Blogscapes

In earlier posts, I’d talked about how politicians have been jumping on the new media wagon and exploiting it to get a feel of the ground and further their popularity.  For instance, there was a Facebook standoff between Hillary, Obama and McCain some months back.

The politicians in neighbouring Malaysia have also realised the impact of new media, and the ruling party has taken an about turn on its view on new media. From disregarding it, they are now encouraging party members to keep blogs. Of course, by now, everyone has probably heard of and/or read Mahathir’s blog.

In Singapore, our local politicians have also started to use new media to reach out to the public. First there was George Yeo who was the face of PAP’s new media user, who blogged about his experiences. Now, more and more of the PAP’s members have started to adopt new media as part of their communications strategy. Teo Ser Luck is on Facebook and Vivian Balakhrishnan keeps his own blog.

According to the Today article, PAP MP Lam Pin Min (Ang Mio Kio GRC) said that, “The power of the Internet as a political tool must not be underestimated as demonstrated by the experience of the recent elections in our neighbouring countries. The party understands this and takes the feedback from netizens very seriously.”

Of course, new media shouldn’t just be used for the sake of using it. To be meaningful, it should serve as a platform for open discussion and feedback, and not a channel for propaganda.

Well, do share your thoughts about what you hope to see being used and done in new media by our local politicians.

I attended the PR Academy Conference 2008 a couple of weeks ago. The focus was on new media:

Any comments, anyone?

Not too long ago, I wrote an entry about how blogger Fragrance Prince was arrested for posting racist comments on his blog.

The idea of responsible blogging cannot be over-emphasised and I think this idea has been summed up pretty nicely in a post by iReflections on blogs and blogging:

I draw the line when it affects other people and institutions. We must be acutely aware of the impact we have. We hurt others inadvertently. This is not acceptable in my book.

Last year, I wrote a post about racist bloggers in Singapore.

You’d think that after that episode, bloggers would be more careful about what  they blog about. I mean, come on, it would be pretty naive to still hang on to the notion that blogs are for your own eyes only, and that  they have no real consequences beyond the virtual world.

But, just yesterday, another Singaporean blogger has been arrested for putting up a racist blog. The 24 year-old goes by the onscreen moniker, Fragrance Prince.

When I tried to access the Fragrance Prince blog, I was given the message that the blog is only for invited readers. Looks like he’s wised up a little.

Anyway, some other bloggers managed to get hold of his so-called apology on his blog before he restricted access to it, and according to them, this is what Fragrance Prince said,

Quoted from http://fragranceprince.blogspot.com

Sincere Apologies
Dear Readers,

I would like to express my sincere apologies for any misinterpretation to my blog entry.

I regret having mentioned this entry in my blog which I didn’t expect it to turn out to be like this, I should have been more mindful.

Once again, I am sincerely apologetic for the recent events that had happen.

Your’s sincerely,
Franco

Well, apology or no apology, Fragrance Prince’s words have certainly caused a stink on the blogosphere and beyond.

Yesterday, I wrote about Malaysian blogger, Raja Petra being jailed for sedition. Anyway, to follow-up on that post, he’s now agreed to post bail.

And it’s none other than his 54 year-old wife, Marina Lee Abdullah’s words, “I want you back” that helped Raja Petra change his mind. No doubt, his wife is concerned about his welfare and deteriorating health in jail especially when he’s embarked on a hunger strike.

Well, looks like there won’t be a need for any more candle light vigils for him.

It’s no surprise that Twitter is so popular in Japan. Twitter messages a.k.a. Tweets are very Haiku-esqe!

Twitter asks a simple question: What are you doing?

In response, you key in your short message of not more than 140 characters and all your contacts are updated on what you are doing.

This way, everyone gets a little snippet of your life! And your short little message could sound very much like a Haiku, which has its origins in Japanese poetry consisting of three or fewer lines with 17 or fewer syllables, or 3 lines with 5-7-5 syllables. Here’s an example:

My native village
on approach and to the touch
a bramble rose

The following will shed more light on Twitter and micro-blogging: Unique Frequency and Turboblogging.

