Being constantly connected online has bad consequences: harming memory, make you stupid

How much is too much?: Studies have found that Internet is harming our memory, especially short-term or working memory

How Smart Phones Make You Stupid - Consumer Association of Penang (CAP)

Being constantly connected to the digital world has its consequences - setting the rules with social media

In order to have a more harmonious marriage, H and I have decided that we need some rules.

Recently, we came up with Rule No. 1: You can only repeat something once.

It’s been really helpful in keeping the nagging level of our marriage down. In the past, we would nag at each other quite a bit.

It has worked so well, we thought we should introduce more rules.

A few weeks back, he suggested Rule No. 2: No Googling and checking of e-mail at the dining table and just before we sleep.

I baulked.

What a ridiculous rule, I said. It’ll be impossible for me to agree to it and it’s not fair because it’s targeted at me.

How can I not be checking my e-mail all the time, I continued. I am a journalist. I must know what’s happening and I must be contactable 24/7. What if a story breaks? I need to know at once. I was, of course, exaggerating my own importance.

The world and the newsroom chug along just fine whether or not I am online. My bosses don’t expect me to be constantly connected (I think).

I was using work as an excuse. An excuse for an affliction I am finally coming around to acknowledging, but which H has noticed for some time: I have an addiction.

I have an addiction to Googling, to my smartphone, to my iPad, to being connected to the digital world.

My phone follows me everywhere I go. I sleep with it inches away from my pillow and my nights (as well as his) are punctuated with beeps, blips and pings from the many message notifications streaming in.

I check my phone goodness knows how many times a day, to look at my e-mail, WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Vine, Instagram and a few other apps.

When I’m at the cinema, I’m one of those irritating people whose phone screen lights up during a movie because I’m checking it.

I literally break out in a cold sweat when I misplace my phone.

At home, I walk around not only with my phone, but also my tablet.

I am addicted to Googling on my iPad. I can spend an entire day in bed just Googling (oh, bliss). Sometimes, when the Wi-Fi speed is acting up, I Google on both my phone and tablet at the same time, just in case one gets to the information I want quicker.

“You’re addicted,” H says.

“I’m not,” I say. “It’s my job. I am not addicted. I know when to stop.”

To prove my point, I went onto Google (of course) to try out some are-you-an-Internet-addict tests.

The most helpful article I came across was in Yahoo by Dr James Roberts, a professor of marketing at Baylor University in Texas in the United States.

He explained that anything that can produce pleasure in our brain has the potential of becoming addictive and what makes something an addiction is when we lose control.

Research, he said, has identified “six signs” of any type of substance or behavioural addiction.

These signs relate to issues connected to salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse. I have a problem. But the situation isn’t that dire, I’d like to think.

Still, I shouldn’t be complacent. It can’t be pleasant living with someone who doesn’t give you her full attention because her nose is always stuck in a screen. It is also rude.

At work, I have got into the bad habit of not looking at colleagues I’m talking to because I’m also typing away on my phone or computer.

At meetings when I’m just the slightest bit bored, I find it hard to resist reaching for my phone and checking my e-mail, which is impolite to the person who’s speaking.

My attachment to my devices can be dangerous – I walk and text a lot. The intense and constant staring at screens is causing eye strain.

Studies have also found that the Internet is harming our memory, especially short-term or working memory.

Information overload and distractions – hallmarks of Internet surfing – make it harder to retain information in our brains.

When we know a digital device holds information for us, we are also less likely to remember it ourselves. It has been years since I memorised anyone’s telephone number. I’m not even sure I can do it now.

Having so much information at my fingertips has made my brain lazy and mushy.Google makes you feel clever when you really aren’t.

Also, while social media like Facebook have been praised for bringing people closer, they can in fact isolate us when we use them in place of face-to-face interactions.

As for H and me, I think I should agree to some version of Rule No. 2 if I want a happier marriage.

Totally no Googling and checking of e-mail at the dining table and just before we sleep might not be doable.

But I can live with “less” Googling and checking of e-mail. One step at a time

By Sumiko Tan The Straits Times/Asia News Network

The game-changing trends: social media, cloud, big data in information technology

Information technology players believe Malaysia is beginning to tap into the potential of the Internet of things.

KUALA LUMPUR: Social media, the cloud and big data will be the game-changing trends that will transform Malaysia’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry and spur further growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) next year, says industry players.

