Monday, January 26, 2009
Week 2: Social Media
Guys..
The gist of our second week of COm 125 lecturers can be simply summarized as the Pros and Cons of Social Media.
PROS
- Decentralization of authority( personal empowerment whereby everyone has the freedom to express their views. Model example:Chee Soon Chuan.Any idea where he is?? ;p.therefore,maybe not so applicable to the Singapore context)
- Ideal platform for various businesses to advertise their various products. Product placement , free trials etc.
- Easier organization of interest groups. Through the use of Facebook, people are now able to organize and seek out various interest groups based on common interests.E.g. Fan groups. Beneficial to businesses as well whereby they can target a particular interest group and attract them with its products. Linking back to the example about fan groups, concert promoters can now directly approach these fan groups and inform them about upcoming concerts of their favorite singers instead of wasting resources on wide-scale advertising and promotional events.
- Second life, Irc all allow for real time interaction with other users. Has led to the "death of distance" and acheivement of sense of self for some people. These social media platforms has led to the break down of social barriers which may have limited certain people's freedom of expression in the past.
- RSS(Rich Site Summary)- real time update of news and weblogs to keep users in tune with the latest happenings.
Ironically,the Pros of Social Media have a negative aspect to it as well.
CONS
- Through blogs, everyone now has become a "newsmaker". Everyone now has the power to influence others with his/her views. What if the person was a terrorist? Isn't this the very reason why our professors hate wikipedia so much; because everyone has the ability to alter the subject content and thus making it unreliable?
- Yes, social media has resulted in economical advantages for companies but aren't they the very ones behind all those irritating pop ups and spywares which we detest so much
- I maybe reaching too far out here or maybe even exaggerating when i say this. While Facebook has allowed for the formation of interest groups there are such things as hate groups too right? Its a possibility right?!
- Living vicariously via the character one portrays on second life and IRC has its downsides as well. There are some who adopt these secondary lives for real, choosing reel life over real life. The crux of the debate for the use of IRC is that it has resulted in the loss of personal touch which can only come from face to face interaction. Perhaps a solution would be Skype.
So is social media a good thing or a bad thing? I seriously do not have an answer to that. Can we do without them..NOO!! I was backpacking in vietnam and I was very determined to lead the backpacker's kind of lifestyle..Budget lifestyle, don't shower(according to my buddy this is not true! lol) etc.. I was telling myself..I can do without my MP3 player, my PS3 and maybe MAYBE even Facebook. It turned out I had to log on to Facebook everyday because it was the only way I could be in contact with the other backpackers so as to plan our travelling schedule. How did we survive before Facebook??!!
Oh YA..HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR PEOPLE..GONG XI FA CAI! HUAT AH!!!
Baby Blogger,
11:12:00 AM