CAN YOU LIVE WITHOUT THE INTERNET NOW?

So how many of you out there has an Iphone or a Blackberry or even a normal Smartphone for that matter that can immediately connect you to the internet or can direct you to yr favourite applications online like Facebook/Twitter/Tagged/Flickr and even Blogger for that matter?!
Well, i bet the answer would be ALMOST everyone.
As we all know, now internet is everywhere and with the help of wireless connection and GPRS on yr phone you can get to use the internet comfortably wherever you are in your country. It's as if CMC (computer mediated communication) has taken over the world in some sort and even a few hours spent in a country or area with no wireless connection might make you feel alittle tad uneasy.

Some might argue that with the whole wide range of communication thru computers and phones, people might lose their sensitivity to each other and they might totally forget about the normal medium of communication which is face-to-face. They might fear that people would tend to use only the internet to communicate as now they even have SKYPE which is a web-cam phenomenon where you can talk to anyone online with the help of a webcam and a microphone which are two things that come in-built in most laptops nowadays.
With skype, there would not even be a need to meet the person face to face as you can just talk to them thru skype as they would be able to hear everything you have to say to them. This is similar to videocalling in your handphones as well which further eliminates the need for face-to-face communication in this modern world where we dont even have time to brush our teeths properly in the morning.

Yet however in my opinion, regardless of all these gadgets being so high tech and everyone going into the IT-savvy stage, the whole idea of meeting someone face-to-face and telling them how you feel or just being there for the person, and spending some quality time with them in person instead of talking to them thru webcam or thru a facebook message, actually goes a long way and shows more sincerity and concern. I feel that sincerity comes with action and to view the action you have to look at the person and observe what they're doing and not just listen to what they say to you online.

Dont get me wrong, there are cases where relationships between people and communication between people occur just thru and online social networking basis and this can lead to future connections or even marriage. However, there will come a time when you would want to meet the person face to face and talk to them and be there for them physically to hug you or comfort you if you need someone to talk to.

So back off twitter and facebook, even though you're awesome and you connect me to many people around the world, i still think i'd prefer meeting a friend for a coffee at a nearby starbucks so as to chill and talk about our life updates as compared to just telling her online or thru an email. but what about you? have u succumbed too much into this computer generated world or do you still believe in sincere face-to-face meetups?
please comment, thanks (:

Culture.

Many of us are born into various cultures and are expected to follow the values that we were brought up with or taught to have.
Which is why we all know that culture is very subjective. "it's learned, shared, dynamic, multifaceted and cultural identities are overlapping" (Trenholm 2004).
The values we uphold are more often than not, shaped by the culture we are in. These cultural values provide the context within which a society's norms are established and justified.
Yet sometimes, is it okay to carry out certain activities or do certain acts just because its part of your culture and people of your society are doing it? Well the issue of the 'red shirts' in Thailand would definitely explain more.


We all should be aware of the current situation in Bangkok, Thailand where the 'red shirts' of the United Front for Democracy against the Dictatorship (UDD) are protesting against the Prime Minister to dissolve the parliament and have another election. They gathered at the shopping district of Ratchaprasong and striked which caused a downfall for the buisnesses there as people could not visit the malls.

Through this issue, the idea of culture is further tackled as we can see that the politics of different countries is also affected by their culture. In Bangkok, this politial scence might be part common and normal of people to particpate in politics but the case might not be so for Singapore's culture, would it? Especially in Singapore's political system whereby the culture isnt to participate much in it as the government is trusted greatly.

Yet in Bangkok, the people have grown up in a culture whereby the 'red shirts' only believe what their leader Jatuporn Prompan and the former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra say and they have a certain manner of thinking as they think that Thailand will only improve with their leader being incharge of it and they all have an anti-government sentiment since they think the their government is pro-elitist.

This proves to us that the 'red shirts' are actually part of a collectivist culture and due to this they have a common identity since they rely on one another for opinions and do whatever each of them does so they depend on the UDD, plus they share a common colour as well to identify themselves.

So what do you think about culture playing a part in a country's politics and if it were you would you agree with the red shirts and follow their culture blindly or would you take a step back and form your own opinions. Please do comment, thanks!

GREEK.

We all want to belong in a certain group, or find people who are from the same wavelength as us.
People who would accept us for who we are and work well with us.

Well, one drama that i have been hooked onto for rather long would definitely emphasis the importance of group communication and how groups work differently even with everyone's different characteristics, to actually achieve group synergy.

And the drama is known as GREEK which was actually named after the fact that the storyline is about the whole 'greek system' in college where you are allowed to enrol yourself in certain fraternitys or sorority's which is like a kind of 'brotherhood/sisterhood' whereby you live together, in one house with your fellow 'brother' & 'sister' and you do activities together, plan events and even help each other to study and guide one another to have a complete proper college experience.

The show's plots often take place within the confines of the fictional fraternities, Kappa Tau Gamma (ΚΤΓ) and Omega Chi Delta (ΩΧΔ), or the fictional sorority, Zeta Beta Zeta (ΖΒZ). Throughout the course of the series, other non-Greek characters and situations are introduced, but they all tie into larger relationships with the Greeks.

