Microblogging: Twitter

Seitzhan Madiyev

The Information Technology industry has been surprising us slightly. After the creation of Google search engine and the “internet bubble” crisis in 2000s, it began developing a little bit slower and in different direction than many expected. People were predicting about future IT industry; how it will change the way we live. As the time has passed trends that were predicted in that time did not achieve their expectations, or simply did not get enough attention from the community. But instead other projects came into place; those which most of the people did not even think about ten years ago, but without which a lot of people cannot imagine their lives nowadays. The top trend of this decade was given to a group of products that can be called “social networks”. And between monstrous creation of Mark Zuckerberg and a huge failure of “MySpace” there was one more invention which I believe will have an even greater impact in the nearest future “Twitter”.

How it works
Twitter is a simple microblogging service which allows users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters. When a user wants to read public messages sent by another user of his interest, he/she simply connects to it through a button named “follow”. And those who follow the user will get all the messages sent by him. It was firstly described by its creators as a service that uses SMS to tell small groups what you are doing. When people create an account there, the site simply asks you to share with others “What are you doing?”.

Socio-political significance
Twitter was often criticized for uselessness since its users were bringing a lot of “rubbish” and meaningless information, like “I ate a sandwich”. However, since 2008 the project took an important socio-political significance. In February 16, 2008 the photographer James Buck was arrested by Egyptian police. He wrote “arrested” in his twitter account which quickly came to the US authorities. The next day he was released. During the U.S. presidential elections Twitter was actively used by both candidates Barack Obama and John McCain for their campaigns. It was blocked in many countries for the purpose of not spreading information of some events.
When the management team understood the importance of their service, they have changed the business model the question has been changed to “What’s happening?”. The society started to realize the importance of the project. It became the fastest media platform to release the latest news and updates on almost all events occurring in the world. Now even media outlets are forced to get the newest information from Twitter with the risk of reporting false information. It has become the most efficient media platform, since all people who have an account there have become the reporters.

A lot of people argue that most of the messages that occur in twitter are so called “Pointless Babble”. So the research has been made to analyze what people actually share with others, and the results were interesting. Pointless Babble won with 40.55% of the total tweets captured; however, Conversational was a very close second at 37.55%, and Pass-Along Value was third (albeit a distant third) at 8.7% of the tweets captured. (Twitter Study) Pass-Along Value is the messages that actually matter; those are the newest news, relevant information and shares of interesting thoughts by famous politicians, business people, etc. Although it is only 8.7%, but it is still large in general terms since around 200 million tweets are sent every day.

New business model
Twitter has created an absolutely new way for businesses to promote their products and for people to promote themselves. Since 2000s marketing has been moving more and more towards the Internet, and just few years ago so called “social networks” helped to create new business models and increase the efficiency of marketing. One of the most important tools created because of social network is the “target marketing”. It simply allows businesses to find the right audience to promote to dividing all the users by different groups. But if social networks like Facebook are efficient platform for targeting adverts, how Twitter has created a new way? It is simple: “Brand Journalism”.

Nowadays adverts don’t get enough attention from public and become less and less efficient, and that is where brand journalism might come in the nearest future. Brand journalism was created as a tool to promote products and companies in an innovative way. A company can hire a professional journalist which can write only about this company, its everyday activities, new products, the chronicles of what has happened. People are interested to hear new stories, and Twitter is an ideal platform to tell those stories, to share photos and links.

I believe that Twitter has not achieved its peak yet, and it has more to come in the future. From being on of the most innovative products of these years, it might become an essential part of our lives.

References

1. MG Siegler. Russian President Medvedev Sends His First Tweet At Twitter. — TechCrunch, 23.06.2010
2. Chris Nuttall. What’s happening? A lot, says Twitter COO. — The Financial Times Tech blog (blogs.ft.com/techblog), 20.11.2009
3. Twitter: "pointless babble" or peripheral awareness + social grooming? — Danah Boyd blog (www.zephoria.org), 16.08.2009
4. Owen Fletcher, Dan Nystedt. Internet, Twitter Blocked in China City After Ethnic Riot. — PC World, 06.06.2009
5. Om Malik. A Brief History of Twitter. — Gigaom.com, 01.02.2009
6. BBC admits it made mistakes using Mumbai Twitter coverage. — The Guardian, 05.12.2008
7. Claudine Beaumont. New York plane crash: Twitter breaks the news, again. — The Telegraph, 16.01.2009
8.  John Brandon. Barack Obama wins Web 2.0 race. — ComputerWorld, 19.08.2008
9. Twitter Study. — Pear Analytics. — August 2009

Microblogging -- Twitter & Sina Weibo

Liu Songling

Introduction

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets", and images.

Sina Weibo (Chinese: 新浪微博; literally "Sina microblogging") is a Chinese microblogging site. Akin to a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook, it is one of the most popular sites in China, in use by well over 30% of internet users, it has a similar market penetration that Twitter has established in the USA.

Rapid Development

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. Twitter rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with 200 million users as of 2011, generating over 200 million tweets and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet."

Sina Weibo was launched by SINA Corporation in August 2009, and now has more than 200 million registered users. A two-year-old block on Twitter setting being accessible in China has allowed Sina’s homegrown Weibo to flourish - and now it’s blossoming in to far more than a Twitter-style microblogging tool.

Social influence

a. Twitter

As one of the most popular social network sites in the world and with more than 10 languages in used, Twitter has an indisputable influence in both the daily life of humans and issues of the society.

Nowadays, people spend an increasing time chatting online or with cell-phones, with great interest in what their friends or some other famous people are doing. Thus as a convenient internet posing wall for users to update their moods, status just via text-based posts, twitter not only provides the commenting and chatting services like Facebook, but also let users become “followers”, which enable users know not only their friends’ status but also other famous people,  their interested companies, organization and so on.

