More Connectivity

As it is Halloween, I thought I would do something related. As me and my friends were looking up haunted houses, we discovered "Thirteen Floors" through Stumbleupon. After going onto the website, it prompted us to connect with them through Twitter and Facebook. Of course we didn't do this because it would of turned into spam on our accounts. Haunted houses are only good once a year so no need for reminders everyday. However, I have down this with other websites such as an animal research site that learns information on black bears. After finding this website, I began to follow a black bear and her cub named Lily and Hope. These researchers take video and pictures and then upload them onto facebook. Because I am connected to facebook, I am now connected to this random bear couple in Montana. Without this social networking, I would have no idea about these bears, or the research done on them. Facebook and other social networking sites not only keeps me connected to people but to a plethora or educational information.

A Survivaball Halloween, 2009

So, in the spirit of the current holiday, I wanted to find something interesting that had to do with Halloween. I found a pretty funny article from November of last year that explained how two Yes Men apprentices dressed as the Yes Men for Halloween and staged their own march of survivaballs, the very safe and friendly survival suits we saw in The Yes Men Fix the World. The article is humorous, and the video they made to tag along with it is pretty neat. It also has a bit of remixing in the video, when the Ghost Busters theme plays with "The Yes Men" being called instead of the Ghost Busters.
I also thought it was pretty cool that this article is on The Yes Men's website instead of someone's personal blog. Go fan support!

transformation of cultural industries: photography

The social digital world has changed the way we interact with photography...

Not only can we instantly see our photographs with the digital camera, but now we can instantly upload them to the web and share them with friends or with the world. We can even instantly order prints with a click of a button, completely eliminating the need for a darkroom as well as simply organize your photos with "tags," which easily document who is in what picture from when. And we can instantly take a snapshot on our cell phones, which are only getting better and better (the new iPhone features a 5 megapixel camera).

flickr

photobucket

piccasa

cooliris

As you can see, taking a photograph has become much more than a click of a button and a good picture, a picture can now be instantly and easily taken, edited, shared, and organized- thanks to the digital world.

Yes Men

The Yes Men bring up a rather interesting topic of coversation. There certainly are two sides to the argument; however, I feel that what they are doing is clever and unique. It's almost as though they are turning the worlds thoughts into actionable items. Instead of letting these thoughts spin into 'nothingness,' these individuals have are taking a proactive stance and showing the rest of us how change is indeed feasbile. Perhaps there are times when boundaries have been crossed, yet change has to stem from somewhere - why not turn things around starting with the Yes Men. Although, there seems to never to be a second side to the story. I feel that a lot of these corporations have reasons for what they do (some more just than others). Taking a look at the company that boarded up all the windows to every building after Hurrican Katrina provides an example of this very thought. This company was only executing these practices in the best interest of the general pubic. When these actions were implemented the intent was to keep criminals out to avoid any additional negative occurances. In the Yes Men video, they portayed this company in a harsh light because they were not letting people back into their homes. Obviously there were two sides to this story, yet the Yes Men definitely focused on the negative. Regardless of the work that the Yes Men promote, I believe it is important to always use a critical eye in evaluating the examples that are brought to our attention.

Thoughts on digital music distribution

The discussion we had in class during Charles presentation on last.fm was interesting. It made me think about the music industry, which we have also read about, and what they have done right and wrong so far.

Today the music industry is in front concerning the usage of technology and social media. I would however argue that the only reason they have been better than other industries is because of greed. But greed is good right...

Anyway, the music industry managed to shut down some early "dotcom" sites such as Napster and Kazaa (the latter I used myself). They also managed to put DMR protections on for example music sold via the iTunes Store. This successfully stopped people from sharing music for a while but is now removed. The long battle between pirates and labels has created many new interesting ways of listening to music. But what the music industry should have done was to work with technology instead of against it. But maybe in the end that is exactly what made it better today?

Today the digital music market and distribution is a lot better developed. But I don't credit the big music labels for that. None of the popular software we use today to buy music has been developed by the music industry, Instead small private companies such as last.fm and Spotify has created the possibilities (Itunes was of course a pioneer in this field but they need to change too). Without these companies I think the music industry still would have struggled.

test drive a car from your desk.

Mitsubishi has done something drastic to shake up the car market. Mitsubishi has made a remote controlled access point for consumers to test drive the new 2011 Outlander Sport. People can sign up online to take the car on a closed course for a quick drive session using their computer. I became aware of this promotion through their multimedia campaign telling people about their interesting web promotion. I have herd of shooting ranges you can control from your computer, but this... as a promotion. If it becomes a huge success will other companies convert or offer these types of services... and do you need a dealership if you can just drive and purchase a car online? I see this promotion as being very cool, I would love to experience the test driving session but I feel that I might have missed out since the ability to sign up has been available since October 15th. If you would like to try and sign up for a test drive go to outlandersport.com.

Why do we follow others examples?

After watching the Yes Men video and witnessing the influence they have on the people that they are hoaxing, I thought about a video that I viewed in a psychology class a couple years ago. This video shows how when other people are doing something around us, we easily conform so that we do not feel like the outsider. This video is rather funny, but it represents a very serious issue. Although it is a very old video from candid camera, it seems to ring just as true today. Our world today gives so much proof that we live afraid of being alienated by fellow peers. The norms that develop because of this reason are not always healthy and can really have a negative impact on people. The classic statement of "would you jump off a bridge if your friend jumped off a bridge first" is much truer than we like to believe. Many people will simply express themselves in a way that others are used to or ways that they know will portray them in a light that may not reflect their actual personality. It is scary to see how individuality is skewed to create unhealthy interactions.

Tactical Media like the Yes Men

After watching the Yes Men in class I thought about how it is a form of tactical media and it proves how convergence today allows for tactical media to be successful. Media has commonly become a civil and public way for citizens to take political action in order to cause change. Media including film/documentary, television, internet, music, photography, video games, and the like have all been used as tactical media over and over again. With the common convergence of media today and the popularity of social networking (such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, blogging sites, etc.) tactical media is a form of activism that spreads so fast that it be seen and heard by the entire world in such a small amount of time, therefore it tends to be the most effective. Although there is a wide variety of media that has been used as a form of activism, I feel that a visual media style such as a documentary and websites that the Yes Men have done is perhaps one of the most effective forms of tactical media in that they are widely viewed by the public through means such as internet, television, film festivals, and theaters. Also, through the creation of the documentary film itself, many people (including the filmmakers, interviewees, targeted group, celebrities, and the general public) are forced to focus on the issue presented. I feel that with a camera in one’s face it becomes difficult to hide the truth. As I am personally interested in film making I was looking up other documentaries that focus on tactical media such as:

2.) RiP: A Remix Manifesto

Web activist, Brett Gaylor, created this documentary over a period of 6 years dedicated to defending DJ Girl Talk, who had been accused of copyright infringement by top record labels. The film features the collaborative remix work of hundreds of Open Source Cinema website contributers. This is a good representation of tactical media because it calls for action among citizens by encouraging more people to create their own remixes from the film itself while being informative about copyright laws themselves. Gaylor suggests that copyrights should be distributed according to the creator of the media as a whole, rather than who holds the ownership for specific songs, videos, images, etc.

