Aung Lin-Week 9-Blog 9

I will write this week’s blog on Professor Valverde’s book chapter “Social Transformation from Virtual Communities.” In this chapter, Professor Valverde talked about how she accessed the internet frequently as a young Vietnamese American graduate student. How did she know back then that internet would become a huge hit? Professor talked about this in class and about how she told her friends and classmates about how the internet is our “future.” Nobody believed her back then but look at internet now. I remembered the year 1996. I was in Yangon, Myanmar attending elementary school. Back then computers just came out in our big city Yangon. Only in Yangon computers existed and many Burmese were fascinated by it. Computer classes also came out right around that time in Yangon. They cost a lot of money but people that know how to use the computers made lots of money in companies. Back in 1996, I didn’t care about these computers that came out. I just minded my own business and kept studying. I didn’t know that computer and internet would become something I can’t live without once my parents bring me to America. Today in Myanmar, we still don’t have home internet. People had to go to internet cafes to use the internet. The government blocked many sites and there is no freedom just like in Vietnam. I want to know if people in Vietnam have access to internet from home? Is internet part of education in Vietnam? Does Vietnamese students use the internet to do homework? How popular are the internet cafes in Vietnam? 

Work Cited

Valverde, Kieu-Linh Caroline. “Social Transformation from Virtual Communities.” 2012.

            Transnationalizing Viet Nam. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 

Internet Café in Yangon, Myanmar

Internet Café in Vietnam