Yes, my first SN was HippieChik456.

HippieChik456. xoHunnyBunzxo. LiLaNgElgRL. iL0VeMaTt4Evr. 08bubblebabe80. CuTeLiLDeVL. zZsleepingBeauty. O0oBabyBaby4232. TinaLuv8462. TinaCooolada. Those have been just a couple of my AOL Instant Messenger screen names over the past few years. I’ve come a long way from HippieChik456, realizing in due time, that my screen name was what my friends knew me as online. For the life of me, I would not ever want to TyPe LiKe ThIs or use the screen name “xoHunnyBunzxo” ever again. According to Wikipedia, a “screen name, screenname, s/n or SN is a name or string of characters chosen to uniquely identify a user within an online system, including dial-up bulletin board systems, platform videogame servers, and Internet-based environments. The term started out as screen name (two words), but in recent years, the usage of the single-word form screenname has been steadily increasing. The abbreviation "sn" can also mean screen name in online contexts” (Screen name 2007). Of course it was cool in Jr. high to have the angel screen name and later switch to devil, or trying to be “sexy” with “hunny bunz.” (Please don’t ask me why for some God forsaken reason had the screen name of “bubble babe?” yeah I don’t know either). Back then it was a fun identity that changed as often as I wanted it to. But as I grew older, and out of the phase of horrid screen names, I realized I wanted to talk under a name that summed me up, and was kept simple. Tina Cooolada.


“Although some people prefer to use their real names online, most Internet users prefer to identify themselves by means of pseudonyms, which reveal varying amounts of personally identifiable information” (Online Identity 2007). I talk to my family and friends on AIM, and they’re the ones who gave me the nickname of “Tina colada.” I added extra o’s because I thought it brought on a little fun online spunk. As for my e-mail address, I kept that simple, using my school e-mail address for the reasons of job applications and teachers asking me for my e-mail. (Now imagine if my e-mail was still “xohunnybunzxo.” Bad news). I think there are things that can be kept fun, such as a screen name, but also those that should be kept professional, like an e-mail address. When I log onto other websites, I usually just type in letters from my first and last name so that I don’t have to mess with adding seven numbers to the end of my desired name because someone else already has it. Some people make screen names too personal, because they just write their first and last name because they know no one else will have it. If John Smith had the screen name “JohnSmith21,” and talked to just his friends on AIM, I can see that being harmless. But if John put his screen name on his Facebook profile or his MySpace and his profile was not set to private, I could see those creepy profile-stalking people talking to John Smith on AIM and knowing more about him than he would like. John should stick to a screen name like “JohnnyBoy21.”

“For assessing the reliability of information and the trustworthiness of a confidant, identity is essential. And care of one's own identity, one's reputation, is fundamental to the formation of community” (Donath 1996). I think that everyone has different opinions on how personal their screen name can be. I have friends who have personal ones because they claim that the only people reading their away messages are their friends, meanwhile their screen name is in bold on their MySpace page. My screen name is simple and spunky, and my e-mail is kept professional, so I can have a happy life online. : )

70 Ways to tell you've been online too long.

Donath, J. (1996). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Screen name (computing). (2007, February 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:34, February 21, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Screen_name_%28computing%29&oldid=106466084

Online identity. (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:46, February 21, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999

my stuff...is my stuff. period.

“Leave me alone!” “This is mine, get out!” “Don’t look! this is personal!” That’s often what I’m thinking when someone is interfering with my privacy. According to dictionary.com, privacy is a right. “The state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs: the right to privacy” (dictionary.com). Seeing as how I live in a quad with three other girls, doesn’t help the fact that I like my privacy, and my alone time. That’s what privacy is to me: alone time, doing something alone that no one else needs to care about. My business. Do I get privacy this semester, though? Of course I don’t. To me, privacy is something that I’ve always had. My own bedroom is a good example; I could close the door and get away from other people, and do whatever I wanted in peace. Relating to Internet privacy, my computer is like my bedroom (Although it is smaller and doesn’t have hello kitty sheets). I can talk to my friends on AIM, check my e-mail, listen to music, search for things on Google, go on facebook…oh yeah and do some homework. But because there is no one looking over my shoulder when I’m on my computer, does that mean that all the places I visit online has complete privacy? I don’t think so.

“Internet privacy consists of privacy over the media of the Internet: the ability to control what information one reveals about oneself over the Internet, and to control who can access that information. Many people use the term to mean universal Internet privacy: every user of the Internet possessing Internet privacy” (Wikipedia 2007). To a certain extent, everyone does have internet privacy. If we want it, there shouldn’t be people posting where they live, their cell phone numbers, and every possible favorite thing on MySpace. Although I have a MySpace account, I keep it completely cut-and-dry, no personal information at all. I also made my profile set to private, so that only people that I confirm can look at it. Same with Facebook. I feel Facebook is a more private website than MySpace because you have to confirm anyone to be your friend and see your profile. Also on Facebook the farthest I go with putting personal info on there is posting my screen name, e-mail, and birthdate. My sister is one of those MySpace “junkies,” and she had been having some problems with some creep-like old men wanting to friend her. It’s crazy how the privacy option isn’t mandatory for the website, because anyone, anywhere in the world, could have known many private things about my sister if she hadn’t switched the privacy option on.

