Social Media

(I wanna try some of that social media ice cream...yummmy!)

A summary of our personas can easily be captured in our facebook, myspace or bebo accounts. These seemingly harmless sites allows any personal information to be viewed by the public or our 'friends' on our buddy list. Guilty as charge, I too have facebook, myspace and YouTube accounts after deciding to abandon friendster and following the mainstream.

Does it really affect me that my interests are displayed for all on facebook to see? Nope!

BUT what of it if future employers chance upon my profile and decides my job opportunity based on my facebook information? Oh gosh...

It's ironic how I still maintain a facebook account (or at least try to) even though the concept simply irks me at times. It could be frustrating how another person's account may take ages to load because of the 1000000 applications they subscribed to on their page that could sometimes even cause my browser to hang.

Besides profiles online, social media has taken another step by creating an even more interactive platform - Second Life.

Personally, I feel that Second Life is a mere borrowed idea from the old school hit game series, The Sims, except with the influx of product placement and much greater extent of futuristic settings.

People are able to create avatars that allow them to reach out to their ideal selves and yet preserve certain personal characteristics.

Second Life is supposedly known to break down all social barriers through the cyber dimension but I think it has constructed much thicker walls in the real world. How are people actually socializing if they're cooped up at home, and attached to this virtual reality? There's no stronger interaction than face to face communication and Second Life has literally stripped that away.

I wouldn't want to fall prey to the claws of social media.

That reminds me, I have a myspace account to delete now...

What is Internet?

The Internet has been a silly media addiction of mine ever since I was introduced to it about a decade or so ago. When the term Web 2.0 was coined in 2004 as a new business concept concieved in the cyber dimension, it initiated many new features to the Internet that I, for one, have been an active user of without even knowing it.

The video relates the power of web 2.0 and how it has impacted the life of just one man. Web 2.0 has definitely changed the lives of others in more ways than one.

To me, the Internet has allowed me to travel the world and more without leaving the cosy walls of my home. It embodies a whirlpool of knowledge that could be easily accessed just a click away. How exactly has the Internet changed my life?

- Facebook has allowed me to meet people from across the globe, people who are culturally different but yet share similar interests in so many other areas.
- Gaming experience has evolved with the multitude of games offered online.
- Blogging provides me a place to pen my thoughts, a dimensionless space to vent my frustrations.
- Daily news can be as easily attained without caring if my fingers would turn black from the recycled paper.
- Just like any girl who loves shopping, whatever material thirst can now be quenched with products from stores only available overseas through online shopping.
- The mass music archive online can easily satisfy my music obsession and so too can movie archives with my film fixation.

And these are just to name a few.

Our dependency on the Internet has left us feeling handicapped and unnecessarily agitated when our computer breaks down or when the internet connection simply won't work. It has become the core of daily functions and is stealthily taking over our lives. It has provided us with vast knowledge and novelty ways of performing daily routines. Taking it away leaves us disabled and helpless to a certain extent.

So is the Internet truly a friend or foe?