Final Presentation

In 21st Century, blogging and using messengers become trends to communicate with others. It could be due to a large amount of usage for teenagers to communicate by using them.

When we think about the reasons why blogs and messengers are so successful, convenience, saving time and its effectiveness are always mentioned. However, there are some negative effects come with benefits. For example, when our lecturer Reina taught in Singapore, some students chatted only by using messenger even though they could talk face to face. That was because there was wireless internet access everywhere in university.

“My son sits in front of the computer and chat with his friends for the whole day.”
Have you heard about that before? Some parents find it is really hard to communicate with their children, as they cannot confiscate the computer from them. The use of computer will be a part of our education in the future.

Because of those facts, the gap between parents and children would start to grow further apart. They spend less time together and as a result of that, it might cause the lack of understanding. Therefore, arguments would occur and it can slowly destroy the relationship between parents and their children.
This matter made us think about the problem of over computer usage, and it will become a common problem in teenage group. There is an interesting discovery as they may not know how to present themselves face to face instead of typing messages into computer. It could be due to over-using computer as others have already known and chatted what their friends did or think through their blogs or messengers.
As a result, our final decision for our topic is 'Communication block to the relationships between parents and friends by messengers and blogs '. In our project, we try to investigate how messenger and blog influence the relationship between their families and friends and to figure out how different it is.


Why does it become a trend?

As many family members are busy at work, they feel lonely and they want to prove their values in their family. For some people, if they can't get any response from family members, they don't think they exist in thier family. Due to adolescence, some young people don't think that their parents understand them. What sons and daughters want would be sharing their feelings to friends or even people who they don't really know but met on the internet. It can be said that kind of generation gap is formed between children and parents.


In our group, since we all come from different countries, we researched about each country and interviewed to people from home countries.

Trend in different countries:

Japan
The Japan Times online 22/04/2007 mentions, ‘Japan is now number one - at blogging.’ ‘Freedom and anonymity are surely a large part of the appeal. Workers can complain about bosses, wives about husbands, citizens about politicians and otaku about anime characters. In a culture of polite language, proper body gestures and strict intonation, blogs "speak" with amazing casualness and candor.’ and ‘In the blogosphere, though, there are no strangers: anyone can "talk" to anyone.’

After blogging became popular in Japan, SNS(social networking system) has been becoming more popular these days. Some people use SNS, especially 'mixi'(http://channges.blogspot.com/2007/05/mixi.html), instead of having their blogs. Since it is possible to make new friends through SNS, it can be said that the messenger is sort of essential tool for the next step of communication.


Malaysia
Never too old 07/05/2007 mentions ‘not only youths that are blogging. People from the government, politicians, teachers, mothers, celebrities, businessmen, doctors and more owns a blog.’


South Korea
About 4.3 million Koreans are Internet addicts in 2004.

Various reports show a worryingly high level of Internet "addiction" in Korea. About 4.3 million Koreans are Web addicts, according to a survey conducted by the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion. Last May, the agency tested 2,000 people between the ages of 10 and 40 using a special Internet addiction diagnostic test. Among them, 8 percent were found to be in high danger or potential danger of addiction, requiring treatment. The agency said that the percentage would approximate 4.3 million addicts nationwide. Internet addiction was defined by looking at a combination of physical as well as psychological factors, including depression, weakening of eyesight, and a rise in blood pressure. I think it is worth pointing out about that. Because the situation means that people do not spend time to communicate with people in off-line.--;; I worry about people would lost their emotional feeling and the relationship between people and their family in high technology era.


China
China's Internet population jumped by almost 24 percent last year to reach 137 million, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.There are 100 million broadband users and 17 million people who access the Internet via mobile phones.The report also showed the number of Chinese bloggers reached 20.8 million at the end of last year, of whom 3.15 million are active authors.A survey of 1,019 teenagers reported last week that only one in 10 of them wrote a diary compared with the 47 percent of them who blog.
Last year, Chinese Internet users spent a monthly average of 170 yuan (21.79 U.S. dollars) online, including the costs of Internet access, on-line shopping and games, compared with 150 yuan in 2005. The on-line consumer market expanded by 47 percent over the previous year, according to the China Internet Survey Report 2007 released this month.
Blogging has been a new growth area in China's information technology industry in the past two years, driven by a fast-increasing population of netizens and the so-called grass-roots society wake-up.
The government was considering new ways to supervise blogs, requiring bloggers to identify themselves when they register, even if they write under a pseudonym.The real names of bloggers will be kept private as long as they do no harm to the public interest; if they break the law, they will be held responsible.


Hong Kong

Text Word Frequency Analyser(21/05/2007) emphasize that “the blog’s popularity and usage among undergraduates in Hong Kong from three aspects. First, most students have a positive evaluation about the blog. Second, the blog enjoys a high involving rate, which is reasoned basing on the affirmative evaluation to blog and the popularity of PCs and internet. Third, most blog owners use blog no more than an online dairy, while a considerable number of owners provide resources, such as music and videos, which probably concerns the piratical issue. To conclude the report, blog is quite popular and affirmatively recognized among university students in Hong Kong. With the generation of blog, the time-wasting and copyright problems should be concerned by undergraduates.”



Summery of survey

As our survey positively responded that communication through technology is not a great harm to relationship with parents but it has somehow decreased the time we spent together with them physically or chatting face to face. Living abroad is a disadvantage as we have no choice and telephone/computers are the one only source that we depend on to updates them on our lives here.

Benefits on blogging and messengers

Apart from the negative aspects, some teenagers and adults seem to be addicted to blogging. Regardless on how tired they are after work, they would spend some time moaning about what they did or how they are stressed at work. We could say it is like a therapy for them when they spill their thoughts and worries in words.


Solutions

After researching and discussion, we came up with some solutions to solve this issue.


1)Workshop
A workshop for parents and children to spend their weekend together blogging. It is a chance for them to learn how to blog and what computers can do. It would be too mundane if they just spend their time there learning about blogging so we thought after the workshop, they could spend some time on sports and have a mini party. Occasionally, organising various competitions so that each family could work together and aim for victory. The reason is so that parents and children can spend more time together; getting to know each other better, for example their attitude and qualities they have in each of them. There would be other families there too so it would be a great chance to meet more people and create a healthy social environment. Parents can chat about business, lifestyle, current news and also their experience raising their child. They could have a rotation of which family to prepare food each week and they can all enjoy it together. Kids could play around for they would enjoy better with their age group rather than the adults.

The reason why we came up with this solution is because from the feedback of the survey, it is proven that people do not think technology as a block in communication with family or friends so we thought it would be better if we could strengthen their relationship through other methods. As we are all more reliable on computers each day, be it for personal entertainment or work, it is unavoidable. It is impossible to restrict people from staying away from the computers. So why not spend some quality time outdoor and also learning about computers. With parents learning with the children about it, they could guide them on what is right and wrong, leading them to use to computer correctly and efficiently. Both parties could feed each other, as sometimes, kids might be better than parents in technology. Can you imagine a relaxing Sunday spent with your loved ones and also, building a healthy relationship in the family?

2)Installation


The images above illustrates a scene where family members or friends communicate through a transparent partition with a plastic cup connected by a string. This is how people communicate in the olden days and also prisoners in jail. Do we want to communicate this way? Without realising, this is no difference to blogging. We see them in pictures and we share our thoughts but there is a block in between. If this will to be an installation in a public area, hopefully the scenario will trigger people's mind and they would be more thoughtful and appreciate the time they can spend with their family or friends.