3.) The Cove

This documentary film describes the annual killing of dolphins in a National Park at Taiji, Wakayama, in Japan from the point of view of ocean conservationist, Ric O’Barry (trainer of Flipper). The film exemplifies tactical media as the O’Barry and his team went to extreme, and occasionally illegal, measures to capture the truth about what was happening in this small cove in Japan. Portions were even filmed secretly by using underwater microphones and cameras disguised as rocks. The film was created in an attempt to save migrating dolphins who are herded into a hidden cove where they are netted and killed over the side of small fishing boats and sold as lunch meat. Directed by former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos, the documentary won the U.S. Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2010. Although the response to the film did greatly hurt the whaling industry, it did not manage to make it illegal. After showing the film in two theaters in Japan it was banned in the country.

4.) An Inconvenient Truth

This documentary film about former U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate citizens about global warming was a critical and box-office success, winning Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song, as well as becoming the fifth-highest-grossing documentary film in the U.S. This tactical media has been credited for raising international public awareness of climate change and has also been included in science curricula in schools around the world.

Chevron Thinks We're Stupid.

This week we were introduced to The Yes Men. I was interested to see what they have been up to recently. Chevron Oil created a campaign, We Agree, to emphasize their public relations and good doings. The web page shows links like - "Oil Companies Should Put Their Profit To Good Use" and "Oil Companies Should Support Small Business. These statements are practically begging to be parodied. This is exactly what The Yes Men did. Their website, Chevron Thinks We're Stupid. The site features a spoof video created by FunnyOrDie, information on a spoof ad contest and information about Chevron.

The Yes Men justify the spoof by saying:

"Chevron is responsible for one of the largest environmental disasters in history. Rather than take responsibility for its oil pollution in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, however, the oil giant is waging unprecedented legal, public relations, and lobbying campaigns to avoid having to clean up environmental and public health catastrophes that continue today."

The Yes Men then challenge their audience to take action:

"Angry and frustrated that oil companies like Chevron think they can ignore their environmental and human rights abuses while cleaning up their image with high-cost ad campaigns? We agree! Enter our contest now and help hold Chevron accountable by making sure the company doesn’t get away with its greenwash."

The Yes Men have once again challenged big business to make a change by creating awareness of the corruption of power. They are showing that Chevron can't make an ad saying that they're going to try to better the world while their actions show otherwise.

Transformation of the instant message industry

In the date of 25th, June 2008, lots of Chinese people getting crazy, just because they can’t log in QQ(Chinese instant message ). At the same time, people started to think the question seriously; they even can’t live without that “small penguin”. QQ , just like mobile and other modern electric tools, which plays a very important role in their daily life. According to the official survey, Chinese instant massager user’s number is over 17 billion people. How, when we look back to the history, we can see that this industry has transformed a lot.

    This is what instant message used to be. Which called UC(SINA company made it), it can just chat with each other as the original function, and it can also send some simple expression to others. When most people use it, it can date back to dial number’s time. This kind of instant message is quit form Chinese market, because it can’t follow the new time’ coming. The function of it is too simple. On the other hand, it doesn’t have the update things in China.  

However, what people use nowadays, is totally changed. In China everyone use QQ. Its logo is just like a small penguin, it starts from three people in the beginning, and until now is one of the big internet company in China. Last year, they are nearly 17 billion people use QQ at the same time. Also, based on a recent survey instant messaging are more useful to the good management, text chat, language chat, video chat (field), and transfer files (therapeutic). Based on large user, derivative service - all portals, E-mail, chat, games, blog, SMS, etc. The QQ company win the nearly 80 percent of users to use, is not only because it can chat with other. In recent years, that company launched QQ zone (like blog ) qq show (the virtual image ) ,QQ message which links to mobile phone. And QQ pets. It also updates to Web 2.0, and give more information and resource for uses to use.

 This is the reason why people can not live without QQ, whenever you work, study or even traveling. This is how instant message industry transformed and developed. .  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LLHXlwnXUU&feature=related

the new design of QQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkzB8TVXqhA&feature=related

Nowadays qq

Last.fm, the Transformation of the Music Industry

Convergence has transformed almost every cultural industry in some regard. This transformation has not been instantaneous one. As new technologies gradually emerge and media converges across them, cultural industries have gradually transformed with their converging media. While all cultural industries have been affected by convergence, the most obvious transformations have occurred within the entertainment industry. I have chosen to chronicle the furthest stages of evolution that have transpired within the entertainment industry, particularly the music industry.

The music industry has become notorious for fighting against many aspects of the vast changes that have occurred due to convergence. Yet at the same time they have also transformed their industry entirely around these new technologies and practices. The current epitome of this convergence is Last.fm, an internet radio social network music database. By building a profile on Last.fm, a user is able to create a library of tracks they enjoy. This track list is built by either manually by looking at band profiles and adding them to the library, 'loving' a track or importing your iTunes, Mog, and Windows Media Player libraries using the Last.fm Scrobbler application that you download to your computer. Each time a song starts playing on the 'radio', pictures of the band play in a slideshow, an artist biography along with the genres and descriptions it is tagged with, similar artists, user comments, discography, upcoming local concerts and events, and most notably the options to share the track link through social networking sites and email, tag the track with your own description, purchase the track through various online retailers in both digital and CD formats, and even send the song as a ringtone to a phone. Speaking of phones, Last.fm also has an app for Android and the iPhone so you can stream your personal customized internet radio on the go, so long as you have internet access through your mobile device. Recently Last.fm has also launched an Xbox Live version to stream internet radio through the video game console.

Last.fm is not done converging media yet, mentioned earlier, it is also a social network where users can find one another based on similar musical interests and then discuss the music they mutually enjoy. Users can also form groups, which function like a shared profile and a private forum combined. It actively adapts the group’s library based on the interests of everyone in the group, and allows for members to write messages to other members within the group. Last.fm also acknowledges the existence of other social networking sites, and thusly incorporated them into its infrastructure. Users can share songs and band links through e-mail, tweets, Facebook status updates, Myspace posts, and Diggs.

The sheer amount of convergence occurring in this one website is astounding, and perfectly exemplifies how cultural industries have transformed due to convergence. A major complaint of the music industry was how they would determine what music would be popular, forcing less mainstream genres into obscurity, making it difficult to find similar bands and hear about local shows. Last.fm has completely destroyed this concept, allowing all music to be treated equally, linked together, and shared by user created content tags, forums, and suggestions. It has also met the demand of the ‘black boxes’ on both ends of the market spectrum by offering app versions of their service to various entertainment devices as well as linking every song to various digital and hard copy retail websites. Throughout band biographies users can find links not only to these retail sites, but also Myspace profiles, Facebook fan pages, Wikipedia pages, and official band websites, making Last.fm a central hub for band information. Last.fm incorporation other social networking sites also allows for free promotion of music between people through the internet. By converging user generated content, social networking, online retail services, multi-platform dynamics, and collective intelligence, the music industry has transformed itself around convergence culture in the form of Last.fm.

