Patrick Mott explains it well in this link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-mott/its-a-connected-world_b_1881809.html, he explains how there is a panic that results from a loss of technology, such as when Apple’s iCloud mail service failed and went down, it affected according to his source one percent of all users and he happened to be one of those users, he said how for the next 48 hours he felt a panic of how he might miss something important and can cause a lot of anxiety. This is a great example of how we rely a lot on tech to the point where a business meeting could be done entirely through the Skype technology, where you are all looking at a pair of computer monitors and communicating setting up meetings and doing deals with companies all over the globe. The sources we use to connect to people all over the world affect business and trade just as much if not more than the effects it will have on the average Joe across the street.

    Here is the definition of digital ethnography as according to the website; http://cyborganthropology.com/Digital_Ethnography, “Digital Ethnography describes the process and methodology of doing ethnographic research in a digital space. The digital field site is sometimes comprised of text, video or images, and may contain social relations and behavior patterns strewn across many nations, cities or intellectual geographies. The field site may be composed around a singular belief, such as a brand following, or can be a network of dozens or even thousands of different belief patterns, social customs and actions. Large networks such as Facebook and Twitter have their own subgroups and sets of cultures that gravitate towards each other. Like a traditional anthropologist, the main concern of a digital ethnographer is locating the field site and learning the language of the natives. The difference is that the anthropologist may be able to access the field site without physical travel. In many cases, the field site may be a mental construct created by a group of geographically distributed nodes on an information network.” (http://cyborganthropology.com/Digital_Ethnography)

    Here is another great link http://www.the-future-of-ideas.com/download/lessig_FOI.pdf, this website offers a lot of information into how we stay connected in the world of today.

    As technology advances the devices get interconnected the closer the world becomes. This can be good and bad. Employers are now turning to the social media sites to learn more about you and every time you post something you are handing over information to them for free. The harmless pictures from College of when you went out partying that landed on Facebook or Twitter could decide wither or not you land your dream job. According to Cross-Tab, "Of U.S. recruiters and HR professionals surveyed, 70% say they have rejected candidates based on information they found online." The amount of information that can be pulled from the internet these days is ridiculous and can pretty much tell your whole life’s story by doing a simple web search. The information they find is stuff they would try and pry out of you at the job interview can now be accessed online.

    A brighter side of things as technology gets smaller and faster we can use this in the medical field. Over the past few years the world has seen great advances in medical technology from pacemakers to surgery’s performed by doctors in another country. As hospital’s become more connected as far as medical records go you should be able to go to any medical center in the United States and they will be able to pull up all of your past medical information. Getting the medical information you need faster and more reliable. Society has to take it with a grain of salt if any part of that system went down could be catastrophic to the medical system.

    As the world becomes more connected and the amount of information you are sharing willingly and unwilling has risen concern over the past couple of years. As the internet grows it all comes down to advertising and get as much information across to people as they can. Social media, basic web sites, and your web searches are recorded and then sold to Advertisement Company’s. They then turn that information around so they can advertise to you on a more personal basis. At what point can you say what you want to be recorded and what you don’t. Also if you do opt out how do you know your information is still not being recorded and sold?

•    Social media is the media's social interaction, it is a very useful and scalable communication technology. Social media is based on the Web and the use of mobile technology into interactive dialogue and communication.

•     Social media can inspire people who are interested in active contribution and give feedback, it has blurred the line between media and audience. Most of the social media can be free to participate in, they encourage people to comment, give feedback and share information.

•     The traditional media is based on broadcasting content to the user by media dissemination, and it's unidirectional flow. The advantage of social media is that the content in the media and the user is a two-way propagation formed between a kind of communication.

    The impact of daily lives from social media is well beyond our imagination in the past. It has almost become a part of our daily lives because of the large advantage over others such as newspapers and TV. The latest statistics show that now, 48-hour-long videos are being uploaded to YouTube every single minute, and also, nearly 2 hundred million tweets are sent every day. On the other hand, Youtube and Twitter have become two main sources for users to gain news and information. Some even say that they would like to send a "tweet" before they die, a "tweet" is posting small amounts of information on a news feed like site such as Twitter.

    “In January 2010, Insites consulting has conducted an online survey with 2,884 consumers from over 14 countries between the ages of 18 to 55 years old on social networking. More than 90% of participants know at least 1 social networking site and 72% of participants are members of at least 1 social networking site. “(From <impact of social media on society> by Raymond Tay). Nowadays a considerable number of adults have more than 500 friends on average on various social networking sites, not to mention children or teenagers. People add friends simply through clicking their mouses, there are even resources to find friends lost in the past, through links such as "people you may know" on Facebook. Social media has belittled the value of friends in the traditional sense, but still makes it easy to connect to people we have maybe long forgotten.

    The modern technology has caused autocracy states' collapse, Tunisia, for example, the autocracy state which lasted for 23 years collapsed in only 28 days because of Facebook. A butcher was beat to death. An issue that seems to be simple finally spread out via Facebook and Twitter. At last, citizens took parade, thus lead the autocracy leader to death. Same situation occurred in Libya and Egypt. Now, in Syria and China, the power of technology to fight against the evil state cannot be ignored too. To avoid the instance of other states, China built a firewall to block those news which are negative for the government, but this doesn't work. Programmers developed firewall breakers to gain the freedom online.

Staying Connected