remember being amazed at how calmly she answered these questions. I discussed it with her the next time I saw her and immediately asked why she would start this site and put herself out in the open with such mean people on the internet. She commented that some posts were mean but some brightened her day. I do not know why anyone would leave this site up for people to analyze and criticize her as a person. I also think it is a very vain site to have.
Formspring has the possibilities to leave a lot of damage on our young generation. Previous generations did not have the exposure to this technology like we do so we can not even guess the potential impact this anonymous site may have.