Social Networking: the new opium

There was a time when religion was considered as the opium for the masses. “Religion is the opium of the people“, so said Karl Marx. Welcome to the new world where social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut etc are now the new opium for the netizens! 

If the first thing you want to do when you wake up in the morning, is to log in to your Facebook account and see how many Likes / Comments you have received (or not), then rest assured – you are hooked!

Don’t plan to shave today? Do you tweet about it and tell your 1000 odd followers who don’t know you, that you don’t plan to shave today? Or does it give you a mild depression when no one reply to a particular status of your’s … Or maybe you feel exhilarated when you get re-tweeted maybe 8 times! … Perhaps you are having dinner with your friends and you end up telling your Facebook followers how good the hotel ambiance is, rather than sharing it with your table companions; or then again, you are on a trip and your primary concern is not enjoying the scenery but taking out a picture and uploading it to your Facebook account, so that you can check up the next day how many ‘Likes’ you’ve received.

If all this is happening to you…then you are hooked, trust me!

Riding initially on the need to share, social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter have grown phenomenally. With over 750 million users (June 2011), Facebook is clearly leading the pack. Not even Mark Zuckerberg in his wildest dreams may have imagined that Facebook would be so popular in times to come.

Being connected to your favourite social site at all times, has become a must for such. And you feel insecure if you have to disconnect for some reason. For you, staying connected could well be compared to being connected to a womb via the umbilical cord and disconnecting or going offline would be a rather disconcerting thought.

Some parts of the world, especially the western world, are seeing marriage or family as an institution crumbling and it is not uncommon to see singles staying all alone. And the need to share is one of the most basic of human needs. If it’s not this, the need to be part of the social web due to peer groups pressure, just makes one become a member of these websites.

No denying, the social web plays a very useful role in keeping people connected. From finding old friends, building new associations, promoting new ventures, using them as a marketing tool, causing upheavals in Egypt, recruitment and more – they have a great value.

No denying that!

The disturbing trend is that people have started to think that being active on social networking sites is being social, whereas the truth is far from it. Sitting in front of computers, most of 24/7, chatting with ‘friends’ (who may not be what they seem) does take away the social skills and graces which may be required to actually interact with real life people. Security and Privacy concerns apart, some tend to share things with people who one normally should not.

And smartphones have only increased the dependency on social networks. Their effects at home, at work and at school are all too obvious!

It has already been proven that Facebook addiction causes anxiety and depression, especially in youngsters. How often do we see them going out – playing or socializing? Or do we see them more often crouched in front of their computers spending time creating good profiles, publishing status updates or feeding imaginary cows?

Maybe the day won’t be far that we have de-addiction camps for Facebook and Twitter addicts! Such camps for gaming/internet addiction already exist!

I am aware that mine is a minority view, but if you think you are spending too much time on and giving too much importance to Facebook, Twitter or any other social site, maybe for once, you want to shut off your computer, keep your smart phone at home, go take a walk and think about it.

Disconnect yourself from the net and go meet a real friend for change – and see how it feels! The idea is to strike a balance and get a real life too!

Remember, the only thing we shouldn’t be able to live without is Jesus.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn denied bail and jailed!

I’m really surprised DSK was denied bail! The Judge argued that “she was concerned about him fleeing” the country… but here’s the truth about this:

• Plane ticket had been booked weeks in advance

• After leaving the hotel, he went to eat lunch downtown for several hours (therefore did not “flee”)

• DSK is the one calling the hotel, telling them he forgot his phone in the room and therefore giving them his location

I could be wrong, but that doesn’t sound like a guilty man to me.

In my opinion, DSK is paying for Roman Polanski. The USA Justice Department (of which the FBI is part of, let’s not forget!), has not appreciated the fact that Roman Polanski had not been charged and judged on US soil, and I think DSK is paying for this in the way that the Justice Department will not let go easily on this and will push for maximum sentence.

