Life in the Information Age

Working Styles
Entertainment and Leisure
Communication
Education
Banking and Shopping

Completion

I have finished
social messaging
emails
blog
and instant messenger
however in instant messenger the Yahoo part is small because blogger somehow deleted half of Yahoo,
I am still working on entertainment

Post

I know the last time I blogged was on Wednesday
but I have been adding to the posts that I have already posted
the blogs that are complete are email, and blogs
the other three are still being worked on here and there

I will be covering

Blogs
Email
Chat and instant messaging
Social Networking
Entertainment

Entertainment

In this new age of technology, the Internet has evolved into something that a lot of people from many age groups can access, therefore having many ways of entertaining themselves. there are many different  types of online entertainments such as online radio, online movies, video streaming etc. the good thing about the way entertainment has evolved is the way it can be accessed by numerous devices such as the Ipad, Xbox, and smart phones.
One of the most common websites of entertainment would be Youtube.com, which is a video sharing website. youtube.com was activated on the 14th February 2005, so its quite a recent site that has become one of the worlds most viewed sites.

Youtube  

Video sharing seems to be one of the most common Internet cultures that have been invented. Youtube has made it possible for people who have Internet connection to access the site and upload any video of their choosing. Youtube is a type of website that doest necessarily need the user to make a log in, but it does make it a lot easier because when you have a log in the user can keep any videos in their area for as long as they want, the can comment on other videos, and you can rate videos and many more. Since the audience is worldwide anyone can access the video by either searching for it, or it comes up in suggestions, once it does come up, it takes a few seconds for it to load, and then you're watching it. there are several features to Youtube which makes the quality of it very good compared to other video sharing sites. Firstly not only does Youtube allow the users to upload their own videos it also offers "catching up on the latest TV" this is basically a service that offers to upload TV shows that the user may want to watch. This is one of the ways in which entertainment has grown through the years, the Internet has now provided a service that allows the user to see TV shows from their devices, instead of having to watch them continuously from the TV. This can be good for if the user is travelling they can have something to entertain themselves with. TV shows are not the only category, Youtube also provides music which comes with a number of genres from pop, rock r&b etc, so the audience is spread out depending on their interests. Youtube also offers films that have been uploaded by different users that have been categorized by genre of the film, again from the same website, it is able to give different types of entertainment. Similar to a blog Youtube gives the user the choice to comment on the video, this can be good for a number of reasons; if they are a business and the are advertising something new, the comments which they receive from the users can help evaluate of they like the product or the business, and they can also comment on why they don't like it, or the opposite. however some may feel that they don't want comments on their video therefore they have the option to remove the settings from adding a comment. in addition to the point about the business trying to advertise their product, a business may not need to make a video and publish it onto Youtube, instead they can make a pop up link onto the video which relates to their business, so whilst watching the video, the advertisement pops up and may or may not engage the user depending on whether they are interested or not.

Video on how to upload videos onto YouTube

Online Gaming 

Computer games are usually done over the Internet, and it involves connecting players together all at one time. There are various types of online gaming, which includes; playing in a virtual world such as Rune Scape, or playing on devices such as the Wii or Xbox, which have cross platform online play. This means that the games have private serves that function with multiple consoles, this allows the users to connect to PC users who are using the same server. There is also online casino, which involves the players playing games such as poker, the difference between all these games and the online casino is that money is being used just like it would be in person. 

Online poker

Another form of entertainment would be onlien gaming. online gaming is quite a popluar way of entertainment that can be done online, rather than having to go and find a casino in order to play poker or any other form of gambling.
Online poker has numeorus services that being in an ordianry poker room provides. being online has poker room swhich the user is free to pick which room they want to join, this enables a lot of competition for the users, becasus there can be many players playing ath the same time, adn they could have the same interests as the uers. since there are many poker rooms that the website offers, it creates a range of challenges for the user, as well as the user being able to pick the kind of poker game that suits them so that they do not have an unfair advantage. the next thing which the poker website has is that it has its own poker store which draws the users into the game a lot more, and there is chnace of getting somethign cheaper than what most retailers might provide. having a store online can make the business have more profit than what it is already receivong so it benefits the business a lot as well as benefiting the customers becuase they can get products, and since its from a well known poker webiste they are sure that the product is of high quality.   

