Tag Archives: Facebook

Making Future Plans of a Social Network…

Posted on May 25, 2011 by

In the new york times article A social network for making future plans, it talks about a new website where you can make plans in the future.  This is different because usually when you log in to Facebook or Twiter, you talk about your current plans, or plans that have been done in the past.  With WhereBerry, you can share your future plans.  Its actually pretty easy, you log in with your Facebook information and all of your friends that are using the website will come out in your feed and they can let you know what they are planning in the future.

This is an interesting website, because all of your ideas for planning for the future can be done and maybe you can find a buddy or two to do them with.  It is also a good idea, because you can see what your friends are doing, and get ideas of what you can also do with another set of friends as well.  Maybe you didn’t know that the backstreet boys were going to be in town in October, but you just found out that your friend Jane bought tickets for their concert already, and now you must have a pair.  This can also work with restaurants that you want to visit.  When you like celebrity pages, they can let you know what they are doing in the future and maybe you can go ahead and meet them at a certain place.

Posted in Assignment 4 | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

creepy

Posted on May 22, 2011 by gee.elle

“Even cars are gettin creepy wid it. Erryones a d*mn stalka now.” Although my friend isn’t so gifted with the words, he’s definitely right.

And people really need another distraction while driving? I know we’ve all see people eating, on a call, texting, or putting on their make-up while driving. Now they can check their facebook too?

Posted in Assignment 5 | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Twitter makes you Stupid… Huh?

Posted on May 18, 2011 by

I came across the article The Twitter Trap, and I though it was really interesting.   The author starts talking about how he let his 13 yr old daughter get a Facebook,  (I don’t have the slightest idea why he would let his 13 yr old get a facebook) and how she had 171 friends within a few hrs.  He talks about inventions such as the calculator diminishing our math skills, “GPS has undermined our mastery of city streets,” and how typing has “killed penmanship.”

So what has Twitter done to us!?  Not only can our tweets be 140 characters long, (if you don’t use one of those special websites) you have to figure out how to say what you want to say in 140 characters.  This causes us to make up abbreviations, misspell words, and not use correct grammar.  Its fine for twitter, i’m pretty sure 90% of the people who follow you will understand, but more than often you will find yourselves writing a paper for class and using the same characteristics.  Instead of writing “you”, you write “u.”  It takes you more time to write a paper because you have to be going back and correcting what you are misspelling.  This is just one of the few ways that twitter makes you stupid.  I am guilty of all of this, because as I sit here writing this post, I have to go back and fix my misspelling of u and r.

-Armenis Perez

Posted in Assignment 3 | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Digital City

Posted on May 18, 2011 by gee.elle

It’s no secret that technology has become an important part in nearly everyone’s live, whether directly or indirectly. In class, we’ve discussed how it affects our social lives, interactions, and relationships. An while technology has been used by both the private and public sector, it seems that the two have now combined.

In an annoucement made on Monday, May 16th, Mayor Bloomberg has pledged to make New York City the “No. 1 Digitial City”. Using the popular social networking sites of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and FourSquare, the goal is to make the City of New York more Internet accessible.  It is also to redefine the presence of New York online, redesigning its website and plans to “to acquire a .nyc suffix for Web pages”.  The city has also hired it’s first ever Chief Digital Officer.

After reading several articles, the point of all this is still unclear to me.  The only explanation I could find was a quote from Mayor Bloomberg: “We want New York City to be the nation’s premier digital city – in how local government interacts with New Yorkers, in how New Yorkers have access to and capitalize on new technologies, and in how our tech and digital media sectors evolve, grow businesses and create jobs”.  This, to me, seems pretty vague.  The city appears to just be expanding on the general purpose of the Internet: to connect people more quickly and efficiently.

With all the budget cuts (including education cuts which have forced Baruch students to visit Albany and lobby to keep our Pell Grants and block outrageous CUNY tuition hikes), Bloomberg’s goal just seems pointless. He even flat out states that the city does not have the money to complete this task on its own and will look to companies for aid.