“Followers” in twitter, like fans or supporters, by leaving comments or reply to a status can somehow show their supports or arguments, and can even reflect the public opinion on a certain social event. For example, in August, 2009, when the opponents of Obama’s health care reform plan aggressed the National Health System (NHS) of UK, thousands of the users of NHS used the #welovetheNHS label in twitter to support NHS and refute the campaign of U.S.Right, winning the Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s support and respect.

b. Sina Weibo

Owning similar services with Twitter, Sina Weibo, though established only 2years ago, now also has a great influence in the society. Mainly used by people in China, the impact of Sina Weibo largely focuses on the care of the life of people. People in Sina Weibo not only share some advice and tips of daily life, but also warm-heartedly post some advertisement on emergent need of hospitals and disaster area. For instant, the reason why Yao Chen becomes the Queen of Weibo is not just the humor language she used in her post, but her consistent post for the people in urgent need for help. People love to see that famous Weibo owners take advantage of their large amount of fans to help others with widely advertising instead of promoting products.

Also, like news broadcasting, Weibo users report and describe the real situation of big events and disasters, enable people in the nation get the fastest information. For example, in the disaster of the train crash in Wenzhou China, on 23rd July, 2011, people post the condition of the crash and the people injured in Weibo, which was more informative and timely than TV news report.

Advertising effectiveness

a. Twitter

While hesitation over making purchases for products through the networking sites has abated, what along with the widely use of Twitter, of course, is the great profit from advertisements. While Facebook may take the lion's share of social media marketing budgets, Twitter is fast catching up and eMarketer has estimated that worldwide advertising revenues will rise by 210 per cent by the end of this year. This represents moving from $45 million (£28.7 million) earnings in 2010 to an expected $139.5 million (£88.9 million) by the end of 2011. The marketing analysts also forecast that Twitter's worldwide ad revenues will reach $400 million (£255 million) by 2013.

Also, economic advantages come from the cooperation between mobile phones and Twitter. For example, Samsung announced the launching of Galaxy S, a Smartphone manufactured by Samsung, in Korea in detail via the Twitter. Usages like these certainly helped people in terms of receiving information quickly. This not only enables people to use Twitter with smartphones at anytime in anywhere, but also decrease the cost of communication. It is estimated that over half of Twitter users use their webpage by mobile devices. While other online services such as blogs and MSN Messenger require people to be stationed, Twitter can be accessed while moving. Moreover, other online communication systems such as MSN Messenger ask users to sign in. This means that people have to stay in their seats in order to use the system, which is a huge inconvenience.

b. Sina Weibo

Via such kind of social network, not only companies advertise their products by posting ads, but users publicize the products they love by showing their pictures and comments. Recently, it has become a trend that users would love to post what they have bought and what they have eaten on Sina Weibo, which then cause a great popularity of the product or the restaurant that is appreciated and forwarded by many other users. Since people would rather believe what their peers and friends preferences, thus the effectiveness of such advertising may much more powerful than TV ads. 

Conclusion

Though I just talk about the development, social influence and advertising effectiveness above, there are many other information and benefits of these two social networks. However, apart from their advantages, they also have their respective limitation. For instant, Twitter has no constant, long-term income source, which makes it hard to decide whether to choose the profit from companies’ advertisement or the users’ favors, as it may worsen the perception of users about twitter if it intentional creates a platform for advertisements. Also, Sina Weibo only has Chinese version which greatly limits its development and expansion. 

Reference

1. http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sina_Weibo
3. http://www.equimedia.co.uk/index.php?id=98&article=800744322
4. http://ahnyoungjae.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/economic-benefits-and-limitations-of-twitter-and-the-future/

How Computer Games Change the World (3)

Societal Impacts

The Societal impacts brought by computer games are the most controversial, and perhaps, the most important argue regarding its influence. Many people believe that the invention and widespread of computer games bring adverse effects to the society. To sum up, there are mainly three common viewpoints on how computer games can cause harm to the society, including addiction, linkage with youth aggression and antisocial behavour such as spending less time to communicate with others in person.

The first point argues that computer game causes addiction, especially among teenagers. In fact, the emotional 'high' experienced after successfully completing certain game objectives can create a feedback effect, which, if unchecked, can lead to emotional dependency (Zwaa, 2008). Many people believe that, this not only reduce the time teenagers spent on obtaining knowledge from textbooks and revising, but also, in extreme case, reduce their sleeping time, thus harming health and affecting their normal lives. This causes severe threats to the society, as teenagers are leaders of the future world. Moreover, a research found out that the average game player age is 34 and the average experience of game playing is 12 years (Entertainment Software Association, 2010). This means that the working force available to the society will diminish as adults become addicted to computer games, which is a great lost to the society. A more detailed description of the addictive effect of computer games has been included in Joseph’s part already.

Compared to the first viewpoint, the second viewpoint sounds even more persuasive. Many people believe that there is a close linkage between violent computer games and teenage aggression. Their major argument is mainly about desensitization of violent or bloody content. These people believe that violent content could be transferred and stocked in minds of anyone who plays it, and as they continue to play those kinds of games the initial reaction about violence eventually decreases. At last, they become more and more immune to this violence, which make them feel that killing and slaughtering images were just normal. This violence continually plays in front of every teenage boy while they are playing their favorite cold-blooded character, killing and slaughtering lots of people mindlessly (Ferrer, 2008). They claim that at the end the computer games with violent contents will transform innocent schoolboys into cold-blooded killing machines. Reasons why this point is invalid will be given in the latter part of this essay.

The last point states that once teenagers are too devoted to playing computer games, they spend less time making new friends, interacting with family members, and less “out-going”. We often hear complains from parents that their children spend more time “talking” to virtual characters in computer games than to them. This is not very healthy as the ability to communicate with others in the real world is an important key to the whole-person development of the children.

