Facebook Friends

So I literally just got Facebook in December. Yes, somehow I was able to live without it until grade 11, even though almost everyone else couldn't seem to live without it. I never really undeerstood the need/want for Facebook... until I got Facebook.


There is satisfaction in knowing what all your friends, enemys and even your crush is doing at that exact moment. Posting pictures from the exciting moments and events in your life is also fun and Facebook definitely keeps us connected.


But the real questions that I have here aren't why we feel the need for Facebook, but is how many friends do have on Facebook? have you considered when you have possibly have TOO many friends? Is there even a limit to the amount of 'friends' you can have on Facebook? How many of the people you have as friends are ACTUALLY your friends??


Some Facebook Stats said there are over 500 million active facebook users and that an average user has 130 friends. This might be average, but most people I know with Facebook have at least 200 friends!


More statistics say that the maximum amount of friends you can have is 5000!! In fact, there is a several groups on facebook for anyone who wants to have way more Facebook friends!!


The description I found on one Facebook page for the group to reach their maximum amount of friends was:


"Need to add Facebook friends? Want to reach the maximum limit of 5000 Facebook friends. Let's work hard together so that everyone can reach their goal!"


This icon/image below was on the same Facebook page- Yes it is great to have friends, but there is a difference between regular friends and Facebook only friends











Who really needs that many friends on Facebook?? Or for that matter who needs 5000 friends in general???


Another group stated that by having more friends on Facebook, you would become more popular!


Do you really need hundreds or even thousands of friends on Facebook just to be popular?


Again, are they really even your friends?!


Some people add 10 or more friends every day! Chances are that if you are adding that many people per day, you either just got Facebook and are adding all your friends from school, work etc., or the people you are adding aren't even people that you know!


You really should not be sharing personal information or photos with peopl that you don't even know!


So, can you possibly have too many Facebook friends? When should you stop adding people?


In my opinion, you should set a limit for yourself as to how many people you are going to add, make it reasonable so that you can have a good amount of friends, but don't make your main goal in life to get the maximum amount of friends on Facebook! Its not worth your time or effort and it definitely does not make you any better or more popular! If you don't know someone, why add them?!

The Internet

The Internet has become a very highly used form of communication, information and more. As a globally used resource, it can be used by almost anyone; the Internet is a great resource, but is it overused by some people? How much time do we really spend on the Internet? And how is it used?




Canadians are some of the highest users of the Internet in the whole world! Canada, India and the United States are some of the top users of the Internet. Although Canada is much smaller in population compared to some other countries, Canadians still log an average of almost 44 hours a month as of a survey from 2010- a lot more than any other country of the same population!















Believe it or not:

• Canada dominates the use of many popular sites: we rank first for the frequency of use of online banking, Wikipedia, and YouTube





• British Columbia accounts for 13% of Canada's online population, Ontario at 38% and Quebec at 24%
  
  




• Two-thirds of the world's Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, almost 10% of all the Internet time, according to a new report





• 99% of the Canadian youth report that they have used the Internet a some point
  




• Almost 8 in 10 youth say they have Internet access at home
  

The Internet is used for social, educational, business purposes,etc. Many of the networks have several purposes; Facebook is one of them. It is used by businesses and companies as a way of being well connected to the community or area that is serves. It also helps people to connect and reconnect with people as much as possible.


Internet may be a somewhat newer resource, but users range in age from youth to seniors. As everything becomes more and more based on technology, people rely on the Internet for many of their services, work and even as just a way to use/take up time. The fact that movies, music, the news and more can be viewed on the Internet, means that more people are just using the Internet and not making much use of the radio, television, magazines or reading newspapers as much.

How much time do you spend on the internet? Do you spend hours on Faecbook and YouTube while doing homework every night? Is the amount of time you spend on the internet more or less than the average Canadian?

Food for thought as you spend time searching the web!

YouTube

What is YouTube?
It is a popular video sharing web site that lets anyone upload videos for public and private viewing. It was invented by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. YouTube was bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion! It is another very useful venue for sharing videos between people around the world.

YouTube can be viewed by anyone, videos can be posted by anyone and can be downloaded by anyone. YouTube is used by people of all different ages and types in so many different ways. It has become a useful tool for educational, entertainment and marketing purposes in a society where technology and resources are always being updated and/or improved.

This site is used by people of all ages and although this is a positive factor, it is also potentially negative. It can be useful for school projects. For example, a student might need to find examples of historical dances that you possibly would not be able to find on another website, or examples might be avaiable elsewhere but Youtube make the search much easier. However, sites like YouTube have trouble controlling the access for this site. (I guess when you think about it, Youtube may not really want to control access - they want as many people viewing as possible to sell ad space!) Educators must put tight controls on what students can view at school. YouTube is obviously a site that has both good and bad content. Lately, we have been able to view more of YouTube content at school. Although not all files are available, most students are using this site to their advantage - it connects them to the most current, popular media and video files, educational or otherwise. It does seems to be ok for high school students to have open access to Youtube, but do we want grade 3 students to have the same access - obviously not!
YouTube helps to connect people of several generations and it makes videos, ads, and much, much more available and accessible to everyone. Youtube is another recently developed technology that although very powerful and useful can be negative if not properly controlled.

Charles and Diana vs. Kate and William

Diana and Charles Wedding vs. Kate and Will's Wedding


The historical Royal wedding took place on April 29, 2011. Around the world, people talked about this event for weeks and even months before it took place. Newspapers, the web, and almost every other form of media covered this event.
The last time an event like this took place was 1981, when Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married. The two most current Royal weddings were both very similar and different. Many comparisons have been made between the two Royal weddings and the two couples.

