In one of our first posts, we talked about the rise in the number of suicides of celebrities due to malicious comments of netizens. However, this isn’t the sole driving force of the recent rise in suicide rates. There has been a disturbing increase in the number of people committing accompanied-suicide in South Korea, where random individuals gather together at a specific location and “die together”. A close investigation has shown that such incidents were heavily influenced by the establishments of online suicide cafés. These suicide cafés were created with the sole purpose of gathering people who are thinking of potentially committing suicides and sharing information regarding how to commit such atrocious acts. Sensing the extreme severity of the rising number of such deaths in the recent months, the Korean government has finally taken an initiative in arresting the founders and administrators of these suicide Internet cafés.
Whereas online communities were once formed with providing a space in the cyberworld where individuals can anonymously share his or her ideas and perceptions regarding various topics and issues in mind, not all, but significant number of such web-based communities nowadays, have undoubtedly deteriorated from their good-willed nature. Here, we can see how the society is changing, if not shaping, the way in which technology is being used by its users. As a fervent user of the Internet as well as a member of numerous online communities, It is distressing to hear such depressing news. We regret seeing how online communities, which were once created to encourage people with similar interests to actively engage in conversations and activities in order be fully invigorated to pursue an even more fabulous lives, are being misused in such a manner.
We believe that the South Korean government’s first step forward in taking care of the rapidly spreading deterioration and misuse of these “Internet cafés” will greatly facilitate decreasing the number of innocent lives taken away by this “silent power” of technology. We cannot deny the fact that we are fully responsible for changes in technology that may occur, whether it be a change for the better or for the worse.
It’s time for us to be more aware of our doings in order to prevent such atrocities from happening and start fixing even the smallest problems we notice, or else, it will be too late for us to do anything.
This would be an interesting topic to expand on, maybe go into the fact that there is less control with outsourcing and some other drawbacks (mentioned in class) to outsourcing. Look at the drawbacks specifically related to data privacy. Just a reminder can you please send me a recap of your topics and what heading they fall under, in terms of addressing the who, what, how and why aspects of the course. I want to make sure that your blogs have addressed the different major headings. Maybe consider revising this entry to include more analysis on the data privacy issue with outsourcing/offshoring.
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