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Being Online (HPSC30038)

Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5Not available in 2023

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Summer Term, January and February subjects, where the teaching ends prior to the commencement of Semester 1, 2023, will be taught on campus with some subjects offered in dual-delivery and online modes.
From Semester 1, 2023 our undergraduate programs will be delivered on campus. Graduate programs will mainly be delivered on campus, with dual-delivery and online options available to a select number of subjects within some programs.
To learn more, visit 2023 Course and subject delivery.

Overview

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Being online is banal and dangerous, trivial and profound, disembodied but visceral. Terrorists and friends are online, along with trolls and lovers, funerals and games, pornography and Proust. Billions are made online from stuff that seems free; there are mass killings and cute cats; businesses, communities, universities, countless humans and even more non-humans, all networked, all interacting with unpredictable outcomes. The subject Being Online takes the experience of being online in all its breadth and complexity and through critical assessment draws out its implications for us as individuals, and as members of new online collectives. Lecture topics include online friendship and intimacy, uber-surveillance, online identity, the internet of things, death and online media, online crime, and morality and ethics online.

Intended learning outcomes

On completion of this subject, students should be able to:

  • Assess and analyse the relationship between online technologies and the society we live in;
  • Assess and analyse the relationship between online technologies and our daily lives;
  • Critically assess theoretical approaches to being online, and persuasively apply these approaches to analysis;
  • Use empirical evidence to develop and express coherent and persuasive arguments about the interactions between online technologies and specific social and cultural phenomena and characteristics;
  • Make normative assessments of the social role of online technologies and be able to justify those assessments using reasoned argument.

Generic skills

  • Critical thinking in the context of conflicting claims;
  • Analytic skills informed by empirical data;
  • Clear written and oral communications skills;
  • Use of digital media;
  • Capacity to make reasoned normative judgements.

Last updated: 24 January 2023