Stacylm78's Blog

When the internet and the web were begun their creators must have imagined many possible problems. It is unlikely they imagined cyber bullying. The web is part of life today for kids and teens. Most teens and even some tweens have a MySpace or facebook account. For better or worse kids can stay in constant contact with their peers and can present themselves in ways they might be too shy or self-conscious to in school. They can also be more viscous. The internet provides kids with a whole new way to establish dominance. Teasing, threatening behavior, and bullying that kids can’t get away with in school or might not have the guts to do in person goes unregulated on social networking sites. Sometimes the taunts and threats turn into actual fights at school.

Ryan Halligan a seventh grade boy told his Father he was being bullied. His Father taught him how to defend himself and Ryan said the bullying had stopped. What Ryan’s Father didn’t know was that Ryan was still being bullied online. Everyday Ryan was told over and over by anonymous usernames that he was a loser, and that he sucked. One girl pretended to like him just to crush him by saying it was all a joke.  When it all got to be too much Ryan killed himself. When Ryan confided in one of his online friends that tonight was the night he was going to do it his friend responded it’s about time.

I believe anyone who resorts to violence, whether it is at someone else or at themselves, has some emotional instability that would come to the surface eventually. However in a child as young as Ryan these issues may have been discovered and dealt with before they became lethal if cyber bullying hadn’t sped up the process. Ryan’s dad acknowledges that he made a mistake by allowing Ryan to keep a computer in his room and spend as much time on it as he did. I agree. Parents have to take some responsibility for their kid’s online use. Granted teens will use friend’s computers and try to sneak things past their parents even if the computer is in a common room, but that doesn’t mean you should just let your child lock themselves away with their computer. Just because a parent can’t have complete control doesn’t mean they should relinquish the control they do have.

They problem of cyber bullying is not going to go away and is not going to get better any time in the foreseeable future. Just like regular bullying there is no way to stop it completely. For some reason kids will always find a way to be mean to each other. The best thing that can be done for kids growing up today is educate them. Let them know just how bad cyber bulling can be to the victim. A bully online can feel guilt free because they don’t have to witness the pain they’ve inflicted. Also, teach children how to deal with cyber bullies if they find themselves to be a victim.

According to Stefan Molyneux defooing means freeing oneself from their family of origin, this is what Tom did much to his family’s surprise. Tom and Stephen believe that as an adult you should be able to choose who you have relationships with, even when it comes to family it should be voluntary not required to love them. Tom’s decision to not have a relationship with his family supposedly comes from his Father’s anger issues and violent outbursts, although his Father was never physically abusive. His mother is blamed for not properly protecting him, his brother for not remembering their childhood the same way. Tom’s two half-sisters don’t seem to have done anything to offend Tom, but he won’t talk to them either. The whole family is guilty of not showing Tom enough interest and curiosity.
Stefan Molyneux runs Freedomain Radio; he describes it as the largest, most popular philosophy show on the web. The site has grown so much in the past three years that Molyneux has been able to quit his day job in software and live of donations. You can access premium forums and be given Philosopher King Status for a fifty dollar fee. Most forum discussions focus on Molyneux’s podcasts. So far twenty of Freedomain Radio’s estimated fifty thousand listeners have defooed.
Tom called into the podcast last April to ask advice about being a vegan, and if it was okay to be disgusted by people who eat meat. Tom and Stefan Molyneux proceeded to have a discussion about animal abuse during which Tom admitted his father used to kick and yell at the cat. Mr. Molyneux to this as an opportunity to insult and Tom’s father calling him and arsehole and a bully, then go on to insult Tom’s mother for marrying his father and having children with him. When it was pointed out to Mr. Molyneux that he made conclusions about Tom’s family rather fast he defended himself with the fact that it was his 1,000th podcast and it’s not the rapidity but the accuracy that is important. Critics of Molyneux have also said that he has a tendency to make the facts suit his theories, which sometimes has disastrous consequences.
Ms. Weed who despite being in the process of divorcing Tom’s dad claims that her husband did shout a lot and sometimes knocked things over but he never trashed a room. She believes Stefan Molyneux has poisoned her son’s mind and minds of other vulnerable young people. She believes her son know the situation has been exaggerated but things have gone too far and he doesn’t want to lose face. She is one of the only parents of defooed children, who will speak to the media, others are afraid that talking to the media will push their children further away.
In Speaking out about Freedomain Radio and Stefan Molyneux, Ms. Weed has called the whole thing a cult. A representative of the Cult Information centre, Ian Haworth, says that cutting people off from their families is one of the first signs of a cult. However, Freedomain Radio is a a website with no physical place of existence which makes it harder to define as a cult and Mr. Molyneux emailed some of the stories from others who have defooed which include alleged physical and sexual abuse. Mr. Molyneux also compares himself to an early feminist speaking out against abusive relationships; he doesn’t think anyone would call him a cult leader for telling someone to leave their abusive husband.
Tom says that he doesn’t love his mother and blame her for making him feel guilty and turning herself into a victim. He says he feels freer; he is pursuing a language degree and spends holidays with friends, who show curiosity. Tom doesn’t like the way he’s been portrayed as easily manipulated. He defends Freedomian Radio, and doesn’t think people know how much thought and understanding goes into the discussions they have on the site.
Personally I don’t think Freedomain Radio can be an actual cult unless Stefan Monyleux is having defooers come stay with him or providing them a place to stay. I do think his involvement with these young adults is sketchy at best. I don’t understand how working in software qualified him to give advice over the web, philosophical or otherwise, no matter how many thousands of podcasts he has done. He claims it is not the rapidity with which he judges a person or situation but the accuracy with which he judges that is important. Unfortunately the only thing he has to judge the accuracy on is the word of someone, barely adult in Tom’s case, which is already upset or angry enough to call into a podcast and complain or “ask for advice”.
In this article Tom comes across as a self-righteous, snot-nosed little brat, who is lucky if his family cares to show any curiosity about him ever again. I think it is possible he got in over his head and things got out of hand, but that defense only gets you so far. I’m sure, as a parent that his mother has done enough for him in his 18 years to earn his love and respect, even if she did make him pretend to enjoy family gatherings. His mother is a victim of a selfish egotistical son, how much curiosity has he shown her.

