Hi Everyone,
Friendster was the pioneer of social networking. Then Hi5 and Bebo. Now, Facebook!, Twitter!, Myspace!. How about YouTube, LinkedIn and the new Google Plus? Social media include all these plus newspapers, televisions (Astro, Media Prima) and music.
Some parents may ban their children into watching tv or listening to pop songs but social media is good if it is used in the correct manner. Balanced social media is good.
Here are some examples of how social media benefits us or help us to take a look at another perspective:
Let's start off with the Internet and the television industry.
Let's start off with the Internet and the television industry.
News
For those who are on the move, they can also read news online either through news websites or through RSS feeds and readers. One of the notable readers is Google Reader
where we can add news sources from around the world such as BBC, CNN,
The Star, The Age Australia, Bloomberg, CNET, Discovery News, blogs and
others. It is also available for Android phones or tablets as well. For
the IPad and IPhone, we have Mobile RSS Reader and Flipboard.
The functions are similar to Google Reader. Through the Internet, you
can also view the news directly through web browsers. The news is
updated faster through the web. The Star Online
remains one of the top visited sites in Malaysia. Almost all of the
newspapers and news sources have presence in the web such as New Straits Times, Malay Mail, The Age Australia, BBC, CNN, Reuters, CNET, Bloomberg, WIRED Magazine, ESPN and Discovery Channel.
It is actually depending on the individual itself that TV
can be bad. I have watched various tv programmes and it is purely
entertainment. The good news is that there are educational tv channels
being shown such as Discovery Group channels (Discovery, Discovery Science, Animal Planet), History Channel and the National Geographic Channel.
Disney Channel and Playhouse are another two educational channels for
children. In Malaysia, Astro have Tutor TV and Astro TVIQ for students
and children.
Some of my favourite tv shows are CSI, CSI:NY, CSI Miami, House, Alias, Glee, NCIS, The Mentalist, Bones, Chuck and American Idol. All the CSI, NCIS, The Mentalist, Bones and also Criminal Minds are crime series. After watching crime themed shows like CSI, NCIS and others, I do not have tendencies for murder / revenge at all. It is just purely entertainment. Hong Kong drama series do have themes of anger, revenge, evil but most of us do not have tendencies for anger, revenge and evil too. Therefore, there needs to be an understanding between parents and children regarding this. We should be able to use our discretion to make the right choices.
Songs
We are also introduced to the pop culture through the songs that we listen to on RedFM, Mix FM, Hitz.FM, Lite FM, Era, Fly FM, MY FM to name a few. The concern is some of the pop songs lyrics are explicit and may not be a good influence younger children. There are also good songs such as I Believe I Can Fly (R.Kelly), Because You Loved Me (Celine Dion), Man In The Mirror and Heal The World (both Michael Jackson).
More notable or good singers now are Taylor Swift, Christina Perri, Bruno Mars, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, One Direction, Maroon 5, Jason Mraz, Josh Groban and others. For me, it is only a way of relaxation.
Yes, there are songs from Pitbull or LMFAO that are quite explicit but I do not really like these kind of songs. It is just a from of entertainment. Lady Gaga is strange with her elaborate costumes and her songs are a little out of the ordinary but it's her creativity and the tune of her songs makes her stand out. She may not be a good influence to the society but she has entertainment value. There is nothing wrong with that. It is just entertainment to me.
TV / Movies
Some of my favourite tv shows are CSI, CSI:NY, CSI Miami, House, Alias, Glee, NCIS, The Mentalist, Bones, Chuck and American Idol. All the CSI, NCIS, The Mentalist, Bones and also Criminal Minds are crime series. After watching crime themed shows like CSI, NCIS and others, I do not have tendencies for murder / revenge at all. It is just purely entertainment. Hong Kong drama series do have themes of anger, revenge, evil but most of us do not have tendencies for anger, revenge and evil too. Therefore, there needs to be an understanding between parents and children regarding this. We should be able to use our discretion to make the right choices.
