Culture and Social Media Technologies http://csmt11.posterous.com Class blog posterous.com Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:51:07 -0800 My use of social media now Vs. before http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-use-of-social-media-now-vs-before http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-use-of-social-media-now-vs-before

When I look back to my first post I realize my involvement has changed quite a lot since the beginning of the semester. I feel like at the beginning of the semester and before that I kind of viewed certain social media technologies as invasive, ridiculous, obnoxious and kind of boring. Now, since I am graduating in a few months going on to the real world as well as getting older I have for some reason noticed the importance and fun of a variety of social media platforms.

            One example of this is twitter. My like for twitter has been a direct result of this class (due to the fact that we were forced to make a twitter) as well as my roommate. Since I made the step to make a twitter I realized that though at first glance (the fact that all you do is post statuses basically) I thought Twitter was kind of ridiculous. However, I then became more accustom to it even to the point of liking it. One thing that I liked was the fact that Twitter has a very creative and changeable layout. I also liked how it’s in real time and keeps you up to date with not only your friends but also any type of companies you like. I also like how simple the interface is and the fact there isn’t so many features.

            I also have found myself to become very involved in the social media platform Foursquare. The way my involvement came to be was through my roommate. Since my roommate moved in with me I started going to her usual Monday nightspot with her and her friends. She would always check in to Foursquare and was this close to becoming the Mayor. For some reason that intrigued me and I thought it was really cool the idea of tracking where you go and being competitive and trying to become a mayor of a place that I was convinced was “my” place. Though, people knowing where I am and knowing where other people are can be seen as slightly creepy it’s really not as creepy as you may think. For example how many times have you gone to a place because you heard through the grape vine was good or how many times have you ran into someone you know at the same place multiple times, is it really that much different to have done it purposefully because you thought the place your friend was at was cool (not in a seriously creepy stalker-ish way though). Another thing that caught my interest was the fact that some places give out specials for checking in a certain amount of times. I think this is fascinating both for the fact that it’s awesome for the user of four square as well as it is a great marketing tool for places. This in particular has intrigued me particularly due to the fact that I would like to go into Advertising and think that these types of marketing techniques will prove to be extremely useful in the advertising field.

            Though a lot of my social media changes have been due to other factors this course has helped me notice the incredibly vast amount of social media platforms. I think this course was the catalyst to my increased interest and presences in more social media platforms while other factors just increased it. I think I think of social media in a much less fearful way. Before I used to think of things like Four Square and Twitter as kind of scary and creepy while now I view it in a much more neutral and positive way. I think that if we all focus on the possible bad affects of social media (i.e similar to the mean world syndrome) than we will miss the extremely beneficial and fun aspects of social media.

            I think that my view of social media will remain the same for now and I think I may even get more involved with social media as I go into the job market and hopefully start working in advertising. I do think though that political and ethical issues may before more of an issue for me as time goes by particularly because employers are so involved in social media that the ethical and privacy issues will because more concerning for me as I move into that stage of life.

 

Jessica W. 

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Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:12:52 -0800 Responding to Sophie’s post (http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-problem-with-social-media ) http://csmt11.posterous.com/responding-to-sophies-post-httpcsmt11posterou http://csmt11.posterous.com/responding-to-sophies-post-httpcsmt11posterou Even though as I mentioned in my reflection post that this course has
helped me see the positive sides of social media (from both a personal
standpoint and a business one), I still think the best way to leverage
online platforms is to first underscore their pitfalls and potential
exploitative nature. So, as much as thing have changed for me they are
also staying the same, mainly because I believe costs of being
swallowed by the social media world is too high.

I am advocating prosumers and netizens take a critical look at the
media giants, work to understand the self-serving aspects of their
agendas and how they (sometimes) execute those business objectives
against the best interest of their users. (For example facebook’s
opt-out system with privacy settings.) I am particularly interested in
the point that Sophie makes about facebook and gmail being
domesticated into her life and that there was initially resistance in
“willing to admit that there were [any] negative consequences for
checking Facebook 10 times a day, or constantly sitting on Gmail.” I
think that social media has shaped our society in some respects and
engendered surveillance as a normative reality. I also think that
there are some biological impulses at play that make it hard to
question these urges since the drive to understand one’s environment
has been a factor in self-preservation since the Paleolithic age.

The fact that the monitoring of the “Other” in a public setting can be
indulged while the surveyor is cloaked in anonymity has interesting
psychological pulls that are hard to resist. Perhaps it feels like a
way to get ahead, stay involved, or understand the community we live
in— whatever the drive, it is a fact we’ve become used to studying and
researching our friends. Typical facebook train of thought is
scattered and surface level probing of activity within the network:
“Oh, friend X went to dinner here and is checked in, let me click the
link and see what type of restaurant it is, or friend Y got a job here
and it is a company liked by 330 mutual friends, let me google that…”
And the hours go by, with us mining for data about those who we
presumably have relationships with, relationship that fall under the
jurisdiction of friendship. Hmm? I can see why Sophie said that the
“internet can make us feel worse about ourselves.”

Maybe we aren’t the society of narcissism (as Sophie and countless
scholars posit) but the society fearful if we aren’t making use of the
data streaming into our lives we are going to miss crucial information
about ourselves and others. Whatever the reason, monitoring becomes an
integral component of the online value chain for both the sites and
the people mining them.

