What is a friend? What does a friend offer us? Since I became a part of social media, the pressure to join additional networks, add new friends, and really “work” to show my popularity among “friends” has been a pain. And when find have them I don’t know what to do with them, its not like they actually exist, its just some random pictures and notes they put us every now and then. II find this whole “friending” thing to a bit silly as it makes gives a the meaning of a true friend a blurry meaning. Of course, I have to admit that some of the people in my network would probably be my friends in “real life” but the vast majority of people I come into contact with online are people I probably will never meet. Even though I don’t consider most of my social media ‘friends’ as real friends, it doesn’t mean they do not provide any value. Rather call them ‘contacts’. That’s what the Internet allows with great efficiency, making contacts. Maybe im an old fashion type of person, but for example even though online dating is a natural thing for many people I cant get the point of it, It is funny when people actually set a date online. I know people who “visualize” the digital partner, nice dinner, candle light and …. a laptop. Isn’t that funny, I’m thinking is this where it is going?
The future will change our views on things, the social media and “friending” will change the definition of words like “Hang Out”, “Dating”, “Have Sex”, these words will have a whole different meaning in the future. Even the word “meeting” is now different; teleconference, before the word gave a obvious meaning but now you cannot be sure if its real life meeting or a virtual one. How will relationships look in the future, maybe no one would feel lonely, with help of the technological developments and social medias and what they bring, the way we live will change, Just like before mobile phones, I can’t remember what the world looked like before their existence .but for now when I take a look at how the world is now. I still enjoy the traditional way of relationships, touching and feeling the person I socialize with. Maybe in the future there will be a device that allows us to feel all that. We can now visualize and the person we are talking to from the other side of the world but until then I keep my pessimistic an critical view on these communities nd all the “friends” they offer.
By Tala
måndag 8 december 2008
Essay Four - Are the kids alright?
Of course it is as the question states some negative consequences with the use of internet and social media. The internet contains so much information and – it almost goes without saying – not all of it is of use, but most of us can limit both our usage and negative influence that the web has on our lives. Unfortunately, not everyone can do that. One of the topics touches upon this problem, which is that people get addicted or in other ways take harm from the internet. My personal opinion is that a grown up person should be able and allowed to use the service that the internet is in the extent they find suitable. I think however that there is a group of individuals who are not mature enough to independently sort and value all the information. Nor is it possible for them to sense when enough is enough in the way that one can expect an adult person to do. I am thinking about the children.
My concern is therefore how to help youngster to develop a healthy relationship to the internet and the use of it. I think that the educational system has a lot to do here; unfortunately I suspect that the pupils have a higher level of knowledge about the net than the most of their teachers.
Also parents will have to spend time explaining and educating about the hazards and imperfections of social media and the internet. In the pre-internet era parents could allow their children to play with little supervision on the living room floor, because it was a secure area and the toys had been inspected and approved. This is not the same as leaving a child with little supervision in front of a computer, since the parents does not have control nor have they inspected or approved of all the sites on the internet. Sure there are programs like NetNanny, but they are not perfect and quite easy to circumvent, there is also a need for explanation that the program can’t offer. That is, the child needs to know why he or she can’t log onto certain websites; otherwise the ban might just increase their curiosity.
There are other parts of society that also needs to get in gear with the new technology and the changes that it brings with. Medical and behavioral science and professionals who work with people need guidelines about how to treat gaming and online addiction. Obviously there is not enough research done about how much is too much and what can be done to prevent misuse and other abusive habits. This knowledge will then affect society and eventually lead to better knowledge and lesser misuse of the internet just like research on tobacco has decrease the use of it significantly.
By: Johan Östberg
My concern is therefore how to help youngster to develop a healthy relationship to the internet and the use of it. I think that the educational system has a lot to do here; unfortunately I suspect that the pupils have a higher level of knowledge about the net than the most of their teachers.
Also parents will have to spend time explaining and educating about the hazards and imperfections of social media and the internet. In the pre-internet era parents could allow their children to play with little supervision on the living room floor, because it was a secure area and the toys had been inspected and approved. This is not the same as leaving a child with little supervision in front of a computer, since the parents does not have control nor have they inspected or approved of all the sites on the internet. Sure there are programs like NetNanny, but they are not perfect and quite easy to circumvent, there is also a need for explanation that the program can’t offer. That is, the child needs to know why he or she can’t log onto certain websites; otherwise the ban might just increase their curiosity.
