I seem to be blogging everywhere but on this site as of late. Well, that’s what happens when you agree to do too much “real” work and don’t have any time left over for “fun” work, like blogging on this site.
Here’s my latest Pew Internet project blog, which came out of a data memo I wrote on the major predictions related to technology in 2008.
Check out my latest musings over at gnovis on the recent Facebook-organized protests in Colombia and around the world.
Everyone knows Google Maps, and I’ve blogged multiple times about Twitter, the insta-status social networking site. Well, these two normally unrelated sites have joined forces for Super Tuesday to let consumers see just what people from around the world are twitting on this most massive of primary/caucus/pick the next US president days. Check out the site here to watch new comments pop up every 10 seconds or so.
Today (Wednesday) is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day. Incidentally, it is also the same day “Crazy” King George (George III) died, most likely from syphilis; the day Kansas officially became a state in the great U-S-of-A; the day the 49ers became the first football team to win five NFL championships (Steve Young + Jerry Rice = totally unstoppable); and the birthdays of Oprah and Heather Graham. So MySpace haters can take faith that they share their special day with STDs, tornadoes, gold, the rich, and the whorish.
ANYWAY, I think I might have a point here (then again, maybe I don’t). So all the shenanigans began about 10 days ago when a blogger decided he hated MySpace enough to deactivate his account. Rather than just click the button when prompted, “Are you sure you want to deactivate this account and lose touch with your 200 million friends who don’t want to lose you to the evils of the real world?” said blogger decides he wants to go out Jonestown-style and get as many followers as possible to follow his lead.
I apologize…wait, no, I don’t apologize. Why do people need a Day (capital D) to deactivate their account on a social networking site? Has the power of the individual to think and act on his own disappeared as we all become inextricably linked to everyone everywhere around the world? (Thanks to the internet, we might only need four degrees of separation by this point.) I just think this delete you MySpace account day is so silly. Two thousand people deactivating their accounts on the same day is small change when you have 100,000,000+ users (in case you care, that would be a user loss of a .oooo2%, or something like that). So, honestly people, whether it’s 2000 or 10,000 (which I highly doubt), I don’t think your little fly will be noticed on the MySpace beast.
A word of advice. You don’t like your MySpace account? You don’t use it anymore, don’t like privacy breaches, don’t want random people knowing your favorite movie is Gigli? THEN JUST DELETE IT. There’s no need to make a spectacle of the event.
Man, people are just getting way too involved with their SNS profiles. This is not a romantic relationship everyone. It’s just a webpage.
I still have yet to jump onto the Flickr bandwagon, but For example, I recently blogged about a woman who used her Flickr account to demonstrate how she makes “8-bit cookies” with patterns from our favorite Nintendo games (among other things).
The Library of Congress, which houses information on just about everything to have ever occurred anywhere at any time, has created a Flickr account and uploaded more than 3,000 images that fall into one of two categories: “News in the 1910s” and “1930s-40s in Color.” You should check out this site if you have any interest in history from a visual perspective, or if you just have some time to kill. I like this one of a woman sitting outside Union Station, as it looked 65 years ago.
I have previously mentioned my intrigue with the site Twitter. After about two months using it, I am still no closer to understanding its mass appeal among some of the dorkier techies out there. I especially don’t understand why so many people use it almost as a instant message chat room, where everyone can see what you’re talking about. I mean, phones do still exist people. And so do chat rooms, like through GMail, where NOT EVERYONE CAN WATCH YOUR CONVERSATION UNFOLD.
Anyway, I have given up trying to understand the appeal of Twittering. What really surprised me, however, was how all those dorkorific kids out there salivating over Macworld today and Steve Jobs’ keynote, actually brought Twitter to its knees briefly. Poor things, trying to find out if Jobs’ had chuckled or merely smiled after making some lame joke, they were instead greeted with this error message:
Poor babies. I’m sure they cried and hugged their laptops to their bony chests and screamed at god for being so totally unfair.
I’m sorry people, but I think we all need to take a step back from the the technology train that is bearing down on us at such an incredible pace. If you are really that upset about not knowing what is happening at Macworld the very second it happens, maybe you need to climb up the stairs out of your basement, put on some clothes other than your PJs and take a walk outside for maybe 10 minutes or so. That’s not asking too much of you. We’re all getting so caught up in technology these days that I think we’re forgetting where our real priorities are. And here’s a hint: they’re not related to the computer.
And that, my friends, is enough lecturing from my high horse for today. You can now resume you Twittering you weirdos.
[Thanks Techcrunch.]
UPDATE: Now, this is more of what I’m talking about: Steve Jobs’ Key Note as a Drinking Game!
entertaining to say the least. Or maybe it was the tremendous wave of nostalgia to roll over me as soon as I saw *my* Super Soaker in the blog post, sitting there in all its hypercolor glory. What mid 20-something to mid 30-something doesn’t remember the joys of summer days spent shooting Super Soakers at older siblings and horror stories of people filling them with bleach (I never did figure out if that really happened or if it was an urban legend)? Ahh, those were the days.The Bubble video, a catchy song about the “second tech bubble” and put to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is back online, after it was temporarily removed due to a threatened lawsuit by photographer Lane Hartwell regarding unlicensed use of an image of hers. (The image in question was removed.)
The song is actually quite funny and relevant. It amazes me that anyone who has been alive during 2007 could actually suggest we’re not experiencing 1997 all over again. Hopefully, this time the bubble burst won’t be quite as painful.
Oh, and I felt compelled to blog about this, because the song said I would. Then again, the song also said I should blog during sex. I have to figure out logistics for that one still.
So I was lucky enough to get onto the beta version on Hulu earlier this month (good to see my ridiculous amount of blog reading did something positive for me besides eating away my soul), and so far, so good.
For those who aren’t familiar with Hulu, it is a new video on demand website that was created by NBC and News Corp. As of right now, it is not offering any video sharing capabilities; however, the addition is expected sometime in the future. What the site does have, however, is content. A whole lot of content. You’ll find episodes from almost every major show on a FOX or NBC network (i.e., NBC, FOX, FX, Sci Fi, Bravo, USA, and more), plus plenty of content from other networks like ABC, MTV, CW, etc. The best feature the site offers in comparison to YouTube is that videos are not broken into 7-9 minutes sections, but rather you watch an entire episode from start to finish. The only interruption is a 15-second commercial every 10 minutes or so, which is more than bearable. For videos from NBC or FOX, the screen is much larger than that on YouTube (of course, you can maximize the screen size just like you can on YouTube, but I found this causes the picture to “blink” every few seconds). When you are viewing content from other networks, it links you to that network’s page, so the screen size and other functions will vary.
Overall, I give Hulu the thumbs up. However, I am 100% certain this site will not cause YouTube many problems as the two sites serve pretty separate services — at least at this point. We’ll have to see if the pendulum begins swinging when Hulu begins offering video-sharing capabilities. It would take awhile regardless, if for no other reason than the sheer number of videos already existing on YouTube.
I would definitely advise trying to sign up for the beta version so you can check out the site for yourself. Just don’t expect it to happen too fast — I waited for about a month to get my invite.
Ok ok, so I just made up the word googly in a lame attempt to combine Google and jiggy. Sue me.
Anyway, my latest blog post is up on PIP’s website, offering my personal experience with googling my name. This is in reference to our recent PIP report, “Digital Footprints,” which contains data on how individuals manage their online identities, including data specifically on googling oneself, as well as googling other people (i.e., potential employees, first dates, ex-boyfriends, random people you’re stalking, ex-boyfriends you’re stalking, etc. You get the point).
jessica vitak, phd 