Sophie expresses relief that she will graduate in a month, and can
take a break from social media use, but I wonder if that break will
happen for her and for myself as a fellow Communication major. In
Andrejevic’s Surveillance and Alienation in the Online Economy he
posits that in the not too distant future, it may become the case that
social networking services become crucial productive resources for
some types of work (285). If we need access to such services to earn
our living, if our employers require the creation and maintenance of
these networks for business, how will we ever step away? I predict we
will not be taking a break but amercing ourselves, I don’t believe
that I am in deep trouble, because there are great companies that are
using the changing landscape for good. (link:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/about.php)


-@Kayla8thecity

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Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:16:00 -0800 Response to ‘The Filter Bubble.’ http://csmt11.posterous.com/response-to-the-filter-bubble http://csmt11.posterous.com/response-to-the-filter-bubble

 

http://csmt11.posterous.com/the-filter-bubble-20078

 

I was particularly interested in Sophie’s book during the week we shared our individual experiences.  While the majority of the class had read positive books on the benefits of social media and marketing, it was out of place to see an critical book.  Rather than a ‘How To,’ Sophie’s Book ‘The Filter Bubble’ explored the synonymous concept of internet filtration.  Much like Netflix suggesting movies based on your preferences, the author foresees a very near future in which the “internet filter looks at the things you seem to like- the actual things you’ve done, or the things people like you like- and tries to extrapolate.”  He criticizes the narrowness ones personal exposure to the world will be, as well as the concept of technological determinism.  I however, would have to disagree with the author in many of his arguments.

 

Like a science fiction film, which capitalizes on the fears of present day concerns, Praiser has taken internet filtering and extrapolated it to a ridiculous degree.  I certainly agree limited exposure can lead to narrow-minded thinking and uninformed decision-making.  As Sophie explains, current events probably should take higher level priority than Justin Bieber-related information.  But even if the author’s hypothetical scenario were to occur, I highly doubt individuals would be victims of the ‘Filtration Bubble.’  People will still be exposed to outside even and other human beings in Praiser’s model, and will still have other unfiltered media outlets.  While it is understandable that authors would want to explore the possible downside to long-tail marketing, one needs to keep in mind that short tail marketing will not disappear.  Budgets for the short-tail are enormous - information or products that nearly everyone will want.  Long-tail niche information or products have smaller budgets.  So while customized information, products etc. are convenient, people will no doubt continue to be exposed to shared mainstream information.

 

Praiser’s concept of ‘technological determinism,’ is also not that different from the sense of 19th century Positivism.  I agree that one should not put blind faith in technology, and that people should be critical thinkers about accepting any new technology - either choosing to participate or not, and having self-control over usage.  I am critical of his notion of ‘Post-materialism,’ however.  He describes the present Post-materialist generation as valuing “self-expression and ‘being yourself’.”  To a degree I find this laughable, as a great deal of social media Identity uses material ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes.’  Since social media is a platform which generates questions about identity, it is understandable but brash to characterize an entire generation based on the new venue of self-expression.  Previous generations likely had similar interests in self-expression and ‘being oneself,’ regardless of more or less materialism.  Again Praiser has taken present day concerns and run away with them, pushing them a bit ridiculously to the nth degree.

 

Justin Tuma

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Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:04:00 -0800 Blog#6 looking back at my post #1 ... http://csmt11.posterous.com/82675880 http://csmt11.posterous.com/82675880

Thinking back about what I said in my first post, I think my use of social media has not changed so much. I still use the same social I mentioned in my first post: Facebook, mixi, Gmail, and carrier-provided email. In addition to them, I started to use Twitter. Even though I had a twitter account before this class, I did not use it at all. But I started to engage in tweeting because of this class. Twitter is the only change in the types of social media I use. What social media I use and how I use them have not changed, but I would say, how I feel when I am using them and how I look at other people’s ways of using social media have slightly changed.

It is because I became more conscious of my “identity” on social media and my “audience”. Throughout the semester, there were a lot of  moments when I thought about what makes users’ identities and who the audience is on social media.. When people use a SNS, most of them use it to share information with their friends. When they share information that is directed to their friends(for example, when they post something private that only their friends might care about and when they make the profile pictures showing their silly faces that their friends might think are funny), they regard their friends as their audience. But at the same time, some of them put information on social media very much caring about the “public” audience. When it comes to certain kind of information, their concept of ‘audience’ gets beyond the networked “friends” and becomes the “public”. When I use social media and share some information there I am now more aware of who I regard as my audience.

And I realized who I regard as my audience is much related to my multiple identities on different social media. On mixi, I share my diaries that include a message to my Japanese friends or might be interesting to them. I do not share pictures that expose my appearance to others as much as those in my facebook albums. On facebook, I less care about showing others how I look because they also show how they look and they also do not really care about the fact that they are publicly exposing their physical appearances. And on facebook, I also tend to share more information about my daily life regularly. Social cues that can construct my identity, on mixi and on facebook, might be different because I choose what information about myself should be open depending on the different audience. Even on facebook solely, I would say, I have two identities because I segregate myself by two languages. I have more English speaking friends in my friends list, so I tend to post something more general, less personally information in English; however, what I say in my status in Japanese sound more stupid or closer to who I think I am that the things I mutter in English.

I remember, Mark Zuckberg once said that on facebook, we will have a “single identity”; “The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly” (http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/13/zuckerberg-privacy/). He might mean that because people are getting more comfortable about disclosing their personal information and their selves are also disclosed by their friends, they end up having one single authentic identity on facebook. Considering my identity and its relation to the audience throughout this semester, I disagree with Zuckberg. Although it seems that I have multiple identities on different social media, all of them are one part of who I really am; it is not that one single identity expressed on one particular social media is my "true" identity, but it is just one dimension of my authentic self. There are just different facets of my authentic identity that I express depending on who I think is my audience.

Finally, I said in my first post that I am not sure if I want to keep using Facebook. Now I think I will continue to use it for a little longer than I expected before. People talk about disadvantages of social media (how it is addictive, how it changes friendship etc). At the time I created my first post , those negative sides of social media were standing out for me. But now after thinking about facebook and how social media exists in our life, I feel less harmful about facebook, rather, I feel it is supporting my real life.

