Finally?

Admidst all the projects quizzes, mid-terms etc, the last blog entry!!! This one's been really tough personally, because i seem to have ran out of steam.. =( Luck however says otherwise =D, I've finally found an interesting article regarding CMCs, and avatars! Here you go check this out! http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/09/10/avatar-bias-mimic-real-world/2910.html








Initially I was poking around looking for the maximum reported avatars owned by a person, didn't manage to find an article regarding that, thinking back now, that is rather idiotic, as creating avatars online is not exactly a difficult task, anybody can own avatars up to hundreds, even thousands. It's more of actually assuming these identities online. I think it's quite safe to assume that if say Kelvin has 300 hundred different avatars online, it's possible, but if Kelvin's to assume 300 different identities one after another, he will either go crazy, self-induce Schizophrenia, or fail at the attempt to assume different personas.

The DITF experiment sounds appealing. MMORPGs fans if you have done it right, the marketplace's yours for the picking! Brillant way to make $$ huh? By making a big, impossible request, before coming up with a moderate one after being rejected.. However, it never seems to work out for me =(. Lack of Ethos, Pathos, Logos there?
Disappointing looks like i better pay more attention doing communications classes.

As mentioned in the article, appearance, race, gender too affects such decisions too... 'Numerous studies done in the real world show that people are more uncomfortable with minorities and are less likely to help them' Morale of the story practice gender-bending if you are a male, and go with the flow with regards to appearance, unless you've managed to create a character that's hot/appealing in cyberworld terms, not to mention carful with the skin color there, lest one is subjected to some form of racial discrimination, etc.

Thank you all for the comments and help metted out.. Hope you've enjoyed the entries I've put up for you there =)

Kelvin

Serious?

Imagine this scenario 15 years down the road, in Caracas, Venezuela: 2 venezuelan kids after a tiring game of soccer, 'Hey damn hungry la, lets go get a couple of Ramly Burgers' or 2 icelanders after clubbing in Reykjavik, Iceland, 'it's freezing how about a cup of tea tarik, and some laksa?' Plausible? Macdonalds have proven that it is no longer a dream to have eateries across more than half the world. Ask yourself, my dear readers, have you been to a country whereby Macdonald's cannot be found? How many of us still retain fond memories of ourselves opening up a happy meal box, taking out the toy, along with the fries and the ham/cheeseburger when we were young? It is not entirely impossible for Ramly to set up a chain of stores, expanding to neighbouring regions before conquering Asia, and then the world! It has already started by invading the shores of Singapore (albeit illegally), from it's humble beginnnings in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. Soon Ramly will become a global phenomenon! What say you?

No says the Cultural Imperialism Theory! It states that Western nations dominate the media around the world which in return has a powerful effect on Third World Cultures by imposing on them Western views and therefore destroying their native cultures. this is a theory that is first made known by Herb Schiller. Note that the key words to this theory is Western nations, and their powerful effects on Third World Cultures. If we look at it from another angle, it is sort of suggesting that powerful first world countries, upon imposing their culture onto the weaker third world countries, slowly erodes away their native cultures. As more and more people from the smaller country itself embraces the bigger country's culture, the remnants of the original culture in the country will disappear. Interesting is it not, that such a 'murder' of sorts is allowed to get away scott-free, to think that such poisons (of sorts) are actually sugar coated by the media, and passed on to third world countries in the form of financial, economical stimulus?

Double Ramly VS Big Mac?

Probably not as epic as it would seem on paper >.<

Ways to erode into the native culture: first through the food they eat, next to the clothes they wear, then the language they speak, before finally, the way they think. Back to our Ramly debacle, Malaysia is at best a developing country, not to mention a muslim country, in order for her to successfully impose cultural imperialism, it will need to first convert the country's faith, before she can successfully impose her culture upon them. Double the work, hence double the chances of failure. The recently slew of terrorism flying the islamic flag too does the religion itself no justice, as they have successfully put the religion itself under the microscope, in a bad light. With the majority of the world subscribing to American views, Americanism has in a way established a stranglehold on the cultural imperialism front, making it extremely difficult bordering upon virtually impossible for any other form of culture to impose themselves on the smaller, poorer countries.

Here you go one last question for you my dear readers, what do you think the answer will be if say during the world cup in South Africa, one asks the natives if they know what/where Malaysia is as opposed to America?

Different?

I've always loved travelling, be it to cosmopolitan Britain, rustic Cambodia, Scenic Norway, I'd say I've been very lucky to have extremely understanding parents, and friends who are always willing to go on ambitious trips, such as the most recent 2 months backpacking trip across Western Europe. It might not sound daunting to many, as these are extremely developed countries we are talking about, but to be able to adapt to different cultures in an instant's no mean feat, we covered close to 13 countries across the short span of 2 months, and the differences really struck us. Culture is the 'collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or a category of people from another includes system of values, and values are amongst the building blocks of cultures.' We really looked out of place in all of the countries we were in, and seriously it's not like as if people view us as aliens or something, but the things we do, the manner in which we behave, the way we speak, totally does not fit in to the manner in which people carry themselves.


<- Aliens!





When we were in Florence, Italy we were rushing for time, as we wanted to visit one of those out-of-town factory outlets and do some shopping in the afternoon, and we had some spare time as the bus only leaves at 1430. So we headed off to Stadio Artemio Franchi, home stadium to Italian Serie A club Fiorentina. (The both of us are soccer fanatics, and we have a common dream to visit all the stadiums in the world =P) Anyway, after taking photos and the likes we headed off to the official merchandise store, looking forward to buying some merchandise, but guess what? On the door a big closed sign and a note underneath it read, "Siesta time, be back at 1430" Imagine the look of disappointment on our faces... It was very disappointing, as the next day was sunday! Shops aren't open on Sunday! Brillant Siesta scuppered our plans! (If you are wondering what in the world is a Siesta, it means afternoon nap time >.<)

<- Even the cats aren't spared when it comes to Siestas....

Another incident was in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Brillant place really, filled with fast cars, high-stakes casinos and expensive hotels! (no hostels there, wonder why =P) So after the usual walk around Monaco, Kelvin remembered that he was to buy a keychain for his mum, not just any keychain, it must contain the flag of Monaco, but guess what it was 1655, and shops close at 1700! Thinking that there's still a chance, he rushed up this departmental store (mind you it's a departmental store!) only to be unceremoniously stopped by the salesperson, who managed a grand total of 3 words in english, "we are closed" it was impossible to argue with them mind you as i'm totally incapable of voicing out my thoughts in French. (Soon I'll though) So poor Kelvin had to leave Monaco without the keychain... My dear friend's attempts to comfort me we rather humourous though so I'll attempt to share it with you, my dear reader.. He was like chill it's not that bad, buy a Singapore flag keychain, and paint the cresent moon and the stars red, or buy an Indonesian flag! Such >.<>

<- Monaco VS Indonesia->

Not easy to tell the difference huh?