New Media in Classrooms

The reading we discussed today talked a lot about the forms of new technology used in schools and how it is used interactively. The article said how we should use technology together and not apart, that way we will get the most effective type of new media advances. When I was in grade school we rarely ever used new media, except for in computer class. My brother is in grade school now and I feel like they do much more online work than I even did, which is a great thing. Without introducing kids to new media, you are not preparing them. They need to learn about new media because that is pretty much all the business world uses today. I found this website that gives teachers hints on how to expose kids more to new media and technology. Some of the ideas it suggest are; online homework, which I think is a great idea because in college a lot of my homework is on Blackboard or other online sites. They also suggest using overhead projections and powerpoints because they will draw kids attention more than just writing on the chalkboard. The thing I liked the most about this website is it mentions the "paperless classroom" which means that you submit everything online and there are no worksheets or handed in paper. This idea will teach kids how to be comfortable with the online world and also help the keep the world "green" by not wasting paper.

We also discussed in class the importance of Facebook and politics and mentioned how the most common reason people "defriend" others on Facebook is because they get annoyed with their political views that they post via their status. I have bad news for those who get annoyed with the politics on Facebook...it is NEVER going away! Well..at least according to this blog/website. This article states that Facebook is going to play a permanent place in Politics. The author cites several reasons for this. For example, Facebook is free, unlike many other campaign sites. It costs politicians nothing to campaign via Facebook, so why wouldn't they use that as their main source of getting their message out there. This article also makes another important point saying that unlike Google where ads are targeted at content keywords on a site, Facebook ads allow one to identify with the ads and target people who agree with your value system. The author of this article ends by saying, Facebook is around to stay because as of right now it is America's top social media source.

Lastly, I decided to do some more research on "defriending" others on Facebook and look more into the most common reasons people "defriend." This article states many top reasons that people "defriend" such as; annoying status' about politics and religions, also crude or racist comments on their walls or status updates. This article discusses a survey done about unfriending in which they discovered that the people being "unfriended" are typically the ones that go around "friending" random people. Those who rarely "friend" others are rarely ever "unfriended" by others. I thought this was interesting but it does sound about right. I know my friends that never friend request people on Facebook often get very annoyed when they get friend request from people they do not know well, so it does make sense that they would later unfriend those people.

Reviews of DIGG & Spying on Children Online

Today in class we discussed DIGG and how different people like and dislike it for certain reasons. I had never been on the DIGG website before today and I actually really liked it. Sometimes I am too lazy to look for interesting articles to read online so from now on I will turn to DIGG. The top articles on DIGG all sounded like articles I typically read when I am on a news website or when reading the newspaper. I found this website that provided various reviews of DIGG and went through the websites pros and cons. Here is the website, it is called Webtrends. It says that one of the cons would be that if someone does not like a certain topic or author, they can simply "sink" that article. However, I think the majority of the people using the website are judging the article by what it says or what point it makes, not if they agree with the article or author. The pros state that DIGG is extremely easy to use and it has a large variety of articles so it should appeal to a large audience. The website it came from, Webtrends, also has a cool concept. It gives ratings on various new and old online sites. For example, I found reviews for Propeller, Newsvine, and it even has a list of the top Social News and Networking sites. Check it out!

I also searched "Facebook" on the Webtrends website and it gave the top reasons why everyone should be on Facebook. It says you should use Facebook because you can find old friends on it, it can be your online photobook, it has game, and it is good for your job and business. All of these things are true and I feel like these days more and more adults are getting Facebook for their jobs and some jobs are even requiring their employees to get Facebooks so they can connect with others within the business. I am curious if Facebook started to charge people how many members would stop using Facebook. I also wonder if companies would pay for their employees accounts, since some employees are required to have a Facebook.

I also found this website called ALLFACEBOOK.com. Their tag line is "The unofficial Facebook Resource." The website includes tons of posts about things that happen on Facebook, both good and bad. This article from the website talks about a teacher who got fired for "flirting" with his students online and "friended" many of his students on Facebook. The teacher also commented on students pictures saying totally unprofessional and inappropriate things like "this is sexy" on student's photos. I know that many of my high school teachers would not accept our "friend requests" until after we graduated in order to avoid any trouble. I do not think some students realize just how much trouble a teacher can get in for communicating with a student online about non school related issues. People should really think twice before accepting a friend request or even worse, posting comments for the whole world to see.