There are other parts of society that also needs to get in gear with the new technology and the changes that it brings with. Medical and behavioral science and professionals who work with people need guidelines about how to treat gaming and online addiction. Obviously there is not enough research done about how much is too much and what can be done to prevent misuse and other abusive habits. This knowledge will then affect society and eventually lead to better knowledge and lesser misuse of the internet just like research on tobacco has decrease the use of it significantly.
By: Johan Östberg
söndag 7 december 2008
Essay 4 --- negtive effects of social media
Recently, a new argumentation which is about internet addiction clinic diagnose standard really drew people’s eyes in China. This standard stated that internet addiction belongs to psychopathic; and if the average time reaches 6 hours or beyond it for a person to surfer on the internet every day, and this situation lasts or exceeds 3 months, then it is deemed to internet addiction. This argumentation raised drastic debate, and aroused Netizen’s antipathy.
Many people are online more than 10 hours every day because of their occupation, without internet they could not work, as many people claimed. I am always online if I am home, I cannot count out how many hours I am online everyday; maybe because of the special situation I have which is I am abroad, alone, without TV in my room, no pet, no roommate, and so on. The only entertainment at home is surfer on the internet, where I can read news, chat with friends, call my parents by VOIP, watch movies and TV shows by some Chinese software, etc.
But sometimes, I do hate the life I have like this. I really become lazier, for instance, 6 years ago, I could not stay inside my room for the whole day without going out; otherwise I will feel headache. But now, I can stay at home for 3, or 4, or 5 days if there is no reason to go outside. I do not want to visit my friends; even their rooms are quite near from my room. I prefer chat with them online. And there is also a negative impact on my language skills in terms of writing skills. Since the day when I started using computer instead of pen to write down things, communicate with people, my writing skill became worse and worse. As you know, Chinese is hieroglyphic, not as the most languages which consist of letters, which means what you type from the keyboard is what you write on the paper; to type a Chinese character from a Chinese version keyboard which is same as the American one, you only can type its pronunciation which is called Pinyin and then shows several characters which have the same pronunciation for you to choose the right character you need; of course there are many ways to type Chinese characters, but no matter which method you use, you have to type letters in order to get the Chinese characters. So by doing this, I do not need to practice writing and remembering the characters anymore, and as a result, I forgot how to write many characters; also my handwriting is uglier than ever before.
I can illustrate more about the negative impacts which internet brought to me; I am both happy and sad with the internet. But I guess it is not the internet’s fault, what I can do is to control myself and change the lifestyle I have now.
By Qiong Jia
Many people are online more than 10 hours every day because of their occupation, without internet they could not work, as many people claimed. I am always online if I am home, I cannot count out how many hours I am online everyday; maybe because of the special situation I have which is I am abroad, alone, without TV in my room, no pet, no roommate, and so on. The only entertainment at home is surfer on the internet, where I can read news, chat with friends, call my parents by VOIP, watch movies and TV shows by some Chinese software, etc.
But sometimes, I do hate the life I have like this. I really become lazier, for instance, 6 years ago, I could not stay inside my room for the whole day without going out; otherwise I will feel headache. But now, I can stay at home for 3, or 4, or 5 days if there is no reason to go outside. I do not want to visit my friends; even their rooms are quite near from my room. I prefer chat with them online. And there is also a negative impact on my language skills in terms of writing skills. Since the day when I started using computer instead of pen to write down things, communicate with people, my writing skill became worse and worse. As you know, Chinese is hieroglyphic, not as the most languages which consist of letters, which means what you type from the keyboard is what you write on the paper; to type a Chinese character from a Chinese version keyboard which is same as the American one, you only can type its pronunciation which is called Pinyin and then shows several characters which have the same pronunciation for you to choose the right character you need; of course there are many ways to type Chinese characters, but no matter which method you use, you have to type letters in order to get the Chinese characters. So by doing this, I do not need to practice writing and remembering the characters anymore, and as a result, I forgot how to write many characters; also my handwriting is uglier than ever before.
