Watch what you say next time

I’ve heard many times before about the dangers of saying the wrong thing and it comes back to you in a form of sticky situation. Things that you say on the Internet will eventually, come back to bite you in the ass. A sad trend I’ve seen lately is the number of people who tweet or facebook while they are not in the right mind. Of course, they may realize it’s a mistake the next day (when they are in sound mind) and hastily seek to delete the post. But, unfortunately, it is too late for the damage has been done. We should forever remind ourselves and those around us of what we say. Others will re-post to you or somehow print screen what you’ve said. Worse still, it haunts us back one some point in time.
 
A couple of months ago, a USM student who posted a bomb threat on his Facebook account would have regretted for the consequent mess he faced. He allegedly threatened to bomb PM's helicopter that would fly the prime minister for a visit to the campus on his Facebook posting. Apparently, he made a grave mistake which cost him his fate to be in despair. Had he been a sensible boy, he would have thought twice to post something stupid like that (as if he has guts to do so). This is the downside of social network and people’s rash decision to publish things on the net. 

 
Whoa whoa… I won’t begin to speculate as to what prompted him to post something like this over Facebook for his friends and the other netizen to see. I will, however, repeat myself once again… Watch. What you say. It’s not that difficult, people. Do not sign into your social network when you are drunk, infuriated, miserable or whatever other emotional state you are in. It’s fine to share things with your network. I’m not saying you shouldn’t. But if you cannot be coherent and sensible with what you’re about to say, do you dare to spell it out loud?

Social network like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter is for networking, not for you to invite more trouble for yourself. People should always be careful about what they say online. Watch out. Think about what the hell you are madly typing. It can be a message, a comment or even the shout out that you put up. Look out what have you written and try to make sense what you’re saying before you hit that post button. After that one click of the button, you are accountable for what you say and it will haunt you for the rest of your life. So the rule of the thumb is avoid from posting things on social network that you will regret sooner or later. Simply because one day, odds are good that someone stumble across whatever you say, and it will come back to haunt you. 

How many of us are conscious that social sites these days are paradise for ample personal information about oneself. And thus, most of the netizen are vulnerable since they are easy prey for criminals and who not. One would realize that there are so much of personal details can be found from someone’s social profile page. Usually, the photos and wall posts can give people a pretty good idea of who you are, where you are, and what you’re doing. Social sites have become a fad for younger generations and even more worrying is, it has influenced even the elderly generation. Funny right? More and more users are turning to Facebook, Twitter or Google+ to chronicle their lives and socialize with friends. However of lately, I’ve been learning from the words passing around that the actual intention of these networking sites is reaching way beyond. Photos and personal details shared have gone beyond the friend’s circle which is a grave concern today.


Another very controversial issue popped up recently when one insensible young lady posted racial slur remarks in FB creating a colossal uproar across various social echelons. I must say it infuriated all the Tamilians in Malaysia by the unjustifiably and tactless statement that she made. The provocation statement has taken the cyber world by storm. Now the bigoted lady is facing the music much to her horror. Police reports have been made against her for inciting hate amongst various ethnicity echelons. Worse still, her modeling career has been in turmoil as well. Anyway, we wouldn’t want such a person to represent the Indian women of Malaysia to global arena (only if she does). It would be an utter disgrace. 

The infamous lady is not someone that we all should emulate. Take this as a lesson to be learned on how to watch what you say and coordinate your thoughts or opinions in a more respectable way. Perhaps she was just too depressed with bad experiences with guys (of the ethnicity that she criticized) that led her to be over dramatic in her emotions that ignited her to post such remarks on her social site. Poor girl if only she was cautious of what she has written on her site, and aware the rights of being a victim of circumstances, she would have not been sucked into this turmoil. Instead if she was a smart women and knows her rights to practice, she would have lodged a report against whomever harassing her in her neighborhood. I am not going to probe into her character nor justify what she did was right or wrong as it is none of my interest. But all I can say this incident is good eye-opener for the rest of us.
 

I am an avid netizen myself. I have my fair share of saying ‘insightful’ things in my life in written form; blog, word press and FB note to some extent. But I am witty enough to say what I am suppose to say and not simply raise innuendo to incite hurt in others. I am sure some of my posts have infuriated people that took it personal when I didn’t even need to mention the name. Their conscience was pinched and guilt engulfed them so much so that they even made copies of it to disseminate it making me a sensationalized writer (Ironically). Ha-ha-ha. It was unpremeditated endorsement for my write-ups and eventually earning me the name of provocative writer. This didn’t hamper my passion of writing. I was provoked to further write more of challenging topics as I always do. It gives me something to write about and it gets down really dirty. After all I would call it as serendipity if it offends anyone undeliberately (I don’t mention names here or point out explicitly).

