Simba: I just got coconut juice on me

(Rafiki likes this)

Nala tagged Simba at the watering hole on Foursquare

Zazu posted new pictures from the album “I Just Can’t Wait to be King”

Simba updated his quotes: “I laugh in the face of danger”

Simba was poked by Shenzi, Banze & Ed

Mufasa poked Shenzi, Banze & Ed

100′s of Hyenas and Scar poked Simba

Simba is now friends with Timon and Pumba

Simba updated his quotes: “Hakuna Matata”

Simba was poked by Nala

Nala created the event: Simba back at Pride Rock

Simba changed his job info to king

To me, Grand Theft Auto was the first video game in which parents became more aware of the content rating on video games. In my father’s house, a conservative man who did not even like his children watching MTV, was completely against the mindless killing game. At first, when I was younger, I did not see the point of restricting your teens from a video game, but it has become apparent to me how potentially destructive they are.

While we bash and criticize a video game that comes off as a useless, time-consuming activity for youth to be playing, I can’t help but empathize with Stephen Duncombe’s rationale behind why this game has become so successful.

According to Sigmund Freud, as a human being we have animal instincts that we tame everyday. The need to rebel and lash out is fueled by our passion to compete and be superior. Playing violent video games is not on my list of things to do, but I can see the argument.

In addition to giving the players a sense of full control, we need to realize that when Grand Theft Auto first came out, it was the pioneer of the field. It was the first to display a free range playing field, giving the user the steering wheel to decide where they would go. The players completed missions, not levels. In this theory alone, it was innovative.

Scott Steinberg from DigitalTrends.com discusses that the video game was not meant to be played by a younger generation, as marked “M” for mature. He argued the game was meant for entertainment, much like a mobster movie. When Scarface and The Godfather came out, the ratings of those movies were meant to keep younger prying eyes out. The adults that saw these movies many years ago can’t argue that Grand Theft Auto is any different. Is watching a violent and rebellious movie in which people kill others aimlessly any less morally wrong than playing Grand Theft Auto?

Ridiculous Life Lessons from New Girl Games

As our society becomes more concerned and caught up in violent video games and how detrimental they may be on the younger male generation, we turn a blind side to other influencing factors in girl marketed games.

The most disturbing reality to me is that young girls are being influenced and pressured by so many outlets. As discussed in early readings last week, the pressure to be “perfect” and thin was expressed in magazines and ad commercials. Teaching a younger girl who these are airbrushed or fake can help her to change her attitude about the quest for perfection. Unfortunately, when these girls are playing games that are sending out biased morals, it is harder to explain the difference to them.

When I searched some girl games online, I was horrified to see that the games in the article were not exaggerated or taken out of context. On GirlsGoGames.com, the first game you see is called “Color My Wedding Cake” followed by games like “Super Mom Dress Up” “Nerdy Girl Makeover” and even “Kiss Logic”, a kissing game that teaches little girls, God knows what!

These games portray a society in which women are here to cater to men. Makeover games convince girls that looks are everything and without them, you will never get married. The makers of these games seem to have a sexist agenda.

Should our society deem them psychologically damaging and start to pay more attention to age inappropriate and gender degrading games?

With Kinect Controller, Hackers Take Liberties.

I remember playing Nintendo 64 when I was younger. The control panel was lime green and see-through. My favorite game to play was Donkey Kong, though I was never very good and never made much progress in the games. I was hardly the first generation to play video games. At the time, Nintendo 64 was the most advanced in its technology. But, as we all know, nothing ever stays the most advanced for long and any innovative gadgets are just another stepping stone for the next big thing.

Microsoft’s Kinect was based largely on the motion-based controller of Wii, using the game console as a starting point for the development . I can understand Microsoft’s fear of other companies and hackers taking this very unique system and developing eerily similar uses for it. Fortunately the “hackers” are just excited about what this advancement in the gaming world means for advancements in the real world. Could Microsoft’s Kinect gaming console be the stepping stone for advancements in warfare? 

3-D Avatars Could Put You in Two Places at Once

Microsoft’s Kinect has been yet another stepping stone for a very possible 3-D Avatar world. Needless to say, many will rejoice working, if they are at all, in their pajamas from the comfort of their own home.  I find it to be a threat to our ability to become motivated and let us “cheat” the system.