3) Exhibtion


This is an experiment for people to feel the environment of spending too much time in front of the computer. They are required to wear a mask and they are not allowed to speak. People can only communicate through computers. They are space between each other so that they can experience the feeling of having someone next to them and are restricted to talking. Would it not be suffering and a little stressful? Hopefully they would find it a torture and start not to rely on computers and communicate more face to face : )



Reference:
'China Daily',
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2007-04/11/content_847539.htm, 11/04/2007

'Never too old', http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/5/7/lifefocus/17471449&sec=lifefocus, 07/05/2007

'Text Word Frequency Analyser', http://www.edict.com.hk/tafiles/Frames12697.htm, 21/05/2007

'The Japan Times online', http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20070422a1.html, 22/04/2007

father excited about children blogging

This is something i found. A father is excited when his children agreed to start a blog.


sKiNi… My Children’s Blog
December 18th, 2006 · No Comments

My children are on their year end school holiday and every day they just wasted their time on Friendster.. all day long until the wee hours of the morning. I asked them if they would like to start writing for a blog, and the answer was a resounding ..yessss Being a blogger-dad, that makes me all excited at once. I wasted no time and quickly thought of a theme… a multi author students blog… the first two authors are my two daughters Sakinah and Aini Aslah (hence sKiNi). Then we added Sakinah’s friend Sarah, my son Ridhwan and the next one would my 12-year old daughter Fadhilah… who is not yet very good in English but I hope she will improve gradually when she started to learn how to write for the blog. I wonder if any of them would turn problogger in the future…he he.

Hmmm.. now that means there are only two non-bloggers in my house… my wife and my 4-year old daughter…. I have to figure out how to make my wife start blogging…. but that would be a tough nut to crack… any ideas?

source :http://www.kualalumpurishome.com/44/skini-my-childrens-blog/ viewed on 20th may 2007

posted by: cyndi

The report of survey by Summer

Nation: China
Ages of Interviewees: 14, 17, 21 and 51 years old


Question 1

14, 17 and 21 years: Mainly friends, but also parents and other family members
51 years: Just family members.

Question 2

14,17 and 21 years: Live far away from parents and friends, which doesn’t allow them to have face-to-face interaction with them. And sometimes it is easier to express oneself more sincerely through blogs and messengers.
51 years: Just because the distance.

Question 3

14,17 21 and 51 years: They all consider that using blogs and messengers are convenience, fast and intuition.

Question 4

14,17 and 21 years: Some of do.
51 years: No

Questions 5

14,17 and 21 years: The answers are yes.
51 years: No. Because they can’t use computer and they can communicate well without computer.

Question 6

14,17 and 21 years: Because the parents do not know how to use computer and they do not want to learn. The children cost many time on computer and Internet games. They do not communicate face to face.

Question 7

14,17 21 and 51 years: Yes.

Question 8

14,17 and 21 years: Teaching parents how to use computers and messengers with patience. This is a kind of communication face to face.
51 years: Should make the computers and softwares easier to use and learn.



Posted by Summer

Granny, 80, starts blog offering tips on learning Japanese

Granny, 80, starts blog offering tips on learning Japanese



Granny, 80, starts blog offering tips on learning Japanese



An 80-year-old granny has started a blog to teach Japanese for free.

E Mei, a retired Japanese language teacher in Shanghai, opened her blog recently to help youngsters learn Japanese.

Filled with funny stories, riddles, songs, culture tips and useful language points, E's blog has been attracting an increasing number of visitors.

"Besides helping those who want to learn Japanese, the online class helps me keep up with the latest trends among the young," E said.

She acknowledged that she preferred the company of youngsters to those her own age.


"When I am with older people, I always feel a huge 'generation gap', because they always have the old attitude toward things and seem to have lost their passion for life," E said.

"Who said the elderly should idle at home and do nothing? I always want to do something, especially with young people whose passion and energy I can partake of."

E said she borrowed the idea of teaching Japanese online from the young when she attended a competition on innovation late last year. More than 600 participants, most of them youth, shared their innovative ideas with others.

With the help of her granddaughter, E opened her online Japanese language class, as a supplement to her free language class available during the summer vacations. E has been offering free Japanese language classes every summer in Shanghai since 2001.

She moved to Japan with her father at the age of three and lived there for a couple of years. Speaking fluent Japanese, she wanted to share her language learning tips with more people after retiring from a college.

She learnt how to use the computer and build up a website from her granddaughter and was delighted to surf online.

Her blog Houseful Cherry Blossom has opened a new space for her to communicate with others, especially young people.

"I tried to make my blog interesting with jokes, riddles and funny stories from daily life, otherwise, youngsters will not visit," E said.

"I have never regarded myself as a teacher online, because I probably learned more from the young. I am just their elderly friend."

"Young blood does not only belong to youngsters," said E, who admitted that she sometimes even forgot to have dinner while chatting with an online friend or writing a blog article.

Her online friends sometimes come visiting. They help E clean the house and maintain the computer.

"Thanks to the blog, I live a busy and happy life," she said. "I feel I am full of vigor."

China Daily

(China Daily 04/11/2007 page6)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2007-04/11/content_847539.htm

Posted by Summer

development ideas

The images above illustrates a scene where family members or friends communicate through a transparent partition with a plastic cup connected by a string. This is how people communicate in the olden days and also prisoners in jail. Do we want to communicate this way? Without realising, this is no difference to blogging. We see them in pictures and we share our thoughts but there is a block in between. If this will to be an installation in a public area, hopefully the scenario will trigger people's mind and they would be more thoughtful and appreciate the time they can spend with their family or friends.



This is an experiment for people to feel the environment of spending too much time in front of the computer. They are required to wear a mask and they are not allowed to speak.Only communication through computers. They are place next to each other so that they can experience the feeling of having someone next to them and are restricted to talking. Would it not be suffering and a little stressful? Hopefully they would find it a torture and start to rely less on computers and communicate more face to face : )

Bloggers must soon give real names

Officials with the Internet Society of China (ISC) have confirmed that China is exploring adopting a real name system in parts of the Internet, Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported Wednesday.

Hu Qiheng, chairman of the board of directors of the ISC, was reported to have said on Tuesday at Info China 2006 in Beijing that China is making attempts to strike a balance between individual privacy and public interests.

"The past understanding of privacy is too absolute. Not only China, but also the whole world, should realize the necessity of balancing individual privacy and public and national interests," he said.

A new system is likely to be adopted, requiring Chinese netizens to submit information like real names and ID card numbers when they register a blog or a BBS (Bulletin Board Service) account.

Netizens will be able to continue choosing their own online name, and as long as they do not violate laws their personal information will remain private and safe.

The first area for real name application will be blogs, a popular form of internet-based diary.

Blogs have been used by some people to infringe upon other people's privacy and rights.

For example an infamous TV host had thousands of netizens visit her blog just because she wrote an article about a well-known TV anchor's marriage history, which included some allegedly false information.

As a blogger's real name is unknown, it is very difficult to safeguard privacy and rights.

The society, affiliated to the Ministry of Information Industry, was entrusted by the ministry to form a blog research panel to provide solutions for the development of China's blog industry.