Creator of Napster and new Facebook Advances

This past weekend I saw the new movie "The Social Network" and I loved it! I really did not think I was going to but after reading all the great reviews it was getting I had to check it out. I do not want to ruin the movie at all but the creator of Napster, Shawn Fanning, plays a large part in the making of Facebook. Seeing him in the movie made me want to know more about him. I found this interview with him. I was shocked to find that he is very similar to Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook. Fanning created Napster when he was a college student and was shocked to see how far it went. Even though it was eventually shut down, Napster started a huge revolution in the music industry, for the good and the bad. It made many artists more popular than they ever would have been if their songs were only played once and a while on the radio and it also caused many law suits because artists were not making any money off of their music. Napster was most certainly the start of the era of New Media. Even adults who were not good with computers turned to Napster to get their "free music." Check out this interview with Shawn Fanning.

Today in class we also were discussing the Facebook workers and I was curious how many people work for Facebook now. Since it is such a huge company I would have to imagine there are tons of employees. I found this on their website. I was amazed to find all of the careers they have to offer. Everything from HR to Sales. The Facebook team also gets great benefits, as you can see on their website. They have a 401K plan and great discounts with Apple, Dell and ATT and they have a laundry service that you can drop your clothes off at and the clothes will be dropped off at your desk by the end of the day. Another great perk of working with Facebook is they offer free shuttle services to and from their offices. The last great benefit I read on their website was that they offer FREE breakfast, lunch, and dinner at some of their locations. So for those of us beginning to search for jobs out of college, Facebook may be a good place to apply.

Lastly, we were discussing BING today in class. I decided to do some research on BING and social networking sites and I found this ABC News article. The article says that Facebook and BING are now coming together on the "Search" field. It describes how BING will now show results of ones Facebook friends searches so they can see what they have in common. They can also see what their friends "liked" or sites they commonly visit. This is a bit creepy to me and I hope there is a way to turn this off. I do not really care nor do I want to see any sites my Facebook friends visit. Here is the quote from the websites :

HOW IT WORKS: Bing is using Facebook's "instant personalization" feature, which customizes websites based on the likes and interests of Facebook members and their friends. Restaurant-review website Yelp and music site Pandora also use instant personalization. Bing will only show information that Facebook members already designate as public.

Common Sense about Location Sharing

This week I did my presentation on TWITCHANGE and SOCIALGO. They are two websites that show the positive aspects of Social Networking sites. They both allow for good things to happen on the Internet. As I said in my presentation, Social Networking sites are good things as long as they are used in the right way. It is only when people take advantage of these sites that things can go drastically wrong. However, that is not the fault of the website, it is the fault of the person.

Today in class we discussed Location Sharing and how it influences and effects young kids and how it is being banned in several schools. I decided to do my own research on the effects of location sharing with kids. I found this website, which caters mostly to teachers and parents. Parents are typically not updated on what is going on online with their kids so this website tells them everything they need to know. The website gave several facts about kids sharing their locations and the facts kind of shocked me. They state that a 2010 study showed that 69% of kids, ages 13-17, included their physical location on their social networking status update. I am sure many parents were shocked to read this because I think parents (including my own) are clueless when it comes to how much information their kids can post on Facebook. I checked out my little brother's, who is 14, Facebook page and I was shocked about how many times he wrote exactly where he was on his status update..for example, his status over the weekend was "At the Eagles game with the fam." He basically just told the whole world that my house was empty and was going to stay empty for at least 4 hours till the game was over. The website also has a video that I think everyone should check out because it truly does inform parents and the rest of the world how scary it can be when a child post exactly where they are and exactly who they are with. I think a lot of kids do not see anything wrong with sharing their location because they see all of their peers doing the same thing.

Does not having a Facebook result in Social Suicide?

It sounds like a crazy questions but according to some people its totally true. I was shocked to find this article. It comes from a website called "College Candy" that has daily postings from various authors about different real world issues. This article claims that its only "weird" people that do not have Facebooks and she often wonders what is wrong with people that do not have Facebooks. She even compares people without Facebook to people who have never tried PB&J. In class we have discussed a lot of things about Facebook but we never really discussed how people are treated for not having a Facebook. I know one of my friends deactivated his Facebook for a couple weeks and he said he would never do it again...when I asked why he said "way too many people have asked me what happened to my Facebook and I am sick of it" he also said that his girlfriend accused him of being shady for deleting his Facebook. I couldn't help but think..well that is a little shady?? Then I took a second to realize that maybe he just wanted to concentrate on school and studying instead of constantly logging on Facebook. I think maybe I should try it and see how much better I do in school..it would be a good test. This author of the above linked article also asks the audience how they live without Facebook, I think that statement may have been a little extreme but at the same time I know so many people that I know would go crazy if Facebook ever went away. Everyone should also check out the comments below the article because it is interesting to see how different people feel on the subject of having/not having a Facebook.

