Why Network Matters? Manuel Castells

Network...

What comes to your mind when you think of Network? A computer with internet connectivity? Or your network of friends and pals? Network society? it could be anything...... oh well...to me its network society.. I came across during lecturer session where Professor Philip pointed out a question on "Is network society important today?"... I would say, It is really important..as without network, we would still using snail mail to send our messages to our friends or even your loved ones...This comes the interesting part where, everything we do are all rely on the technology advancement that improve day by day that make the internet and network becoming more and more powerful these days. You can email to another person from another side of the world with just a seconds thanks to the latest technologies we used these days. Forget about email....with the recent Blackberry Messenger and MSN messenger...you can send out your messages or even have a great online conversation with your friends or families with just a click of button... However when we think back where our great grandparent days.... we are very lucky to have these kind of technology to do so.

During the late 2000's where comes the social networking era like the very first Friendster in the 2003, then there goes 2004 for Facebook and 2006 for twitter as Mr Faizal showed us the history pathway of Internet.. I can still remember that during 2004, i was still using the great old ancient Friendster that everyone hates it now.

We can see the internet access through Internet service is now so powerful that we able watch online live movies, listen to songs, read articles, chatting and so on that even may replace our great old conventional cable TV..... I even dare to say, most of the time I would spend almost 3-7hours a day by using Internet connectivity from my computer and smartphone. Life has become interesting and easier in the age of internet life as with few clicks of button....there goes your information that you wants to know. 

Social Networking changes the society to keep in touch with others

The Social Networking Era

Facebook, Twitter, My Space, High 5, Plurk, MSN are a few of the common ones that we use to hear and use especially in our younger generations.  These social networking helps to shapes the society in communicating more effectively and when we think more than that, these social networking would help keeping everyone that uses it with minimal charges or some FOC in order to keep in touch with others like their family and friends.What if these services do not exist in our life? Two words=Snail Mail? or perhaps we still using the expensive way which is making phone calls or even writing lengthy letter or even none. As to me, I use these tools because, I always wants to know what other people is doing like for instance... "Whats happening or latest update from my friends?"... well...whenever they post a comment about themselves...I able to know their latest about themselves with just few click of buttons... On top of that, photo sharing like Flikr, Web hosting gives me the freedom to post my photography pictures online and share it among with other people out there... comments given can help me to improve my shooting skills and so on.

Snail Mail? No way..!!!

All these social networking are extremely important for everyone to keep in touch at the same time keeping cost low. Have you ever thought of chatting with your friends through MSN messenger or making phone calls to your friends would put you a cheaper way in terms of costs? To me, these inventions of social networking like Facebook chat, MSN chats really helps me in saving up my long list of bill payment because everything is FREE...and you only need to worry is your INTERNET BILL..that would not even costs as much as making phone calls and talk for hours... With the Internet, things will get done easier.....even with forums, we can share our opinions and find our others problem easily without going through the doubt especially when you want to buy something for yourself....For instance....a phone..I usually will read comments/ reviews or even people's discussion in forums like Lowyat.NET, PDA,expert in order to find out what is the problems on the latest phone model that I am going to buy or so on....

Even car forums like Autoworld.com, Motortrader.com or the famous blogger Paul.tan would help me in getting decision on getting my very first car.... I can find out what are the problems of the car before putting my hard earn cash on a car. All these would generally help people to make a better decision and also it changes the way consumer buy their wanted goods... For instance.. Toyota were to come out a latest model...but with all the discussion were made in the forum with all other forums... People can know more about the car instead of going to the showroom and asking from the salesman.... Heck...some sales agent would even give you the wrong information because some might want to get profit easily... so we are lucky to have the great networks, Internet to save us and to change our way of thinking towards certain things...... Not only that, people can discuss about problems and solution on a certain product they bought that would help their understanding better of the product when using.

Before move on...have a look on the video "why social networking is important?"

 

Importance of Social Networking...

Moving on to the Castell's article: Why Network Matters?...there are 7 points that we know on how network plays an important role in today's society.

We are all connected...dont we?

1) We are everybody's friend

Everybody around us are consider as friends....even your neighbor, your secret admire, your mother, your friends....we are all connected together.. We even can talk to someone unknown from other country that is miles miles away in single social networking site and especially in forums, we know everybody as we tend to discuss and have a great chat with other members that will resulted as friends... who knows one day you were discussing a topic and there goes another person who share the same thought drop by your post?...and soon you get to know the person more... :-)

Business matters..serious talk please!

2) I want my business run well....please!!

Oh well.... Isn't trouble when you need to spare time to meet up your client or even drive all the way to meet your client with not counting in the jams and frustration even before you reach there? With today's network that being so powerful... Internet saves us as we can just do Video Conferencing face to face with our client or even simply just drop an e-mail to them or even discuss it over through the Facebook....moreover, companies these days do their businesses through online forums and also Facebook....Another smarter way? 

Politics uses network to update themselves too..

3)Politics...OMG...not again!

Everybody loves politics, even one that hates it...in the end they would enjoy knowing what politics are doing.. If we were aware of, even the politics do need feedback from the citizens especially like voting or elections are coming nearby.... they would want feedback from citizens in order to shape the country or even to know what is the citizens are doing... and not to mention, they rely on networks to make sure each parties in the group are also get connected together....so? they also uses Internet to get connected as well....what say you? Like the recent Bersih 2.0....what they use to pull people? Facebook likes and posting comments on Facebook to get response.. incredible isn't it?

4)Say Hi To Mr Google...!

Oh well, thanks to the Mr Internet or some say Mr Google, we able to get any kind of information that we want in just glaze of seconds. We able to get lots of information and every credible article that are useful for our research or simply just to gain our knowledge on certain things. Some might say Internet poses bad thing to people...BUT...come to think of it....Do you still want to go to library to search your information needed that probably takes hours to find your source or with just a click of buttons?....You decide.....!!!

AND

What is I-Phone? Eye with Phone?

if you were to think deeply..what if there is no Internet these days? Were you aware of what is happening around you?? Are you outdated?.... Can you even own the latest electronic gadget in town? Do you know what is Iphone is?...

you request...I settle the rest..OK?

5) You request,Mr Network handles the rest

Do you remember that, the very first Internet was being introduced....everything was pretty limited... you get the annoying connection sound when dialing up....and most people would only spend time sending emails and checking for information from the web... BUT things changes today..where the network is our very own paradise....you can do almost everything you want from social networking, sharing large files with your buddies, watch movies, play high bandwidth games and so on....cool eh?

New media....

6) The new media begins

Everything is related to network where it gives flexibility on people to use whatever they feel like... online radio, watching videos online, checking latest local news, watching drama that you missed and many more... someday I think TV's will not be use anymore...since Internet is the key of everything we need....oh yeah..everybody loves Youtube...what about you?  

7)Thank You to Mr Network

We uses Internet all day long....everything is all connected in one single network...whether you are from Malaysia or United States...we share the same network route as well.....so dont ever think you can bully Mr Network if not we are in trouble...!!!

In the nutshell, Network certainly does matter to us especially in the fast moving pace century... if without it.. I would not even able to create this blogpost through the net...... have a great weekend..till then.....

*BUT....it certainly have the darkside of it as people might misused it by doing other bad stuff like hacking which is the common ones, stealing information through several networks from the server or etc....and also even our social networking poses danger if its misused... people can fake themselves...or even get cheated because afterall...we do not know what is happening  on the other-side of the network......so afterall...it might be great in shaping the society into the new generations but we might be in danger as well if we are the VICTIM of other hackers....AND...do you agree that the internet is forming lazy society these days?...whats your opinion? ... :-)