These three viewpoints, on the first glance, seem to be strong and persuasive. However, I personally share the same viewpoint with Henry Jenkins, a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Jenkins listed eight very interesting misconceptions of the general public on computer games, and give very effective counter-arguments (http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html). Many of these counter arguments can be used to explain why I believe that the above three claims about computer games are not necessarily valid. For the argument regarding the addiction of computer games, as Joseph has mentioned, all depends on the players’ self-control and time management. Thus, I am not going to emphasis much on this point. Instead, I want to focus on the other two viewpoints, including the relation between aggression and violent games, and the antisocial behavour caused by video games.

In practice, there has been no research proving that computer game with violent content is a primary factor of aggression and violence. Similar, there isn’t any case describing that these computer games are capable of transforming a normal human being to a serial killer (Jenkins, 2004). Besides, Professor Jenkins states that, there have been classic studies of play behavour suggesting that even apes can make basic distinctions between “play” fight and actual combat.

Eric Zimmerman, a famous game designer and play theorist describes the ways we understand play as distinctive from reality as entering the "magic circle." He stated that, “The same action — say, sweeping a floor — may take on different meanings in play (as in playing house) than in reality (housework). Play allows kids to express feelings and impulses that have to be carefully held in check in their real-world interactions.” (Jenkins, 2004). Thus, the argument that playing violent video games too often can cause desensitization of violence act, or a lack of empathy for real-world victims is not valid at all.

However, there are children that behave similarly towards virtual sceneries or characters and the real world. This is a kind of emotional disease, which is hidden in some people. In such case, violent video games can trigger violent actions. But for the majority, gaming has no such effect (Jenkins, 2004). Concerning the viewpoint about social isolation, it is not very accurate to say that computer games cause users to be socially isolated. Again, according to Professor Jenkins, almost sixty percent of frequent gamers play with friends, more than two-third plays with siblings and twenty five percent play with spouses or parents. (Jenkins, 2004) In fact, there are much video games designed for the purpose of social interactions, such as the multiplayer sports game of Nintendo Wii. According to Talmadge Wright, a famous sociologist, conversation about game content, which is called “meta-gaming” provides a context for thinking about game rules and rule breaking (Wright, Boria, & Breidenbach, 2002). This in terms stimulates communication and interactions. In fact, players not only conflict and combat on the explicit screen, but also cooperate and battle implicitly in the real life as a person. Gaming strategies can also serve the purpose as a conversational content among friends and enhancing their relationships.

I believe computer games have brought certain important positive impacts to the society, and one of them is globalization. Through multiplayers gaming, such as online games, players from all over the world interacts with each other frequently. Gradually, we become more and more comfortable to interact, such as playing, arguing and cooperating with people with different races, cultures, social backgrounds and economic classes because on the gaming scene, the only thing that matters is the gaming skills of players (Zwaa, 2008). Gaming itself eliminates the differentiation based on other factors. This eventually facilitates globalization and smoothen the development of a truly harmonious global village.

However, I have to admit that there are still some negative societal impacts of computer games that we cannot ignore. For example, the popularity of computer games cause children to spend less time on sports, thus worsening the already severe problem of obesity.

Reference

1. Barer, R.H. (1969). Patent No. 3659285. United States.
2. Winter, D. (1999, October 28). The Site of the First Video Game. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from Welcome to the PONG-Story: http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm
3. Enterainment Software Association. (2010). Industry Facts, Retrived November 23, 2010, from Entertainment Software Assoications: http://www.theesa.com/facts/
4. Ferrer, P. (2008). The impact of video games on the socriety. Retrieved November 23,2010, from Helium: http://www.helium.com/items/1230702-the-impact-of-video-games-on-society?page=1
5. Zwaa, X. (2008). The impact of video games on society. Retrieved November 3, 2010, from Helium: http://www.helium.com/items/929805-the-impact-of-video-games-on-society
6. Jenkins, H. (2004). Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerolution/impact/myths.html
7. Wright, T., Boria, E., & Breidenbach, P. (2002). Creative Player Actions in FPS Online Video Games Playing Counter-Strike. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from http://www.gamestudies.ord/0202/wright

Conclusion
The above four passages discuss the impacts of computer games on three different aspects, including individual, economic & financial and cultural. Undoubtedly, no matter positive or negative, from altering individual’s lifestyles to creating new business opportunities and occupations, the invention of computer games greatly changes the world. At least, it has become an important element of entertainment, and perhaps, an essential part of life to many people. Whether these impacts are good or bad all depends on what perspective you use and what dimension you are investigating on.

As individuals, it is difficult for us to affect the technical, economical and cultural impacts of computer games. However, we can ensure that computer games to bring good influence to our personal lives by good time-management and self-control. Bare in mind that computer game is a kind of tool, and whether it brings benefit or harm to yourself all depends on how you manage it.

Last thing I want to add is that while we, as game players, affect the direction of development of the computer game industry; the industry is changing us at the same time. Therefore, the impact of computer games to the world is somehow bi-directional. Never underestimate the influence of yourself, and never underestimate the power of computer games.

Discuss Smart Phone in a sociology percepts

Introduction

In Hong Kong, It is common to a person using a smart phone, and it is important to state that the popularity of smart phone is increasing. For example, when we are on the street, normally we can see people using Iphone, Samsung galaxy series, etc. It means that smart phone do attract people to use it selves. With the increasing popularity of smart phone , a lot of questions are also raised: Why smart phones are so attractive? How the smart phone change the society? In this essay, this phenomenon will be discussed in a sociology percept. First of all, the reason for the extra high popularity of smart phone will be discussed. The essay will then be followed by discussing the effect of smart phone on the society.

1)The reason for the high popularity of smart phone
There are two reasons explaining why a lot of people choose smart phone rather than mobile phones, mainly ,in terms of security and convenience .

1a) In terms of security
Owing to the fact that Hong Kong is a city of business and a lot of people are working in the business aspect, people need to handle a lot of data of their work and transfer the data to their client through their self phone. Moreover, as some data of their work may be confidential, it Is necessary for the phone to be secure enough so that all the data can be confirmed not to be stolen. For smart phone , since some smart phone are known to be secure, many businessman choose it to help their work. Take blackberry as an example, owing to the fact that the operating system of blackberry are set to be very secure when compared with other phones, blackberry attracts a lot of people to use it . Apart from blackberry, the operating system - Symbian, which is invented by Nokia, is also secure so it attracts many people to use it rather than mobile phone.

1b) In terms of convenience
In the smart phone market, apart from some brands which are very famous in data security, there are also some brands which are famous in the large variety of applications. They are : IPhone OS , Android and Windows mobile. These Operating system provide a large variety of applications. This large variety of applications convince user to do their job. For examples, google maps and bus routes searching application. These applications are very convenient to user to get their job done. Moreover, IPhone OS and Android provide a platform for user to create their own application. This allows applications to have a much higher variety. The characteristic of smart phone that having a lot of applications do attract people very much since it can convince them very much.

2)The effect of smart phone to the society
Since the popularity of smart phone is on the increase, more and more people are affected by this kind of gadget. Therefore, it is important to look at the effect of smart phone on the society.

2a) Boosting the development of application
In the past, application mainly are developed by big companies and people seldom join the development. However, the situation has changed once the smart phone such as IPhone and android system released. Smart phone boost the development of application. The reason is that , as mentioned in above, some smart phone ( IPhone and Android) opens a new platform for user to develop its own application so as to fit their requirement. That is to say, everyone is now have the chance to join the application development. This converge of labor do help the development of new applications.

2b) Open a new market and create new jobs
As mentioned before, some type of smart phone open a new platform for user to share their application. This new platform also create a new market, that is , application market . Take IPhone as an example, Apple company gives a platform called Apple Store for IPhone users to buy applications so as to evaluate their phone. A market is formed which people can buy applications there. Moreover, apart from opening a new market, this new platform also create a new business. Since there is a high demand for applications in the market, some people choose to develop new applications and sell it to other people so as to earn money. This states that Smart Phone do create a new business .

2c) Creating a culture of movable business
Some Smart Phone ,such as blackberry ,are said to be very secure and a lot of businessman to choose to do business through their smart phone. This create a new culture of mobile business that people are now use their selfphone to do business with others. For example, people may sign a contract through smart phone. Therefore, people can now do business everywhere. That is to say, Smart Phone convince businessman to do business in outdoor.

3) Some critical thinking about Smart Phone
Although Smart Phone is said to be very secure, and convenient, it is important for us to think some questions: Do Smart Phone really that good? Do smart phone really secure? Actually, there are many unknown area that we do not know well about smart phone. It is important to state that we should not trust smart phone very much. Even though everyone said that they are secure, it still has the chance of information leakage. Moreover, since your mobile phone always access to the open network, information may be stolen and changed, which may cause a big problem in both economy and personal privacy. Therefore, everyone should think deeply whether they should believe their smart phone too much.

The perasive use of Smartphones: The impact on Society

Technology has always had an impact on society. First came the PCs that changed our life as we knew it. Then came along the cell phones that transformed the way we communicated with each other. And finally came the smart phones that enabled us to do most of the things both the inventions did by just using one device. Nowadays there is an increased trend that more and more people have started to use smart phones. Their pervasive use has affected the society in many ways.

The web browsing facilities of smart phones have enabled people to bring their work with them anywhere. For some people it has provided a means through which they can enjoy more quality time with their family while at the same time engage in business ventures.

How the pervasive use of smart phones has affected the human behavior?

Smart phones have now transformed our social interactions.  In recent years, more people are spending more time on their smart phones than on any other things. Although they provide us with a lot of facilities, their pervasive use has made us ignorant.

There was a time that people in public areas or on public transport vehicles actually used to interact with each other and share a healthy discussion. Every day to work or to school, people used to have a healthy chat with the person sitting next to them. The pervasive use of smart phones has put an end to that as people are more interested in blogging or playing games than talking to each other. Although their increased usage for social networking sites has allowed us to stay contact with our distant friends, they have isolated us from the people around us. For instance, on our way to school or going to work, how many of us would have really talked to the person sitting next to us? We may know people from as far as the United States or Canada but this too is at the expense of people right next to us.

The need to be in style and to be associated with a particular social group has also led many people to purchase a smart phone. The type of phone a person owns has now become a symbol of status. In general, the costlier the phone is and the better its applications are, the wealthier the person is considered. They have transformed the way we interact with people. The cell phone is now a fashion custom, decorated to reflect the owner's personality, his friends, his job and much more.

What impact has the pervasive use of smart phones had over the PCs?

One of the most popular things Smartphones are used for are blogging and for accessing social networking sites. This is especially common amongst the teenagers. Both of this has resulted in a boost of social networking sites.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams is reported to have said that 46% of active Twitter users regularly use a mobile device to tweet.

According to a survey conducted by Compete, a web analytics firm, out of all the people using Facebook ,  an increasingly large number of people (66 percent) are using their smart phones to read news feeds,  post status updates (60 percent), read & reply to private messages (59 percent) and post photos (44 percent). This shows that now more and more people are accessing the internet from their smart phones rather than from their PCs. This fact has been even more pronounced ever since the integration of popular applications such as YouTube on smart phones, which now provides access to apparently infinite music and video libraries and do so at great speed.

Along with their entertainment capabilities, many smart phones have also put their technological abilities to a more productive and constructive use. It is now common to see that smart phones are nowadays being used as a scheduler, keeping track of a person's appointments. Navigation has also been aided by the increased integration of internet applications into mobile phones. Many smart phones are now equipped with internet based tools such as Google Maps and even GPS to help people to stay on their course, hence fueling their use over PCs further.

I believe that although the smart phones have provided us with many useful applications, their pervasive use has made us ignorant of the people around us. Social networking sites do connect us to the people around the globe but this too is at the expense of the people around us, people who we meet in our daily lives. Their pervasive use has made them a part of our daily live. We use them to store our contacts, our appointments and all our daily lives work, making us more and more dependent on them day by day. They have also changed the way we think. It's not about who we are anyone but what kind of cell phone do we own. The pervasive use of smart phones has now made them a part of our personality.

Impact of Computer Games on Human Beings: Societal and Psychological Aspects

Have you ever played Computer Games before? I am sure the answer for most of the the answer will be ‘YES’. The computer games have been getting more and more exquisite in the past decade, and in turns have been gaining popularity since the very first game introduced decades ago and their popularity continues to grow today. This high popularity made the impact of computer games on Human Being, mainly psychological and societal, a main issue. In this essay both the beneficial and adverse effects will be discussed.

To begin with, despite the general worries raised by parents, there are indeed many beneficial effects to people playing computer games. First of all, one obvious advantage is that computer games help train coordination. By playing these games which require high concentration, players are trained to achieve higher reflexes, higher processing brain with advanced eye and hand coordination, more flexible fingers and joints, as well as and increased visual acuity, i.e. an enhanced peripheral vision as the games require player to be cautious of the whole screen.

Other than that, Common skills like problem solving, teamwork, logics and discipline are all demonstrated in some computer games e.g. Puzzle, adventure and word games. For instance, Adventure games where you have to complete certain goals can also help you to ‘think outside the box’. This is especially valuable for children as they find computer games more entertaining than usual school activity hence they will be more willing to learn these skills through such fun method.

Apart from that, there are many other pros for playing computer games depends on the game type. Some games may teach people more about real-life techniques. Virtual pet games, for example, help people learn what is involved in raising a pet; There are many Educational games available which were shown by studies that children playing them learn more because they do not realize that they are learning; By playing the Nintendo Wii which is introduced not long ago, players can actually get a reasonable physical workout, so this provide a chance of exercising even at home. What’s more, computer games are fun to play with during leisure time and help people to relieve stress and temporarily escape from the stressful reality.

Besides these advantages experienced by casual game player, the development of the computer game industry has provided a lot of job opportunities to people. This does not only limited to the occupation of developing new games and technologies, but even playing the computer games may be a job: there are many professional game players who actually earn their living by playing computer games.

Next, although there are many benefits, we are not supposed to ignore the many adverse impacts of computer games on human being, most of them are a result of excessive gaming and may pose great harm to the individual as well as the society.

First of all, one leading problem concerned by the society regarding gaming is Game addiction which leads to a lot of complications. Many people find computer games a great way to escape from the stressful reality as these games provide a high level of quick gratification. You are almost constantly being rewarded and, when you lose, you get to easily start over to work on your goal. This fact predisposes the risk of game addiction. As people get addicted to computer games, they will prefer staying in front of the computers all the time that they skip meals, refuse going out for work or school, do not sleep and exercise enough. They start to lose their social ability and also mix up the real and virtual world which may pose a risk not only to themselves, but other people especially their close relatives. Only earlier in May this year, A heavily game-addicted South Korean couple who left their baby to starve while raising a "virtual child" on the Internet were given prison. This revealed how game addiction can lead to harm of others.

The excessive gaming of game addicts also poses harm to their own health. There are many computer-related diseases. One most common disease is Repetitive Strain Injury, an injury of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, mainly in the upper limb for gamers, due to repetitive use of their upper limb in playing the computer games. Also, Computer vision syndrome condition resulting from focusing the eyes on a computer display for protracted, uninterrupted periods of time are common. Other than that, the repetitive motion of the thumb constantly being required to move up and down may lead to DeQuervain's Syndrome, which is pain and swelling over thumbs. Besides, as the players are always sitting while playing the games, deep vein thrombosis may be resulted due to blood clot in the lower limb vessels. Some players like placing their laptops on the lap while playing which may actually lead to superficial skin burnt and reduced fertility due to the hot laptop: The Lancet medical journal reports the case of a healthy 50-year old scientist, fully dressed, burned his genital area after placing his laptop on his lap for an hour; A recent research study showed that Long-term exposure to repetitive hot laptop use in the lap may have a negative impact upon fertility, specifically in young men. Apart from that, Carpal tunnel syndrome, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Back pain and epileptic seizures are some other examples. Despite these physical diseases, game addicts may also experience different mental problems. For instance, they may develop insomnia because they could not stop themselves from thinking about the computer games even when they need to sleep. Depression and Aggression are also possible complications of excessive gaming, in which aggression will be discussed in the next paragraph.

Due to the interactive and engrossing nature of many computer games, aggression and violence has been a main problem developed by game addicts.  Many of these violent computer games, e.g. Mortal Combat, Marvel Vs. Capcom and Doom, are "First-person" and very interactive in the violence of slaughtering the opponent . This view of oneself as a shooter can desensitize the player to violence.

Many studies has investigated the effects of playing a violent versus a nonviolent video game, and revealed that violent-game players displayed more verbal and physical aggression. For instance, a study by Calvert and Tan showed that college students who had played a violent virtual reality game had a higher heart rate, reported more dizziness and nausea, and exhibited more aggressive thoughts in a posttest than those who had played a nonviolent game do. Karen E. Dill, Ph.D. & Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D did a similar study and concluded, ‘Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations. It the short run, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts.’

Moreover, many computer games seller have actually treat violence of a game as a selling point to teenagers that their focus on the game design is violence and they put Signs like "Real-life violence" on the box covers and arcade fronts. In the modern popular game Goldeneye 007, for example, bad guys no longer disappear in a cloud of smoke when killed. Instead they perform an elaborate maneuver when killed. For instance, those shot in the neck fall to their knees and then face while clutching at their throats.

