I am very eager to talk about this week’s material that is being given to us. I came to know about many of the interesting factors which I did not know before especially the Replika thing. It is not a bad thing to take a break from your grief or pain and I think there is no harm if someone use the reboot to talk to just to have some moments of mind peace.

This week’s reading Social Network vs. Online Community was very meaningful and explains both of the terms quite well. Social networks include the people with whom we have relations in the physical world and online communities include the list of people who share the same reason of using an online community as ours. Online communities are being used by the people who share the same interest and same intentions which bring them online.

That’s why people use different apps for different purposes. Many people use the online services for educational purposes, some are in search of friends, some are willing to earn online while some come online for the sake of mental peace. The use of online services varies from person to person. While the people with whom we have the relations in the real world are connected with us in different ways, like some work with us in the same organizations, some are our friends while some are our family members.

This week’s episode of Black Mirror: Be Right Back bring a new twist in the story. A female named Martha is being introduced who is a widow and on the advice of a friend she started using an online service with the help of which you can talk to the departed souls. I find this thing interesting but I will surely not want to use this service. Yes, it is not less than a blindfold that someone put on her mind eyes just to see a dead person whom he/she loved once again. She did the same but eventually she realized that there is nothing like real in this. Yes, for the starter anyone can feel like an escape from the stabbing pain but to end that pain in real manner, you have to pass through it once and for all. And that’s the best thing to do.

What will you do in such a situation? Will you prefer to use any such service or will you prefer pass through this heartbroken phase once and for all?

Now coming towards the Replika a text based AI. I find this concept very interesting and when I gone through the reviews people have given about it online, I felt that this might be accepted as an online therapist. Because sometimes, we all pass through the time phase where all we want to have is a listener, who can listen to us without judging us. With whom we can talk about the stuff which we fear to share with our close friends or even with our blood relations. We do not want them to know about our dark spots and I think this is the only reason why a person searches for a person or for an app like Replika to talk to. So, in my opinion Replika is doing great for people and I personally believe that a person should have to try everything which can bring mental peace to him.

 What do you think about it? Will you use an app like Replika for the sake of metal peace?

For this week’s news article, I have found this article which explained well that why people use Replika. What was the reason it was first built?

Link: https://www.wired.com/story/replika-open-source/

After going through the stuff provided for this week’s blog what I have found is that social media is being taken as a monster in our lives who wants us to give all of our time to it. Many of the social media platforms and apps are providing us with the material we want to see and we found ourselves helpless to stop scrolling. But I still think it depend upon us how we want to use a source as a friend or as a monster. Social media has given us much more to think about or thank about. I feel good for the people who are earning for their households all because of this social platform because they have taken their home based business to the market level with the help of this.

Coming towards this week’s episode of Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits, I think this episode was quite an upset one because what happened with Abi was not a good thing. Yes, I agree that social media fame is driving people crazy but then again the question arises that who is going to stop this all if not We?

While reading the article ““How the Loss of the Landline Is Changing Family Life”, it sure does have change the life and the family sittings. Again, we still can plan to have family sittings and family gatherings. I believe that people need to adapt with the changing time and should have to deal with these changings in a positive way rather to complaint about it every time. I mean what do you expect from this generation to leave all of the modern techniques and sit in a house? Of course, it seems impossible but what we can do is we manage the time and schedule and act respectively. There is need that we involve our parents too in this changing world so they do not feel abandoned.

In another article: “Cicero’s Twitter: Tom Standage on the forgotten history of social media” the author has explained the phenomenon of the social media in quite a positive way, that it is just like another place where people can gather and have long lasting chats, like they tend to do in the old coffee houses and in gathering but now virtually. People from the start had the sharing behavior and they with time get the advance ways of sharing their personals with one another. The author said that “Modern social media is so compelling because it’s the most convenient and efficient means we have invented so far to scratch a prehistoric itch: the desire to share and network with other people”.

What my point of view here is, or what I have concluded from this week’s topic is that social media along with its negative impacts have given a lot to people. There is need that people or the users of the social media will schedule their time to use these services because again these apps and services are not being invented to give harm to the humanity but for their ease and comfort.

For this week’s news article, I have chosen this article with my point that social media is also a source for our ease and comfort.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-launches-facebook-campus-to-facilitate-connection-among-college/585027/

In the end, my questions for you all to think and respond are:

How we can make this social media a friend of ours?

Are the negative impacts powerful enough to neglect the perks?

This week’s contents have made me so excited to talk about in my blog. I have found the material eye catching yet interesting to look on.

I have seen the Black Mirror: The Entire History of You, and I wonder what the technology is going to bring us to in the coming years. I mean just think on the idea that you are going to remember each and every person who came in your life with whole and having access to your memories is felt like a blessing to me. I mean just think we are going to watch our own childhood even in the age of 80s. we are going to remember our loved ones and can watch them in our memories whenever we want. It looked quite interesting to me.

In the movie, Liam has faced some painful phases but if we see the other aspect he also had find the truth by it. So, I think the pain is worth bearing then

In the article , I totally agree with the author’s point: “In sharing online, we are playing to a crowd. On some level, we acknowledge this. The crowd consumes the content that we share and, if we are favored, it passes it on. The crowd honors the identity that we create by sharing this content.” The author has said it right that while sharing anything online on social media, it solely depends upon us how we are going to interpret the data either in positive or in negative form. Social media has made life easy and accessible for many of us. Consider the time when our loved ones are far away and we have to wait for days to see them. Now we are just a click away from one another.

I have gone through the articles with different contents in favor and against of technology. What my personal opinion is, technology has changed the way of living for us and we should admire that too. If people now a days are facing some problems because of social media usage or by the use of google, I think they need to consider it for a moment that is the technology forcing them to? The person who is using the social media or anything on the internet has to have a self-control to stop on the point where he/she think this will harm them.

I have seen the two articles on the use of Google. These are:

“Is Google Making Us Stupid”

“Google Is Not Making You Stupid”

I think Google is not making Us stupid. The problem lies in “Us” and we do not want to accept it. Everything has its positive and negative side. So, who is going to decide on it? Of course, US!

In the end, I would say that stop and think for a moment. Who forced us to sit in front of laptops for hours? How are we going to learn self-control if not now? Does blaming technology and Internet solves the problem?

Here is an article that will help in seeing some positive aspects of technology.

Link: https://www.waldenu.edu/programs/education/resource/top-five-benefits-of-technology-in-the-classroom

Hello everyone, My name Rakan from Saudi Arabia. Im studying engineering. I love playing soccer and basketball.