National ICT Association of Malaysia (Pikom) chairman Cheah Kok Hoong said Malaysia had started to tap into the rapidly growing potential of IoT, which could be a new economy by itself covering business areas such as embedded device manufacturing, connectivity infrastructure and application deployments.

He said the trend would provide a new opportunity to position the country as the hub for regional IoT innovation projects in South-East Asia.

However, companies would be increasingly challenged by new factors on the back of business agility that came with mobility, security, analytics, and miniaturisation of devices and millennial generation aspirations, he told Bernama.

“Adoption of cloud solutions will also move from conceptual to the practical stage.

“As predicted by International Data Corp’s global market intelligence, Malaysia’s big data market is anticipated to hit not less than RM75mil but many businesses have yet to consider big data as a big business for their organisation and it thus remains at a tactical level,” he added.

IT spending registered significant growth as reflected in the growth of value-added services, which are expected to grow about 13.6% in 2014 to RM68bil from RM59.8bil in 2013.

Cheah said the overall ICT services sector was also projected to grow at 12.7% in 2015 to RM77.7bil.

Meanwhile, CA Technologies South Asia vice-president Chua I. Pin said the country was entering an era where IT had become the central source of revenue for businesses.

He said 2015 would see a shift in the way businesses structured themselves, looking for new engagement and revenue opportunities using connected devices, big data and analytics, and underpinning these new models would be a fundamental shift in the way software is developed and deployed.

“Software will continue to become the primary way that consumers interact with businesses, which would evolve dramatically in 2015 as businesses become more competitive to reach out to their clients, and we will see apps shifting from simply helping people make decisions to being able to predict what people need,” he said.

Cheah added that with the need for more sophistication in the ICT industry, human capital remained the main challenge in the industry towards achieving high-income nation status.

There is a persistent and widening gap of remuneration packages for ICT professionals between Malaysia and neighbouring countries such as Vietnam and Thailand, coupled with the declining number of ICT graduates, he said.

He said although the new trends such as big data and social media had created many new job functions in high demand, the nation still faced a lack of skilled talent in the market. — Bernama

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Don’t be ‘that’ person on social media: tips and best practices

BE MORE COURTEOUS: Following someone on social media is a lot like dating, therefore one should follow certain rules of etiquette. — AFP

For me, following someone on social media is a lot like dating. I like to learn a little about them first before going all the way.

When I follow someone, it’s because I liked what they were sharing or appreciated what they had to say.
 
But not everyone is follow material. Some people are boring, annoying and predictable. And some make mistakes that leave us scratching our heads in sheer bewilderment.

So here are a few tips and best practices to not only get you more followers, but to get you noticed instead of blocked.

• May I have your attention? Please!   

Instead of telling me what you’re doing, tell me what has your attention. Way back when Twitter had that new car smell, it got a bad rap because everyone was posting that they were eating. Or thinking about eating. I don’t care about that, but I might care if you have photos of an amazing gourmet meal. In other words, what has your attention vs. the obvious.

As Doc Brown said in the Back to the Future movies, “Marty! You’re not thinking fourth-dimensionally!” Thinking fourth-dimensionally makes social media fun.

• Not everyone cares about your schedule: Scheduling tweets or Facebook posts isn’t the worst thing you can do, but scheduling something at an inopportune time is.

There are countless examples of brands and people that had tweets set up during tragedies such as the Sandy Hook school shooting and the Boston Marathon bombings. I had an e-mail exchange with someone after Boston who defended it with, “Oh, I had that set up loooooooong before it happened.” Well, you know what? That’s not a valid excuse. You are responsible for every message you send, whether it’s automated or not. Also, scheduling tweets that far in advance can be a recipe for trouble. Be aware of what’s going on around you at all times, and make sure the message you are sending is the right one.

• Let me be direct — or not: One of the things that annoys me most on Twitter is the automatic direct message.

You know, when you follow an account and you get a tweet immediately that goes something like this: “You are awesome. Let’s be awesome together. Tell me the things that make you happy.” Besides the fact that no one talks like this and I have little interest in talking about what makes me happy with someone I just met, the automatic direct message is lazy and it’s not social.

The real-life equivalent is screening a call and letting it go to voicemail. One is more convenient, but the other is appreciated. This is social media, folks. Show me the real you, not some watered-down version. Be social.

Keeping these three things in mind when you share on social media can be the difference between being just another follow and a superstar

By SCOTT KLEINBERG . — McClatchy-Tribune Information Services 

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Facebook paparazzi

People should exercise a little consideration and common sense when uploading photos of others. 

