I would say I
grew up in the age of social media. When it first gained traction, the kids my
age were trying each and every one of them. My very first social media page was
Xanga. In 2006, when MySpace become popular, I moved on to MySpace. I remember
when it first came out and actually creating it on a school computer in my
Visual Basics class in 9th grade. Every time second period came around I would
log onto MySpace to looks at pictures, change my top 8, or revamp my page in
general. MySpace then and there was just beginning to gain popularity and so
the school hadn’t caught on to its distracting nature. To students who were
taking courses where a computer was in front of them, it became a big
distraction. But eventually the school caught on and every time we would type
myspace.com into the URL bar and hit enter, we would get a page that stated the
site had been blocked. The schools caught on fast after the blockage of
MySpace. Soon enough they were blocking popular game sites in addition to
social media sites. When Facebook gained popularity it was blocked immediately,
in a matter of days. I don’t think I can remember a time where I was able to
log onto Facebook on the school computer. Friday, March 8, 2013
Proxy Websites as a way to access websites blocked by schools and governments
I would say I
grew up in the age of social media. When it first gained traction, the kids my
age were trying each and every one of them. My very first social media page was
Xanga. In 2006, when MySpace become popular, I moved on to MySpace. I remember
when it first came out and actually creating it on a school computer in my
Visual Basics class in 9th grade. Every time second period came around I would
log onto MySpace to looks at pictures, change my top 8, or revamp my page in
general. MySpace then and there was just beginning to gain popularity and so
the school hadn’t caught on to its distracting nature. To students who were
taking courses where a computer was in front of them, it became a big
distraction. But eventually the school caught on and every time we would type
myspace.com into the URL bar and hit enter, we would get a page that stated the
site had been blocked. The schools caught on fast after the blockage of
MySpace. Soon enough they were blocking popular game sites in addition to
social media sites. When Facebook gained popularity it was blocked immediately,
in a matter of days. I don’t think I can remember a time where I was able to
log onto Facebook on the school computer. 
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This is an interesting blog about proxy websites. The blogger writes about his own personal experience with proxy websites, and how he and his friends would circumvent blocked sites using them. There are many good points in this blog, but there are also a few things the writer should work on:
ReplyDeleteOrganization: The blog is written in a manner that is easy to read, but the writing itself could be improved. The writer needs to make sure to proofread and edit the blog in order to affirm that the writing is grammatically correct and proper English. A reader expects close to flawless writing, and a writer needs to accommodate his or her audience.
Topic: Most of the blog is the writer’s personal experience. While that makes the blog more relatable, it would also be beneficial for the writer to give a short history of proxy sites. For example, where did they originate? What are some of the most popular sites? Are proxy sites completely legal? Personal experience only gives a taste of the topic and it leaves the reader hungering for more information.
Repetition: The blog was a bit repetitive. The writer mentioned throughout the blog that proxy sites are used at schools to bypass blocked sites, and some paragraphs seemed almost unnecessary.
This being said, the subheads were informative and the topic choice was enthralling. Good work!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis post was a good and comprehensive introduction to the concept of proxy sites and their potential uses. I enjoyed reading this because it brought back memories of middle school and high school for me, when I first discovered sites like Xanga and MySpace. I did catch one grammatical error. "MySpace become popular" should have read "MySpace became popular," but overall I think the piece was well-written. The subheads used were clear and were in the form of complete sentences. I recall using proxy sites frequently after my school blocked social networking sites from our computers. This worked until the administration caught on and began vigorously blocking proxy sites as well. Using proxy sites as a way to circumvent censorship in nations with highly restricted Internet access seems like a great idea (and I'm sure they have been used in those countries). However, if the administrators at my school could find ways to limit access to these proxy sites, I'm sure a government that monitors Internet use closely would be able to find ways too, through search engine censors and other methods. That being said, with enough knowledge of computer systems, I'm sure determined Internet users in these nations can continue to adapt and keep fighting towards a more open Internet. One possible nefarious use of proxy servers that came to mind while reading this was if a person used a proxy as a go-between to capture sensitive information (passwords, for example) as it is sent from a computer and the web.
ReplyDeleteThis post was very informative about the use of proxies and what they consist of. As Malik stated, this made me reminisce on the days when my school blocked all my favorite websites such as addicting games, facebook, and myspace so that we would not be distracted during class. I had not known about any of these proxies and how they work, so I was never able to utilize them. We did, however, have some sort of code you type into the URL that allowed us to access those websites. I also picked up on the mistake that Malik highlighted, but overall the writing was informative and gave me a good background of the topic. While proxies are useful for harmless activities such as playing a game during class or at work, these ways of blocking websites were creating for a specific purpose. Some content is meant to be hidden, such as the governments of South Korea and countries of the like. They specifically want their citizens to have a tunnel vision that gives them limited access to outside knowledge. I am not sure if they can use proxies or even know about them, but I think the knowledge about proxies should be shared with them. Everyone deserves the right to free speech and freedom to information and to search the web, so we should all be pushing for a more free internet environment. Also, just as earlier in the year people discussed the possible banning of pornography, people could be using proxies to circumvent these types of bans so I feel that banning any selection of websites is pointless.
ReplyDeleteBut I use VPN instead of a web proxy to access blocked content. I think VPN provides high reliability than proxy websites. If you also want to access blocked sites using VPN then you can download Hotspot Shield free VPN. It provides US IP address with unlimited bandwidth.
ReplyDeleteThis is the main scenario behind to access the blocked sites i first time read such things which include this kind of information i totally did not know before that but after read your article i understand the concept behind it.But i usually use this to access Facebook at school
ReplyDelete