As a matter of fact, I love to ignite the substance of broad-spectrum of social dilemmas which mostly is confrontational. It interests me to go in depth about it. It annoys many people out there whom are disturbed by it due to the resemblance to their personality (some even feel that I am writing about them). If that’s what they feel, I feel sorry for them that I had to let the whole world see through my writing what is happening around the globe. And they just happen to be exactly like how I pen down my thoughts. Too bad they had to gulp down their guilt.

Are We Too Dependent on Technology?

Technology has become so entwined with all of us. We franticly live depending on technology and most of us would be more frazzled without it. If you’re without it, you’re disconnected. You feel like it’s a lifeline.” I realized that we are placing too much trust in technology instead of lifting our heads, looking around, and thinking for ourselves, when for almost 2 weeks my mobile was ‘sick’. In fact I had two mobile with two lines and yet when one of it broke down, I was feeling helpless which shouldn’t be that way. Before this, we were never dependent on mobiles 15 years back. How can these happen?

A sigh of relief and a big smile flashed across my face when I got my cell phone fixed with just minor repair. It’s just the same excitement I had when I got this mobile for the first time. But what astounded me the most was the large crowd swarming the digital mall where I fixed my phone! People from all walks of life can be seen brimming each and every booth negotiating for a best buy. Mobile phones, IPad, Bluetooth, IPod, notebook etc are some of the attractive gadgets up for deal! It was at this point of time, I am able to comprehend that latest technology are becoming a basic necessity in life these days. It looks to me like world’s fastest growing technology savvy people are growing in numbers and across all walks of life.

The latest gizmo that caught my attention is the fascinating iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. I just couldn’t take my eyes of it. And acha was even rousing me to invest on this instead of Android, which make sense to me. Dad is always technologically savvy and keeps updated with the current advances in gadgets. He was the one whom I seek advice when I am purchasing laptops, phones, GPS, Bluetooth and even external hard disk. He is brand and quality conscious when it comes to investing on latest gizmo. Both of us came to the Digital Mall in the pretext of fixing up my phone but walked around to survey for iPad and Galaxy Tab. He told me not to rush in getting one since he will do some homework on which is the best value for money and use.


iPad vs Galaxy Tab

I nodded wholeheartedly and follow suit to get my Bluetooth (Saying bye to days of aggravating headset and welcome to wireless call receiving while driving). Finally I got my Bluetooth to replace my headset which is a bit of taxing since I have a knack for tangling all my headset and end up with only one functional earpiece (I am known to be a rough user back at home from very young). Ha, ha, ha…It is so ME!



Flashback: The famous girl for destroying all mommy’s exotic vases and household items when I used to dash across in the living hall as a kid. Ever since it has been my signature attribute when it comes to describing me to others. Dad and mom loves to bring this topic up to all those they know.

With a snap of a finger, we are all connected via various technology platforms and its use eases our daily life. For instance, take the case of fancy coffee machine dispenser. I have the pleasure of just getting my coffee or Milo or even tea with a click of a button. Coffee is a big deal at work. And to face the coffee machine breakdown is a panic on the rise for most of us since we are deprive from being caffeinated. It’s obvious that people like me need coffee to kick starts the day. One big question pop in my head, “Are we so dependent on that machine?” To be able not to depend much on it, I bought my own coffee beans and brew my coffee tailored to the taste and blend that I prefer. This is something that I can contribute on the effort to be independent. Nothing tastes quite like freshly brewed coffee made by self!


Thinking about the caffeine situation in the office made me wonder about other pieces of technology that we’re dependent on. We are sending emails, applying for jobs, e-filing for income tax, payment and banking via internet, etc etc etc. Data traverses networks and is converted to light, wavelengths, electricity and back again before it arrives at its destination. Do you know how an email sent from your phone is routed to its destination? What other things does technology do for us automatically that we don’t notice? What the heck, I can’t even remember my family and friends phone number — my phone does it for me. This is bad enough!

I freely admit that I am dependent on technology most of the times. Not in my wildest thought would I imagine how to do my job without a laptop. I know my job revolves around wet lab competencies but the real science is all about data analysis, integration, hypothesis and interpretation. To make sense of the whole project, I need laptop to work on the analytical software’s in the cloud of my laptop via the server. I heard from senior staffs and my dad, before the days of computers, office workers used to store their data with conventional filing and data entry via typewriter. Can you imagine? Oh gosh!