Blog #5

Technology has taken over several aspects of people’s personal lives. It has even managed to grab ahold of the way we monitor our health.

Telemedicine is widely known as online access to any type of physician, whether it is for psychological issues or physical problems. Communicating with a doctor from your computer at home has completely changed the game as far as social support. It makes it simple for people who may not want to leave the house.

For example, this benefits people who may suffer from anxiety disorder and are afraid to step foot out the door to seek help.

Telemedicine may also interest an old woman in a wheel chair who struggles to get in and out of her car. With online assistance, she could get the help she needed from her wheel chair in the comfort of her own home. My great grandma, who recently passed away, enjoyed the idea of telemedicine. She would sit on her iPad and communicate with her physician about the progress of her health. She believed it was a perfect way to keep track of her well-being.

While telemedicine has a proven to have its perks, it also has negative outcomes as well.

Studies show that between telemedicine and interpersonal appointments, the length of the visit was the same. However, the actual meeting itself differed. Physicians talked 145 percent more than the patients with telecommunication. Whereas with interpersonal, they spoke 113 percent more than the patients. This is without a doubt an unfavorable quality of telemedicine. It becomes less about the patient, and more about the physician.

There have also been studies that prove physicians are more likely to use orienting statements through interpersonal appointments. Meaning, the patients are chronologically informed of what the physician is doing.

During my Thanksgiving break I crammed in several doctors appointments. I met with my optometrist, dentist, otolaryngologist and gynecologist. Each one of my doctors spent time asking me about my personal life before they get began talking about my health. It made me feel comfortable enough speak, not just listen. All of my doctors told me exactly what it was that they were doing, as they were doing it. Physically being in front of them gave me the aptitude to ask questions without hesitation. The reasoning for this is because there were nonverbal cues given. The overall experience, for me, was much more satisfying than that of an online appointment.

I do, however, use informational support for minor issues. I will use sites similar to OCDtribe.com if I am showing unusual symptoms. For example, about 2 months ago I had a strange, and very large, bump on the outer part of my thigh. It worried me, but not enough to go to a doctor. I googled my symptoms and it took me to a few websites that explained the possible answers to my bump. Come to find out, it was an ingrown hair and it was irritated from my rusty razor.

Telemedicine is a great medium for minor issues, such as my bump. It gives you information quick. It has its benefits without a doubt. But again, with bigger problems, interpersonal appointments are much more satisfying. You gain more from them in the long run.

Blog #4

      It is not new to us that computer mediated technology has taken over many of the machines that were so frequently used by us, such as the telephone and/or emails. If we were to compare the amount of time for newer technology to developed compared to today we can see that technology is being replaced almost immediately today compared to the past. Cmc has led to the internet being probably the most used. Some even say that they can’t live without it which leads to my topic for today. The internet has both its advantages and disadvantages which I will be talking about today.
The internet has made our world easier for us. With the internet we are able to make any kind of purchase online we make when we go to stores. So in other words we are able to shop right in our fingertips. We can look up information within minutes, which would take us weeks for us to find in a library. We are able to find out news much faster than ever before. Lastly, we are able to communicate with each other with social websites in which we make profiles of ourselves. We can stay in touch more with ling distant relatives, with our beloved others and even meet potential beloved others. Today online communication has become mainly the way in which people find partners.
        However, the internet has a dark side in which we don’t see the bas things that happen and affected others. People have become very addicted to the internet. For example, men tend to watch more porn online than women. It becomes a problem when they become addicted because they desensitize women and begin to see them as an object and not a human being. Another example of the Dark Side of the internet is the broadness of the freedom that we have online. Compared to real life the online world does not have as many laws as we do which gives freedom to all of us to pretty much do as we please. Deception or the false appearance or statement by someone has become a very big problem in cmc. In the internet we can be whomever it is we would like to be. There’s even a show named Catfish in which we see cases of people potentially being deceived. In reality there is no law that punishes the people who do this, but those people are really hurt because they have real feelings that were involved in the “affair”. In an informative article I read that those who are involved in the human trafficking business are amongst those people who participate in online deception. They mainly play the role of handsome men who will marry them or even tricking women to believe they will have shots od being famous by being actresses, singers, dancers, etc. It is needless to say that their main targets  are women. This is a huge problem not online not only in the United States of America but all over the world.

