There have been endless articles on the internet, as being a force of good or evil, one of them warn us “If you are not perplexed, you should be. As the web becomes ever more widespread, infiltrating our lives and shaping what we think is possible, we are increasingly unnerved about what we might have unleashed. Will it promote democratic collaboration and creativity? Or will the web be a malign influence, rendering us collectively stupid by our reliance on what Google and Wikipedia tell us being true, or, worse, promoting bigotry, thoughtlessness, criminality and terror?” Sunday Times. I certainly believe we’ve seen all of the above. However; as I read in a blog, “The internet’s powerful force is just a medium of communication and is no more good or evil than a mirror is beautiful or ugly.” In the specific case of the social software applications, they enable users as “agents of technological change” to explore, learn, discover, organize, publicize, etc. The way I see it the internet is the greatest invention of our generation.
The complexity of the human race has being analyzed from every possible angle, and it seems that the urge for communication responds to the need for self-preservation, security, pleasure, reproduction, belonging, validation and love as the main drivers of our social behavior. In general, the changes we are seeing today in our society have a common ground, and that has to do with what make us human. “According to Nietzsche, man is determined by the play of vital forces and attractions and not by the reason.” For instance, I sometimes try to understand the Internet as if it was some kind of a new powerful machine that has come and engulfed us, or a force that it has made itself comfortable among us, an entity that is here to stay and has opened the gates to our unlimited potential and bounded only by our imagination. It give us powerful tools, as it cannot act on its own, so it is our call what we do with it, evil or good, make your choice.
People are flocking to the social networks, for many reasons. Most are good reasons, such as staying in constant touch with dear family and friends, catch up in latest trends, for an opportunity to make new friends, hang out, flirt etc. Some individuals’ main purpose is to capitalize and profit from those seeking social contact, others want to spread their gospel plus many more reasons impossible to list. However, these network publics, as anything around us, are being transformed where the line between “private and public” is increasingly unclear. Like they say a world where things are “public by default, private when necessary.” Dmlcentral,
As we approach the end of our Social Communication course, we have discussed and analyzed the significance of communication both digital and non-digital, and the ways they are affecting our personal and professional lives. Furthermore, We’ve discussed how the new tools of social media are transforming the way we do business as we have come to know it. As we have engaged in discussions, and written about it, we’ve have witness how the internet is shaping the way we communicate and share information. Our speech or communication by speaking, writing with the aid of symbols, gestures and so on, have aided us to fulfill our natural needs to achieve a more fulfilling existence.
The internet has shaken and collapsed the availability of information structure that supported the cost of communications, where it seems that there is nothing we can’t do; the commodity of information is available to the masses at almost no cost. “Today information on steroids has become a surplus commodity. It chases you, hounds you, beeps, vibrates, pops up, invades and permeates every waking moment.” Asian conversations
Everyone is a media Outlet. Clay Ahirky.
The invisible technologies of Goffman’s Sociology From the Merro-Go-Round to the Internet>
Danah boyd. (2010). “Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances.Dynamics, and Implications.” In Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (ed. Zizi Papacharissi), pp. 39-58.
On the Human Being and Being Human What Is a Human Being?
http://www.asianconversations.com/PrintVsWeb.php
http://dmlcentral.net/blog/danah-boyd/public-default-private-when-necessary
