Communicating on the Internet

Today's class was structured around social networking, instant messaging and email communication. As an avid user of all these mediums to communicate with my friends, I have to say I love email the most.

The reason why I love emails over social networking such as Facebook, Twitter or even MSN is that there is no face to face communication. When using MSN, sometimes I get people whom I don't really feel like taking to, making an internet call to me or spamming me with messages. I get so annoyed whenever I'm multitasking on the computer and in the background, their chat box keeps appearing and the MSN soundbite keeps on beeping away.

It is not really their fault for the innumerable annoyance over MSN. It is just that with MSN, we learn how to type in short forms, or have a tendency to type one word and hit enter cause its free! Whereas over SMSes where we are charged per sms, we tend to squeeze in as much info on one SMS to save money. Therefore, over MSN, one sentence would go like 'Hi' followed by "How are you" then, "Haven't seen you for awhile". As such, I have steered clear from MSN, disabling my auto-sign in whenever I log unto my computer.

As for social networking. There are just so many unspoken rules to follow. For instance, one is not allowed to not "un-accept" a friend request from perhaps your boss or colleagues. Even though we have been advised many times that it is best to keep your private life away from your work life. Many a times, when I have chosen to ignore a friend request on Facebook, I will receive hate mails, questioning me on why I have declined their friend request. It often leaves me puzzled because I believe that it is MY Facebook & I have the prerogative to accept or deny whoever I deem fit.

& even in situations whereby I accept a friend (I would rather not) out of courtesy & to avoid hate mails, I would have go to the trouble of categorizing them under certain privacy lists in order to select what I allow them to view on my Facebook and what I disallow them from viewing on my Facebook. What a hassle!

Therefore, email is still the best option, there is not rush to reply a person because there is no certainty if you have seen the email.

Start of COM 125

Hi guys, I am Clarissa. And this is my first blog entry for COM125 introduction to the internet. By the name of this class, one might think that it is an easy class because everyone knows about the internet, everyone uses it, what could be so difficult!

Sad to say, I was one of them. But I couldn't be more wrong when I attended my first class and realized that I knew nothing of how the internet actually works. The mechanics and technicalities behind the internet system. How it works and how it is simplified so that the end users, 'us' could utilize it to make our lives so much more efficient.

There's this thing called cloud computing which I still have yet to get a firm grasp on and then there is this class about social networking which I am extremely interested in. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and a long list down is something we are all familiar with and use on a daily basis, I for one would say that I cannot live a day without scrolling through my Facebook page.

We use it for free, but has anyone ever thought about how these social networking sites make money if everything seems to be for free for us end users? Besides advertising of course, there are other ways Facebook monetize their website and thus making Mark Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire. If you haven't already guess, income from advertisement is just a drop in the bucket for the tons of money they make every day.

Companies are now also looking to social networking sites to publicize their businesses. While it sounds great in theory, I for one think that it is a lousy idea because there is no conversion rate, people don't readily buy your product, sure, they do learn more about your products. But what is the pull, in my opinion, I still think that traditional marketing works best.

Perhaps I am severely wrong and am just making a fickle assessment of how social networking works, I still have more to learn & looking forward to the next class!