The ”Rich” Tramp

Photo Story assignment:

A critical evaluation of onthejury.com

Onthejury.com is a new social-media website, freely available. The main idea of this website is for people to judge other’s socially inappropriate behaviours. When you are not sure you have made a right decision about something, you can submit your story to this website. Others can then judge you by voting guilty or not guilty.

To form a proper opinion about this website I had to try it out myself. After logging in one directly can get started. I found that almost half of the stories aren’t really serious and are posted by people who seemed  just plain bored at the time. However, there are also some people who do take it seriously, and even get angry with the people who don’t.

To really join in, I made up a story and posted it, to see how people would react. It is about my dog accidentally peeing all over my three-year-old neighbours bike, and me not telling the parents. So far, I have been voted by two people over a period of one day, and both voted guilty. Luckily, I agree with this. 

After doing this for a couple of days I realized that this website really has two sides. On the one hand, it can be nice to get more opinions on something you are worried about. On the other hand, to me it somehow feels like people are sitting around judging strangers, just because they like to judge others. Sounds a bit sad to be honest.

Just a reminder, don’t judge too quikley:

Homepage onthejury.com:

Twitter used for stalking

You probably at least have heard of Twitter from friends or the media. Chances are that you even have an account yourself, seeing as about 21,900,000 people have one today. Just like many social media site such as facebook or hyves, Twitter sounds quite harmless. People can join your account by what is called ‘following’ you, and you can of course follow others. This allows users to send and read other people’s posts, called tweets, about what they are up to. And there’s nothing wrong with occasionally checking what your friends or idols are doing, right?

Well hears the thing, it is not all as nice as it sounds. In fact, according to the Technological Professional Development unit from the University of Alberta, Twitter has privacy issues and is just another medium for voyeurism. I can understand that you are not very concerned about this, because you can decide for yourself whom you wish to follow and who is allowed to follow you. But the fighting fact is that people can be ‘stalked’ on Twitter, without the users knowing they are being followed.

I give you the site http://tweetstalk.com/, the simple way to stalk Twitter users without having to actually follow them as you would normally have to do. After signing in, the site will provide you an RSS feed, so you can stalk people using your RSS aggregator.

So the next time you are posting a tweet, think about what you are about to say. Do you really want to tell your stalker which party you are going to tonight?

Funny video on how Twitter can influence your daily life:

Homepage of tweetstalk.com:

Craigslist.com involved with prostitution

With today’s technology more is done through the use of Internet. An example is purchasing items or services. Craigstlist.com is one of the most popular sites for classified listings. Almost everything you need, they have. The site offers job advertisements, furniture, personal ads, ads for artists and so on. It was founded in San Francisco in 1995 and has grown so rapidly that there are now sites in 450 cities and countries throughout the world. 

Craiglist.com also has an erotic section, which has caused quite some complaints. In March 2009, Chicago’s Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart called Craigslist ‘one of the countries largest sources of prostitution’. He asked the federal court to force Craigslist managers to remove their erotic services section.

In an interview with CNET News, Tom Dart said that the sex services that are being advertised on Craigslist.com frequently involve people forced into prostitution against their will as well as minors. Further claims say that the erotic section is a powerful marketing tool for prostitutes and pimps and also makes it easier for criminals to avoid the police.

I for one completely agree with Tom Dart in this situation. These kinds of illegal services cannot be accepted trough the Internet like this, especially not on the same page where your child is looking for a new bike. 

Chicago’s Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart:

Law student posts craigslist ad for erotic companionship: