One more pro to Facebook

Last week Remi and Evelyn Urbano, two small kids from Newton, Massachusetts, posted the following picture in their mom’s Facebook account:

What do you think it happened? The kids got more than 118,000 likes on that image and after a quick visit to the Ellen M. Gifford Cat Shelter, Hairryette (they wanted to name their cat Hairy Pawturrr, but it turned out being a female) got a new family and the kids’ dream was fulfilled thanks to the social network created my Mark Zuckerberg.

Every single day, thousands of campaigns are launched or ‘shared’ through Facebook and well, a lot or maybe most of them are just frauds or swindles but there are others that show real efforts of people, trying to accomplish some things they really want. It could be a little cat wanted by two American children or a young man in Chile trying to find support to a cause, both cases demonstrate the powerful tool that Facebook could be in order to get what you might want; all you need is a good image and catchy statement.

Facebook, formed with a social purpose in a college institution in the U.S., nowadays has tended to be a lot more than that – Businesses, politics campaigns, games, relationships, even criminal investigations had seen the light through this website, turning the term social much more complete, perfected and inclusive.

I really believe that Mark Zuckerberg never even dreamed about creating a platform where almost every aspects of human social life could have a place.

What are your thoughts related to Facebook’s growth in terms of applications or actions that we could do with it?

Facebook Depression

The adolescence is clearly the hardest stage of a person's life, other's opinion is fundamental and teenagers are very susceptible to what surrounds them, so it easy for them to be diagnosed with depression, but what happens if this one is triggered by using too much facebook? That is what researchers found out during an investigation about how the social networks changes our perception of the lives of friends and family members.

The study was conducted by two sociologist at Utah Valley University, this one consisted in asking to 425 students how identified they felt about the statements "life is fair" and "many of friend have better life than me", additionally, researchers collected information about how much time they spent on facebook, their number of friends of facebook, clarifying how many of these they met personally and how many they met just by the network.

The results showed that teenagers who spend more time on facebook, specially the ones that have more friends that they don't know in their real life, think that others were happier, so they agreed less that life is fair and more that others have a better life, so researchers came to the conclusion that there is a "facebook depression" which is caused by comparing your life with the other's.
It is easy to feel this way if you only see status telling you about how a good time your friends are having, but teenagers must be conscious that what is shown on facebook is not the complete picture of their friends' life, particularly with people of their same age because they try to project their best image possible.
Do you think that social networks can make you feel sad?
What would you do as a parent if you see that your child is suffering this condition?

Here is a video where you can see the main signs to identify this depression in teenagers and some advices for parents who are dealing with it.

Stop feeling lonely, now facebook can hug you!

As you just read it, besides sharing photos and chatting with your friends now you can receive hugs from them as well. This will be possible thanks to a wearable social media vest called "Like-A-Hug" designed by Massachussets Institute of Technology scientists whose aim is to mimick the sensation of a warm hug by inflating everytime you Facebook friends "Like" any of your post.

here there is a picture of the vest, as you can see it looks like a tight-fitting black bodywarmer

In the designer Melisa Chow's website says that with this you can  “feel the warmth, encouragement, support or love that we feel when we receive hugs,” and you can even return the hugs by deflating the vest by wraping your arms around the shoulders, in others words, by hugging yourself.
The designers declared that they had the idea of the concept after a casual conversation about long distance relationships and the limitations of video chat when they came up with the idea of this vest.

As the video demo describes this vest would make possible to express feelings and that's the reason why this invention has received different reactions. Some say that Like-A-Hug put a tangible feeling to your click and ask themselves how long it will take for this to become a best-seller while others think that this is a useless object because a real hug can't be replaced and this would only separate us even more.
This is may a good idea, but it is definitely not the same, not all hugs are the same, they are different  depending of the situation and the person who gives it to you.
Do you think that this will become popular and eventually we all will have our own vests? Would you use one?
Finally here is a video of Seinfeld explaining in a comic way how we sometimes prefer to communicate with technology rather than personally.

Technology and the quality of our human relationships

We can’t deny the benefits that technology offers to our daily life.  Thanks to the technological progress people can communicate even when they are in distant places and can’t see each other personally. Web access allows communication with the whole world what is happening in a specific place, mobilize and give information to a lot of people in a short period of time. It gives us different ways to communicate and meet with others. People nowadays feel more connected than ever through technology, but everyday they have less time to meet personally. This is the other side of the coin, pointing out that it joins us but at the same time can isolate us because PCs are for individual use and we spend considerable time in this isolated communication from PC To PC, blacberry or any other device that allows us virtual contact. Have we stop talking face to face? Not completely yet , but we do have decreased the amount of real contacts to look us in the eyes, hear our voices and embrace affectionate gestures, making us miss the possibility of perceiving important and complex details of the human communication: the  tone of voice,  gestures, the way of giving and receiving a handshake, etc. Communication through  social networks has been simplified and even our way to write and express ourselves has changed. Limiting language and richness of human expression.

Technology can be a helpful tool to our lives, but we have to control it and don’t let it steal important moments that we can share with the people we care about.

Do you have spent more time using social networks than having real human contact? Do  you think that technological tools get people closer or away from each other?

Sharing For A Living

Some years ago, a friend of mine told me to sign into Facebook. At that time, the only place where I would write my ideas, feelings, and what was going on my life, was my diary. She was so persistent that I decided to find out what was all about Facebook. I didn't find anything interesting in it, so I didn't do as my friend told me to. I remember she was very disappointed that I didn't create an account; she even told me that I would never going to be popular.

Now, after 5 years or more, I have fallen into the social network's world, and even though they are a great tool to communicate with people in a cheaper way, I still do not understand how people become so addicted to it. Although social networks are really entertaining and helpful to comunicate, I think it is dangerous for our own life. 

Being addicted to Facebook or Twitter, the two most used social networks nowadays, can effect your academic performance. Updating your Facebook status or scrolling down on Twitter every 5 seconds, can really affect your concentration on more important issues, like our studies, and our English homework. People spend more time on the internet and on these social networks than they could really imagine.

Let's picture this:

You wake up at 06.00, and check your e.mail, maybe the news, and of course, Facebook. Even if there is no one online at 6.00 in the morning, you stare at the chat, and check it every time you can. Then, you go to work, university or school; you check Facebook on the phone, and you keep doing that every hour of the day. 

Social Network Addiction is a serious problem, and it can also affect the way you perceive reality. Being in a virtual world almost the entire day, can really make you feel that you are still in the virtual world; therefore, you don't even know in what reality you are in. Your self-steem also depends on what status or comment do you read, what photo you were tagged in...

It is not possible that our lives depend on Facebook's updates. 

So I wonder: what can we do, then, to realize that we can become addicts before it gets worse?