Where is the dark side leading us?

    When it comes to computer mediated communication, there will always be a hype and hysteria point of view - relating to the positive and dark side of CMC. Though there are more regulations being put in place as we continue learning the dangers that CMC can lead to, the dark side will unfortunately continue to exist.
    A few of the examples that really stood out to me regarding the dark side of CMC were the cases where teenagers as young as 10-years-old were committing suicide due to cyber bullying and the extreme negative outcomes CMC enables younger generations to take part in. When I read the article about Rebecca Sedwick in class last week, my stomach kept dropping as I continued reading. I think because we don't hear about it as much in the media, we aren't aware of how many people are actually going to the extreme when using CMC in the wrong reasons. Rebecca's school was notified, her mom took her phone away and deleted all of her social media accounts. Even then, it wasn't enough. What really will be enough at this point? In Rebecca's case, she didn't even have any social media accounts left and people still found ways to send awful messages to her through CMC.
    As much as cases like these do shine a light on the dark side of CMC and make us take a step back and realize what really is taking place, I really don't think we're going to take steps forward any time soon. Unfortunately, I think as younger generations become more accustomed to social media sites at younger and younger ages, we're only going to run into even more issues. CMC is great when it comes to communicating efficiently and quickly in certain circumstances, but the dark side is quickly taking over as we progress as a society.
    Especially when we watched the episode of CatFish in class, I think that was one of the best ways to wrap up a lot of what we've been talking about throughout the entire semester. CMC's biggest downfall is its inability to allow people to fully trust others. It blew my mind when Cassie legitimately thought she was engaged to "Steve." How can someone in their 20s honestly think that having a relationship with someone for two years, who they've never met, is real? A lot of her willingness to believe "Steve" falls back to another dark side of CMC - its brainwashing effects. Cassie couldn't accept that someone who continuously is "busy" and can never video-chat, is obviously not real.
    As computers, social media sites and cell phones continue to progress and advance, it really does scare me where society will go from here. If people really want to, they can find out extremely personal information about you and use it to their benefit in a lot of scary ways, such as stalking. I also hope that we can somehow teach younger generations to put their phones down for five seconds and stop thinking that hiding behind screens is an okay cop-out to drive someone as far as committing suicide.

The Darkside of Communication

In our last class, we talked about the dark side of computer mediated communication. This includes  trolling, cyberbullying, revenge porn, snuff films, and online romances that sour in person. While these topics are very different, they all disrupt the natural flow of the online world. One topic that really perplexed me was the snuff films. Snuff films are movies or short films that depict an actual murder of one or more people without the usual special effects. This term was first used in relation to the Charles Manson "family" murders according to Wikipedia. There are rumors that they made a snuff film before it was considered "cool". I think that this media form may do the most harm to our society.

Snuff films are not very recognized in today's media. They are looked at more as urban legends. I feel this is because the idea is so outrageous and it's hard to believe that people actually create media like that. It's also hard to believe that people take the time out of their day to watch and support the creators material.  There are many websites such as documentingreality.com and bestgore.com that provide users with gore videos and pictures.  Documentreality actually allow their users to upload and share videos themselves. There is a debate on whether or not this type of media is too unethical for the online world or if it's protected under the First Amendment. Another question that comes up is the state of mind the users are in. It's obvious how the creators of the content think about life but the consumers are even more questionable.

The consumers choose to search for the videos. They want to see someone being beheaded or burned to death. The comments under a video called "Self Immolation Suicide-She changed Her Mind" on documentreality are incredibly insensitive and made me a little uneasy about the world we live in. The video shows a young women and her friends standing on a water tower. The young women starts to pour gasoline on her body and eventually lights herself on fire. It takes about 30 seconds for someone to try to put the fire out. Her friends do not help her. One user said, "Man, when she came strolling down the steps, she looked like the Ghost Rider on his way down to fetch his bike! Funniest video I've seen in ages". Another said, "If that is a water tower then it'll take a lot of burning women to boil it up for a nice cup of tea!! LOL!!".  It appears that some people see video like this for a laugh. They think it's funny when people are being hurt or hurting themselves. The terrifying thing is that anyone could be watching. It could be a friend, family member or a teacher.