“… people are now well aware there are video cameras and Internet cookies everywhere – there is abundant evidence that people live their lives ignorant of the monitoring, assuming a mythical level of privacy. People write e-mails and type instant messages they never expect anyone to see. Just ask Mark Foley or even Bill Gates, whose e-mails were a cornerstone of the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Microsoft” (Sullivan 2006). I feel that I have privacy on the internet, in my e-mails, and instant messages, because I never think about anyone hacking into my computer, or having internet cookies placed to see what I’m doing and who I’m talking to. It’s a very scary thought to me that people can see what other people are doing on the computer without them being aware of it. I like my privacy. I like having my own room, and having my own computer. It’s something that I will always value and I hope it never gets taken away from me!




privacy. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved February 15, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/privacy

Sullivan, Bob. 2006. Privacy Lost: Does anybody care? Retrieved February 15, 2007. From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/

Internet privacy. (2007, February 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:08, February 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Internet_privacy&oldid=107292821

Helping fill tummies. Yum Yum!

Last Thanksgiving, My family and I volunteered our time at a local soup kitchen to give to the people who had no food to eat, no place to eat it, or no family to spend the holiday with. Why did we choose to spend our holiday with complete strangers? Why didn’t we just eat our own meal at home? We chose to be part of a gift economy. According to Wikipedia, “A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo (the Latin term for the concept of "a favor for a favor"). Typically, this occurs in a cultural context where there is an expectation either of reciprocation—in the form of goods or services of comparable value, or of political support, general loyalty, honor to the giver, etc.”

I have been helping at soup kitchens for as long as I can remember. It is such a good feeling to know that I am giving my time to such a great cause. A soup kitchen can be related to many other gift economies. “Even in more anonymous settings, such as Usenet discussion groups, there is a surprising amount of free help and information given out, often to complete strangers whom one may never meet again” (Kollack 1999). Like Usenet, A soup kitchen is open to anyone who needs a meal whether they are known of or not. Both Usenet and Soup kitchens are gift economies because both are offering help to those in need, just to be helpful. The people who come to eat at the soup kitchen don’t do anything for me, and I don’t expect anything back. However, those people who are grateful and thankful for what I have done, really make me think that I am getting something back for doing something good. I also like to think that if I ever needed help in anyway, there would be someone there for me, just to do something nice like I have done for people I have helped.

Kollack mentions the public good, or doing beneficial things to people other than you. “First, it is to some degree indivisible in that one person's consumption of the good does not reduce the amount available to another… Second, a public good is to some degree non-excludable in that it is difficult or impossible to exclude individuals from benefiting from the good” (Kollack 1999). I believe that the soup kitchen is a public good. One person can come to the soup kitchen and have two servings of food, while the person infront and behind him can have the same amount. Also, the soup kitchen is open to anyone in need of a warm meal. It is such a worthwhile cause that benefits all those involved.

I am very glad that I am part of such a helpful gift economy. Doing something nice, just to do something nice is appreciated by so many people around the world.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
-Winston Churchill


Gift economy. (2007, February 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:10, February 8, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gift_economy&oldid=105681971

Kollock, P, (1999). The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved February 8, 2007. http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Yo-Ho Piracy!

Imagine that you are sitting at a bar with a nice cold beer in front of you. Before you take the first sip though, I run over and chug the whole thing. You'd be mad because I stole your beer, right? What about this? Imagine that instead of stealing your beer, I came over to you and replicated it instead; I didn't steal it, I just copied it. Would that be wrong? You’d still have your beer, is there anything to be mad at me about besides the fact that I didn’t have to pay for mine?
“Sharing files is largely non-rivalrous because the original owner retains his copy of a downloaded file” (Strumpf & Oberholzer-Gee, 2005). Most people who pirate music think this way, and therefore don't believe they are stealing it. That’s why they do it. Although it would be impossible to stop everyone from downloading music files, it would be possible to encourage those people to return into the legal realm of buying music from a store or online.
For example, iTunes was a good idea to fix the problem of making downloading music online legal as well as being cheap. “Version 4 of iTunes introduced the iTunes Music Store from which iTunes users can buy and download songs for use on a limited number of computers and an unlimited number of iPods. Songs purchased from the iTunes Store are copy protected with Apple's FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) system. As of January 09, 2006 over 2 billion have been downloaded since the service first launched on April 08, 2003” (Wikipedia contributors, 2007). But, it’s inexpensive only if you don’t want a lot of music. Buying 89 songs on iTunes could cost around 89 dollars, while downloading 89 songs on a downloading website would be free and just take up some computer space. However what about all of the music stores? If you want to buy the actual music CD it’s a lot more expensive. The best alternative would be to make CDs cheaper in the store, and to sell them with something that you can’t download.
“A song that is eight minutes long would earn $.124 for each recording sold” (Obringer, 2006). Since that is all of the money an artist makes for an 8-minute song, most artists today are making so much money from other things that the little money doesn’t really matter. Restaurants, clothing lines, concerts, perfumes, colognes, and shoe designs are what these celebrities are really banking on to make the big bucks. I think, that since it seems impossible to stop pirating music all together, artists should let people download their music for free. It would benefit the fans by letting them hear the songs they want to hear, and make them interested in spending money towards the artist. The artists could charge more for concert tickets, and then bribe people to buy their actual CD by putting something in the CD, such as a coupon for a percentage off of one item in their clothing line. Even though it would seem like they are making less money, they would really be making more. You can’t download a pair of J-Lo pants.
I believe that nothing can be done to stop piracy of music. There have been threats, and laws passed to stop this crime, but I feel there will always be someone who will be able to break down the system and illegally download files. Though it may seem that we are hurting the business of an artist because we aren’t paying for their music, The artists are getting a lot more savvy in the industry with their money, and their investments, concerts, and clothing lines, that I think they don’t have anything to be worrying about.



ITunes. (2007, February 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:42, February 2, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ITunes&oldid=104933250

Oberholzer-Gee, Felix & Strumpf, Koleman. 2005. The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales An Empirical Analysis (pg 2).

Obringer, Lee Ann. 2006. How Music Royalties Work. How Stuff Works. February 1, 2007. http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-royalties6.htm