TOPIC 2 VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS AND COGNITION Exercise 2.1

Exercise 2.1: Virtual environments and your cognition
Joined Facebook and discovered the ITC510/ICT213 group. There are 24 members as at the 30th August. The global group of Charles Sturt University appear to contain 746 members as of the above date.
a) Am I happy with the ethics? Not really, I went into their policy and found that Facebook may use your profile without identifying you to other 3rd parties as a part of using your information to personalise advertisements and promotions. Facebook may also get information about you from blogs, newspapers and instant messenger services:( . What I am happy about is the under 13years are not permitted access to Facebook, but how is this monitored? Anyone can fake ID! No wonder Facebook is a banned DET site to all users, staff and students alike. The control you have over what you include in your profile eg pictures, interests and groups. I only became a member for this course and was surprised to find a person who I have not seen for 12 plus years asking to be a friend! She suggested that she was my niece and yes she was:)
b) What do I think the difference between social cognition and visual cognition is? Social cognition is relating to others, this can be on many levels it is the interaction that usually occurs daily in our lives. From talking to a shop assistant, work colleague, partner, neighbour or friend. Visual cognition is recognising others by their body characteristics, it is relating on a physical level where social cognition does not have to be physical and can occur using the Internet to relate to others. This is where Facebook, SecondLife and other similar sites are used to communicate with others without actually meeting the person.