One could argue that this whole thing is a plot. From the USA, from Sarkozy (since DSK was supposed to make his 2012 Presidential candidacy public in a few weeks or days), but who knows…

On the other hand, it is not the first he’s had problems with women. In 2008, he almost lost his IMF job because he had an affair with a secretary in Washington. Last week, a socialist Deputy admitted her daughter, Mrs Banon, had also been attacked by DSK a few years ago but convinced her daughter to go public because “it would ruin her journalistic carreer”.
Under French law, sexual assault charges must be filed within three years but attempted rape charges can be brought up to 10 years after the alleged attack. Banon did not file charges at the time of the alleged assault after her mother, Anne Mansouret (the local Socialist party councillor and Strauss-Kahn’s friend), persuaded her against it. She says she now regrets that decision.

Bottom line, it’s a sad time for France. The Socialist party leader, Martine Aubry, said the pictures, which dominated all news bulletins, were “profoundly humiliating”. The Socialist MP and Strauss-Kahn supporter Manuel Valls said the images were “of an unbearable cruelty” and were so staggering that “for French political life, there will be a before and an after” this moment.

I’m looking forward to seeing where all of this goes. DSK risks a total of 74 years in jail for the 9 counts he’s been charged of.

TomTom sorry for selling driver data to Police

TomTom became the latest technology company to be embroiled in a privacy row when it emerged that the Dutch satellite navigation company had sold driving data collected from customers to the police.

The company was forced to issue an apology to its customers after a Dutch newspaper revealed that data, including records of the speed driven, had been used to help police set speed traps for motorists.

TomTom provides data to local and regional governments in the Netherlands to help identify traffic bottlenecks and indicate where new roads might be needed.

The company is under pressure to sell more data and services, as profits from selling its satnav hardware decline in the face of competition from mobile phones with free navigation services. In January, the company unveiled a traffic database covering Europe and North America, aimed at giving governments and corporations a tool to analyse road networks. Content and service revenues from such projects now account for 36 per cent of revenues.

TomTom shares fell on Wednesday when the company revealed a fall in first-quarter sales and lowered its revenue forecast for the year from €1.52bn to €1.425bn. It said it now expected the market for personal navigation devices to shrink at least 15 per cent this year.

One customer complained on the company’s discussion board: “For me the issue is that TomTom are not that explicit about how they will use your info when you purchase the device.”

Harold Goddijn, chief executive, said he had not realised the information would also be used to catch speeding motorists. He said TomTom would change its licensing agreements to prevent it being used in this way in the future. Mr Goddijn also sought to reassure customers that the data given to the police had been anonymous.

“At no point has the individual privacy of customer been compromised. We cannot link the data back to an individual, nor can the police,” he said.

Technology experts have remained sceptical over such reassurances, however, pointing out that in past security breaches, such as when AOL, the US internet company, accidentally released 20m search results in 2006, it was still possible to infer personally identifiable information from the logs.

TomTom sells data to governments around the world but said the Netherlands was the only place in which it had been used by the police. TomTom asks customers for their permission to collect data when they log on to the company’s website to update their GPS devices. It says it receives billions of driving measurements each day from tens of millions of customers across Europe and North America.

New World Order

Yes people, NEW WORLD ORDER is here. I’m not the one saying it, the last G20 summit said it and all Presidents and Prime Ministers say it all over the world.

Here is a video talking about this and I find this video absolutely amazing and full of truths that are all more scary than the other.

New World Order has begun with the creation of the United Nations in 1945, that was the precursor. Nothing new though, the bible, in Revelations, talks about this New World Order, led by the anti-christ, which will come from the Roman Empire (one of the today countries that were part of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus).

What we don’t realize, is that this New World Order, with 1 world leader, is MUCH closer than we thought! Much closer to become true.

WATCH THE VIDEO:

I heard Global Warming was a fraud????? pfff

I’m so fed up with people who claim global warming was a fraud!

Have you noticed the ones who say that are always the most materialistic and arrogant people. Most americans say it’s a fraud, of course, it’s in their interest NOT to believe it so that they can continue the way they’ve been doing things: waste 30% of food, starving african and asian countries, pollute like dangerous ignorants and get out with it! Not for long i’m afraid….

I don’t think Europe is very different, but at least we do something about about global warming and we “try” not to consume the earth and let it die just so that we can continue to buy things we don’t need and show the world our possessions. Humans are so stupid.

I’m so looking forward to everything to end!