Mixing it up

The only time that I ever feel old and out of touch with technology is when people, or should I say kiddies, talk about Mxit . The mobile social networking site has never really taken off with me but maybe that’s because my oh-so-up-to-date Nokia 3310 (read sarcasm) doesn’t quite support it. Anyway once upon a time I did have a cellphone that had WAP and 3G and I didn’t use Mxit then either. Although I’m not part of the Mxit generation, plenty of others are, mostly being high school kids.

As it seems most kids dig Mxit because they can chat away with their mates (or strangers) for as little as 2c a message. And since its mobile, kids can chat anywhere. All of a sudden Mrs Botha’s double biology period doesn’t seem so bad. Mxit is ideal for the teen market because its cheap, it’s tech-savvy, and it’s on your cellphone which means mom, dad and nosy little sister can’t read your messages.

Mxit, which was created by a South African, has become a phenomenon in this country, with nearly 5 million users. Mxit has become such a craze that even media giants have taken notice. Recently Naspers bought a 30% stake in the company. And according ITWeb, Mxit will soon be taking over the world, as the company plans to expand internationally.

But then there are also the critics of Mxit mostly being parents and teachers. You can almost hear the whine of 5 million angst ridden teens complaining “ah man, my ballies just don’t want me to have any freedom, like why cant I just, like, you know, use Mxit, why do they, like, have to try, like, control everything I, like, do hey?.”

But obviously parents and teachers have a point. They are concerned about their kid’s safety. There have been reports of young boys being lured by paedophiles (see here), young girls becoming addicted to sex chatrooms and schools over the country have raised concern over pupils not being able to concentrate in class because of Mxit (see here).

What I think is that Mxit has its pros and cons. On the pro side it is a great way to communicate with your friends as it is a whole lot cheaper. But because it is primarily used by teenagers and tweens, it does become a hunting ground for sicko’s. But then I believe it’s up to the parents to educate their kids that they must be wary of people they meet in chatrooms, especially if they plan to meet these people in real life. I don’t have all the solutions to the cons of Mxit, I do however wish I knew of Mxit when I was in high school.

Get thin or die tryin?

A touched a little bit on pro anorexic sites in my last post and that seemed to generate a bit of interest. And since I’m not anorexic nor have any desire to be one I can’t add a personal flavour here (I suppose I shouldn’t really use food puns…) I did however go to school with an anorexic, but I think its standard for an all girls high school to have the token ano.

Anyway, if you are a young teenage girl (or boy) the internet is a great source of information about getting into anorexia. Especially social networking sites that offer support and helpful hints to maintaining a waif like figure.

Social utility sites are fast becoming a portal for pro-anorexics to network with each other. I was amazed to see how many groups on Facebook there were that were pro-anorexic and the sheer amount of videos posted on YouTube that are “thinspo” (thin-inspiration) related.

What surprised/ shocked me the most was that on Facebook these girls who join these groups are openly stating their anorexic desires. And as I recall I don’t think I have ever heard a girl say out loud “I’m ano and proud!” Anorexic people never openly admit their disease –well certainly the ones I’ve known, normally you hear the “I have an overactive thyroid” excuse. So I was quite amazed that a lot of people on the web are out and proud of something that is normally so hush hush in real life.

What made me feel sick were the thinspo videos on YouTube. People post picture slideshows of their thin inspiration. Mary-Kate Olsen and Nicole Ritchie come up tops in thinspo along with skeletal models.

But anyway my point is not to slate anorexics. What my point is, is that shouldn’t social networking sites take more responsibility into what gets posted onto the sites. Anorexia is a mental illness and shouldn’t be allowed to be displayed as positive thing that girls should aspire to. Sure people have the freedom of speech but there should be a line as to whether what you are saying is intended to promote harm to other people. It’s a topic that highly debatable and I’m interested in what you all think.

not my kind of community

I decided to google my name the other day and to my surprise the search resulted in hayley vos-nalle coming up tops which bummed me out because I wanted to be the top hayley vos. So anyway this hayley vos-nalle is somebody who belongs to AVEN which stands for asexual visibility and education network. Definitely not me.

So Aven is a virtual community (just a regular forum) of asexual people. According to the site “The Asexual Visibility and Education Network is devoted to creating dialogue among and about the rapidly emerging group of individuals who identify as asexual.”

So if you are asexual then you know there is a site for you out there where you can interact with like-minded people.

So since I would never join this virtual community, I decided to look up some other virtual communities that I would never join but might appeal to other people. So here goes my top 5 never ever will I join this virtual community.

Number 5: The Vegan Virtual Supper Club onflickr. Not that I have anything personal against vegan’s, I just think that it is probably disgusting. I like my meat and I like my cheese.

Number 4: Blogs on Alien Abduction and UFOs, the Paranormal, and Collective Psychic Impressions on Alien Abduction Experience and Research. Right…

Number 3: Anafriends. The pro-anorexic site that encourages girls that anorexia is all good. Ano’s alike can communicate in chat rooms and on forums. And with quotes on the page saying “the best thing about a donut is the whole in the middle” you have to wonder about people out there. Like I said before, I like my meat and I like my cheese.

Number 2: Loving ferrets. The online community that is dedicated to expressing one’s love and weird obsession to ferrets. Animals aren’t really my thing, especially ferrets.

And finally….

Number 1. The Tyra Banks show website. Ok this isn’t exactly the definition of a virtual community but people visitors of the site have the opportunity to comment on Tyra’s blog posts. Never would I ever commit myself to this. Her show….her forehead, I just couldn’t.