Article published in Focal Magazine, Issue No: 256, April 10, 2012
According to my friend Google, there had been 845 million monthly active
Facebook users at the end of December, 2011. Statistics accurately explained that 845 million people
had been actively sharing life experiences, photos, quotes, videos, jokes, stories over and over their facebook
walls every day for the last year? Did I say the same stuff...stuff, like I
would say, that my sister had posted a month ago, her friend whose friend and
another frined had liked a year ago and
now i
am liking again because my mother
had posted it?
The truth is, who doesn't want to share? The real soul of the Facebook lies
on the intention to connect real-time with people, even just for the purpose of
creating neighbors for their most
favorite games (hello virtual Farmille, Farm Town, Dorfleben, Farmandia
farmers!!). And since the advent of
Social Bookmarking, sharing content became much more easier. As social networks
evolved, so did their share buttons and the most recent Facebook feature, the LIKE button. Of course,
the share button will be supported by Facebook, but trends say that the like
button will be the future of content
sharing.
Sharing, in it's true form, could not be different from liking. There is no
liking without sharing and vice versa. It's like saying, sharing is liking, and
liking is sharing. (am I confusing you?) It goes like a real never ending
story. And what I like most about it, you are not even required to make a
comment on the shared/liked item. You can say that again, you are invisible!
You couldn't underestimate the power of the social media. It is because
it's viral, contagious and it is everywhere! And not one individual is using
just one media to interact with people. There is the Twitter, LinkedIn,
Pinterest, YM, Skype, Friendster, MySpace, Blogger, other blogs, , Glogster,
Photobucket, Flickr....there are lots of them! The social media, as we can see
it had conquered the world and we have become their slaves .
The frenzy of sharing and liking habits is becoming innate to us. Oh, I may
have to correct that, sharing and liking is innate to human nature and the
magnitude we see today is just a reflection of what had evolved in history.
From barbarians we have become civilized, revolutionary, and futuristic.
We probably had gone a long way, but we are still primates in our needs.
Nothing is more basic than the human
experience than the need to communicate. From the earliest times, human beings
have communicated in an effort to convey information and express feelings. And
indeed, the word communication
means sharing. And why do we share? Isn't it obvious, we share because each and
everyone of us needs to belong. And we keep on sharing because we want to stay
connected with the soceity we live in. We are kind of desperate with our needs,
that sometimes we do exaggerate the things we share on the net, even the
smallest and most intricate things of our daily living.
Admit to yourself, you feel good sharing things in the
internet (even if it's a crap) and it feels even better when someone liked your crap. No one had greeted
me more than my friends in Facebook on my birthday. Don't you think that was
something! It feels good to belong and be accepted.
Sharing and Liking may be rubbish for many people but for the others it's a
way of life, a lifestyle. You made your own choice. It doesn't make you unique
either because at the end of the day you are still that desperate human trying
to fulfill her needs
.
It's a hands down to Sumo Paint, the newest painting and image editing application extension of the Chrome browser. For someone who doesn't have any knowledge of Photoshop or any professional image software, this is the best alternative method for a creative head start. To my amazement, my brief experimentation of Sumo Paint tools gave way to some stunning art work. It's an actual tool for creating art, not just an ordinary image editing software.
With much pride, I am posting the designs I have created surprisingly in only 30 minutes (no exaggerations here). I am telling you, you've got to try it to believe it!
Photoshop may be the king of paintbrushes but an online editing tool like this is more than what a novice graphic artist could have. And the best thing about it, it is a FREE online editor. Who says you have to spend a slab amount of money to produce stunning images?