We also talked about the creator of Facebook a lot in class so I went and did some of my own research on him. Most of the stuff was repetitive but I did find this from the NY Daily News. The article states that Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, CANNOT be blocked on Facebook. This is a little scary because it is possible to block every other Facebook member in the world. It just shows that he wants the users to know that he is in control and no matter how many privacy settings you enable, he will always have access. After I read this article I did try to block him and an "error" message came up, just as the article said would happen if someone tried to block him.

Social Networking sites being used for the WRONG reasons.

Today in class we talked a lot about things that have gone wrong because of social networking sites. For example, students getting expelled for their Myspace pictures or events and parties getting cancelled because of teachers or deans finding the event on Facebook. I decided to do some of my own research about "things gone wrong" when using social networking websites. I found many different websites/blogs/postings about people getting in trouble from different social networking sites. However, after sorting through all of them I found 2 particular websites that really stuck out and surprised me.

Over the summer one of my co-workers told me that she was fighting with her husband because of something he saw on Facebook. My co-workers ex-boyfriend (from high school) was sending her private messages on Facebook asking her to meet up and talk to him. My co-worker never responded to the messages but never the less her husband was upset by what he saw. She explained to me that since her husband is not an avid Facebook user he did not understand that Facebook is used for keeping in touch and getting back in touch with old friends. I found this website which claims that 1 in 5 divorces is blamed on Facebook these days. The author of this article said that "Divorce Online" did a study which is where they are getting these horrifying results. Kennan, the person who headed the study, claims that sexual and inappropriate Facebook chats were the most common reason for these Facebook divorces. Another interesting fact I learned from this website was that divorce lawyers now check the Facebook of the other spouse to see if they can use any evidence from their Facebook during the court hearing.

This next website I found really freaked me out. I had seen something on TV about this case but I never really knew the details of it. This case involves a mother creating a Myspace hoax to hurt the feelings of a 13 year old girl (her daughters friend). This mom tricked the young girl into thinking an older boy, named "Josh", liked her and then eventually broke her heart. This insecure 13 year old committed suicide because she was unable to deal with this heartbreak and loss of friendship. I could not believe that a parent, who had a daughter the same age, would ever do that to a young insecure girl dealing with depression. Here is the link to this CNN story.

Both of these situations have a common factor...they both involve adults. I want to point this out because I can not tell you the amount of times I have heard a teacher, parents, ect. say that young teens do not know how to handle social networking sites. In the two above examples, grown adults clearly do not know how to handle social networking sites. This just goes to show that age does not matter when it comes to social networking sites...a 14 year old has to hide their facebook when they may just be using facebook to meet new friends going into high school...where as a 40 year old adult should be the one thats regulated when they are using social networking sites to cheat on their spouse or making a fake Myspace account. I think the stereotype of young people doing "bad things" on social networking sites should disappear and we should start to examine why people of all ages are using social networking sites.

The "like" button is causing controversy.

We have been talking a lot about social networking websites in class the past few weeks so I decided to write my blog on one of the most popular social networking sites...Facebook. One of my friends had told me they heard something on the news about controversy with the "Like" button on facebook. I decided to look more into this and I was surprised to find that many legitimate websites talking about the "Like" button. I never really thought twice about using the "Like" button. In my eyes it was just an easier way to comment on a picture or post without really commenting. For example, instead of writing "cute picture" I would just hit the "Like" button. I never really "Liked" pages or celebrity fan sites, even thought I get tons of people inviting me to "Like" pages they "Like." Here are two of the most interesting websites I found on controversy, and even lawsuits, surrounded around the "Like" button.

This first case deals with minors using the "Like" button. This article discusses David Cohen v. Facebook. Cohen says that there are been millions of cases where Facebook has "misappropriated a minors name or likeness for profit." Naturally, Facebook fights back and releases this statement, "We believe this suit is completely without merit and we will fight it vigorously. The complaint misunderstands the law, it’s intent and the way Facebook works. For example, plaintiffs assert that minors are marketing Facebook through search engines but we do not allow minors to include their profiles in search engines,” said Andrew Noyes, Facebook’s manager of public policy communications. Cohen says he was fighting for all Facebook users, especially minors, who have been "used" by Facebook and other advertising companies. Here is the link to the article; http://mashable.com/2010/08/27/facebook-class-action-suit/.

The second article I found was on CNN's website. This article discusses how the "Like" button is a security issue. Since the "Like" button is now linked to other Webpages, it tracks all of the sites that are viewed by a particular user. According to this article, the Facebook Chief Executive said this like to other webpages makes Facebook and its users more "social." I never really considered that this was a security issue until I read this CNN site. I think after learning more about the "Like" button I have learned to be much more careful when using it. Here is the link to the CNN article; http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/06/02/cnet.facebook.privacy.like/index.html