Oct 27 Quiz

1. According to Jenkins (Chapter 4: Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars) what's the difference between interactivity and participation?

2. Why is Chapter 4 called Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?

3. What is the controversy around Jon Stewart described in Chapter 6: Photoshop for Democracy.

4. What was the True Majority “your fired” video so effective?

5. How does American Idol establish loyalty?

6. What is transmedia storytelling?

7. Name at least one factor discussed in the chapter "Culture" that is influencing cultural industries.

Rebellious Pixels

Here's the link.

Chinese facebook

Chinese facebook

         In china, people can’t use facebook because we have the censorship things. However, as we all know Chinese making things may not be the first in the world, whereas it copy must be No.1. Chinese uses “renren” website, which have the similar function as facebook have.   

Then, I do a small survey to my friends about Chinese facebook. According to my survey, there are three kinds of people who use renren usually.

The first kinds of people are youngsters, especially for those students whose age under 25 years old, they don’t have to worry about their family, and support their family. The only thing they have to do is to study, so they spend lots of time on facebook. To make friends, girls chase boys; boys chase girls through that website. The funniest thing is that they maybe even don’t know each other; maybe they are from different areas in China. However, they don’t care about it; they just put their beautiful pictures online, and look others pretty picture. They also play the mini games on the facebook.

The second kinds of people are small white collar, who just work in a company for 1 or 2 years. Their heart also becomes warm as those teenagers. However, they don’t have enough time to play games; they just use this website to look for their long miss friends. Maybe, their high school classmates or even primary school classmates. They use instant messages more, to make a appointment or small classmates meeting. They also put their recently pictures on it, to make friends distant more closely.

The last kinds of people are businessman. They just use it as a tool to put advertisements on it, it depends on what kind of job they work. If they work for a food restaurant, they will put same recently discount about their restaurant.  

Facebook profile analysis

I decided to look at three different types of people on my friends list for the Facebook assignment. The first one was a very conservative person. They rarely use Facebook, currently don't have a profile picture and often communicates through personal messages rather than wall posts. This person I know well, and know them to be conservative. Since this person will be a graduating senior public image is also very important to them as they try to keep a low online profile.

The second person I looked at was an over user of Facebook. This person I don't know her that well but she doesn't use too many apps but loves to over indulge in the rest that Facebook has to offer. Status updates come by the many a day. She also has no boundaries on what topics are discussed and some of the pictures taken could be taken the wrong way.

The third profile I took a look at was my own. Recently I have become a more more passive user of Facebook. I use to play the family feud app game this summer but have found myself doing more progressive stuff. The spike of my use of Facebook when I was abroad where I would have friends that would upload many pictures daily of the abroad trip. Also I used Facebook when abroad to keep into contact with my friends more that were in the United Sates since I didn't have an American phone number. Recently I haven't been posting as much unless I find a good article. As far as privacy settings go I have restricted the amount of information people can find on myself, unless they are on my friends list.

The first persons profile that I looked at is a good friends cousin. Watching her on facebook is like a car crash, its awful, but you cannot look away. I have met the girl many times, and she is nice, but lets just say her profile is a great reflection of her actual being. She changes her picture about 5 times a week from different shots with either her sorority sisters, her current SEC quarterback boyfriend, or just the normal model shot. She is Miss Teen Pennsylvania, which makes it even more interesting to look at. She actually does not post many pictures, just the constant default change, which is something to think about. She does not put too much information on her info page, but what is there is enough to get a sense of who she is trying to portray. All her websites are about her, her modeling portfolio, her twitter, he fan webpage. I find myself wandering to her page almost everyday since there is often something new to look at. Not to mention she has over 4,000 friends. Her mothers best line: "go facebook all the college quarterbacks and friend them, that's was Kacie does!" I think that sums her up.

I am also somewhat obsessed with roaming to the assistant dean of students at my upper schools page. She is older, but not my parents age and has a young girl. She mostly just posts pictures of her young family and complains about this and that. I guess I like reading her statuses and comments because when I was in upper school, you know these people in a different way. Now i can see old teachers comment on each others things, which is fascinating. Our school had this daily meeting just for faculty that was called chambers. In between first and second period, for that 15 minutes, every faculty member went to this one room for a meeting. I wanted so badly to know what they were talking about, and this is pretty much as close as I will ever get, especially being 4 years out of upper school. So she uses facebook for a staying connected and chatting with other moms means, which is pretty boring, but the inside scoop of teachers, makes it a great facebook location.

The other facebook page that I frequent is actually a page for my good friends business. It is a fan page, but she uses it more as a personal page since the place is small. It is a painting studio with taught art instruction and a wine bar and every night pictures are taken and then put on facebook. Since I have volunteered the painfully slow task of uploading pictures to facebook, I see a lot of this page. It works as a means of advertising. Every monday a free class is given away to a random facebook friend as well as the surprise discount night to only facebook friends. There are contests and rewards for frequenting this particular page. The posts are always about what is going on currently in the world of canvas and cocktails and is always accurate. What you see on the facebook page is what you get in person.

Gives me another reason to be a creeper...

Usually the only thing that keeps me from creeping on my friends is that off chance they have that damn application installed that keeps track of who clicks (and for how long) on your page. In my defense, I think I do, (and anyone else) has the right to look at stuff you upload to facebook! As usual, I enjoyed insta-judging and stereotyping my friends on their corresponding pages. One obvious yet always interesting Facebook development pattern is the dictatorship of each page. One can eliminate all bad press about them. Just click delete, and you keep your personnel space clean of all harsh things, and also, to have the option to keep everything beautiful. Only keep yourself tagged in good looking pictures (un-tag all the double chins) and photoshop wrinkles/zits/red eye your profile pictures to give off a good impression (via a group). Although, I wont go into detail about individual friends and report back on my thoughts, I will definitely pass along this representation (via graph) (-and hilarity) of what yours says about you!

* does not mean to offend!

Facebook Differences: How we use this technology

I examined three different people for this assignment and tried to do my best to find three people that use Facebook in slightly different ways than each other.

The first page that I looked at was a friend from high school. He is always popping up on my news feed and really uses Facebook to its full social potential. He updates his status multiple times a day - sometimes even within the same hour - and it is often things about his moods, where is going, or anything and everything about his life and the day he is currently having. He uses Facebook as a way to express emotion and news about his life to people on the internet, whether they are his friends in person or web friends. He also updates his profile picture very, very often and it is always a picture of him. In his case, Facebook is simply used in almost an obsessive way to get people filled in on his emotions and his life.

Another friend I looked at is a friend of a friend and only somebody that I have met in person just recently. She does not use Facebook in the same perspective as the previous user I have talked about. I have never seen her update her status even once and uses Facebook in the most simple terms to stay in touch with people and respond to friends when they write on her wall. She also does not allow people to view pictures tagged of her and rarely changes her profile picture. For her, it is just a means of staying in touch, not a form of a live social blog.