The real name system is said to be able to protect law-abiding netizens' privacy.

Yang Junzuo, secretary-general of ISC's self-discipline working commission, was quoted by Beijing-based China Times a month ago saying that the real name system is the solution.

"Free speech on the Internet does not include talking nonsense and not taking responsibility. Bad symptoms will be curbed," he was quoted as saying.

However, not many netizens support the system.

An online poll at sohu.com yesterday showed that only one quarter of surveyed netizens agreed that the system would crack down on online crimes while not interfering with internet use.

More than 70 per cent of people were against it, believing it was "absurd" to enforce a real name system just because of a minority of people who committed online crimes.

Xinhua News Agency reported that Hu stressed at the meeting that the society would adopt multiple ways to improve the Internet environment.

Hu was quoted as saying that the direct purpose of improving the Internet environment is to enable the young generation to grow up in an Internet-friendly environment like youth in developed countries.


China Daily
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-11/30/content_746463.htm

Posted by Summer

Reserched into South Koreans' communication block about questionnaire

NOTE: 6 Korean people responded.

1. Who do you want to communicate with through blogs / messengers?

Both friends and family - 5 people responded
just friends- one person responed because she wants to friends about private things.


2. Why do you use blogs / messengers in order to communicate with them (answered in Question 1) instead of face to face? (Several reasons can be answered.)

Because...
friends or family live overseas.- 6 people responed.
there is no particular reason but it is kind of interesting to use them in spare time. -6 people responed.
it is sometimes comfortable and easier to communicate with new friends. -6 people responed.
blogs and messengers are alternative methods of communication. -6 people responed.
there is a lot of visual thing to decorate things.-3 people responed.


3. Are there any benefits using blogs / messengers?


People can talk with friends and parents anywhere and anytime.-5 people responed.
Free connection fee. (Cheaper than using mobile phones) -6 people responed.
It can be opportunity to make new friends.-2 people responed.
Friends can share same information easily (no need to tell stories one by one).-3 people responed.


4. Do your parents know how to use computers?


Yes, both of parents-2 people responed.
Their parents know to send e-mail but they do not know to use blog and messenger.

No, 4 people responed.



5. Do you think there is problem to communicate with your parents face to face?

No. - 100%



6. Why?

because they believe that the majority of people like to use communication programs.


7. Have you ever felt or thought communicating with blogs/messengers as a social problem?

yes,-100%
the relationship between people and their parents are getting cut off as they use that.


8.If yes, do you think there are solutions for the communication block between you and your parents?

Unfortunately 5people do not have solutions and they are not aware of the problems.

Cut Internet line-1person responded.

posted by Judy (JIN JU, LEE)
`

Youth celebrate holiday online

Youth celebrate holiday online


Spring Festival celebrations were given a distinctly high-tech update by millions of young Internet users in China this week.

"Compared to the traditional way, celebrating Spring Festival on the Internet is more exciting," said Wei Jianhui, 23, who spent New Year's Eve chatting with dozens of friends online.

Yang didn't watch the New Year's Day television gala, which attracted an estimated audience of more than 1 billion people last Sunday evening.

Instead, Wei, who lives in this capital of Jiangxi Province, spent New Year's Eve decorating his blog with red lanterns and firecrackers.

"When they visit my blog, my friends will see my New Year's greetings," said Wei.

Wei said more than 30 of his friends spent New Year's Eve chatting on the Internet.

Many young people in Nanchang celebrated Chinese New Year in the same way.

The manager of Jingying Internet Cafe said all of its 300 computers were occupied on New Year's Eve. Four other Internet cafes in the area were also full.

(China Daily 02/24/2007 page3)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-02/24/content_812779.htm

Posted by Summer

Do today's blogging teenagers have no sense of shame?

Do today's blogging teenagers have no sense of shame?
By Anne Karpf (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-13 07:09

When my children come home from school, their preferred form of chilling out is logging on. While the younger one contents herself with designing a cyber-home on The Sims simulation game (in spooky imitation of what her mother is doing in the embodied world), the older one makes straight for MySpace. There she chronicles her life and times.

I can't be sure because I haven't looked (unless you count the time she left it open on her father's computer), not only because I know I'd find it disturbing, but also because she'd hate me to.

Here's the paradox: She and her friends are happy to parade the intimacies of their lives to everyone except those who, on a day-to-day basis at least, live closest to them and have known them longest.

Of course it's not really paradoxical: They're communicating with their peers and creating their adolescent persona, and don't want us around watching. In fact, they're doing exactly what we did at their age, even if we did it through physical space the telephone and the diary.

Blog self-exposure

But what's shocking to us is the extent of self-exposure they embrace. These kids live their lives online, but to their parents it feels like public nudity.

A survey of 1,019 teenagers reported last week that only one in 10 of them wrote a diary compared with the 47 percent of them who blog.

Could there have been, in the seven or eight years since the arrival of the blog and online diary, a cultural shift of such a size that the privacy of the bound diary is now regarded as some quaint, pre-digital relic, as derisory to young people as some Victorian ideas about modesty now appear to us?

It's easy to come over all nostalgic for the Dear-Diary era. Searching for one I kept during a particularly intense six months in my teens the one that logged every single kiss and fondle, the one my kids are dying to get their hands on, which luckily is still hiding in one of the boxes unopened since my house move I found another, written in the year my first child was born, noting every burp (hers) and cry (mine).

Diary generation

From kissing to burping: I've written diaries, it seems, only in times of overwhelming emotions, where writing offers the prospect of taming feeling.

Is it any different today? I just read a poignant posting on MyDearDiary.com from someone about to go to court to testify to try to stop her mother going to prison: "It's nice to be able to come on here and vent about everything."

Yes, many blogs are horribly banal, but the idea that diaries were private and permanent, and blogs are public and ephemeral we're all exhibitionists now seems a little too easy.

Alan Bennett says that diaries are a conversation with yourself but he published his, and even Anne Frank revised hers for publication. Many young bloggers archive their blogs.

This gives them not only the fixity of the page but also all that future pleasure of laughing at their younger self, realizing that everything they once felt certain about they now doubt, and everything they had doubts about now belongs in the realm of certainty.

The diary gives you evidence against yourself; perhaps the blog will too.

Sneer and fear

Those of us from the generation of the book inevitably sneer at and fear MySpace, where teenagers think nothing of recording their late period alongside their favorite band.

An article in the New York Times last month argued that young people today not only have a much less developed sense of shame than their parents but they also live their lives in front of a kind of invisible audience.

As, they reason, ours is already a surveillance society, why not seize control and display ourselves?

I can't pretend I understand, but then that's probably a good thing. Parents need to be on standby through the crucible of adolescence, ready with a fire extinguisher to douse any leaping flames, but at a safe distance.

Our kids are separating, and developing a sexual identity. They do have a sense of privacy it's just not a public/private one, but an old/young one. Their blogs, like our diaries, are out of bounds. They can't read mine, and I won't read theirs.

The Guardian

(China Daily 03/13/2007 page10)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2007-03/13/content_826159.htm

Posted by Summer

Questionnaire Interviewing Hong Kong Teenagers

Nation of Interviewee: Hong Kong
Age Group of Interviewees: 16- 19 years old

During the survey, most of the interviewees believe they believe they have generation gap between them and their parents even though they have get conversation. Teenagers feel parents don't understand what are they thinking about. One of the interviewees mentions it is difficult to tell her parents about her own problem. She feels that is embarrassed, as she doesn't want to make them worry as well.