Personally, I find that accountability and attendance gives an educational or work setting the perfect breeding ground for creativity. I know I would be less focused on the task at hand unless I was present, in front of a boss or management, because I always want to give the best impression. I couldn’t lie about my attentiveness.

“By building an avatar based on your photograph and tracking your movements, a computer could give a fairly accurate rendering of you and of your reactions. But how accurate would you want it to be? Why let everyone know what you really think of them? In a virtual classroom, for instance, you might want to program your avatar to appear to sit up straight and look intently at the professor — even as you slouched or looked around the room. Similarly, your professor could program her avatar so that she seemed to be gazing directly at you throughout the entire lecture — and create the same illusion for each of the other students in the virtual classroom.”

Would conferences filled with employee’s avatars inhibit one’s ability to climb the management latter? If everyone gave the same impeccable impression, there would be no one left to impress.

Machinima

I find no attraction to machinima and feel as though the negative aspects outweigh the very few positives. Making movies using machinima is certainly easier and less expensive than using scripted actors who waste film during bloopers and drawing out a cartoon animated film, making sure to nail every facial expression and movement. To me, that makes machinima the easy way to do things. Where is the individuality and creativity in using 3D computer graphics? 

One of the most cautionary aspects of machinima are the legal issues at hand. To me it is bizarre that people are restricted to re-use of copyrighted materials. Understanding the judicial background for machinima would be a headache.

IBM Study: Online Multiplayer Games Build Business Leaders

To me, business leaders cannot be made from just anybody. Characteristics of a true leader and innovator are often there with a person before any kind of training takes place. I believe that face-to-face transactions with trusted leaders are the foundation for a business’ success. Would you trust one of your peers with your job just because they have reached a high level in World of Warcraft?

I believe it is possible, but not yet feasible to rely on games to determine if a person has leadership qualities.

Gaming Can Make a Better World

Jane McGonigal touches on the same foundation that the IBM study had. At first I felt again unmoved by the theory. I thought it comical to believe that playing video games and sitting like a couch potato is going to solve all of our problems. McGonigal certainly changed my perspectives. Her passion for gaming and changing the world had shaken me out of my negativity.

I can now certainly empathize with gamers and why they are relaxed and happier playing games. McGonigal explains that we don’t get the same positive feedback found in video games as we do in real life. There is nobody that keeps a constant tally of your score, therefore you feel unsure of how you really are doing in the real world. Achieving high levels in games gives you a sense of accomplishment. When you enter a game, you know the level you start on is what you are capable of doing; establishing a comfort zone.

Her experimental games were fascinating and innovative. Going through your daily activities without oil can seem impossible to do. I was amazed when she said most of the people who had played this game has decreased their oil consumption dramatically.

If McGonigal’s experimental video games can make a lasting effect on its users, why not include these games in our educational syllabus? 

Virtual Iraq and PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is one of the most common and damaging pieces of baggage a soldier could ever come home with. PTSD is extremely hard to pinpoint in a patient, especially with soldiers, who are thought to maintain a sense of invincibility. Triggers in memory or specific occasions will help patients come to realization with their fears. Because soldiers have experienced such a dramatic time in Iraq, the last thing they want to do is think back to that time.

A virtual display on Iraq without them actually being there has given soldiers the ability to target their fears. Virtual Iraq needs to be put more into practice because I fear soldiers do not want to face the fact that war was psychologically damaging to them.

Virtual Hunting

I have never been okay with leisure hunting. I find it disgusting. The fact that the virtual hunting website was used to shoot off a 22′ to hit an inanimate object was still uneasy and seemed unsafe. When the man wanted to advance his website further into killing live animals by allowing his website users to shoot again with the click of a mouse, I wasn’t surprised of the backlash he had received.

Not even the local hunters were pleased with this. The man from the Hunters Association says shooting an animal with a mouse click is just killing, not hunting. Should an animal cruelty law be put in place for the viral and aimless killing of an innocent animal?

The Real Price of Virtual Gold

I was not aware of any economic issues tied to gaming, focusing only on how they negatively impacted us socially. It was shocking to see that unlike most gamers across the world, these gamers did not volunteer their time to play the game; it is a means to survive.

It is typical and very easy for the rich corporation to sit back and deny any wrong doings that are occurring on behalf of them. They built a world of competition and added fuel to the fire when virtual gold meant somebody’s means to survive.

