Overview and Thoughts

If there are any two worlds that have ever seem more intertwined than ever, it would definitely be "real life" and virtual life. Over the past month I have touched on various subjects regarding the two. So, for this blog I would like to just go over the main key points for the blogs I have written thus far. 

Distinguishing "Real" from "Virtual" - How much time do we spend in each?

In this blog I defined the two and then asked you to think about how much time you spend on and offline. Then to take a step back and realize just how intertwined “real life” and the time we spend online are. To ask yourself is this a good or bad thing? I hope you have been able to evaluate the time you spend and can now answer this question with confidence.

TMI

In my blog “TMI” I touched on how sites enable us to post and upload just about everything, allowing us to know possibly too much about our friends and vice versa on sites such as: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I find it true more everyday that having a conversation with someone it is rare that one of these three sites is not mentioned in regards in talking about someone we know as a friend or acquaintance.

Meeting new people

I refreshed our memories of sites that we can use to expand our options of friendships. I recently used Chatroulette and made a friend that I now talk to almost every day. It is nice talking to someone about what is going on in my life, especially someone from the outside you can look in and have a different perspective. For those of you who had second guesses, I say give it a chance or another chance.

How you can be there without being “there”

Webcams are becoming more used to stay in touch and they are a great way to be there without actually being somewhere in “real life”. Sites that we can use webcams on are: Skype, Oovoo, MSN, and yahoo! Messenger.

Privacy

Things to remember is that our privacy is not just offline in “real life” but equally online in our virtual life as well. Privacy is something we should pay attention to and we should learn how to protect ourselves from not just others but even ourselves. It can sometimes be hard when you are relying on others to protect your privacy, especially when our friends can post and upload things we would rather not be known, but we can do are best and try to protect it to the best of our abilities.

Delete, reactivate, delete, reactive…

With all the sites we are members of sometimes it can be overwhelming, and we sometimes debate whether or not we really need to continue our membership on sites such as: Facebook, MySpace, flickr, dating sites and so on. But rather we like it or not “real life” and virtual life will be intertwined forever more.

The internet is more than just a tool for communication

We don’t just communicate with others online but we use the internet to free up our time, whether that be spending that free time more online or in “real life”. We take classes online to free time and also go shopping. We all know though that looking at things to purchase online does not always go so quickly.

Overall, “real life” and virtual life I hope you can see is intertwined and maybe you already noticed. If so I hope you can see even more so how it is intertwined. I hope that my blog initiated conversations between you and your friends and have made you if at all more cautious of these two worlds that we weave in and out of every day.