Thursday, June 21, 2012

Immediacy and permanency

By now it must be clear for most of us that everything we’ve ever done using virtual Social Networks is there to stay. The fact that instantaneous messages are exchanged at such speeds, coming from every corner of the world makes even big companies shake with fear, some corporations are already dead; and the survivors are quickly changing their ways of production and technological methods in order to stay. If big businesses can’t make anything but adapt, what can we simple beings do?
Know.

Know that when using virtual Social Media everything stays: every word, every picture, every new group and circle creation, the uploaded videos, and absolutely everything that has been posted are there to stay forever. We can’t change that, but we can change the way we do things so that we never regret it.
Know also that messages, pictures, news, and everything else are there at the very second they are posted. These can be shared quickly and the rest of the world can see them within minutes. We all have heard or read about the viral tweets, pictures and videos that get millions of views in less than a day.

So, please know.
Before you post something that may affect somebody else or yourself: be informed and warned about the permanency and immediacy of such actions. It takes only a few keystrokes and clicks to do it, but a lifetime to accept the fact that it is done.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

You are what you post/publish


Image is everything.
Well, not exactly. But in a way, what we wear on our backs, the shoes we walk on, the vehicle we use, or glasses, hats, scarves, watches, mobile phone, and all that somehow wraps our body or part of it affects the way we are perceived by others.

However, when it comes to communicating, all those implements suddenly lose importance, and the degree to which they affect such communication diminishes to become practically zero. Surely you’ve met people that dress with the most expensive garments but their social status; education and culture don’t match the fabrics. And most likely you’ve also met those that dress comfortably and humbly and yet their values, morals, knowledge and everything else surpasses by much the other person’s dressing codes.

What marks a huge difference in the virtual Social Networks and all other ways of communicating through these electronic media is that we have to be precise in our conveying of messages. Here, clothing is optional, and the devices we use don’t show up; they are just a mechanism that allows us to talk to each other.
In these instances, the way we express ourselves is the “clothing”. There are no valid pretexts to demonstrate our education is less than what we really have acquired. Trying our best to use proper capitalization, punctuation, syntax and grammar is the way we really show who we are. The type of words we choose, the way we put one after another, the length of the sentences, whether we ask much or say many things; absolutely all that plays a role in outlining our presence.

I have heard and seen people apologizing or giving excuses for their poor typing, explaining that the way they write words is –according to them- fashionable, or that they use all capitals because that way they would write faster not having to accentuate some words, or that doing it this or that way other people won’t notice they don’t have good typing skills or good enough ways to communicate.
Guess what? Fashion comes and goes, while tradition and manners stay; uppercase-only needs punctuation too; and the people we write to and everybody who can read what we post already knows us, right?
If they are in our acquaintances lists, they know us already: they know who and how we are, and even why we are. So, who are we trying to fool?

The way you express yourself here and everywhere else defines you. It outlines who you are and the type of person you are. In brief, it shows your net worth as a person.
Clothing is optional.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Say, What?

So, we are talking to some friends about regular topics when Franc interrupts yelling “Look! I found 10 cents!”
Very likely some of us will simply dismiss the comment; some others might be waiting for the continuation of Franc’s joke, noticing in a few seconds that there is no joke.
Then, some other day in a similar scenario it is Lira who comes crashing: “Look! I found ten dollars!”
Here, some will react and perhaps ask where and how she found the money; some will her to buy something for them too, and so on. This incident very probably would not only interrupt the current topic, but also start a new one.

Then, at a different time it is you who comes jumping and screaming: “Look! I found one hundred dollars!”
See the reaction around, this is really something isn’t it? This would definitely kill whichever current topic is discussed, creating a new instant topic that might linger among us for a long time.

What kind of posts do we do? Do we brag about our ten cents? Are we the types that says “good morning” or “I’m having lunch…” or “I’m tired” simply because we are in front of the screen and have nothing better to say?
Could it simply be our Fear of Isolation and Willingness to Speak Out as Gi Woong Yun and Sung-Yeon Park suggest? (Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 16, Issue 2, pages 201–227, January 2011, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01533.x/full#b60).
Are our posts really important or interesting or exciting or at least funny? Do they convey a positive message? Do those make us think and react? Commit to something?

I hope yours do. Above all, I strive to make mine do too.