Avatar Portrait

Avatars come in multiple shapes and sizes and often do not identically depict their human owners. Opening up to the “13 Most Beautiful Avatars” was almost disturbing to me. Maybe the title, “13 Most Creative Avatars” would have sat better with me. It is like we are starting to view these characters more as real life fill-ins for who we are. Could the users of these “beautiful” avatars be trying to compensate for something they feel they are not?

Technology In the past few years has brought us a way to capture our thoughts and has given us an outlet to share them with others. This growing technology has been a great help in the journalism field. News reporters are able to capture everything they see with a photograph and record all the details by taking notes on a mobile device. Despite how well these attributions worked out in news telling, the same shouldn’t be said for authors.

Famous authors and novelists throughout the years have used traditional methods of storytelling, stemming from the ancient quill and ink to the typewriter and computer. It boggles my mind that our technology today is being used for the art of story telling. Authors who use their cell phones are cheapening the craft.

When an author writes to tell a story, there is much thought that goes into the process, sometimes taking several years to fully develop the story. It seems as though writing a novel through SMS messages and characters should be considered cheating.

The fact that technology has brought us this far is amazing, but we need to proceed with caution. But is it going to be easy to lose our sense of culture and skill if we continue to abuse new advancements?

Text messages were meant to be a convenient tool of communicating; not a replacement for story telling.

Nearly every cell phone today has features that can be utilized as a recording or documenting application. Phones carry voice memo recorders and notepad applications in which you can save quick notes and thoughts. I have used the notepad feature on my Blackberry to remind myself of things to do or even ideas I have for any papers or projects for schools. I do not believe in abusing these features as a shortcut for long hand narration.

Putting ideas into a segmented version of an entire story can distract the reader from the author’s intended message.

Cross-Platform Storytelling

For years, television networks and major media conglomerates have been using different ways to allow their audience to interact with what they are viewing. As much as this seems as though the media is providing more for the audience, I feel as though it is just another way to provide the media with more power over the viewers.

Despite the power that these networks might have, we as viewers have the same amount. I enjoyed the rules explained in Cheryl Furjanic’s Cross-Platform Storytelling: The New (And Improved) “Interactive Television“

“You must monitor the audience reception of, and interaction with, these extra-screen offerings. These real-world additional story elements should be changed/altered accordingly”

I agree with Furjanic. In short, if you are going to give your viewers the opportunity to interact, contribute or comment on your show, than interact back!

We Tell Stories Project

While Nooks and Kindles are still flying off of shelves during the eBook craze, publishers and authors are becoming more innovative and putting the ebooks behind them. Below is a video I found on the We Tell Stories project. Penguin UK digital publisher Jeremy Ettinghausen expresses how tools on the web are the future of story telling.

I particularly loved how he phrased, A great story-teller can write without using Microsoft Word and use all of the tools of the internet. When I think about how I have criticized the digital world for ruining the art of story telling, I have come to a breakthrough in that theory; technology doesn’t have to be a degrading influence on authors.

Your Place and Mine

In school, we were taught from a young age to always have structure in your writings. A beginning, middle and end can come from an outline that you create before you begin to write. We give sentences thought and we edit words in and out of them, deciding what would be appropriate. I don’t want to bash this style of writing, but I do prefer another way.

Writing freestyle and letting your imagination run wild across the page has always left me in awe. Nicci French‘s Your Place and Mine reminds me of this style of writing. While you can still think about what you are going to say and pause in between your thoughts, your creativity takes over. Some stories are typical in endings much like every Law & Order episode; the first suspect is never the killer. Capturing your audience little by little in realtime gives them a never-ending hook; they want more.

Because this new style of story telling is digital and leaves behind the classical methods, will authors be able to maintain their speciality in the once exclusive writing field?

In the end, I have come to realize that everything is going digital; books are no exception. There are many positive aspects to books traveling through the web. Prices are dramatically decreased, not to mention saving a few trees here and there.

Below is a video I found that discusses digital story telling and the impact it is having and will have on our society. VERY INTERESTING!

Hamlet on Facebook / If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses

In history classes everywhere, students sit chin to hand and elbow to desk. Below their desk, the other hand not being used for a head rest fumbles for their iPhone, eager to see what friends had to say about their recent Facebook break-up. Reading three chapters for last night’s homework assignment seems mundane to them. As a student stuck between this tech-dependent generation and a tech-savy generation, I can’t blame them.

