Often when we talk about social media we focus on its ability to help us develop relationships with others and build communities surrounding our cause. Though at first glance this seems achievable, a deeper look at the requirements of these processes is warranted. Does research in the area really support the idea that social media is redefining how we do business and interact with our clients/customers?

Valentine’s day is gone but we’re still in the month of love and staying in the spirit of love, let’s talk about finding it online. Online dating services are now being used by many singles as a way to find love. Either out of convenience or as an alternative to the bar and club scenes, online dating is swiftly becoming the preferred matchmaker. There is now a 50:50 chance that people you know are doing it. I’ll get you a little familiar with the online dating scene so that you can move from thinking about it to finding love online confidently. That is if you’re single of course.

One of the things website owners often neglect in the site development phase is having a clear purpose for their site that gives focus to its functions. From experience I know that many website owners want their websites to do everything, they heard of a company doing such and such with their site and they too want to do the same. However, this rarely results in a productive and an effective website. As I do understand that the possibilities for your website are endless especially considering recent times, I’m going to help you with some of the basics by getting you to think critically about your site’s purpose.

As persons in region are now getting very interested in social media, I talk often about it and share ways in which you can use social media for your particular cause. However, I’ve come to realise that fundamental aspects of our online presence are being seriously neglected. In particular, I’m talking about your website.

Recently one of the local newspapers covered some troubling news pertaining to local school children sharing videos on the Internet and via mobile phones of themselves and peers performing sexual acts. I for one have heard of such videos and have refused to view them but I’ve seen many Youtube videos of local children in school fighting and so on. This not only reflects badly on them later but on their schools and unfortunately even our country. With regards to the younger kids, Symantec reported that ‘sex’ and ‘porn’ were among the top 5 most searched terms by children in 2009. This proves even more that Children’s curiosity can often lead them into trouble especially online. So where do you as parents draw the line? How can you protect your child(ren) without pulling the plug and still allow them the opportunity to learn and to use the Internet? I will briefly answer these questions by explaining what children do online and the dangers they face as a consequence. Also, I will offer 5 tips that you can use to keep them safe on the Internet.

One of my friends (a different one from last week) who read that last post was curious about how much we will tell others about ourselves online if we were known to them as opposed to being anonymous. For instance, you giving personal information on Facebook where persons who are familiar with you make up your audience. One can appreciate that cyberspace is not one generic space as it consist of many different types of spaces, so it shouldn’t be surprising that our levels of self-disclosure vary across different online spaces. So the question posed for this week is why and in what ways is self-disclosure on Facebook different from telling others about ourselves in less ‘nonymous’ online spaces?

Been talking (being nosy) to one of my close friends about some personal issues (nothing serious) they were having and they were quite reluctant to tell me. However, as the conversation progressed they slipped and said they already discussed it with one of their online buddies who is from another country. I prodded and despite my excellent probing skills, they didn’t budge. I wondered to myself, “why tell a stranger and not me, their dear old trustworthy friend?” And that is how the idea for this post came about