poker rooms
poker store
tournaments
games and rules
tutorials
people
poker blog

Video on Tournament play on poker.com

Advantages of Online Gaming and Youtube 

There are various reason why online gaming is good, one of the main reasons is that it is available 24/7, there are no rules about when and what time the user can go on the site, which makes it very useful because there is no need to go to the casino just to play poker. The second reason is that there is a variety of games which the user can pick from, being online gives the user a sense of choice over what they want to play. It also makes it a lot easier to find what you want to play because all the games are under one category, so it makes it a lot simpler to find something that amuses and entertains the users. the next reason is that the site has great game speed, unlike being in a casino where people can take as much time as they want, being online enables fast play which means that it makes the game more interesting and there is no need to wait a long time for a long time.

Youtube offers quick streaming for the user, which means that it is easy to transfer data that can be processed continuously.  

more chance of finding the video you want

download videos

you can watch movies

 

Disadvantages of Online Gaming and Youtube 

loose money at a faster rate
inability to see opponent 
easier to get distracted

anything can be posted nude
some users can be abusive 
limited to 10 minutes
can run slow peak times

News Stories

"I had no idea I was being cheated when I was playing," says online poker enthusiast Tom Broadbent ruefully.I then saw other players chatting online about 'Chinese collusion' and people were getting compensation. "So I asked Poker stars about it and the next day I got a refund."

This story is about how people who are playing poker online are getting their money stolen by the other players.                                                           

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11250835

YouTube has started to experiment with its own-brand live video-streaming technology. Over two days the site is planning a trial in which four partners will get the chance to air live programmes.

YouTube has done one-off live events in the past, but the trial marks a test of underlying technology that will be used when the service is launched.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11282240






Print Screens on poker.com and youtube.com

Age restriction

Games

Max Bonuses

Movies on Youtube

Online Poker

Poker

Poker Blog

Poker Blog



TV shows Youtube



Signing Up



Watching Films



Youtube

Youtube Adverts

Chat and Instant Messenger

Instant messaging is when users send and receive short messages. Having an IM enables them to create a private chat room with another individual in real time over the Internet. The instant messaging system alerts the user as soon as someone is online as well as if an instant message is being received.

MSN Messenger
MSN began in 1995 as a search engine for music and other sites. MSN's  Live messenger began along with hotmail in 2005. 

Messenger offers numerous settings such as skinning, which is basically setting a theme which suits the authors personalities. there are numerous themes that are on MSN that the user can use, the only reason why skinning is there is because everyone likes to be individual, and it makes the messenger look a lot interesting as well as letting the other user know what type of person they are just from looking at their background. MSN is well know for its organisation, one of their newest features is that it has tabbed chats, which is basically having the users conversations under one tab, instead of them being separate. Its easier to navigate and find who they want to talk to to as well as making the page look less busy. To add to the personalisation of messenger, it also offers the choice of choosing the text and the colour. again it is all for personal interest in making their messenger look less boring and more of their own personality,and individuality. messenger has a feature that automatically saves all the conversation that have been made. I feel that this is a good feature because if something important was said in the conversation, it makes it easier to remember what was in it, and its another way of storing memories from the conversations. Encase there's more than one user using the computer, there is an option to lock messenger so that no one else can access the users account. This is a very good feature because for security reasons it helps prevent anyone from going into the account, and anyone from accessing their personal details. One of the features which is part of instant messaging is custom sounds, this allows the user to send their own pre- recorded sounds during a conversation, this is mainly for fun purposes and to entertain each other while speaking. MSN also has a feature which allows the user to send quick texts. quick texts is mainly for people who do not like sending the same texts all the time, so instead of typing it, there is an option to customise the the texts and can be sent with a short-cut or a typing command.  