Social media has been impactful on almost every aspect of our society, so why not make the connection with education?

Hamlet’s Facebook page is a comical modern-day twist on the Shakespeare masterpiece. When I was reading it, I could only think of how clever it was to use our modern Facebook lingo and tools to tell the story of Hamlet. Although not a traditional learning tool, social media, like Facebook, can be a breakthrough educational canvas to teach a younger generation about literature, history and other concepts.

Although the message comes across as the same, the way that one channels that communication is key, especially when we are talking between two very different generations.

I found this interesting website, http://socialmediaclassroom.com/ in which they dive deeper into how social media can help education.

Last semester, I was trying to find an example of a political picture or poster than demonstrated the recent presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain. I was in search for the famous artistic Obama “Hope” and “Progress” posters. When I looked up the pictures in Google images, I was shocked to see how many people changed the picture as a political campaign of their own views and even disbelief in Obama.

People do have every right to express their political views, but I am not sure what crosses the line or not. Will spoofs of political art or pictures alter how people will remember the original piece of work?

It is one thing to express your own views because the viewer knows your intentions, but it is another to alter a photograph no one has seen. If some altered a photograph dramatically before anyone else had seen it, would you be skeptical of their intentions?

Colleges in New Jersey love to seem very liberal and welcoming to all students. Diversity in college is important to many because it is a chance to branch out and learn new things outside of a comfort zone. Since schools are aware of this, colleges are willing to alter their realities on campus in order to appeal to an incoming class. The black student who was photoshopped into a crowd of students at a football game may have seemed harmless, but it gives a false and distorted view of actualities.

A more emotionally detrimental effect of editing photos is apparent in beauty commercials, advertisements and magazines. I feel as though we are aware of these issues to an extent but we are still somewhat naive because we buy into the products that claim to make us look that way.

Picture Perfect

The pressure to feel perfect, tan and skinny is not a stranger to any woman my age. While it is an obvious problem to younger teenagers and those still coming into their own body, body issues can be seen in any age group.

The Dove Campaign for real beauty is doing a fantastic job of portraying the realities of magazine photos and airbrushed billboards. Their sense of real-ness has made them a big sister advocate for anyone who feels incomparable to the done-up models.

Our pop culture in general is about false advertising and misleading claims. The girl who started it all is an icon in our history, but she would never even be able to walk.

The picture below shows Barbie and a model. The last picture on the right is what the model would look like if she had Barbie’s body proportions. As little girls, we are unaware that her perfect body is not only unrealistic, but not attractive at all!

Politicians from the country who has the most fashionable city in the world, Paris, is finally going to take a stand against the falsifications made in certain advertisements and beauty photos. This law could initially be the first step towards changing the face of beauty.

Altering photos should become a political matter because of the damage it does to viewers. Impossible goals of perfection should not be our beauty standards. Laws will be difficult to establish because it is not easy to determine what photos have or haven’t been retouched. What will the fine be for editing a photo if it is even possible to identify if it has been altered?

Photoshop Adbusting in Berlin

Job well done! I am a huge fan of Britney Spears and all of her work, but you cannot deny the obvious work she always has done on her photos. After the head shaving incident she had a few years ago, photo shoots taken soon after her mental breakdown had Britney with a full head of hair. Crazy, I didn’t know hair could grow that fast? (Sarcasm)

Photoshop Forensics: Victoria’s Secret

The tools used to determine what parts of the photo were altered were fascinating. It is interesting to see that even though we have all of these high-tech tools to edit our photos, it is just as easy to determine what has been altered about the photo. There really is no lying or getting around the truth of a photo.

I Was There, Just Ask Photoshop

Photoshop has been a common tool for everybody to alter and change photos to make them more appealing. Just about anybody would probably be able to work Photoshop or a similar program. But, why has Photoshop or similar programs been so popular?

The motives behind altering a picture are infinite. If you look fat, crop out your legs. If you have red-eye than drag the red-eye correction tool and click several times. If you missed a family vacation, don’t worry, you can crop yourself right on in there. All of these actions are very easy, but there is something about altering a photo so much that it becomes deceiving to others. 

