Week 2 Social Media

"social media is a bad idea, rise of social media has caused more and more problems like internet addiction, social isolation, and invasion of privacy, especially with the young generation.. agree?"

The internet creates a virtual space where people are able to do things that they are not able to in real life. I believe the most easiest example we can get now is Second Life's gravity defying avatars. Sure, people are having fun, getting connected with people living across oceans and lands, and enjoying the life 'made-easy'.

But what concerns me most is what problems are being generated with such virtual spaces. People are becoming less and less attached to reality and more absorbed in maintaining their virtual lives. There used to be a time when people would make a phone call and everyone would gather at the mall to chat and have fun. Now, the upcomming trend is to stay at home, and let the computer and internet connect you to your friends and hang out in virtual reality.

To a point I remember my dad saying as he walked pass my room once.

"I bet you can't survive one day without Internet."

That sentence, at that point of time was dismissed by me easily, as I was using the Internet for entertainment purposes such as reading of online manga and watching online anime which happens only once a week. Other than that time, I am just wondering aimlessly in the Internet, but keeping 'real' contact with friends at school.

A few years have passed and I look back at this sentence once again, thinking to myself that it probably don't apply to me, for I can 'survive' days without the Internet, provided I have something constructive to do. But that sentence hold true to many others outside, especially to those who are addicted to the internet, online games and chatrooms.

Take Second Life for example, they have managed to create such a 'real life' virtual space that practically what can be done in real life is repeatable in there, and what CANNOT be done in real life is possible there.

So to many people, here's the question. "Why live life here, when I can live somewhere great elsewhere?"

Having said that, I pose a simple yet puzzling question that has bugged me for some time already.

"Can virtual life completely replace real life?"

I'll bet the answer is no to many, pretty much because your avatars eat virtual food but not you. So all in all we still live in real life. So here's my second question.

"What good does it do, if you lead a glorious virtual life, but your real life is in shabbles?"

Forget those who made millions of dollars, real dollars from virtual reality. I'm talking about ordinary people like you and me. Where is the future for us if our real life is in shabbles despite the glorious virtual life?

Week 1 Introduction to Internet

It is almost impossible to think of today's world without the presence of Internet, as it has became so closely linked to our daily lives, even those who are not directly using Internet, these people have no doubt be indirectly affected by its widespread.

It is originally intended for military uses, but the founders and other pioneers of Internet saw its potential and with the further development of technology and other significant devices such as computer mouse and web did it become an essential part of most of the individuals in society.

The advantages of Internet paint a beautiful picture of how communication, learning and entertainment access can be made easier to people's convenience, such as emails and IMs make communication with people all around the world easier and cheaper, information available though the a search engine at just one click, music and video sharing with ease over a platform...

But as we think of the advantages, there are others who make use of Internet's scope and coverage for their own gains and other crimes. Unhealthy information such as pornography is easily available, hacking of bank accounts and organizations' information, copyright and distribution of unauthorised materials make people think twice whether Internet is really as advantagous as we think.

As these problems become serious, such as personal computers are infected with viruses, trojans and other spyware, people have come up with solutions to help. Virus scanners, firewalls, securities, passwords have gained popularity. Authorities have started monitoring the activities carried out over the internet, addresses being tracked and so on and so forth.

However, even with these measures taken, hackers still get their way, classified information still find it's way out of the safe, money lost and conflicts happen. It is an endless debate whether Internet is helpful or harmful, boon or bane to society. But as the debate goes on, we know well that without Internet, our lives would never be the same.