One very disturbing image can be found on bestgore where a woman is being roasted over a fire on a pole that would typically be used for pig roasting. The creators of bestgore promote freedom of expression. They feel that their website is important because it allows people to look at media that they are interested in. What if someone who is unstable wants to imitate something seen in a video? What if a child comes across the media and finds it a little too interesting and wants to try it? The debate about whether snuff films are a right to the public or a dangerous source of media will continue to go on.

The Dark-side of CMC

Faisal Hirji
CAS 283
Final Blog
In this class we have extensively examined the internet in various ways citing many positives and of course various negatives as well. However for the past couple of weeks we have been delving into the true dark side of computer mediated communication, exposing to me how prevalent monstrously disturbing speech and actions are freely expressed on a plethora of websites. From pedophilia to perversion, assault etc. I have come to terms with a portion of the internet know as the under-belly of the internet which was very foreign to me to say the least. Which lead me to question the freedoms we should have online and what if anything can be done to stop potential or current people engaging in this malicious behavior without jeopardizing the freedoms we do not want to relinquish.
          This of course stemmed from our activity in lab when we were all assigned those relatively grotesque but very real and revealing articles that exposed some of the seemingly inhumane realities that we see displayed on the internet. The article I was assigned featured a segment that involved creepy pedophile oriented and harassing behavior from real people sharing some of the unspeakable and unfathomable things they did in their lifetime, and the damage they continue to do to innocent unsuspecting women or for one man even his students. A few of the worst on those sites were outed by a reporter and exposed for being the monsters they are and while not all people were as horrible in reality as they were online many were and a few were even worse. These people faced repercussions for what they thought was anonymously posted online.  The internet consistently places law enforcement in a difficult position they are not necessarily at freedoms to go in and deny peoples freedoms on the internet but in circumstances such as these you would have to believe that the ends justify the means.
           As I have learned more about some of the darker material that goes on the internet it brought me back to my younger days and the extremely explicit sexting that was going around my school and at the time it seemed like common place.  However, after coming to terms with the severity to which it can mess up ones life and the emotional pit fall that it can put the victim through I am appalled at how often it goes on in high schools across the country.  I mean when you think about it, if convicted you will immediately have to register as a sex offender, college is no longer a possibility, you will be on probation for 3-5 years, and every job application you will have to state that you distributed child pornography.  I feel that sexting could be drastically reduced if someone would come and speak out and educate the students on the repercussions.  The victims speaking out would help as well, but high school students feel as if they are invisible and a speaker who explains how sexting ruined his life and career aspirations would be colossally more persuasive to the high school student audience.
            This class has opened my eyes to some of the ugliest and most grotesque parts of the internet while we discussed the liberties we hold so dear and pair it with the dangers prevalent in the "dark side" of communication I can explicitly see why such a controversy exists. I personally believe that if some of my freedoms and civil liberties had to be violated in order to prevent malicious individuals from terrorizing innocent unsuspecting people so be it. As long as they are not distributing the information to locations other then areas of law enforcement that could be a rationale and beneficial change to our privacy policy as it relates to activity online. 

Logan Coursen

CAS 283

Final Blog

 

            During this class, we have learned a lot about Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). Everything from the history and types of different communication to online dating and the addiction of CMC. In some of my past blogs, I have talked about how technology affects the world and new information on the 3D printer and its capabilities on printing guns. For this last blog, I am going to talk about an issue that I think is growing in our youth with the new technology and the access they have to different things. Sexting. I believe sexting is a big problem not because it is morally wrong but also because it is against the law if you are under the age of 18.