There have been reports of criminals copying violent video game crimes. For example, On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two teenagers who enjoyed playing the bloody, shoot-them-up video game Doom which is a game licensed by the U.S. military to train soldiers to effectively kill, launched an assault on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, murdering 13 and wounding 23 before turning the guns on themselves. Before this tragedy happened, Harris and Klebold had already showed their interest in imitating the game that they made a videotape that was similar to their customized version of Doom where they were dressed in trench coats, carried guns, and killed school athletes. This real-life example shows the seriousness of violence induced by excessive playing of violent computer games.

Only considering the year 2010, there are already many violent crimes caused by computer addiction other than the couple mentioned earlier. A middle-school teen strangled his mother to death for forbidding him to play computer games and then committed suicide. A while ago, a game addict in his 20s killed his mother with a knife. Another compulsive game player in his 30s died after playing games nonstop for five days without a decent meal. All these illustrate the serious risk that computer addiction has posed on social security.

Apart from the disease and violence, another societal problem caused by computer games is Virtual crime. This is the virtual criminal act that takes place in a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) which requires huge investment in time and effort. As the popularity of computer games are increasing, virtual crimes are indeed on the rise as well. In South Korea, there is a report of 40,000 or so cybercrimes in the first six months of 2003, more than half (22,000) had something to do with online gaming. As this is a rising problem, many countries are actually now discussing about whether there need to implement laws covering the online dispute.

All in all, from what mentioned above, we can see that there are actually both pros and cons for playing computer games, and whether which one outweighs the other actually depends on the type of games played, duration of game playing, and our attitude towards the game. When used in moderation, the advantages can be very helpful. The negative effects are found with excessive play, so the benefits may outweigh any possible negative impact if the time spent is kept within reasonable limits. Also, we need to remain rational that games are virtual that they are different from the reality, and critically analyze the game content. By these, we can maximize the advantages and avoid the disadvantages and make the most out of playing computer games.

References

1. http://wpangel.com/health_center.html
2. http://www.bautforum.com/archive/index.php/t-36225.html
3. http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/Deep_Vein_Thrombosis.html#animation
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury
5. http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/hotlaptops.html
6. http://www.repetitive-strain.com/causes.html
7. http://wpangel.com/cvs.html
8. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_crime
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game#Educational_games
11. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/05/28/10/skorean-game-addicted-couple-jailed-starving-baby
12. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2928614
13. http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/virtual-crime-is-on-the-rise/2008/11/03/1225560726242.html
14. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3138456.stm
15. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2928614
16. Calvert, Sandra L., & Tan, Siu-Lan. (1994). “Impact of virtual reality on young adults' physiological arousal and aggressive thoughts: Interaction versus observation”, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15(1), 125-139. PS 527 971
17. Sheynkin ,Y., Jung, M., Yoo, P., Schulsinger, D. and Komaroff, E. (2005) “Increase in scrotal temperature in laptop computer users”, Hum Reprod., 20 (2) 452-5.
18. Ostenson, C. G. (2002). "Lap burn due to laptop computer." Lancet 360(9346): 1704.
19. Rani A. Desai, Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, Dana Cavallo, Marc N. Potenza ,“Video-Gaming Among High School Students: Health Correlates, Gender Differences, and Problematic Gaming”, Pediatrics published online Nov 15, 2010

Society Impact on Smartphone

Have you thought what you can do on the home PC - such as checking and sending e-mails, doing researches - can now be done on a Smartphone; which is way smaller and can be put into the trousers pocket for daily uses?

“In 2007 iPhone reinvented what we thought of as a Smartphone” (Jobs, 2010), which I totally agree. Nowadays, most of the Smartphone promotes the large number of applications that users can download, for example, Apple’s App Store on iTunes, provides a very organize place for both program developers and users to upload and download over 300,000 Apps to use, and the total number of the Apps that has been downloaded reaches 7 Billion times in October 2010 (Apple Inc., October 20, 2010); however, in the old days, there were no such App Store, the applications were to be installed with a CD via a Computer, and there were very limited choices.

Different purposes applications, such as games, education, finance and medication can be accessed very easily. As they are simple and easy to use, this then increased the interest and attraction of Smartphone to different kind of users. For young adults like myself, I tend to have about six pages of games on my iPhone; for my dad, he uses his Nokia Smartphone to read news on the go; while my mum only uses her phone as her ‘cook book’.

Some applications provide the uses for communication (calling and texting each other), for example Skype. Personally, I used to be an overseas student; I think the function of Skype is very useful and easy assessed. Being able to install the application of "Skype" on the phone allows me to contact my parents and friends more easily while overseas – I do not need to call a connection line and type in about forty digits of user number and password, this has make my life much easier, especially in the case of emergency. Cost wise, using Skype to call for overseas number is much cheaper than traditional international calls; in fact, it is free of charge if both parties have an account on Skype (Skype, 2010).

Also, users can access to internet and even personal e-mail via WiFi or 3G network provide by the Phone Network Service Provider. Using the internet service on Smartphone is believed to be as secure as using PC at home; this proves the convenience of Smartphone.

The tale of writing a letter and posting it has became a history, email has successfully replaced the traditional mail, with no doubt. Being able to send and receive e-mail has simplified the ways of living, in additional to the Push services (MobileMe, Yahoo!, Hotmail, Microsoft Exchange) (Apple Inc., 2010) allow us to get email when it is sent, rather than we need to fetch it about three years ago. Moreover, large attachments, such as photos, can be attached on the e-mails for reference; our life has become way easier.

Have you thought what you can do on the home PC - such as checking and sending e-mails, doing researches - can now be done on a Smartphone; which is way smaller and can be put into the trousers pocket for daily uses?

“In 2007 iPhone reinvented what we thought of as a Smartphone” (Jobs, 2010), which I totally agree. Nowadays, most of the Smartphone promotes the large number of applications that users can download, for example, Apple’s App Store on iTunes, provides a very organize place for both program developers and users to upload and download over 300,000 Apps to use, and the total number of the Apps that has been downloaded reaches 7 Billion times in October 2010 (Apple Inc., October 20, 2010); however, in the old days, there were no such App Store, the applications were to be installed with a CD via a Computer, and there were very limited choices.