Moreover, when we are talking more about the benefits or side effort to use messenger or blog, one interviewee mentions that "Let me think more deeply about myself and life (reflection!), encourage people to talk more often, let me see other peoples life."


An interesting discovery in this survey was found that youth would like to discuss some embarrassing topic through messengers or their blogs, they believe the privacy is more than what they talk face to face.

Why is it?

What is the difference between discussing through messengers and talking face to face? They still do those embarrassing topic.

It is really an interesting thing to think about it.

Posed by Henry.

our thoughts on blogging

While we were having meeting, we chat and shared what we have found so far. What we discovered and the blogging atmosphere in our own country.

As our survey positively responded that communication through technology is not a great harm to relationship with parents but it has somehow decreased the time we spent together with them physically or chatting face to face. Living abroad is a disadvantage as we have no choice and telephone/computeres are the one only source that we depend on to updates them on our lives here. From my experience, I feel that I appreaciate my family more in the sense that I realise how much I miss them. Sometimes we never know what is important to us until we feel their absence.

On the other hand, blogging has seem to be addiction to some teenagers and also adults. Regardless on how tired they are after work, they would spend some time ranting about what they did or what they are stressing on with work. We could say it is like a therapy for them when they spill their thoughts and worry in words. As I know, blogs have a function that protects your privacy and you could select who you want to view your blog. Therefore they need not worry if a stranger from elsewhere is stalking on them.

The other issue we discussed about is that blogging has inevitably cause the lack of subject to share when we meet our family or friends face to face for they have already know what happened and the details of it. Also, we believe that speaking and typing has a huge difference in delivering our thoughts to others. Although it seems to be similar but when it is put to action, the difference is there because we believe speaking is harder than typing. If one is so used to typing, they would feel uncomfortable talking with people face to face and we think that it is not beneficial as it might affect our presentation skills in work.

posted by: cyndi

teenagers using messengers in Australia

These are some sense coped in "Teens, tech and getting connected-Technology-smh.com.au"


Notes have been replaced by SMS, teenagers can now call their friends from anywhere with a mobile phone and the only writing they do is in the form of an email or instant message.

Teenagers today have an impressive array of methods for keeping in touch. The most ubiquitous of these is the mobile phone. A business and social tool for most people, it is considered practically a body part by most teenagers - something that's impossible to leave home without.

"Teenagers are embracing language as their own communications tool," Mr Barber says. "They've developed their own language."

Ms Huntley says Generation Y-ers become impatient if they can't get through to someone. "They think 10 minutes is too long to wait for a return text," Ms Huntley says.

A Yahoo! study found that 64 per cent of Australian teenagers use instant messaging at least once a day. And a survey of 4328 Australian internet users by ninemsn last year found that 95 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds used its MSN Messenger service at least a few times a week.

Ms Huntley says "It's easier to say things on a screen than face to face. It's also easier to offend people online. Chatting on Messenger is the technological equivalent of passing notes around the class."

Chatting on MSN Messenger also ranks highly on Casey's daily agenda. "I have 165 contacts in my Messenger, which includes everyone in my year at school," Casey Mrocki says. "I can be having up to 20 convos (conversations) at once."

Casey spends an hour online every night chatting to his friends, mostly about school, homework and the weekend. Not all of his friends are as chatty, having removed Messenger from their PCs at the start of year 11 to stop the constant interruptions and focus on their studies.

While he doesn't blog, Casey says some of his classmates use it to get photos online quickly. "We can go to a party one night and the next day someone will have uploaded all the photos onto their blog."

Reference: June 1, 2006 Teens, tech and getting connected-Technology-smh.com.au, http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/teens-tech-and-getting-connected/2006/05/31/1148956356779.html

Posed by Henry

Experiment about communication block.

I experimented by my self about how do I feeling while I talk with my friends by blog, my personal homepage and messenger without any talking with my housemate for 2days.
I realised that I did talk with housemate for a just 20minutes in first day the experiment while I communicate with friends through the communication programs.
And I did not talk with housemate in the last day of the experiment. Because my housemates are also spent time to surfing Internet, communicate with their friends by messenger.--;;

posted by Judy (JIN JU, LEE)

mixi

'mixi' is like a blog but it has several different features and many Japanese have their account for mixi.
Here is some information about mixi(from Wikipedia).


mixi, Inc. (ミクシィ Mikushi) is one of several SNS (social networking service) sites in Japan. The focus of mixi is "community entertainment", that is, meeting new people by way of common interests. Users can send and receive messages, write in a diary, read and comment on others' diaries, organize and join communities and invite their friends.

Started in February 2004, there are more than 5.7 million members and 490,000 communities as of November 2006.

* A community is a place for people to share their opinions through an online forum and a way to express tastes and hobbies.
* A footprint (ashiato) is a function that allows a user to see who has visited their page.
* mixi is an invitation-only service, meaning that one can only join via an invitation from a current member of the service. However, once invited, membership is free and open to anyone over 18.
* The word mixi is a combination of mix and I, referring to the idea that the user, "I", "mixes" with other users through the service.
* "Mixi Station", a client program that detects songs being played in iTunes and Windows Media Player and uploads them automatically to a communally accessible list in the "Music" section, was implemented late in June 2006. By July 2006, support for winamp was implemented via a winamp plugin, which was quickly made official by Mixi.
* mixi heavily adopts the use of open source and several hundred MySQL servers.
* "Mixi tsukare", a psychological state of a Japanese youth experiencing a sense of tiring from using Mixi and voicing a desire to discontinue using Mixi and finally deciding to terminate the Mixi account.


I also use mixi and most of all my friends use mixi. These days, SNS like mixi is more popular than blogs in Japan. In the diary page, users can make a link to their blogs if they have one. It is considered that the SNS has better security system since we have to register our detailed personal information. Some users make new friends via mixi after reading their profiles.


posted by Misa

Nate on, Cyworld and Never blog, which are the most popular commnication programs in South Korea.

These are the most popular messenger, which is called “nate on”, Cyworld and naver blog , which people can post pictures and talk to with friends or family. For instance, nate on is used widely to Korean people than messenger, and people, especially younger people usually have been spending time to decorate and communicate with friends in the homepage. I believe that if someone do not know these communication programs, they would not join in people. It means that the majority Korean people are using that.

posted by Judy(JIN JU, LEE)

We are getting lost the important things in our life.

As we are addicted to communicate with friends in blogs or messengers via the Internet, our feeling, which can express, is getting lost, and our relationship, which is related their family members, is getting break off more and more. However we are not aware of the serious effects that the situation could have. I think maybe the circumstance is due to technologies and people, who have a longing toward simple life. Although we are living in modern age, which have high technologies, we should realise that the technologies to communicate with people easily are not only good way to make easy life but also pitfalls than people realise. Because there are always two sides.

posted by Judy(JIN JU,LEE)

Not only the youths are blogging..

After browsing through website in relation to blogging in Malaysia, I realised that it is not only youths that are blogging. People from the government, politicians, teachers, mothers, celebrities, businessmen, doctors and more owns a blog.

