Voyeurism

As discussed in my last blog, online communities are not about proximity – unlike most ‘real life’ communities. Rather, they are more about common interest and or values. I discussed how in certain circumstances, political circles can segregate themselves by flocking together in their own eco-chamber. I’ve been thinking a lot about this, though I’ve shifted my focus to morally unacceptable behaviour i.e., deviant virtual culture.

Voyeurism is always something my parents were concerned about while I was growing up, as we lived in a house that faced a park. At night when the lights were on, anyone in the park could see in at what we were doing. I can understand my parents concern, as you know about the types that frequent public parks in the middle of the night.

Lurking doesn’t just take place in the bushes, however. In fact, the internet has provided society with the perfect tool to hone in on someone in particular. We’re all our own private investigators. I bet everyone reading this is guilty of internet voyeurism/lurking to some extent. I do it! I love to stalk around on myspace... Nobody knows I'm looking! Excuses aside, the internet lurking is a pretty scary thing, considering what is out there for people to find. Since creating this blog for an assignment, I’ve been looking around on Blogger and actually came across an old blog of a guy I went to school with. I mentioned it to him and after getting embarrassed he said something along the lines of “oh man, I don’t even remember that. I thought I deleted all that stuff”. I suppose we all forget how easy it is to put things on the internet without considering the consequences.

Flew outlines the option of having one or more online ‘personas’. He discusses how some people deliberately participate in the act of ‘trolling’; making misleading statements to fool people in particular online communities. His example was those who pose as medical professionals which could potentially endanger the lives of others. I thought in particular to the shocking case of Megan Meier, a girl who killed herself after being tricked by some school yard bullies over myspace. Read more about this here: http://www.bloggernews.net/111714

In retrospect, I can definitely see how having online personas can be a good, safe thing… a creative outlet if you will. However this article brought my attention to many serious issues -- some of which I didn't even know existed! (To be clear, I don't want to suggest that these forms of deviant behaviour are products of the internet. Merely, I believe that the internet encourages it, by allowing people to get away with anti-social behaviour in a variety of different ways.)

I'd like to talk more on this, especially since I think this post is a bit ambiguous... I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, I think I will need to do some further reading.

References:
Flew, Terry. (2005). Virtual Cultures in Flew, Terry, New media : an introduction, Melbourne: OUP, pp.61-82.