Last Post!

Best of luck to everyone on their exams!

Everyone's got an opinion.

When I first read the concept of the procrastinaton principle, I thought it was going to be some witty saying like, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? But I was very interested to see that it wasn't the case. The procrastination princple discussed by Zittrain was simple: problems in media generally get worked out by the users.

This got me thinking. I can't remember the last time I've sought help and acquired my answer from anything but a message board. Instruction manuals are a thing of the past. If I have a question about something -- anything -- I google the question and chances are, there's a Google Answer page for it. Or, I post a question in my status or tweet it, and I get  the responses posted there.

It's very apparent that everyone has an opinion. I think the developments, especially in regards to social networking sites, have encouraged everyone to voice their opinion -- that now, since there is a dedicated forum to expressing yourself, you're expected to do so.

These answers that I seek are not typically to earth-shattering problems. I'm looking for help with something on my car or on a computer program, and the dialogue between users makes it quick to find the best result. This is the case in several other forums, too. Notice now how everything has a star system. You can, and are encouraged, to share your opinion on products, places, people. You can even review reviews -- as most forums end with "Did you find this review helpful?"

It's strange how much faith people have in strangers online. The same world where, if someone asks for money, you run down a list of things that they could do-- steal your wallet, buy drugs, etc. is the world that often seeks out non-expert opinions to solve every day problems. I think the whole thing is very inconsistent.

Networking

Have you gotten a chance to check out the Open Letter from Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook yet?

Basically, it details how Facebook plans to do away with networks, as they've gotten too big. He says, "However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we've concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.."

The whole plan seems like a step towards Twitter. Twitter has recently launched the Lists feature which lets you categorize people according to your preferences. I wonder what's going on here. I was under the impression that networks were one of strongest features of social networking sites, but now it appears that is phasing out. This does a number on the ideas that we have learned with searchability and the overall concept of networked publics.

I guess it makes sense that it's phasing out, though. It probably indicates that the usage of the networks is changing. People are no longer using the network search feature to find people near them or with things in common. Maybe people are using the sites to maintain the friendships they already have, with real people, who are in all different networks of their own. People are friends with such diverse groups that networks don't really matter except for being used as just another identification feature. I'll be curious to see where this goes.

iPhone vs. Girlfriend - from the Best of Craigslist.

As I type this, my boyfriend is on the couch, napping blissfully, his Iphone nestled to his chest. I remember the distant days when I was the one who nestled there, my head resting lovingly against his shoulder, but apparently because I don't vibrate like a buzz saw every ten minutes to let him know that he's gotten an email from Sears.com with great deals for Fall savings, he's traded up.
I remember when it was my shrill, piercing voice that delighted him, but no more. I've lost my favored status, displaced by a small, rectangular device that beeps incessantly at the most inopportune times most of which are apparently no longer inopportune! God help me if I should turn to him while he's engrossed in an episode of Two and a Half Men and say, I forgot to tell you about this lady I saw in the Food Lion today who was wearing hilarious pants I would be judiciously shushed! But Iphone gets to say whatever it/s thinking any time it wants! Iphone can do no wrong! No matter what he's in the middle of, no moment is too important to be interrupted by a text message from his Iphone letting him know that 90% of American currency has tested positive for trace amounts of cocaine, according to CNN.com.

Should I be providing better content? Were I to turn to him while he's watching TV and say, MEEEP Thursday's forecast calls for morning clouds with a chance of afternoon thundershowers, would he smile receptively, or nod with interest? I doubt it. I also don't see what's so useful about the real-time updates his Iphone provides on sports games and breaking news, when the information I provide is also in real-time and personalized! Does his precious Iphone nag him when he forgets to give the dog his heartworm medicine? Does it remind him that it's unattractive to drink soda straight from the bottle and then just put it back in the fridge? Does his Iphones angry rattle encourage him to start dinner right away because I'm going to be hungry when I get home?

All right, I know when I'm beat. It's time for me to take this to the next level, before he realizes that when his Iphone never has morning breath, steals the covers, or mocks his love of Entourage. So what do I have to do to win him back? Offer my services for a better monthly rate? Remind him of the convenience of his no-initial-fee, no-obligation contract with me? Ok, maybe there was an initial fee to join me, but I'm sure he'd say it was worth it. Or would he? After all, I can't think of any new features I've added in the last few years, aside from a new haircut, or any upgrades to speak of unless you count going up a pants size. Which I do. Possibly it's time to fight fire with fire or water. My boyfriend's Iphone does seem to be getting a little smudged, due to his constant, loving caresses and attention. Perhaps it needs a bath. :]

-from iPhone vs. Girlfriend

I am a huge loser.

