Social Media: Bad for Business

I drew my inspiration for this week's blog from the AJC article, "Alcohol, Facebook don't mix well for eatery".

This article brings up an interesting point about the fine line between the wonderful feeling of connectedness social media bring and the increasingly "big brother" tool it has developed in to.

Yes, we all love Facebook: it keeps us connected to our world without all that hassle of actually leaving your room. You can keep up with high school friends, or stalk the people who aren't so much your friends, and see what type of life they are living. It has become the ultimate form of expression. People can find out anything they want about you, from what you did last weekend to who you are dating. They know how many friends you have, what their names are, and even what they look like. Many college students spend hours critiquing their own profile. It serves as a major way they are judged as a person, after all.

One of the things that seems to be popular amongst students is showing how much "fun" you are having in college. From wall posts to album names, and to extremely embarassing pictures, many young adults post pictures scandalous enough to horrify their grandmother.

Because many students jumped on to Facebook when it was just meant for universities, many think that whatever they put on here will only be seen by the people they want. Not true.

It doesn't take much intellect or creativity to find those tell-all photos. You never know who is viewing them or whose "Facebook Feed" you are showing up on.

Just today, I got on to discover that my mom created her own Facebook account. I did not learn this because she friended me, instead I saw on the feed "Lisa Rowe Lee is now friends with Leslie Nolan".  Lisa, my mother, had no idea that I would ever discover she had her own page. She no doubtedly created it thinking she could spy on my younger brother. Why would she add her high school friend and not her own son/daughter? Not only is my brother now running the risk of being grounded for an inappropriate wall post, this little story also illustrates how I was able to discover this fact without my mom ever finding out. The moral of the story is that you never know who is looking at your profile or what kinds of things people can find out about you.

We've all heard a million times that employers are using Facebook as a way to screen potential employees. Graduating seniors will now have to ask themselves what is more important to them? Showing off their "fun" factor to all of their friends, or use Facebook as a tool to promote yourself as a professional? Hiding your profile only tells employers that you have something to hide.

It has also been an interesting case study for businesses. Many are taking advantage of the network Facebook offers by creating their own profiles, groups and events. At first, it seems like a wonderful advertising asset.

But as the Kennesaw restaurant has proved, it more bittersweet than a PR goldmine. Big Brother is now lurking around every corner, in every digital camera and in every cell phone. If you are involved in any type of nefarious activity whatsoever, all it takes is a second and the eternalized proof of your blunder can be blasted across the nation.

Social media has drastically changed our world in many ways, and watching the way we all scramble to react to this increasing phenomenon will be interesting.

new media in politics

“Any politician who fails to recognize that we are in a post-party era with a new political ecology in which connecting like minds and forming a movement is so much easier will not be around long."

Andrew Rasiej said this in a recent New York Times article, How Obama Tapped into Social Networks' Power.
As the article said, Jefferson had newspapers, FDR had radio, JFK understood TV, and Howard Dean used the Web to raise political money. Now, Obama can successfully claim social networking media. Recently named Marketer of the Year, it is difficult to argue that Obama's campaign was anything short of genius. He and his staff truly understood the voters and connected with them on an innovative new level. A level that illustrated to them that he was forward-thinking technology-wise, that he was relatable because he liked the same applications they liked (from text messaging to Twitter), and that he cared about connecting to them as individuals. He's friends with important individuals like Marc Andreessen (Facebook!), he sends them personalized texts, and he even has his own ringtone. According to young adults, Obama could be the epitome of popular.
This strategy very likely put him in the Oval Office, so now what?
But will Obama's popularity with his oh-so-loyal fan base chalk up to just a passing fad? Like so many other things made popular by YouTube or viral videos?
Or will he maintain these relationships? If so, what does that mean to the White House, traditionally a place that values confidentiality in the name of things such as national security? What will this new transparancy mean, not only to the way people view the White House in general, but to how a president lives his life? Supporters are going to expect the same level of committment to personalization from Obama, otherwise they may feel neglected. While he's in the middle of a campaign, he texts them, but now that he's gotten where he's going, they don't hear from him again. Silly, but it may leave many feeling cold.
Not only his campaign, but the overall experience that the pervasiveness of media creates puts added stress on a president. They are constantly sharing each moment of their life with millions, some who are eager to critique. Everywhere they turn, there is a reporter, a broadcaster, a blogger, a YouTube-er. Anyone can disseminate any kind of information to thousands instantly.

Rasiej authored another chilling quote in the article:
"Yes, we have met Big Brother, the one who is always watching. And Big Brother is us.”

New Web TV Shows Change the Face of Entertainment

I want to talk about yet another way technology is slowly changing every little facet about our surroundings.
Recently, my class held a conference call with Hayden Black, the writer and producer of Goodnight Burbank and Abigail's Teen Diary. These shows are made for the internet and have garnered a large following and fan base. They are currently looking at advertising to increase their revenues.
The fact that so many people are now choosing to receive their entertainment over the internet raises countless interesting questions.
How will this new medium change the type of messages that are delivered? Abigail's Teen Diary is a series of diary messages a teenage girl delivers through her webcam. This type of story would never work for regular TV episodes. Thirty-minute long monologues would put viewers to sleep. However, internet shows are typically much shorter than regular TV shows, so five-minute monologues work well.
That also raises the question: what is the ideal length of an internet show? The Abigail shows average five minutes. Many other web episodes last around ten to fifteen minutes.
How will these short increments affect the way we take in our entertainment?
It seems that as we get used to this general time frame, it could make us all even more ADD than we already are.
Finally, how does this affect the way people write? Writers for web episodes will have to conform to completely new standards.
Hayden Black also mentioned the fact that writers for the 21st century will have to be able to do it all: write for TV, write for web episodes, and be able to use all of the multimedia (everything from iPods to Facebook) to promote your show.
It is interesting food for thought.