 

Sachi (I made this post first by mistake in my OWN space:p....http://st1356.posterous.com/blog6-response-to-my-post-1)

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Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:16:03 -0800 Blog #6 http://csmt11.posterous.com/blog-6 http://csmt11.posterous.com/blog-6

Response to: http://csmt11.posterous.com/womens-myspace-photos-dont-self-represent-a-h


I wanted to re-visit the Dobson piece, because it not only stirred up discussion in class but I had particular interest in the subject matter after taking a Renaissance Art History course last semester.  As Justin noted, it is questionable as to whether these girls taking provocative photos for Myspace with thought regarding the deeper social statements being made about gender roles however, no matter what the intention, the end result is the same.  Furthermore, though art history was not the focal point of the article, it’s worthwhile to look at how the standards and practices of Renaissance art have influenced young women and their display of ‘self’ on social media platforms today. 

Portraiture during the Renaissance was an involved and carefully planned process since it took more time and money than it does to take a snap-shot on your camera and upload it to Myspace.  However, the functions of a portrait, which could serve to document lineage, project prestige and power, document one’s profession, display oneself to the opposite sex, etc. still hold resonance today. 


Portraits of women during the Renaissance were primarily commissioned by a man in their life (such as a father or husband) since they didn’t have their own money to spend.  The result was that these images became approximations of how a man wanted the woman to be portrayed and forever preserved.  Today, women are free to produce their own portraits via photography, however, we find that they are still attempting to cater their images in a ‘hetro-sexy’ form which is what they believe is desired by male peers.

 

It’s interesting to note that women were seen in ‘profile’ longer than men, because it was customary for women to not directly face a man—they would often avert their eyes to avoid appearing too suggestive.  In Palma Vecchio’s A Blonde Woman (1520), the portrait features an anonymous woman, looking directly at the viewer and appearing to offer a bunch of flowers. Her positioning engages onlookers and her exposed breast hints at an essence of sexuality in the image. The portrait presents somewhat of a conflict of ‘moral code’ at the time of it’s creation.  I thought this example was relevant to the Dobson text because it shows how even in many years past, the positioning and facial expression of a woman in a portrait held a deeper significance than the picture at face value.  Despite the ‘Blonde Woman’s’ knowledge or intention, she has been forever persevered as a ‘hetero-sexy’ archetype of the Renaissance in comparison to her ‘respectfully’ portrayed counterparts, similarly to how the young women in Dobson’s piece have displayed themselves in a way that portrays a particular aura about their image and identity. 

 

-Emma L.

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Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:35 -0800 My Use of Social Media, Now http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-use-of-social-media-now http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-use-of-social-media-now Over the past semester, I think that my use of social media has
evolved slightly. I finally made use of my Twitter account, actively
tweeting for class but also utilizing it as a source of news. I found
a few relevant Twitter accounts to follow and found myself checking my
feed regularly through my phone. Twitter is an efficient means of
obtaining news from specific sources in real time that I’ve found to
be very useful. I think that I’ll continue to use it for news but
probably won’t tweet often.

My use of Facebook has remained consistent in a personal social
networking capacity, but I do view it, and other SNSs, in a different
way—as media with huge potential. The most striking capabilities of
social media have been as means for marketers to reach potential
customers, and as facilitators of social movements. Over the course of
our class, I’ve become much more aware of how people use social media,
what kind of information users broadcast to the world, and how
companies can use social media to their advantage. Branding and
marketing are becoming one of the primary functions of social media.
Now, companies can directly connect with their customers and target
new customers more precisely. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and other
SNSs are all used by companies to promote their brands. This awareness
has made me consider companies’ pages and posts more critically than I
did before. In light of all that has occurred with the Arab Spring as
well as the Occupy Wall Street movement, it has become clear that the
power of social media extends well beyond functioning as a way to keep
in touch with old friends.

In general, I feel that having examined social media through different
lenses in class has made me consider it in a different way, even when
I’m immersed as a user. In the future, I think I may have to become
less involved in social media on a personal level and more active to
keep up with trends and news for professional purposes.

Cindy H.

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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:38:43 -0800 Social media and me - 2.0 http://csmt11.posterous.com/social-media-and-me-20 http://csmt11.posterous.com/social-media-and-me-20
I started this class with a pretty accurate understanding of how I interact with social media on a daily basis. Social media fascinates me and I want to be as involved with it as possible, but I for whatever reason I let my engagement in the relatively few sites that I'm a member of lag. I'm not sure if it's an issue of time or if the value that I get out of my social networks isn't high enough, but I do seem to have a more starkly defined sense of regret when I think about how often I use social media sites as compared to the first weeks of taking this class. I have a strong understanding of how a social networking site can significantly change the lives of its users, whether through enabling the spread of political action or by connecting users from displaced communities, and I wonder how my life might be different if I took more advantage of the admittedly optimistic but still true possibilities of social networking technology.

For instance, my involvement with social media was most vividly called into question during the segment on political activism on SNS. While I had never given my political representation on Facebook or Twitter much thought before, I realized that I actively avoided engaging in controversial discussions over SNS. The permanence and replicability seemed like a much more imminent danger in this situation, than say in a picture of me at a bar. However, I have very strong feelings now that I ought to be more active in this society, and where I don't feel comfortable attending a rally in New York City (what with the pepper spray and all) I should get over my fear of expressing my opinions on Facebook or Twitter. Knowing the power that could be contained in less than 140 characters, I think I will at least attempt to change this aspect of my social networking behavior.

Additionally, I've certainly noticed that I have begun to think about all of my actions on social networking sites in a more analytic way. I have always known that Facebook, Twitter, etc. were some kind of media, and as a student of media I have always had a passing interest in these sites, but since beginning this class, I feel that I have a better understanding of how these sites fit into the larger frame of media studies. This has only added to my cursory fascination with social media, but I think it will lead to a more rewarding relationship with my various social networking sites.

@roxyredstar

(first post: http://csmt11.posterous.com/social-media-and-me)

Roxanne Dyer


On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 1:16 AM, Roxanne Dyer <roxannedyer@gmail.com> wrote:
My first experience using social media was early in my high school days. I created a MySpace account to help me stay in touch with my boyfriend at the time. It felt a little pointless to use an entire social networking site to communicate with one person, especially a person I saw almost everyday. Though I eventually added friends, it still felt like a useless part of my life. With no background in AIM, AOL or any other instant messaging programs, I felt completely overwhelmed by my MySpace account and eventually let it fall to the wayside.