One last page that I viewed was a relative of mine. More and more people of older generations are starting to use social media as a way to experience this younger, technological culture and how they are using it. My relative, who is in their 50's uses Facebook much, much less than anyone in my age group that I know of. Their profile picture rarely changes, nor do their status updates. They use it as a way to interact with their younger relatives and also to find and stay in touch with old friends from college or their younger years. Older Facebook users also have much more sophisticated wall posts and picture comments, and usually only comment or post anything when they have something meaningful to say. This is contrary to many teens or people in their 20s using Facebook for random thoughts, comments, and anything they want the world to hear.

Perception of Facebook

How well does facebook describe who a person actually is? Well my analysis is "not very well" because facebook is just a window that shows you only what a person wants you to see. It can be misguiding most of the time. One of my friends, Jenna, is a very social person, which is expressed on her profile page. There are a number of people talking on her wall, and about every one of her profile pictures has another person in it. In this way, it describes her aptly. She is a great friend, concerning when needed to be, and very fun, but truthfully a bit of a narcissist. I just know that when I call her on the phone, it is "Jenna time" and I won't be able to do much talking. In this way the extend of her love for herself is not shown on facebook because you can not interrupt what the other person is saying while typing. What facebook does not capture is all of her fears and worries because that is not what facebook is for. Facebook is for socializing and looking good so most people do not "get deep" for the whole world to see. Facebook is easy to hack so if you pour your heart into your profile, you pour your heart into everyone in the world. The next person I facebook stalked was a girl named Rachel. Half of her profile pictures are just her, and the other half with people. She is very self conscious about the way she looks even though she is very pretty so she does not have nearly as many photos as Jenna. Rachel chooses her photos based on what she wants people to see her as. A few of my favorites are her scuba diving, wake boarding, snow boarding, and rock climbing; she is very proud of her "outdoorsyness". But again, facebook fails to capture all of her. Although all of the things she posted is true, she is an incredibly deep person that she shares with few people. She is also a bit of an emotional roller coaster, but hates that about herself so would prefer to only show her good side to new people. She presents herself on facebook just as she presents herself in "new people" situations; she fakes being super happy for the only reason that that is what people want to see. So although she is super happy sometimes, that is not who she really is, and facebook can not show that, and she will not show it on facebook. The final person is named Adam. I have known him since 5th grade and for that entire time, he has been in love with a girl named Sam, who I have known since Kindergarden. They finally got together Freshman year of high school, and now in about 90% of his profile pictures, he is with Sam. I know that he like her a lot more than she like him and that part does show a little on facebook. He is a decently inclosed person like Rachel, and so letting people in is difficult for him. Now that he let in Sam, you can see how close they are on facebook. She is a major part of his life and his facebook page. But just like Jenna and Rachel, facebook can not capture his deeper side. In general, facebook is an advertisement. People pick what they want to show the world and what they want to hide. They always show their best qualities to look like they are prettier, more popular, or funnier than they actually are. All in all, you can not judge a person by their facebook page.

What your profile photo says about you

according to Gawker.
I guess it's good that we're on the same page as Gawker.

Do Profiles Define 'You'? My Log of Creeping on Facebook

Rather than just describing 3 pages I looked at, I have also chosen to critique some aspects. I feel this adds a personal touch, and feel free to comment on my opinions I am curious to know if you all agree or not.

When starting this assignment I immediately went to the girl I know who uses Facebook much more than most other people I know. Surprisingly enough the more I looked through her page, the more cluttered and convoluted it became. While many aspects of her page matched to the norms of an avid user (approximately 1000 friends and 300 tagged photos), the 'likes and interests' tab was completely out of control. She has over 2000 pages liked within her information section. Whether or not this is due to boredom and liking pages is her way to pass the time, the result of 'liking' on this scale has created an utterly confusing image of her that I would contest has negated any sort of persona that used to exist through her Facebook page. She has thusly defeated the purpose of a social network by changing herself from a person in a digital space to a conglomerate of random sayings, things, and situations.

The second person I looked at on Facebook was my younger cousin. Just about to enter high school this year, he has yet to really use Facebook as the social medium that it is. His posts are infrequent, and usually involve cheering for a hockey team. The part I found most interesting on his page was the vast majority of the wall posts were app ads of friends who just completed some sort of quiz on Facebook. Even though our ages are just a few years apart, the differences in how our respective ages are using Facebook is quite remarkable. Personally I hope Facebook does not become a clutter of pointless apps and stays the simple, clean 'social' network rather than a 'self discovery though 10 question quizzes' network.

Another I looked at was a very intelligent friend of mine whom I greatly respect. His use of Facebook is notably different than others I have seen. His use of Facebook is much more sensible than others, which has made it appear much more personal as well. Instantly I noted that his friend count was substantially lower than other people I know, sitting at 162, which shows he considers those people to be people he wants to continually associate with and hear from in the future, rather than having them just as a buffer to a list of names. Also, unlike many others who have defined themselves though liking thousands of generic sayings or situations such as "thinking there is an extra stair, and almost trip because you try to use it", he has defined his personality through his notes, which he portrays his thoughts using his own wording, which is often dense, sophisticated, and sometimes cynical. This is not to say he does not use the 'likes and interests' features on his Facebook page, on the contrary his lists are the most interesting out of all my friends, because I know he put these pages there for a reason rather than just arbitrarily agreeing to a random phrase loaded up on 1000awesomethings.com. He has even taken the time to alphabetize his pages, further showing the care he has taken to tailor his Facebook page to create an image of himself. He is one of the few people I know who self-evaluate their image on Facebook, and his entire page shows his devotion to his identity, and as such he has accurately reflected his real life personality with his digital persona so well that his own biography tab explains him better than I am able to.

From browsing profiles it seems that people definitely have different ideas on how Facebook should be used. Clearly I have a personal philosophy that clashes with many user's practices, yet I think it is because many people have not stepped back to evaluate what their goals are for using social networking sites. What are your thoughts on the purpose these websites, particularly Facebook, should serve?

Facebook identity analysis

When trying to find Facebook profiles to dig deeper into the thing that stands out the most is that most people have the same kind of profile picture. Most of them are pictures of the person himself/herself, some just faces and some a little more. So I tried to look for some different types and ended up with these three...

The first person I watched closer was one of my friends mom. She is friends with many of my friends too because she has been involved with my swim team back home. Her daughter is actually in the U.S. too swimming and studying. Her profile picture is a simple picture of her smiling. Her updates are not very frequent but it is obvious that she does spend a lot of time on Facebook. She writes her daughter a lot and Facebook is obviously a great way to stay in touch when far away from each other. The other things is that she plays games, answers different kind of questions and vote in polls all the time. Her wall is cluttered with those kind of activities and it is actually kind of fun to see, I wouldn't expect her to play ridiculous Facebook games involving pink bunnies... She also has 86 likes and they range from sports clubs to comedians and "the sun".

