On virtual socialization: From face to face to cyberspace

       It is very common nowadays how people socialize and try to share their ideas in the internet. But looking at the past, most of the rich and famous people had only documented themselves just by self portraits. These paintings usually suggest how they have lived and also suggest their professions, traits and attitudes.

         Nowadays documented profiles are upgraded into digital and virtual forms. These profiles are carefully manipulated and improved to get attention. This is created to find friends or to find people of the same interest. This form of socialization has boom significantly. The face to face conversing is then influenced and changed through the creation of a virtual world where many people of different locations can meet up, mingle, talk or even share ideas. According to a study entitled: Virtual Socializing Takes Over The Real- Taniel, people are spending more time on the web socializing than in actual real life. It also pointed out that out of 10,500 people that took a survey 6% of those people say that they spend an average of 10 hours a week online, and the majority of the users that get online are signed up for Facebook, Myspace, and other popular networking websites. Creation of personal profiles varies from one person to another some are motivated to meet opposite sex or to meet partners. Some intend to have these socializing accounts to advertise or to make groups with same interest. One can easily find friends that can even develop into deeper relationship. It is not unusual that most of the people find their partners over the cyber world.

Through the virtual world one can freely express his ideas and thoughts that come up to his mind. Shy and timid people can now socialize without any hesitations, this is very evident in the movie, “The Social Network” where Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the social networking site, “Facebook” is not very good at expressing himself in person. He actually created a campus-based site that allows the users to rate the hotness factor of girls on campus. Revolution in communication, site connects students, describes what drives life in college, who's single, and how to hook-up with girls.

           But virtual socialization can be tricky, sometimes people tend to make false profiles just to fool people and make money out of it. Some just want to make fun, earn some trust for business purposes through advertisements. Unlike the actual or face to face form of socialization, misunderstanding is a common scenario in virtual environment. Interpretation of messages might be different and usually the real essence of the message is connoted differently.

        Whether it is in a real or virtual world, it is important to be careful and responsible in socializing or interacting with other people.

Missing the Snail Mail: From paper and ink to email just a couple of clicks

          Communication is the connection which allows the access between persons from different places or the activity of conveying information or messages.  These messages are sent according to the sender’s mood and intent. But whatever the reason of sending a message the channel or mode of how it will be sent is important. During the early days, the mode of sending messages is with the aid of birds. Pigeons were used by the warlords to send messages to opponents trying to have concrete and mutual agreements. Postal system service was then introduced on 1653 where the Frenchman inventor, sets up mail boxes and delivers any letters placed in them if they used envelopes that only he sold.

            In the present time, messages can be sent in various ways. There is what we call snail mail which physically sends mails through mail box and the other one is what we call electronic mail or popularly known as email which then make use of computer as the sending channel. One method can offer advantages over the other; in contrary it can also impose some drawbacks. The impact of the message can be based on the purpose of the letter. Letters which are personally written by the sender has a greater impact to the recipient, that is the essence of the message can be easily credit to the sender which happens to be the writer. This is very evident to love letters, the thought conveyed is more effective if the letter intended for someone, if it is personally written by the sender, considering the extra effort of writing. The credibility of the message can also be supported by the penmanship, because it served as the exclusive identity of the letter.

The emergence of the more advanced way of sending letters drastically changed the phase. This is because electronic mail services offer a lot of advantages over the conventional way of sending letters. Among these advantages are that email services is very accessible and free, just by making a personal account from so many email service provider sites such as gmail by Google, yahoo mail by Yahoo, etc. one can easily send instant messages, full text messages, images, and other forms, at a touch of  a button. Aside from that one can send messages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The speed might be the best reason why most of the people shifted to the virtual way of sending messages. One can send a message on any part of the world without waiting any longer for the message to be received by the intended recipient.

            But these mind-blowing improvements have also threats or drawbacks. Since the sender uses an electronic file it can be prone to corruption through virus and by other malicious files that can hamper the message sending process. Hacking might be also be a serious threat, especially if one is trying to send classified messages or even a simple personal message, through hacking one can intervene the channel and illegally view or download the file you are trying to send, as a result, privacy is compromised.

            Let’s also face the fact that most of the people usually think that physical letters may just end up as junk. No one wants to be a hoarder. So the modern technology is making the traditional method dead. In the Philippines aside from the fast phase of technology, the main reason why postal services drastically decline is because of the illegal doings of some of the postmen who try to open and steal the mail package. There are reports that there are many postmen who do this kind of illegal doings. This illegal offense has compromised the credibility of the snail mail or physical postal delivery service. As a result, many people lose their trust of sending their letters through the physical mail box. They are afraid that their letters will never reach the intended recipients.

A recent innovation has addressed this issue, the “Enter mail digitizing startup Outbox” which is launched in San Francisco, USA, actually integrates both the conventional snail mail with the more advanced electronic mail. An “Outbox” drops by your house three days a week to pick up the mail, scan it, store it, and make it digitally available via the Web and or by an iOS application.  

So whatever method of sending letters you intend to choose, always remember that it is always the thought of the message that counts.

Education and Technology: An Integrated Approach Making Instruction Easier

         Technology has been part of our daily lives in the present world. Though its transition is very fast people tend to catch up and never let to be left behind with the computer world. Its continuous evolution leads to a deeper perspective on how people can integrate it into their daily life activities.  

         The integration of technology is very evident on how instructional techniques have evolved. Through the years the methods of instruction or educating people have evolved dynamically. From the conventional method that make used of solely blackboards, chalks, papers as main material for visual aids to more advanced, computer aided instructional techniques.  Through the integration of technology to education, imparting knowledge has not been that easy and more interactive. According to a research study by Common Sense Media, the use of computer has been pervasive even among very young children.

There have been different approaches on integrating technology with education. The simplest approach could be the use of powerpoint presentations during class discussions rather than the using the traditional chalk and blackboard. Though changing the phase of how the discussion will be carried on using powerpoint presentations, it tends to catch the attention of the students. Aside from that preparation of instructional materials or aids will be a lot easier for the instructors. For more advanced and interactive way some educators made use of server computers with local area networks (LAN), the process is that the instructor uses a main server computer to monitor the activities of the student during the class, in such a way that the instructor can view of the actual monitor interface of the studenst. In this technique the changing of ideas will be very simple and efficient, lessons, activities, exercises and examinations can be more interactive. Also, checking will be a lot easier on the part of the instructor.

Some educators even used of social networks as part of the teaching process. The benefit of this in the part of the students is that students who are shy or afraid of expressing their selves can open up and have a healthy conversation with the instructors over the internet. The integration of social networks can reveal how students express their perceptions and can help them to think rationally.  

But the improper and irresponsible use of technology as part of the educating process can affect the way how students think. The abusive use of the internet on making assignments and take home exercises tend to make students lazy. This is because most of the time students just copy and paste answers rather that reading then interpreting the answers on their own ways. In terms of the wrong use of the social networking sites, students cannot be conservative on expressing their thoughts making it difficult for them to control their emotions over a topic.

Nevertheless, technology will be an integral part of the educating process.