Three Identical Strangers - A Documentary

I recently watched a very moving documentary called ‘Three Identical Strangers’. 

It was about triplets that had been separated when they were 6 months old. They were each adopted by separate families who thought they were single babies in-need of adoption and without any siblings, which obviously wasn’t the case. It later came out that the children had purposefully been separated and raised by different families who had different beliefs, financial situations etc. all as part of a study into Nurture Vs. Nature. 

The babies all suffered from separation anxiety when they were adopted by different families. The children were watched, studied and tested throughout their childhood to see how they were developing, and how this development differed from their brothers. Later in life, as adults all of the children suffered from mental health disorders in some way, and very sadly even one of the brothers ended up committing suicide. 

This documentary is loosely linked to my inquiry as there is an obvious presence of mental health issues. However, I am mostly sharing this because I am looking at it from an ethical side.

The choice to separate family members as children to study their development, to me and many, seems very morally and ethically wrong. The families were unaware of why the children were been studied and the study obviously caused a lot of pain to the participants. 

Through investigation it was later revealed that this family of triplets was not the only case and that this had happened to many babies who were either twins or triplets. 

The case has been deeply hidden and even the participants, now grown adults, are not allowed access to there own data that was collected and recorded about them.

It leads me to question how and why this was allowed, where the data has gone and who would do such a thing? It is shocking to me that people knew this was going on and happily took part in leading or carrying out the study!!

It is a very interesting documentary and I advise people to watch it if they can. It has lead me to really focus on the ethical side to carrying out my inquiry as it really highlights the importance of data protection, informing participants fully, getting consent and following ethical guidelines that are there for a very clear reason.

If any of you have chance to watch the documentary or have heard of other similar situations I would love to hear your opinions!

Web 2.0 - Looking at it from an ethical side

It is no secret that there are some concerns over certain aspects of the Web. 

The fact that online we can be anything we want to be or whoever we say we are is a huge worry. There is always that issue of reliability, making us question sources and profiles. There have been so many reported ‘cat-fish’ stories where someone has very easily and believably presented themselves as a totally different person. There is an opportunity to create a whole new profile for yourself and become whatever you want, and then share this online with other people, making them believe you are who you say you are. This can have an effect on not only personal lives but professional lives too. People have often approached others on social media acting as a boss looking to employ you, and it turns out to be just a huge scam. And although applications try their best to monitor situations like these, there is no real way of knowing whether someone is telling the truth or not.

Then there is the issue of privacy. Anyone anywhere in the world can see what you post and share on social media, we can monitor settings yes, making things more private, but even if they can’t see everything, your name and photo is still out there for the world to see. There have been many cases of stolen identity, people creating social media profiles based off another individual's photos and information. This is a scary thought. 

And then there is the more recent concern of being ‘web-famous’. It seems as though people will do anything these days to get more followers or likes on a video. To be popular in the online-community, no matter what that takes. I have often seen disturbing videos online that have attracted a lot of web attention and wondered which morals that creator had broken in order to get these followers and likes?

Most social media sites have privacy settings that can be changed. I don’t know whether this is just me, but personally I have always found these settings rather confusing – difficult to understand what each setting means or how to change it. 

I feel as though the age at which children get their own device allowing them to access Web 2.0 and create profiles on social media sites is getting younger and younger each year. Younger children are much more naïve and trusting. Personally I think that sites like Instagram & Facebook should automatically be private, you should have to accept someone for them to be able to see anything on your page. 

With this blog I like the fact that I have to share the web link with people for them to be able to view it. It isn’t on google for everyone to access, I must choose to share the link. I think there should be more sites like this and generally more emphasis on privacy on social media sites and Web 2.0 in general.

I am not denying the benefits of Web 2.0…it is a hugely positive development with many advantages. But I do think that more attention needs to be given to the ethical side of things, to protect the people that utilize Web 2.0 in all its glory.