Author Archives: lusely.martinez

Posts: 5 (archived below)
Comments: 3

Catching Up with FaceBook..

Posted on April 28, 2011 by lusely.martinez

Friendster has decided to do a complete overhaul of their own social networking site to try and keep up with Facebook! “Friendster e-mailed its members over the past week to inform them to save their pictures, profile information, messages and blog posts on other sites by May 31.” Although their spokesman claims competing with Facebook would be crazy and they are doing this to, “push the boundaries” of their business, it’s clearly to keep Friendster afloat and profitable. Apparently they will revamp the site “focusing on a new platform for social interaction in gaming, music, entertainment and online shopping.” These changes are apparently to do something Facebook doesn’t, to be an entirely new site and experience. Membership will continue to be free.

My opinion on this is that it may be a good idea, but who’s to say Facebook won’t quickly follow suit? Facebook already has various interactive games available, music can easily be posted, and entertainment is easily available on FB as well. Their idea is to be a separate entity from FB, no photo albums, no profile info, no blog posts or messages, but there will still be members’ pages. how exactly does that work and how are you to identify yourself to your friends, by username only? Although the idea seems fresh and new, I’m a bit skeptical. I think Facebook can easily catch on while maintaining their format, however Friendster obviously reserves the right to try and be progressive.

Posted in Assignment 5 | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Females and Facebook

Posted on March 10, 2011 by lusely.martinez

So I was doing some internet browsing on Cosmopolitan.com, and came across two very interesting articles that are highly related to what we have discussed in class.

The first article Are You Oversharing on Facebook? talks about a new study that shows that how often women update their facebook photos is directly related to their self esteem. According this study, conducted at the University of Buffalo, “females who base their self worth on their appearance tend to share more photos online and maintain larger networks on online social networking sites.” They state that women, whom care a lot about their image and appearance, use Facebook as a platform to compete and also to get attention.

The second article I found, What These Facebook Statuses Really Mean, talks about some of the most annoy facebook behaviors that our friends or maybe even we may be committing. The author says that sometimes “reading status updates makes you think everyone else is happier and having more fun than you are” and that’s practically what this article is about. The Offenders here are: The Smug Newlywed, The 28-Year-Old Woman-Child, Ms Very Busy and Very Important, Miss In a Relationship and Flaunting It, and The Easy-Breezy New Mommy. Each of these women commits facebook faults of rubbing her life into others faces using facebook. I know this article talks mainly about female types, but I’m sure there are male equivalents who’s facebook updates are just as annoying. It makes us want to unfriend them, but you can’t, because they are your brother. This is a situation i’ve gotten to see first hand: Myboyfriend currently has a war going on with his brother who goes to school in Tampa, FL. Everytime my bf logs onto facebook, his younger brother has a new status update talking about the amazing time he’s having, and needless to say, theres a major sibling rivalry going on, trying to one up one another, and insult/belittle the other via facebook. Recently, my bfs younger bro posted about a vacation he’s taking to Punta Cana, and my bf flipped. These two don’t talk on the phone, and having facebook be their only mode of communication has led to major jealousy issues. So facebook offenses definitely aren’t female only behavior.

Posted in Assignment 4 | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Hollaback!

Posted on March 8, 2011 by lusely.martinez

In class we’ve discussed the goods, evils and just plain bizarre opinions of different mediums of social networking. Well today I came across a New York Times article Keeping Women Safe Through Social Networking. I would like to classify this under GOOD intent, but I’m hesitant about the movement this site is promoting. I will explain why:

In this article, the author tells us about a new Social Networking site created and available to women to increase our safety and comfort level. ihollaback.org “is a movement dedicated to ending street harassment using mobile technology,” according to it’s website. “Ihollaback is taking awareness to a new level in helping to create a platform where people can talk about this worldwide,” said Holly Kearl, author of “Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women,” and creator of Stopstreetharassment.com.

