A QUESTION OF SECURITY

I feel as though there are so many people now a days who are concerned about privacy on the internet, but at the same time there are more people than ever who are displaying personal information about themselves on programs such as facebook and myspace. To me it seems very contradictory. People use these programs often to promote themselves as some sort of person or another, and post all sorts of private information... and I feel as though much of the same crowd also complains about privacy

There are many different categories of privacy on the internet, but it seems as though there are more programs out there that give out private information, than programs that protect peoples information. In my opinion, the internet is a place where people display much information about themselves, and if one does not want to do this they should not have an account such as facebook or myspace.

A Conflict of Worlds

With the internet becoming more and more advanced, problems are beginning to arise even with the concept of creating new virtual worlds. The questions that arise with the emerging of new worlds are such as: with many worlds being creating, what kind of problems will it cause when users have to create numerous avatars to join different worlds.

The question I pose is much simpler and can have some sort of an answer from anyone from a "gamer" to a stay at home mom. Is it healthy for kids/adults or people of any age to spend long amounts of time in virtual worlds, and what affects does this have on the social life of someone who spends more time online than in their actual world.

It's obviously up to whoever is on the computer how much time they want to spend in whichever virtual world, but an individual really should manage their time carefully. I’m sure it is exiting and to some point addictive to spend time in a virtual world which might attract that person who is in it. I truly think that individuals needs to monitor how much time he/she spends on the computer in these worlds.

The article I read is clearly focused on more technical issues such as getting enough people in one world to make it fun/exciting or making it easy enough to create an avatar so people can easily join the world. I am sure that eventually virtual worlds will 'blow up' if you will, and they will probably become quite a business. The question on my mind is: what is this going to do to the social lives of kids who don’t manage their time well?

The Copy/Paste Generation??

(image credit: Marknad)

"Newly awarded Nobel Prize winner, Doris Lessing, used her acceptance speech to tell the world that our relatively new-found best friend, the Internet, makes us dumb, as Duncan Riley of TechCrunch.com noted."(From:Internet Makes People Dumb, Methinks Says Nobel Laureate. By: Vlad Constandes, SEO News Editor)

Are search engines and the internet in general making youngsters less creative? Is it a 'creativity CRIME' to read sparknotes in bed rather than walk to your nearest library to check out the whole version?

Without a doubt the internet has made it much easier to skim books, check movie times, read periodicals, and even looking up historical figures all in one place: your laptop. This is extremely convenient and has and will continue to overcome some of the more traditional ways the public accesses information. But is this source of convenience also a potential source of making our younger generations dumber? I personally don't think so. Although it may make them lazier, the resources on the internet keep expanding and expanding, and the number of users on the internet keep expanding with it. With this growth I see the internet as solely a valuable source of information which hopefully will act as a partner to paper resources rather than an alternative.

The Nike Palace

The new Nike ID section of Nike-town in New York City is never very crowded. However that isn't because they aren’t popular, or because the high price of these shoes scare away consumers... rather it's because in order to create a custom pair of Nike ID's you need to call and make an appointment for a hour block to personalize and talk to a customer service representative at Nike Town.

Nike's newest hot idea is taking personalized shoes to another level. The option has been available to personalize shoes for along time, however never to the extent Nike has recently taken it to. Regardless if you want stripes, neon colors, low tops, or a leather tongue, Nike probably has an option for you with their new Nike ID's.

This idea of consumers becoming the designers also has brought about another change. This is the option to be able to share what you created with your friends. To quote Business Week's article "Customer/designers can then email their creations to themselves or to buddies, or buy the new design inside Nike-town."(Nike's New Public Design Studio -- Where Consumers Become Designers. Posted by: Reena Jana on October 04).

Is this trend of customizing new shoes bringing along a trend of new ways to share your newest purchases with friends? One thing is for sure, Nike has more than just new shoes, Nike's new marketing strategies may also help to shape the way we shop.

Click here to learn more about Nike's global idea for Nike ID.