I RECENTLY saw some extremely unflattering photos of a friend on Facebook.

One photo shows her at a party with a drink in one hand and a cocktail sausage on a stick in the other. Her mouth is half open as she guides the sausage towards it, and her eyes have a wild, glazed look about them. The caption reads, “Come to Mama!” In another photo, she’s drinking her wine with one eye closed and the other rolling upwards, as she hovers around the half empty platter of sausages. In yet another photo, she’s sitting on a sofa with her blouse unflatteringly bunched up over her stomach, giving the impression that she’s just about to give birth – possibly to a giant sausage.

If you didn’t know this woman, you’d probably mistake her for a humongous wine-glugging sausage scoffer.

Damage

In reality, she’s a moderate drinker of average weight who only ate one sausage that night. But the damage has already been done. The Facebook friends of the woman who posted the photos, many of whom probably don’t know my friend all that well, will have already formed an opinion of my friend just by looking at those photos.

Like who cares what strangers might think about us? Some of you might be saying just about now. And you do have a point, to a certain extent. But what if you’re going for a job interview and the person responsible for hiring you doesn’t know you but remembers seeing you in a Facebook photo stuffing your face and looking as if you like to lubricate yourself way too much? And what if the job you’re after entails operating heavy, dangerous machinery; or dispensing potent medication; or anything to do with air traffic control? Jobs that require a clear head at all times.

All I can say is that you’re screwed. You might as well burn your interview clothes, delete the carefully worded résumé and drown your sorrows in a bottle of chardonnay.

In the same way that celebrities are wary of the paparazzi, who take great pleasure in snapping them falling out of bars and nightclubs in the wee hours of the morning in a dishevelled state, or going to the grocery store for a loaf of bread without any make-up, regular, everyday people now need to be extra careful when someone whips out a camera or an iPhone at a social function.

I have nothing against my photo being taken and subsequently being posted on Facebook, but I wish that people would exercise some consideration and common sense when uploading photos of others.

We all know Facebook is full of narcissistic, egocentric, self-absorbed photographers. We see evidence of their activities in newsfeeds every day. For example, I’ve seen photos of a certain young woman (who shall remain nameless) buying a pair of shoes, photos of her feet in the new shoes, photos of her wearing a dress with her new shoes, photos of her dancing at a party with her new shoes, and photos of her delicately eating sausages and consuming alcohol with her new shoes.

What she doesn’t show you are the photos of her wincing in her bunion-forming shoes after two minutes dancing, photos of her in her new shoes throwing up in the toilet bowl, and photos of her with just one new shoe on, passed out on her bedroom floor …

Such people are usually very careful when it comes to selecting photos that show them in a good light, but when it comes to others, they don’t always accord them the same respect.

Offending photo

Whenever I want to upload a photo that includes other people onto Facebook, I ask myself if those people would be happy seeing themselves as they are depicted. And if the answer is no, I simply delete it. I know it’s easy to remove your tag from a Facebook photo, but the photo still remains online for all to see.

Of course, you could write to your Facebook friend and ask him or her to remove an offending photo. But that would make you sound a bit like a narcissistic, egocentric, self-absorbed twat. And makes you a possible future target for such photographers, who might claim that they’re only having a bit of harmless fun. And besides, where’s your sense of humour?

It would be enough to make you choke on your sausage.

BUT THEN AGAIN
By MARY SCHNEIDER

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Facebook profit plunges 79%, revenues gain 40%

San Francisco — Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) reported a plunge in fourth-quarter profit on higher spending Wednesday, even while it made long-awaited progress luring advertisers eager to reach mobile- device users.

Net income fell 79 percent to $64 million last quarter as operating expenses jumped 82 percent, Facebook said. That outpaced a 40 percent revenue gain to $1.59 billion and raised concerns that margins will come under pressure.

The stock fell 2.8 percent in German trading, paring a drop of as much as 11 percent in late U.S. trading as investors weighed near-term lower profit against the prospect of future growth.

Still, the company delivered fourth-quarter results above Wall Street's expectations and sought to show that it has finally transformed into a "mobile company" after rising to dominance as a Web-based social network.

"Everything was slightly better than expected," said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. "I don't see anything here that would make me want to sell the stock."

The world's largest social media company earned $64 million, or 3 cents per share, in the October-December period. That's down 79 percent from $302 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier when it was still a privately held company.

Revenue rose 40 percent to $1.59 billion from $1.13 billion, surpassing analysts' expectations of $1.51 billion.

