Social Networking

Second Life

2009-09-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

Second life is a missively multiplayer online game . It's a virtual world that enable its users to interact to each other.

The reason that people play second life sometimes is far beyond just for fun. For people with certain disabilities, it help them by breaking the barrier of socializing. When in the real world, these people are often stigmatized. While in second life, many of the real world challenges are eliminated, they become more equal, and many people are willing to hang out with them.Thus, it gives them a chance to try out these social activities that might be so hard for them in the real world.

Some teachers even use second life as a tool for teaching. They feel that, it's fun when students interact with each other in a completely different environment. Also, in this way, students will think deeper and are able to try out different possibilities.

However, second life actually become their first life. A lot of people admit that they spend too much time on second life that what happen in the real world are sometimes neglected. Besides, when people spend too much time on playing second life, the line between real world and fantasy are blurred, they sometimes shift these fantasies into the real world. When they put their emotions into the game, that's when problem raises.

Application of Social Networking in Obama Campaign

2009-09-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

Obama's social networking site http://www.my.barackobama.com/, know as MyBO did a great deal in helping Obama won the presidential election.

It help rake in cash. MyBO and other main campaign sites made it easy to give money by paying for advertising and staff and by making giving money a social event. "By July 2008, the campaign had raised more than 200 million from more than a million online donors, and MyBO had logged more than a million user accounts and facilitated 75,000 local events."

The internet offer different way to propagate Obama messages. Candidate's speeches and links to a variety of media material are posted online, they believe that when their supporters see these, they will spread out the informations.

The campaign also sent out text messages regularly to check if Obama was prominent on other social networking sites.

Issues on Social Networking

2009-09-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

More and more teenagers devote much of their time online. Actually, according to study, ninety percent of teens are now online. Messages texting, e-mail and MySpace, these are all become part of teens' everyday live. To put it another way, it's part of teen culture.

For many of them, it's a way to escape parents' control. They're able to have a private space even while they'er still at home. Also, since teens are in a age of "identity consolidation", social networking sites provide them a platform to try out different identities. Furthermore, for teens who are being marginalized, for example, gays or lesbians, they actually find communities online.

However, social networking is like a doubleedged sword, in addition to the private space and the sense of freedom and independence that it offer to teens, it also raises many concerns. "Online predators" has become the main concern of many parents and teachers. They worry about the things that their kids put online will eventually be misused by someone with bad intention or their kids will be penalized forever for their mistakes. Of course, these are some things that both parents and teachers should worry about, but according to study, the real concern has to deal with the trouble that kids might into their own. For instance, for kids who are engaging in pathological behaviors, such as kids with eating disorder, social networking accelerate their problems by providing them a platform to exchange tips and encourage each other.
These concerns raise the issue of parental control. By saying parental control, it doesn't mean that parents should limit their access to these social networking, instead, it's the job for parents to teach their kids how to use it responsibly and safely.