Moral Panic - Social Networks

Although the internet and social networking has introduced allot of positives to our lifestyles there is still moral panic around the internet. Cyber bullying is now a big problem and is circling around the social networks between teens and young adults.

A great example is the Megan Meier story and cyber bullying in MySpace. In October 17th 2006 Megan Meiers committed suicide due to mean and abusive comments, "the world would be better of without you".
As the story evolved and investigations where carryed out, it was found that a classmates mother created the page to spy on Megan. She created a made up persons profile, named Josh Evans. She befriended Megan as Josh, and convinced her he has a crush on her.
Later when she got more information about the girls rows, she turned this made up character nasty and started writing abusive comments. Later that day she took her own life.




The biggest moral panic around this incident is the fact that no one can be convicted as there is no actual proof the profile was deleted.
There is no guarantied safety from online predators and unwanted contact, as much as social networks build barriers to prevent this its unavoidable and has to be considered.

Catfish - 2010

In 2007, the co-producing/co-directing team of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman began filming a documentary of Ariel’s younger brother Nev, a dance photographer, as he developed a Facebook friendship with a prepubescent art prodigy named Abby.




The story beging with Nev who is a photographer on August 13, 2007 one of his photos appeared in The New York Sun. Three months later he gets a drawing of one of his photographs in the post from a little girl called Abby.

Watching the film you start to question the story line and the events that take place.
This girl starts to get more and more in contact with Nev and soon the whole family becomes involved in this new found friendship... They communicate threw facebook and on the phone.

Nev becomes very friendly with Abbys sister Meg and a romance blossoms. Soon they are on the phone talking all the time and a relationship of a sort evolves. He becomes curious about her and he decides to visit her. On the trip he starts to notice little lies about her writing song ect, he start to question her.



They realise she lied about her living place. They drive to her mothers home (Abbys home), they find a lonely woman with a husband and 2 disabled children and Abby...

The story continues and we find out that there is no Meg and the pictures were fake, the person pretending to be Meg was actually the mother.

The film itself is an eye opener and makes you realise how the internet is not a safe place after all. Meeting people on the internet is dangerous and you never know who you could be talking to.

Online Communities

The word "community" is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas , a broad term for fellowship or organized society.

Community is a group of interacting organisms sharing a populated environment. Traditionally a "community" has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location.
The words often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values.




Online community is a virtual community that exists online whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content.

As complex as online communities seem we are all part of one or more of these communities. The biggest online communities that we are part of are social networking sites.
Facebook is one of the biggest social networks and each individual creates his/her own community by adding friends, as well as being a part of over 200 million thousand users.

Same goes for college websites like moodle; it creates a community within the college studying certain modules and allows the student to upload or download content and talk on forums.


References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community

Harry Potter Fan Culture

The Harry Potter fan community was drawn by the fantasy worlds written by J.K.Rowling and as the books rolled in so did the fans.

Even though Harry Potter was technicaly for children and young adults, everyone fell in love with the book and the characters. The whole world wanted to be a part of the magical Hogwarts.



Organisations took advantage of this new found fan culture and as the new releases of new books continues so did the release of the merchandise. People wanted a piece if this magical world and soon every child wanted a wand or a spell book.

The fans work and communicate threw all sorts of different media; web sites, fan fiction, podcasts, fan art and sogvids. However the fandom not only interact online in internet forums, but also gathers at scholarly fan convention, tours of iconic landmarks relevant to the book or film production.



Fans turned sour:

Hedwig increased the owl-hunting and owl poaching business single-handed in India, as birthday boys demanded owls as presents while hunters shot white owls down probably to decorate the dining room mantles of their sick, twisted, "we couldn't just buy them the plushie" household.



While visiting America, Tom Felton, who plays Harry Potter's sub-nemesis Draco Malfoy, got a great taste of what it's like to be famous in the good ol' US of A when a Harry Potter fan offered to adopt him.