Advertising revenue grew 41 percent to $1.33 billion, increasing at a faster clip than in the third quarter, when it climbed 36 percent to $1.09 billion.

Excluding special items, mainly related to stock compensation expenses, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook earned 17 cents per share in the latest quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected lower adjusted earnings of 15 cents per share.

Nonetheless, Facebook's stock fell $1.11, or 3.6 percent, to $30.13 in after-hours trading following the earnings report.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to increase expenses, excluding certain costs, 50 percent this year to hire staff and roll out new tools for advertisers. That’s more than the 33 percent increase projected by Pacific Crest Securities LLC, and it underscores the urgency of capturing a bigger slice of the $6.97 billion U.S. mobile-ad market. Done right, the added investment will translate to profit growth, said Adam Schneiberg, a portfolio manager at BTR Capital Management.

“Wall Street tends to be forgiving of higher spending during high-growth periods when new products are being built,” Schneiberg said. “As long as eyeballs tune in and revenue keeps growing, the Street will believe that at some point the company can flip the switch on profitability.”

Facebook shares had advanced 1.5 percent to $31.24 at the close in New York just ahead of the earnings announcement, leaving them up 76 percent from a record low close on Sept. 4.

Mobile-Ad Push

Facebook’s increased investment is designed to help the company grapple with rising competition from larger rivals in the U.S. market for mobile advertising, predicted by EMarketer Inc. to surge 82 percent this year. Google Inc. is projected to grab 57 percent of that market, and Facebook will remain a distant No. 2 with 12 percent, EMarketer estimates.

“More mobile revenue means way more spending on the operations of selling ads,” said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group LLC, who has a hold rating on the stock. “This is an expensive company to run.”

Mobile contributed 23 percent of total advertising revenue, or about $306 million, according to Facebook. That compares with 14 percent in the third quarter. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. predicted mobile would contribute $384.2 million, or 27 percent of ad revenue, in the latest quarter.

Facebook’s engineers are making improvements to mobile applications, including those for Google’s Android software, Zuckerberg said on a conference call. Better mobile services can boost user engagement, he said.

‘Big Transition’

“We made this big transition, where now there are more people using Facebook on mobile every day than on desktop,” Zuckerberg said. “More people are starting to understand that mobile is a great opportunity for us.”

Facebook is investing in new products to attract users and keep them on the site longer. Earlier this month, the company announced a revamp of its search service that lets members find information on people, places, photos and interests. The company also has upgraded its mobile applications with new versions for phones running Google’s Android software and Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

“We’re investing heavily because we see big opportunities ahead for the company,” David Ebersman, Facebook’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “So, we’re trying to invest to build the most valuable company we can for the long term and to really invest in areas that can drive engagement.”

Narrower Margin

Zuckerberg also said that he expects to hire aggressively, causing expenses to grow at a faster rate than sales in 2013. The company had 4,619 employees at the end of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Facebook’s fourth-quarter operating margin declined to 33 percent from 48 percent a year earlier, while costs rose to $1.06 billion from $583 million.

Facebook reached 1.06 billion users during the fourth quarter, up from 1.01 billion in the third quarter. The number of mobile users was 680 million, up from 604 million in the third quarter.

Analysts had been pushing up ratings amid growing optimism for accelerated revenue growth. The proportion of analysts covering Facebook with a buy rating has risen to 65 percent from 52 percent on Oct. 23, when Facebook posted third-quarter sales that beat estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“A lot of these products are pretty new,” said Scott Kessler, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ, who rates the stock a hold. “It’s just going to take some time.”

- The AP and Bloomberg

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< Chan: Whenever we attend an event, there is live tweeting, live blogging, Facebook updates and we ask questions that our readers pose to us.

 

DO YOU remember Doogie Howser, MD, an American television comedy-drama starring Neil Patrick Harris as a teenage doctor?

If you were a child in the 1980s, you could not have missed it. Howser kept a diary on his computer and the episodes ended with him making an entry in the diary. That was possibly our first introduction to what is now known as web log or blog.

According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary a blog is a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.

Blogs have become tremendously popular among Malaysians as they look for an alternative source of information to supplement what is being reported in mainstream media.

By the end of last year, marketing research company NM Incite tracked over 181 million blogs around the world, up from 36 million only five years earlier in 2006.

So how big is blogging? NM Incite says three out of the top 10 social networking sites in the United States — Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr — are for consumer-generated blogs.