Similarities

• the train of Kate's dress- about 9 feet or 2 metres 70 cm in length. Princess Diana's train was 25 feet or about 7.6 metres in length
  
  


• Both couples had multi-tier fruitcakes
  
  


• Kate and Will chose to pose in a similar way to Charles and Diana in their engagement photo

• Diana's dress was designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, was made of silk taffeta and antique lace. Diana and the designers wanted to make a dramatic statement. Kate's dress was 250000, an Alexander McQueen gown custom designed by Sarah Burton made with white satin and gazar.





• William gave Kate the same ring that Charles gave Diana- 18 carat gold; 12 carat oval Ceylon sapphire and diamonds
  

Differences

• William and Kate announced their engagement on November 16, 2010 which caught the media by surprise. Charles proposed to Diana after a brief courtship. Their engagement was announced on February 24, 1981.





• 750 million people watched the ceremony on television and 2 million people lined the streets of London to get a glimpse of the bride and groom last month. Over 700 million people from 58 countries watched Diana and Charles marriage on television
  
  
  


• Diana and Charles had only met 13 times before getting married. Kate and Will have been a couple for 8 years!




• Diana and Charles were married in front of 3500 invited guests. Kate and Will were married in front of almost 2000 guests




• Diana and Charles married at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Most royal weddings take place at Westminster Abbey, but due to the amount of guests, St. Paul's was the more obvious choice.

• Age: Kate- 29 years old , Diana-20 years old-William- 28 years old, Charles- 33 years old





• Tiara- Diana wore the family tiara. Kate did not where any tiara.
  
  
  


• Honeymoon Destinations: Kate and Will travelled in secret (at first) to the Seychelles islands- a luxury Indian Ocean location. Charles and Diana honeymooned on her Majesty's yacht for a Mediterranean cruise. Then they travelled to Scotland before coming back to London.
  

The most recent Royal wedding in April, had more media coverage and more people watching than the previous Royal wedding. New technology and more accessibility has allowed more people to be able to be apart of this event. If a Royal Wedding had taken place a few hundred years ago, only people close to the Royal family would have seen the wedding. Media has given us the ability to broadcast and show events like this to people all around the world.

World Disasters- Celebrity donations and fundraising

Our world has experienced many disasters that have devastated people's lives and damaged anything from houses to major infrastructures.

Some of the major and more current disasters include:

On January 12, 2010, Haiti experienced something that changed their country forever; a 7.0 magnitude earthquake ruined their country.

On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced a major 8.9 magnitude earthquake. The earthquake then caused a tsunami and also caused a serious accident at a nuclear power plant.

To help rebuild these nations a very large amount of funds are needed. To raise awareness and fund raise this money, we need as many people as possible to donate time and money to these causes. Much of the fundraising done uses celebrities and other famous stars to bring knowledge and show the importance of aiding the disaster struck countries.

Just like many of us, celebrities feel it is important to help places like Haiti and Japan. The media also uses them because much of the public is greatly influenced by celebrities. Telethons, videos, concerts and fundraising events have been held to raise the money needed to aid these nations. Last year, Help Haiti Live was held to support Haiti victims.

Songs like We Are the World and Do They Know its Christmas have been produced and reproduced to raise more money to help the hungry. Tens of millions of dollars were raised by the celebrities efforts(and it helped greatly). Madonna donated $250,000 to Haiti relief last year along with many other celebrities including Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Wyclef Jean, and George Clooney. For Haiti relief, George Clooney and MTV Networks organized a telethon last year in order to bring further awareness of the devastation in Haiti.

Even now, some of these places still have not recovered from the devastating events. There are still people living in tents and people without clean water or food.

Some people might criticize the celebrities for helping with the relief efforts because they think that the celebrities just want more attention in the media or that not all the money is going directly to the cause. However, it is clear that celebrities have helped to raise awareness and a great amount of funds for these disasters.

*There is also a link for a video about Haiti.

Inception - Dreaming and more...

The movie Inception just boggles my mind between its talented actors, the layering of dreams, and the idea of being inside someone else's dream, its all so... exciting... and its such a creative way to look at dreams! I absolutely loved everything about this film!!

For those of you who don't know, I will give you a quick insight to the main storyline. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the part of a professional dream thief who assembles special teams to steal knowledge and secrets from the unconscious mind of his target. "Inception" is defined as the planting of an idea in the subconscious mind; the concept of inception is exactly what Leonardo's character is trying to perform while someone is dreaming.

I believe that Christopher Nolan, the producer, the director and the writer of this film, wanted to pose many unanswered questions for his audience such as; is this life real? Could we possibly be in a dream state right now, but we are just made to believe this is our story?

Many of the concepts used in Inception like possibly living another life and dreaming are used in other films including the Wizard of Oz, Coraline, the Narnia series, and the Matrix. Throughout this film, Nolan has clearly used the concept of media construct reality. The 'media' used by the characters is just not one that we are familiar with. It is fictional media that uses chemistry, electronics, and special mental abilities. (I am not sure this would be a good thing, but then print has been used for evil as well as good - right?) Nolan uses the film to present a 'better than our reality' world where people have these unique abilities. It seems that there is no limit for the concepts of reality used in Inception as not many people could possibly imagine what it would be like to take part in someone else's dream. I know that as I finished watching Inception, I had many questions and a new outlook on life as I'm sure many other viewers also did. The movie also opens our minds to different possibilities for our world's future and what reality truly is or could be.