Blogs are online journals or bulletins where people post entries on topics that interest them. They offer links to other websites and blogs, photos and opportunities for readers to comment on issues or communicate with others.

A research exercise conducted by Microsoft’s MSN and Windows’ Live Online late last year showed that most Asians blog to express themselves as well as share their lives with their family and friends.

The research findings, published in Blogging Asia: A Windows Live Report, were based on an online survey of more than 25,000 MSN portal visitors across seven markets.

The report also showed that the Asian blogspace is fuelled by youth under 25 (56%), while those aged between 25 and 35 make up 35% of the total. Only 9% of Asian bloggers are over 35 – it is anyone’s guess what percentage of this comprises senior citizens.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/5/7/lifefocus/17471449&sec=lifefocus viewed on 20th may 2007

From there I begin thinking that if adults spend time on maintaining their blog, how much time would they have to top up to their work time which results to limited time for family and friends. It seems to be like people have selected blogging as the alternative of communication these days. Being online does not necessarily mean that they are only communicating with friends or family. It could be strangers whose identity are not confirmed and they grew to be closer online just by chatting and some may lead to a date.

Results of Survey - Malaysia

The outcome of my survey that I did with my friends from Malaysia was interesting. The results shows that 100% of them prefer chatting on msn with friends because it is free, effective, saves time and is convenient. When asked upon why they use blog as a tool of communication their response was because it is easier to show images that they found interesting or maybe just photographs they took which they feel like sharing and their thoughts at that very moment that they feel like sharing. It the fastest way to get it out to people because how often could we meet in a week if we are s busy with assignments. Even though they spent quite some time in front of the computer (working on assignments and browsing around the internet, reading friend’s blog and etc), they do not think that it is affecting their relationship with their parents to distant. As most of them are studying abroad, they still communicate with their parents through phone occasionally although 60% of their parents do not know how to use a computer. As for me, my parents have msn and sometimes, we do communicate on Skype for we still talk like how we do on the phone and it saves so much money. Furthermore, they all disagree that there is a communication block by technology and in fact, it is helping us in communication.
I personally feel that if you really want to communicate with someone, it can happen no matter under what circumstances. It is the initiative that one takes to improve or strengthen the relationship between them. When I miss my parents, I just pick up the phone and dial their number regardless of where I am.

Let that aside, through the frequent chatting and blogging, there a certain language developed in ourselves which I reckon do not benefit us in practicing proper and fluent English. We create our own short abbreviation for long words and used it so widely that sometimes we might accidentally use it for work.

posted by: cyndi

Report!

I interviewed some of my Japanese friends (and myself) using our questionnaire.

1. Who do you want to communicate with through blogs / messengers?

Friends - 100%
Family - only me..


2. Why do you use blogs / messengers in order to communicate with them (answered in Question 1) instead of face to face? (Several reasons can be answered.)

Because...
friends or family live overseas.
there is no particular reason but it is kind of interesting to use them in spare time.
it is sometimes comfortable and easier to communicate with new friends.
blogs and messengers are alternative methods of communication.


3. Are there any benefits using blogs / messengers?

Free connection fee (Cheaper than using mobile phones)
It can be good opportunity to make new friends.
Friends can share same information easily (no need to tell stories one by one).


4. Do your parents know how to use computers?

Yes, but they are not familiar with using blogs / messengers very much.


5. Do you think there is problem to communicate with your parents face to face?

No. - 100%


6. Why?

There is no problem.


7. Have you ever felt or thought communicating with blogs/messengers as a social problem?

Not really (if people don't rely on only communicating with blogs/messengers too much), because it is very convenient.


8.If yes, do you think there are solutions for the communication block between you and your parents?

Set a limit for using computers. (e.g. 2 hours per day)


Notes:

• A few friends don't have their blogs.
• Some friends sign in messengers nearly everyday. (But I sign in only several times in a month..)

Comments:
- Many people in Japan don't think there is communication block caused by using blogs or messengers.
- Blogs and Messengers are not most used tools to communicate with friends and families.
- There are not many serious problem known for blogging and talking on messengers in Japan.

posted by Misa

Blogging - Japan

This is the article I found in "The Japan Times online".

Japan as number-one blogger
Japanese, a recent survey found, is the most common language for blogging. With 70-some million blogs now in all languages, Japan edged out even English and Chinese for the top spot of blog language. A third of all blogs in the world, or virtual world, are written in Japanese. Japan is now number one -- at blogging.

"Blog," of course, is a term that can apply to anything from company home pages to serious muckraking to photos of a new pet kitten. There is seemingly a blog for every human experience. Most blogs have gone up in the past two years, with thousands of new ones added everyday. Blogging even serves as a plot device in films and TV dramas. Yet, why are Japanese in particular so interested in expressing their opinions online?

Of course, Japan has a highly literate population with a fascination for new gizmos and techie games of all kinds. Digital cameras, easy-to-use software and teensy keyboards, in short, all the tools and techniques for blogging, are now part of tech-loving daily life. Yet, what does it say about Japanese culture and life that so many people express their thoughts, record their activities and find friends by blogging?

Freedom and anonymity are surely a large part of the appeal. Workers can complain about bosses, wives about husbands, citizens about politicians and otaku about anime characters. In a culture of polite language, proper body gestures and strict intonation, blogs "speak" with amazing casualness and candor. In a high-pressure society, blowing off steam is healthy.

Also healthy is the sense of "just chatting." This basic human need is largely absent in huge cities of Japan, where striking up a conversation with a stranger would seem imposing, strange or suspicious. In the blogosphere, though, there are no strangers: anyone can "talk" to anyone. Google a topic and you have found new friends. Conversing, however trivially, with unknown people is a basic human fascination.

In the past, heavy demands from work and predetermined social spheres restricted wider contacts. Blogging shows that people's interests are broadening, friendship is diversifying and the constraint of old social connections may be less relevant than in the past. People have also started to distrust encyclopedias, media and "official" writing. For some things, everyday conversation feels a lot more trustable. A social transformation may well be -- literally -- at hand.

However, blogs are inevitably a little alienated and distant. While blogging demands neither polite bowing nor dressing up, no actual human contact is possible, either. The universal smiley sign -- :) -- is a poor substitute for a genuine human smile. Body language, anthropologists estimate, conveys up to 80 percent of the message in human communication. Blogs will never carry all the complexities of "live" interaction.

And though people may be able to talk more easily about their problems online, they are removed physically from the very people who might actually offer them concrete help. Oversight for some of the worst problems -- stalking, suicide groups or increased isolation -- may be impossible. In the future, many people will essentially live out much of their lives as virtual online experiences. Something about that feels very sad.

Yet still, blogging stems from the need to assert one's existence in language for others to read. This is an impulse that in Japan goes back to at least the work of Sei Shonagon's "The Pillow Book." Reflecting on the beauty and meaning of life is a large part of what blogs inspire. Most blogs revolve around a very human exchange of feelings and thoughts. Japan may be number one at musing, too.

Blogs signal not only rejuvenation of old genres of writing, but a new kind of language as well. Falling somewhere between the formality of a business letter and the looseness of friends at a late night bar, blog language feels hybrid and intermediary, yet more nuanced and fuzzily human. One wonders whether blog-speak will eventually start to re-shape the language itself.

