Group items tagged

"Kony2012," an activist movement aimed at arresting Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, has recently harnessed the power of social media (especially Facebook and Twitter) to spread its message. This is just one of the articles I've found that examines the role of social media in modern-day activism.

Johanna Blakely discusses gender and social media in relation to demographics and women's popular use of social media.

Since Mikenna bookmarked a New York Times article about Pinterest, I've been thinking about what makes that site different (and, in my opinion, more successful) than other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. According to this Huffington Post article, "What sets Pinterest apart and makes it so appealing is its focus on who we want to be -- not on what we're doing, where we've gone, how important we are or how beloved. While much of the content shared on existing social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare screams, 'Look at me,' Pinterest posts urge, 'Look at this.'" While I agree with that idea to some extent, I wonder if we can ever engage in social media/social networking without an air of "look at me." This made me think of Goldsmith's idea of Internet identity: "On the Internet, these tendencies move in different directions, with identity running the gamut from authenticity to total fabrication" (84). So, maybe Pinterest allows its users to create a more authentic identity for themselves while Facebook and Twitter promote more fabricated identities.

NPR discusses how the use of social media has brought the Treyvon Martin case into national spotlight.

This article goes along with Lovink's idea in "MyBrain.net" that we "constantly login, create profiles in order to present our 'selves' on the global market place of employment, friendship and love. . . Trust is the oil of global capitalism and the security state, required by both sides in any transaction or exchange" (4-5). It looks like identity fraud is what happens when we trust too easily on social media sites.

This is the social networking homepage of a online gaming website, IGN. I wanted to share this because it seems to overtly combine the gaming and social elements of social media. It also, similar to the AXE site, allows users to follow certain products and claim an identity based on what products the user owns in comparison to other members of the community. Within the site itself members have some level of gaining badges and competing by listing and comparing their games and interacting with each other. Also, on the level of competition, there are prizes available for different interactions on this site which further invokes the sense of gaming and competition.

A nice theme for the weekend-- Social Media blurs religious traditions OR makes them stronger, depending on your point of view.

an amusing infographic comparing the benefits of search media versus social media

Interesting article on the use of social media to inform residents about Mexico's cartel violence.

This article touches upon the benefits of incorporating social media into business practices and explains how anyone, even those who aren't familiar with social media, can learn to harness their power.

This article explains how social networking is changing our "interpersonal psychology" and what we can do so that it doesn't get the best of us.

I really need to try out Pinterest. I have heard great things about it! PS. Maybe these people do not lead the lives of grad students? So perhaps they have more time? haha

Martina, I did not understand Pinterest for a long time - had an account and never used it! Then a friend took 2 minutes to show me how it works - and I've been hooked ever since. Regardless of anything any critic or fan says of Pinterest, it's a pretty fantastically brilliant website. (And a lot fun!)

I'm absolutely addicted to Pinterest, much more so than Facebook! Pinterest and Diigo seem to have operate on a similar premises: social bookmarking with an attractive user interface.

Kind of an odd connection, I know, but it's really important for social media users to recognize what "sock puppets" are and how they can be used outside of arguments between high school kids.

This article questions the value of LinkedIn, noting that many users are members without involvement. This raises questions about professional identity in a social media atmosphere-- is it worth it for the user to create a brand for herself here?

A humorous breakdown of the uses of social media.

A school district in Delaware recently proposed a rule that would require teachers to unfriend students, a district in Maine is banning all social networking, chat sites, forums, and other sites from state-provided laptops, and now the New York City Department of Education will now monitor teachers' interactions with students on professional social networking services. Teachers were warned not to expect any privacy and that administrators and officials should have access to the professional accounts. This makes me wonder if now workplaces and universities will require employees to loosen their privacy settings on their accounts.

Lovink's latest book is all about social media. It addresses a number of the critiques we offered in class - which is not to say it answers or does away with them - but also reinforces that he offers less a theory than a report or journalistic take. (One example is the way he looks at the uneven use of blogging world wide, so that blogging becomes much less monolithic in this account.)

Interesting yet slightly morbid. Does immortalizing the dead on a social media platform that by definition requires interaction among the living to fulfill its purpose reveal yet another narcissistic impulse? For whom are we writing? Obviously not the dead (unless you can make some sort of argument that they check their feeds from the afterlife). For ourselves? If that were the case, we could just as easily sit at home and mourn a photograph. It seems more like this type of mourning is much more performative and public than that...

Jobs in social media are apparently very popular and lucrative, especially in Boston.

I really liked the idea from this week's reading that we should look to gaming for the future of interactive interfaces for social media. This article explains the ways that computing could be transforming in the future with motion sensing input devices like the Xbox Kinect. It's crazy to think that some of these things are possible!