Blogger is the largest of these sites with more than 46 million unique US visitors during October 2011, making it second only to Facebook in the social networking category, and Tumblr was the fastest-growing social networking or blog site on the top 10, more than doubling its audience since last year from home and work computers to 14 million unique visitors.

Overall, these three blogging websites combined for 80 million unique visitors, reaching more than one in every four active online users in the US during October 2011.

And who are these bloggers and what else do they do online? A study by NM Incite indicates that women make up the majority of bloggers, and half of bloggers are aged 18 to 34.

Most bloggers are well-educated: seven out of 10 bloggers have gone to college, a majority of whom are graduates and about one in three bloggers are mothers, and 52% are parents with children under 18 in their household.

Yang: Blogging with passion will eventually allow you to do it full time.

Besides this, bloggers are active across social media: they’re twice as likely to post/comment on consumer-generated video sites like YouTube, and nearly three times more likely to post in message boards/forums within a month.

According to Nuffnang, Asia-Pacific’s first blog advertising community, bloggers generate income through ads placed on blogs by various brands, and become part of a close-knit community through a vast range of exclusive events and contests.

“In Malaysia, blogging started growing exponentially in 2007 when Malaysians started seeing its commercial viability,” said Nuffnang co-founder Timothy Tiah.

Nuffnang has approximately 250,000 bloggers on its books and Tiah revealed that almost 50% of them are active.

“In the US, some bloggers have successfully evolved into full-fledged media companies that employ full-time writers and editors,” said Tiah who believes blogs and traditional media can co-exist.

“Clients do not view blogs as an alternative to traditional media. We are benchmarked against Twitter and Facebook.

For example, having an editorial piece in the New York Times supersedes one by an online publication,” Tiah explained.

Local blogging heroes such as Paul Tan and Vernon Chan, and Singaporean Dawn Yang agree that blogging with passion will eventually enable one to do it full time.

Chan said his site (vernonchan.com) was born out of the love for technology.

“I enjoyed writing but in 2009, I decided to take it more seriously and focused my writing on gadgets and tech-related news,” said the former graphic designer.

“The blog now operates as a tech website with four writers on board.

“The tech scene is fragmented with plenty of players, but it’s healthy competition.

“I look up to sites like amanz.my and soyacincau.com as they were pioneers in this field,” he added.

Chan said that to remain competitive, a blogger needs to focus on speed, frequency and being current.

“Whenever we attend an event, there’s live tweeting, live blogging, Facebook updates and we ask questions that our readers pose to us,” said Chan.

He walks around with a tablet, two smartphones, a laptop, a DSLR camera and is always connected with his readers thanks to U Mobile broadband.

Tan echoed Chan comments and added that an honest blogger serves the reader and not the advertiser.

“We have gotten ourselves in trouble with a particular company a few times as they were not happy with some of the comments from the readers that were published on the website.

“They stopped inviting us for test drives and events for a while, but we serve our readers, and readership is currency, ” said Tan, the founder of paultan.org, a leading motoring website in Malaysia.

Tan also debunked the myth that people will read any content as long as its free online.

“Online readers are looking for something fast so it is important to be quick.

“We do live updates and we have trained our readership,” said Tan, whose company now owns popular Malay blog site, Ohbulan.com among others.

Tan did not mince his words when asked to comment about bloggers who only write advertorials.

“There are bloggers who only attend events if they are paid and will only write a blog posting if there’s a monetary exchange,” he said.

Across the causeway, controversial fashion and lifestyle blogger Dawn Yang (clapbangkiss.xanga.com/) was in Kuala Lumpur recently to attend an event and the 27-year-old told MetroBiz that she started blogging to keep in touch with her friends.

“It started by accident but in 2005, I won an online competition as Singapore’s hottest blogger. That opened many doors for me,” said Yang who was sent to Taiwan for a year to be an artist.

She also secured several endorsement deals from international brands to promote their brands on various platforms.

“Blogging has evolved over the years with Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We can’t just operate on one platform,” said Yang.

Blogging in Malaysia is seen as an easy way to make a quick buck, but to quote blogging guru Alister Cameron: “As I have repeatedly written in one form or other, blogging is not about writing posts. Heck, that’s the least of your challenges. No, blogging is about cultivating beneficial relationships with an ever-growing online readership, and that’s hard work.”

By Nevash Nair

Pretty woman picture all it takes for Netizens to reveal all; ‘Lovers’ make Net profit

PETALING JAYA: A profile with a picture of an attractive woman is all it takes to get some Netizens to reveal personal details.

