Week 1 - Response to Content

• What are the main issues in new communications technology?
• Two of the more pertinent issues involved with the development and usage of new communications technology are Health, Privacy and Hacktivism.  With the continual advancement in technology and its increasing presence in our daily life, several new health issues have arisen.  The extended exposure and proximity of mobile phones to our heads has been thought to increase the risk of several brain related conditions, mainly Brain Cancer.  Although this has not actually been proven, scientists have not ruled out the possibility of a small risk.
• The second issue is that of Privacy.  With the development of social networking websites such as Myspace, and more recently, Facebook, has come an increase in online privacy violation.  While websites such as these are used by millions of people world wide and are seen to be harmless, there have been cases where the personal details posted by the user have been used with malicious intent.  One such case occurred in December 2005.  "Two Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students were able to download, using an automated script, over 70,000 Facebook profiles from four schools (MIT, NYU, the University of Oklahoma, and Harvard University) as part of a research project." (Wikipedia, 2011).

•  How do we distinguish between old and new communications technologies?
• When we consider the idea of 'old communications technology' the obvious examples would be cave drawings, story telling, the study of history.  While these things are indeed classified as such, any form of communication up to the use of Analog systems can be classed in the same way.  It is at this point that a distinction is made between these technologies and technologies produced by and functioning with the fairly recent digital system.

• Under what circumstances will new communication technologies become old communication technologies?
• With the advent of a new communication technology, such as the internet, invariably comes the slow decline and ultimately the demise, of an older, less advanced technology.  This is largely due to the new technology having several advantages over the older.  These advantages are commonly, but not limited to, accessibility, affordability and most often, speed.  

Reference List:

1) Criticism of Facebook. (2011, July 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:17, August 3, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Criticism_of_Facebook&oldid=442292375