If it does, the impact of blogs on social life and discourse will be even stronger. Still, one can guess that there is a lot more blogging about virtual experiences of all kinds than actual experiences themselves. Blogs are acting out in words, without taking action. A genuinely open society can tolerate the fantasies and expressions of its people, especially in words, but it also needs actual participation in real institutions for it to thrive.

One might hope, too, that at some point blogging might develop into actual human interaction of the old face-to-face kind. Whether it will or not remains to be seen. And as with most technologies, whether it functions as an escape from reality, a retreat to foolish trivialities or an evolution to more substantial forms of human interaction depends largely on the human element of choice.

There must be a blog on all this out there someplace -- and in Japanese.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Reference
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20070422a1.html

posted by Misa

New Questionnaire

After we had a discussion last week, we considered that the questions on questionnaire before didn't make sense and had a really large area. So we decided the topic 'Communication's blocks the relationships with parents and friends by technologies '. We made a new questionnaire as below:


1. Who do you want to communicate with through blogs / messengers?


2. Why do you use blogs / messengers in order to communicate with them (answered in Question 1) instead of face to face?


3. Are there any benefits using blogs / messengers?


4. Do your parents know how to use computers?


5. Do you think there is problem to communicate with your parents face to face?


6. Why?


7. Have you ever felt or thought communicating with blogs/messengers as a social problem?


8.If yes, do you think there are solutions for the communication block between you and your parents?


We will interview people from our own conturies in different ages and then make simple reports.

Cheers

By Summer

communication style between parents and children in malaysia

The style of communicating between parents and child has obviously changed over the years. During the olden days, the only way parents and child communicated was by talking face to face but this has not been the absolute choice for most children today. The obvious reason to this is I would say technology.

Just the invention of various type of technology such as computer, game boy and handphone has seemed to attract the younger generation towards it and would some what make them ‘cool’ among their peers if they own one of those. Hence, it has distanced the relationship between parents and children these days. Moreover, parents whom are much focused and often busy because of work did not spend much time with their child and as a result to that, the child feels lonely and would turn to other source to entertain themselves. Parents who feel guilty for not spending much time with children thought money could solve anything and therefore will buy anything their child wish for (if money allows J )

Having a computer stuck right in front of the child is like a gateway to entertainment for they could meet new friends and have access to all kind of entertainment: music, videos, movies, chatting with friends, blogs, games and many more. They would not feel bored and start to enjoy the company of online friends, eventhough they do not know or have not met the person.

In Malaysia, we mostly have a hectic schedule since we started primary school (age of 7). We do not go out with friends as often because public transports are inconvenient and is dangerous for a young child to go out alone (there are many kidnappers and snatch thiefs). Therefore we are spent most of the time at home. Time spent on computers has increased and many kids start to neglect the time with family. An example would be family time together, watching tv and share stories on what happened that day. After dinner, they would probably disappear to the screens of the computer chatting with their friends. Parents find it really hard to communicate with their child as they can not confiscate the computer from them. Computer is part of our education in the future.

Because of all this, the gap between parents and children start to grow further apart. They spend less time together and as a result to that, the relationship lack of understanding. Therefore, arguments start to occur which slowly destroy the relationship in between them.

posted by: cyndi

Project Development

After our group discussion, what choose as our topic is about "communication block formed by technology.". It is such a huge topic if we talk about technology, we contract our topic into mobile and computer last last week. It could be due to a large usage for teenagers to communicate by using messenger, SMS and blogs. There is an interesting discovery as they may not know how to present themselves face to face instead of typing into computer messages.

There are two examples we can show:

Misa mentions about many Japanese teenagers work on sending E-mail or SMS when they are having lunch with their friends in Japan, however, there isn't any conversation between them, so why do they still have lunch with each others?

As Reina said, when he taught in Singapore, Uni get wireless everywhere which makes students chatting by using MSN even though they can talk face to face.

This makes us think about The problem of over using computer becomes a common problem in teenage group. Moreover, our topic is still too large for us to work on. As a result, our final decision as our topic is "communication block formed by messenger and blog".

Why does it become a trend?

Their family is busy in work, they feel loneliness as they want to prove their exist. They can't get any response or they don't think they are exist in the family, especially if they are the only child. Due to adolescence, they don't feel family understand about them, what they only want is to share their feeling to friends or strangers. This is a kind of generation gap formed by children and parents.

How can parents solve this problem?

Case study, Henry's sister, who just reach her 18th birthday. She sends SMS to friends over 1000 messages monthly, what a terrible amount. She doesn't even need to look at the pin during she types so. Her mother feels hard to communicate with her because she doesn't think her mum understand her. When her mum did is to learn how to type SMS as she tries to convey with her through SMS instead of calling or talking face to face. Even she types very slow, but she still persists to do so as it is the only way to get into her daughter's world.

Finally, we start to investigate in to different parts as the cause and effort by messenger and Blog,

1) crime formed as teenagers may meet some strangers through their Blog or messenger
2) their own languages to chat with their friends
3) relationship with their parents/ friends, how different with them
4) benefits

For this reasons, we are doing some interviews to those users in our home countries as we all come from different countries to see the differences between them. Here are the questions what we are going to ask about.

1. What kinds of messenger are you using?


2. How often do you spend in the messenger or blogs?


3. What is the main purpose for you to use the messenger?


4. Have you ever chatted with strangers? How do you feel? Do you like it?


5. Have you ever dated with strangers who meet through the messenger? How do you feel? Do you like it?


6. Do you have Blog? How many?


7. How often do you update your Blog?


8. What is the main purpose for you to use the Blog?


9. What kind of photos do you share on the Blog?


10. Is there any strangers view your Blog? How do you feel? Enjoy? Disgusting? Annoying?


11. (This is for parents) Do you have any way to solve this problem?


Posed by Henry

Instant Messenger Changes Ways of Communicating in South Korea

Male Internet users are logged on to instant messenger programs more than three hours per day on average, while females spend more time viewing blog and mini-homepages than men, a report said.

According to Internet research firm Korean Click, men use Internet messenger programs for three hours and 24 minutes on average everyday while women Users log on for two hours and 27 minutes. On the other hand, women Internet users spend just under 15 minutes everyday updating their mini-homepages and visiting others, about four minutes more than men do.

According to a report from the Ministry of Information and Communication, about half of Korea’s Internet population use instant messenger programs. NateOn, the most frequently used program, had 12 million actual users between June 2005 and May 2006. Microsoft’s MSN Messenger had seven million users in the same period.
Many large companies use private Internet messengers as well.
Samsung Group added an instant messaging function to their intranet system My Single in 2004. KT, the telecommunication giant, also has its own messenger program called KTiman. “I usually send instant messages when I have to talk to my boss, who is sitting right next to me,” said Yoo Byung-ho, 30-year-old employee at KT. “The company uses it when sending notices to employees as well. I think I’m logged on to messengers more than 12 hours per day during the week.”
Though the number of users peaked in 2004 and stopped increasing then, Internet messenger services are now widely used for a variety of purposes, not only conversations. Music downloads and shopping malls are attached to them, and even a real-time stock trading system was introduced last month. The MSN Messenger-stock trading system drew over 3,000 subscribers only a week after its launch, its operator Hyundai Securities said.

Meanwhile, use of e-mails was found to have decreased in South Korea since last year as people are shifting to use short messaging service on mobile phones.