It's funny to think how far I've come in terms of using social media. I have about four gmail accounts that I check everyday, multiple times per day. I have a Facebook account that I check almost everyday. With my Facebook account, I'm always logged in, even if I don't plan on updating my status or commenting on any pictures. I just enjoy the freedom associated with clicking on the Facebook link in my browser's bookmark bar and being fed an almost infinite stream of consciousness. Granted, most of my newsfeed is pretty irrelevant to my life, but it's an amazing way to fill idle minutes in my day. I also use Facebook for public relations purposes. I schedule updates regularly and I get a little thrill in seeing the notifications on the pages I manage, even though it's not my authentic self interacting with the Facebook users.

My Twitter account is by far my greatest untapped social resource. I'm fully aware of the wonderful things that Twitter can do, having studied them in more than one class, but I can't seem to make this beyond brilliant social platform work for me. At first I thought Twitter was the ultimate stalker's fantasy, but knowing that I can post as little as I want in any given month has liberated my social experience. I started following reputable news sources along with the cast of Jersey Shore, and the stream of consciousness has turned into a stream of life that is incredibly full of interesting ideas. I've recently acquired a smart phone and now desperately want to be a part of the Twitter feed, but my Tweets feel as insignificant as the onomatopoeia implies. I think the biggest trouble is that most of my followers are people I don't know, and without an audience to write to I'm lost. I'm not sure why Twitter is taking so much longer to catch on with the college-aged demographic than Facebook, but it's definitely defeating what would otherwise be the perfect social network for me.

Roxy Dyer
@roxyredstar


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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:35:00 -0800 My Social Media Use, Then and Now http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-social-media-use-then-and-now http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-social-media-use-then-and-now

     In my first post, I outlined my own social media evolution from MySpace to Facebook, from Hotmail to Gmail, and how I slightly dabbled in Twitter. For the most part, none of my involvement in these sites has dramatically changed, but the way I look at my own and others' use of social media technologies has certainly been affected by this semester. Particularly, our discussions of calculated self-representation and audiences has stuck with me, so that whenever I'm about to click "submit" on any kind of Facebook post, I consider those who might see it and those who I subconsciously want to see it, and why I feel the need to post it. Which, in the end, usually just proves to psych myself out, so most of my written Facebook posts as of late are merely means to inform another person of something they need to know, rather than arbitrary personal statuses. My Twitter is still pretty dead, sadly, but I can still see myself potentially getting into it as my interest in Facebook fades.

     In our studies of social media technologies, I have definitely become more attentive to the varying uses of these websites in my own sphere of friends, and how different ages, cultural backrounds, and occupations tend to use them differently. For example, my fourteen-year-old cousin, who was too young to ever have a MySpace and all the strange friend surveys that came with it, has taken to turning his Facebook status into little exposes of the sort. Today, his status was, "tbh....like!," where "tbh" apparently stands for "to be honest," and the 24 people who liked his status received wall posts from my cousin, "to be honest... i'm so mad i won't see you tonight! lol."

     To be honest, I'd never seen Facebook used in this way, and after a bit of perusing, I found that all of his friends' statuses were like this. The worst of which was my cousin's friend's status, "Like for a rate," where teenage girls would "like" and subsequently receive a 1-10 on the "hottness" scale. At first I was appalled, but then I realized that this is exactly how we used MySpace at his age, and perhaps a factor in how it eventually became what it is today, because the interface seamlessly permitted such activity.

     I think my use of social media will definitely change in the future. I'm always on the brink of deleting any given account, and am only on Facebook to stay informed of friends' birthdays and events. As I grow older and less interested in staying in-the-know, I'll surely delete my Facebook at some point or another. I doubt political issues would cause me to deactivate before then, but perhaps ethical issues regarding a brink of privacy could influence the decision. There are several tumblrs and blogspots that I frequent daily, and unless sites as such unexpectedly fail, I suspect that I will always frequent the blog-side of social media.

Jen L.

 

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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:25:00 -0800 Pleased to report: no major changes / Responding to Renren http://csmt11.posterous.com/pleased-to-report-no-major-changes-responding http://csmt11.posterous.com/pleased-to-report-no-major-changes-responding

A quote from Ivy’s old post has stuck with me: “On the Chinese version Renren, sharing of content is more a norm, and my taste and personality is more so determined by the topics I choose to share with my friends so they can define me through the things I am interested in. On Facebook, such sharing culture exists in a lesser extent...”  For a user to come away with such a different experience of the two networks’ culture (especially since one is apparently so closely modeled on the other) is surprising. Perhaps it reveals something else about technological determinism: that there is another level of cultural determinism placed on our SNS, in part a product of government regulation/binds as well as the underlying business models that allow the networks to exist for free to users.

I am quite curious about how massive social networks like Renren operate on the other side of the world, especially as in the coming years that site might be in competition with Facebook and others for advertisers’ money.  I had no idea that Renren was publicly traded, on the NYSE, no less, but despite the fact that it charges exorbitantly for brands to host pages on the site (scroll up to see that Kobe’s big in China), that it hasn’t been doing so well financially lately.  (Especially in light of Facebook’s constantly delayed entry to the stock market – who would have suspected its mysterious Chinese counterpart would break out first?.)

Screen_shot_2011-11-29_at_nov_29_8
This is the creepiest part, because 'reading' is a passive action –– they didn't nesc. 'like' these articles. Clicking the links prompts a window that wants to install new Facebook+Publisher apps that seem to function within the SNS itself: what Anil Dash (see below) calls captured content.