            Sexting occurs more between the ages of 14 and 17. Why do teens take part in sexting? There are four main reasons why. It is the first step before becoming sexually active, romantic relationships between partners, sexting is a good way to show interest in a future relationship with that person, and many girls feel pressured into sending explicit photos of themselves. There are many risks to sexting. Some include blackmail, after a breakup the photos are sent out, and a huge one among teens is sexual harassment. Now with the engagement in sexting and the risks of sexting there are also consequences. Some consequences for sending out nude photos of oneself is you could be labeled as a sex offender and be charged for distributing child porno.

            Some real life examples of sexting and the effects it has on people are in the sentences to come. Jesse Logan was an 18-year-old girl from Ohio who sent nude photos to her boyfriend. They were then distributed among his and her friends and her family. She was so humiliated by this that she killed herself.

            Imagine being convicted for distributing child porno. Five years on probation, colleges will reject you; you have to move because you are too close to a school, you lose friends, and people will not hire you; not to mention you will be registered as a sex offender until you are 43 years old, this is what happened to 18-year-old Phillip Albert of Florida. He sent nude photos of his girlfriend to friends and family, the problem was she was only 16 and therefore that makes it illegal and is considered child porno.

            Some other facts about sexting are teens who sext more are more likely to be having sexual intercourse. Most teens don’t realize that once they hit send they have no control over the content that was in the message. Most parents do not know what teens are getting into with the new technology and smart phones, not to mention there is no internet restriction. A misconception between people is that teens are not the only ones sexting, about 80 percent of college students do it and 30 percent of adults do it. Bottom line is if you’re not 18 don’t sext and even if you are above 18 be careful on what you send to people because once it’s out there it’s out there for good.

The Dark Side of Communication by Miranda Kulp

This semester we have talked about all the dangers or the “dark side” of the internet. Since it’s creation in 1966, the internet has provided the world with power and knowledge, but with that power there is always the risk of danger. 

One of the biggest dangers of the internet is trolling, or people who purposely go online to harass others and cause emotional distress which sometimes can lead to more serious actions. We went over some extreme cases of cyberbullying or online stalking and it proved how much damage the freedom of internet can cause in real life.

The trouble with trolls is that sometimes they can be hard to detect due to the anonymity and freedom the internet provides people, you never know who in reality is behind the screen name. The Huffington Post recently posted this article that help provides people with advice on how to spot a troll before any damage is done.

When it comes to trolls, they dance on a fine line of freedom of speech, and potential harm. Although the have their natural rights of saying whatever they want online, trolls find a way to turn that freedom into harassment sometimes which is why the law has been getting strict when it comes to online forums.

There have been extremes such as suicides, stalking, and attempted kidnappings based from what online trolls said. The issue also lyes with the difference in FtF and CMC communication, when there is a screen between the words people don’t feel the responsibility of their words.

There are plenty of real world examples out there that prove the harm of trolls, but articles like this and “Megan’s Right” puts efforts into preventing more serious outcomes of cyberbullying.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/12/women-trolled-internet_n_6077234.html

Ryan Rayer- The Dark Side of Communication: Snuff Films

This semester in CAS 283 has been very interesting for a number of reasons. For one, it took a concept I believed I was very familiar with, the internet, and turned it inside out for the purpose of analysis. One portion of the internet that I did not pay any mind to until last week’s lab was the dark underbelly of the internet.  In lab, each student was assigned an article that outlined a specific portion of the internet that would be considered dark. I was assigned an article entitled, “Snuff: Murder and Torture on the Internet, and the people who watch it”. I knew from the moment I read the title that I was in for a dark enlightenment.

            The article began by telling the story of Luke Magnotta. Magnotta is a 29 year old man who had become famous for posting a video of him killing, dismembering, and eating his victim. He was arrested then gained the celebrity he had always craved. From there, the article discussed that online snuff films are something that many people don’t pay mind to; they are merely an urban legend. In fact, there is an entire community of people who watch snuff films, and are even addicted to watching them. These people congregate on websites like bestgore.com, goregrish.com, and theync.com. The article continued on to discuss the various other types of snuff and snuff films.

