Social networking on the rise in NI

Use of social networking sites has doubled across the region since 2008 and according to Ofcom’s annual Communications Market Report, half of people now access them regularly.

Ofcom Northern Ireland director Jonathan Rose said:

“Northern Ireland has caught up and is now on a par with the UK in terms of social networking. It’s still the most popular use of the internet.”

Since 2008, broadband penetration in Northern Ireland has risen to 75%, making the region second only to England among the UK regions for take-up.

The 5% increase from last year reflects increasing speeds, with the roll-out of super-fast broadband across the region and Belfast in particular enjoying lightning speeds.

Customers are going online for everyday needs and tasks, with half watching television, video or checking bank accounts, and a third searching for information on health-related issues.

Mr Rose said there is a shift in how social networking is used.

“It’s still the most popular use of the internet, but there’s a slight flattening out of the people accessing them from their home broadband connection and they’re starting to access it from their mobile phones or smart phones.”

Meanwhile the report also highlights around 10% of homes here are still relying on the analogue TV signal to watch shows.

The digital switchover is due to happen next year – Northern Ireland one of the last areas in the UK to go fully digital – and for those who are not prepared, they will be left looking at a television screens.

In urban areas less than eight percent of homes are still using the analogue signal, but in the countryside it is almost double that figure, at 15%.

Michael Wilson is Managing Director of UTV. He said he is not surprised at the figure.

“Northern Ireland is in no worse a position than other UK regions were prior to the education process.

“We will be telling all our analogue audience on UTV that the signals will be switched off. They’ll be getting those messages on screen, so if you’re already watching digital you won’t get the message.

“No member of the analogue audience will be unaware that the signal will be going, so I think the figure of 10% is exactly where we would expect to be with 18 months to go before the digital switchover.”

© UTV News

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Another Facebook Zuckerberg Wants to Kill Off Anonymity

After the mass Google bannings over pseudonyms, Facebook’s marketing director Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has now announced that “anonymity on the Internet has to go away.”

The HuffPost reported that during a round table discussion hosted by Marie Claire magazine, Zuckerberg gave her opinion on how to stop cyberbullying and online harassment.

I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away. People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. … I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors.

The EFF wants you to stop and think about that for a minute.

Randi Zuckberg doesn’t just think that you should be using your real name on Facebook or Google+ or LinkedIn — she thinks pseudonyms have no place on the Internet at all. And why should we take the radical step of stripping all Internet users of the right to speak anonymously? Because of the Greater Internet F***wad Theory, or the “civility argument,” which states: If you allow people to speak anonymously online, they will froth at the mouth, go rabid, bully and stalk one another. Therefore, requiring people to use their real names online should decrease stalking and bullying and generally raise the level of discourse.

Like Schmidt, two Zuckerbergs now have voiced their beliefs that there is no room on the web for anonymity. In real life situations, most folks don’t walk around with a name tag plastered on their chest. For example, if you are in a public gathering and someone voices an opinion, you don’t know that person’s name unless you actually know that person. You can ask their name, but it’s not automatically known. In the mall, or even walking on a sidewalk, if some guy whistles at you or if a group “cat calls,” you don’t immediately have access to their real names either. While some people might like that sort of thing, some people might not. Just as on the Internet, you can almost count on the fact that someone will not like whatever you say in a comment or in a post and exercise their free speech right to say so. Is it really a good idea to strip away anonymity and replace it with real identities when there are plenty of people in the cyberworld who are totally unbalanced and capable of taking that argument from the digital world to up-close and personal in the real world? What about activists? Real identities and real names would make it mighty handy for government surveillance.

When Mark Zuckerberg claimed “Anonymity is authenticity,” 4Chan founder Moot said, “Mark Zuckerberg has kind of equated anonymity with a lack of authenticity, almost a cowardice, and I would say that’s fully wrong. I think anonymity is authenticity, it allows you to share in a completely unvarnished, unfiltered, raw way and I think that’s something that’s extremely valuable.”

Previously Microsoft Partner Architect Marc Davis talked of the Web of the World where “every piece of data on the Internet maps back to who created it and who they know. Where they were when they did it, where they’ve been and where they plan to go. What they are interested in, attend to, and interact with, and is around them, and when they do these things.” Davis suggested that your personal data could be traded as currency in the digital world.

On Facebook or Google Plus, where people must use real names, have you been monetarily compensated for that collection of your personal data? No and unless something radical happens to make Davis’ vision a reality, you won’t collect some form of digital currency for your online data connected to your real name. We all have good days and bad days when things that might normally roll off our backs, do not. Instead it ticks us off and something stupid is said offline or online. The real name rule could make Schmidt’s prediction a reality. He said that, in the future, all kids would likely change their legal name to avoid a connection with that identity which posted embarrassing photos or comments on social networking sites like Facebook.

Zuckerberg’s argument to stop cyberbullying by doing away with digital anonymity could open the door to bullying and stalking in real life. There’s usually a reason people choose anonymity. In the cyber world, you can choose to “die” and become yet another alias. In the real world, it’s unlikely people would up and move, change their name, after some especially troll-like comment set off another person who might be a bit unbalanced and physically come after you. It could swing the other way, not an angry stalker but one who is way too enamored of you. That’s doesn’t mean you want that digital person tracing your real identity and to come knocking on your door. Would all gamers then start using real names as well? Think hunting down digital folks in real life to extract some kind of “justice” doesn’t happen? It does.

Where do you draw the line in killing off anonymity? For every bit of good it would do, there is an equal bit of harm it could do. Ripping away pseudonyms is a stupid idea.

Like this? Here’s more posts:

• Wham Bam Google Ban: No Pseudonyms on Google Plus Profiles
• Cyberwar Strategy: Will Dual-Hatted NSA Plug Holes in Leaky Pentagon?
• DHS: Imported Tech Tainted with Backdoor Attack Tools
• They ARE Listening: Law Enforcement Wiretapping Jumps 34%
• Anonymous, Hackers, Citizens: Know Your Rights!
• Project PM Leaks Dirt on Romas/COIN Classified Intelligence Mass Surveillance
• ACLU to Congress: Cancer of Gov’t Secrecy Is Killing America
• Anonymous, Hackers, Citizens: Know Your Rights!
• In this digital age, what the heck happened to the Constitution?
• Hunting for an email service with extreme wishlist for privacy and security?
• FBI Eyeing Microsoft Technologies to Assist Law Enforcement

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