The life of social media is here – live it!

In today’s life, people are more on places like Facebook and Twitter than at a friend’s house. Although, if it weren’t for sites like Facebook, some friends maybe wouldn’t have been just that – friends. But in this furious development of communication and social media, Facebook has become more than just a place for social networking. Today, Facebook is a factor of advanced business and a symbol of our time.

In a discussion about Facebook, my sister said as an argument of not being on the popular site: ”Why should I be friend with a person on Facebook that I wouldn’t say hello to if I saw the person on the street?”

A discussion in the same subject brings forward in the article Facebook dumbing friendship down? from Edmonton Journal. The author asks himself the question if a physician should “friend” a patient, answers the question with a no, due to the risk of misunderstandings and as the title says, for the risk of “dumbing the friendship down”.

I think it’s important to see the difference between “friend” on Facebook and friend in real life. Friend on Facebook is to be seen as a person you share information with and should not necessarily be connected to friendship in real life. With that in mind, there’s no risk of misunderstandings and no risk of dumbing your real friendship down.

The communications of today, especially the social media, has given us so many opportunities and advantages, and I think it would be a shame not to use it. In this article, we are given a little hint of the meaning of social media, both for individuals and for companies and organizations.

The message in the article is the search engines’ more advanced technique in collecting information from everywhere on the internet, especially social media. A company or a person with a good network on the web has better chances to climb higher on Google’s ranking and to be more successful. The significance of the internet has its risks, but it’s also gives great opportunities.

I believe that the social media is a great thing, both for the connection between people and for daily business. My message is: “friend” your doctor, enlarge your networking!

It’s the people like you and me that have created this life of communications. Why shouldn’t we live it all the way?

A tricky dilemma needs a solution

When I hear or read a word it use to be fairly simple to sort out if the word sounds positive or negative, at least if the word has some kind of meaning. For me, the word copyright brings a lot of thoughts and opinions to reflect about. Still, I don’t know where to put the word. Positive or negative? Good or bad?

The initial thought with copyright is good. People who create something should be protected from people who want to steal it. If the things they’ve created are good, it should also be profitable.

When you discuss copyright, it’s almost always music that is discussed. Copyright rules as much in art or literature, but you don’t hear about that. I guess it’s because it’s working. It’s different with music. The new generation is really consuming music; music is such an important thing in today’s life. The problem is that young people don’t want to pay for it – because they not use to. With all downloading and file sharing growing the last ten years, it has become habitual with young people to download music for free. We’re not consuming books or paintings via internet in the same way, and therefore, it is also natural for us to pay for it. But it’s not that way with music.

I think the industry with file sharing has gone too far to stop it. It’s too late. There’s really no idea trying to put people in jail for file sharing. In the documentary Good Copy Bad Copy, Peter Jenner from Sincere Management says something worth considering: “If they close down all the peer-to-peer technologies in Europe, there will be one in China. Or in Russia, or in Kazakhstan… and if you close all those down, there will be on pacific islands. And if you close all those down – there will be on a boat”.

To sum up, I think it’s too late to stop the industry with file sharing technologies and I don’t think it’s either possible or reasonable to punish people who share files. On the other hand, I think artists should get legitimate payment for what they create. But there must be another way than to stop the file sharing. For example, Spotify is a great thing. The artists get what they deserve, and people can listen to free music. I think that is good start of solving this dilemma.

Triumph of the nerds

Can anyone imagine a world without a computer today? Well, I can’t. In today’s life the computer is absolutely central, especially in the younger generation. It’s actually comical that the fantastic, revolutionary and world-wide story of the PC started in a little garage somewhere in USA in the seventies.

The Triumph of the nerds, a documentary by Robert X. Cringley, describes the PC: s enormous development.  Cringley brings us from the Altair 8800 – one of the very first PC: s, to Gates’ and Allen’s entrance on the scene with Microsoft and the competition from Jobs’ and Wozniak’s Apple. IBM: s initial domination and the rivals behaviour to stay on the market is another interesting part in the documentary.

What I think is the most fascinating though, is how many small decisions in the early days turned out to change the world, both for the industry and for individuals. For example, what would have happened if Gary Kildall said “Yes!” instead of “No thanks” when IBM offered him a co-operation? What would then have happened to Microsoft and Bill Gates? Would the world have looked the same way today? We will never know. What we know is that the PC: s development is a magnificent story.

Welcome!

Very welcome to my new blog at wordpress. In this blog you can follow my experiences at the School for Education and Communication and particularly the course Communication and technology. I look forward to start blogging and give you my opinions and reflections during the course, at least.

I hope you will enjoy it!