Not quite a technophobe, but DAZED AND CONFUSED!!! (and a few words about cyber bullying!)

Don't laugh, but I've only just realised that these blogs are visible to the world in general, and not just my fellow students at Wolves Uni!! As a mature student (I had a reeeeeeeaaaaaaally long gap year LOL!), I sometimes find all this new fangled technological gadgetry a tad confusing. (I only learned what LOL meant a couple of weeks ago, and when a friend emailed me saying I was FAF I was most offended, until he explained!!)

All you youngsters who have grown up with it as second nature are in an enviable position when it comes to doing this sort of thing. As for me, I learned to type, aged 17, using manual typewriters that bit your fingers off given half a chance. Word processing didn't even exist at that point, even electric typewriters were a strange new beast and a single computer occupied a room the size of my house!

You can imagine, then, how the concept of the internet boggled my mind when it first came about. Such an amazing resource with untold uses, uniting users worldwide - the INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY!!. However, there have been many uses of this resource which are thought of by many as wrong and immoral. Such things as cyber bullying, child porn/paedophilia, posting of pictures and film clips featuring people in, shall we say, compromising positions, without consent of those involved.

Which brings me to why I have set up this blog. It forms part of the assessment for a first year Philosophy module - Being Bad - which investigates various forms of behaviour which are generally deemed to be immoral, dangerous, unhealthy, unreasonable etc. Even though the examples mentioned above are not directly tackled in any of the module lectures, I think they are worth mentioning. In particular, cyber bullying strikes a chord within me, as I was bullied physically as a child. It is no real surprise to find that this concept has been transported into cyberspace, although it is upsetting to think that those who may be suffering physically at the hands of bullies cannot even escape them in the comfort of their own homes.

If anything, this form of bullying is even more cowardly than physical bullying. Worryingly, it would appear that this is a widespread phenomenon. There are, however, many sites offering help to victims. http://yp.direct.gov.uk/cyberbullying/?%25253Fitem=07102007news is the official government site.

Well, I think I'm beginning to get the hang of this a bit now, although I do have to refer to the written instructions every time to post pictures and links. Like I said, be patient with me, I may be older than most of my fellow students but I'm worth waiting for!!! ;-)