Thursday, 11 August 2011

Networking with Evolution of World Communication, (Manuel Castells, Afterword: Why Network Matters?)

Before breaking the ice on the journal written by Manuel Catells on "Afterword:Why Network Matters?" I'll be giving my opinion in relation to the question written by Manuel Castells on "Why the network society now?" As mentioned, by Castells he written on this journal, he explains there are many benefits towards networking and I fully agree with his theories and concepts he implies in this particular journal. This is because if we to look at the world today, we are interconnected with one another easily with the service provided to us which is the internet and thus enabling me to post this opinion of mine on Blogspot. Looking at network today has brought many opportunities to people for work or career, even education for people that are interested in communication courses. Without networking, there wont even be a place for many of us to be where we are today I believed. 

Which comes to my topic of Network, Networking with Evolution of World Communication referring from the journal written by Castells, he has given statements that networking really does brings alot of benefits to the world. However, as technology improves as mentioned by Castells, the way networks are being done in the past and today is a whole different manner. Today networking can be done through internet whereby there are platforms of delivery such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and lately Google+ which might be the next trend of networking for people in terms of socializing. For more formal occasions there are blogs, and even people can even create their own personal websites if wanted for further own preferences whereby these users can customize the page however they want. Without a doubt networking has lots of benefits to mankind today, which this world will not be able to run if not for their networks. Internet is the major networking system majority used today, it is a free service provided.

Network may help to build the world into a nicer place, but what if one day this networking brings us the opposite instead? It is easier to crush something than build. Which is why, networking is so interesting in this sense of construct and destruct.


                 
Eg:of networks in the past went wrong                    Eg: of Good Networking today 


Image References:
http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/01/alabama-mobile-nazi-industrial-club.html
http://www.mesniertranslation.com/

3 comments:

  1. Hey! I agree with yours and Castell's statement as well on the fact that the development of the networks are indeed providing tons of benefits not only for one individual, but also for the society as a whole, regardless of the aspects (education, work, etc.)

    I would like to reflect on your question at the end of your article: what if the network is giving us a negative effects rather then the positive ones? What if the network development decides to act upon us? A revenge? Just kidding.

    Anyhow, I see that it's possible. What happens if something goes wrong? What happens if the whole network goes out of control? As what I had stated in Michelle's blog post comment, I would like to reinforce on the idea that the advancement of the network can indeed make individuals to overlook important things such as their lifestyles being controlled by these networks. Thus, in my opinion, it is important for individuals to realize the potential of the global networks, and making use of it instead of having the networks to make use of us.

    Great reflection :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like how you wrote your understanding of this article, good job!

    You question whether networks are destructive or constructive is a good one. Often, we glorify the benefits/gains and keep working on them, getting as much as we can often sucking them dry and helpless and just leaving them hanging. Something that is good has been used for bad reasons. However, I believe the digital network that we live in today can be more good than bad. There are of course bad things happening as we speak - hackers, virus, scams but we are now in a age where we are knowledgeable and informed of our environment and surrounding. We're just smarter than before and we know now the importance to preserve and protect the wonderful internet world that we have today. We can detect threat faster, and we can get back from setbacks quicker than before. But with that being said, it's quite idealistic for people to be contributive to the "world" they live in. We must always remember to contribute/give back as much as we take, and whatever little we do in the name of good can help our digital network stay the way it is and hopefully, improve :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yea Agree with both you guys Su Wern & Su Juin, networking is so complicated which can be used in anyways. Remember the movie "Matrix"? that's a movie which can explain network excluding all the part which one enters the cyberworld, other facts such as destroying the virus and curing system are good uses of the internet by people. Using it wisely will definitely bring us more great then negative effects from the usage of networks. We must always be careful with tools such as the internet platform which allows us to do many different kind of functions. We wouldn't want to be ended up as a victim from using this particular network which put us in a situation we don't want to be in. For example networking in Politics will be a risky place which could endanger ourselves or our family without knowingly if not careful

    ReplyDelete