Hail Cyber Medium!

It is Cyber Age. Internet, like a genie is granting all your wishes! Is it just communication that’s making internet People’s Medium? Let’s get deeper enlisting some features that we use everyday yet never realize how important and indispensable internet has grown to be in our lives.

FREE AND EASY COMMUNICATION

e-mails-Your Own Cyber Address: Most of us today own an electronic mail id which is our own cyber address. Your mail box saves you of visits to the post office and also impatient waiting of the post man. Access your mail sitting anywhere on earth at any time, you have the luxury of staying connected. . Some of the most popular web mail services available are Yahoo! Mail, Google Gmail and Microsoft's Hotmail.

IMS, Voice chat, Video Conferencing.: Chat the Cyber way, free of Cost: Once telephone was the only medium to talk to a person real-time. Internet today enables you to text chat with a person using Instant Message Services like g-talk, yahoo messenger. You can also voice chat through any of these. Connect a web cam to your PC and you can even let the one you are chatting with, see you. And for all this you don’t need to pay except of course for your Internet connection.

Social Networking Websit-Create your niche and Stay Connected. : Orkut, Face book, Hi Five, you definitely have your account in any one of these. These enable you to connect with your old school mates, college mates, far flung relatives and also with your colleagues. Also in the process we create our own niche here. A home page that talks ‘About Me’, about your social, personal and professional information. There are innumerable communities that you identify with and join them instantly. This gives you a sense of identity and your community defines yourself for others. Upload your snaps and favourite videos; flaunt what people think about you through the testimonials. Add as many extra applications like ‘Astrology’, ‘Books I read’ etc to your profile.

Blog it! It’s my Voice : No editor to ruthlessly reject your thoughts! Now you can not only fearlessly voice your thoughts through Blogs but also be read by people all around the world. Your work stays fresh in the Cyberspace lest you delete it. Your blog may contain a mixture of text, pictures, videos and music. Some blogs may only concentrate on photos (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos(vlog) etc. Here you get freedom to express, so do others. People who read you have the freedom to leave comments on your blog and even rate it.

MULTIMEDIA THROUGH INTERNET

The web uses multiple content form like audio, video, text, graphics etc. A lot of interesting websites have been created that we all frequent not only to read, listen or see, but also adding our own content to it ie User Generated Content.

Photo sharing : Gone are the days of photo albums and the painful posting of snaps to relatives and friends. With the coming of photo sharing websites you can upload your snaps, edit and organizes them and share them with your friends and family online. Online applications like Fickr are widely used for photo management and sharing.

Video Sharing : Now an internet user can shoot a video or make a movie using snaps and upload it on video sharing website for viewing. Power now doesn’t rest in the hands of elite few; common man today can voice his/her opinions through such websites. One famous video sharing website is Youtube. From old TV serials, movies, news stories to personal videos can be shared here. If you have software called Youtube Downloader, you can even download them with ease and also convert them into other video formats.

Music Sharing: Many websites like cooltoad, imeem run on the principle of music sharing. You have audio clippings or music, create an account and upload it on these websites. You can also download the stuff uploaded by other users.

Live Casting : It refers to the online transmission of various TV programs, live. Although you may be in a different time zone you can now watch TV programs online, as they are telecast in their original places. Such websites also allow you to see the pre recorded videos according to your convenience. Some such websites are watchindia.tv , Justin.tv etc.

INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT THROUGH INTERNET

Just Google It! : Some years back when you needed information you had to rummage through thick encyclopedias, magazines and newspaper stacks. Today you need some information, be it for academic purposes or browsing through latest models of digital camera or searching archives of newspaper online you essentially say ‘Just google it’. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! have turned into guides for anything and everything. What to say you even get to know which shampoo to use and which not to by going through websites like ‘mouthshut.com’ which has users reviewing various products and rating them.

News Websites: Be it a TV News Channel , Newspaper or Magazines, most of them take great pain in making their presence felt online too. Majority of them have their own websites that have text, pictures, videos, graphics and most important, they provide immense interface between the readers and the channel. This is because unlike in other media, websites can and do allow the readers to post their comments and also indulge in Citizen Journalism by blogging their thoughts. Such facilities are provided by the website of CNN IBN called ‘ibnlive’, website of Time Now called ‘timesnow.tv’ , The Hindu’s ‘hinduonnet’ etc.

Gaming Sites : Feel like taking time out and relaxing? Hit websites like zapak.com, arcadegames, yahoogames, bigfishgames etc. You get to choose from varieties like arcade, action, puzzle, mystery and the list goes on. These sites are extremely famous with youngsters for obvious reasons.

Online Bill Paying, Online ticket booking : We don’t have to take monthly rounds of our Banks , Telephone exchanges, plane or railways ticket booking doesn’t now need a middle man. You can pay your bills online, book your tickets online. Hail Internet for making our lives so convenient!

It is a guide, it enables you to stay connected, it makes your tasks easier.

It’s Omnipotent, it’s omniscient….God? No!

It’s is Internet. Internet that has unknowingly gained the stature of an all knowing individual. Internet that has morphed into the most POPULAR PEOPLE’S Medium. Hail Cyber Medium!