THE WAY WE COMMUNICATE

A virtual community or social network is a website on the internet that brings people together to talk, share ideas and interests or make new friends. This type of collaboration and sharing of data is often referred to as "social media". Like traditional media, that is often created by no more than 10 people, social media sites have content that has been created by hundreds or even millions of different people.

The first network, not currently known, was called "Six Degrees". This network was initiated in late 1997, but the server was released in 2001. It is currently one of the networks that have disappeared. It was founded by Andrew Weinreich, and developed by the company Macro View. This site gave the users the option to create their profile and friends list. The name was based on the theory that any human being is connected to any other by a maximum of 6 know people. Nowadays, this social network has disappeared due to its low popularity.

Some companies quickly enter social networks. Google launched Orkut in January 2004 to support an experiment of one of his employees in his spare time. In 2005 admitted 360 Yahoo and others.

The operation begins when once the technical support is finished, a group of initiators invite friends and acquaintances to join the social network, each new member can bring many new members and the growth of the social network can be geometric.

A good example of this is Facebook, a social network focused on students, much like Myspace, where millions registered and where there has been a major advertising investment from Microsoft users.

Another is Del.Icio.Us which has already reached a million users.

And speaking of this network Myspace.com has over one hundred million users, owned by News Corp positioning itself as the largest of its kind and includes areas as diverse as search for missing persons.

Nevertheless, social networks continued to grow and became extremely popular. The most used ones today are: WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

What are those?

WhatsApp is a free instant messaging application for mobile phones, to send and receive messages via internet, complementing mail services, instant messaging, short message services or multimedia messaging systems.

Facebook is a social network created by Mark Zucherberg while studying at Harvard University. His aim was to design a space where students at university could communicate and share content easily through the internet. His project was so ground-breaking that eventually spread to be available for any user on the network.

If we are registered on its website users, we can manage our own personal space: create photo albums, share videos, write notes, create events or share your mood with other network users.

The large number of users at its disposal, the acceptance that has had, and facilities providing accessibility, as access to the platform for mobile terminals, has allowed this network to grow rapidly in a short time.

The main use of this page is to share resources, views and information with people you already know (friends or relatives).

Twitter is a network where you can send plain text messages of short length whit a maximum of 140 characters called tweets, which are displayed in the user's home page. Users can subscribe to other users tweets. This is called "following" and people become "followers". By default, messages are public and can be disseminated privately showing them only certain followers. Users can tweet from the web service, with external applications, or by short message service (SMS) available in certain countries.

Instagram is a social network application for sharing photos and videos. It allows user to apply photo effects like filters, frames, retro and vintage colours; these can be shared in different social networks like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter.

A distinctive feature of the application is that gives a square shape to photographs in honor of the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, contrasting with the aspect ratio 16:9 currently used by most mobile phone cameras.

However, not all social networks are used properly. There is a lack of control and anonymity and they give access to inappropriate content.

Here are some of the disadvantages that they may present:

• They are dangerous if not properly configured;
• They are addictive;
• They are used by criminals to know the details of their victims.

When these networks are used correctly, they can be very useful to contact old friends or distant relatives; besides, their use allows communication in real time. In addition, the information is continually updated.

Jennifer Dillon, Camila Alcuri, Brenda González and Bruno García - 3rd Year

HUMAN ALIENATION THANKS TO TECHNOLOGY?

Technology influences us in ways that we don´t believe or imagine. It gives us benefits when we use it limitedly and it distracts us when we use it unconsciously, without moderation.

These technologies facilitate the development of society and they give us tools to solve problems that appeared to have no solution.

Nowadays, society is known as an ‘information society’ because technology caused this change.

Now, the people are using technology to communicate; we are losing the habit of ‘face to face’ communication and therefore personal relationships. We have lost our dialogue; we don’t go to libraries anymore, and so on.

We are less dependent on the people around and we are more dependent on technology.

To confirm this idea, we decided to interview people from different generations to see what they thought about technology: a teenager (17 years old), a housewife (44 years old) and a lovely grandmother (75 years old). Here's what they said. 

BerthoTimes: What are social networks? We refer to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, among others.

Teenager: They are part of the ‘Media’, a way to keep society informed.

Housewife: A quick way to stay in touch, because if I compare it with when I was a little girl and I have to send a letter to San Juan, the answer comes to me in a month.

Grandma: I don’t know them.

BT: How often are they used?

T: It depends on each person. There are certain people who are dependent of them and others who are independent. I am dependent on this case because now instead of answering the question, I am answering a Whatsapp message.

H: Exaggeratedly.

G: I do not know them. I have no idea.

BT: What do you think of the initiative of leaving electronic devices aside when socializing?

T: I think it’s a good idea, that way people would talk to each other personally again.

H: Good, It should be left aside (the mobile phone) because people don’t look at you when they speak anymore.

G: I would say that, before technology, we didn’t live with our mobile phones in the hand…we didn’t look like zombies like you do. You can live the same without a mobile phone and if you don’t have one, you just look for a public phone.

BT: Is using the mobile phone a disadvantage during class?

T: No, because I use it to pass tests sometimes. I think this is right…

H: During class, it shouldn’t be used. It is important to have it on you all morning because a responsible parent knows when to reach his or her child. If you were a teacher, would you let a student answer a phone call from his or her mother?

G: It is a disadvantage!! A huge disadvantage because you do not learn anything! You learn things half-way! If I ask a teenager what happened on October 12th, they have no clue!

BT: Are you annoyed when people are using their phones and other electronic devices all the time?

T: If I'm talking about something important and they don’t listen, it is. If it’s not important, then it doesn’t bother me.

H: Yes, because they are disconnected from reality, and they don’t pay attention in the street, adults talk to them and they don’t listen to us because they are aware of the ‘Clin clin’ (phone’s ringtone) and don’t even listen to their mothers!

G: Yes because… I'll tell you: They don’t pay attention when they are crossing streets, railroad tracks. They look silly.

BT: What would you change of technology? 

T: Nothing…it is perfect the way it is; except that it is constantly evolving…and I can’t keep track!

H: There should be a little more privacy because, when you don’t know how to use it it can bring you trouble.

G: Leave those bloody mobile phones or, at the most, use them ONLY when you need them! Back in my day, we waited 15 YEARS for the mobile phone to be invented…and nobody died waiting! Now, if a teenager doesn’t have a mobile –and the last one launched- he or she ‘dies’. They go to the toilet with the phone, just in case. It strikes me because it is foolish. I don’t mean technology overall…but mobile phones!

So…what do YOU think? Are YOU alienated by technology and social networks? It's time for us to leave electronic gadgets aside and start talking to people personally, admiring the world we live in. There's so much beauty! 

Cecilia Gliubizzi and Candela Córdoba - 5th Year