There aren’t any laws against individuals cropping, retouching and re-coloring their own photos because it is harmless to others. It is actually a common practice. In the long run, people can’t hide behind Photoshop forever. 

No Boo-boo’s or Cow Licks

I always dreaded picture day at school. I had gone through stages of frizzy hair, before I discovered the miraculous straightening iron, a mouth full of braces and not to mention the oh so fun acne stages on my teenage years. Even if you weren’t buying photographs, it was mandatory to take a picture for the year book. Whenever my mother did buy pictures, I would check the blemish correction box, almost as a reflex.

I think it is important for children to have a sense of self and to be proud of who they are as a person. I don’t find anything wrong with giving children the option to check the blemish correction box. Who wants to be remembered as the girl with the huge pimple on her forehead?! I don’t think it is teaching children to be ashamed or self-conscious of who they are. I think we can be entitled to vanity once in a while.

For magazines and advertising agencies to assume their audience knows photographs are touched up and edited is giving these companies more power over us than is acceptable. The photographer in the film amazed and shocked me when he said that he thinks that probably 99% of photos in magazines are edited.

When the photographer touched up Sarah from diet.com, he gave her an unattainable look. I believe that the quest for perfection starts when people view these magazines and believe that the person in the photo actually have the same look.

I remember being scared of my Furbee; the toy craze when I was in elementary school. It talked in the middle of the night without signaling it. It would always have a disturbed look on its face-evil like. Furbees were not the most highly intelligent things because of the lack of technology, but it never had any emotionally appealing qualities.

It’s hard to imagine a robot animal feeding someone emotional happiness. How can a robot understand human emotion and establish the right from wrong? 

Without any human qualities, it’s impossible for me to see that a robot could pass as a friend or a loved one. Sherry Turkle argues it might be the beginning of neglect. Right now, we use everyday technology, such as mobile devices, video games and DVDs to distract an older and younger generation. They use these devices as a “babysitter”. I find using these tools alone is a form of emotional neglect. So, what would be the difference between popping in a DVD in the portable player at a restaurant to entertain your 5-year-old and giving a robot “animal” to a senile patient in absence of their family?

My theory is only the extreme side of the spectrum. There are probably instances where this extremity is not the case, but it does not convince me to be a positive advancement. I believe there is nothing better than receiving emotional support and love from a family member or friend.

Is This Man Cheating On His Wife?

I could not agree more with Edward Castronova when he says there is a fuzziness that’s emerging between the virtual and real world. As our society gets more drawn in to an online identity and life, we lose touch with our close ones. Before any criticism can be made upon people who are going through this, stop and think why they are choosing to feel this way.

Ric Hoogestraat may be in the wrong when it comes to neglecting his wife and their relationship, but I can empathize in a way. I can understand that it may be easier to deal with emotions or issues when you are not face to face with a person. Do you think that it can be harder to express how you feel when you are face to face with someone as opposed to when you text or email them?

It is easy to connect with someone through a virtual world because there are no emotional boundaries or distractions. In defense of those who have virtual lives and play avidly, virtual relationships seem honest to me. Nobody is overweight or socially incapable to talk to others. On the other hand, having too much of a virtual life or spending too much time gaming is detrimental to one’s social capacity

The Cyborg Ancestry

As each generation is born, the life expectancy increases in age. It has subtly increased over the past generations due to technological and scientific advancements made in the health field. As we discover easier, safer and quicker ways to improve one’s health, we see an increase in overall wellness.

Replacing weak or damaged organs or body parts with artificial machines have closed the faulty gap when replacing with donated parts. Yet, as much as we see an increase in our health, a new generation is coming that will ultimately exceed all previous generations.

Cyborgs are going to be the face of our world and our military intelligence. It makes sense on paper. I think cyborgs will positively add to our world when it comes to replacing humans on dangerous missions. It has been seen in space travel and replacing a human with a cyborg is a lot more humane than using a monkey. Risking a machine instead of a life is indeed the best option.

Comic book heroes are becoming real life. Captain America, the classic case of the altered human body to become super human, may not be a far off reality. How would you feel if machines completely replace humans on the war front? In Hurt Locker, the 2008 film that portrays a United States EOD, Explosive Ordinance Disposal, team. The machines they use to “test the waters” in a way, prevent them from setting off a bomb, ultimately killing themselves and those around them. I feel as though that is a perfect example of what’s to come and what can be expanded on.

