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Posts tagged social media
Hey, ‘Friend,’ Do You ‘Like’ My Sad Story?
I recently “liked” a story about five people dying in an explosion in Connecticut.
I didn’t actually “like” the fact that five people had died in a terrible accident. Technically, I didn’t even “like” the story — I found the reporting and writing informative and the narrative engrossing, but not the contents of the piece. On Facebook, however, the only option I had to tell people I had read the article was to either add a comment or press the little “like” button that appears at the bottom of everyone’s status update.
The same act of “liking” something applies to the Web site Tumblr. Several weeks ago, when I visited a friend’s Tumblr Web site, at the top of the page sat a series of photos from the devastation in Haiti. There were images of dead bodies, of toppled buildings and of a child crying in the street. Yet below all of this there were a series of tiny icons with people’s names saying they “liked” this set of images.
You can also find these strange juxtapositions on Google Buzz and on the fan pages of Facebook.
Although these calls for approval have been around for a long time on social networks, they can still be jarring and confusing when this terminology is used in the wrong context.
» via The New York Times
A 2009 study by Proofpoint found that 17% of co.s report having issues w/employees’ use of social media & 8% have dismissed someone for their behavior on those sites.
You humans are strange creatures. You extol your every technological advancement, call your cell phones smart, and describe social media as a revolution. Meanwhile, whether you realize it or not, nature has already bested you. For fifty million years, whales have been using sonar to broadcast our status across hundreds of nautical miles. My social network numbers in the thousands. Once, I picked up a female in Madagascar. We rubbed up against each other and sloughed off large sheets of skin. That’s no euphemism for sex. It’s how we keep ourselves free of disgusting marine organisms.
— McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Fail Whale Speaks. (via switchedblog) (via urlesque) (via computereze)
My favorite history of news nugget is that America papers originally had a blank page at the back. People would write notes and opinions and pass the paper on…
Social is so 18th century.
How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement
Professors who wish to engage students during large lectures face an uphill battle. Not only is it a logistical impossibility for 200+ students to actively participate in a 90 minute lecture, but the downward sloping cone-shape of a lecture hall induces a one-to-many conversation. This problem is compounded by the recent budget cuts that have squeezed ever more students into each room.
Fortunately, educators (including myself) have found that Twitter is an effective way to broaden participation in lecture. Additionally, the ubiquity of laptops and smartphones have made the integration of Twitter a virtually bureaucracy-free endeavor. This post describes the two main benefits professors find when using Twitter in lecture.
» via Mashable
According to a new study called “Trust Barometer”* done by Edelman, 3 out of 4 people do not trust their friends and peers as credible sources of information about products or companies. Not only that, in the past two years, the number of people who trust recommendations from friends and peers has dropped almost in half, from 45% to 25%
Chatroulette: From Art To Commodity
Chatroulette will not remain in its current incarnation very long because, surely, Chatroulette will be commodified. It will be purchased by a big Internet company, filtered, gated, and released to fabulous success. (Or simply copied: look for a Facebook random video “chat in your network” feature). For now, however, it’s a little boundary pushing portal of digital art. Chatroulette reminds us that the Internet is like a muscle. It strengthens when torn.
Social networks last place consumers head to research purchases
The word of friends and family has the most influence over a person’s buying decisions, found a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp. for ARAnet. When asked the importance of 14 different information sources, almost 60% cited their personal network, more than TV broadcasts (40%) and search engines (39%).
However, social networks don’t rank as highly. Just 18% of respondents cited them as a preferred source of recommendations for products and services. While an increased preference for online media was apparent among young adults aged 25 - 34, social media remains the least popular with 31% compared to search engines (50%), online articles (39%) and retail emails (32%).
» via BizReport » via ResourceShelf
China's President Hu signs up for microblogging
China’s President Hu Jintao has set up a microblogging account that has drawn thousands of followers as of Monday, in a country where social networking sites remain tightly controlled.
The account was set up on a microblogging platform operated by the People’s Daily, the main print media mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, which Hu heads.
Hu’s profile contained no message, photo or information other than his name and official titles.
The state-controlled Global Times newspaper said the People’s Daily had set up its microblogging site on February 1.
It said it had confirmed with the site that Hu’s account was genuine.
» via Yahoo! News
PleaseRobMe and the Dangers of Location-Based Social Networks
Location-based social networks like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and Google Buzz are currently among the fastest growing new mobile services. All of these apps have one thing in common: they encourage you to share your current location with the rest of the world. By doing this, though, you are also telling people where you are not: at home. A new site, PleaseRobMe, plays on this theme and displays real-time updates from Foursquare users who broadcast their check-ins on Twitter.
» via ReadWriteWeb
Original Content — Copyright © 2010
Christopher D. Barth.
Excerpted Content — Copyright held by the original publisher. Email copyright inquiries.
