Virtual is the new physical

The Internet is finally bringing us together as human beings and the network is finally liberating us. We lived in farms and then we lived in cities and now we are living on the Internet. What do you feel when hearing these? Happy? Sympathetic? Or maybe horrified? I felt a mixture a feelings, happy, excited but also horrified at the same time.

Sitting in Creative Digifest now and drafting this blog post, I am not sure whether going back onto Facebook is a right decision or not. Born in 1986, I am one of the digitised generation. At least, that is what I believe I am. Still, having accounts in more than 10 social networking websites and web applications, I have already gone through the stage of being obsessed with all fancy SNS apps. It took me about 5 months to understand what I was doing there, for example, posting pictures of my breakfast, my dress and my friends randomly just didn't make any sense. Why I felt that I needed to do that? There have been quite a lot of research on people's motivations in creating digital content online. One of the most important reasons is confirmation of identity. Put simple, who we are and how we are recognised by others. What people do online defines who they are to some degree to others who observe their digital activities online. What people want others to think of them drives people's digital activities. A very simple example: less people would put on a photo featuring themselves very ugly unless they would like to do it in purpose. The thought that 'I am good in this dress' simply would drive their activity in posting a photo featuring them in the dress. Here comes the question: what's the impact of digital activity? I would say none if random activities of online citizens define digital activity. It would mean quite a lot, especially for businesses and individual who know what they are doing.

There have been quite a lot of businesses observe their employees and candidates online. Businesses that market their products and manager customer relationships online. Individuals who build their own businesses online. Digital activities are changing the world rapidly into something different yet similar to some degree to the old fashioned physical world. Personally, I believe the digital world is more useful for businesses and enterprises and of course individuals who are building their digital profile and conduct commercial activities online. For average people, they might get bored sooner or later as I did and get themselves detached from the SNS. There is a Dr. from Warwick University doing research on this issue.

Now, I couldn't help wonder what's the next phase of digital activities and how digital activities could help the commercial world. Digital Economy...