I think for many people, the games played and connections made on social media sites give people a distraction from their everyday lives. Sometimes people have so much on the go or so much else to think/worry about that maybe we all need to just clear our minds and playing these games or interacting on these sites allows us to do that. It is not much different than watching TV or becoming immersed in a hobby is it?.

For many users it is a way to procrastinate from the things in real life that we need to do. Everyone is a procrastinator aren’t they? Why should we do now what can be put off until tomorrow? Social media sites give us a way to keep busy without looking after the real things that need to be done. Everyone works better when that deadline is closer anyway…don’t they?

People also like to be acknowledged. Even when they are just people we have no contact with other than on social media sites. Everyone likes to have their statuses commented on. It makes us feel that others are paying attention to us. Retweeting our tweets makes us feel that we have something important to say. People like that feeling…even if it is just online.

We all like to feel we belong. Being alone sucks. But being connected online gives us a feeling of belonging to something. We can find people with the same interests or problems. We join groups and follow topics as part of a social group. We love that feeling of belonging to something.

Many use social networks as a way of assuring themselves that their decisions are the right ones. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you connect with. You can ask the social-sphere to help with a problem you have knowing what you think is the right thing to do. Asking for that assurance makes you feel better about your decision…the problem is that you don’t know many of the people you ask those assurances from so they don’t know the whole story.

My final idea of why people flock to social media is the anonymity of it all. Many people can be who they want to be. People can post whatever picture they want. They never have to show people who they really are even if they are interacting within their social media of choice. Many people choose not to show their picture or share any part of who they really are. While going against the true meaning of social media, it is their choice albeit not one I agree with. I dislike people who want to be a part of social media sites but who don’t share anything including their picture. People who use fake names don’t have any part in joining social media sites in my opinion.. The other thing with the anonymity is many use this mask as a way of striking out at others. They are online and have hidden who they really are so they can say what they want without repercussions. What goes around, comes around!

So why do you involve yourself with social media sites? Leave me a comment and let me know why?

With this ability to access information anywhere and any time, people need to know that what they say online can (and probably will) be seen by anyone at any time after it is posted. It may not be read right after it is posted but it is available to read anytime…even years into the future. You have to be aware of that. If it is on the internet it is there for everyone to read.

A couple of items piqued my interest this week when it came to the power of social media. First off there was a blog in Edmonton that received a nasty response from an Artistic Director/Actor of a local theatre company. An attempt to resolve the issue privately failed as another blogger was basically told the same thing. I won’t go into the details of the whole thing as you can read them at the links in this paragraph. The second blogger decided to write a post responding to the initial and subsequent nasty responses and posted this on his blog. He then sent a tweet out to announce his blog post as he always does.

This tweet was re-tweeted over 100 times and who knows how many times after that it was re-tweeted or the link to the posts tweeted or added to other blogs. The first blogger also wrote a response which also received much attention. Between the 2 blogs there were over 230 comments left by others wanting to leave their opinion on the matter.

The blog posts ended up going far and wide as people from various regions of Canada and the USA along with Australia ended up commenting with their thoughts on the matter. In addition, the Edmonton Journal, The Globe and Mail and iNews 880 in Edmonton all did a piece on the whole thing. There are even notes on the actor’s Wikipedia page detailing the controversy. So from a local blog post with someone’s opinions we have people around the world participating. This is social media at work…at its’ best and worst.

Also during the week I was shown an article about how a teacher in the Boston area lost her job because she posted something about the parents/students of her school on Facebook that she thought was private. Imagine her shock to find out that parents read what she posted and brought it to the schools attention. Needless to say it cost her her teaching job at that school and it will be something that future employers will look at before she is hired again.

So what do we get from this? We have found out the power of this new media. We have found out that anyone can find anything if it is posted online. We have found out that it is very easy for information to reach around the world. And most importantly…once it is out there for the world to see it is out there forever.

Erin Bury’s quote above speaks volumes about how people need to be aware of what they post online. If you have an opinion on a topic, there will be thousands more with their own opinions and many are willing to share those opinions. The best advice in addition to Erin’s that I have heard about your online presence is you have to make sure that you wouldn’t say or do anything online that you wouldn’t want your mom to see or read.

So, it has been way too long since I have posted. I have always had lots to say. I mean, I am an opinionated person. It isn’t that I am always right (although I usually am), it is that I have something to say about anything I am interested in or that catches my interest. I am also interested in what others think about the subjects that I chose to post on.

The glory of friendship is not in the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is in the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

So in the past couple of months I have had several people who used to read my posts ask me if I was going to start writing again. 2 of my readers even went as far as saying that my writings on my struggles to lose weight and control my diabetes was an inspiration to them to either lose weight or live more healthy. For those thoughts I am humbled.

So, I have my computer set up and I will be back posting and hopefully people will come back and read what I have to say. You may not always agree with what I post but your opinion is as valuable to society as mine so either way, please leave me comments. It is this interaction that makes blogs and social medias successful.

Many, I think, were expecting a MacBook Air without the keyboard portion. What they got was a large iPhone/iPod Touch. So if this is not really a Mac then what is the purpose of it? I am not a Mac lover by any stretch of the imagination but I could understand Apple making a device that ran OS 10.5 (or whatever the latest version is) that relied completely on the touch screen. In fact I would have even thought that to be partially worthwhile. But what did they give their fan base? A large iPhone/iPod Touch.

I know the Twitterverse was a buzz with tweets last week with over 177,000 tweets on the iPad in the first hour alone. Many people we super excited about the device but my biggest question is why? What is the purpose of the device? If I have an iPhone or iPod Touch then what would be the reason to buy one? The only advantage I can see is the larger screen for web browsing but really, is it worth the money just for that? I know there will be some games developed over the next while to take advantage of the touch screen and the ability to play driving games while using your iPad as the steering wheel. But really is it worth it?

Where are the USB ports for me to hook additional storage? Where is my web camera so that I can Skype my friends and family? I know, you can add a webcam…no wait, that would require a USB port which there are none. Where is my replaceable battery so I can carry a spare in case I run out of power on the fly?

So someone, anyone, please tell me what the purpose of the iPad is. Tell me why I should/must have one because right now I really don’t see what the fuss is all about. I have my iPhone and it does everything the iPad does unless I am missing something.

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