Mostly, the show clearly depicts how the new students are put thru a series of tests so as to make sure they would be included into the fraternity/sorority to make sure that they would fit the groups thinking and eventually, as seen by one of the main character Rusty Cartwright, you can observe that though he was actually a 'geek' in a way. He was still accepted in the Kappa Tau Gamma house as there was some shared similarity between the house members and Rusty and so they were willing to socially accept him and form interpersonal relationships with him.

With the forming of such fraternity and sorority's it just goes to show how much people want to be socially accepted and what people would do to 'fit in' to a certain social construct just to have group communication.

Also through the usage of proximity, since all the students in the specific fraternity/sorority live together under one roof, there is an increase in the interaction of the group and this increases the group cohesion and communication as like in GREEK, when one 'sister' has a problem and seems rather depressed in the house, the other 'sisters' immediately try to get to the bottom of the problem and try to cheer her up and try to be there for her as since living together would make you turn to the other person when you're stuck in a rut or have something to get off your chest.

So im gonna leave you with the trailer of the GREEK series and please do comment about what do you think on how people form groups and how they make it work very well and come together properly whereas certain people and their groups do not work so well together.

Unit 2.

Well we all came across the whole molest case at the Siloso Beach Countdown Party didnt we?

The one where it was reported in the newspaper that a girl was molested openly at the countdown party, by four men but no one seemingly came to her rescue? Well the article below, would explain the situation much more clearly.
http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/3552/4136/300696

In the article, they said that 'no one was there to help her but yet were taking photos and videos of the incident'?
Well personally, i feel that this is absolutely outrageous as if you the people present there thought it was such a bad act that they could whip out their cameraphones to take what was happening, down in a video, well why could they not just went up stage to the podium to help the girl? Furthermore, since i was at the siloso countdown party itself, i know that the beach was rather crowded but there were no secluded areas where the peopler could get 'raped' in a sense as there was people everywhere and if someone wanted to stop such an act of travesty, they could have.
So, i went to research on further online and guess what I found?
Pictures of the girl looking like she was actually enjoying the guys touching her, which the molest article had happily left out.


See, does she look like she was unhappy or that she was being molested? NO.
This just shows sometimes due to nonverbal communication and due to people's own social contruct of others, there could be misunderstandings of such. Just because the girl was seen dancing with four foreign workers, people immediately assumed that the foreign workers were molesting her and that she was in a plight.

Firstly, if she did not want to be caught in such a situation, why was she scantily-clad in just her G-string and bra in the first place? Does it give a respectful girl vibe to you? I think not. Dont you think because of the way she was clothed she was inviting and sending out wrong signals thru her non-verbal communication to the guys at the party?

Secondly, just because she was surrounded by a group of foreign workers who were grinding her, that does not mean you can immediately perceive the situation as her being molested just by associating the foreign workers with molest and treating them as communication artifacts?

This shows that the usage of non-verbal communication is very subjecive in terms of the how the person who sees or receives the communication, perceives it.
So what do you think about this article and whats your take on it?
Please do comment, thanks!

Perception.

Perception is always explained as the way you see things and the way you interpret and understand the events that are happening around you. Your perception of a certain issue can be affected by various factors and usually by perceiving something you might end up coming up with certain assumptions that might not necessarily be true.

The many factors that contribute to one's perception of things would definitely be media, the various backgrounds the people are from or maybe even due to societal, cultural or religious aspects. When a person views an article or reads a certain piece of information, he/she is entitled to his own opinion and thus forms his own perception. This perception could however been wavered leading to them forming an assumption. Yet, however people do have to realise that an assumption might not be true which means they should not be stereotyping or assuming that the information they have read about if justifiable.

Take for example The Da Vinci Code Criticism issue which took place a few years back when the famous best-selling Dan Brown book was made into a blockbuster film and released to the public. While it was "just" a novel, the author claimed that the information contained in it was based on truth and historical facts, and for that reason many folks took it seriously while others, the more religious ones, criticized it alot. They totally discriminated the book and were against the author and his books and caused a controversy.

Many christians were greatly affected as they were offended by the book because many of the facts that the author was deadly serious about was somehow or rather against their own beliefs of how they religion originated and what they've known for so long about their own religion so when the author claimed that what they believed was untrue, they disagreed and were taken aback when the author refused to budge with his idea. This shows how a different perception about a certain topic could cause alot of tension between people and in this case, the different perception of a topic is seen thru a religious/cultural side as the people were offended since the information was going against what they have learned in their culture and belief and this causes controversy due to the fact that what they have learned before is now threatened.

So what is your take on this controversial topic? and is your comment based on your own perception or are you being rather general about it? do comment please! and before you do, take a look at these websites to see what the perceptions of others out there are.
http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/DaVinciCode.htm
http://www.catholic.com/library/cracking_da_vinci_code.asp