Sending nudges to contacts is one way of trying to get their attention. by sending a nudge it simply makes the screen vibrate and makes a buzz sound to alert the user, this is commonly used if the other person is not responding sending a nudge can quickly notify that person. during a conversation MSN has a feature which allows the users to send pictures to each other, just like uploading an image onto a social networking site, only faster. this is a fast way of sharing each others interests, or better still a faster way of sending pictures instead of by email. although email is good, sending the pictures via instant messenger gets the pictures to the other user instantly. since MSN is one of the renowned instant messengers, it is available in numerous ways. Since devices such as the Iphone have come into the market, it has come almost essential that MSN is on their phone, for businesses this would be very useful. It's almost like the Blackberry having its own messenger making it a lot easier to communicate with people and its for free. there are also other devices such as the Ipad, Xbox live etc.

Yahoo Messenger

Yahoo messenger was originally under the name of Yahoo Pager, and was releases on March 1998 

Just like MSN, yahoo has its own unique and similar features. Photo sharing is one of the applications which nearly all messengers will have, its very easy to send them. All the user has to do is drag the picture into the conversation text box, or upload them, either way they are both fast ways of sending pictures to each other than email. In addition to that it is also possible to show albums to each other, instead of having to pick one picture at a time, this is a good feature because they pictures are viewable in a time line type of view, making it easy to brows the pictures easier and faster. sometimes the user may not know when they are being sent an instant message, very similar with MSNwebcam. This can be used for video chatting to each other, its almost like talking face to face because the users can see each other, but not quite the same experience. Having a webcam is very good not just for friends and family but for many businesses as well, some business transactions happen via webcam if they are in another town, country, or continent, it makes it a lot easier to discuss an agenda or just save money on travelling.
Parental control is another feature on Yahoo, it is a good application for protecting kids if they wish to have a messenger, is can prevent the kids from any paedophiles that may want to track them.

Advantages of Instant messaging

There are several advantages of inststant messaging. The first one is the most common, and that is you can chat for free to anyone from anywhere in the world as long as they are online at the same time. The good thing about this is that the conversation is instantaneous and that the user can talk for as long as they want without having to pay for anything. During the conversation the users are able to send files and pictures without having to send them via email or by printing out the files and sending them via postcard. The files do not take a long time to upload in the conversation which makes it a lot quicker to send the pictures or files. One of the great features about instant messaging is that as long as you have a webcam on their computer, on their laptop, or a Xbox, instant messaging gives the user an experience of feeling like their talking to their friends face to face. Although it is behind a computer they can still see what the other person is doing, in addition to that there is also an application that allows the user to talk to their friends, if they do not want to type the word, that makes it more like talking to the them in person. In some situations, there are people in the users contact list who they are migt not want to talk to, Messengers give the option to say who they want to block, doing this will automatically stop anyone from trying to chat to the user. Another feature about Messengers is that the users can talk to as many people as they want, and they can add people to the conversation.  In some cases when work needs to be done in groups, Messenger gives the user an option to add people to the converstion, an talk altogther as a group.

Disadvantages

There are several disadvantages of instant messaging, since the way we communicate is by typing the user wont't know what kind of tone the other user is trying to put across. This makes the message quite hard to understand and in some cases the user may misinterpret the message wrong. another reason is that viruses can easily be transfered via the instant chat, just like emailing is can also have its own attachments that can cause a virus, especially if a person has made a user name that does nothing but cause viruses, all they have to do is send a request and wait for the user to accept it. just like most messengers it can be very distracting, especially if the users are doing work. The thing with messenger is that the user can have as many contacts as they want, therefore they can start more than one conversation with different people, and can be on it for hours which can make them loose track of time, especially since messenger can be on various devices. The problem with instant messenger is that sometimes the user may not know who they are adding, this can be a problem because they can be talking normally to this person, but on the other side the person can be an on-line predator, so all they have to do is gain the users trust and soon take advantage of them. this can be quite bad for teenagers and below because I would assume that they would use instant messaging more than adults would.