I can illustrate more about the negative impacts which internet brought to me; I am both happy and sad with the internet. But I guess it is not the internet’s fault, what I can do is to control myself and change the lifestyle I have now.
By Qiong Jia
tisdag 25 november 2008
The future of music
With the popularizing of social media, the music industry also will develop with this trend. On May fifth, 2008, Trent Reznor announced on the official Nine Inch Nails website that he gave his new album free of charge under a creative commons license. This shows that in the future the the record labels might go to the end. Since in the traditional recording industry, for a CD from the record label who publishing the album, the manufacturers, distributors, to retailers, there's too many participates to get profit. But with the internet most of these costs are zero, therefore artists can offer the audiances at a much lower price or even free without the record labels to publish their music. A decade ago, six labels held 77 percent of recorded music sales worldwide. Today, those six are down to four Universal (31%), Sony-BMG (25%), Warner (15%) and EMI (9.5%) and none has got to grips with the internet revolution. And we know that besides selling albums artists also make their money fromsome other way such as touring and performing, songwriting or selling t-shirts, hats. However under the control of the record labels, the business is unfair to vast majority of musicians, since most artists never recouped their royalty advances. In the future the power base will be shifted from the record labels to the artists and mangers, and the music fans. Through social network artists and their managers can make things happen on their own. With it, the structure of this industry will changed. the creative people like the artists and songwriters along with their business managers.will be at the center of the future of Music.
Launching singles and letting the audiences to select songs they like to make a album by themselves. As in the past, buyers were forced to buy albums to get the one or two songs they loved. But now the people can buy the song they want one at a time, maybe even free. Artist managements can use Facebook and MySpace as routes for launching new talent and songs free to likely fans.
And in the future the The music industry may abandon certain restrictive digital rights management tools, and might finally .abandon DRM. Music will come free with advertisements attached. This means trying out ad-supported models, for instance delivering fixed commercials such as sell concert tickets or merchandise in support of the artist, social networks, and whatever else people develop with free music tracks.
The future of music
With the popularizing of social media, the music industry also will develop with this trend. On May fifth, 2008, Trent Reznor announced on the official Nine Inch Nails website that he gave his new album free of charge under a creative commons license. This shows that in the future the the record labels might go to the end. Since in the traditional recording industry, for a CD from the record label who publishing the album, the manufacturers, distributors, to retailers, there's too many participates to get profit. But with the internet most of these costs are zero, therefore artists can offer the audiances at a much lower price or even free without the record labels to publish their music. A decade ago, six labels held 77 percent of recorded music sales worldwide. Today, those six are down to four Universal (31%), Sony-BMG (25%), Warner (15%) and EMI (9.5%) and none has got to grips with the internet revolution. And we know that besides selling albums artists also make their money fromsome other way such as touring and performing, songwriting or selling t-shirts, hats. However under the control of the record labels, the business is unfair to vast majority of musicians, since most artists never recouped their royalty advances. In the future the power base will be shifted from the record labels to the artists and mangers, and the music fans. Through social network artists and their managers can make things happen on their own. With it, the structure of this industry will changed. the creative people like the artists and songwriters along with their business managers.will be at the center of the future of Music.
Launching singles and letting the audiences to select songs they like to make a album by themselves. As in the past, buyers were forced to buy albums to get the one or two songs they loved. But now the people can buy the song they want one at a time, maybe even free. Artist managements can use Facebook and MySpace as routes for launching new talent and songs free to likely fans.
And in the future the The music industry may abandon certain restrictive digital rights management tools, and might finally .abandon DRM. Music will come free with advertisements attached. This means trying out ad-supported models, for instance delivering fixed commercials such as sell concert tickets or merchandise in support of the artist, social networks, and whatever else people develop with free music tracks.
