how high tech is your mum?

Asian moms hooked on Internet for children, selves-study

Reuters - Thursday, May 20

• Send
• IM Story
• Print

SINGAPORE, May 20 - The Internet is a lifeline for Asian mothers, with a survey finding two-thirds use it to shop for themselves and their children and an even bigger number going online to research purchases and talk about them.

The study, by Microsoft Advertising and Starcom MediaVest Group, showed that mothers ultimately hold the purse-strings in the region, influencing purchasing decisions ranging from household staples to big-ticket items such as cars.

And their resource of choice to make these purchases is the Internet, with 58 percent saying they used online networks and online customer reviews before actually buying.

"Mums have become the one-stop shop for family purchases, and brands need to be aware of this influence," Kenneth Andrew, managing director of Microsoft Advertising Greater Asia Pacific, told reporters.

"Mothers are becoming increasingly digitally savvy, and conversely, much more cynical of advertising."

The survey was based on interviews with about 3,000 mothers in eight markets -- China, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea. The respondents ranged from pregnant women to mothers with teenage children.

On average, the survey found that Asian mothers spend 17 hours a week online, and the sites they visited ranged from those offering media, such as music and video download sites, to social networks, to sites specifically catered to children.

But largely, the online activities of mothers depended on the age of their children, with expectant women relying on sites that allow them to interact with other mothers, while those with older children rely on the web for email and searches.

The research was intended to help advertisers focus on a demographic Andrew said had been so far neglected in Asia.

"There is an opportunity for mothers to become an unofficial brand ambassador, as they love to share their views and are very influential," he said.

- from http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100520/tap-asia-mothers-online-c3bb44c.html

how i wish my mum can learn some computer skills, so she can log in to chat with my brother without asking help from me. haha. ^^

facebook

have you wondered when was your last time you log into Friendster?

if i'm able to remember, perhaps it's around 2years?

Barely 2 years ago, Friendster was No.1 in Singapore. The incumbent had an average of 907,000 visitors monthly with users spending almost 2.5 hours on average on the site.

Today, Facebook gets about 160 times more traffic than Friendster. And Friendster? It was bought over for a mere S$140million last year by online payment solutions provider MOL Global, part of a Malaysian conglomerate owned by billionaire businessman Vincent Tan.

Third-party applications:The engineers there could not have thought of every possible game or frivolous poke you’d want to send to a friend, so they let others do it for them. The plan worked so well that developing apps for Facebook moved from hobby to marketing campaigns by companies to get our attention.

Simple to be social: Facebook changed everything. It was not only simple to post something to your news stream, but they made every single action, post, picture, and video easy to forward, like, reply, and comment. Who would have thought there’d be a need to comment on every single photo and even the album?

Discovery: I recall in 2008, almost every friend I had who started using Facebook talked about how they managed to hook up with old school mates they hadn’t seen in ages. But in order for Facebook to help us with this discovery, it required true data. We had to leave our anonymity behind at forums and IRC and entrust social networks with our true identity.

details got from yahoo.com

as Facebook and such is getting better, cases of cyper bullies is also rising. it's much more easier to abuse anyone mentally using the internet nowadays.

SUICIDE

It’s almost as if everyday you could see cases of suicide in the news or newspaper. Suicide rate is seemingly becoming a trend. Recently a temasek polytechnic girl leap to her death due to relationship matters. This is almost similar to a friend i barely know for 3 days. That’s would be the first and last time I know her. Due to relationship problems and having to stress over how to pay her expensive phone bill which sum to $500. That day, she skipped school and bid goodbye to this world by jumping down from the 15^th floor.

Suicidal thoughts are very active and have tremendous emotional power. They push you, urge you, and compel you towards suicide. Conditions that lead to suicide are extreme stress, emotional upset, – especially with no apparent hope of change or improvement.

Hopefully everyone would be able to cherish and show more concerns to their friends. You never know if this would be happening to your close friend or so. Everyone have his or her own secret or things they’re troubled about, just be there for them if they need you.