From personal experience, I found that mxit is not a true reflection of a person's true personality. I feel that one can successfully argue that mxit is a great social network for catching up with friends and people you already know. But to try get to know someone, it is near impossible to understand a person over virtual reality. The best way is and will always be face to face, over a drink or over lunch, etc. Virtual reality is indeed a different world in itself. One can create false illusion's of one's self. My naivety of the technology, fooled me and wasted a good few monts of my life. One can only learn from your mistakes. Mxit is a great invention, if used the right way. If not, it can give you impression of yourself and other people that aren't true...
12 comments:
Mac, you have clearly had a very bad experience with virtual reality... I'm guessing a girl that turned out to be a guy!
But jokes aside, that is the exact type of thing that can happen with a social network like MXit or even Facebook.
They are not arena's in which you can develop well established relationships as the person you are dealing with can honestly present themselves in the way they see fit - which may or may not be accurate...
It can be a good technology for cheap communication though, so there are good and bad elements.
I only used Mxit for a week because my samsung decided that it wouldn't permit predictive text when I used Mxit, so I instead chose to spend my money on smsing. I found it quite boring actually. It was nice being able to leave people little envelopes to discover when they were offline, but its basically like msn messenger but on your cellphone...so I'd rather just use my computer for that.
But in terms of what yu are talking about here
Andrew, I agree that Mxit provides an inaccurate representation of a person's personality. It's much easier to be false, dishonest and twist the truth when one isnt being confronted face to face. In this way, can Mxit be turning our generation into one where 'creativity' and the ability to create a new persona, is more highly regarded and valued than honesty and being ourselves?
In this world in which you can be anything, is it true that the hardest thing to be, is yourself?
Interesting point Cara!!
wow, the hype of mxit arises again doesn't it. I think it's #1: incredibly fasinating how a simple creative effort tends to influence people in so many ways. #2: somehow many tend to miss the real reason behind it all.
Sure you get to meet new people online (chat rooms and such) that allow you to interact in new and adventurous ways! ^^ On the other hand Andrew does have a good point when bringing the idea of identity into play. However, what makes that different from any other similar MOBILE social utility? --The fact that it's "trying" to cater for a really large audience I can safely say! With an application like facebook, I'd argue that you can at least learn about people from more than just verbal communication(which is what mxit was intended for- the breaking inbetween of paid services like sms.. to convenience and leisure). Besides, facebook allows people to be more versatile and well.. can be accessed from just about anywhere in the world!
It's simply not enough to say that mxit is false then, don't you think? If that were true, pretty much every aspect of our highly saturated media falls in that category. All mxit's doing right now is baring the fruits of its harvest. I mean the programmers and developers DO warn people not to give out their information to just anyone! Like all forms of interactivity, it's offering us a new level of immersion. Stick with it or not, you're still gonna have to try it to find out! (",)
So yeah, lots of food for thought there.
Sach
i have to agree with Cara. when we are presented with choice it is iften easier to choose what's easier so in instances where it is possible to be whoever you want to be, people who are themselves are often very hard to come by. most people just opt to make up an identity which is most likely to get the majority of the people interested because after all in that situation there is less chance of coming across people who wont like you for who you are right?which is why mxit is best for situations where you are chatting with people you already know-new people can just be a pass time and not to be taken seriously leaving room for the possibility of false identities
i couldn't agree with you more ,mixit and all these other virtual communities are just so false .i personally dont understand why people bother to even take part in them ,i personally think it is a waste of time unless you have nothing better to do .
I agree, MXit is not the best way to meet some one or get to know a person better. Communicating over cell phones has never, and will never compare to face-to-face communication. You need that physical presence to have a justifiable conversation! The only good use of MXit is the way in which we can talk to our friends cheaply when we are bored..
U obviuosly hav had BAD EXPERIENCES with virtual reality. Mxit is true and is the easy way to communicate. Not all of us are luck when it comes to finding the love of our lives, therefore, social networks are good to those who make good out of them. from Khululiwe Luthuli (chommies)
I agree with you, people tend to change their identity one might chat to a person for months thinking that he is a guy only to find out that he is the opposite. In social networks people do not say who they really are. Others put photographs of their relatives instead of theirs. Social networks tend to people to liars.Thobeka Mbatha
There are good and bad elements to Mxit. I like Mxit as it is much cheaper and i can can keep in contact with my friends very easily. However i have had a number of experiences where people will go on and pretend to be someone that they are not and they will fake their identities.We cannot always tell whether someone is being true or not as a lot of times they can hide their numbers and can remain anonymous.I do think that it has changed communication skills however and people are a lot more impersonal.
lol
I feel you that mxit can give you a false reflection of a person, that you can not really get to know some one over mxit.
My personal experince well i was one of those people who resisted the new merge of mxit for the longest was not bothered by the phase, until one day i decided to see what the fuss was about.
Yah it was a real cheap way on keeping in contact especially with people I speak to once in a blue moon when i am feeling air time happy and want to catch up with people.
It was fun, exciting to see who is online, what they doing, whats new in their lives.Then entred chat rooms that was crazy,stupid waste of time. People are to vulgar, rude and do not know how to have a DECENT conversation. So in the end just decided that this was not for me. So now I only log on when I am very, as in VERY bored, waiting in line like at the bank or when I have time to waste(alot of time). But other than that, I do not ever belive that you can get to know some one over things like mxit or mig
lol You must be fooling yourself!!
Hey Mac i agree even though Mxit is a brilliant and cheap way to communicate with other its just to risky. You never know exactly who you are talking to!! it could be anyone!
I totally agree with all of you! Mxit, as facebook and similar, is not for real people. You never know who you are really talking with.
That's why I started using blinko (blinko.com or m.blinko.com). It is for REAL people! you can chat and send REAL UNLIMITED FREE SMS with all your friends from web and wap (you just pay the wap connection).
They also have a client where you can add on your phone all your contacts from Yahoo! MSN and other messengers (c.blinko.com).
IT'S GREAT!!!
all your friends always with you in your pocket!
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