Nearer or farer?

The extension of social networks is the cause of a relentless distortion of both time and space. Since the development of interaction mechanisms, such as, Facebook, email or Skype people have in a certain way became nearer, and I say in one way because I will after explain the other. With the actual technologies we can travel across the world without moving of our chairs, we can spend ours speaking to a screen and at the same time communicating with someone else, now we can be together without being, and in a much more intimate way than with telephones.

As a matter of fact, the sudden emergence of pages that offer us contact with others at a cost of 0 represented a revolution, and they are, personally speaking a release and a blessing. Thanks to them I can catch up with friends I met in different parts of the world or talk to my sister that may be in the adjoining room. With devices such as webcams or micros we can feel like we were having a conversation face to face, with them laughs taste better than speaking through the telephone and for free. Internet enables us to write endless stories, or a simple hello if you prefer it. Some people even get in love through virtual contact because of this cut down of distances I have described. We can communicate with who we want, when we want to, it is easy, quick and priceless.

But of course Internet is not only meant to create or maintain personal relationships but to assure business. Most enterprises conduct their business via internet, daily decisions are made by videoconference or by an exchange of emails, and there is no more the need to see each other’s faces or shake hands to close a deal, to agree while speaking or to give approval in writing is sufficient.

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To continue, as I stated before, I also see a negative side in the development of virtual devices. The truth is that Internet has submerged as in a world apart from reality, it is probable that paying attention to those who are farer from us may distance us from those who we have nearer. Parents complain about their children having no family life, and teachers about their students not attending to the lesson. Then the great incognite might be if Internet benefits or damages social coexistance.

At the end of the day Internet proves to be just like everything else in life, it is positive or negative for us or for the rest depending on our intentions and usage.

We can manage whatever we pursue, finding how to is life essence.

Blogosphere

In this publication I will focus on an actual issue, such as, the importance of technological tools to let us know. In a society in which anonymity is an obstacle for anyone’s professional development, blogs have raised opportunities for those seeking success. This personal websites are surrounded by a whole subculture in which followers and followed are the essence. Time has shown us the power that the media has over humanity, we are currently unaware of their capacity to manipulate our minds and conduct our lives. It is needless to say that Internet allows as to search about, mostly, anything we are interested in and nowadays fashion has lots of expectance. Furthermore, the extension of different trends through or with the help of the Internet is something I´ve been long time fascinated by. The web is becoming a recurrent source of information for many people who find in different sites the kind of ideas or inspiration they are looking for.

More and more is common for current people to become popular thanks to what they post in a personal blog. This is something that I find really curious, the fact that they might have started writing or photographing or linking as a hobby, as a way of expressing themselves without the intention to get any further, and because of destiny, hazard, casualty or luck they became icons, some of them even from one day to another. Technologies enable them to make their interests reach whole generations, to affect dozens of people with what they say, make them in some way dependent of their decisions. Now well-known brands look to them in order to have their products advertised in their blogs by wearing, recommending or announcing them.  

Fashion bloggers try to make their way in an area that is becoming more and more competitive and creative. If we consider the evolution of some blogs will verify that the design and content has changed. I personally consider myself a faithful follower of numerous blogs in which not only fashion is commentated but also many other topics, such as, food, events, advices, photography etc.

Some of my favorites are fashiontoast, a personal style and fashion blog from southern California whose author, Rumi Neely, is a guest of honor at all major events, cupcakesandcashemere  with a much more intimate style where the blogger shares with her followers culinary recipes, tips for home improvement, harstyle advices etc. Songofstyle is also in my top ten, a San Francisco girl interested in interior decoration, art and fashion. My intention is not to convince you about anything but to express my admiration for how this people influence so many others. I am also fascinated by the fact that blogs power does not understand of territorial or political barriers, as soon it can become a Finish girl´s blog popular, as a Philipine guys one or a Spanish. Blogs enables them to show who their really are or represent a character they would like to become.

The relentless development of citizen power

Journalism has developed in many directions that seemed unimaginable just a decade ago. We were accustomed to the journalists´ image of serious, well prepared people with a different way of understanding the world, with their own ideals and principles, we were convinced that they had a sixth sense and that they were born to interpret and communicate. I won’t say time proved as wrong, but it is needless to say that nowadays mostly anyone can be considered a journalist. Far from considering this a negative aspect, I believe that it enhances communication, allowing us to tell a story from different points of view.

In this day and age there is a new type of journalism in which people participate and contributes in all news making, by sending information to newspapers through social networks or email, being connected has become necessary. All types of events are organised through social networks, campaigns, demonstrations, pacific acts etc.  Now anyone with Internet access has, so to speak, voice, you can critique, support, or simply provide data on what you find on the Web. Given the huge amount of information that is released to the network daily, journalists will have to be much faster, much more analytical.

The most controversial point of this new form of journalism, in which citizens participate actively in the process of generating information, is perhaps how to redirect the news to the more traditional media, and how to filter the information as not everything is reliable. There is currently an excess of data that can lead to confussion and errors. 

Furthermore, I will talk about the web participation of civil society. The first time we realized the power of citizen journalism probably was when an emergency landing took place the 15th of January 2009 in the river Hudson. An anonymous person took a photograph of the accident with its camera and sent it to the Huffington Post with the following caption “There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy”, these only 67 characters probably awakened the whole media atmosphere. Since then the journalism we had known would never be the same.

We also detected the extent of the power of social networks in Iran´s riots in 2009, even though journalists were forbidden to work and some even were expelled the Iranian people organised themselves through social networks and mobile phones, achieving not only to maintain the world informed, but also kept revolution alive.

The Huffington Post is an online newspaper that has revolutionized media communication; it was created both as a liberal alternative to other news aggregators and a commentary collector. It provides everyone who wants to the tools to express themselves.  
I will finish with a quotation of Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Huffington Post and actual chief executive of AOL, that should motivate all us.


“Here, is the best part, anyone can become a citizen journalist all you need is passion, a little training and the desire to tell a good story. It’s time to get out there and report”