            I was beyond disgusted with not only the article, but with the fact that these types of websites exist, not to mention the fact that there are people who get entertained by such sites. I get chills just thinking about some of the things these gore sites post and where we draw the line. For example, a video of Magnotta suffocating kittens with a vacuum in a plastic bag caused a huge stir because it was deemed horrific. The same people who watch human beings getting beheaded for entertainment will deem another video of torturing animals horrific. In my opinion, it is all equally horrific and morally reprehensible. When I came across this portion of the article, I was puzzled, but then I was stricken with the reality that I react the same way with movies. I, along with countless other people have watched movies like “Saw” and “Hostel”, and have watched humans being ripped apart. Was it disgusting? Yes. Was it entertaining? As much as it is painful to admit, yes. While I can sit and watch a person be murdered in a movie, I refuse to finish a movie if I see a cat or a dog die anywhere in it. Oddly enough, it makes sense in relation to snuff films.

            One thing in particular that is concerning for me are the people who watch snuff films; they are people that we would not think twice about. In high school, I remember videos of the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs circulating amongst the student body. People who I had known since my early childhood got a sick thrill out of watching “3 Guys, 1 Hammer”, in which a man was taken from off of his bicycle, and bludgeoned to death with a hammer. In a way, the internet has made it difficult to clarify what is real from what is fake. It is safe to say that in order to ease our conscious, we will convince ourselves something that is morally questionable or disgusting is not real. We often turn a blind eye, or make jokes out of things that we find to be incredibly disturbing. For example, many people make jokes out of tragedies like 9/11 or the Sandy Hook Massacre because it is difficult to speak seriously about topics we have difficulty comprehending as real.

            All in all, it is clear to see that Snuff films are a very present portion of the internet. I have learned many things about them, but most of all I have learned that I am not the kind of person who enjoys this type of entertainment. It sickens me deeply and I have serious questions of morality and judgment for people who partake in watching these videos. It is not harmless to watch. The fact that people watch them encourages whoever is making them to continue doing so. For this reason, I believe it is important for people to stay educated and to stay away from this activity.

The Darkside of Communication

During the semester we have focused our attention mainly on the benefits and gratifications of communication. We’ve learned how CMC has proven to be beneficial in terms of online dating, keeping in contact with old friends and meeting new ones, maintain long distant relationships and the gratification we get from CMC. We’ve learned about the richness of FTF communication, the ability to hear and see nonverbal cues in FTF interaction and the immediate feedback we receive from FTF communication. However, over the course of the past few weeks our focus has shifted. In lecture we learned about the some of the more fatal aspects of communication, such as stalking (including cyberstalking), the downside of anonymity, cyberbullying, and the dark side of communication (including trolling, flaming, pornography, etc)

The National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center estimates that nearly 30 percent of American youth are either a bully or a target of bullying. However, bullying is no longer a problem that is isolated to the playgrounds, hallways and lunch rooms of schools. Instead, advances in technology have now extended bullying to cell phones, social media websites and other online avenues. Cyberbullying is defined as willful and repeated harm through phones and computers. Amanda was a 15 who lived British Columbia, Canada. She lived the life of a normal adolescent, until she was introduced to an anonymous person on Facebook who convinced her to flash her bare breast on camera. A year later, the same person or another anonymous person sent her the picture and it went viral, creating a mass of bullying and teasing to the point that she had to change schools several times. Amanda created a YouTube video using only flashcards explaining what she had been through. A month later she was found hanging in her home. Later a 35 year old Dutch man was arrested and charged with Amanda’s and other cyberbullying cases. There are many cases similar to Amanda’s, such as Rebecca Sedwick, Tyler Clementi and Megan Meier, who all were victims of cyberbullying who took their own lives as well.

In lab this past Friday we were giving the task of getting into groups and reading articles all which were focused on the downside of communication. Moreover, one group read an article titled, “Snuff: Murder and torture on the internet, and the people who watch it”. This article was basically focused on people who post videos of real life torture and murders and the people who watch these videos. On a website, BestGore.com, which allows you to pick from the type of Gore you want to see; with topics including beheading, murder, sexual disaster, suicide and torture. One video showed the beheading of four women in Mexico. CMC has opened the gates for “a new generation of violent people who will use the internet as a platform of choice for various purposes” stated the article. It is illegal to murder and rape, but it’s not illegal to watch the murder and rapes occur online. Long ago, people would join in their villages or communities and watch people be lynched or stoned today. However, what’s different now is that internet has allowed for these sick attacks to be viewed worldwide with no consequences. Due to CMC we now think about privacy differently and have different expectations.

