Social Network
I can honestly say that I am totally fascinated by technology, and cannot over emphasize the way the advancements in new media, have changed our lives, and brought five huge continents together, in a very small global village. A few years ago I was very much involved in social networking, and spent alot of time on Hi5, Myspace, and MSN instant messenger. During this time all I did was, connected with friends, played games, and looked at what other people were doing. It was rather interesting cathing up with family members, and old friends, but it was also very time consuming.
A few years later when the other social nerworking sites like twitter, and facebook started emerging, I never felt the need or any sense of emergency to jump on board, although many of my friends were becoming fanatics. In addition I really could not figure out how social networking was making me a better person, or how it was positively impacting my life. At the same time many stories were surfacing about how people’s privacy were being violated, and I clearly remembered hearing of several incidents on TV, with individuals losing their jobs, because of conversatons they had on facebook. Conversations they thought were safe, and secured, but were published for the entire world to see.
As a result of these negatives, I chose to stay away from the major social networks, and never became part of the facebook obsession. I recently opened a twitter account, and started blogging for educational reasons, and because it was a requirement for this course.
141 responses so far
I am not familiar with Hi5. Can you say more about it and discuss how you used it? I’ve seen folks mention it from time to time though it doesn’t get discussed the way the other services you mention do.
Do you see yourself returning to social networking at some point or are you done with it beyond what you need to do for this class?
Hi5 is a social network with many similar features like facebook. You create an online profile, and dislplay personal information like birthday, current location, and nickname. You can upload photos and creat photo albums where others can post comments and leave messages. Fun games are also part of the Hi5 experience.
I am still a current member of Hi5, and use it mainly to communicate and interact wilth family members and friends. Most of my Hi5 friends are now on facebook and as a result I spend very limited time on the site.
I will most certainly join a larger social nerwork like facebook as soon as i have valid reasons to do so. I also plan on using twiltter, and blogs way beyond this class.
It is true that you have to be careful with the information that you share because you don’t know who is using it, but social media like twitter, facebook, you tube help to keep in touch with old friends, learn new things, or see faboulous things others do. it is time consuming but it helps