Last week in class we talked about how Facebook’s ubiquitous Like buttons also happen to send back data about webpage viewing, even when unclicked.  This week, Anil Dash warned that it is possible that Facebook could begin floating content that was created and posted within Facebook, rather than just linked, to the top of newsfeeds (and presenting unnecessarily alarmist warnings for outgoing links, such as to his own site, despite the fact that he uses a Facebook-Connet powered commenting system). Already, our timelines are no longer being presented chronologically, and so new ways of sorting would not be beyond the pale. I still wonder if there’s a point where users will be fed up with practices that lead to overzealous monetization, but if the alternative is a site like Renren, even more eager to turn a profit, the future remains unsteady.

On the one hand, perhaps the major thing that’s changed about the way I view SNS, is that like when it appears that I was playing devil’s advocate about targeted advertising last week, I actually value pitches that are not wasting my time or the advertiser’s (though there must be a limit).  On the other hand, it’s unfortunate that Diaspora, which began in the very building we have our class, has not even merited a mention in class. It seem that a site, aiming to be everything that Facebook is not, will struggle to make an impact.

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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:14:35 -0800 Social Media and Me... Now http://csmt11.posterous.com/social-media-and-me-now http://csmt11.posterous.com/social-media-and-me-now Cecilia Diaz

Since this semester started, my relationship with social media has changed, probably not in ways very obvious to an outside observer, but that are nonetheless significant to me. While I was always analytical about social media and constantly assessed all of my mediated interactions on SNSs, it was predominantly from a perspective instilled in me through my training in digital strategy. It was more of me examining what people were choosing to share, how they were sharing, and what kind of information or content dominated media channels at any given time.

While I have always been interested in mediated identity performance, and paid attention to that as well when online, the readings provided me with a deeper level of understanding. My explorations of self-presentation online became more salient with the knowledge of research on how taste preferences and class can manifest themselves in various ways on SNSs.

Moreover, I find myself tuned into a finer level of detail online Things I once paid no attention to or brushed off, deeming them inconsequential or merely circumstantial, have taken on a new life in my eyes. Perhaps the set of readings that made the greatest impact of me was the group of readings on race. Thanks to these articles, I look for more cues of race politics online. Suddenly, I am more interested in how diverse my friends’ friends are, not to mention my own.

Overall, while my day-to-day social media routine has probably not changed much, my tools in understanding it have. Through discussions in class, I have new discourses with which to arm myself in trying to make self of SNSs. Some were already familiar to me, such as those on gender or youth, but other units, like the one on race, have helped to enrich my understanding of how SNSs impact our everyday lives. 

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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:12:27 -0800 Reevaluating My Use of Social Media Technologies http://csmt11.posterous.com/reevaluating-my-use-of-social-media-technolog http://csmt11.posterous.com/reevaluating-my-use-of-social-media-technolog Looking back on my first blog post of the semester, I can see that some of my social media uses have changed. For instance, thanks to our class Twitter feed, I have been able to engage in some good back-and-forths about issues with the readings each week. Interacting and finding out whether my classmates are facing the same issues with the reading before class has been good as it has allowed me to ease up on overanalyzing readings assuming that it is just me that isn't following a given author's argument.
One thing that I was wary of when class began was the intense targeting of advertisements on Facebook. When I used to use it more frequently, I would always be disturbed by how accurate some of ads were. This bothered me to the point where it was one of the major factors in my giving up on the network. After our discussions in class of marketing and the amount of information Facebook collects has been really eye opening. I think that although in using the site, a user is agreeing to terms and conditions, which likely outline this practice, it is still disturbing how much they know. I also assume that, based on being able to get a .zip file of all of the information they have about you, even erasing your gender, sexual orientation, age, and location from your page would not change this as they probably have it stored. It's all a bit too Big Brother-esque.

Having this class an opportunity to have an open forum to discuss our social media use, and analyze it in reference to academic articles, was definitely valuable to me. I think most people who log on daily to Facebook or Twitter do not think beyond it as a chance to see photos from a friend's vacation, check the news, or post an update about themselves. Being able to compare my use to others, compare our backgrounds in social media use, and understand how it places in a greater picture of social media use has helped me realize that I am probably in the middle ground of social media "prosumers," which is something I am fine with.


Clarke

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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:27:42 -0800 My Problem with Social Media http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-problem-with-social-media http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-problem-with-social-media

Looking back on my first blog post for this class (that I actually only emailed so it is not on this site), I found that I was rather euphemistic in talking about my use of technology. Yes, I admitted to my high usage of it, but I was not willing to admit that there were any negative consequences for checking Facebook 10 times a day, or constantly sitting on Gmail.


Things are a bit different now. Although I knew lots about social networking before I even took this class, I find that I am now more critical about my personal use. I am worried, for myself! Thankfully I get to graduate in a month, and I can take a break (as I discussed in class). I don’t believe that I am in deep trouble, but I now believe that with what I have learned about targeted marketing, search personalization, privacy and even psychological effects of spending so much time looking at a screen, I can’t rightfully use the Internet as I used to.  I know that I am a communications major and that, because of this, I will be searching for the true reason why I am so connected to the web- what it says about ME and the society I live in today, but all I can come up with is that the more and more research is done about this online phenomena, the more we realize that it is up to individual choice. The Internet is about US, ME, YOU, but specific to ourselves. We are the society of narcissim. I don’t want to be vain, but the Internet makes it so darn easy sometimes. Make me stop! No, it’s not anybody’s job but my own. I really, really, want to be done for awhile.


What was so interesting is that all the articles we read, or most, were so relatable, like Colleen said. I did indeed, unintentionally, perform my friendships on Myspace for other girls. One of my best friends had to deal with “coming out” in the age we are in today, and Facebook served as an interesting platform to track that process.


In my first post I said that “my usage is always changing based on the times”, and this could be very telling right now. Why am I being so hard on myself about my usage? Probably because I am right in the middle, or at the beginning of the end of my finals. Procrastination central is what I am currently experiencing, and I think that when we are in need of a distraction, the internet can make us feel worse about ourselves. I still, like I said in my earlier post, need to find a balance. Balance is so extremely important in this world today and now that I know even more about social networking, I will try my hardest. If only I could use social networking to my own benefit, but at the moment, I have no idea what job lies ahead of me, so it is hard to seek out potentially interested people when I have no impetus…until next time.