I found this to be an interesting video off TED.

Better Vision, With An Implanted Telescope

As a person with horrible eyesight, I have suffered through contacts and glasses since I could remember. The genes of both my father and mother left me with no other choice but weak vision. I have an astigmatism and my glasses are a -9.00. Having such damaged eyes, I am not eligible for Lasik surgery. The risk I have for infection is a higher rate than someone without an astigmatism. Reading about the eye implants have comforted me in that we are making strides towards the improvement of those with severely hindered vision.

The medical advancement will also help patients socially. They will be able to recognize friends and family members because it decreases the blur and increases the sight. The risk is comparable to the similar cataract surgery.

Even though placing a telescope-like implant into a person’s eyes is giving them an almost superhuman power, I believe it is only for the better. It gives me hope that people with debilitating eyesight like mine will be able to live a life of normality, aside from coke-bottle glasses and expensive contact lenses.

I cannot imagine what this girl has been going through as she experienced seeing her mother for the first time. Surgery would help her instead of being stuck with embarrassing telescope glasses:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7377945

Filmmaker Plans To Shoot With Tiny Camera In Eye

Rob Spence‘s empty eye socket sees a lot more than the average person even with perfect vision. Placing a camera in place of the eye he had lost in a childhood accident has replaced a modern-day view of the world with a futuristic documentary.

I believe making eye contact with a person is key to understand what they are saying and why. We often lack the ability to stay concentrated on a person when we are having a conversation with them. We become easily distracted by everything around us.

Spence’s theory on eye contact is interesting and I believe true. It will be a completely different way of filming a documentary because it is one on one with the person, instead of the traditional camera filming the person that is being interviewed by another; this gives us three characters. Spence wants the focus to be limited to just two.

Getting people to be comfortable with this new way of filming is a whole other story. I would probably find myself looking at just his one eye, becoming distracted by the notion that he is recording me. 

Wearable Computing/ Sixth Sense

Technology has seemed to have helped advancements in the health field; some practical and realistic while some remain very futuristic.

Although the TED video was entertaining and at times comical, I can’t help but dismiss any thoughts that we would live to see this technology. The advancements would make the every day easier but it’s just another example of our lazy society. I might be a pessimist when it comes to this topic but I believe that technology can only take us so far. Being dependent upon these things will make us a weak society.

An interesting aspect, however, is how this would help communication and relationships in the future. It would be very easy to hide who you really are, how you are perceived and what people associate you with. I’m going to be more aware of my hash tags on twitter and my tags on WordPress.

Twitter Telepathy: Researchers Turn Thoughts Into Tweets

It seems as though in the future, we won’t have to worry about reading people’s minds. An easily translated text from someone’s neural transmitters to twitter is an interesting concept. Would Twitter telepathy be useful for everyone in any home? Costs and set-up of the system may not be known just yet, but Justin Williams is confident in its accuracy and it’s abilities.

Twitter telepathy reminds me of a commercial brand of Steven Hawkin’s tools; using a computer hooked up to his brain to communicate. Although a lot less invasive and I imagine a lot less expensive, the everyday handicapped, disabled or elderly could benefit from this technology. They would never be far out of reach from their social networks.

In Korea, A Boot Camp Cure For Web Obsession

It does not shock me that Korea is one of the worst areas when it comes to gaming and online addictions. I had seen a documentary recently that actually referred to this boot camp. What is shocking to me is that most of these children would rather stay inside and play video games or go online instead of being active outside. It is damaging on not only their physical well-being, but their psychological health.

In this video, they refer video game addictions as a disorder. Just as alcoholics need to go through rehabilitation in order to overcome what they have gone through, children who are addicting to the web and gaming need to do the same thing. The problem is, many of the children are so young that they are unaware of the consequences that they might have. Will forcing a child to stop playing video games be as successful for the long-term, or will these addictions be harder to break?

Digital Nation

A rising number of users in virtual online worlds are children and teenagers. They are learning their social skills through interacting online to others, which is hardly social.

The online worlds allow them to create their own avatar or person and act anyway they please. I fear that these users are completely out of touch with reality. If continuing to play these games, our society will start to see a drop in a social well-being as each generation passes on.

Some people are putting these virtual worlds to good use; a sort of training. Using SecondLife, many companies show their employees how to set up online or virtual meetings. It can be convenient when it comes to global transactions, when travel would be an annoyance.

