Living in a Connected World/Glossary

Please format in alphabetic order.

Always-on

A term relating to the notion of persistent connectivity to a shared global network.

Artificial Intelligence

The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.

Authentication

Where an entity is proved to be valid or a user provides information to prove their identity.

Collective Intelligence

A term to describe the sharing of knowledge and information in a collaborative for.

Cultural Determinism

The notion that the culture in which we are raised determines who we are at emotional and behavioral levels.

Cyberbullying

The use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.

Data Mining

The practice of sorting through data to identify patterns and establish relationships, in relation to online privacy, data mining collects data from users of social media to examine trends and target adverts.

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness in groups.

Digital Age

Also known as the information age that is considered to have started in 1970 with the development of technology such as television and computers.

Digital Labour

The term used to describe how corporate Internet platforms exploit user activity for profit.

Digital Media

A form of electronic media where data are stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form.

Encrypted Messages

Relating to Facebook's secret messaging service, encrypted messages allow end-to-end conversations to occur where only the communicating users can receive the messages.

Filter Bubbles

The use of algorithms to display information which appeals to the specific user's interests.

Fear of Missing Out (FoMO)

A form of anxiety aroused by the fact that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening from posts on social media.

Global Village

Coined by Marshall McLuhan, a social organisation when society can easily transfer and share information as a collective.

Hacking

Unethical activity, which exploits weaknesses in computer security.

Hive Mind

A collective consciousness, analogous to the behaviour of social insects, in which a group of people become aware of their commonality and think and act as a community, sharing their knowledge, thoughts and resources.

Such a group mentality characterised by uncritical conformity and loss of a sense of individuality and personal accountability.

A distributed memory that both perceives and remembers.

Identity theft

The deliberate use of someone else's identity, usually as a method to gain a financial advantage or obtain credit and other benefits in the other person's name.

Information Age

The period beginning around 1970, in which large amounts of information are widely available to many people, largely through computers and computer newtorks.

Information Overload

Exposure to or provision of too much information or data.

Internet cookies

Small pieces of information in text format that are downloaded to your computer when you visit many Web sites. The cookie may come from the Web site itself or from the providers of the advertising banners or other graphics that make up a Web page.

Keylogging

The act of tracking what the user is typing.

Leaks

The public release and circulation of private information against the owner of the information’s will.

Margin of error

A statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey's results. It asserts a likelihood (not a certainty) that the result from a sample is close to the number one would get if the whole population had been queried

Meta-aggregation

A method of systematic review that mirrors the processes of a quantitative review whilst holding to the traditions and requirements of qualitative research (it aggregates findings into a combined whole that is more than the sum of the individual findings in a way that is analogous with meta-analysis).

New Media

The means of mass communication using digital technologies such as the Internet and social media platforms.

Oversharing

The act of revealing too much personal information about oneself online

Privacy Policy

A privacy policy is that which states the ways a company gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client's data. It fulfills a legal requirement to protect a customer or client's privacy.

Private Sphere

Often defined in opposition or parallel to the Public Sphere. The Private Sphere is a section of societal life in which an individual has a degree of seclusion from the public. The concept has become blurred since the advent of social networking as "private messaging" communications are often stored on databases.

Public Sphere

Often defined in opposition or parallel to the Private Sphere. The Public Sphere is the section of societal life where private individuals come together to form a public entity. The ideology of the Public Sphere is that private people come together to discuss matters involving the greater good of the public.

Retweet

A function on the social media platform Twitter that allows users to repost or forward a Tweet.

Smart Mob

A group whose coordination and communication abilities have been empowered by digital communication technologies.

Social Media

Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

The collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration (e.g. forums, microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, and wikis).

Social News

A much more personalised form of news consumption, delivered on a central platform (like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.) according to how users engage with news stories from various sources.

Spyware

Software designed to give unauthorised access to a system.

Surveillance

The observation, and mass process of personal data. Although traditionally understood as being undertook by governments, private organistions are starting to proccess personal data on an industrial scale.

Technological Determinism

The notion that technology is a social structure or force, autonomous inventions, that have direct effects on social life

Virtual Community

A social network of individuals who interact through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals.

Vlog

A blog in which the postings are primarily in video form.

Web 2.0

The second stage of development of the Internet, characterised especially by the change from static web pages to dynamic or user-generated content and the growth of social media.

Wiki

A website or database developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content.