Dilemmas of existentialism online and offline

If I communicate, I exist; If I communicate, I don't have time to exist...

Slide to stop alarm.  Tap to snooze. 12 notifications, missed call, 3 SMS. 6:00 am. Then I wake up. 

Next, I get Facetime call from my mom. Then Skype reminds me that it is my cousin’s birthday.

Then there is an annoying notification circle indicating the number of missed friend's activity on social media while I was sleeping on Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, Vk, Viber, Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn. And I have to check them all I really feel like I have to. Because if I don’t I will feel like I'm ignoring part of my social life. Or at least those red circles look really annoying to me. Next hour I spend reading all news on various newsfeeds, because it won’t be possible to catch up later. Ant then I can't show up in public space without knowing the latest news. It's D.C. 

I try to be productive, I really do. I manage to avoid my IPhone for several hours during classes or work. Still, I compensate those hours later. Someone calls it procrastination. I call it   

Basically, taking out small details of life, the day looks like this:

Yeah, does not look very entertaining.  Being human being involves little bit more than this. But what? Why the life now imprisoned in social media? What is social media?

LIFE DILEMMA: 

Checking social networks and media hundreds times a day or one time but for hours actually occupy a huge portion of time in day. Not only time is dedicated to social media, but also attention.

I used to block social networks when studying, but now, I simply cannot afford it. Multiple group projects I'm involved communicate via Facebook messenger, my classes do logistics in Facebook groups, my boss sends me works on Facebook. I tweet for my class; I look for job on LinkedIn. Moreover, when Facebook is blocked, I cannot login in hundreds of websites since I signed up with my Facebook account.

I have a Zero policy for myself  - the inbox and notifications should be as close as possible to zero before I go to bed. It helps me not to forget important communication and also sort crap from actual content. Still, give me 25^th hour to finish up social media responses.

SOCIAL MEDIA DILEMMA:

Checking social networks and media hundreds times a day or one time but for hours supposed to bring some results or products, but what are they? So what is Facebook now? What will be its purpose in a year, 2, 5, 10. Mindlessly scrolling through posts clicking through bizarre photo albums of cute or sarcastically smart images and  skimming updates from people in whose lives I barely interested and wondering why and how I end up reading these posts and liked them. Is it prodictive?

YES! I strongly believe and want to believe that social media have benefits. First of all, it is a learning process. With every page you get some of your brain memory occupied by new information. Second, it is social. I think that I’d never bother myself to remember half of my friends if not social media. Third, it accumulates social capital (academically saying it is expected benefits derived from contributing to the community). In social media in very primitive way it means when you comment and like posts of people, they will eventually help you with something or pay you back. Isn’t it great?

Enjoy your life and social media!

Fb.com vs Vk.com Battle of rights of copy

Disclaimer: During the process of creating this post none of illegal actions were committed. All scenes and stories are staged and are not based on true stories J

VKONTAKTE – THE RUSSIAN FACEBOOK
The website Vk.com, widely known as vkontakte.com (Russian for in-touch) is identical to Facebook in every way except one: no regard for copyright laws.

On Vkontakte you can find all kinds of pirated media and be shared for free with 110 million users.  Music? Check! New Movies? Got them! And everything is FREE!

With more than 110 million registered users, Vkontakte is the third most visited website in Russia and is used by more than half of Russia's online population, by far beating Facebook and other social media on the Russian market.

Basically it is Facebook for music and video with entire Facebook service as well. My own experience – vk.com is actually more user friendly than Facebook. But if you want higher level of officiality, timeliness, thrust, quality and decency (well, o vk.com anything can happen), then Facebook is your land. 

SONGS AND MUSIC
With millions of users uploading their favorite music and videos, today Vk.com is the huge, gigantic, enormous database. Long story short, I will go to vk.com to see new release or find music that I heard on radio or on school dances. Vkontakte has become a place where people can easily find and listen to just about any song ever recorded. There is sequel to the story: although the site itself doesn't have an option to download files, there are several apps and extensions for browsers that can magically transport this music to your device. Magic! Some lazy users just listen from vk.com as online player. The same storyline goes with movies. But since they are larger, vk.com became an online cinema as well.

COPYRIGHT AND PIRATES
I don’t remember what I agreed to when signed up for vk.com. (Honestly, I don’t think I read the conditions anyway).  But till the point of writing this post I was not very concerned about them. I never uploaded any content that is not created by me. But I did shared and downloaded to my playlists. Am I bad guy now? How I was supposed to know that those songs belonged to someone else, if they are on public website. I don’t have time to check every single song. I refuse to wear pirate hat (well, maybe a parrot on the shoulder would be cool). My defense is that it is within the website and for my personal use, I am not distributing these anyway further. In addition, most of songs I found in vk.com are those that I cannot buy or even find while on American soil.  Social media is for social not for media. Probably. However it impossible to throw away an ice cream that you licked already.

Vkontakte has recently lost a copyright case to Gala Music Group who claimed their rights for the content posted by Vkontakte users, in this case - songs by Russian pop-musicians Maxim and Infinity. Vkontakte paid a compensation of 220,000 rubles ($7000) - a ridiculous amount considering the company's ample profits of almost $45 million in 2010*.


RUSSIAN SOUL AND AMERICAN DREAM
I totally understand that infringing copyright is bad, even dangerous. And also mean to artists. But in the backstage, is it really that bad???

I think it is fair competition with tons of streaming websites. What if I recorded the video on one very happy Russian New Year eve when my loud company was singing an extremely popular song and then couldn’t resist but to show off the talents? I guess the world would look nice from the cell.

On other side, owners of copyrights have their reasoning too: they actually want that their products were consumed as much as possible. It is a great promotion. You post your piece. You work to distribute it. People love it, share it and as result you got your business. I know few young artists who thank vk.com for their career. Reminds me of YouTube here. Btw, YouTube is very similar too. You can add the video to your own playlists and then enjoy it forever and ever.

On the other hand, the search for music in Vkontakte still shows hundreds of results by Maxim and Infinity.To be entirely honest -  Internet users with Russian soul do not consider downloading as stealing - after all, if they want a better experience or are willing to support the artist they can buy a song or video, go to a concert or a movie theater. Otherwise, why I have to pay for something I can get for free? In my communication class I’ve learned that everything I do within the website system using option they provide is legal (“share” and be safe).

So, check out my Vine summary of the post:


And if you want get a little bit more of Russian soul, check out Maxim's video Enjoy!