I do realise that my blog posts are HORRIBLY belated but I do hope that one can bear with me. Well, to tell you all the truth, I dislike blogging. Seriously. I dislike Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and all those stuff as well. Maybe it is just me, but I feel extremely narcissistic posting stuff about myself on the web for all to see. I mean, I may put up stuff and feel extremely happy when someone comes along and views it. If that is not narcissism then I don't know what is. Anyway...
In this post, I will be talking about Social Media. No, I will not really be talking about blogging or Facebook or Twitter as honestly, I feel those topics have been done to the death. Instead, I will be talking about how those people may act online, using those Social Media.
The Different Types of Social Media
Ok, so we have stuff like forums and blogs where everyone can come online and share their views. That is fine and dandy. Sharing of views is great, really!More recently, there are new social media like Twitter and Facebook in addition to Myspace and Friendster.
But what really baffles me is how a person online may act so differently in real life. I am sure anyone who frequents blogs and forums would be familiar with the concept of "flaming". Basically, it just means to insult other people using as much crude or immature language as possible. Sometimes, these people may do no more than respond with a "you suck" in a forum thread or blog post. It may appear that there is no real motivation to do so other than to tick you off. They may just spam your website with useless threads or responses. You may be lucky to get a response written in good english instead of the infamous "1337" speak.
Maybe they use this...Now, I am sure people certainly do not act like that in real life. Most likely, they would just get punched in the face for attempting to do so. But yet, they do so on the net. Why is this so? To vent off steam? To unleash their darkside? I suppose that one thing about power of the Internet is the power of anonymity. You can come in a blog, insult someone for the sake of it and leave without anyone being wiser. With all these new Social Media, we can only expect cases like this to rise.
This leads to the question. Is the social in Social Media really sociable? Can it be something to trust and rely on?Like those 1000+ friends in your Facebook account whom you have never even met? People say that Social Media helps us human beings to further socialize with others. I guess that is true, but with how some people act online, Social Media has a long way to go before it can true enhancement of human socialization.