News Stories

This story is about how how employees are using instant messaging for their own use, instead of emails. It says that using instant messenger has no restrictions than with what they can do unlike emails which have certain policies attached to them in their workplace.

This news story is about how Twitter is going to take over the use of emailing. A professor has said that instant messaging an social networking sites will wipe out emailing within the next ten years, 

Print Screens on Features of Instant Messaging

Actions

Changing



Contacts

Email access

Yahoo Chat 

Chat on MSN

Options

Online Friends

MSN

Social Networking

The definition of social networking is when a group of people come together and from into specific groups. Social sites such as Twitter and Facebook have various ways in which they form different groups.Social networking also refers to connecting to people via different individuals to form a new connection, so the cycle continues as people follow, or add people via an individual. usually when you (add, follow) people it is usually because there is a common interest that both of them have such as where you live, place of origin, education and so on.

Facebook

Facebook was launched in February 2004, that is privately owned by Facebook Inc.

One of the features of Facebook is that it allows the author to search for friends or other people that they are interested in. just like in the definition social networking is finding people who have the same interest as the author, this can be very good for having pen pals and meeting new people who have the same interests.

In addition to that it can create more than friendship, it can also be used as a dating site, e.g. on when writing information about you, it can say whether they are looking for friends or a relationship. Facebook also offers  the author to choose what they want to share, these things include:
They can upload pictures from their files or they can take an instant Webcam picture if they have the Webcam on their laptop, computer, or on their phone. This makes it very easy to share photos with others very quickly without any hassle, and it keeps the Facebook page busy. The next feature is that Facebook allows videos to be uploaded from the author files or they can add a link to YouTube which enables them to share what they like about the video, or any video that has the author within it. Again this is a very easy application to use and its very fast to upload and to share with friends. There is an application on Facebook which allows the author to make events, this is a very good way of inviting friends because all the people the author may want to invite might be on Facebook. Secondly when making an event the people who have been invited can state whether they can come, if they are not coming, or if they are not sure, this can be very useful to plan how may people may be coming to the event ,and it is a good way of reducing the time to send invitation's, if there are any problems that happen they can easily write on the event wall, and the administrators of the event can reply to any demands that they may have. In Facebook it is very easy to to join groups. all the author has to do is "like" the group that they browse for, they can join in the conversations that happen within the group, as well as meet new people with similar interests. it is also possible to start your own group, as invite as many people as the author wants. this can be good for business who want to advertise their businesses, or a new artists who is in need of publication, sites such as Facebook are good for this type of advertisement. Lastly one of the main reason why Facebook is very popular is that it is good for free communication. who needs a phone when you can easily chat to the person when they are online or the author can write on their wall, that will be the first thing that they see.

http://www.helium.com/items/1902677-why-facebook-is-baddisadvantages-of-facebookinternetreasons-why-social-networking-is-badsafefty

Twitter

Twitter has been known to be a growing revolution for the internet. Twitter enables the user to send and receive other peoples updates via different devices, such as email, phones, etc. because Twitter can be accessed from any place it is very easy to "tweet" something that is interesting, or if its something new that the users followers may like. Another advantage of this is that the followers are well informed about who they are following, if the user is an entrepreneur for example is there is anything new about the business they can easily tweet it so that all the followers know what the new developments are. Twitter gives the user different options on the applications they want to send messages on. The user can use third party applications such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, and Feedalizr to send Twitter messages. this is a good feature because they don't need to be on Twitter just to send messages, these applications can be accessed from any device, most commonly the Iphone because there are apps for Twitter, so if there is a message that needs sending the only need to access any of those sites. one of the great things about Twitter is finding numerous people on the site. other networking sites such as Facebook will only make fan pages on people, however Twitter has the the actual celebrity that anyone can follow. How they viewers know that it is a celebrity is a by seeing a blue tick which means that the account name has been verified by Twitter as that celebrity. this is why a lot of people are joining Twitter, because they have the opportunity to talk to the person as well as see what they do on a day to day basis, or maybe see if the are having any new singles out (in terms of musical artists).  Twitter is very good at storing names in its database, usually when you want to include someone in the tweet, you have to remember their name, Twitter has a feature where you place (@) in the tweet and lists of the users followers will come up to make it a lot easier than remembering the names, especially if the user has a lot of followers. when finding someone in a hurry instead of clicking directly onto their profile, when you move the mouse over the name of the person you want to see, a mini profile will come up, which talks briefly about that person. This can be very handy when looking for someone quickly because all you have to do is move the arrow onto the person to see who they are instead of having to check out their full profile. On the users Twitter homepage, there are a list of suggestions on who the user might be interested in. usually when the user has followed someone new, the followers of the person they just followed will come up on the suggestions list because they might have similar things in common, have the same interests, or follow the same group etc. To engage Twitter fans more, Twitter has created things called Trending Topics which involves all users. The users can write about their own opinion on whatever the trending topic is. On a show called 106 and Park they always right a trending topic and millions of users will respond, and some get read out on the show, that's one way the show gets the audience more involved.

