It's the end of an very educational course

The semester is coming to an end, and it is time to evaluate on some of the courses.

This semester I have in perticular an interesting course i want to share with you; Communication and Participation of the civil society in the internet. The course is so different from all the other courses I take back at my home university. Even though the name is hard to understand at first, the course was pretty understandable, it was about understanding that the internet do have borders, and see how this affected people who lived in the bordered areas, who help to get the borders opened, and why they were bordered. The last point included looking at mass-surveillance and censorship.

I have previously followed a few of the cases we touched upon very briefly: NSA, the control of USA and the new ‘big brother society’ were everybody is under surveillance. However it was not until the facts was shredded in class about the cases, that I really understood how massive an impact this have on our society.

It is hard to choose my favorite topic, as I have learned so much about what is actually going on in the world, regarding this ‘little’ thing that I easily take for granted called ‘the internet’. However if I am to chose one, my favorite topic was the ‘We live in Public’ documentary and the following discussion. It was one of the most fascinating thing I have ever seen! It got me to think about if I really wanted to let people do surveillance over me, or should I help fight?

Another subject that needs mentioning is how I have learned that social media and open-sourced/closed-sourced medias, to a much higher extent than I though uses my personal data to make money, and that if it is free I and other users are the product, they are selling us. This is disturbing, and made me go to my Facebook profile and delete as much personal informations as I could, and disabled features. For a minute I even though about deleting the whole account, but because I am 2500 kilometers away from all my family and friends, and Facebook is my main communication tool, I am waiting until I get home. Facebook is more dangerous than I though, and I don’t feel good about letting them get away with something I see as a violation of privacy.

Overall the course was super interesting, and I have enjoyed spending my Tuesday afternoon with numerous interesting subject, and a very inspirational teacher, that really knows what this is about. I would on the other hand have liked to be without covering my ears every time classes start. Young Spanish people are noisy as you wouln’t believe! 

Attention all Leonardo DiCaprio lovers!

The number of tigers in the wild have been reduced from 100.000 to 3200 tigers within the last 100 years. I think this is awfull and we must draw more attention to preserve wild life. Numerous organizations are trying to preserve tigers, among these are WWF, Greenpeace, Panthera, Wildlife Conservation Society.

To draw more attention the organizations have recruitet different brands and celebrities, one example is Leonardo DiCaprio’s involvement in WWF’s campaign, he donated 3million dollars out of his own pocket, to help this campaign get more public attention, as well as also promoting it in his social media account. Which brings us to another great tool used for promoting his campaign. Social Media. The organizations all have numerous social media accounts, because that is the quickest way to reach the most people possible.  

So what is their goal? It is to build political, financial and public support to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, the next ‘year of the Tiger’ But why is Leonardo DiCaprio involved? Maybe you did not know that he is a huge aminal lover and is involved in a lot of humanitarian work? Well now you know.

Would you donate to the 'Save the Tigers' campaign now that you know Leo is involved? Youbetter go do it!

The Bobs - Time to celebrate in cyber-activism

The Bobs is her yet again! It is time to vote for the best of online activism 2014. The award celebrates people all over the world who believe in a cause that they speak up about through online tools - webpages, blogs, etc.


It was so hard to choose who to vote for in The Bobs 2014, it has been a year where a lot of society issues deserves attention from the public, and the nominees are therefore extremely diverse, which is both good and bad. It is good because we see the creme de la creme of people who really believes in their cause and it is bad because I simple think they all deserve to win!


Despite the fact that there have been a lot of major happenings this year, I have chosen a site that touches on something that inspires me, something that a lot of people forgets about, because they think there is bigger things in life, but the small things in life matters just as much, I have therefore chosen Quergedachtes (English version here) nominated in the 'Best Blog' catagory. A site created by Aleksander a 38 year-old German with autism, on his blog he writes about the society according to his personal experience.

Alexsander writes about how it is okay to be different, and that it can make you stronger all at once he also does not say that it is always easy to be strong by your self, but together with others you can be strong.

The blog also shows how activism can be so many different things, it is truly about standing up for what you believe in, small and big, it is about voicing your opinion.

Can you do the world's toughest job?

Would you be willing to work around the clock, no breaks, no holidays – for no money at all? No? There is billions of people all around the world that have that job right now.