Don’t you think that the money can be better put to use? What about restructuring the MTA so we have fewer corrupt officials and more service? This may seem cynical but at the end of the day, the city is constantly trying to bring in tourists and improve the things that RESIDENTS have no concern over.

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Social Media as a tool

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Julianne Miller

The disaster in Japan gave a different use to social media. The concept similar to that of an illness narrative unfolded on the web. The internet “spawned creativity & innovation online amid a collective desire to ease suffering.” After the earthquake, tsunami & nuclear crisis during March, the people of Japan were able to use the internet mainly Twitter, to receive up to date real time information. As the earthquake & tsunami unfolded, the people of Japan were able to connect to Twitter to find their loved ones. Between March 7 to 13 the site grew by a third to 7.5 million users. Even one of the cities in Japan, Mitaka which is west of Tokyo, created a twitter.

Those directly affected by the disaster weren’t the only ones who used social media to connect. Many people became volunteers who used their blogs, Facebook & twitter to attempt to heal or at least comfort those suffering. A teacher living just outside of Tokyo created “Quakebook.” Quakebook is a collection of reflection, essays & images from various bloggers. IT plans to become a digital publication that will be sold. The proceeds of the publication will go to the Japanese Red Cross.

“World’s 1000 messages for Japan,” is another project that involves contributions from social media users. It consists of a collection of emailed notes & notes from Facebook users which then get posted to Twitter.

Social Media has used the Internet as a place to connect with people, share stories, give hope and volunteer time. It’s amazing that from countries & miles away we can all join in and let those suffering know they are not alone but rather there is someone here to lend a hand & do what they can.

Posted in Assignment 4 | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Social Media Jobs

Posted on May 11, 2011 by laww

Since my previous post for assignment number four was about the positives of social media websites, instead of the negatives, I will continue with this trend.  It is important to note that there are an immense amount of good things that social media websites can do for people, and since more and more continue to be created, it is important that people know about the benefits of them.

The obvious benefit is that it helps one another keep in touch.  Whether it be someone with a disease who needs contact with the outside world, or someone who just wants to interact with their cousin who lives far away, social media websites are a necessity.  Why?  Let me ask you a question, when is the last time you picked up the telephone to call someone?  This generation is focused on email & text messaging, and making a phone call has almost become a thing of the past.

I remember when I received my first cell phone.  It had no color and the only game on it was snake.  It was big and ugly, but it got the job done; making phone calls. Text messaging and social media websites, were not prevalent until the time I entered high school.

Another tremendous positive for social media websites is that there are more job opportunities, and since the economic decline, this is something everyone can be grateful for.  By typing into google search : “Social Media Jobs,” this website popped up : http://www.socialmediajobs.com/ , with the headline “Social Media Jobs: Turn Your Passion into a Profession.”  With such an engaging title, it was intriguing to me and it reminded me of why social media is a good thing.  Many people enjoy writing their opinions, thoughts, etc. onto social media websites, and if it is something you love, why not turn it into a career?  There have been many people who have visited Baruch for panel discussions in the library who have done this very thing.  It may be difficult to ascertain, but almost nothing in life is easy.

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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

You have the right to remain SILENT Officers!!