The Star, in wanting to see how easy it is to be “friends” on Facebook, showed that some Netizens were more than willing to give information like their handphone number, car registration number and house address when messaging someone that they think is single and an attractive stranger.

It was also to create awareness, as advised by the police, that people should be cautious about speaking to strangers online and should refrain from giving any personal information.

A dummy profile was set up, with a blank profile page but with a photo of a young woman.

Within the first two hours, 11 users sent a friend request.

“I've to say girl, you look beautiful!” a 20-year-old user wrote in to the dummy profile's inbox.

The person, who claimed to be a student, said he was looking for friendship and spoke at length about his ambitions, likes and dislikes during the one-hour conversation.

He willingly gave information, such as his handphone number and his address, without much hesitation.
“I'm going but maybe we can chat again tonight?” he said before ending the conversation.

Another Netizen, who identified himself as Asrul, told the dummy profile that he was a 27-year-old married man from Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi.

“Would you like to meet at a club later tonight? I can pick you up,” said the man, who also offered to pay for dinner and drinks.

When asked about his spouse, the man said his wife wouldn't find out and made a date.

He gave his handphone number and his car's registration number.

It was reported that over three people fall victim to online scams daily and that as many as 613 victims have collectively lost RM25.89mil to syndicates between January and September this year.

Federal Cyber Security and Multimedia Investigation Division director Asst Comm Mohd Kamaruddin said syndicates posing as singles online were able to persuade some Malaysians into giving compromising photos, details and even large sums of money with the promise of companionship.

He said syndicates would target and flirt with lonely individuals over several months before conning them.

“We are not saying that it is wrong to find your lover online, but people should be wary of who they fall in love with on the Net,” said Mohd Kamaruddin.

The police recently uploaded a Universiti Malaya study on the persuasive languages used by scam-mers to cheat victims online, on their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/PolisDirajaMalaysia.

‘Lovers’ make Net profit

KUALA LUMPUR: Every day, three Malaysians fall prey to Internet love scams syndicates and the police fear the number of cases that go unreported could be three times higher.

Federal Cyber Security and Multimedia Investigation Division director Asst Comm Mohd Kamaruddin Din said 613 victims 375 women and 238 men lost RM25.89mil to the syndicates between January and September this year.

“Last year, we recorded 876 cases amounting to losses of RM34.17mil,” he said.

He said the syndicates used several modus operandi to con their victims into falling in love and parting with huge sums of cash.

Full story in your copy of The Star  Nov 4, 2012

By AUSTIN CAMOENS and EILEEN NG

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FB postings became street fight!

KUALA LUMPUR: Two teenagers, who had traded insults over each other's looks in their Facebook postings, decided to settle the score in the open with a catfight that eventually became a street brawl which also involved their family members and friends.

In typical catfight style, there was a lot of scratching, slapping, hair-pulling, shirt-shredding, punches and kicks which left the two girls and their supporters with a lot of bruises and lost pride.

It is learnt that some of them suffered minor injuries in the incident that happened at around midnight in Kepong on Monday.

It is understood the two 18-year-old girls, both from Sentul, had started their Facebook war on Sunday after commenting about each other's photo.

A flurry of derogatory remarks and name-calling followed, leading to both agreeing to fight it out in Kepong.

One of them brought along her husband and brother while the other came with her boyfriend and four male friends.

A heated quarrel followed, which led to each side using physical force on the other.

The girl who came with her husband and brother alleged that a member of the opposing side pulled out a parang and threatened to slash all three of them.

Both sides later lodged police reports but no arrests have been made so far, said city CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ku Chin Wah.

“The incident is being investigated under the Penal Code for criminal intimidation, voluntarily causing hurt and causing mischief,” he said yesterday.

By STEVEN DANIEL The Star./Asia News Network

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Ten Point Plan For Social Entrepreneurs to Change the World

Devin Thorpe, Forbes Contributor

Using social entrepreneurship or impact investing to leave your mark.

