User:Megan hoogenboom/Final Project Proposal

First ideas graduation project

Update 1 Two ideas:

Narcissism on the Internet, how does the digital world change behavior of different generations? Read about this in the NRC Next in September 2010. It was an interesting discussion about whether it does change behavior or not. Why do people want to post al these photo's and information of themselves online.

Continue with my Phobias project of last year (Suck-Direct-Release). But take it to another level, do different phobias exist in different spaces, whether they are in the physical world or in the digital world. >> with my first talk with Renee she mentioned that taking it to the digital world will be a good challenge. Could the search to where these phobias exist also be the project.

Readings: Wendy Chun, Control and Freedom Technosis, Erik Davis

Possible outcomes: dynamic graphs about the digital phobias, new phobias, online search engine who searches for fears and phobias

Update 2 Mind-map:

The three main subjects in my mind-map are: the net-fear and phobias-privacy and freedom. After talking with Aymeric and discussing what the most strong subjects are, we came to these things:

• Fear and phobias on the internet, what physical effects does the internet have on people. Focusing on the dark side of the web. The cybersex, the abandoned areas, the self-help websites, the constantly being watched.
• The computer as a human body, the internet as the mind. How does the internet function, looking at it this way. Looking at the brain, the functions, what you not use, your subconsciousness.

Further, look at: Noosphere.

How people hide behind an avatar or nickname on websites and forums, and then tell their deepest secrests, they have a fear of exposing fully.

The history of the monopoly game, because this has begone as a tool to explain that the system of landlord/renter was wrong. We do the same with information or our data on the internet. We put all our information on Facebook, and they sell it to advertisers, the system is wrong. But everybody looks at it from the user-side, and cannot take distance. We have to take a step back.

All my ideas had to do with the personal experience of the user and its device.

Blackberrys from the company, we have to be always online. The companies enslave us with free smart-phones. Each generation has a point when it cannot take anymore new technology, so they give up. This time-span gets shorter, and shorter. Because the overload of data gets bigger and bigger. We get addicted to data, to checking our email or facebook updates of our friends.

Update 3 5 proposals

1. The dark sides of the web, cyberporn, conspiracy theory's, anorexic websites etc. How do they open the doors to new things. 2. Physical problems caused by the virtual world. The fears and phobias people develop by using the internet. Epileptic attacks caused by the screen, cyber-hypogondry, the overload of information generated by the users, self-help-websites, fear of the not knowing.

>>> A project proposal could be: A program to capture these fears, or to trigger these fears

2.5 The phobias and fears people experience on the internet, the technologically-based fears. How are they triggered and what do people do to avoid the experience these fears. 3. The computer as a human body, the human aspects of the net. The internet as a brain. Sexuality on the internet, the physical parts of a computer but also the cyberporn and internet-viruses as STD's. 4. The phenomenon of the nickname, how people hide behind their avatar or nickname. How far away from yourself is this nickname, when you tell everything about yourself except your real name. 5. The user, he knows that there is something wrong, like with facebook, they should be able the take a step back and take a look at what happens with their information. 6. How technology influences the physical world.