Number of e-mails viewed at major mail companies in South Korea, such as Daum, Paran and Naver, has decreased by 13.7 percent in the last 18 months. On the contrary, the number of mobile phone messages sent by subscribers of SK Telecom, the largest mobile company, increased by 66 percent during the same period.

posted by Judy 
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/

The problems of computer in South Korea.

"Introducing the 'N Generation"

First it was the "Hangul Generation," then it was the "X Generation," then it was the "386 Generation," and now it's the "N Generation." The Korean media certainly has a knack for thinking up interesting names to classify people according to age. The term "N Generation" (N sedae) is short for "Networked Generation" and refers to the current group of high school and university-age young people in Korea. Whereas the 386 Generation grew up amid the political struggles of the 1980s and the X Generation amid maturing democracy and material comfort, the N Generation is growing up in the networked world of the late 1990s.

Like the other generations defined by their time, the N Generation will change that face of Korea as it enters society. As it does, it will create tension with previous generations that have different attitudes toward technology, information, and communication. This tension is already being felt in the educational arena where students and teachers have difficulty communicating with one another.

To students of the N Generation, technology and networked communications are the norm. Computers, the Internet, mobile phones, pagers, these are the things that almost all students know how to use and misuse. The nexus of these technologies means that the N Generation finds electronically-mediated communication as natural as face-to-face communication. Making friends in a chat room is as easy as making friends with classmates. In many situations, the spontaneity and anonymity of electronically-mediated communication liberates the N Generation from the formalities that surround face-to-face communication in Korea.

Most members of older generations, however, are still most comfortable with face-to-face communication and the telephone. Even the X generation, which was born in the 1970s, did not have easy access to the Internet or mobile phones until it was entering its mid-20s. The N Generation had access to these things from its early teens. The gap is largest between the N generation and those over the age of 40 whose only access to electronically-mediated communication during most of their lives has been the telephone.

As an architectural space, "school" has changed remarkably little around the world in at least a last hundred years. Most schools consist of off-line classrooms with four walls and rows of desks. The rest of the building has supporting facilities, such as a library, a gymnasium, and offices. Schools with money, of course, have computer rooms, but many of these function as glorified typewriters. Schools without money can barely pay for building maintenance, let alone buying computers. In such an architectural space, the dominant method of information transmission is teacher talk, and there are few, if any, opportunities for information creation.

When the N Generation goes to school, it finds itself trapped in an off-line space that is deadly boring. Teacher talk is boring because it is not interactive and only reinforces the rigidities of face-to-face conversation that the N Generation wants to free itself from. The curriculum places a premium on absorbing information for tests and university entrance, rather than creating information through interaction. The N Generation, by contrast, is producing new information though multiple interaction using diverse communication technologies.

At the end of August, the "Chosun Ilbo" ran a series of four articles on the "collapse" of education in Korea. According to the articles, high rates of truancy and tardiness have become the norm in many schools. Of those students who attend, many sleep in the back, read comics, or talk to their friends. A common thread running through the quotations in the articles was that studying in institutes was more helpful and interesting than school.

These problems are not unique to Korea, though the gap may be larger in Korea than in places where electronically-mediated technologies are less popular and where social hierarchies are less pronounced. In Japan last week, the "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" (Oct. 14) reported on a study of teacher computer literacy in public schools conducted by the Ministry of Education. In total, 57.4 percent of the teachers surveyed could use a computer and only 26.7 percent were qualified to teach computer literacy. Even among high school teachers, only 67.6 percent said they could use a computer. These are astounding figures given the global spread of computers today and Japan's level of economic and technological development.

At a deeper level, the N Generation is part of the great shift from behaviorist to cognitive social structures that will mark the close of the 20th century. Behaviorist social structures reflect the view of the mind as an empty vessel and try to impose order on human behavior. This is what off-line classrooms dominated by teacher talk do. Cognitive social structures start from the premise that the mind is active and engaged with its environment. Knowledge is created by networks that process new information by linking it to existing knowledge. It is a powerful, but sometimes, haphazard process because individual minds make connections in different ways at different times.

The N Generation is the first generation that has had the chance to develop a distinctly cognitive learning style that is at odds with the behaviorist off-line classroom. Technology, democratization, and globalization have given this generation the tools to let the cognitive genie out of the bottle. The onus on older generations is to support -not repress - the most promising generation Korea has yet produced.

The writer is an associate professor at Kumamoto Gakuen University in Japan. His e-mail address is heung bob@hanmail.net. - Ed.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr /1999-10-20 00:00]

"Busting out modified hangeul in cyberspace"

By Choe Yong-shik Staff reporter

In light of Korea's advanced technology and the size of its Web-savvy population, there can hardly be any serious criticism against citing Korea as the center of the global Internet industry. However, the local craze surrounding the Internet is taking a toll on the integrity of the Korean language, critics argue.

The critics base their position on the view that the improper use of the Korean language on the Web has reached an "alarming" level and could ultimately undermine its roots unless swift and stern action is taken.

"Young Web surfers of today increasingly subscribe to their own 'Internet' language and even find it to be a standard Korean language," Kim Young-myoung, president of the Solidarity for Hangeul (Korean writing system) Culture, a Seoul-based civic group devoted to preserving hangeul.

In fact, it may be inevitable to use an abbreviated form of words and expressions in the online environment for any language used. But the case with the Korean language seems to be going a bit overboard, they point out.

Until recently, Koreans have opted to give an unusual twist to the standard Korean language to express closeness and a sense of communal unity in cyberspace which otherwise could be a linguistically sterile and bland scene.

For instance, one of their most common tactics is to replace certain vowels or consonants, or shorten standard expressions with a few characteristic syllables, as seen in "bangga" for "ban-gap-seup-ni-da" (nice to meet you), "chuka chuka" for "chuk-ha-hap-ni-da" (congratuations) and "gap" for "ga-ip" (signing in).

A new generation of in vogue online terminology, however, tends to completely ignore spelling principles, sometimes incorporates Japanese characters, or even relies on non-linguistic characters such as special codes and mathematical symbols. These new groups of special code-based expressions are called "space language."

The downside of using such communication habits in cyberspace has evidently materialized in the real world, undermining performance in school.

Some young students at elementary or middle schools display serious problems in dictating and writing. In cases, they write Korean words in accordance with phonetic principles, including fortis, much like in the German or Spanish languages.

"The Korean language respects the original value of each sound element before phonetic variations," said Kim Kap-soo, chief of the Korean language policy at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

"It would be no different from an American high school student writing English like German," he added, explaining the seriousness of the issue.

On the occasion of Hangeul Day tomorrow, the government and civic groups have joined to eradicate such practices among young Koreans. Prepared in this vein are a series of public campaigns, academic conferences, special features on TV, surveys and exhibitions.

With the hope of enhancing awareness of the significance of the correct use of the language, the government will run public advertisement on the windows of 1,450 cars of the Seoul subway system for the next two months.

In addition, some buses operating popular routes in downtown Seoul are carrying ads that display actual dictation errors made by middle school students.

