Friday, May 28, 2010

Communication - The Revolutionary Ways

During the early stages, man communicate with other tribes by giving out smoke signals and playing drums. China even wrote letters and notices on bones before they developed the first ever postal service in 900 BC while the Greeks used pigeons. Then paper was invented and the postal service was the main communication medium. The telephone only emerged in the year 1876 and the radio followed shortly after. In 1944, the first computer was invented and was only sold commercially 7 years after. The internet was only invented in 1969 and even then, the American government only released its control over it after more than 20 years.

Today, we have what used to be a heavily-monitored communication system at our fingertips. Yet, many of us do not think twice about how these technology emerged and the future possibilities it can bring.

What communication medium (SMS, Instant Messenger, Phone, Twitter, Facebook), do you and your friends use the most to communicate through and why? What are the positives and negatives of each?

Most used (in sequence):

1. Facebook (and similar sites like Myspace, Tagged, etc.)
Positives: Pictures, walls, messages,... basically lets you connect with friends.
Negatives: Easy to get addicted.

2. SMS
Positives: Can communicate with friends anytime, anywhere.
Negatives: Costly when overused.

3. Phone
Positives: Can communicate with friends anytime, anywhere.
Negatives: Costly when overused.

4. Instant Messenger
Positives: Immediate communication without having to meet up.
Negatives: Lessen the time friends spend together.

5. Twitter
Positives: Allow friends to know what you're up to.
Negatives: Spammy, few quality reads.

Are social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter making your life better or worse?

It makes life better by allowing us to connect with friends so that we do not lose contact with them. However, many of us tend to over use these sites due to the addicting applications/interesting communities and waste too much of time on them. However, I believe moderate use of them is beneficial to maintain relationships but it may also be a little bad because we don't feel the need to meet up as frequently as before.

Please list the number of online social networking sites (Facebook, Friendster, Twitter, blog) which ones you are a member of and why you chose to have a profile/account on each of them? What activities do you usually do when you are social networking sites?

Facebook, because everybody has it.
Friendster, because everybody used to have it.
Twitter, just to see what the fuss is about.
Myspace, because every western kiddo has it.
Tagged, I'm not sure why I have it.
Bebo, because I was bored.
Bolt, one of my first social networking sites.
DeviantART, because today's artists are better than Picasso.
Flickr, because I have a Yahoo account.
Flixster, because I was invited by an online friend.
Fubar, because I was invited by an online friend.
Gaia Online, because one of my friends plays it.
Hi5, because... I forgot.
Last.fm, just want to see why so many has it.
LinkedIn, because I wanna pretend to be a lawyer.
Multiply, because loads of people have it.
Netlog, because I was bored.
Orkut, because I have a Google account.
Renren, the Chinese version of Facebook.
StumbleUpon, because I stumbled upon it.

By the way, blogs are not social networking sites. But just to answer the question:

Blogger, because I need to blog my opinions/feelings out.
Wordpress, just to see if it's better than Blogger.
Xanga, just for fun.
Vox, because it sounded cool.
Windows Live Spaces, because I have a Hotmail account.

What do I do there? Stalk people.

Shhhh.

How many Facebook/Friendster/MySpace/Twitter friends do you have? Who are these people? How many of these do you consider ‘close friends’? How many of them have you not met before?

Since I join so many networks, I'll just list the main ones here:

Facebook: 461 friends
Who they are: Friends, family, (ex-)classmates, online friends, random people.
Close friends: <5
Not met before: >400

Myspace: 23 friends
Who they are: Musicians, random people
Close friends: 0
Not met before: 23

Friendster: 138 friends
Who they are: Friends, family, (ex-)classmates, online friends, random people.
Close friends: <5
Not met before: ± 100

Do you prefer to meet people for the first time online or face-to-face? Why?

No preference. Because it's like market segmentation and they are from totally different markets. Usually the ones I meet face-to-face will possibly become an on and offline friend; whereas the ones I meet online will, 999 out of 1000 times, remain online friends. Not that I have met anyone of them, I'm just allowing space for unseen possibilities.

Do you have Twitter? If yes, how many followers do you currently have? Who do you follow?

Yes I do. I think I have about 15 followers, and I only know two of them - one of them my uncle, the other my long-time online friend. I follow mostly singers which I'm a big fan of and politicians just to keep up with the latest news.

1 comment:

  1. Tweet tweet ! I've got Hau Yon in the follow list - shall we follow each other ? =D

    ReplyDelete