Different purposes applications, such as games, education, finance and medication can be accessed very easily. As they are simple and easy to use, this then increased the interest and attraction of Smartphone to different kind of users. For young adults like myself, I tend to have about six pages of games on my iPhone; for my dad, he uses his Nokia Smartphone to read news on the go; while my mum only uses her phone as her ‘cook book’.

Some applications provide the uses for communication (calling and texting each other), for example Skype. Personally, I used to be an overseas student; I think the function of Skype is very useful and easy assessed. Being able to install the application of "Skype" on the phone allows me to contact my parents and friends more easily while overseas – I do not need to call a connection line and type in about forty digits of user number and password, this has make my life much easier, especially in the case of emergency. Cost wise, using Skype to call for overseas number is much cheaper than traditional international calls; in fact, it is free of charge if both parties have an account on Skype (Skype, 2010).

Also, users can access to internet and even personal e-mail via WiFi or 3G network provide by the Phone Network Service Provider. Using the internet service on Smartphone is believed to be as secure as using PC at home; this proves the convenience of Smartphone.

The tale of writing a letter and posting it has became a history, email has successfully replaced the traditional mail, with no doubt. Being able to send and receive e-mail has simplified the ways of living, in additional to the Push services (MobileMe, Yahoo!, Hotmail, Microsoft Exchange) (Apple Inc., 2010) allow us to get email when it is sent, rather than we need to fetch it about three years ago. Moreover, large attachments, such as photos, can be attached on the e-mails for reference; our life has become way easier.

Reference

1. Apple Inc. (October 20, 2010). Apple Special Event.
2. Apple Inc. (2010). iOS Data Management. Retrieved 2010, from Apple Developers: http://developer.apple.com/technologies/ios/data-management.html
3. Jobs, S. (2010). WWDC . Apple Inc.
4. RCR Wireless. (2010, July 14). The smart phone impact on consumer mobile usage habits . Retrieved from Analyst Angle: http://www.rcrwireless.com/ARTICLE/20100714/OPINION/100719994/analyst-angle-the-smart-phone-impact-on-consumer-mobile-usage-habits
5. Skype. (2010). Skype. Retrieved 2010, from Skype: http://www.skype.com/

The effect of smart phone on the society

Introduction

In Hong Kong, It is common to a person using a smart phone, and it is important to state that the popularity of smart phone is increasing. For example, when we are on the street, normally we can see people using Iphone, Samsung galaxy series, etc.

It means that smart phone do attract people to use it selves. With the increasing popularity of smart phone , a lot of questions are also raised: Why smart phones are so attractive? How the smart phone change the society? In this essay, this phenomenon will be discussed in a sociology percept. First of all, the reason for the extra high popularity of smart phone will be discussed. The essay will then be followed by discussing the effect of smart phone on the society.

1) The reason for the high popularity of smart phone

There are two reasons explaining why a lot of people choose smart phone rather than mobile phones, mainly ,in terms of security and convenience .

1a) In terms of security

Owing to the fact that Hong Kong is a city of business and a lot of people are working in the business aspect, people need to handle a lot of data of their work and transfer the data to their client through their self phone. Moreover, as some data of their work may be confidential, it Is necessary for the phone to be secure enough so that all the data can be confirmed not to be stolen. For smart phone , since some smart phone are known to be secure, many businessman choose it to help their work. Take blackberry as an example, owing to the fact that the operating system of blackberry are set to be very secure when compared with other phones, blackberry attracts a lot of people to use it . Apart from blackberry, the operating system- Symbian ,which is invented by Nokia, is also secure so it attracts many people to use it rather than mobile phone.

1b) In terms of convenience

In the smart phone market, apart from some brands which are very famous in data security, there are also some brands which are famous in the large variety of applications. They are : IPhone OS , Android and Windows mobile. These Operating system provide a large variety of applications. This large variety of applications convince user to do their job. For examples, google maps and bus routes searching application. These applications are very convenient to user to get their job done. Moreover, IPhone OS and Android provide a platform for user to create their own application. This allows applications to have a much higher variety. The characteristic of smart phone that having a lot of applications do attract people very much since it can convince them very much.

2) The effect of smart phone to the society

Since the popularity of smart phone is on the increase, more and more people are affected by this kind of gadget. Therefore, it is important to look at the effect of smart phone on the society.

2a) Boosting the development of application

In the past, application mainly are developed by big companies and people seldom join the development. However, the situation has changed once the smart phone such as IPhone and android system released. Smart phone boost the development of application. The reason is that, as mentioned in above, some smart phone ( IPhone and Android) opens a new platform for user to develop its own application so as to fit their requirement. That is to say, everyone is now have the chance to join the application development. This converge of labor do help the development of new applications.

2b) Open a new market and create new jobs

As mentioned before, some type of smart phone open a new platform for user to share their application. This new platform also create a new market, that is , application market . Take IPhone as an example, Apple company gives a platform called Apple Store for IPhone users to buy applications so as to evaluate their phone. A market is formed which people can buy applications there. Moreover, apart from opening a new market, this new platform also create a new business. Since there is a high demand for applications in the market, some people choose to develop new applications and sell it to other people so as to earn money. This states that Smart Phone do create a new business .

2c) creating a culture of movable business

Some Smart Phone ,such as blackberry ,are said to be very secure and a lot of businessman to choose to do business through their smart phone. This create a new culture of mobile business that people are now use their selfphone to do business with others. For example, people may sign a contract through smart phone. Therefore, people can now do business everywhere. That is to say, Smart Phone convince businessman to do business in outdoor.