'On a different side of the effort to promote the significance of the Korean writing system, civic activists are working toward reinstating as a national holiday Hangeul Day which was abolished by the government in 1990.(khjack@koreaherald.co.kr)

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/2002-10-07 19:33]

"Ignored parents"

Dear Annie: My son and his wife have become so absorbed in their own problems and priorities that they seem to have completely lost interest in anything or anyone else, including us. When they visit, they talk only about themselves and their two daughters. If we attempt to talk about things going on in our lives, our daughter-in-law will either talk right over us or quickly change the subject back to their daily issues.

Our son is a good provider, and our daughter-in-law is a good mother, housekeeper and cook. But in all the years they`ve been married, we`ve detected an increasing lack of interest in anything but themselves.

Should I express my feelings to my son and risk insulting or hurting him? Or should I let them continue in their blissful ignorance and not mention how we feel about their lack of concern for others, especially his parents? -- Concerned Mother Dear Mother: First, do an honest appraisal of your side of the conversation. Is it possible you talk a lot about your problems, your aches and pains, your financial difficulties, your health? Many children don`t want to hear these things, and your daughter-in-law`s chatter may be her way of heading you off at the pass.

Even so, these visits should include more give-and-take. It`s OK to tell your son that his one-sided conversation makes him seem rather self-absorbed. But if you are looking for a sympathetic ear, Sonny doesn`t appear to be a good candidate. We recommend developing your friendships, joining social organizations or talking to a counselor.

Dear Annie: As a parent with three teenagers, I am shocked at some of the TV reality shows, MTV videos, morning radio shows and Internet pop-ups. The filth and fantasy have teens in another world. I am totally helpless to prevent immorality, obscenity and vulgarity from occurring in my own home hundreds of times a day.

I have some ideas for reality TV, like "Sleepless in the USA," a show about teens having babies. Or "Teens Left Behind," the ones whose irresponsible behavior with alcohol, drugs and reckless driving has killed friends and family. Or perhaps "Sex in Our Cities" -- interviews with teens who are coping with STDs, HIV and AIDS, and those who have had abortions or given babies up for adoption.

I would recommend putting positive things on as well. How about "American Idols," which would recognize teens who have made a positive impact? Or, "Extreme Makeovers," about families that have successfully struggled to stay together without using alcohol, drugs or getting divorced? Our teens emulate actors, sports stars and musicians who seem to compete to be the most obnoxious, vulgar and self-centered. I shudder to think what parents of the next generation will have to put up with. -- America`s Most Frustrated Mom Dear Mom: We love your ideas, but you are NOT helpless. Most computers and TVs offer parental control buttons and off switches. Use them.

[http://www.koreaherald.co.kr /2006-08-23 10:02]

"4 in 10 Teens Web-Addicted"

By Yoo Dong-ho

Staff ReporterWith the proliferation of high-speed Internet services and personalcomputers in homes and schools, Internet addiction is emerging as serious cultural malaise, especially among teenagers.

A survey showed yesterday that about 40 percent of the nation’s middle and high school students are addicted to the Internet and have related health problems.

Also, it was belatedly revealed yesterday that a sixth grader had sexual contact with her male classmate in a school garage last month while six other students watched, apparently after logging on to pornographic Internet sites in class.The girl’s parents blamed the school for its loose management of computer use, while the school claimed it was the girl’s own will tomimic obscene sexual behaviors.

According to the survey conducted by Korea University’s College ofMedicine on 764 youths in the Seoul area, 41.4 percent show symptomsof addiction to the Internet, including 2.9 percent with severe symptoms.

Middle school students surf the Internet for an average of 3.1 hoursa day and high school students spend 2.8 hours online, the survey found. About 90 percent use the Internet at home.

``After school hours, I normally stay in my room and spend hours infront of the computer,’’ Nam Hee-hyun, a 17-year-old high school junior, said. ``Over the weekends, I stay up all night doing Internetchatting and playing online games. Online gambling and pornography are nothing new to most of us,’’ Nam said.

The survey also found that students who get low grades and stay online longer than others, mainly playing games and Web chatting, showedserious symptoms of addiction.A health and life-style appraisal, based on such factors as regularmeals, human relationships and personal hygiene, showed that the heavy Internet users are less healthy than other teenagers.

``Teenagers who get hooked on the Internet show anti-social behavior, obsession and even hallucination, so their Internet use should berestricted and they should be encouraged to participate in sports

[http://www.koreaherald.co.kr 2003-07-04 17:36]

"Computer obsession"

Dear Annie: I am 45 years old and the father of three children. I have been married to "Alicia" for 17 years.
Several years ago, we purchased our first computer, and Alicia began surfing the Net. Since then, she`s been staying up late, chatting and writing letters to both male and female Internet friends. I often go to bed alone. When she had minor cosmetic surgery that was botched, Alicia spent hours online chatting with people who had experienced similar problems. If I complain about her new hobby, Alicia says, "You`re not my father. Don`t tell me what to do."

I have a full-time job, and so does Alicia. When I come home from work, I am responsible for cooking, cleaning, laundry, yardwork, car repair and most of the grocery shopping because Alicia won`t lift a finger. She says she works hard all day and the rest is "her time." What about MY time?

When we married, I thought we would share all the household duties, but Alicia seems to think otherwise. I want her to go back to being a wife, mother and partner. Our children barely speak to her these days. How can I make her understand how damaging this is to our marriage? -- Fed Up in California

Dear Fed Up: Usually, complaints about unhelpful spouses are about husbands, not wives. Nonetheless, the advice is the same. Alicia needs to understand that her computer obsession is taking its toll on your marriage and her relationship with her children. Ask her to see a marriage counselor with you so you can both air your grievances.

Meanwhile, insist that the kids do more around the house, and if necessary, hire someone to do the rest. Since you and Alicia both work full time, you should be able to afford some household help. It will be worth it.

Dear Annie: I was interested in the letter from "Silent in Chicago," who didn`t know how to make conversation at a party. Many years ago, someone taught me to use the word "FORM" to remember what questions to ask in order to elicit responses that could open up a conversation. Here`s how it works:
F is for family. Ask people about their parents, children or siblings.
O is for occupation. Ask what they do, what they would like to do, what they are studying, and what they like best about their job.
R is for recreation. Ask what they like to do in their spare time. This leads to a conversation about hobbies, sports, books, traveling and music.
M is for motivation. Ask what motivates them in life. This is when the conversation gets more involved with religion and politics.
I tried FORM with my sister-in-law, and she said it was the best conversation she`d ever had. Please pass it along to your readers. -- Dentist in McPherson, Kan.

Dear Dentist: What a sensible, useful mnemonic device. Thanks so much for sending it along.

Dear Annie: I work in a store with a woman who is a touchy-feely, huggy type. "Maureen" has worked here for about a month. I have asked her twice (nicely) not to touch me, and the manager has spoken to her also, but she won`t stop. She always seems to be right behind me, following me around like a lost puppy dog. How do I get her out of my face? -- No Hugs in Michigan, Please

Dear Michigan: Be less nice. Tell Maureen, forcefully, that you do NOT want to be touched and you would appreciate it if she would stop. Let her know if you have to tell the manager again, she could be fired. She`ll pout a little, but too bad.

Annie`s Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please e-mail your questions to anniesmailbox@attbi.com, or write to: Annie`s Mailbox, P.O. Box 118190, Chicago, IL 60611.To find out more about Annie`s Mailbox, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. or http://www.koreaherald.co.kr [2002-10-16 18:18]
posted by Judy