Questions:
What is Virtual Social Living?
How does it work?
Am I a part of this?
How will it affect me?
In an attempt to understand the dynamics of recent Social Media Movements I stumbled upon this thought as how significant is our virtual presence. Privileged man has split his life in two very barely differentiable identities. His physical presence in society and his life in Internet. Privileged because only about 35% of total human population has access to Internet. But not all of this 35% has a virtual life. The Internet has been there for more than around two decades now but it did not reached the masses until last few years of rapid telecommunication rise and diversification of Internet usage. Mobile phones became our seventh sense organ. You can now connect, find, work, contribute and grow with your peers, friends, family; leave your footprint in each step, each click of a button. Its a fundamental shift in how man communicate with other man, a revolution far greater and reaching than the Industrial revolution some would argue. Welcome to Virtual Social Living.
Communication = Expression + Understanding.
The growth of Human civilization has been credited to our ability of improving ways we communicate with each other. I believe the most powerful aspect of our virtual life is our freedom of expression, I write what I want to write, I may proudly reveal my identity or prefer to wear a mask of anonymity. Every human expression needs Audience to understand it; audience here is the largest that can ever get, independent of cast, creed, color, border, race, its limitless. Its like a big canvas where everybody is writing, everybody is reading everyone is communicating with everyone all through a single common channel. Social media methods has completely redefined basic human communication streams: to read, to see and to listen. Therefore with independence of expression coupled with larger audience and with use flexible communication modes we have been able to creat a singular collaborative platform for whole of humanity that is fast, reliable and direct.
Reading is as old as writing, and writing itself dates back to early cave man drawing animals and signs on cave walls. Reading book until now was a more enhanced version of cave walls that man carried and rewrote and republished over last few centuries. Now you don't have to carry your stack of favorite books you just put all of them in your iPad how easy. You read them, listen to them anywhere anytime, share them with your pals and peers; most importantly you also express your exclusive opinion, you review them. This is just one of so many changes social media has brought in, market watch- way we buy and sell, new media- what you want is what you get, travel- where to go, when to go, how to go, what to eat, where to stay everything. It has even the power to form and pull down governments. One comment in Facebook brought down the 30 year rule of President Hosini Mubarak in Egypt- power of social media. This is a radical change, it may look sententious change, but its more of a spontaneous kind and I can not escape it because it is changing society of which you and me are invariably part of.
Virtual Social Living has thus changed the demography of Human World. It has and will keep bring people more and more near to each other, will help me understand you better.
Its not appropriate to decide here if it is good or bad, what affect is bigger the bright side or the bitter part, its the involvement what I am trying to understand.
What is Virtual Social Living?
How does it work?
Am I a part of this?
How will it affect me?
In an attempt to understand the dynamics of recent Social Media Movements I stumbled upon this thought as how significant is our virtual presence. Privileged man has split his life in two very barely differentiable identities. His physical presence in society and his life in Internet. Privileged because only about 35% of total human population has access to Internet. But not all of this 35% has a virtual life. The Internet has been there for more than around two decades now but it did not reached the masses until last few years of rapid telecommunication rise and diversification of Internet usage. Mobile phones became our seventh sense organ. You can now connect, find, work, contribute and grow with your peers, friends, family; leave your footprint in each step, each click of a button. Its a fundamental shift in how man communicate with other man, a revolution far greater and reaching than the Industrial revolution some would argue. Welcome to Virtual Social Living.
Communication = Expression + Understanding.
The growth of Human civilization has been credited to our ability of improving ways we communicate with each other. I believe the most powerful aspect of our virtual life is our freedom of expression, I write what I want to write, I may proudly reveal my identity or prefer to wear a mask of anonymity. Every human expression needs Audience to understand it; audience here is the largest that can ever get, independent of cast, creed, color, border, race, its limitless. Its like a big canvas where everybody is writing, everybody is reading everyone is communicating with everyone all through a single common channel. Social media methods has completely redefined basic human communication streams: to read, to see and to listen. Therefore with independence of expression coupled with larger audience and with use flexible communication modes we have been able to creat a singular collaborative platform for whole of humanity that is fast, reliable and direct.
In coming years we will see more significance of Virtual Social Living. I will try to imagine this idea; General Election in India for a certain year in very near future has been completely prepared to take place online. The amount of money spent in terms of man and material in any General Election in India is significant, most of could be saved I am sure if replaced by a softer version. However the more significant thing will be the transparent nature of such a process. To add on top of it will be more appealing to voters to see that their vote is making a difference, as these days most of the urban population prefer not to vote. It does not end here, a healthy debate and discussion on each candidate will go through public scrutiny, this should hugely reduced worthless individuals from being elected. Just like the pros there are definitely cons to it too, but those could be reduces and worked around with.
Virtual Social Living has thus changed the demography of Human World. It has and will keep bring people more and more near to each other, will help me understand you better.
Its not appropriate to decide here if it is good or bad, what affect is bigger the bright side or the bitter part, its the involvement what I am trying to understand.
