Comm and Cyberspace - Sect 1 & 2

The most interesting part of the reading for me was privacy issues. The way privacy was protected has changed as technology has advanced. Technologies, like the printing press and the internet, are great ways to share new information, but also leads to new ways to breach privacy. It’s very unsettling to think about how much of our own information is out there. Even when you google yourself, sometimes you may find information that you wouldn’t think was out there. I am concerned with the internet as it has the ability to store information permanently. Once its out there, you can never get it back. The internet’s effect on employment is also startling as it seems that more and more companies research employee candidates online. With sites like, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs it’s seems as though it would be quite easy to find information about a person.

The other interesting section of the book was Risk and the Internet. I grew up in the time where parents were in outrage of some of the information that is found on the internet. Pornography didn’t have many censorship laws which made it easy for kids to look it up on the internet. It was alarming to learn that Americans alone spend $1billion on Internet pornography and $5 billion on renting videos. Although, I don’t have children, it is still a concern for me on what children are watching in their free time. The “evil influence” of pornography to children can affect morals, values, character, etc. The parental controls on computers today definitely should help the situation, but it makes me think if a child who was born into a world learning computers at a young age if they would find a way through? Its a disturbing thought, but one that should be factored.