you're a mystery yourself

Saturday, January 23, 2010

6:54 AM

CONNECTING THE WORLD: SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is important and it is simply because the need to connect with like-minded others is strong and in this era, social isolation is virtually(excuse the pun) unthinkable, especially with the eruption of platforms for just about anybody to voice their opinions and views, in response to others, or to evoke a response in others. One type we would be looking at is the evolution of blogs.

It stlarted with the "traditional" blogging. All you need to do is sign up with blogsites (such as Blogspot.com, Wordpress.com, Xanga.com etc.) and then voila! You're ready to start posting. =] I remember when it was all the rave in secondary school, whereby nearly everyone (including myself) had a personal blog. We could post just about anything and everything, from what kind of day we had, to what was our favourite song of the moment. Friends then could comment on each post, thus initiating discussion.

These days though, microblogging is the 'in' thing. Sites like Twitter are on the rise and are even used by celebrities to reach out to people quickly. Here's one example of Ellen Degeneres using Twitter:

Another interesting site for micro-blogging which I visit to kill time would be FMyLife.com.

Basically, people from all over the world can just microblog about something that happened to them on the website and readers and either click the "I agree your life sucks" or the "you totally deserve it" button as feedback. While this is not as interactive as Twitter is, it still proves to be an interesting read. =P

Taking blogging to the next level would the emergence of vlogging (video blogging). The popular video-sharing site Youtube houses many famous vloggers, and a few of my favourites would be KevJumba, communitychannel and NigaHiga. Through the medium of Youtube, these people are able to spread laughter, initiate discussion and even raise funds for charity, as in the case of Kevjumba who donates the money raised from viewership to various organisations.

The blog on the internet is everchanging, extending to far more than what I've mentioned here, making the blogging experience become more exciting and vibrant. However, despite the new avenues, I think I am still somewhat resistant. For example, even though I have a Twitter account, I have never actually twittered (if you add me I will follow you though, haha!) simply because there are too few people in my circle of friends who use Twitter actively. But with time and more people adopting the new platforms, who knows, I might just send out my first Twit very soon.=)

Hmmm....To end off this post, here's a funny video from NigaHiga. Enjoy!

i posted.

8:57 AM

When I saw the title of the course, 'Com 125: Intro to Internet', I snorted, thinking that in this IT-driven era, what else is there to teach about the internet? While I do not claim to be an expert on the subject, I figured that this was just an introduction course so it probably wouldn't cover anything I didnt already know from my 'long history' with the use of internet.

But the 1st lesson quickly proved me wrong. Terms which I had never heard in my entire internet-surfing history (which more than 10years), such as 'web 1.0', 'web 2.0' and so on, started sprouting up in class. That really piped my interest. I had never known that websites could be categorised in such a way.

An example of web2.0, in my understanding, would be online forums and (not forgetting) Wikipedia. This type of websites not only allow the user to share information with people everywhere, it also allows interaction between the person posting the information and the one who is reading it.

A more "advanced" version of the web2.0 would be web3.0, and one example of such a website would be the ever-famous Youtube which retains information about its user's favourites searches/ videos and then comes up with a list of related videos to recommend. As an avid Youtube-surfer, this feature comes in handy especially when I want to find(or discover) related videos quick.

A similar example would be Google, which quickly comes up with popular searches with each letter/number you type into its search box, hence aiding in the user's search.

(I wasn't searching for anything in particular, but when that came up, I just had to click it. ;) )

Yet another term that was introduced was the web4.0, which is basically an 'internet page of the future', possibly...becoming more user-friendly and more interactive? Seeing how important and useful the internet is as a platform for communication, I think it is really exciting to find out how else the internet can evolve to become in the future.

After the 1st lesson, I have to say that I am somewhat looking forward to the rest of the module, and learn more about the phenomenon that is the Internet. =]

i posted.