What else is right under our noses?

I saw on the news the other day where people are putting surveillence videos exposing theives stealing from their home while they are away. They hope that putting these videos up will increase awareness of how these criminals are getting into the houses and hoping that they might get identified. This is just one of the many things that are popping up every day challenging our previous notions of what new media can do. This seems to open so many doors. Could we put these videos up on local news or community/neighborhood sites? That will make it easier to identify the person because they likely live nearby and will likely hit other houses nearby.

This is a possibility that has always been out there. Youtube has been around for years, surveillence cameras for even longer. How many other possibilities are just sitting in front of our noses? New media seems to present endless possibilities to make our lives easier, safer, and more enjoyable. I just think it is interesting to see what all will come out of this and see how people will use new media in innovative ways in the future.

Video Games and Learning

I once had a professor that said video games are the novels of the 21st century.

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a novel is "an invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events."

I am not very familiar with video games, but I once saw a friend play a game called "Assassins Creed." In this game, he was given several objectives and upon reaching each checkpoint, he learned more information and was given new tasks. The "story" of my friend's character was definitely made up, by him and by the creators of the game. It was a long and complex story, it took him a couple of weeks to finally win the game. It dealt with humans: he was a paid assassin living in medieval times who dealt with people, either by saving them or killing them. It dealt with social issues. It was depressing and revealing about human tendencies.

It is a lot like a novel, just different. Many people don't consider games like Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto to be like novels because they lack a central plot, are full of rotten characters, and the protagonist is not an appealing person. At the same time, these people herald novels like The Sun Also Rises, never thinking about the fact that it lacks plot, is full of selfish characters, and has a very unhappy and unfulfilling ending. Like the important novels we love, these games CAN BE an exploration of human's actions and consequences. The developers write the story for you, and you live it through the controlers. Just as readers live it through the text.

Another game I find particularly helpful in education are the war games. Another friend of mine loved "Call of Duty." I wouldn't mind watching him play it: he'd turn off the lights and turn the volume way up, and it was almost like watching a movie. Although, we were much more invested in it than we would be a movie. We participated in the story by pushing the controls. When people read, they feel more connected to the story because they are participating: they use their imagination to create the surroundings from the novel and to decide what people look like. Games draw people's emotions in the same way. When they take an active stance on a story, they are more invested and learn more about the situation. It is like Holly McLaughlin said in the New York Times article, "The Future of Reading." At first she failed at the game because she made leadership decisions that led to the demise of her colony. Playing helped her gain a deeper appreciation for why leaders made certain decisions.
Both novels and video games give people the ability to truly experience emotions of people in different situations. Video games just have a greater capability of reaching out to children.

- from October 6th -

The iPhone: can it solve America's healthcare problems?

This weekend, I held the iPhone for the first time. I was finally able to use the touch screen and explore the Apps store.

Because I only had a little time to play with it, I was only able to look at the applications for one category: Health and Fitness. I know we've been talking about how the iPhone is changing the way we interact with technology, but after seeing the types of things it can do for health, it reached a whole new level for me.
First off, the "jump rope" app is pretty neat - who knew you could exercise with your phone? Another thing I found interesting was the fact that there were several ways you could use the phone as a type of health log. You could track what you ate, how much you exercised, and how your body was changing and the phone would give you feedback on what you are doing right, what you're doing wrong, and tips to make it easier. There were dozens of different programs you could get on, most between $3 and $10, that promised to help you become more proactive in your health. They were like personal dieticians and trainers that designed diets and workouts just for you and your lifestyle, and they fit in your pocket! There was an application on there that linked you to a database that housed caloric information about food served in popular chains. So if say, you were at Arbys and you were trying to decide between a roast beef sandwhich or one of their turkey melts, you would know just how many more calories the turkey melt had. You could even find out what percentage of the sandwhich is protein, what percentage is carbohydrate, and what percentage is fat. Find another application, and it could tell you the possible ways you could exercise to work off just that amount of calories.
With all this information, is it possible that the iPhone can help cure the overweight epidemia in America?
And what other health benefits could this device hold for us? How can apps help people not only stay healthy, but how can it help some who are suffering from some type of disease? Tons of information is now at our fingertips at all times. I think it will be incredibly interesting to see how devices like the iPhone affect us down the road.

Newspapers on Portable Devices

We have spent a lot of time discussing the practicability of Kindle in one of my classes recently. The general consensus was divided. Half thought that Kindle would be used by an older crowd, elderly people who couldn't get around to the bookstores very often. This group thought Kindle would be very successful.
The other group did not think that elderly people would be interested in the Kindle at all. Although it supposedly had easy readability, it will be too difficult for many people to adjust to this new form of reading and it will be painstaking to read small print on the tiny device. This group thought it would be used mostly by the businessmen and women who travel often and would use Kindle on planes and during the commute.
I don't think that Kindle will really catch on the way a lot of other portable devices have. It is innovative and interesting, but it costs a lot of money and the perks don't outweigh the cons enough for it to cost as much as it does. It will be difficult to flip back and forth between pages, and sometimes it is just nice to curl up with a REAL book.
I do, however, think that the portable devices designed for newspapers will catch on. People who are likely to use these things, the more career-driven and more affluent Americans, will more likely see the benefits in investing in this over the Kindle. Although you can read newspapers on Kindle, it hasn't really been promoted as something to store newspapers and to eliminate printing costs and hassles, so many people who would like it for that reason don't really think about it that way.