The second person I looked at is a high school friend of mine. Her profile picture is also just a plain photo of her but I can tell she dressed up for the photo which is also black and white. She updates her status a couple of times a week irregularly and it looks like she mainly writes about stuff she discovers and likes. Like her last one was about a movie she liked. She does a lot of commenting on photos and she also uploads a lot of photos. She has only 5 likes and they are all soccer teams and one night club. She has had 56 profile pictures the last half year which makes me think that her online image is really important to her.

The last person i checked out is a college guy. His profile picture is of him and two other guys and they are just sitting around looking cool. He is very active not necessarily with status updates but with games, links and youtube videos shared on his wall. He haven't uploaded any photo albums himself but he still comments a lot on others. He has a lot of likes and it is mainly TV shows and music.

What all of these people have in common is that they have a lot of friends (except my friends mom). They have over 1000 friends and that seems to be normal among my friends. What they also have in common is that they share little personal information. They do however share a lot of photos and they like to show themselves from a good looking side.

Facebook

More often than not people find themselves using Facebook as a means to communicate with friends, both new and old. Regardless, sometimes friends for the past manage to sneak their way onto your newsfeed and you find yourself wondering what they have been up to. The most interesting part about Facebook essentially enables you to compare/contrast how these individuals have changed. Therefore, I decided to view random profiles of friends from high school that I have not talked to for the past four or so years. I was able to use Facebook pretty much find out anything under the sun about how their lives have unfolded throughout college. In fact, a simple glance at a profile picture can speak volumes about a who a person is. I was inspired to compare what I remembered from high school about these individuals and take note of any major changes. For example, a friend had all these posts about local concerts and I found out that he had pursued his passion from music (of course, I had not known about this until Facebook basically told me). Another girl had an abstract picture as her profile default which helped to to unvail that she was going to school for photography. It's certainly strange to think that this social media tool can revel so much about a person. I'm sure if you went on a current friends profile page you'd find out at least five new things that you never know by simply looking through old albums, reading various posts and truly looking at hobbies and interests.

FCC Values Additional Wireless Spectrum At $120 Billion

I found this article on google yesterday and the continued growth of the wireless internet. With an expected growth of nearly 35 percent in the next year the valued internet space could be worth 120 BILLION$$. The article points out the freeing of white spaces and the involvement of the FCC. With congress being more involved in the internet and controlling the internet we could see some issues develop in the presidential campaign.

Article

Here!

Facebook Stalking Results

I decided to choose the Facebook page of my high school friend, my college friend, and freshman college student.

My high school friend rarely uses status updates, and the only time he does is when there is a date or event he wants everyone to know about. (I don't think he knows or cares about event invitations). He has very little friends, consisting of my high school friends and I, and some friends from his college at BU. He is in no groups and he only likes one thing. His profile pics are random/funny pics of himself or drawings/paintings that he found on the internet. There is only one exclusively about him and he is dressed as a girl. He does not play any games or quizzes

My college friend occasionally uses status updates and again it is only used when he wants to promote an event, or an album/song that is really good. He has many friends, many which I have no idea who they are. Probably if I had to guess they are DJs or other people that are in the music business. He is not in any groups. His profile pics usually consist of him in the process of DJing or its with him and a friend at some memorable place. There is only one portrait picture. He has not played any game or has done any quiz on facebook and I remember him saying that the next person who asks him to visit his or her farm, he will go over to his or her house and break their computer.

The freshman college student uses Facebook in a completely different way than my friends. She updates her status weekly and they range from random thoughts/feelings, to events and inside jokes. She has over 1500 friends and I think they are just anybody that somehow knew her name and requested a friend invitation. I cannot tell if she is in any groups or not. Her profile pics are usually portraits of herself, or a snapshot with her and her friends. There are a couple that seem professionally done, and some that are goofy. Most of the pictures seemed to be taken when she was out partying. She is participating in farmville, and right now I am destroying her in scrabble.

Facebook espionage

The girl that studies abroad
One of my friends is currently in Madrid, Spain and so I thought it might be interesting to see how she uses facebook to stay in touch with her friends in the US. Due to the fact that she is so far away, she always keeps posting stuff. She posts almost every day. And also people respond to it. There are quite many entries on her wall and so I conclude that she is very popular in her circle of friends. She has 1.553 friends, so there are many people she could talk to but the number of people she does is probably way less! Most of her friends are probably people she has gone to High School with or people from classes in college, which is nothing unusual.
Her profile pic looks very much like she is a party person. It's her and a friend of her in it and they are both sort of dressed for going out. They smiles and
look like they were having a good time.
As far as I know her her profile is very accurate. She is a crazy person and her profile and especially the pics she posted show that she really is crazy and down for a good time. So she doesn't perform some different identity.

The second person I looked at posts way less freuquently. She is already in the work-force and is preparing for a big exam. This also becomes clear on her page, because of her posts. She mentiones, for example, that she doesn't want to study any more and things like that. So she posts about 3 times a week. Her friends are majorly friends from school and from work. That is, there also are many "friends" she probably does not care about, but not even close to as many as the other girl has. Her profile pic was taken in Egypt and shows only her. She is very tanned and smiles in front of a river-like pool. I have known her for a long time now and I can say that she does not perform anything and things she has on her profile reflect the way she is.

The last person I looked at was my calculus teacher from ACC. She is 50+, married and has 5 kids. Like probably most older people, she doesn't post very frequently. Her last post was on Oct. 13th and there she only uploaded some pictures from a trip to Vegas. Not a crazy trip though since it was for a wedding. She only has 109 friends, which indicates that she probably selects, who she wants to have as a friend. In her profile pic it is her and an old gentleman, who probably is her dad. Both are dressed up, because it's a picture from the wedding. For her it is the hardest to tell, whether her profile is accurate or not, because she doesn't use it too much and I don't know her well enough. But if I had to make an educated guess, I would say that most things are pretty accurate, since I know her as a pretty straight forward person.

Bookface

So, I'm going to check out a few friends' profiles. But these aren't just three friends I hang out with everyday. Each of these friends is on a different rung of my relationship ladder.

The first is a friend that I met through sister. The friend is six years older than me, and has very different tastes. I see that most of her status updates are actually horoscope updates, and that makes sense because I know this girl is mildly superstitious. When I look through her pictures, I only see two or three out of fifty six that have her son in it. But I know that she's very devoted to being a mother, so I expect to see more pictures of her son. I guess that's just one of those things you get from Facebook, expecting moms to have their kids all over their profiles. I also notice a lot of this girl's pictures have uploaded multiple times, which is funny because I know how technologically challenged she is.

The next friend is one that I met online, through a video game. I've only met her once in person, but I've known her very well for over two years. Her status updates are far apart because she's not a huge Facebook fan, but she has a Facebook because she likes to stay in touch with her friends. Thankfully, I see she only has 236 friends, which is a huge relief compared to so many other profiles with friend counts in the thousands. She doesn't take many quizzes, but the ones she does take usually have science-fictional or mythological themes. And that makes sense because I know she's into folklore and science-fiction. I also know how much of an outgoing and friendly person she is, so it's no wonder that she's alone in only a handful of her pictures.