Oh, and I still just can't seem to get twitter. 

 

~Sophie G. 

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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:12:00 -0800 Blog #6: Response to Ivy Y. & Re-evaluation of Social Media Use & Identity http://csmt11.posterous.com/blog-6-response-to-ivy-y-re-evaluation-of-soc http://csmt11.posterous.com/blog-6-response-to-ivy-y-re-evaluation-of-soc

As I look back on my initial blog post, written at the beginning of the semester, I haven't really changed much in my outlook on social media. I am still a fervent fan of face-to-face interaction and experiencing all that we can through physical-empirical experiences (a Facebook check-in here and there is fine, but for one to pick up their phone every single time in the face of company is still annoying to me). Having said this, I definitely agree with Ivy's "The Real 'I'" post when she notes that "social media is just a tool and social necessity", but that this class's analytical take on social media has led us to become more wary of our online identities and actions. Offering incite into the seemingly inevitable emotional attachments SM users take on, I like that Ivy highlights that people need to focus more on the creation of our real identities --quality included-- and that we need to lessen our fixation on the creation and maintenance of our online personae because arguably, it is the real interpersonal relationships we hold that have substance, and nothing can truly take the place of a face-to-face physically interactive encounter.

Notice --I wrote that I like this notion, but I don't completely agree anymore that we can generalize this notion --placing emphasis on the development of face-to-face encounters to everyone who is an SM user. As we have done readings on online communities and those who are psychologically and emotionally attached to their online selves (i.e. SecondLife, LamdaMOO), my outlook has definitely changed as I empathize with those who feel as though their real selves are in fact their online selves because they cannot be who they want to be in the real world. What I have realized with our studies is that identity cannot always be clearly defined. There are gray areas; in some cases, identities can overlap both in the real and online world, while for some, especially for those who may have different interests or perspectives from everyday societal norms, the online is completely separate and real; a place where they can be who they want to be with whomever they want to be with. I never thought that I could see online communities as a place of real substance; one where people can have real emotional attachments, but knowing friends who have forged real relationships via Tumblr and through my own research on the digital afterlife (online communities mourning for people they know online but have never met in person), It is a bit strange to me, I admit, but I'm beginning to understand more how these non-physical spaces (cyberspace) can actually occupy a place in one's reality.

--Charli Lee.

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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:07:11 -0800 Social media use: now and then http://csmt11.posterous.com/social-media-use-now-and-then http://csmt11.posterous.com/social-media-use-now-and-then

Looking back to the beginning of the semester, I have noticed some slight changes in my use of social media—not necessarily in the types of social media (I still primarily use Facebook, Twitter, and email), but in the purpose. Ivy mentioned in her post that she has begun using social media as a branding tool, and I feel I have done this as well. While I still use my Facebook and Twitter accounts as a way of keeping up with my friends’ lives, I’ve noticed that I now pay much closer attention to the image of myself I’m projecting through my status updates, profile, and pictures. I’m much more conscious of the information that potential employers might be able to find on my social networking sites and want to make sure that my profiles give a favorable impression of me. It’s not too much of a change, because I’ve always been pretty cautious about the things I post online. But the knowledge that someone who could decide my future job might be evaluating my Facebook profile certainly informs my decisions now. I have also become much more active on Twitter because of this course (and also because a lot of my friends have recently started using Twitter…but I think I like using Twitter more thanks to CSMT).

 

Social media has taken on a whole new meaning for me after being in this class. I had never really thought critically about why I chose to make my profile look a certain way, list specific tastes or interests, or post certain types of pictures; I just did and that was that. Our readings really opened my eyes to the larger cultural shift in the way our generation negotiates identity, self-presentation, and friendships that has occurred because of social media. What really surprised me was how well I was able to relate to and recognize myself in the case studies and research projects that we read about. When I go back through the years of archived material on my Facebook and view it through the lens of these readings, I am able to fit my 16, 17, 18+ year old-self in perfectly with the adolescent girls discussed by Dobson, Banet-Weiser, and others. As Colleen said, it is certainly humbling to realize that so many other people have used these media in exactly the same ways you have.

 

I’m not sure if my personal social media use will change much in the future. One of my primary reasons for being an active Facebook and Twitter user is to easily share important updates in my life with the people I care about and that care about me. As I approach important milestones—graduation, my first real job, and possibly marriage and having kids further down the road—I know I will probably want to talk about those things just as I have with other past events. I’m sure that the landscape of social media will change as new sites and technologies are developed, but I feel that, now that we are so embedded in an environment of constant networked communications, it would be nearly impossible to ever truly go back to a world without social media as we know it.
 
-Nicole F // @nmf255

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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:31:00 -0800 Reflection on Social Media Usage http://csmt11.posterous.com/reflection-on-social-media-usage http://csmt11.posterous.com/reflection-on-social-media-usage

Over the course of this semester, my social media habits have not changed greatly. I have toned down my Twitter account a bit, as well as become more involved on the professional networking site LinkedIn. Otherwise I think my habits have stayed fairly similar. I deleted my Facebook account in late August and have fought what little desire I had to reactivate the account. Mainly I miss seeing pictures of my friends’ children growing up and the photos my brother and father post, but I can do without.

My Twitter account, which was profoundly inappropriate, has now been toned down due to the fact that my work colleagues follow me. When I made the decision to accept their follow requests I also assumed a responsibility for the content I post. As it is no longer friends and strangers I am more careful about how explicit or personal my posts are. I believe that some of the in-class discussion we had about self-censorship may have played a role in this shift, but also a bit of my own common sense. In some cases I feel it may be necessary to maintain separate account for different facets of my life (work, school, professional), but that is a bit of an inconvenience.

