Owdrie's Weblog
My webblog for Webskills…Archive for November, 2007
The Power of the Masses
It is true, Internet is a perfect way to express yourself and your opinions: Blogs, forums, chats… so many places where you can share your views of the world, anonymously. Since internet exists, many asociations could spread their opinions around the world, for an example. This however becomes problematic when opinions reach websites that should be objective, such as Wikipedia.
In my opinion, Wikipedia is a great project, in which everyone can share his knowledge. When I have a doubt or want to know what something is, my first reflex is to look for it in Wikipedia. The objectivity claimed by the online Encyclopedia gives people trust, because they take it for granted that every article was written by a person with no other attention than contribute to the world’s knowledge, even if their accuracy can’t be proved. But, there is a problem if some authors aren’t objective anymore, but are ready to falsify informations in order to influence people’s opinion.
This was for an example the case during the last French presidential elections this year. The datas regarding the two candidates, Segolène Royal and Nicholas Sarchozy, were changed many times during the day in order to influence the votes. Wikipedia had to take measures in order to stop these changes. Pages regarding the Irak War and G.W.Bush were also a source of problems for the free encyclopedia.
Yes, it is true, Internet gives the mass the ability to express, organize, even mobilize itself, as it is easier to organize protests and strikes, or to denounce injustice, through the Internet. We also have seen what happened to the monk’s protests in Burma: When the government realized that the internet revealed the truth about the situation in Burma, he made everything in his power to disable the national internet connections. So, it is true, the Internet is able to make the masses stronger. However, it makes them also easier exposed as well.
Companies and organisations pay a high price in order to get informations and e mail adresses. Through forums, discussion groups or websites with specific thematics, it is easy to get informations about who is interested in what. When companies or organisations get the e mail adresses, it is easy for them to target the persons probably interested in their products, and then send them e-mails proposing special offers.
To conclude, I think that the Internet influences the world in it’s way. This wonderful media is used for good as well as bad purposes. But isn’t it like everything else in our world?
Connectivity
“Do you have Facebook?”
Audrey is…(update your Status)
Who, at High school and University, isn’t part of one of the world’s largest networking websites? Online, you can show the whole world your Popularity: “I’ve got 223 Friends all over the globe!” Nobody, after that, can call you a social outcast.
The question is, though, what the definition of a “facebook friend” is. How many people add you with the only goal to increase their popularity statistics, even if they couldn’t stand you at high school and were the first ones to talk behind your back? The question, though, is to know if:
1) you believe that these people may have changed since you’ve seen them
2) you are able to refuse the friend request, knowing that your conscience may remind you that the person may not appreciate to know that she’s not your friend.
A propos talking, Facebook is also an optimal way to satisfy your curiosity: You can easily check if your actual crush is taken, who’s in a relationship with who, who broke up with who, who knows who trough who, and many, many other “whos”. It’s certain that Facebook gives you interesting topics to talk about. For an example Hugh Grant’s picture scandal, as he has been photograophied drunk with young girls, who put the pictures on her facebook accounts, and spread up the scandal around their network. The pictures were on the national newspaper on the next morning. He must be a great facebook fan now.
Applications are funny little options you can add to your page, they can have a decorative purpose, be games, or tell your friends more about your personality. There is a large variety of applications, going from your daily horoscope to the creation of your own south park character, daily quotes, the weather, ninja games where you can recruit your own facebook army… So, to resume infinite possibilities to waste your time on facebook instead of doing your Homework.
So, it is true, Facebook is amazing. And keeps me from doing my homework as well as the others. Facebook did have positive consequences for me too, as it enabled me to find friends I had lost of sight a long time ago. While reading this, your question might be: “why do you write such a text if you are still on Facebook- and enjoying it?” Well, I suppose that, like many other people, I enjoy writing satyrical articles, and being part of a trend at the same time.
Customization
Well, today I made a new Header for this blog. After all, I want it to look a little bit more personal… Now, I’ll see what I have to write exactly for the Webskills course. I think there are better blogging systems than wordpress… This one is so confusing. When I used myblog.de, it was easier to createa nice website…
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owdrie