The final friend is one I've known for years and years. I went to middle school and high school with this guy, and we still hang out all the time. His Wall is cluttered with Happy Birthday's right now, because he just turned 21 two weeks ago. He's also a very outgoing person, and just like the last friend's pictures, there are only a handful that show this friend by himself. The big difference here is that this friend is usually at least slightly intoxicated in his pictures. He's also a fan of a lot of things like "Beer Pong!" and various hookah bars around Denver. So someone could see him being sort of proud of his alcoholic escapades.

Book of Faces

College male-

The first profile I decided to look at is an old family friend of mine who I grew up with. He is a sophomore in college at a school in Texas. The first thing I noticed was his profile picture, which is clearly a picture of him with his girlfriend. I have noticed that it is pretty common to feature your significant other in your profile pictures as if you want to publicly display how happy you and your other are. I then noticed it says he has 1,070 friends, which I highly doubt that he is actually friends with all of these people. This could mean he is either a friendly guy who doesn't say no to friend requests, or that he wants people to think he is extremely popular. He filled out a few areas of interest and the biography, but nothing extensive. Him and his girlfriend are clearly "Facebook official" as well- which is another thing I find entertaining about Facebook. Does being official on Facebook really say anything about the quality of your relationship- I think not.

Older Female-

The second person I looked at on Facebook was a 52 year old mother of two. Her profile picture is of her and her two kids, which I think is extremely common with older Facebook users with kids. She rarely updates her status and is rarely tagged in pictures. However she often posts pictures of her and the kids, as if she wants to show the world all of the great things her and her family do. Lastly, I noticed that she includes her maiden name as well as her married name on Facebook. This is most likely because she wants older friends from her past to be able to locate her and reconnect with her. She rarely writes on other people's walls or has any Facebook activity for that matter. It seems that for her, Facebook is more about connecting with people from the past while promoting her children.

Denver College Female-

The last person that I "analyzed" on Facebook is a senior at DU. I recently because friends with her because we have a class together but I dont feel like I know her on a personal level. Her current profile picture does not have her in it- it's actually a promotion for a sorority event coming up. I find it interesting that the first thing you notice on her page isn't a picture of her- but of a sorority event. This says to me that her sorority is her life and that she is very dedicated to it. The second thing I noticed was how she was tagged in over 1000 pictures, some of which would not be appropriate for an employer of teacher to see. You would think she would untag some? or edit the privacy settings. She also frequently updates her status, all of which fill you in on what she is doing that minute as well as sorority events going on in her life.

It's really funny how Facebook can say so much about a person. Whether it be a sorority girl that seems to be nothing but sorority, or an older mom promoting her kids- we all chose what we display to the public which indirectly dictates what people think about us.

facebook friends.

College Friend:

The first profile I looked at was of one of my close friends who attends CU. She has 704 friends, I can't imagine that she actually knows them all - some of these must just people who have gone to the same school or something. She has put time into writing up her information. Her schools and jobs are listed. She has filled in favorite books, music, activities, etc and has 85 likes. She has several photo albums and tends to choose profile pictures of herself with friends partying. My friend doesn't use any of the game/quiz applications. She mostly uses facebook to talk to friends and updates her status about once a week (sometimes saying what she's up to or music lyrics). Her recent activity also shows that she uses facebook events - mostly school events. Her uses facebook in the ways that I would expect her to, she's very social and keeps in touch with friends through facebook.

Spanish Teacher:

The next profile belonged to a teacher I had in high school. He is in his thirties, married, with four kids. He doesn't seem to log on very often. His only recent post was an article on the tennis team that he coaches. He doesn't have many friends. Mostly prior students from what I can tell. I was kind of surprised to see that he was on top of filling out his information - activities, education, work. Most of profile pictures are of him and his family - he does have one of the kid-as-self photos. He also an additional album of more pictures of his kids. His profile is what I would expect from a man of his age - he is too busy teaching, coaching and being dad to be spending much time on facebook.

Blonde:

The final profile belonged to a girl who attended the same high school as me. Her profile is everything I find annoying about facebook (except the use of farmville). She has many self-taken photos. There are also some "modeling" photos. She frequently posts multiply times a day, often from her phone. I could infer that she's currently going through a break-up. There are many posts that make it pathetically obvious - "I've said times before, I think I'm over you but I'm really not sure" and "You don't hurt me no more." She has lots of activity - posting on other profile's and comments from others on her profile. She has filled in her activities and interests but hasn't put anything education or work related. I don't really know the girl but from her profile I could tell she's into her self.

Profile Observations

Married Man

When looking at this friend’s site he includes information such as married status, who his kids are, and his profile picture is of one of his daughter. It is interesting because there is something to be said of the fact he doesn’t use his own picture for his profile. He also makes a lot of status updates on his wall. There are about as many status updates as other posts from other people. In my opinion this goes to show that he spends more time on his own profile then people spend looking at his. Or he is trying to get more people to view his profile by posting his own comments.

Female College Student

This friend of mine has a profile picture that is of her in a dress. It is in a portrait style. This is one that makes more sense because it is actually of her. This shows how she cares more about how people may see her when they first click on her profile. She doesn’t give any information about herself other than her birth date. She does focus on having many photo albums. She has over 65. This makes me think that she really cares a lot about the perception people have of her through photos.

Female College Student

This is another interesting profile. This friend is a freshman who came into college with an out of state boyfriend. She uses his picture as her profile picture. Maybe this is being used as to make sure that others know she is dating? In a way it could represent the insecurities that both of them have of being away from each other and now being in college. She also has over 1,000 friends. Clearly she doesn’t know all of these people.

Facebook Profiles: A grandma, a student, a girl

I looked at the Facebook profiles of three people, my grandma, a female college student, and a teenage girl not in school. My grandma recently created a Facebook, and her profile picture is of her and my dad. She only has 13 friends, and has made only one status update since she created the account a month ago.

The student's profile picture was a full body shot, posed for that makes her look sweet and innocent, which she mostly is. She updates her status about once a week, sometimes complaining about classes. I noticed that she likes 60 things, and has a realistic number of 270 friends.

The teenage girl's profile is a wedding picture of opening presents with her young husband. I noticed that she makes status updates quite often, sometimes more than once a day, and she posts strange things like,"Single Dad Laughing: Memoirs of a Bullied Kid." A lot of her updates are not necessary in my opinion. She has 574 friends, but knowing how friendly she is, she has likely met them all in person. She likes 124 things, which, along with the updates, shows that she spends a lot more time on Facebook than the other two people I looked at.

I didn't really notice anything new by looking at these profiles. I just felt a little weird snooping on a single person's page for so long. It does seem that people who know how to use Facebook well, unlike my grandma, and who don't have a lot of other things to worry about or do for fun, will update statuses more often and post random things that could be interesting or not.

optional assignment for this weeks blog post

Choose 3 of your "friends" facebook pages and for each, analyze how that person is performing their identity via their facebook page.

Consider the following questions and write up your observations for each profile as your blog post for this week:

How frequent and timely are their status updates?
Who or what are their friends?
What groups are the in?
What their profile pics like? (what are they of and if they are of the person how are they portrayed?)
What quizzes and other "games" participate in and post the results of?