Songs
We are also introduced to the pop culture through the songs that we listen to on RedFM, Mix FM, Hitz.FM, Lite FM, Era, Fly FM, MY FM to name a few. The concern is some of the pop songs lyrics are explicit and may not be a good influence younger children. There are also good songs such as I Believe I Can Fly (R.Kelly), Because You Loved Me (Celine Dion), Man In The Mirror and Heal The World (both Michael Jackson).
More notable or good singers now are Taylor Swift, Christina Perri, Bruno Mars, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, One Direction, Maroon 5, Jason Mraz, Josh Groban and others. For me, it is only a way of relaxation.
Yes, there are songs from Pitbull or LMFAO that are quite explicit but I do not really like these kind of songs. It is just a from of entertainment. Lady Gaga is strange with her elaborate costumes and her songs are a little out of the ordinary but it's her creativity and the tune of her songs makes her stand out. She may not be a good influence to the society but she has entertainment value. There is nothing wrong with that. It is just entertainment to me.
Reference / Learning
We can learn a lot through the Internet and television. Research articles and materials are published in the web for us to read and reference it.
Wikipedia is one of the examples of good websites on the web today. It is essentially the online encyclopedia covering a wide range of topics and materials. Most of the information in Wikipedia are reviewed and confirmed that it is accurate.
Want to know how things work? Here are some useful sites. HowStuffWorks is a learning website that lets you know how stuff works from electricity to cars to computers to home improvement and quartz watches. Everything is there.
The IT community or those who are interested in IT is not left out as well. You can learn various programming languages online through W3Schools, MSDN and Java. The complete resources for the .NET libraries are also available at the MSDN Library. The complete Java API is online too. For a good and extensive HTML5 and CSS3 references, Sitepoint is a notable website to go too. Sitepoint also produces numerous books on web design principles and its related technologies. Finding a solution to IT / PC problems can also be found on the net too. Some of these websites include ITToolbox, ExpertsExchange (may need subscripton), Tech Arena, SQL Authority with Pinal Dave, ZDNET, CNET and A Programmer's Knowledge House. Forums are another way to find out the solutions as well such as LowYat.NET and Microsoft Forums.
MayoClinic and WebMD are two of the more established health websites in the world currently. General health and diseases information are explained on these websites. It is still a point of reference and we need to get doctor's advice when we are ill.
The IT community or those who are interested in IT is not left out as well. You can learn various programming languages online through W3Schools, MSDN and Java. The complete resources for the .NET libraries are also available at the MSDN Library. The complete Java API is online too. For a good and extensive HTML5 and CSS3 references, Sitepoint is a notable website to go too. Sitepoint also produces numerous books on web design principles and its related technologies. Finding a solution to IT / PC problems can also be found on the net too. Some of these websites include ITToolbox, ExpertsExchange (may need subscripton), Tech Arena, SQL Authority with Pinal Dave, ZDNET, CNET and A Programmer's Knowledge House. Forums are another way to find out the solutions as well such as LowYat.NET and Microsoft Forums.
MayoClinic and WebMD are two of the more established health websites in the world currently. General health and diseases information are explained on these websites. It is still a point of reference and we need to get doctor's advice when we are ill.
Social
Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Friendster all fall into the social category. You can get to know what your friends are up to, connect with school friends and colleagues and play games online with your friends. You can also interesting share articles and news to your friends. For Facebook, you can also upload photos, create photo albums and tag people that you know.
LinkedIn is another social website mainly by the corporate network. Career opportunities and networking with current and former colleagues can be found here. We can interact with companies through forums, recruitment agents and headhunters for job opportunites. We can also network with our colleagues, both current and from previous companies that we worked for. We also get to know what they are currently doing.
LinkedIn is another social website mainly by the corporate network. Career opportunities and networking with current and former colleagues can be found here. We can interact with companies through forums, recruitment agents and headhunters for job opportunites. We can also network with our colleagues, both current and from previous companies that we worked for. We also get to know what they are currently doing.