Also, as we approach the end of the semester, I have become more inclined to find and connect with people on LinkedIn. This activity is closely correlated to my desire to find a job in 6 months rather than class topics.

Overall I think the class topics have been intriguing and relevant, but perhaps more so to those that maintain social media accounts where profiles are the norm. I’m an outlier in that case, aside from my LinkedIn. Largely I’ve found in my own life that political and ethical issues don’t have much bearing on my social media usage. If I don’t know enough about a political topic or movement I don’t want to address it to my 150 followers who may be better informed. On the other hand, I could see myself using Twitter as a sort of grassroots method to recruit voters for the 2012 elections. I’m an enigma.

In years to come, it will be interesting to see how social media becomes more or less prevalent in certain fields (professional networking, music etc.). Especially considering how we – as a generation that grew up on MySpace and Facebook – will adapt.

S.Nelson

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Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:44:34 -0800 The real "I" http://csmt11.posterous.com/the-real-i http://csmt11.posterous.com/the-real-i In the beginning of the semester, social media is just a tool and social necessity that I engaged in without thinking much about the reasoning and consequences of my actions. Throughout the semester, the understanding of the social medium through various analytical lenses has led me to more closely monitor my actions and language on social networks. Also, before the class I have never really talked about social networking sites with my friends of classmates. In the seminar environment, it is so interesting to hear other people's stories of themselves and their distilled reflection of what they think of other's actions. It is invaluable as a media major to gain such insights into other people's social media habits. Having heard others' stories, I became more careful about what I do on social networking sites knowing more clearly that everything I say will be taken into consideration of my personal identity. I've realized that I use SNS less as a venting outlet but more as a branding tool. I say less because I would be judged less by the little that I express, I "like" others' photos and status more because it is a neutral way of being engaged while in the mean time being disengaged. I have become moderate--engaged in social media because it is still a social necessity but want to disentangle myself from the drama and emotional attachment of SNS because I still believe that everyone eventually grows out of it. Growing out not in the sense of abandonment but in detachment. There is a fine line between real d online personality-- and as one grows older, the focus should be more on the creation of quality, real identity and less fixated on the online identity. It matters less how many comments one receives for a picture or how many facebook friends one has, the real interpersonal relationships should be beyond that level of superficiality and more about face to face encounters. I think in the process of this class, I've gotten a fuller and more realistic picture about what online identity really means and how it should be perceived. I think such realization will serve me well in the long run because while I understand the importance of branding myself  though SNS platforms, my approach will be more rational and focused knowing that an online identity is and a supplement, not replacement, of my authentic, genuine identity. 

Ivy Y.

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Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:14:10 -0800 Social Channels of Communication http://csmt11.posterous.com/social-channels-of-communication http://csmt11.posterous.com/social-channels-of-communication

Reflecting back to the beginning of the semester I can definitely say that my use of social media and its integration into my everyday life has drastically increased. When I first enrolled in our Social Media Seminar, my technological capacity stopped at Facebook and Twitter.  I would go through phases of heavy Facebook use, but in the months leading into Fall my digital voice was exercised on Twitter to a greater degree. My goal coming into this class was to obtain a deeper understanding of the impact and importance social media has on business.  Over the course of the last few months, I've come to realize the broader significance of social media as an agent that affects the ways in which we communicate not only in business but throughout our lives.  In comparing my use of social media between then and now, I have added another channel to my case.  I recently created a FourSquare account and am yearning to tap into Spotify.  The volume of my tweets has increased.  In addition, I find myself tweeting more about digital applications in social spaces.  While my Facebook usage might not have increased, I do find that I have become much more conscious about what I share with the public.  In addition, I noticed that I am slowly bridging the interest gap between Twitter and Facebook. While my Twitter is heavily geared towards my professional side and my Facebook is tweaked to reflect my character, I've noticed that the two are merging to become slightly more in sync. 

My thoughts of social media have changed drastically.  I did not think participating in social media was a necessity at first.  But after learning about the ways in which social media can be optimized for marketing (whether it is a brand or an individual), I've come to realize how vital it is to be a participant in this movement.  Communication is undergoing a paradigm shift in which information is no longer broadcasted but rather talked about amongst people.  In truth, prior to this class I actually rarely read reviews for products before buying them.   Now, I am religious about reading what others have to say about their experiences with a product or company.  In turn I find that I share my experiences more often as well. Word-of-mouth marketing has always been powerful.  One of the first benefits appointed to the use of social media was ability to spread word of a brand from person to person.  However, what developed is my understanding of why this matters.  The obvious trust of peers opinion was not the only factor.  The empowerment that social media gives to the user is actually making the world more consumer-centric place.  Brands, institutions, organizations are confronted with voices that have a vast potential to share experiences.  Social media is the multipurpose avenue for sharing that forces these socioeconomic entities to listen, cater, and deliver.  I still think I have much to comprehend about the benefits and risk areas of social media, however after that past few months I feel a newfound comfort with the medium. 

I am quite ecstatic that I took this course because I know that social media will change.  To have a foreground understanding of it will help understand and be aware of the changes taking place. Facebook has this inside saying "we're one percent finished."  While I do feel like social media has trumped this one percent, we are still in the beginning stages.  Companies are just learning how to use social media in a way that genuinely engage people.  The Facebook "Like" was the inception of prompting consumer engagement.  Just a few years from that development we already see companies finding new ways to enhance experiences and engage its audience base through digital applications. I feel like social media is only going to grow and with it will the privacy and ethical issues will come to focus.  We already see how institutions are coming to the realization that social media is a force to reckon with, as they try implement limitations.  I am curious to witness the evolution this medium and the way large entities of power use and confront it. 

@gabolletta

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Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:21:37 -0800 Re-reflection of My Use of Social Media http://csmt11.posterous.com/re-reflection-of-my-use-of-social-media http://csmt11.posterous.com/re-reflection-of-my-use-of-social-media

Looking back at my first blog post for the class, I don’t think I have changed much of how I use social media on a daily basis. The same routine still goes on the majority of the time when I open my internet browers, “check my personal email and school email, look at news feed on Facebook, read timeline on Twitter and then scroll through my Tumblr dashboard.” I constantly check my emails, whenever I get the chance because I am applying to jobs, so I’m always hoping someone will be emailing to request an interview.