Some Guy Photoshops Emma Watson's Head Onto CP (Child Pornography)...

Harry Potter slashfiction (a lot of which can be found Here) is basically fan erotica (which are pornographic stories) about the Harry Potter cast.

Let me repeat this: erotic fiction about the under-aged KIDS in all the Harry Potter books.

Some popular pages lead to entire sites filled with links to download word files or dumps of certain stories starring the following combos of dudes either passionately touching, holding back sexual desires and coming-of-age) "curiosity" stories.



The fan club is still increasing with every new film made theres more fans drawn into the magical world of Harry Potter.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_fandom

http://www.ranker.com/list/top-13-craziest-harry-potter-fan-moments-ever/mark

Fandom/Fan Culture

Fandom - a term used to refer to a subculture composed by fans who share common interest.

Everybody is a fan of something wether its an artist, comedian, actor, a film, an organization, or even a chocolate bar! Knowing that there is someone out there sharing the same interest gives us a feeling of belonging.

Moral Panic - Irish Head Shops

The legalization of "legal" substances caused a Moral Panic in Ireland in 2010 and had to be eventually closed and banned in June of that year.

It all started in 2002 when these shops used to sell only bongs, rolling papers and tobacco. Then a loophole was found in the system and by the time the loophole was closed two years later half of the country had already tried magic mushrooms.




The big boom of the Head Shops started 2009 and in January of 2010 there was reported by the authorities one to be opened every week.
These legalized substances where sold in the shops and were advertised openly causing Moral Panic around the country.

Products purchaseable in these outlets typically include pipes, pipe screens, bongs, roach clips, vaporizers, rolling papers, rolling machines, scales or balances, blacklight-responsive posters, incense, cigarette lighters, legal drugs such as whipped-cream chargers and Salvia divinorum and products claiming to give false negative results for drug urinalysis tests; as well as items to enhance sex, such as dildos and vibrators.

The Media found an interest in these "local" businesses due to complaints from residents in those areas. Protests broke out and people where just not gonna let these so called "legal" drugs to be sold. Others argued that this its about being able to control the flow of drugs in the country and it cant be done by banning onesubstance and ignoring a range of more dangerous drugs.




In February fires started and in Dublin head shop exploded and caught fire early morning on 12th February 2010 not only burning the shop to the grounds but also causing damage to the residential area and two other businesses. A second shop burned down four days later on the 16th of the same month. Another burned down a month later in Sligo. On the morning of March 11th, 2010 there were two pipe bombs found outside two separate head shops in the town of Athlone, Gardaí bomb disposal experts closed two main streets in the town. On the morning of April 16th, 2010 in Dundalk, Co. Louth a head shop was set alight in a petrol bomb attack.



It was proven that these attacks were perpetrated by disgruntled drug dealers.

Hours after the incident in Dundalk Dermot Ahern plans for legislation for regulation of head shops got underway. From May 11th, 2010, many head shop products are now illegal in Ireland and in June of the same year where banned altogether.

Greasers Subculture

It began in the U.S street gangs and became popular amongst other types of people. These youths also know as the hoods. Although this subculture originated from the United States it spread in the United Kingdom and Australia.


Greasers came from a working class subculture originating 1950's.

The name came from the greased back hair, the mixture of products where wax, gel creams, tonics and ponade. The typical hairstyles where made into pompadour or Duck's tail.



The fashion differed from the Rockers even though it had many the same characteristics. The Greaser wardrobe included Sir Guy shirts, white or black t-shirts usually rolled up sleeves, white A t-shirt, ringer t-shirts, black/blue or khaki jackets, black or brown tech-coats, Levi denim jackets, leather jackets and baggy cotton twill work trousers.
The footwear was motorcycle boots and army boots.

References:

http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/greasers-225x300.jpg

http://rpmedia.ask.com/ts?u=/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/20/MHBgreaser.jpg/180px-MHBgreaser.jpg

http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Greaser_(subculture)