Here it is:

1.  Save every penny.  Social entrepreneurs as a general rule can make a bigger difference with less money than entrepreneurs without a social mission.  Scrimp, save and devote your own resources to your cause.  Whether your venture is for profit or not, start with putting your own money to work with you.
2. Keep your day job.  One of the key lessons I learned while writing Your Mark On The World was how much impact one person can have if the money she raises for her venture doesn’t have to go to paying her living expenses.  Steven Dee Wrigley, about whom I posted a few weeks ago, is a great example.  He’s a social entrepreneur who works nights to fund his day-time charitable work.  You won’t keep that job forever, but keep your job as long as possible; let your current employer help fund your new gig.
3. It won’t be easy.  If you are going to change the world, it won’t be easy.  Get that notion out of your head right now.  The idea may be simple, but that is only likely if the problem is huge and others have deemed it impossible.  For instance, it makes no logical sense that 1 billion people in the world are hungry when there is ample food available.  Solving that problem is proving not to be as easy as it would seem.  I’m confident that you won’t quit just because changing the world is hard.
4. Start Something That Matters.  Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms, the shoe company that gives away a pair of shoes for every pair someone buys, wrote an inspiring book that gets at the heart of social entrepreneurship.  His book’s title is the message:  Start Something That Matters.  It may be harder to find something that matters and much harder to figure out how to pull it off, but if it doesn’t matter, it isn’t worth your time.
   
   Blake Mycoskie at SXSW 2011 (Photo credit: eschipul)
5. Focus on social issues.  There is money to be made, if that’s what you’d like to do, even when tackling big social problems.  The Tom’s model of social entrepreneurship has created a movement around the concept of “one for one.”  Countless businesses now offer products and services for sale on that basis.  Worldhaus is a for-profit venture that is creating homes for the market  of a billion or so people who don’t have a safe place to live but who can afford a $2,000 or $3,000 home.
6. Make it great.  All the marketing hype in the world can’t make something that doesn’t matter, that isn’t great or that doesn’t change the world into something that lasts.  Your impact will be tied to your ability to create something that grows beyond you, that exceeds your involvement and creates change.  Focus on your product or service.  You can only hope to change the world by bringing a zealot’s passion to your deliverable.  Anything short of that is likely to leave your audience underwhelmed.
7. Build a team.  If you can’t assemble a team of followers who will throw their lot on with you—not people you’re paying (at least not well) but people who are investing their time and energy along with you, you’ve either failed to create a compelling idea or you’re not a compelling leader.  A great team is early evidence of a great product or service and a great leader.
8. Use crowdfunding.  After you’ve exhausted your own ability to fund your venture, use crowdfunding to raise the money you need for your projects.  With each effort at crowdfunding, you can build an audience of followers and fans who will support each new project.  Don’t think of crowdfunding as something you do once and then forget it.  You can find a list of crowdfunding resources here (be sure to see the comments for more ideas).  In 2013 you will even be allowed to raise equity for your for-profit ventures using crowdfunding.
9. Have an impact.  With a team, a passion, and a product greased with funding, you are ready to actually have an impact, to make a difference.  Focus on action that leads to results. The more you actually achieve with your resources, the more likely they are to compound.  Whether you have a high impact, for-profit social venture or a nonprofit , focus on the difference you make.  By measure and reporting on your impact, new customers and supporters will come out of the woodwork to make your social enterprise grow.
10. Change the world.  Once you demonstrate your impact, you can grow your enterprise to have world-changing scale.  You won’t measure your results in profits, even if you make them.  That’s not what you’re about.  You’ll measure your impact in the ways you’ve made the world a better place.  Changing the world is its own reward.  Making a living at it is a bonus.

This ten point plan won’t appeal to as many people as the last one.  I recognize that some people were disappointed to read my last list when they recognized that it was meant to be funny and was not meant to be real advice.  (I just hope no one bought an Italian sports car before they figured out I’d meant that as a joke!)  If you’re still reading, I’m hopeful that you’ll join the community of people focused on leaving a mark on the world.

One final note: I don’t ever remember a time either in my life or in history when the world’s wealthiest were more committed to philanthropy and solving social problems than they are now.  The Forbes 400 Issue this year was devoted to the social good the Forbes 400 are doing.  More power to them.

My Ten Point Plan to Get Rich Quick as an Entrepreneur Devin Thorpe Contributor

10 Reasons To Stay At A Job For 10 Or More Years David K. Williams Contributor

It's A Dirty Business: The Green Entrepreneurs Who Create Treasure (And Profit) From Trash Cheryl Conner Contributor

The Real Reason The World Will Remember Bill Gates (Hint: It's not Windows 8) Devin Thorpe Contributor

I’m launching into more research about crowdfunding to write a book about best practices for social entrepreneurs.  If you have a connection to crowdfunding, please click here to share your wisdom.  I’m sure my research will also lead to more posts on that topic here on Forbes.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below, at my site, yourmarkontheworld.com, on Facebook, or @devindthorpe.