Advantages of Social Networking

Social networking has attracted many people from around the world, from young people to old people. Social networking has enables many people to find friends who have a common interest in one other as well as find people who the user may not have seen in a long time due to where they live. social networking allows the user to find people from other countries, so this creates a lot of pen pals for the user. Nearly all social networks have a search engine which allows the user to search for anyone in a particular state or town, this is a good way to find old friends because the results will come up with a list if names associated with the ones which the user typed in. All the user then has to do is scroll down until they find the right person. They can narrow the results to where the person lives so that its easier and a faster way to find the person they are looking for. In some cases social networking enables users to earn money, if a business is on Twitter, they can pay people for tweeting about their business, which can make them have more recognition. A lot of celebrities have social networking sites, which means that anyone who adds them can know the daily lives of celebrities. on twitter for example a lot of artists may publish where they are going on tour, this keeps their fans updated and informed about what they are doing. Social networking is a very simple way of finding friends with the same interest as well as meeting new people, all it takes is a minutes registration and the user is able to add as many or as few friends as they want. they next advantage of social networking is that it is available on numerous devices, the Iphone has its own apps of Facebook and Twitter, and phones which have internet are 

Disadvantages of Social Networking 

As great as social networking may sound, there are several disadvantages. Like most sites on the internet social networking could potentially carry threats of viruses, all the hackers have to do is make up a fake account, and add people, and the virus will gradually spread through the network, and affect users computers. 

Cyber stalking is another disadvantage of social networking sites, some paedophiles may target young people especially because they are vulnerable, and they are an easy target, all they need to do is fake their identity and gain their trust. but not only young people but adults can be stalked as well. social networking sites can become very addictive because there is a lot that they can do on the site, such as chatting or playing games, for someone who is meant to be doing work is can cause quite a disruption. in addition to that point, if people get addicted to these sites, and are on the computer or any other device for a long time, it can cause weak eye site, because they are constantly exposed to the light from the computer. one other problem is that sometimes you may not know who you add, most commonly who is following you, these become impersonal relationships, and the user won't ever talk to that person, they'll just have them for the sake of having a lot of so-called friends.

News Stories

Social networking websites, including Facebook and MySpace, must take credit for helping bands to get signed. MySpace Music was one of the first outlets for artists to get their material heard worldwide. Many artists owe it to these networking sites as they were ''found'' because of them. Some of which include Panic! At the Disco, Kate Nash and Sean Kingston, who have all had major hits around the world.

This article is about how social networking sites keep copies of their users even though they gave deleted their account. Cambridge researchers fear that there is no longer any privacy due to the fact that any photos that may have been on their account can still be accessed. 

Print Screens on Social Networking Features

Invite friends on via email on Twitter

Facebook Chat

Search for friends on Facebook

Find Accounts and follow them on Twitter

Find account name and follow 

Twitter Suggestion 

Add Location to tweet

Facebook games

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Tweet graph