Week 11: Cyberbullying

I did not go to class this week because they were talking about hard things happening online and I preferred to not listen to that. I know it could be really interesting but I did not feel really confident with this subject. Last week, in class, we also talk a little about deviance online and especially cyberbullying. It is one kind of bullying which happen online. Email, chat rooms, social networking services, text messages, instant messages, website postings, blogs or a combinations of means are some medias where we often find this problem.

The harasser wants to embarrass and humiliate his target subject. A bully always feels that he is stronger than everyone, and harasses those who seem smaller or weaker. Unfortunately, the number of bullying incidents reported continues to increase either young boys or girls. Children bullying starts at school and is extended after to the Internet.

Bullying never happen one time. It often keeps going over and over again…

This is a really problem, and I think the people who are concerned by this problem really need to talk to others to solve it fast, even if it is not easy to do. If it is not taken seruously it can really ruin life..

Week 9: Last week

I really enjoy this subject because it allow us to think more about usual things in our world. I especilly enjoy talking about the future, the smart machines and to learn more about career. Even if it can be something we are afraid about (for example how new technologies are taking a very important part of our life), it is really good to know that it exists.

I find really interesting the presentations and the essay we needed to do about a specific career. For me, I chose something I am interested in, and thanks to my researches I know now what I really need to go in this way. In fact, I never really look at that before… It allows me to take a new step with this reflexion and now my personal plan is almost clear.

Week 8: My Personal Plan

To continue the article from last week, today I am doing my personal plan for my future.

My goals:
I want to get a master  (BAC+5) in communications and multimedia. I hope I can go abroad one year again, or a least one semester, in North America or Australia to continue to improve my English. Then, if I still want, after the master I want to do one year in Business because it really works with the communication field, and I am also interested about that. Finally, I really hope to work as a public relations officer. It is something I discover this year, but I knew it just a little before coming. It is something I really enjoy because I can use all the knowledge I learn during my studies, either in Creative media, strategy and web fields.

My Plan action:
I want to get my degree here, then for my first year of master, I will try my best to get very good results to try to go abroad in second year. Then if I want to do one more year, I will need to do a competitive entrance examination for the one-year-study in a business private school. This last year will give me a lot of contacts for my future job.

Evaluation:
I think it is something highly achievable because when I want to do something, I always try my best to do it!

Why this plan?
Since I am really young, I love to communicate about my hobbies. I start to enjoy photography, video and editing. This is something I learn alone, playing with software such as Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and Premiere. I never really enjoyed everything I did until the BAC in France. Also, I just learn things I will never use again in my future. Then I find a DUT, which correspond exactly to what I like. Moreover, since I am 12 years old, my dream was to go abroadto study ENglish.I went 3 weeks in a host family in Canada; I did a lot of travels around the world  in teenagers’ camp. This allows me to speak Spanish and English. But it was not enought for me! That is why I really do my best to go in Ireland this year. I am highly motivated with everything I want to do.

Now everything follows my primary goal. The most difficult for me was to find a master I will enjoy because there are so many different masters in France (public or private). I knew that I cannot really do a private one because two years will cost me 12 000€ or more.

My future job:
For me it is very important that I will work in something I am interested in because when I will be working, I will not see the time running. It is going so fast!  The fact that now I have a good level in English will allow me to work in a big company which need to communicate internationally. If I can improve my Spanish, it can be even better for me. I can work in France or abroad.

SWOT Analysis:
– My strengths: motivated, curious, determinated, creative, English, open-minded, hard working
– My weaknesses: lack of self-confidence, sky when I do not really know the person
– Opportunities: go abroad, discovering new cultures
– Threats: do not get my degree if I do not find the work placement, money

Week 10: Riots

This week in class, we continue to talk about activism and the Arab Spring. Then, we focus on London’s riot and everything happening during this time.

To take an other example to illustrate that, I will again come back to Toulouse , the city where I live in France. The context of the beginning of the problem is the death of Rémi Fraisse. Rémi was an opponent to the construction of the controversial dam, located in Sivens, in the Tarn. He was shot from a policeman by an offensive grenade during the 25th of October 2014 night.

