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
Prenumerera på:
Inlägg (Atom)