I just came across this term ‘unplugged’ used in a different way. I mean we know of unplugged music but having an ‘unplugged day’?

According to a tech geek, Ms Ariel Meadow Stallings, living your life unplugged means taking a day off when you are completely cut off from any technology, and she finds that it ‘forces her to re-engage with the real world’.

Interestingly, she blogged about how she decided to regain control of her life from being a tech addict and decided to spend “52 nights unplugged this year“.

In a way, having such a tech-detox plan may not be a bad thing for tech and blog junkies out there. There’s been anough criticism about how society is now engaging in virtual worlds than in the real world. I mean, take a look at the homeboys of Taiwan  which I wrote about in a previous post and it’s enough to give anyone the creeps.

And recent reports reveal that Singapore is truly a SMS nation, with many Singaporean youths preferring to sms and have online interactions with each other than face-to-face ones. Many cite convenience as a reason for doing that. But I do wonder if all this has an impact on their social skills. Well, in a way, I believe this will affect their social skills, but to what extent?! I have personally encountered youths like that - totally reticent and socially inept in person but wonderfully eloquent online. It’s almost like a Jekyll and Hyde situation.

Also, with all the talk about blogging hazards, switching off the PC to switch on to real life may not be bad for one’s physical, mental and emotional health.

I wrote about the popular game, Miss Bimbo in yesterday’s posting, and received an interesting comment from Robin Goad who did an analysis of the popularity of the game and found that “social networks are an important source of visitors to the site, accounting for 15.16% of all upstream traffic last week.” You can read more about Robin’s analysis at: http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/2008/04/miss_bimbo_who_is_visiting.html

In any case, the controversy has been good for the game. Many more people are now aware of it and trying it, perhaps out of curiosity!

Today, as I was flipping through the pages of a local community magazine, a word in the headlines of an article caught my attention and made me take a double look. What was the word? It’s “technosexual”.

Sure, we have all heard of homosexuals and metrosexuals but technosexuals? According to the magazine, a technosexual is someone who spends the entire day in front of the computer. Not surprisingly, it comes with some negative connotations such as being socially withdrawn and isolationist.

My curiosity piqued, I decided to check to see if the term is used by others, or was it coined by the writer of the article. To my surprise, it was defined in Wikipedia as a word used to “desscribe an individual in one of two ways:

1. A person (usually a male) with a strong aesthetic sense and a love of gadgets. In this sense, it combines “technophile” and “metrosexual“, which was first promoted by creative professional Ricky Montalvoa.
2. A person with a sexual attraction to machinery. Occasionally, this term is used as an insult, implying in a derogatory way that a person would prefer a sex toy to an actual sexual partner.^“

^{According to another site, WordSpy, ” technosexual is not simply in touch with his feminine side but is connected to it on multiple platforms. He likes gadgets that have lots of gigabytes but are still small enough to fit in his pocket.” —Eric Edwards}

^{So, there you have it - the era of the technosexuals has arrived!}

^{Sounds scary, doesn’t it?} 

The desperation of gaming addicts continues to astound.

Last week, a Sec 4 student, Syafic Hussin,  pleaded guilty to housebreaking and theft, and hurting a 19-year-old youth who woke up and found Syafic in his room, trying to steal from him.

Why did Syafic do it? He stole because his parents had refused to give him any more money to buy accesories and game cards for his online games.

Syafic had also stopped going to school to play on the computer all day. He only paused for meals. He enjoyed role-playing games and felt a sense of thrill to be in character. I wonder if his act of violence has anything to do with his role-playing games.

Reading about this case, I can’t help but recall another act of desperation by another gaming addict, Garyl Tan, who was caught mooching (tapping illegally into others’ broadband access) as he cycled around his neighbourhood with his computer trying to find an unsecured network.

With gaming becoming more popular, especially with large scale events like the the World CyberGame Championships being organised, I think that more and more youngsters will fall into gaming addiction. Just like other addicts such as gambling and drug addicts who have received much attention and hence help, there needs to be some focus on gaming addicts too, so that we don’t end up with more Syafics and Garyls in our midst.