Posting notices online and in newspapers searching for a director of operations, the American card company Cardstore pulled a prank on the 24 people that applied for the job, and the nine people that were carefully selected to the online job interview.

The interviewed almost did not believe their ears, when the interviewer, in the fake online interview, listed the requirements for the job, including statements as “Is that even legal” and “That’s almost cruel, that’s almost a sick, sick, joke” from the people getting interviewed.

The job required 24/7 care, no breaks, always on the feet, no vacations and finally yet importantly – no pay.

When the prank was detected, the interviewer told the chocked people that this job was in fact for the position as some ones mother, giving a quick reminder to the participants of how much the mothers work in the everyday life, and how much their mother have done for them over the years, giving them the oppotunity to thank them through the video.

The video was made as a commercial stunt, in reminder of Mothers Day the 11^th of may. 

Ten years with Dove's 'Real Beauty'

Based on a lovely presentation in a class i had last week, I decided to write an article on one of my other classes, but I also wanted to share it here:

Through the last 10 years, Dove has produced numerous of campaigns supporting and promoting real beauty. The first groundbreaking campaign came in 2004 and it asked people 'oversized or outstanding’, 'ageing or ageless' ect. based on pictures of what Dove called 'real women'. 

Though it is discussable what the 'real woman' should look like, it brought awareness to the never-ending discussion about body image, in a time where models were a size double zero. 

So have Dove helped change the image over the years? They have certainly made an effort. Here are some of the most outstanding Dove ‘Real Beauty’ Campaigns the last ten years.

Dove Evolution:

The first big video-campaign, which focused on the evolution from ’normal’ to campaign model, showing how they firstly applies enormous amount of makeup, just to later retouch the picture into a completely unrecognizable version. Showing this campaign is a way to tell people that the pictures they see in the magazines, they are not real women, they are retouched and manipulated into characters.

Onslaught:

People do not always think about all the different images children are exposed to, and this video shows very well how a little girl can perceive an image from a picture. Dove tried to specifically target the way it is becoming normal to manipulate looks, with pills, surgery and again retouch.

Pro-Age:

With the words ‘too old to be in an anti-ageing campaign’ plastered over pictures of what seems to be average women, Doves focusses on the beauty in age, and not the younger-is-better trend.

Beauty Sketches:

Trying to see how different the perception people have towards themselves, and how others see them. This was a realisations-campaign and it went viral in no time, with women sharing how this campaign really got them to think about their perception versus the surroundings perceptions of them. This campaign was so moving and well constructed that it took top honors - a Titanium Grand Prix - at Cannes film festival.

#Selfie:

In a time where the selfie is latest trend, there can be a pressure to look your best at all times, and taking that picture for your social media. However, his trend also makes a lot of young girl overly conscious about their looks. Where now it is easier than ever to redefine beauty through the selfies, showing that beauty is so much more than looks.

Has the Dove campaigns really changed perceptions? Especially the ‘Beauty Sketches’ campaign got women to think more about accepting their look and focus on the parts they really like, instead of keep wasting time on hating the parts that they really do not like, and think ‘ you are more beautiful than you think’ just as Dove puts it, in the end of the video, so a few perceptions have been changed over the years, and Dove is not finished.

Internet, internet and internet - It is everywhere

Try thinking back at the times before the smartphone was invented, when you most likely would ask your parents’ permission to go on the computer. Do you remember the first time you bought something online? How about the first time you used the smartphone to order take-away?

Back in 2002, only 12 years ago, each person used the internet in an average of 46 minutes every day, and with only 3 million websites to choose from worldwide, the time seems reasonable. As of 2012 that number was 5 times as big, with an average of 4 hours every day, and even in some geek-communities this number is a joke, easily doubling the amount of hours used on the internet every day, and with a whopping 555 billion websites (as of 2012) to choose from.
What have changed so much that we need to be online ¼ of the time that we are awake? Social Media. Social Medias have exploded the last 12 years and today the smartphone is mostly used to check Social Media. Whether it is 2 spare minutes or 60, the Social Media will keep most people linked to the screen. We can easily agree that Social media is not just a flash in the pan, social medias are here to stay.
Through the Social Medias we are able to share whatever we feel a need to talk about, there is not constrain to Social Media, it is everywhere! When sharing into cyberspace we share our concerns about matters, and therefor it is a good thing that the use of internet has increased.