After that, a lot of riots happen to protest against police brutality and to commemorate the death of Rémi.  This was during more than one month; every weekend. A lot of demonstrations take place. Even if they were illegal, some people were here just to break everything and to fight with the police, using violence and not only to remember Rémi.

Week 9: Community & Actvivism

This week in class we talk about Social Media’s power during « special events », such as Barack Obama’s campaign and the Arab Spring.

Both of them uses Internet to communicate and they use a lot the hashtag they created to generate content. Social medias are a really good way to communicate about something because it can be see be the entire world and instantly. For example, during the Arab Spring, Twitter has been use a lot to keep people aware about the event  for example the time and the place for meetings. People also used it to post pictures & videos and everyone in the world can know what happen.

While we were talking about that I cannot stop thinking about what happenned this year in France. January 7th, 2015, two individuals were killed in the offices of Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris. Social Medias were used as a massive medium to communicate with everybody with the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie (« I am Charlie »). This slogan started to be use everywhere to represent our solidarity. And this does not stop here, because people put profile picture with this slogan or city in France illuminate one building with it to.

This is one picture from the place where I live in France.

This hashtag can be divided in three categories (most of the people were in the two first one):
– Those in solidarity for the families of the victims
– The fighting for freedom of speech
– Those who see the opportunity to attack Islam for the actions of three individuals.(Reference: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0107/JeSuisCharlie-What-does-Twitter-activism-accomplish-video)

Week 7: My life after college this year

I am really happy that I can have experienced one year here in DkIT for my third-year-study. I think that is something really useful for me, as I improve a lot my English during this year. I know it is not perfect but now I can have a real conversation with other people, and I can understand almost everything. I am not worried when I need to talk to a lecturer or to my group work to ask questions or to give my opinion. After this year, normally I will have my degree. I think I am not ready to find a job now because I still need to improve my knowledge through projects like here.

The problem is that Dundalk is not giving us the diploma anymore so I need to do a three-months internship. If I find one, and do it I will get the professional degree from my university in Tarbes. If I cannot find one I will have 60 credits for this year but no diploma, so it means nothing… I hope I can find one and then, my plan is to continue for two more years to get a master. I really like what we are doing here in college, especially everything around communication, design and how to build a strategy like Public Relations course. I will continue in the same field. I do not want to specialise because I think it is something really important to know about everything in a company. You can understand better why there are some problems or everything. If I specialise, I think I will do it during my work experience.

If I cannot find my internship I really do not know what I am going to do because I really do not want to do again my third year degree because I will loose one year and maybe not learn I much as I hope.

Week 8: Social Media, Online Dating & Pornography

Last week, we talk about online dating and pornography. To be honest, I never use these kinds of apps and website that exist because I do not want to and I am not interested about that content. I just know some men who use apps to meet women because they think the contact is easier through your screen. They first want to chat with women and then they really hope to meet them in real to see if they can be together.

In my opinion, I think it can be really dangerous; especially we people using these apps are young because people do not say the truth in their profile. They can lie about their age and everything…

Also, for pornography website I think this is really bad to navigate and watch video on it because it is not like in real. The first experience of sexual relations is on the Internet and at 11 years old. The fact is that they see unrealistic body and act and then, they try to do the same. Sometimes a relation can be broken because of this problem.

When I came back in France, I saw reportage about something called “Cam Girls” on the television. For me, I think it can be considered as pornography. It was about girls who chat with other people with the webcam. When some men pay a certain amount of money, the girl needs to show more of her body, and they are paid for that. For example we saw one woman who has 20 years old and she uses that as a work. She earns 5000€ a month for that because sometimes she has 7000 voyeurs at the same time paying for her. She is not shocked about that because it is not a real relation with people. They do not touch each other. The thing is that she does not want to have a real job in France because with that she earns a lot of money and more than another work. But I think she never think about the future because one time, her body will change and she cannot do that anymore. Moreover, she does this “job” without hiding her face and everybody can recognise her in the street. I really think that is incredible for me because she can meet someone crazy who just recognise her and force her to do things.