Mozilla is releasing the newest version of Firefox on June 17. They are hoping the new version called Firefox 3.0 will set a world record for the most downloads in one day. Firefox 2.0 managed to get 1.6 million downloads the day it was released back in October 0f 2006. Engineers have spent 34-36 months working on Firefox 3.0. They say the two million people already running Firefox and the twenty-thousand that gave feedback were essential to the development of the new product.
It is promised that the new version of Firefox will be the most secure web browser as well as being faster and easier to use. Firefox 3.0 will load web pages three to four times faster than Firefox 2.0 and seven times faster than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Firefox also comes with the Smart Location Bar which gives the user the ability to quickly return to web pages they have not bookmarked, even if they can’t remember they address. It can also search keywords referred to as tags that the users associate with a particular page. The engineers at Mozilla have dubbed this the biggest user experience change since tabbed browsing.
Security has also been upgraded for Firefox 3.0. Since phishing attacks aren’t really working on the public anymore people are now taking over legitimate websites and using them to try and install software on your home computer. On Firefox 3.0 there are spotters that let the users know when a website is not safe. A red box pops up in the middle of the screen to let people know of the danger.
The last big change to Firefox is the five thousand add-ons a user can access to customize a page. You can do things like extend your history storage information for up to three months, and make your back arrow bigger than the forward arrow. Mozilla says all these improvements are not an attempt to conquer the world just to make the internet a better place.
Microsoft is also planning the launch of their latest browser Internet Explorer 8. Like Firefox 3.0 IE 8 is touted as faster, easier to use, and more secure than its competitors. Microsoft has to step things up because its competitors have been putting a dent in Internet Explorers dominance on the browser market. For the first time, last year, Microsoft’s market share dropped below 70%.
Internet Explorer 8 offers upgrades to make loading pages faster, as well as new search features. Tab isolation is a feature that closes down only one tab if you hit a bad site instead of the whole browser. WebsSlices allow users to remain updated about an item on web page like the weather, or an ongoing auction. And, people can use Accelerators to put things like maps or translations in a small window without leaving the page.
Creators of IE 8 claim that it is the most secure browser on the market. Some new security features include In-Private Filtering. This feature allows users to see and block being tracked by a third party content provider, who may track users activities to target advertising. Another new feature In-Private Browsing makes it possible for users to surf the Web without the sites viewed being recorded in the history.
Even though there are consumers who are loyal to other browsers and enjoy supporting an underdog like Firefox, many believe that Microsoft will keep its advantage over the competition because its browser is included with its operating system. The European Union has even said that Microsoft is harming its competition by bundling Windows and Internet Explorer.
Personally I don’t have enough experience with any browser other than Internet Explorer to make an educated comparison. After reading both articles I am intrigued by Firefox and would like to see how it stacks up to Microsoft IE. I like many people used IE simply because it came on my computer making it very simple to use as my Web browser. I think that because it takes a little more effort for people to get Firefox this gives them the incentive to release the best possible browser.
Both articles claimed their browser was the fastest, easiest, and most secure. Firefox 3.0 and Internet Explorer 8 both offer many new features and upgrades from their predecessors. If you are interested on more privacy on the internet you would probably more interested in IE 8’s new features. On the other hand if you are looking for an easy way to access web sites whose address you can’t remember than the Firefox 3.0‘s smart bar probably sounds pretty tempting. I don’t believe either article did its job of convincing me that one was better than the other. I believe the only way for the consumer to know which of these products is best is to try
Them both and see which one suits their needs best.

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