Daily Internet Digest

If you have not noticed it yet, internet is fast becoming a world filled with bullies. Social networking sites are filled with people who always sound so negative. Bickering is done left and right and I bet when you checked Facebook today, you have seen at least one person being mean. Why is this happening? Why are we living in a world where internet is used as a powerful tool to fight with people?

On a new survey conducted by VitalSmarts, almost 80 percent out of 3000 participants said that people are becoming rude on the internet. Negative words and insults are thrown around regularly. It is also said that profanity is used too often. It won’t get better unless people are properly educated on placing respect to other people and themselves while online.

The youth in particular use this as a way to bully other people. Cyber bullying is so common that it is literally so scary how it affects people. There are cases that police have to be involved and bullies had to be arrested. New laws should be put up to avoid these things from happening over and over again.

There are so many incredibly awesome websites on the internet right now and FMyLife is clearly up there. Here’s a brief introduction to how FML originated. First, it stands for “F*ck my life” which is often used by melodramatic teenagers who believe they have the worst life ever. It is used often so it’s quite clear that people who say this use this term in a highly exaggerated manner. Superbad, the movie by Judd Apataw back in 2007 is what popularized this phrase. Now that it’s universally known, it is just clever that a website was created in devotion to it’s use. The popular website gets at least 1.7 million hits everyday! Yes, that much people enjoy reading other people’s misfortunes. It somehow makes people believe they’re still doing pretty well compared to others! Here are some examples of what you’ll likely read on the site:

“”Today, the guy I like and his friend came home with me to work on a project. I opened my front door and my mum was at the top of the stairs completely naked, bent over, drying her hair with the hairdryer. It took a few moments for her to realise we were there. FML”

“Today, I got my very first yeast infection. Thinking she would help me, I went to my mom. Instead she began yelling about how I’m lying and it’s an STD and I don’t believe in the power of Jesus. FML”

There are a growing number of internet addicts in the world. Majority of these addicts are young children – teenagers. In South Korea, studies show that at least 680,000 children ages 10-19 are addicted to the internet. Two-thirds of this number own a smart phone and can access the internet anywhere they go. The South Korean government has now addressed this important issue and is now encouraging these children to undergo a horse-riding therapy. The harsh truth is, a person addicted to the internet (or addicted to anything, for that matter) will eventually have behavioural disorder. The time spent in front of the computer is also the time spent not interacting with another human being and it is essential for children at that age to be able to interact with people to develop communication skills. The Government has also now enforced the “Shutdown Law” which blocks online gamers from playing anything between midnight to 6 in the morning. This has limited success but more actions would be done in the future.

Consumersearch.com has released the top five anti-virus programs available on the internet as of January 2008. The list are as follows:

1. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0 (estimated cost to buy around $40.00)
2. ESET NOD32 (estimated cost to buy around $40.00)
3. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5 (free to download from their official website)
4. Panda Internet Security 2008 (estimated cost to buy around $40.00)
5. Norton Anti-Virus 2008 (estimated cost to buy around $40.00)

However, these sites also have online virus scanners (except for AVG) if you only wish to use the program once or you wouldn’t wish to buy their product (utilitarian purposes!). Their online scanners are as follows:

1. Kaspersky online lab
2. ESET NOD32 online scanner
3. NO AVG ONLINE SCANNER
4. Panda online scanner
5. Norton online scanner (Symantec’s online scanner, makers of Norton)

Photo taken from http://www.worldofstock.com

The stories heard on the news recently about the dangers of the internet has been really disturbing. In September, a man got gagged and was held at gun point by a man he invited to his home. He met this man on a mobile chat site. His fault was putting too much trust to a stranger he only met on the internet and by sharing personal information to the public. This could easily happen to anyone. Men, women and children. These cases are no longer new.

Authorities are trying to tell people to be extra careful. Internet is an extremely dangerous and powerful tool. Almost everyone in the world is using it but not a lot of people are properly informed of the dangers that lies beneath it. Though people can’t be stopped from using the internet, the best solution is to educate people on the right way to use the internet and the limit to what they can share to strangers.

Couchsurfing is a website that offers the members social media and hospitality exchange. This site is specifically popular to travelers around the world. The way it works is, people can connect to other people around the world if they need a place to crash in while traveling. It is a cheap alternative and will help you avoid hotel costs and at the same time help travelers meet different people from around the world. For travel enthusiasts, this has been a great help. You do not need to actually need a place to stay to be a member of this group. Some people use it to meet people locally for food or drinks. It’s for everyone! It is about learning cultures through meeting people and the possibility of life long friendship. I myself have been a member for a few years now and have taken advantage of the perks of meeting strangers while traveling and it’s definitely worth checking out!

Thought Catalog is a website extremely popular to the younger demographics because of its up to date, relevant writing by normal people everyone can relate to. Known for its very personal and controversial essays.  The site is well designed and easy to view because it is clutter free. One gets to to discover stories, ideas, and voices here that you won’t find in the mainstream media. It tackles issues about life, love, travel, politics, entertainment etc. The contents are always updated by the contributors. It was recently shown that the website gets at least 82,000 page views per day. Thought Catalog was founded by Chris Lavergne. It was launched in 2010 and has gained so much popularity thanks to the revenue of online advertising. There are some detractors against this site. Lavergne said that surprisingly the critiques are writers who don’t approve of overly personal topics that are “tasteless” This does not concern the thought catalog team because they do their best work since day one.

For almost any form of education, some sort of material or resource is used to transfer knowledge from the teacher to the student. The most common piece of materials would be a textbook. From the pages and words written on the book, the teacher guides the student through the process of learning and imparts wisdom in hopes that it will grow into something great in the future.

Herein lies the problem because not everybody has access to brand new and up to date text books. But, financially challenged people should not worry because there are many cheap used textbooks available. At first, they may seem obsolete because revisions are made to textbooks almost yearly. But in fact, most of these revisions do not change the gist of the lessons. There is still much to be learned from earlier revisions and it comes at a much cheaper cost.

Another upside is that there are plenty of cheap used textbooks circulating. Most big universities and colleges have programs that ask their graduating students to donate their textbooks so that less fortunate people may make the most out of it. At the end of the day, they will eventually learn the same thing anyway so you are doing everyone social justice by also allowing the less fortunate an opportunity to learn.

Cheap used textbooks may sound like a very degrading term but its value is simply not skin deep. It has much to offer to those who are less fortunate and you should all do your part and helping them rise from their hardships

The rise of Youtube’s popularity, not only to teenagers but to all ages indefinitely, has been proven by the millions of viewers they receive everyday. Almost everyone can post in the said website, from personal videos to videos ripped from the television, as long as the person has a username. It is a fact that Youtube receive so many hits every month as some of their videos already have as much as 8,000,000 views.

The problem with this “access for all” website is that some use it to gain fame. In Florida, there was this girl who was beaten by a gang of teenaged cheerleaders. The teenaged cheerleaders professed afterwards that their main aim on why they hit the girl and videotaped it was so that they could post the video on Youtube.

Photo taken from Youtube video snapshot.

Sometimes, it will be a hard job for marketers to evaluate what signal is from voice for the huge volume of information on the internet on the topic social media. Visiting sites such as MySpace, YouTube, FaceBook, and Flicker to mention can irresistible. When your going to speak with most social experts you might encountered words such as conversation, transparency, and the social graph.