I also noticed I use Facebook less compare to the beginning of the semester. Maybe because of the new Facebook layout change and the way news feed is placed and ordered. News feed seem to be more clutter and harder to get information I need and want to see. It might also have to do with how I have less time to do school work and many other things so I simply don’t have the time to log on to Facebook constantly to check up on what everyone is doing.


I definitely use Twitter more often than I did before. I also became more mindful of my audience when I tweet on my personal Twitter account and my public Twitter account. My personal twitter account is filled with me blabbing about the traffic and other unimportant detail of my day that I believe my friends would care about. Whereas on my public Twitter account, I like to retweet articles related to social media, technology, marketing and advertising that I think the unknown audience would be interested in. For my public Twitter account, I check what I say and make sure it’s appropriate since it is a reflection of me.


For the future, my use of social media will not be changed too much – I will still have different voice/medium I use for public and private. Because not the entire world needs to know where or what I ate for lunch. I will still be careful the sort of information I share on the internet because the understanding I have of the different privacy settings on different social media platform, and the information they take for advertisers. 

 

@jayckah

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Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:24:42 -0800 Critical Review on Socialnomics http://csmt11.posterous.com/critical-review-on-socialnomics http://csmt11.posterous.com/critical-review-on-socialnomics
"Socialnomics sounds Explosive, but is a Dud"
By David F. Freeman (http://www.amazon.com/review/R1JLK8RCJZOU8P/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R1JLK8RCJZOU8P)

This book is full of superficial anecdotes and miniscule case studies, platitudes and generalizations, unsupported opinions, idle speculation, specious claims, inconsistent style, imprecise language, typos, and bad punctuation.  

In some of Qualman's examples, I couldn't tell whether the facts were real or hypothetical. In many of the micro-case studies, he shows how a company accomplished a certain objective through social media, but does not establish that the objectives could not have been accomplished more cost-effectively through other marketing channels.  

He describes the case of Dancing Matt--about Matt Harding, who filmed himself dancing around the world and put his videos on YouTube. The videos were hugely popular, so Stride Gum sponsored his further travels and video production. Stride exercised restraint and placed its logo discreetly at the end of the video (in the post roll). Qualman claims Stride earned "millions of dollars in brand equity," but does not support that claim with any data or sources. Is it his own guesstimate, or did the company tell him it earned "millions"? No clue. 

He claims that social media activities "connect parents to their kids like never before." He offers no source, data, or study to support that statement, and he is clearly not qualified to offer that opinion. 

@jayckah (sorry I'm so late on this!)

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Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:24:11 -0800 My (New and Improved?) Use of Social Media http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-new-and-improved-use-of-social-media http://csmt11.posterous.com/my-new-and-improved-use-of-social-media

In class this past week, we ended up discussing whether or not we were being too critical of social media technologies as scholars on the subject. As I’m sure many others in the class would agree, this type of conversation comes up often in communications courses, as you are looking extremely hard at very personal habits of interaction, picking them apart in hopes of best understanding them and their functions.

However, looking back on my first post, I was surprised to see that it appears I have been cynical about social media from the start! Reflecting back, I actually almost feel like I am less distrustful of social media sites now than I was at the start of the course since I now understand the full picture of social media—from its history to its use to its business properties—more than I did in the beginning.

In my first post, I looked back at the timeline of my social media use, from email to Facebook and everything in-between. After reading the selections on adolescent social media use, my experience seems almost uncannily normal. Embarrassingly enough, I easily could have fit into the statistics of how teens used Myspace from Dobson’s study on young Australian women, as I took the same “goofy” types of pictures and posted the same quotes and song lyrics that I dedicated to “mah gurlz.” There is definitely something humbling about realizing that no, you are not the only person who had these sort of experiences and interactions with a medium—in fact, you are one out of millions who probably used it in almost an identical way.

The main issue I raised with social media in my original post had been about privacy, which is definitely still a concern of mine today. As I am now actually about to graduate and my job search is becoming more and more of a priority, I have absolutely made some changes in my use of social media, from changing my name on my Facebook profile in hopes of becoming even more difficult for employers to find to updating my LinkedIn page in hopes that an employer will find it.

Reading pieces such as boyd’s “Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck” reminded me of how actually terrifying it had been when Facebook implemented their Newsfeed and made me nervous about the Timeline change on the horizon (speaking of which, does anyone know when that’s happening?). The idea of my personal profiles becoming more accessible still makes me extremely uncomfortable, and it is evident from pieces such as boyd’s that I am not alone in that feeling.

But at the same time, my experience in seeing how “normal” my use of social media was made me realize that while these companies may have access to my information, it is not as “personal” as I always believed it to be. Can they track the websites I am on? Yes. But are any of them really monitoring me as anything more than a product? Aside from the companies I am applying to that are probably vetting me via Google, most likely not. I think many people panic that their lives are completely out on display, but when millions—if not billions—of users are revealing this same information, it seems significantly less damaging.

Therefore, while I still am very stringent about the sort of information I am willing to share, I do feel that this course gave me more of a perspective on social media and its role in our lives. It made me realize that while social media sites are designed to be able to be used as your profile and your platform of communication, they are not at all about you—they are in truth massive businesses that you are simply a statistic in. While I guess I always knew this in the back of my mind, this course really helped me conceptualize how large the industry of social media is. Really looking at it, it is almost incomprehensible to try to grasp the size and sphere on social media, and I honestly believe that an entire major could (and probably will) be devoted towards studies of it in the near future. It is such a fast-growing field, both in the number of adopters and of academics on the subject, so it is very interesting to have started studying it as this point when there is significant knowledge of it but still so much to learn.

 

- Colleen

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