Basically this site is encouraging women EVERYWHERE to share their experiences with street harassment, and also ask them to map out where this occurred. The site, as viewed above, actually has a map with these points/place specified, right on their homepage. I’m guessing it’s supposed to help women know where to expect it. I understand how as women we feel objectified and at times uncomfortable being approached or harassed by men whom we at times classify as creepers. These sites obviously are to shed light on this area of discomfort and fight back using the most popular form of Communication we have, which is the internet and by default, our phones. However I’m wondering how exactly this will STOP street harassment. If you go to the site, it gives you options to share stories, information about street harassment, and locations on your facebook or twitter.

I’m not sure exactly how I feel about this site. Parts of me are like: hell yeah! empower us! make the street harassment stop! but another part of me wonders, how exactly it will help stop something that clearly occurs and is ignored in our society. I guess I’m skeptical, but found it interesting, nonetheless and thought I would share it.

Posted in Assignment 3 | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

What is Social Networking?

Posted on March 4, 2011 by lusely.martinez

Just recently I came across this website called What is Social Networking?
On the homepage there’s an article defining what Social Networking is and on a tab on the side there’s a list of topics related to Social networking. These Topics range from Creating a site, to Cyber bullying, and Which sites are useful. I truly didn’t think a site like this existed. Now this isn’t a fancy site with great html and Java script. This is a pretty standard site, text, bad graphics, and suck advertisements; obviously a homemade site, but it’s surprising the kind of information you find.

I explored the site a little and found some of the articles interesting and highly relevant to our class. in Addicted to Social Sites?, the author uses terms like Internet Addiction Disorder, Net Junkie, or online-a-holic to describe people addicted to being alone. it made me think, aren’t we all Net Junkies then? we get most of HW readings online, and while online, we check our email, some of us have our e-mail connected to our phones so we are always in contact, we are also on Facebook, or twitter. Who escapes this term really? The author goes on to describe the tellnig signs of Internet Addiction Disorder: “1) Excessive computer use typically associated with loss of spatial time perception; neglect of basic human drives, proper nutrition, personal hygiene, relationships; 2) Feelings of isolation, withdrawal, depression and extreme agitation, high-anxiety if the computer is unavailable or breaks down; 3) Low tolerance levels, including an unjustifiable need for bigger, better, faster computer equipment, the latest and greatest software; and 4) Low accomplishment level, procrastination, lying, social isolation and chronic fatigue.”

I wonder, how many of us can say we show all four signs?

Posted in Assignment 2 | Tagged , | Comments Off on What is Social Networking?

Homeless and on Twitter

Posted on February 24, 2011 by lusely.martinez

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/a-life-on-the-streets-captured-on-twitter/?ref=socialnetworking

This morning i came across this article on the New York Times website and it kind of blew my mind. To give you a quick idea on what this article is about, it starts off discussing a man named Derrick Wiggins, 44, who is homeless in NYC and who is on twitter. He is one of the four homeless men from the streets of NY who were given prepaid cellphones so that they could create a Twitter, develop a following, and then document or tweet about their lives. This is part of a project by three college grads who intern at the BBH advertising agency in TriBeCa. They were given $1,000 and told “Do something good, famously.” The result was a website called UnderHeard in New York, and the goal is to “help homeless New Yorkers speak for themselves through Twitter.”
The article goes on to tell us about the going ons of Wiggins life documented on his twitter page @awitness2011, for his now around 4,500 followers which are from all over the world including Brazil, Italy, and Australia.

This article i think speaks about how universal twitter, and social networking in general is. It’s kind of amazing actually that through social networking we now have the opportunity to take a glimpse into the life of the homeless: the shelters, the subway rides, the job searches, and thats just Wiggins.
In class yesterday we discussed why people post on facebook (this is twitter, but the same action of posting is involved), and maybe for some it’s attention, but for Wiggins “just the fact that somebody is listening” helped him persevere. He said, “I’ve received what I need to keep going.” Sometimes that’s all that is. The need to share your story and know others care. You feel less alone in the world. Twitter has obviously helped Wiggins keep going just as much as it’s allowed us to view the world from his shoes.

Posted in Assignment 1 | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments