Gaming Love

Games available online and through consoles, that allow the player to interact with others are addicting and become much more than a virtual adventure. One’s ambitious and fantasy craving desires aren’t the only self aspects that are involved in these time consuming and exciting games. With the availability to create one’s character, chat with other players (even speak through microphones)  and have a virtual social life with people from all over the world. Since games of this nature often continue to an innumerous amount of levels, people are able to really get to know each other and form connections. These virtual lives sometimes turn into real life relationships.

I have a friend, M, that plays the virtual game Perfect World, which is downloaded into the computer. Once installed, one must make an account and then proceed to (the most fun in my opinion) create a character (physically, gain talents as the game progresses).  M has been playing for almost a year, completing the 101 levels and making friends that she now talks to everyday. She enjoys it so much that she now has 6-7 characters, and some people have claimed to “be in love” with her because of their time shared on the game. This notion helps her when it comes to obtaining things for the game, but for a love connection to be successful physical contact has to be made eventually. M has had a couple of long distance relationships, which have turned into meaningful friendships. Games have their own social network due to the advanced technologies used to play them.

Identify Fakes on the Net

Daniel Solove writes of different cases and examples pertaining to the effects personal exposure online and how quickly information travels on the web (affecting privacy),  in his book “The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet”. The “John Doe” matter in which Solove explains that a self-described “business man with a privately owned company; with wealthy, politics-affiliated friends” admired his previous book and was going to send copies of it to his so called influential friends. Through Google, Solove discovered that this “John Doe” may not be who he said he was, and people were enthusiastically pointing this out. People can be anyone they want on the web, create their personal story and even their image, it is a virtual world afterall.

Identity fakes are all over the Internet. YouTube is filled with personalities that expose their lives and gain viewers through their videos.  One of the ways I get to know of the news (and other interesting stories).  is through a YouTube guy named Phillip De Franco , he informs in his own way, sarcastically and giving his opinion. Not so long ago he reported the story of another YouTuber, who had just gained an immense amount of attention for a scandal with another blogger.  Peter Coffin (YouTuber), started harrassing blogger Xiaxue (Wendy Cheng- Using plastic surgery to look more like one of the Hiltons) without any clear purpose. Fed up, Xiaxue started investigating Peter (through his videos, twitter, etc. ). To her surprise, his Japanese girlfriend Kimi Koboyashi (below),

was just an invention of Peter’s to impress his YouTube fans. Xiaxue clearly won the battle and Peter is now known for having the “Greatest Fake Girlfriend Story Ever“.

Another Blog

I searched through the previews of blogs in this site and picked one that seemed interesting. I came across “It Sucks to Grow Up: The Birthday Edition”. I decided to read it because my own 19th birthday is in a months and a few days, and I’ve been thinking, time passes by so fast once you no longer want it to.  The blog post is about birthdays, their meaning to kids and their lesser value to adults. The author wrote about birthdays because his birthday had just passed and he write in a very direct, honest way, as if him and the reader are having an actual conversation . Like him, I’ve always wondered what is the point of baby birthdays (other than the presents aiding their parents to save money), because they won’t remember them, I guess is because of the pictures they will admire when they get older. I relate to the author’s changing perspective on birthdays, when I was younger my birthday was something special, a day I’ll get rewarded with gifts and good wished (a day to dress up and enjoy more than any of the other days) just for being me. As he says ” ..I like the world to celebrate me.” Unfortunately adult life is quite dull when celebrating another year of life and since the world is more realistic (younger years=fantasy), one is no longer creative in one’s desires.

Discounts <3

Since I work in retail, this is a huge factor in my work day. Customers love discounts, to some is even the happiest event of their day if they save some money. As a shopper I love discounts, preferring clearance for its lovely prices (and it becomes more interesting searching through different styles, different from the merchandise being promoted). As an employee,  I must say it’s a pleasure to give discounts when we are allowed to, like during this weekend. My store had coupons for 30% off the customer’s entire purchase, with the condition that they will dance for them. Yes, I said dance. I offered the coupon and ask the customers to dance for it. Some were incredulous,  questioning  if that’s all they had to do or if I was just joking. Others denied me, but with a little persuasion they gave in. The most serious looking ones were the best dancers, they really proved to me that a book really can’t be judged by it’s cover. The most amazing occurrence was when I asked a woman to dance and she burst out laughing, and after dancing, she told me “I did not think I was going to laugh today at all”.  Its the best thing in the world to make someone happy, even if its with one simple gesture. I must say that was the best idea the store has had since I’ve worked there 🙂

 

Digital Revolution: Impact on Education

Technology is the new form of teaching in many schools.

 

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