I'm going to take this time to focus on only three 'categories' if you will...Content Communities, Social Networking Sites and Virtual Social Worlds.
Content communities such as YouTube have opened up the gateways of sharing information globally through video. We are now able to learn to cook a dish from someone in the country of the dishes' origin! Pause, rewind and replay it. Watch the next pop stars humble beginnings and journey. Laugh with someone hours away as we watch a toddler dance to Beyoncé.
Facebook the most famous of Social Networking Sites has bridged that loss of connection we may experience after moving away from our home town, starting College and University or the growth of families as they start a new life further away from home. We upload pictures and comment of funny moments in each other’s life. We play catch up, get caught up and get connected. How wonderful technology can be.
Do you know what an Avatar is? I hope you said no cause I didn’t know much about it. The Virtual Social Worlds have taken real life and twisted it into the fantasy of your choice. In a way you play God, you design how you look, what you wear, your location and much more. An escape from reality? Hmm I think so. I think as long as you keep at least one foot well planted in the real world you’ll be okay. How does this connect with social networking? Well just like Facebook and YouTube you’re connecting with people from around the world, you just happen to talk, live and co-mingle outside our standard of reality. People begin friendships and even online relationships within these virtual social worlds.
What’s next for Social Networking? Well that’s up to us and the next generations imagination the internet has made the possibilities endless. So do I think Social Media is the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Well in a word….YES.
-Stephanie Nunes
Great post Stephanie. An Avatar isn't just used in Virtual Social Worlds but also, according to Wikipedia, is also defined as "avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's" *
ReplyDeleteQuite simply, an avatar ca also be picture that represents us on Twitter or other sites.
* en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(computing)
I’m in total agreement with you Stephanie when it comes down to Social Media being the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution as opposed to being a fad. Reading your blog made me appreciate the use of technology much more than before, I guess that’s because I am so used to the latest technology being so readily available that you don’t really stop to think and appreciate the use of how Social Media has improved over time that you just end up taking it for granted. I also agree with your sense of what Avatar is and how it relates to social media as in this social media word people can potently pretend to be someone whom they are not, by posting inaccurate information about themselves. Therefore, deceiving the person that is reading up on them whether this is through a blog, twitter, Facebook etc.
ReplyDeleteI guess sometimes we do not sit back and apreciate the smaller things like you said watching the baby dance to beyonce and how this makes us happy. Furthermore I dont see any of this going anywhere because as long as we are mankind we will continue to strive to be happy and laugh and have a good time, so more dancing beyonce babys to come? I think so LOL
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I believe that ever since the industrial revolution, the social media has definitely been the biggest shift changing the way a lot of things work around here. I highly agree with the Avatar stuff also and believe that its not necessary to have an Avatar account since its basically giving yourself the life you want instead of the one you have implying to others that you're someone else when you're really not.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments :)
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