CMC has proven to be beneficial to our lives, but it has also been proven to harmful and life-threatening to the lives of others. The internet has served as a medium for all sorts of unspeakable acts to be committed, such as the posting of videos of death and rape. Cyberbullying is real and is on a rise. While it is super easy to commit acts of cyberbullying, it has become a lot harder to stop it from occurring and prosecuting it. However, the dark side of CMC is inevitable. Technology is advancing, the population of people in the internet world is continuing to flourish. like in the real world, we have civilized members of society and we have ignorant, uncivilized members, the same applies for CMC. Thus, the dark side of communication will always exist.  Unlike in the real world where we have laws and rules to protect us from harms way, most of the things that go on inside of the world of CMC run into trouble when it comes time to be prosecuted.

3D printing.

Samantha Cruz

3D Printing

October 12, 2014

Click, Print, Gun: a story about Cody R. Wilson who was a law student in the University of Texas created this idea of printing out 3D guns. His team so far hasn’t sold any 3D guns yet but he has been selling 3D printers. If he eventually starts selling these 3D guns, we can have a big issue about gun control and safely of others. I do not agree with this idea of the whole printing out a gun because if anybody can have access to it, then many teenage kids can use this to create guns. There are many problems printing out the gun since it can only shoot out so many rounds, but eventually they’re going to have better equipment to maintain the gun.

Although 3D printing can have its disadvantages like printing out guns, it has advantages too. In 2010, Haiti had a 7.0 catastrophic magnitude earthquake leaving three million people affected it. Many people lost their homes, business, and even families cause of this earthquake. In the article, “How 3D Printers Are Boosting Off-The-Grid, Underdeveloped Communities”, it stated that 3D printing is being used in underdeveloped countries such as Haiti. In Haiti they’re using these 3D printers to print simple things like oxygen splitters for oxygen tanks which are beneficial for hospitals. They were also using 3D printing to encourage small manufacturing of agricultural tools. This is when 3D printing can be beneficial like helping Haiti out with things they need to get moving on rebuilding after the earthquake. Not only to help them physically, but also help improve businesses and even schools out there in Haiti.

3D printing can also be used for many other useful essential needs. Joshua Pearce, from the article, creator of the first mobile and solar-powered 3D printer, says that it’s better if people just invest in the 3D printer and just make stuff and sell it on their own. On his website he shares a list of things you can print out from using the 3D printer such as; breast pumps, medical devices, water valves, wheels, nozzles, and toys. This is when I think 3D printing will be useful in the future; people will be able to make their own things, especially knowing what they are made out of making sure that it’s good to have around the house for kids.

The article also stated how having these 3D printers can be a problem, like having the right equipment to keep it running such as batteries or internet. Dots and James were saying how in underdeveloped countries such as Haiti will run into problems since the internet connection isn’t as strong as the one we have here in the United States. Even though this can be an issue, they’re working on getting 3D generators and batteries to eventually use Pearce’s mobile solar-powered 3D print. Eventually, our world will be completely revolved around technology. One day, there won’t be any businesses because people will have some high tech technology to provide them with every essential need they need to survive.  

Deception

            Over this past week we have been discussing the topic of deception online and how it affects others and ourselves.  Deception is the act of trying to cover up the fact that we are lying and there are four factors of deception. More specifically I want to discuss one of them and how it relates to my own experience. One factor for leakage in deception is felt emotion, which means that emotion occupies the lie. During my senior year of high school, I unfortunately got into the car with my friend who was under the influence of alcohol and we got into a car accident. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but when I got home late that night I was overwhelmed with emotion when I tried to lie to my mom about where I was. Although it wasn’t online deception, looking back I should have known I could have never gotten away with the lie because emotionally I was too wrapped up in what could have happened to me and not realizing how much emotion goes into getting away with deception of others. It also makes me think critically about my further experiences with people who I believe are lying and how I am going to look for signs of emotion whether it is online or face-to-face.