3) Some critical thinking about Smart Phone

Although Smart Phone is said to be very secure, and convenient, it is important for us to think some questions: Do Smart Phone really that good? Do smart phone really secure? Actually, there are many unknown area that we do not know well about smart phone. It is important to state that we should not trust smart phone very much. Even though everyone said that they are secure, it still has the chance of information leakage. Moreover, since your mobile phone always access to the open network, information may be stolen and changed, which may cause a big problem in both economy and personal privacy. Therefore, everyone should think deeply whether they should believe their smart phone too much.

3D-TV: Societal Concerns

3D displaying technology is more and more popular in recent years, although at this moment it is mainly applied in the film industry. It is foreseeable that it will soon go deep into society and houses and influencing people.s life. Among these impacts, some are positive while some are not. In this critique, few societal issues concerning introducing of 3D-TV into daily basis will be discussed.

Although 3D-TV gives viewer a fantastic experience, not all people can enjoy this technology. Those who are poor cannot really get a grasp of this technology. The first problem is money, currently the minimum spending for installing a 3D-TV set in Hong Kong is around HKD$20,000 ("3D",2010), including at least a displaying unit and "3D Goggle". How could people expect those who are getting financial assistance from the government can have a 3D-TV set? Another problem is space, the recommended viewing distance, for a common 40 to 55 inches 3D-TV, is 9 feet to 12 feet and 6 inches (D. Briere and P. Hurley, 2007). For those who are poorer, they cannot find such a large empty space in their common tiny houses. This will lead to a further differentiation between poor one and the rich one because the poor one can.t enjoy the better televisions, which is just the basic equipment in modern world.

The second issue is about the usefulness of 3D-TV in the daily basis. Since the release of the film <Avatar> in 2010, many people start appreciating the magnificent visual effect created by 3D technology. In order to take advantage to this enthusiasm of 3D displaying technique, many new films used 3D filming techniques, but turn out the visual experience of those films did not differentiate too much with the common filming techniques. In fact, 3D displaying works better in the cartoons film because the images are more simple that those human-casting films. The first difference is the background of images, for those human-casting films, they usually filmed under natural setting, which caused too much object to be displayed on the screen at one time. Another difference is that some scenes in 3D cartoon films could be specially design to fit the 3D effect while the human-casting films cannot. This shows that 3D displaying technique is not always that useful in enhancing visual experiences. This leads to the result that the broadcasting companies and film producers are not willing to produce all programmes using 3D technology as the cost is very high. With this little amount of programmes available, it seems it is unnecessary to get a 3D-TV at home.

Another issue is concerning the biological aspect of users. Many people feel dizziness("健康", 2010), nausea and headaches after watching. Moreover, according to Samsung (2010), watching 3D-TV may cause impended visual ability, directionless, unconsciousness or even apoplexy. For the children, since watching 3D-TV requires a ※3D goggle§ , which force the eyes to focus in an abnormal way, this could lead to the loss of depth perception of those children (Xin Hua Net, 2010, as stated in "叫好", 2010). Depth perception is extremely important for human to survive as this could let us know the distance between object so that we know how far the object we want to take is , or we could know walking forward 1 step more we would fall down to the hill, for example. Also, according to a survey done by Nielsen (2010, as stated in "健康", 2010), 50% of the responders feel uncomfortable in wearing the 3D goggle. We can see that watching 3D-TV affects our health, both in short-term or long-run.

The fourth issue is fear of abuse. Given that the visual effect generated by this 3D technique is that fantastic and great. It would seem like .real. for the viewer. However, the production of these films actually undergone computer processing. During this process, additional object are easily added to fake people, just similar to the problem of digital imaging. It is extremely dangerous as television programme play an important part of human.s life. It is an important channel for us to know the things happening around the world (passively). If someone actively and purposively alters the film, for example, for political or illegal use (like to slander someone or to attack the government), the public may support their act as the film act as an "evidence". Therefore, it is very important for the public to bear in mind that the film is not always real and we must not trust them entirely and try to get a wider picture through other channels.

The final issue is concerning the use of 3D technology in medical field. Having talked about few less positive issues of 3D-TV, it could actually be used in medical imaging. Like HDTV, combined with a suitable camera it can be used to show a clearer image of inside our body (Yang, 2003). In the future, 3D-TV could also be used in the field to display 3D view of our organs inside our body. This could help health care practitioners to get a clearer picture of how is going on inside our body.

In conclusion, at this instant, when 3D-TV is immersing into the society, it is great to see that 3D-TV could become a useful tool in medical field that could be beneficial to the public. At the same time, there are few issues that the public should concern, including whether the poorer can afford the cost and enjoy this technology, the health issues, the low amount of programme available, the misleading content that may be displayed. It is hoped that with more improvement on this technology, these drawbacks can be diminished in the foreseeable future.

 

References

1. 3D電視抵玩入門頭炮.(2010, April 7). Sing Tao Daily Online. Retrieved Nov 11, 2010 from http://www.singtao.com/archive/fullstory.asp?andor=or&year1=2010&month1=4&day1=7&year2=2010&month2=4&day2=7&category=all&id=20100407m05&keyword1=&keyword2=
2. Briere, D. & Hurley, P. (2007). HDTV for Dummies. Indianapolis, Indiana : Wiley Publishing, Inc.
3. Samsung. (2010). Viewing TV using the 3D function. Australia: Author.
4. Retrieved Nov 13, 2010 from http://www.samsung.com/au/tv/pdf/3D-tv-warning.pdf
5. Yang, F.(2003). 貝爾德 – 研製電視機的第一人. Beijing, China : 光明日報出版社.
6. 叫好不叫座 3D電視遭遇「寒流」.(2010, Nov 7). Wen Wei Po Online. Retrieved Nov 12, 2010 from http://info.wenweipo.com/index.php/?action-viewnews-itemid-38037
7. 健康貼士：幾類人群不宜觀看3D電視購買需謹慎.(2010, Nov 12). 科技日報. Retrieved Nov 12, 2010 from http://big5.chinataiwan.org/xwzx/Technology/201011/t20101112_1599704.htm