The future
I remember when i every month use to go and buy the latest CDs from my favorite artist, I use to ask my mom for money, no matter what happened had to get my hands on the latest albums. Now days are changed, those days are gone, now I could never imagine do the same, spend that much money (the prices gone up to the double) on a CD when I can get it digitally. The traditional business model the record companies had are not working anymore, new ways has to be found to make us pay for the music we listen to, digital store like iTunes have succeeded to some extent but its far from competing with file-sharing, ok I know file-sharing is like stealing, we would never even in our wildest dreams go to a CD-store and take a album put it in our pocket and come out without paying, and if we did we would e ashamed of telling others what we done, then why is it so accepted to steal music from the net, everybody done it sometime and we proudly tell each other about our latest downloads. We don’t have any moral issues, James Rachels in the ”The Elements of Moral Philosophy” talks about morality, he states that Morality consists in a set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another, that rational people will agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that others follow those rules as well. But I don’t see any “mutual” benefit from paying a large amount of money. I rather spend those money on going to the concerts. So the way I see the future, 10 years from now, the industry will continue on the same track it is now, digital stores will be in the game, the older generation or those that can be “politically” harmed (from there businesses) will use those stores, but our generation have a hard time accepting that “for owning a track you must pay fro it”. What the industry must do is to find ways to brainwash generations after us and make them willing to pay for the content they are using. Otherwise for the record companies and performers, the money lies in selling tickets for concerts, which can benefit the new unknown musicians who are waiting for their brake trough, they can share their music for free over the net and earn money on concerts. The artists will also earn money on selling other product under their name; they make a brand of their names.
By Tala
By Tala
måndag 24 november 2008
Essay Three – The Future of Music is Broadband
First of all, ten years is a long time. Maybe not for a Redwood tree or a character in Lord of The Rings, but to the rest of us it adds up to a quite substantial amount of time. Ten years ago the internet was something new and exotic – now it is in our everyday life. Back then the record companies made staggering profits and thought that the future (and probably the world) belonged to them. Now they are a text book example of myopic thinking and students all over the world are taught about how dangerous it is not being able to adapt to the changing markets and names as EMI and Universal are benchmark for how things shouldn’t be done.
Okay, that was a brief history lesson, now what about the future? Just a couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to try a new service called Spotify. It utilizes streaming technology and consequently requires that you are online in order to use it. I believe like Chris Anderson that in the future wireless internet will be as widespread as the Paris Hilton-cult. Almost everywhere in the Western world there will be accessible wi-fi and thus Spotify is something that has the potential to become the future of music. I do feel that there are some things that need to be taken care of. One thing is the limited selection presented in the service. Spotify has not a single Beatles’ album on it is servers and Beatles is regarded as the best band ever. However, if the managers for Spotify can ensure a supply of almost all the music I really think that this is the way to go.
How should we listen to it? Well I think that the telephone is the way to go, just as Apple has shown with its iPhone. It is possible to combine both the music and communication function as long as the battery issue can be sorted out (now the limited battery life is a problem), but I am sure that within the next ten years someone smart will have come up with an answer for that problem too.
Last but not least musicians have to get paid and my suggestion here is that they should get paid in relation to how much they get played. If their songs are popular on the likes of Spotify they should get more, if not so much they should get paid less. The billing procedure should be as simple as possible, so I think that the wi-fi suppliers should do it. Hence the Spotify fee should be included in what you pay for your internet connection. If you don’t want to use Spotify you shouldn’t have to pay for it.
By: Johan Östberg
Okay, that was a brief history lesson, now what about the future? Just a couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to try a new service called Spotify. It utilizes streaming technology and consequently requires that you are online in order to use it. I believe like Chris Anderson that in the future wireless internet will be as widespread as the Paris Hilton-cult. Almost everywhere in the Western world there will be accessible wi-fi and thus Spotify is something that has the potential to become the future of music. I do feel that there are some things that need to be taken care of. One thing is the limited selection presented in the service. Spotify has not a single Beatles’ album on it is servers and Beatles is regarded as the best band ever. However, if the managers for Spotify can ensure a supply of almost all the music I really think that this is the way to go.
How should we listen to it? Well I think that the telephone is the way to go, just as Apple has shown with its iPhone. It is possible to combine both the music and communication function as long as the battery issue can be sorted out (now the limited battery life is a problem), but I am sure that within the next ten years someone smart will have come up with an answer for that problem too.
Last but not least musicians have to get paid and my suggestion here is that they should get paid in relation to how much they get played. If their songs are popular on the likes of Spotify they should get more, if not so much they should get paid less. The billing procedure should be as simple as possible, so I think that the wi-fi suppliers should do it. Hence the Spotify fee should be included in what you pay for your internet connection. If you don’t want to use Spotify you shouldn’t have to pay for it.
By: Johan Östberg
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