Facebookage

Looking at peoples pages for an assignment is much different than just the normal facebookage. I noticed more about the small things that I wouldn't normally see. I gained insight as to what exactly is going down.

It really differs among different ages is the main part. Those who are younger, do quiz's and those kinds of clutter. (farmville) Those who are older tend to do more mature activities like posting a stumble or a YouTube video. It changes for ages as well as activities outside of facebook.

My sports buddies usually have Adrien Peterson or a snap shot of them playing their sport. They also put their status as the game from last night, who won and their take on it. My motor head buddies have pics of doing wheelies or flying through the air on a jet ski, making movies of doing spins on a bmx or flipping the wake on a wake board. Its comes down to what they want everyone to see and think.

Everyone documents their summer enjoyment, winter sports and college parties. It's usually good if its coming from your own camera but it can be a little embarrassing if you weren't looking or don't remember...

I find a lot of my college friends posting their status as what shows they are seeing soon. It is a good way for people to get that out and get people jealous. Its also common for ever other person who is going to "like" it. It's super common here because Denver has one of the best music scenes. "Capital of dubstep" as one DU student just set as their status.

Facebook is what we make of it, it's collectively put together by us, the users.

The Book

I just finished roaming around facebook for an hour an tried to take as many notes but kept finding myself caught up in everyone's photos and news. Usually when I sign on to facebook I browse up and down the newsfeed looking at the current things everyone is uploading. Then I will click on whatever is interesting or make a smartass comment on someones status. I rarlley update my status but when I do I receive some foul comments.
Anyways, I looked around some of my friends profiles and others. I noticed that whoever I was friends with I could see whatever I wanted, updates, photos, ect. When I linked to non-friends but had mutual friends security setting were different. If I had no mutual friends security settings were strict not seeing anything besides a name. Interesting, it's pretty hard to find someone without mutual friends. About half of my friends had updated their status and had a current profile picture from atleast the summer. I think everyone loves to put a picture on from summer. After I realized more people than I thought had security settings I went and changed mine, you should too.

Creeping on Profiles

In order to gain an understanding for what people are doing on Facebook. I viewed some of my friends profiles, gathering information about their security settings, provided personal information, profile picture choices, activities, status updates, and the like.

I discovered the majority of profile pictures had the person who owned the profile with at least one other person. Mostly friends. A lot of pictures of people who are currently seniors in high school have profile pictures of their senior photo. While many new college freshman have pictures of themselves with people in their sorority/fraternity, in a dorm, or at a party. There were some who had profile pictures with their significant other and they were usually girls profiles. None of my friends have a blank picture spot.

As far as security settings, there are a few of my friends, mostly males, who have a profile completely open to the public. There are others who have things such as photos hidden from everyone, as well as people who put very little information on their profile.

There are also people who are very active on their Facebooks. There are constant status updates, quizzes and games, pictures, joining groups, and becoming a fan.

Although most of my friend's profiles appear to be used predominantly for socializing, there are still many who use it for gaming, work, advertising, and other things.

The Business Of Burying Internet Search Results

NPR's story today on how companies, politicians and even individuals are not only working toward SEO, but also in how to push negative search results down ion the rankings.

Perhaps some characteristics are so inherently human that not even the internet can stem them for long...

Sunday Post: Fast ForWord

To aid some children's learning progress, their is a computer program which strengthens auditory and reading skills. It is a educational software intended to improve cognitive skills like memory, attention, processing rate and sequencing for children. It is commonly used for children with a range of reading problems or cognitive disorders. The companies web site, shows more information about their product. I did use a little of this program to aid my Dyslexia back in intermediate school.

Half of Sweden's two-year olds have used computer

A swedish study that researched the media usage by kids in the ages 2-9 years showed that half of the populations two-year olds have used a computer. 2000 parents were asked about their kids habits and the main things swedish kids do on the internet is gaming and visiting children websites such as popular TV shows websites (for example visiting Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon). The study shows that 63% of kids 2-5 use the internet regularly. In the ages 5-9, 96% of the kids use internet daily. When asked about who's responsible for what the kids experience on the internet, 3/4 thinks it is the parents job. But the main media consumption in these ages however still occur in front of the TV.

This shows, what we all pretty much know by now, that media usage on the internet touches everyone today. Even 2 year-olds are exposed to the content and I think it is definitely the parents job to make sure how the kids experience the internet. However as they get older and learns how to filter things on their own and learn that not everything is real and so on, they should get more freedom and responsibility. I thinks it is always good to have a dialogue about what kids are doing on the internet, but not surveillance the kids usage.

Did you get carried away a bit too much?

I was looking around on youtube the other day and I found this kinda funny video, where a kid (maybe 6 years old) plays with his gameboy. Certainly there is something not quite working as he wanted to. So he gets a little mad... Then I found another video of a German kid that wants to play Unreal Tournament and he is really really into it, not to say that he is totally freaking out about it. (By the way it's German and he keeps screaming that he wants to play and that this SoB should start and so on...)
After I saw that video I thought it was kinda sad, because some kids seem to not be able to control themselves and they get so carried away by their games that they literally freak out totally!

Italian Censorship

I have always found it fascinating to see how censorship laws vary from country to country. Although I am not a world renowned traveler, it is become quite apparent that various countries maintain much stricter laws when it comes to prohibiting advertisements. This became very apparent to me in my travels over seas to Italy. More often than not, billboards/ads/tv commercials featured in this country exhibited some sort of nudity - often featuring woman. It goes without saying that sex sells. However, Italians do not have a problem showing a little skin here and there to sell the latest fashion apparel or to create a little buzz around a new advertising campaign. In fact, there were even yogurt commercials that portrayed nudity to help exemplify how the product helped to maintain regularity.

New tech, but what about new ways of learning it?

Lot's of talk about how hooligans in this day of age don't have to walk up hill both ways, simply because they can use their fancy gadgets to plot them them the actual walkable route to school. You don't need to watch CNN to hear that kids have a better grasp on technology than their parents. Perhaps it was because being exposed at an early age helps the adoption (like a foreign language) to new concepts. Being interested in what the interaction of games can not only do for our idea of fun, but also other aspects of life, I remembered this old article: "What Kids Learn That’s POSITIVE From Playing Video Games" Its kind of a 'well ya, ok, I buy that' article, but you know its worth at least a skim when the intro sentence is I think all of these positions are wrong. It covers some points (for 2002) that were still in denial. In fact, as someone who reads a lot about making games, it even has some cross-examples about how to teach players. Anyway, it basically talks about 5 distinct ways of a new way to learn, something that was also covered in a past presentation, which is something I deem more interesting (and important) than how fast 5 year olds can text! :)

Online Relationships

It is fair to say that today's youth are certainly becoming more reliant on the internet to maintain and develop relationships. Of course there are websites like Match.com that allow for virtual connections to be made; however, these are geared much more towards a mature audience. Society has enabled children to ditch the simple act of writing a letter or using the telephone to initiate any sort of conversation. Instead, the easy click of a button has taken away the value of these basic means of communication. There certainly are individuals that see no harm in these technologically savvy endeavors - yet, today's youth is relying too heavily on using the Internet to create alternate personas as say whatever they want to say without suffering the consequences. This inevitably plays an intricate role in the way today's youth handle everyday social encounters. The Internet without a doubt provides a quick and efficient way to communicate, but perhaps there comes a time when such efficiencies should merely be explored by those who are socially mature.