            Another aspect of deception is the topic of lies in relationships and how they are a different category than other forms of deception. Some individuals believe it is harder to lie in relationships and others believe it is easier based on three factors. People in a relationship have a better baseline, which means that they can tell when their partner is lying. However, what I consider the more important factor is truth bias, which is the belief that your partner would never lie to you. I have experienced lying in a relationship with my old high school girlfriend. We dated for over a year, so I learned when she was lying and I also believed in the truth bias in our relationship. However, when I went to college I found out through a third party that my ex-girlfriend cheated on me and I confronted her. She tried to deny it, but her body language and overall attitude eventually gave it away. The ultimate point I am trying to make is that I definitely bought into the truth bias because I didn’t believe in a million years that she would flat out lie to me and that’s why deception is interesting to study. The motives and intentions of people in their deception seem different for everyone and it begs me to constantly ask the question why. Why do the people who are closest to us think they can lie and get away with it? If there is anything that I learned from that relationship is that deception is present in relationships both online and face-to-face. It is our jobs as partners in relationships to be aware of truth bias and be cognitively aware that deception is existent, but ultimately I believe trust and knowing your partner well can help prevent that.

Blog 4- Dark Side of CMC

            Evan Bossio

CAS283

            When I first read that we would be discussing the “dark side of online communication,” 3D printing did not cross my mind once. I was only thinking about the downsides of communication in terms of deception, stalking, and cyber bullying- the concepts we discussed in lecture. I was very surprised by the “Click, Print, Gun” documentary that we watched for very obvious reasons. Cody Wilson’s nonchalant attitude about his deviance and anarchic views on America struck a nerve.

            I was not aware that 3D printing is as popular as it is currently, and that anyone with enough money can easily obtain one. How is it that we have the technology that allows us to build advanced objects that are normally constructed in factories, in our own homes? It completely baffles me. Before watching this video I thought of 3D printers as machinery that only the elite of the world could use and operate. Cody Wilson succeeded in showing me that 3D printing has infinite possibilities. Making gun parts, however, is crossing the line.

            As I watched Cody’s process, I was extremely impressed by the technicalities of it and the scientific and technological milestones that he reached in the comfort of his home. I do not think that 3D printing weapons should be protected by the second amendment. Gun control issues are at an all-time high and if enough people have access to this kind of technology with similar intentions to Cody, a lot of mishaps could come about. Cody may not be attempting to make guns so that he can commit homicide, but another person might. If they aren’t printing guns, maybe they will print something else that could be detrimental to society.

            I learned on techrepublic.com that 3D printing is being used for many objects that many may view as being worse than guns. There is a researcher at the University of Glaslow that created a prototype of “Chemputer” that can print drugs. Now this would revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry, making it exceptionally efficient to gain easy access to medicine. However, there are the people who will want to use this technology to print harmful, illegal drugs (ie cocaine, meth, etc). What’s worse, guns or drugs? I think it’s important that our nation succeed in regulating what can be produced. In fact, we should also regulate the usage of 3D printing in general.

            I also found on this website that the printers are energy-hoggers. They use 50-100 times more energy to make a mold of something than a machine in a factory, they emit billions of harmful chemicals into the air that can be detrimental to a person’s health, they rely on plastic which is a product that has proved very harmful to our environment, and if items are printed that come into contact with food (plates, cups, utensils), we are susceptible to the chemicals in the plastic. Do they negatives outweigh the positives? I think that 3D printers should be used small-scale and only in ways that can benefit our society. That means, no guns.

            The lecture topics we discussed that revolve around skewing personal identity and committing deviant acts from behind a computer screen used to be what I thought of when someone brought up the dark side of computer mediated communication. Now, however, my mind is much more open to the world of possibilities. 3D printing is a phenomenon that will continue to confuse and intrigue me.