I think I was about 10 or 11 when 'You've got Mail' aired in cinemas. It was a comedy cum love and yes, a very good example of the 'various advantages' in the virtual world.
The movie overview: Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are rivals in the real world as they are competitors in business. In the virtual world, they interact well with one another through the use of emails and screen names. And then, predictably, they fall in love and period.
Ahhh...the beauty of the internet. MSN chat, Skype, Facebook-these are the things we heavily rely on in this technological age. Not only we as teenagers use them but hey, our parents are also part of it. Not for mine, my cousins at least. When I went over to Beijing where my uncle was based, he would chat with my cousins everyday via MSN and they would 'report things like any mischief ' and webcam him to say good night. What a very sweet way to keep in contact!
With websites like Faceboook helping us to keep in touch with people we barely know(yes, as long as we remember that fellow as our primary school classmate, then she's on our virtual friend list), it is also a portal for our parents and aunties or uncles to 'spy' on us. A friend of mine commented that if his dad ever added him on facebook, he would reject him because 'I don't wanna be controlled even online'. It was then I realised that as much as online portals make much more convenience than before, it was also a clever(could be misleading as well) way to find out alot of things about someone you might think you're close to.
I know of many friends who seem very quiet when interacting with them face-to-face. But when they go online, it's as if that person you're talking to is not them. Scary! Like what we've learnt in class, people take on different personas online and really, it's hard to tell which 'face' of that person is their true self. Then again, for them, having an online persona is their way of expressing their feelings and thoughts that they might not have the confidence to talk about in real life. In a sense, the virtual world allows them to 'escape' from reality.
Of course, not all's grey or rosy in the virtual world. Not grey, because it allows us to find out more about someone we might not dare to interact with in real life. And not all rosy because virtually, we can use it to deceive. I mean, when our lecturer told us about the case of the father and daughter meeting up after chatting online, it made me wonder how much of influence the internet has on us. I did find it funny though, just imagine how the two reacted when they saw each other! LOL.
All right, just a cartoon ad to laugh about. I personally am very much in love with all things Peanuts.
haha yes. i think msn and facebook users can really deceive people around them. i have a friend who has 1000 friends on i forgot either friendster or facebook, and he boasts about it. in reality, hes a someone who is always exaggerating and fabricating facts. so you cant tell whether is someone a good or bad guy by just communicating with him online. so huishan, being innocent and nice by nature, try not to believe in people so easily by how they communicate with you online. stay strong and smart like you always are!
ReplyDeletehey, yea like my friend joked, imagine if the dad had asked his daughter where she was going when she left the house? ha.
ReplyDeleteyea. i think the virual world allow us to become a different person. but i think it also allows us to be the person we are. let me explain, we all adjust our personalities to the situation. for example, if we are in a religious place, we'll tone down, solemn-er kind. but if we were in a party, we'll be outgoing.
i dun think we can blame the virtual world for our change in personality. it is just a medium for communication, another situation.
With the introduction of technology, we have now a wider network of 'friends' but are these friends real or they are just a fake indentity in the virtual world... to be honest some people get involve so deeply in a relationship in the virtual world that they no longer see the real world as their world.... they can no longer seperate themselves from the real and virtual... it is really a sad thing to say...
ReplyDeletei would say communicating from behind the computer screen completely removes the intimidating presence that you'd otherwise get in face to face communication. when you communicate through the computer, the removal of this intimidation, removes most of the inhibitions that prevent us from saying stuff that we normally won't. now u know eh. LOL.
ReplyDeleteas savage garden sang. On the telephone line, i am anyone. this may not really fit into the context that we're talking about now, but. it is true that the internet gives us a certain degree of anonymity. and i guess people choose to abuse this anonimity more than appreciate it as a form of privacy. cyber bullies, as an example? and also.. FACEBOOK STALKERS. LOL.
anyhow. u have to agree that the internet gives us a lot of convenience. :)
indeed, CMC has provided us with a lot of convenience, allows us to be ourselves without fitting in and adjusting as we did based on situation in the physical world.
ReplyDeleteHowever, i also find it rather creepy because it is easy and accessible to us, we became dependable of it. Without laptop or internet, we are almost handicapped, we depend on it to network,to find information, to look for jobs... what happen to real human contact? After all, interpersonal relationship developed from face to face interaction.
Anyway, this is also pretty subjective. Some people may communicate less online but are really vocal in real life...so yea...
i seem to recall commenting on someone else's blog with an EXTREMELY similar post.
ReplyDeletebut nevertheless,
convenience - yes
disconnected from reality - maybe
i guess it depends on the culture and context.
like korea, china, where there are so dependent
and reliant on internet as the main medium and form of communication.
i'm talking about the asian context here. because i think in singapore we have not reached the stage where everyone is sitting behind a screen or we are locked in some state of atrophy.
we are rather in a transitional phase at this point of time.
i can only hope we can salvage our humanity before we turn into virtual machines. where we are governed by the rules of an artificial creation based on human intelligence.
and lester, facebook stalkers? YOU right.
i agree with lester that communicating onlines does remove some intimidation.
ReplyDeletemany of us are getting used to it. so when we have to talk to people in real life, we stummer. it gets worse in presentations.
i have experience with an aunt asking me if i have a facebook account and asked me to add her. altho i dont maintain my facebook account and there is nothing to interprete from my profile, i still did not add her. i prefer my cyber world adult free. the next you know she might start talking to me on MSN. *shivers)
I've never watch that movie before eh but it sounds interesting from your description, Shall try to see if I can find that movie online or not *OOPPS* LOL!!!
ReplyDeleteTrue enough, especially people at our age are heavily relying on Internet, MSN & Facebook as our own form of entertainment. No doubt abt it. But sometimes I don't think it's really very healthy to indulge in it everyday. How often are we willing to spend time sitting down with our family to playing our computer? I guess all of us have our own 'answer' about it.
Anyhow Nice post here! =))
Cheers,
ShiWen
(remember-my-blog.blogspot.com)