Finally, we talk about the impact of social media in a relation. I think it is not a good idea to have an account in a social media. For example, Facebook is really bad because when your profile is not really protected, everybody can see it . You are spied and especially your boyfriend can see everything. After he can be mad because we talk with another man. We cannot really have friends of the opposite sex because of the jealousy.

Week 6: Augmenting Reality & Smart Machines

Augmented reality « is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. » (Wikipedia)

Here is a video about 5-augmented realities App.

This shows how it is working just with a smartphone. It can be more and more impressive when it has a bigger scale. As we are always looking to make progress, everything is going to be improved. We saw the following video in class, which was really interesting but I need to admit that I am a bit scared with all these new technologies. It is good that we can project us in an « other world » but sometimes you need to remember that we are living in a real one. Technologies are going to surpass humans.

We also talk about Smart Machines. I just know one, which is Apple Siri. I like playing with it to know how it is going to react when we I am asking something. It can be really useful for people because when you do not have a lot of time to do researches for example, you can just ask Siri the definition f your word and it will do the research for you. In general, I am not using it at all. It is just to play but if you want to call someone faster you just need to ask Sir « Can you call the name of the person » and it will do it for you. Also, I think it still needs progress in it because sometimes it does not understand everything or just exchange with other things (which sometimes can be funny). But I am sure in few years it will be really different and usable.

Week 4: Digital Network & Society

I wrote an article last week but I do not know why now it disappears from this blog. That is why it is not in the good order.

Everything we do on the Internet is tracked. For example, if we are looking for a flight to come back in France for the holidays; after all the advertising on your webpages will talk about that (offers for travels with your destination) and companies such as Ryanair, Aer Lingus… That show everything you do is saved somewhere without your agreement. Also, I remember, four years ago I want to Iceland for a teenagers’ camp during February holidays. One day, I received a text message on my new smartphone from my father telling me exactly where I was at the moment. I was really surprised when I receive it because he knew that. In one hand it is good for my parents because they know exactly where I am, but I never programme something on my smartphone to allow this. I felt tracked. When I look more in all the parameters, I saw that one option, the geo-localisation one, was ticked since the beginning (when I buy it).

Moreover, as years are going, we download lots of app with Android store, Apple store, iTunes or with Internet. They are more and more directly connected to social media, and post information sometimes even if you do not ask for it.

This is the development of technologies. We are always looking for progress. An other example can be the fridge which is connected. Without opening it you can see what you have in it. Also, if you have a connected watch, when you are running it can be connected to internet and save automatically all your information (date, time, how many kilometres you did…). Everything is going to be ultra-connected.

But do we need to boycott these technologies ? As time is running everybody buy them. It is not because I do not buy them, that they will stop to sell it. As I said, we are always looking at progress. I think we just need to be careful when we buy new technologies with all the new existing functions, and we need to choose which one we want and/or need.

Week 5: Envisioning the Future

Today, we talk more about automation which is something quite interesting.
This is when bots replace human to do usual tasks and even really special one.

I remember few years ago, I went to Paris for a travel with my school. During this travel, one afternoon we visit a famous automobile assembly factory called Flins. During this time we can see all the process until having a real car. I was really surprised when I saw all these sort of robots doing everything and not really lot of humans doing it. This can be good because sometimes, people are doing their work but they use these robots to help them with it. For example, if some parts are too heavy they just push the robot and position it as they want to make what they want.

But we can think about the future. What are we going to do in few years? Do these robots will replace all the human? What about all these jobs?

It is true that this help a lot. We can solve problems, and do things faster with them. But as we are going I think they take a really huge place in the society, and some job are not going to exist anymore because of them. It can be contradictory because we need humans to create these robots. I think as for the use of Internet, we just need to be careful with what we are creating to keep jobs.

This is an interesting article.