Posted on April 27, 2011 by melissa.colas

I came across this article in the New York Times about police officers and their social networking pages such as Facebook. Many of these officers are being reprimanded for the information they put on their pages that is work related. Some of these comments have given some police headquarters and police officials a bad reputation. Now it is easy to say that the officers first amendment right is being violated. However, their actions are compromising other individuals and not just themselves. I think that if this is in fact true in which people are seeing the kind of officers being hired then it makes precincts look bad and people will start to begin protesting against them. In some cases, officers post up photos of crime scenes or themselves posing with guns. There are also obscene comments from officers such as this one: “These people should have died when they were young, anyway, I’m just doing them a favor,”according to an officer speaking of a homeless man on the street. who was beaten by police. I think that the police department heads have every right to censor this information because one person makes a reflection on the whole precinct. Although people do not like to be censored, a job in police enforcement should allow every one to feel equally safe and protected by police officers. In these cases, it is easy to see that people are discriminated against and then society will take a look at who hired them. Every employer is liable to watch their backs when their reputation is at risk. As a waitress at Applebees, i have even had my employers tell us that we need to be respectful to people anywhere around the region because if they come in the restaurant they will recognize whether we did something bad or good around them if they remember us. Therefore, even in a place where people may think it is not that serious to watch your actions such as working in a restaurant it is. Law enforcement should have much more stricter rules as well because their duty is to be protective of its citizens. I would feel really uncomfortable finding out that an officer in my town would post such things on their Facebook because i would want to know how many more officers feel the same way or have done the same thing. The head officials are not telling officers to not post anything at all, but they are simply making sure they watch what they are putting out for public eyes to see. If the officers want to protect themselves, they should not allow people to know who they are employed by on Facebook or what goes on work related. In any case, they should become familiar with Facebook’s privacy settings and learn how to separate their work lives from their personal lives.

Posted in Assignment 5 | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Cyber-bullying

Posted on April 25, 2011 by

With the good there’s always bad.I mention this because, social networks are intended to bring numerous social networks and communities together to share commonalities; however, most of the time these sites are misused.In this article, two teens created a false Facebook account and used it against a fellow classmate.

The victim’s father felt it was best for the teens to attend pretrial diversion programs.This program assists teens understand the harm and consequences of their actions, and punishment is assigned to them.

The girls said they targeted the victim because “nobody liked her.”Which is often times the main reason to be targeted.In addition to boost the opponents self esteem.

In this article teens are warned of websites that may affect them, mentally.It mentions a site called Formspring, which gives users the opportunity to ask fellow users questions, anonymously.According to parenting expert Michele Borba,

“Formspring is one of the new kinds of websites that looks like a social network that is popping up online for our daughters. It looks tame enough…but once they log on, what it actually encourages instead is to send vicious notes toward one another in an anonymous nature,” said Borba.

However, as I learned in another sociology course, as we use the streets of any city we cannot blame the street for misuse.We can blame the individuals who use it incorrectly.I feel this is the same for users of the internet.After Borba’s statement I feel she is trying to blame the website for the content which is visible to users.However, we must keep in mind these comments written by users can be positive, not only negative.

In addition to cyber-bullying, teens are bombarded with other types of information while using the web.For example,other sites that promote unhealthy lifestyles.The article gives it opinion on what should be done.Read below.

So how do parents keep their teens off these websites? Our experts offer this advice:

First, invest in parental control software; monitor your teen’s online history; do Google searches on their full names to see if anything comes up; and limit their time online.

“You need to step up to the plate. You need to monitor because we’re raising our children in a tough world,” said Borba.

Since we are adapting to technology and educational institutions use the internet in classroom settings and for take home assignments(for any subjects)would this be the solution to cyber-bullying for teen girls?Or is it important to know the factors behind the situation from both parties?

 

 

Posted in Assignment 5 | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Communicate from beyond the grave

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Julianne Miller

Social media has changed the way we live. Now it is changing death too. I’ve seen the facebook status posts that say “When I die, friends will go to my funeral, good friends will cry at my funeral, but my best friend will change my facebook status to ‘Chillin with Jesus’.” Well now your best friend won’t have to because you can now be prepared for death in the digital age. LifeEnsured is preparing people for specifically that. This service allows people to control what happens to their accounts. From beyond the grave you can control what happens to your facebook for example. You can have you facebook deactivated, disable wall posts, change everything to past tense and even post a final status. This service is offered for over 30 online services, including Facebook, Twitter and WordPress. You won’t have to worry about your digital information living on forever. LifeEnsured gets notified either by the Social Security Administration or your confidants who are people you select to notify LifeEnsured of your death. LifeEnsured will take care of anything from your match.com profile to transfer of ownership of your PayPal account to who controls your email. You can send out a final email and other various changes to any of your online accounts. This is a way of protecting all your digital information in a time where almost everything we do is documented online. There are different types of plans offered, some of which are free and an unlimited service is priced at $300.

Posted in Assignment 2 | Tagged , | 2 Comments