Assigment 2 Question No.

5: The more active people are in online social networking, the more isolated they become in the real social interaction. As we are stepping in modernization era, our government promotes development in technology and IT literate among the citizens. This statement is proven by our ex-prime minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamads campaign where the government had spent billions of Ringgit in promoting Multimedia Super Corridor in late 90s. Not only for the benefits of the country, but this program also endorse the Malaysian citizens towards IT literate including in rural area. A program called A house with a computer had been promoted widely across the country as part of the Multimedia Super Corridor Campaign. In earlier stage of program, not everybody interested in this campaign and there were few of the Malaysian citizens are ITilliterate. This fact is proven by the study of The National Informational Technology Council. They had recorded about 276,000 households constituting 1.2 million Malaysians (total population: 23 million) are considered as "marginalized" when it comes to access to information technology. However, the numbers keep increasing from year to year. Until now, statistic had recorded that majority; most of the houses in Malaysia have at least a functioning computer. This positive improvement portray that Malaysian citizens are mostly IT literate and yearn for involve in technology development. Moreover, everyday routine had changed rapidly from analog systems to electronic and IT way of life. Nowadays, from banking to everyday shopping, most of these businesses ran in electronic and IT mode. Therefore, this way of life had nurtured the Malaysian citizens to acquire and learn the basic IT knowledge in order to subsist in this modern era. However, this positive development also contains pro and cons. As we all know, the Internet technologies obliterate the boundaries between moral and sins, positive and negative, culture and norm and etc. In one click, we can see the world and its perspective. In three seconds, we can know what happen in the other side of the world without stepping our foot there. The IT technologies had created a lucid tunnel for the users to obtain new information and knowledge liberally. Yet, excellent verdict s is needed in order to control all this lucid advantages. The individual should know to differentiate between positive and negative. They also should pick the information prudently before digesting or applying it in their everyday life.

As we talk about the Information and Technology, social network is the best model to describe the IT and its effects as it had been use widely around the world. Each and every IT literate citizens have capabilities and knowledge to use and handle the social network platform in the virtual world. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Friendster and LinkedIn are the examples of the famous social network platform in the virtual world. Desire in getting to know something new is the human nature and this behavior had made those social network platforms keep expandable from time to time. We must admit that getting a new friend or starting a relationship with new people is something pleasurable to do. Compare to the real world, social network platforms offer less risks and more secure when we get to know with the new people or parties. Plus, it is more easier and cost saving due to its advantages. We do not need to travel far to connect with our friends and keep updating about them. We can create a positive atmosphere in term of friendship and relationship as long as our virtual social skills are impressing. Thousand miles friends can be connected with a single click and indirectly, social network offer us the opportunities to bridge the distances gap. Nevertheless, some research claimed that the more active people in online social network, the more isolated they become in the real social interaction. This study might converse the facts as the active people in online network spend more time compared to the online-passive individuals. They can connect with the thousand miles friends in active-mode but how about their neighbors or their real-life individuals. Writing and speaking is two different things that we acquired in different environments. Real life socialization pursues us to master in social communication skills and positive social behaviors but in the virtual social networking, writing and rearranging the ideas is more crucial in delivering the messages to the other parties. Unbalanced focus between real and virtual life may turn the individual life upside down. Normal human beings are not forever in front of the computers doing their everyday business ignoring the real life situation. They still need to meet people outside to complete their basic needs. The individuals who extremely active in online social network, may have problems with their real life communications skills. Opportunities to practice it in the virtual world are definitely petite. Online social networkings do not offer us to perform the basic appearance of social communication such as body gesture, facial expression, and courtesy in speaking. As we all know, the only shooting range to improvise the basic communication skills is in the real world where we meet the real individual to talk with. Moreover, too much time on online social network can decrease the confident level of certain individuals. Virtual world limit us to show ourselves as a whole person. Therefore, confident

level is out from the question as guarantied; we can speak freely and swiftly to the virtual audiences due to this factor. We can have our sweet time to arrange and rearrange our ideas and sentences before we communicate in virtual. However, how about the real situation where people can see us and we insist to speak directly to the real audiences. It is guaranty that the anxiety level to communicate in real life situations are increasing and the confident level are vanished as those active individuals in social network did not practice it in real life situations. As we all know, communication skills demands good practices. Therefore, it is undeniable that basic IT knowledge is crucial in our everyday life but we must remember that we should balance our virtual and real world. Extremely active in social networking will confer negative effects in our daily life. It is a sin to get some fresh air outside and smile to the world. Plus, it will grant us positive atmosphere and affects our life. We can learn and acquire the best way of real social interaction and bound positively with our environment. Moreover, we should understand clearly about the concept of reality vs fantasy. We must remember that too much fantasy will blind us about reality and the real world perspectives.

References Social network. (2012). Retrieved March 18, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network What Is Social Networking? - What is Social Networking? (2012). Retrieved March 20, 2012, from http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/ Online Social Networking Dangers and Benefits. Retrived March 25, 2012 from http://www.pacific.edu/Campus-Life/Safety-and-Conduct/Safety-and-Security/Online-SocialNetworking-Dangers-and-Benefits-.html

Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop. (2010) Banks Slow to Embrace Social Media. Retrived March 25, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/business/global/social-mediawalflowers.html?_r=1&ref=socialnetworking#

SOMINI SENGUPTA, G. (2008) Risk and Riches in User Data for Facebook. Retrived March 29, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/technology/for-facebook-risk-and-richesin-user-data.html?ref=socialnetworking