RapidKL is one company that utilises Facebook and Twitter to reach out to public transport users. News of any train delays will be posted here. Questions on the LRT and bus routes can be asked and answered here. They also receive feedbacks from customers to improve their service. When there are extended hours for the lrt service during concerts or special events, it will be posted here as well.
Music / Talents
Talents can be discovered here too! Marie Digby, known for her version of Rihanna's Umbrella and her song, Avalanche was discovered on YouTube. A music producer discovered her and she made a few albums. Sabrina, a popular acoustic singer from Philippines also had videos posted online. Jaylesslee, a band featuring Korean twin sisters, Janice and Sonia based in Australia also posted vidoes online on their renditions of popular songs on radio. They sang songs such as Price Tag, I Won't Give Up and Just The Way You Are.
Blog
We can also improve our writing skills through blogging and creating our own websites. Among good blogging sites are Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr. There are a lot of good articles through blogs. There are a lot of good articles through the reading of blogs and websites. Examples of good blogs and websites are Yvonne Foong's Neurofibromsis, CindyTey, Writers Club KL, Belinda Chee, and Ryan Seacrest. Several of our politicians also got involved in writing on their blogs such as Lim Kit Siang and our current Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
E-Payment / E-Transactions
The web also provides a platform for e-payment and e-transactions. We do not need to worry about queues at the post office anymore as most of the payments can be done via the web. Most of banks provide e-banking services such as Maybank2u, UOB and CIMB Clicks, NAB. We can pay our bills and income taxes (E-Hasil) through e-banking services. We can do E-Filing of our income taxes online too. We can also shop online through sites such as MPH, Amazon, Apple Store and GSC. Cinema tickets can be bought online at both GSC and TGV and therefore we can avoid the queue on weekends. For Android, IPhone and IPad users, you also can make purchases on Playbook and iTunes store.
Blog
We can also improve our writing skills through blogging and creating our own websites. Among good blogging sites are Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr. There are a lot of good articles through blogs. There are a lot of good articles through the reading of blogs and websites. Examples of good blogs and websites are Yvonne Foong's Neurofibromsis, CindyTey, Writers Club KL, Belinda Chee, and Ryan Seacrest. Several of our politicians also got involved in writing on their blogs such as Lim Kit Siang and our current Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
E-Payment / E-Transactions
The web also provides a platform for e-payment and e-transactions. We do not need to worry about queues at the post office anymore as most of the payments can be done via the web. Most of banks provide e-banking services such as Maybank2u, UOB and CIMB Clicks, NAB. We can pay our bills and income taxes (E-Hasil) through e-banking services. We can do E-Filing of our income taxes online too. We can also shop online through sites such as MPH, Amazon, Apple Store and GSC. Cinema tickets can be bought online at both GSC and TGV and therefore we can avoid the queue on weekends. For Android, IPhone and IPad users, you also can make purchases on Playbook and iTunes store.
Conclusion
However, there are people who also used it incorrectly such as being a stalker on the web or involve in web pornography or cheating people of their money through the net. There are also cases where our personal, credit card and banking information are stolen through phishing.
Social media is good if we used it wisely. We can find a lot of resources on the web such as the examples given above. In a conclusion, we need to be careful while using the internet and avoid unnecessary hassles. We need to shop at secure payment sites and do not click on e-mails that we do not know. Last but not least. please do not use the web for unlawful purposes.
However, there are people who also used it incorrectly such as being a stalker on the web or involve in web pornography or cheating people of their money through the net. There are also cases where our personal, credit card and banking information are stolen through phishing.
Social media is good if we used it wisely. We can find a lot of resources on the web such as the examples given above. In a conclusion, we need to be careful while using the internet and avoid unnecessary hassles. We need to shop at secure payment sites and do not click on e-mails that we do not know. Last but not least. please do not use the web for unlawful purposes.
Cheers,
Rogerkoo
Rogerkoo
