unSocial Media

Second week of COM 125 

Disclaimer: The images do not belong to me and I in no way claim that they do. All images and videos are obtained online. 

This week was all about the Internet and the new and upcoming thing, the social media. my first exposure to the social media was this little cool networking site: 

of course after that there are more networking sites that popped up like little bunnies all over the web. Recently, not too long ago, the most happening social media is this little gem: 

Although it has been a few years since the introduction of Facebook to the whole world, it is still growing relatively strong. Facebook has become a place for people to share their thoughts, photos, memories and what not with all their friends. Every user, at one point or another has uploaded something onto Facebook such as videos or photos or statues updates. And when most people upload their content onto Facebook, they do it so automatically that they do not think anything about it. 

  

100 billion photos, thats more than the number of humans there are on earth! And not to mention this was a year ago. Who knows how many photos there are on Facebook today!

All these photos uploaded to share with the world. However, there are certain risks associated with uploading photos onto Facebook, or any other photo sharing site for that matter. The video below explains how people can use photos that you uploaded onto Facebook or photo sharing sites or anywhere on the internet for that matter, to track the exact location to where it was last taken and arm with these information, they can easily locate you and track you down.

The take away point of this video is that we should be more aware of the power of the Internet and be more careful with the things and content that we upload onto the web. This awareness should not be extended to just photos, Facebook has this location feature that if turned on, would let people know where you were when you upload a statues of when you send messages through the messaging function. We have to be very careful of the things that we upload onto the Internet so as to make sure that we keep ourselves safe from potential predators. 

Alright, lets move to the something more light hearted then the potential stalking abilities of social networking sites. The Internet is something of a common language. Everyone knows what the Internet is to a certain extend and for those from countries with easier access, the Internet has several common webpages that most visit. And these common webpages can help people showcase their talents and share self created contents. One such webpage is YouTube. Today, I like to share with you a group that make good music and got popular through the Internet. 

Introducing, The Piano Guys:

Song: Michael Meets Mozart 

This group started out in Salt Lake City and made videos of them remixing songs with a piano and a cello. They uploaded them on YouTube and slowly, they started having a growing fan base on youtube. On the 2rd of September, they held an indoor concert in Singapore and they had 4000+ audience to cheer them on. They were a bunch of nobody who became somebody thanks to the power of the internet and its massive sharing capabilities. Now with over 1.8 million subscribers on their YouTube Channel, the Piano Guys are touring the world, holding concerts and sharing their music with everyone on the globe. 

Captioned: Hanging with 4000 of our closes friends in Singapore. 

In this new world of sharing and social networking site, it becomes easier for people to showcase their talents and abilities, making a name for themselves by simply sharing their created content on the web. 

The Internet is a very powerful tool. Added with the capabilities of the Web 2.0, interaction and sharing, the Internet is one of immense power. But with great power comes great responsibility. In this case, the responsibility lies with us to make sure that we keep ourselves safe from the predators on the web. Beware of the contents that you post on the web.