Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Second live is very popular these days for many people. I believe that people like to be or live on second live because there is no limitation. People can be whoever they wish to be or they can’t be in their real lives. That’s what I am assuming because I am not really big fun of second live.

Second live can be used for recruiting for employment or any meeting within the company, as we discussed it in the class. These are positive aspects of second live. For instance, somebody has a low self-esteem, and by having virtual second live, can build or boost it. Individual meets with other peers and communicate, however it is missing the emotional side. Moreover, I think that it should be viewed as funny socializing activity.

I must say that I see much more negative sides of it. People spend so much time that they don’t even know what real live is. It is also time consuming. For example, like the article mentions, it sounds little weird to me that people go to the club on second live instead of going there in their real present time. However, it can be fun for sometime.

I don’t want to offend anyone, but people who are close to be addicted to it are lacking social skills that are looking for in front of the screen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html

Twitter Discussion

I would say that discussion on twitter is just too limited. It is hard to express yourself more deeply because of the letter limitation. However, if you like to chat about anything that interests you, it is very easy to do so. For example, I am at home not much to do, so I can simply log in and chat about any topics that I like.

Bb discussion board has one advantage that we can write unlimited characters unlike on Twitter, but I don’t like the lay out or to explain better the organization of board. I have to click so many times in order to see what others write.

Discussion in the class is the most valuable way to really discus anything seriously. However, there are so many people that rather have time to organize their thoughts before they say it. In any face to face discussions, people have no time to plan what they say. And it can end up that they say totally different opinion then they really meant it.

Social Networking

Social networking has so many purposes how they can be used in real live. The primary reason is to be closer to your friends, family or actually anybody you wish to. I have mentioned this earlier. It is very affordable and everybody has an access to it. The bright side of that was already said above and also in my previous posts.

The negative aspect of social networking is that sometimes it can be really annoying to be informed with anybody’s little thing that they do and then share it with others. Also, there are so many of these networking. It would be more organized for individuals to have just one where everybody follows.

Other dark side of it is that if you want to cancel the account, it might be a little problem, for instance, facebook still keeps some of your information after deleting. I had a bad experience with the network named HI5. When I wanted to cancel the account, it didn’t let me and kept sending me emails such as why do you wish to cancel or we will cancel it in 30 days, so I still have time to change my mind.

I would say that people might not want to see each other as much as now in the future because of social networking. It is sad but it can possibly happen. Moreover, it is hard to say how social networking will evolve in the future. If I knew it, I would try to pursue it and became rich.

This article shows the way how networking is used in a way I didn't mention.
Marketing yourself..............

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/fashion/21whiz.html

Social Networking sites

I would say that all three social networking are very similar. These social networking are here for the main reason to keep people connected. Now, we can keep in touch with our friends or family from all over the world so easily.

Facebook
This networking is my favorite. I use it a lot to keep in touch with my friends. It’s simple place to share pictures or music with others. For instance, my friend from Czech Republic went to Taiwan and took so many pictures. How could I see them? Sending to my email would take forever. So, he just uploaded them to facebook and we all his friends can see them and share his memories from the trip. Also, it is very easy to chat with everyone added as your friend. Moreover, if you don’t want to be a friend with someone, you just don’t accept his/her request and he/she won’t know that you denied it.

Myspace
My space was popular years ago. I used to have it. I stopped posting anything on it since the most of my friends signed up for facebook. I would say that myspace is not so popular in Europe. I remembered that it was working pretty much like facebook. However, there wasn’t live chat. There are some features such as customizing your page with color which I don’t think it is so handy.

Friendster
I had never used Friendster until today. I did not find any significant differences from others social networking.

Skype
Skype is the best networking to call over the internet. You can call anyone who is connected at this moment for free or buy a credit. I always use Skype to call on cell phones or home phones out of the US. It is the cheapest provider that I found so far. You can share pictures or music too. However, it is not as accessible as facebook. You have to send each picture or file at the time.