I will be the first to admit that I am technologically impaired. If you don't believe me, check out my progress on the wiki. I embrace my difficulties, however.

This bad boy is my present cell phone. The Verizon Wireless Blitz. Maybe you've heard of it. Probably not, though, because it's not exactly marketed to our demographic. It's actually a children's phone. And I'm not talking just stylistically. It actually says "Say Cheese!" in this really awful little voice every time I take a picture. The backgrounds are disco balls and soccer balls and skateboards. The ringtones have names like "Party" and "Hide and Seek." That's all okay with me though, because I am way behind the learning curve when it comes to things like Blackberries.

Sure, my friends laugh at me and poke fun at my lack of a data package but I have thick skin and I don't mind. The big numbers and easy features are more than enough for me.

At least, they have been more than enough for me until today in my 201 class when it was pointed out several times over that kids in elementary school were handling things like the iPhone. It was at this point that I realized I really have to step my game up! It was slightly apparent when people were much more versed in the ways of the wiki and the blog that I had fallen behind. But to get trumped by twelve year olds is borderline intolerable. Now I know how my mom felt when I taught her how to text. That same mom now is fluent in Blackberry. Maybe I will ask for one for Christmas, so long as it comes with lessons.

Just a "friendly" warning!

You have to go read this article. I tried to hyperlink it in but Blogger wouldn't let me.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/10/facebook.groups.hacked/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

CNN reports on how 286 Facebook groups were "hijacked" and made an example of, as their administrators had left them which made the groups susceptible to personal information sharing, email spamming, and group name changes - such as "I Support Pedophile Rights."

YIKES!

Don't touch me!

I agree with a lot of the concepts surrounding social grooming. I understand that the concept behind all the methods that SNS sites use to communicate from one user to another are all doing the same thing, which is telling the other person that someone is thinking about them. Definitely a pleasurable thought to have.

There is one aspect that I wish never existed, however. That aspect is Facebook "poking." I HATE poking. Instead of the "remove" button, I wish there was a way to send a "Don't touch me!!" notification to the offending poker.

I have never been comfortable with the idea of the poke. It's like an easy out for people who are too shy to say hi on your wall, or don't have a reason enough to send you a message. And it's just sneaky and hidden enough that if someone gets their poke snubbed, their pride is much better off than a wall-to-wall ignorance would have been.

I think we used to be able to poke someone without being friends with them. That's where my hatred began, I imagine. The idea of these people touching me, virtually or in real life, made me nauseated. Now the pokes I get are mainly from people I haven't had contact with in a while, and I guess they are just using it to get my attention.

I don't mean to sound like a brat or anything, really, but come on. Cut the crap!

Twitteriffic

Recently (as in two days ago) I got into the phenomenon known as Twitter. Admittedly, I still don't "get" it, but it as I am progressing, there are a lot of pretty good features about it.

First, I don't have to mutually follow people. What I mean by that is I don't have to be friends with someone for them to access me or for me to access them. I prefer that. A lot of Facebook "friends" I added out of guilt a little bit, and now I could really care less about their status. In Twitland, I can just pick and choose who I follow.

Second, the trending topics are very useful. I'm sure someone could point out the hive mind mentality here but all the same, Twitter knows the news faster than a lot of media outlets (I don't know how) (I also am not giving them as much credibility but still). And it's popular news, too. Good stuff. Another, more trivial use is that people's opinions on movies trend a lot. I can read what they thought about it in 140 characters. Glorious.

Perhaps Twitter is like the jellybean example, where the individual guesses average is the closest to the amount of beans in the jar. I can't really be sure yet, but I like what I see.

For further reference...

I think if you're looking for any further examples of moral panic, just watch Oprah. Every panic trend that I can think of has been featured on the show. Predators, porn addicts, bullying, eating disorder support sites, etc. Seriously.

This just in..

Apparently Google has a new feature where you can create a profile for yourself that shows up if someone Googles your name. Try googling your own name and then in a blue box at the top, it gives you the option to create the profile. Yikes. What will they think of next?

Couldn't be in class today...

Sorry for my absence in class today. This is my case study work in case anyone was interested in what I would have said in discussion..


