Say hello to social media!

In this technologically advanced era, the introduction of many forms of social media can be overwhelming for some, especially older folks who might not have grown up in times where technology is readily available. Yet now, we are able to tap on all these social media to communicate with our friends, even from abroad!

Honestly, I am personally one who use social media a lot. I check my online accounts on my laptop quite a number of times each day and even on my iPhone while on the go. And I often think, "What would really happen if these things disappear overnight one day?"

So, I decided I would talk about 3 different social media platforms I use and like the most.

Firstly, of course, there's Facebook!

Facebook was not originally called Facebook when it first started. I won't go into too much details about the origins of facebook and such in this post because I'll probably talk more about it in my post next wk. But just briefly, it was known as Facemesh at first and later on became what we all know today, Facebook.

It's a website where we can add friends into our online social network, and share our photos, status and comment on each other's photos and statuses online. Quite amazingly, it has helped many find friends they have not had the chance to meet for years. Also, when friends do updates, even if you don't have the chance to meet him or her in person, you still can keep yourself updated with what he or she is currently doing recently.

Next would be Twitter!

Twitter is a microblogging site. Similar to Facebook, users can do status updates and even upload photos on their status. However, users are only limited to using a maximum of 140 characters in each update, hence the name "microblogging".

One reason why I like Twitter so much is that it is much less complex as compared to Facebook. At one glance, you are able to see all the status updates of the people you follow and you can reply your followers' tweets.

Most news agencies have also started using Twitter so that users can access live updates of news while on the go, either on their laptops or smartphones. This will also in a way encourage the younger generation to read and find out about what is happening in the world around them as it is more convenient than bringing a newspaper around and easier to read.

Last but not least, it's Weibo!

Weibo is actually similar to Twitter and performs almost the same functions as Twitter. However, the only difference is that it generally is an alternative to Facebook and Twitter in China. Facebook is banned officially in China, which inevitably led to the creation of a similar website as it is a country with many people who are well-versed technologically.

The only difference between the above 2 social media platforms I named and Weibo is that Weibo is predominantly in Chinese. Chinese language is used for most of the content uploaded. When I first found this website, I was really amazed because due to their similar layout to Twitter, it is more user friendly than Facebook and yet it has the conciseness of Twitter. Hence, in a sense, it combines the strengths of both Facebook and Twitter.

Not forgetting, for those of you out there who have China, Taiwan or Hong Kong artistes as your idols, most of them actually use Weibo as a platform to communicate with their fans. So do try out Weibo if you haven't. It's as good or even better than your usual Facebook and Twitter.

What is Internet???

When asked in class how we would answer if our older aunt asked us "What is Internet"

The usual definition of Internet we would give or hear would probably be "The Internet is a collection of computers connected to form a global networked environment."

After much thinking about it, I think I would give a simpler explanation which the older generation can visualize more easily. My reply would probably be "The Internet is something which we can use to communicate with people from all around the world in the shortest possible time, and even see them on the computer using new and advanced applications."

You might or might not agree with my definition, but one thing for sure is that Internet has changed our lives in one way or another.

We once only had the option of writing letters and sending by post or even using doves to send long distance messages to the other party. Why I say that the Internet is something that we can use to communicate with people from all over the world is that we now have changed mostly to use the Internet to send electronic messages to one another from one country to another and it reaches in just a single click. The speed precedes all past methods of communication if face-to-face communication is not available.

Next up, what we usually hear when someone mention Internet is the World Wide Web(www).

Honestly speaking, before taking this module, I've always thought that the Internet and www share the exact same meaning. A check on Wikipedia before doing this blogpost made me realize that www is a system of interlinked hypertext documents that are accessed via the Internet. In other words, www is not the Internet! That's something new!

Here's a photo I found on the web.

It's actually a datacenter housing some www services!

Since we've already covered the advantages of the Internet in our first 2 lessons, I shall talk about the disadvantages of the Internet here on my blog.

After looking at the photo above, I can't help but wonder what will really happen if all the datacenters in the world housing our www services crash. The Internet no doubt has brought about many positive changes in our lives, allowing us to advance. However, it has made us dependent on technology. If we are unable to use the Internet at all, what will be the alternative before something even better than the Internet is invented? Businesses, countries' economies would all be affected if the Internet cease to exist just for a day or two.

In addition, the advancement of the Internet has also led to a loss of privacy. Gone are the days when you can really be anonymous on the web. Photos and information go on the web the moment it happens, no matter whether you want it or not. One example would be facebook. The moment something happens, posts and photos can go up almost immediately.