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Fluttering around for company

Social relationships may glitter like diamonds, but not all will last forever. And we need to accept that relationships that promise high benefits will also carry high costs.

IN our brief lives, we always look out for good company. Like butterflies, we constantly flutter in the air, gazing at flowers, and sometimes landing on a petal which gives us a good feeling like we’ve never had before.

Although rarely do we linger for long, deep inside we all secretly hope to find that perfect petal to rest upon forever till the end of our brief lives.

Sometimes, people want much more than a social contract.

They yearn for a closer social relationship, with greater social commitments.

They are willing to invest all their efforts and emotions on a single relationship.

It can revolve around family, friendship, work or even a political, religious or social organisation. Wel- come to the Social Company.

Finding the right petal is very much like starting the right business company. A company is formed by business people of similar business interests.

They become shareholders and partners, and they have rights and responsibilities against each other. Whilst a contract is used for a one-off transaction, a company is used to get down to serious business for the long haul.

When a company is riding the high tide of success, its members have every reason to grow in confidence of greater things to come.

Why fear for the future? When the party is rocking, everybody’s singing and dancing, and nobody cares too much about who’s cleaning up the pool and picking up the broken shards later on.

But sometimes it’s good to turn on the lights, and check that everything’s alright. When the party’s over, and it will be over, there’s a heavy hangover waiting the morning after.

Likewise, when a company collapses, and no company is too big to fail, its shareholders, creditors and employees are bound to suffer heavy losses. Think of Enron, Lehman Brothers and Kodak.

That’s the difference between a mere social contract, and a social company. In a breach of contract, only the parties involved will be busy squabbling with each other.

However, in a breakdown of a company, there’s collateral damage to various third parties.

Thus, as much as it’s important and cool to live the moment, it’s also important (though less cool) to occasionally stop to think, have a sobering reality check, and account for what’s been said and done.

Under the law, it is mandatory for a company to perform annual audits on their financial affairs.

Likewise, people should constantly review their deep social relationships, to make sure that their company doesn’t turn from good to bad.

A simple example of a social company is marriage. It’s about two people exchanging vows to stick together through good times and bad times.

Sadly, nowadays, many people fail to follow through such vows. Divorces may be hard on the innocent spouse, but it’s definitely devastating to the innocent children.

They are robbed from enjoying a normal childhood filled with love and affection, and sometimes, deprived from sufficient maintenance and educational support.

So before entering into a marriage, think hard about the serious commitments that come with it, and the catastrophic consequences that follow if the marriage falls apart.

Think about your future children. Think about your relatives who will be forced to take sides, and spilt into irreconcilable clans.

Problems may also arise during the courtship stage, prior to marriage. Many of us are guilty of being consumed by love, or at least what we perceive as love.

After all, two’s a company, three’s a crowd. It’s easy to manage a company of two, whilst letting the rest of our family and friends fall by the wayside.

We ignore their calls and advice. We tell them to mind their own business and get the hell out of our lives.
But the easy thing to do is not always the best. Someday, you will long for their company.

Being married to our career can also be taxing on our social lives.

We burn all our days and nights for the sake of levelling up our corporate status.

We console ourselves that it’s only momentarily, until comes harvest time when we can reap the fruits of our labour.

But there is truly no end to the cycle. By the time we eventually find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, chances are we are too old, too weak and too late to share our riches with our loved ones.

These are mere examples of the larger problem, which is putting one’s entire mind, heart and soul into a single social company.

The key is to be aware that every deep social relationship takes a toll on our other relationships.

Social relationships may glitter like diamonds, but not all will last forever.

And we need to accept that relationships that promise high benefits will also carry high costs.

Hence, we need to think deeply before we leap into any social company. If we cannot bear the high cost, then don’t.

But if we do, we need to be bold enough to back out from a social company once the cost spirals beyond what we can bear.

In our brief lives, someday our wings will turn brittle and our favourite flowers will wilt away.

Until that day comes, we should cherish the freedom of the skies.

Sometimes, we may flutter too closely to a pretty petal in a thicket of thorns, and get our wings clipped.

But even then, we should never fear to flutter away. For there will always be a bed of flowers below to catch our fall.

Putik Lada By Raphael Kok
> The writer is a young lawyer. Putik Lada, or pepper buds in Malay, captures the spirit and intention of this column – a platform for young lawyers to articulate their views and aspirations about the law, justice and a civil society. For more information about the young lawyers, visit www.malaysianbar.org.my