I am very lucky to have a diverse group of friends on my Facebook page. I have about a 60/40 ratio of friends from DC to friends from back home in my small town in Rhode Island. A few things I have noticed:

•  My friends in DC use their pages to promote events such as parties, club promotions, football games, etc. My friends from home rarely use the event feature, only for occasional things such as a sorority/fraternity occasion.
• There are more restaurants and boutique stores and independent venues that have pages in DC than there are in RI.
• I have more black friends from DC and they (and the friends who post on their pages) use more nicknames in between their first and last names than any of my white friends (i.e. Boo StrivingforSuccess Jackson or Branden Big Simba Riley). They also use irregular capitalization more frequently (i.e. MARLEY Pollack).

It is hard for me to detect many patterns because I am in the midst of it. However, I think whatever the technology developers can produce which allows people to do more self promotion or talk more about themselves (for example – the quiz or survey phenomenon) will continue to emerge.

 

Not many people have come right out and said it but that is really what all of these SNS’s are about – self promotion. Networking, keeping in touch with people who were not all that good of friends to begin with, these talk-about-you who are you most like surveys are all things that let people examine themselves. They can figure out their personalities and figure out how other people feel about them by tracing their activity on the SNS. It’s such a desirable thing for people that I’m sure SNS sites will continue to develop for people to express themselves further.

 

Shrinking the Gap

In "Say Everything," the idea of the shrinking generation gap was discussed and I'm not sure if I completely agree. My mom now has a Facebook. She is head of part of a Special Education department in a school district and is "friends" with her real-life teacher friends from her schools. I lectured my mom ad nauseum about why someone in a high school setting shouldn't be an active Book user, but if they are, they should take some pretty serious privacy measures. She's fine on it, but one of her teacher friends added one of their special ed students. The student Facebook IM'ed the teacher and started talking about one of the other students. AWFUL! This is the kind of thing I warned my mom about! I'm sure I don't have to go into the issues that surround that type of activity..

So my point about the generation gap is that even though older people and younger people are now using the same mediums, the older people are so much farther behind on the ins and outs of what they're doing. The younger generations have made the mistakes -- they've insulted people, they've done inappropriate things, interacted with strangers, etc -- but now the older generation is breezing in as if the Book can do no harm. I don't know if the gap is narrowing, or if the roles are just reversing, where the younger people have the experience and have to pass it on to the older people.

Free-for-all

You can't help but to think about the incredible amount of money that is being made off of new media. Arguably more money now must be being made off of the new forms than probably any other form ever. Not just talking about ads, but while we're on the topic, does anyone notice them anymore? I hadn't even acknowledged the ones on Wikia until Dr. Akhavan pointed them out. I have AdSense on my blog, here, too. They're allegedly paying me $10 every X amount of impressions.

But then there's the stuff that isn't really paid for in a conventional way. It's not uncommon for any business or venture or enterprise to have a MySpace, a Facebook, a Twitter... It's so crazy. I was thinking in class that some company could have a bored intern who set up those three accounts, then they could make a blog, and possibly even give themselves a shout out on a Wiki of some form. Five free forms of advertising. Email, too.

I wonder how companies made it without these new mediums. The bar industry is centered around them. We're encouraged to promote by putting up fliers on our Facebooks, changing statuses, creating events, etc. whenever there's an event of some sort at work. Basically that's how I generate all my business and let my friends know when I'm bartending. I have no idea how I could have ever been successful without the tools we have now.

Something to think about from Conan...

Captain Awkward.

In class, we talked briefly about the idea of personal image ownership.
Here's my story:

It started when CUA re-vamped its website. I started getting texts from random friends saying, "Hey, you're on the website." I just ignored it. Then my roommates started getting texts of similar nature. Thinking I'd be in a random corner somewhere on the page, I checked it out. Oh, sure, there's my big old egg head.. the first thing you see. Cool. I don't usually go to the homepage, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal.

Apparently,  a lot more people go to the homepage than I thought. I've gotten random double takes from strangers in the library. I've gotten emails from my guidance counselor from high school. Facebook messages from old friends who have siblings looking at the school and prospective law school students that I used to work with. Customers at McFadden's who are alumni asking me questions about it while I'm bartending. Stupid picture!

The conversations usually go the same way:
"Did you know they were going to do that?"
No.
"Did they pay you to do it?"
Nope.
"Well, at least it's a nice picture."
Not one of my finest.

While I am honored that they chose my likeness, the first question strikes up this point: I didn't know that they were going to use my picture -- but it's my FACE. I didn't get any question of approval or a warning or just a casual head's up (mind the pun) about it being published that way. The same picture has been on several brochures and mailings. So... does the school own the rights to my face?