Kids-Online

There is this site, Kids-online.net, that is a social networking site for kids. It is very easy to use and kid-friendly. There is a chat room, bulletin board, arcade, learning zone, and more. "Your Spot" is a place where kids can post their own stories, artwork, etc. Kids can make "email pals" and communicate with other kids around the world. There is even a page where kids can learn about friends from different countries by clicking on a country's flag. When you click on a flag you can read what other kids have written about their country. To me, this site seems like a great place for kids from all over the world to communicate, share, and learn together.

Growing Up in Someone Else's Shoes

We've been talking a lot about growing up on the internet recently, and I wanted to talk about one aspect of this: Role playing. No, I don't mean in the bedroom, I mean in online games. There are a lot of games where the player takes on the role of the character, and that's all fine and scripted to the confines of the storyline in the game. But there are also very customizable games on the internet where players can create their own life to live out. It can become very addictive, and very time consuming, but many role players would argue that the reward of fun and unimaginable creativity are well worth all that. Here's a thread that can introduce you to the art of role play.

Discussion Questions: How Obama Really Did It

1. How did the Obama campaign use technology to its advantage?

2. What are some examples of online communication translating into offline action?

3. How does the game Pork Invaders illustrate the difference between the strategies of the Obama and McCain campaigns?

4. How is participatory culture a factor in the campaigns? What are some examples?

5. Were the YouTube debates an example of participatory culture?

Discussion Questions: Youth Online

Why Heather can't Write

1. What are the 2 conflicts associated with “the Potter wars”?

2. What are affinity spaces?

3. Can affinity spaces be translated to school?

Digital Youth White Paper

1. What were the two main research questions?

2. How was the research conducted?

3. Discuss the 3 genres of participation:
Hanging out
Messing around
Geeking out

4. And the 3 other foci:
networked publics
peer-based learning
new media literacy

Why do youth (heart) social networks?

1. Why do they?

2. What are networked publics?

3. What are the 4 properties not typically present in face-to-face public life?

4. What is impression management?

5. What can we know by studying facebook and myspace profiles?

Improv Everywhere, a Good Use of Social Digital Media

While we have watched and read some very negative things about digital media and user-generated content, I wanted to blog about a positive result of these mediums. Improv Everywhere is a great example about how online communities are supportive, original, and fun.

For those who do not know what Improv Everywhere is, it is in essence a flash mob structured around a particular set of actions or achieving a certain goal. Open to everyone, the group organizes events though an e-mail list where they send out information to potential participants. This type of organized event epitomizes both youth participation in social and digital media since it is a 'user' generated spectacle organized through the internet.

Here is a blog post with some of their famous events.

Subway Convergence

4 men, 4 phones, 1 speaker = media convergence.

"A band called Atomic Tom offered a fascinating full-band performance using four iPhones and a portable speaker system."

The convergence of music and phones is not a new idea per say, yet the above it. Actually using a phone to create music is a new way of blending two different types of media. I think of convergence as accessibility. It speaks to our current, fast paced, instantly gratifying culture that convergence exists. How would we ever survive without place holder instruments on our phones? I love this video. It is creative, entertaining, and new, but it does bring up some thoughts. I am not saying that I think convergence is bad, its not, it brings ease, and much more into peoples lives, I am merely asking, at what point is it too much?

Kids and Cell Phones

With all this talk about kids and technology and the Internet, I began to think about the kids I babysit for. One family has two kids ages 9 and 12 and they both have a cell phone. I remember getting my first cell phone when I was thirteen, and I think I was a little ahead of the game at the time. How young do you think is to young for a cell phone? According to the center of media and child health, 22% of children ages 6-9 own a cell phone and 60% of kids ages 10-14 do.

On the one hand, having a nine year old carry a cell phone is great for safety but on the other, is it just another way kids are over connected? How did we survive in a time when we weren't constantly connected?

In this Time article here, they speak about the hidden negatives to kids and cell phones that parents often overlook for safety reasons:

But cell phones took us by surprise: so small, so innocent, so powerful in the hands of a bored or twisted teen who now has an extremely efficient tool for wasting time, cheating on tests, organizing fights, bullying classmates, phoning in bomb threats, arranging drug deals and, more commonly, vamping in a junior-varsity version of Girls Gone Wild.

What do you think?

Internet Dangers? Safer than we think?

In this article, David Pogue of the New York Times discusses the vulnerability of young children to dangers on the internet. He makes a good point that this issue of internet dangers for children is often overblown by the parents. A lady he interviewed said when a pornographic image came up on her daughter's computer, she ran at the computer, pulled the plug, and brought her daughter outside immediately. His argument is that these young children often are not affected in ways that the parents think they will be.

When David's son was searching for a picture of The Incredibles and an altered nude picture of them came up, he simply said "Yeah, I know. Some people like pictures of naked people." His son was not phased by the experience due to his father handling the matter in an appropriate manner. He also discusses the likelihood of a child actually being contacted by a predator online. Most children are smarter than we think, and research shows that most harassment, sexual or not, comes from other teens rather than internet predators.

Lesley's Presentation 10/18/2010: Should kids use social networking sites?

When studying kids on Facebook we find that many parents become concerned with what their child is doing online. I discovered that there are a variety of books, online articles, websites, TV interviews, and the like that are all focused on parents, kids, and social networking. Below I have a few videos that will give a taste of this.

Tips from a kid

A young girl comments on why she uses Facebook and what other kids can do to convince their parents to let them get a Facebook too. She gives tips on how to be safe with Facebook as well.

Tips from the President

President Obama comments on Facebook and how kids need to be safe when using it.

Tips from a therapist

Therapist and Life Coach, Didi Zahariades, MA, gives a talk on Parenting Today about kids and teens using Facebook and how parents need to step in to make sure kids are being safe online and not posting anything risky (such as pictures, messages, etc.) as well as not hiding anything from the adult.

Tips from parents

Authors of the book The Smart Parents Guide to Facebook talk about how Facebook is safe for kids and how the main danger of Facebook is cyber bullying. They also talk about how kids should only have a Facebook if they are mature enough to understand how to stay safe on the site.

Facebook for Kids

This video introduces a version of Facebook for kids called Face Chips.

Video Gaming and Visual Improvement

When reading the article about education coming from social networking here for class, it made me think about the visual stimulation that comes from video game interaction. Many of the online game playing is in a way like social networking. It gives people another opportunity to learn from each other and interact. In addition it gives the opportunity to collaborate with one another.

I have always heard rumors that video gaming helps reaction time and improves vision. I found here in this article that they have researched and people that game regularly have an average of 43% larger grayscale that they can see. Although there is much argument of too much time spent playing video games, I do think it can be beneficial for vision and increased motor function.