To be or Not to be..

Friendster, Facebook, Multiply, MySpace, Second Life ...

All these names and many more have become household names amongst us and we have all , at least once been addicted to such virtual networks. Online games as well serve as a social network that people stay committed.

The question for today is: To be or Not to be.

Many a time, the virtual world has been a place where one can have many identities and as a result, people make sure of that. Be it your gender, the color of your hair, the shape of your eyes or even the clothes you wear; one can always alter the way you look.

But are all these for real?
or is our conscious choosing what we desire to look like?

Social networks such as second life, facebook, friendster have been around for less than a decade and already, people are creating avatars and profiles that do not even exist. There have been numerous friendster accounts with attractive female pictures but to your disappointment, the owner of such an account is sadly a male who is simply trying to get attention for all the wrong reasons.

There are many other instances as well, take for example online games: Maple, Dota, Audition and so forth. These games allow you to choose your gender, choose your hair and etc. I have male friends playing female characters and they behave and type ( yes, type ) like any other girl.
Such fake identities are splashed all over the internet and some people even get conned by it.

No doubt there are the advantages of such social networks as it allows one to create groups or even close deals over the internet. Facebook has brought millions of users across the globe together by simply allowing the creation of groups. Party invites and events are being broadcasted via facebook and the amount of people who join the group is amazing.

check out this facebook group; there are 8,245 members and 109 new members just joined the group. By the end of next week, this Ben & Jerry's group would have at least 9,000 members.
Isn't facebook amazing? :)

So, let's come back to the question for today: To Be, or Not to Be.

It's definitely very easy to be someone else in the virtual world as compared to the real world that we live in. Whether it is an escape for some of the users from the real world, or it is just merely to have fun, we all use the virtual world at our own disposal.

Hey, we can even be mushrooms in the virtual world. What else can we not be?

Let's just say everybody has their "To be, Not to be" Days.
These are real players by the way.

Introduction

I have been blogging for as long as 5 years and blogging has become second nature to me.
I have my own personal blog and through out these 5 years, blogging has pretty much exposed the virtual world.

As a teenager, blogging didn't mean much to me as I was simply conforming to society. It seemed that 5 years ago, everybody was getting really excited about setting up their own blogs and they seemed more excited about sharing their everyday life with the world.

It seemed pretty exciting; blogging about my own life, posting pictures to let others have the opportunity to see what I saw, to experience what I experienced. The freedom of speech has allowed me to reveal my expressions without the fear of being criticized as the blog is mine and mine alone. Revealing details of the day's fortunate and unfortunate events became a daily routine as time went by.

As time went by, I realized why I really started blogging. My parents had left for Africa and due to educational reasons, I had to continue residing in Singapore. The blog became sort of like a third parent to me; tolerating my anger, celebrating my joy, enjoying the same kind of music, viewing pictures that might develop different points of views from others.

My blog became more than just a HTML text where I just wrote what I felt. It became a bridge between my friends and I as well. Even though we had little time for each other, we could always visit each other's blogs to see how each other are doing :)

I spent 6 months in Africa after graduating from college. Unfortunately the Internet connection isn't as efficient as it is in Singapore. Lag became a household name amongst Internet users. I only managed to get online for about half an hour every week and as a result, I couldn't access MSN without getting lagged out and worse of all, I could not communicate with my friends in Singapore at all.

BUT....

Blogger has helped me a great deal. I stayed in touch with my friends via my blog and they had the chance to experience Africa through my eyes. With the most basic function of allowing bloggers to post pictures online, it also aided me in relating my experiences to my friends. Most importantly, blogger kept my friends and I closely connected. The feeling might be as strong as a phone call but it definitely keeps people connected. Even now, for my friends who are overseas, we visit each others' blogs regularly to stay connected

The internet has made it possible for us to stay connected with people from all around the world, but for me, blogger has allowed me not to only stay connected with people, but it has also brought the world closer to both my family and myself.

p.s. My parents read my blog every once in awhile, no matter where they are :)