Our U.S Military is even using similar technologies to train their men and women and use virtual stimulations are real life scenarios they might come across. Are virtual stimulations of combat scenarios reliable training for those in service? 

Our relationships with people is dwindling away as we are connecting more with technology and the mobile devices that we depend on every day. What we lack in face time, we make up for with texting. The need for a mobile device at all times of the day seems so exposing to ourselves and what human nature was meant to be. In defense of our mobile society, we do have a better sense of awareness when it comes to emergencies and simple communication between two people. A casual “where are you” or “what is your schedule like” conversation cannot be criminalized and criticized in this argument. I believe that is completely innocent. It is the basis of why cellular phones were created in the first place.

The line between dire emergency and social chit-chat has been disappearing in the last decade.

Sherry Turkle‘s 15-year-old daughter who didn’t experience what Paris was all about because she was still connected to her life in Boston is a sad but common and usual case. Texting friends about things irrelevant to an experience of a lifetime is a distraction. Vacations and trips should be meant to let someone escape from the reality of the mundane and everyday life.

I agree with Turkle and her view on how mobile devices can be distracting. It is the biggest pet peeve of mine to be trying to engage someone in a conversation or spend one-on-one time with someone when they are constantly hooked on their mobile device. Blackberries, iPhones and Droids are to blame. The distractions are endless. Is playing angry birds and updating your Facebook status more important than developing and working on a social skill or relationship?

Her final questions leave me worried and confused about how we view our social world. Most troubling, what are machines doing to our relationships with people?

Smart phones and their “useful” and distracting features:

World of Witness

Mobile Activism has impacted us in three categories.

First, viral news feed has been a story-teller to us, breaking down boundaries between here-say and the truth. Citizen reporting, a breakthrough in the news reporting world, allows the everyday person to become a story-teller of a particular event. How would the world believe something actually happened without viral video to prove it? News reporters can’t be on seen, all of the time, especially when an incident was sudden and unexpected.

The second use is in healthcare. Mobile devices can direct you to help when in an emergency and gives you useful information when you are out of reach from an expert. In countries less fortunate to have an educational schooling system, mobile devices and technology open a gateway to helpful resources such as books.

Finally, mobile technology allows environmental tracking. We can receive warnings about severe weather or advice on where to go and not to, depending on your geographical locations.

China Deputizes Smart Phones to Spy on Residents

The amount of information and data one can receive from a smart phone can be used for whatever intentions the user has. While more often than not, people use their phones for casual and recreational tools, this technology can be abused.

China, a country who has always struggled with governing their people, are not to be blamed for their fear of terroristic threats. The government is scared of the individuals rising against them and are using technology of their own to make sure this doesn’t happen.

It is the restless government in fear of the individual citizen rising up. How can a government breach privacy by tracking a citizen’s smart phone?

Your Apps Are Watching You

A few semesters ago, I took an advertising class at Ramapo. We discussed topics such as marketing and developing a product and then advertising, of course, in mostly traditional and tangible ways. I always thought I was aware as the consumer I am. I was wrong! My professor had told us how stores can use the GPS is our mobile devices to track where loyal customs are. What is the motive of a business in taking a customers cell phone number when checking out at the register? At first, I never paid much attention. I give them my emails willingly, eager for coupons because hey, why not? Once a store has your number they know who you are and where you are. Walking by a Victoria Secret may just set off an email to your phone. Ah, good smart phone, good boy.

Applications on any smart phone can bring unsettling use of private information. While cell phone carriers and wireless companies swear they will never give your information away, that can’t be promised when you download an application from a private company. Blackberry App World is full of applications that are not a representative of Verizon or Blackberry. Anybody can make up applications!

Let’s not be too self-centered. Some companies don’t care who you are as a person, they just want your money. Tracking where you are and your consumer habits are researching tools to find out if your going to be a loyal customer to them. Many applications are glorified frequent shopper cards. Oh but wait, they have an app for that.

Multi-tasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus

Oh Multi-tasking; the reason people say they rely on their mobile devices. Sending a broadcast message to friends without having to individually call them saves you precious time from playing Angry Birds (Yes, I actually do love that game). But when multi-tasking is distracting you from what you actually need to be focusing in on, well that’s a problem.

Multi-tasking has become defined in our social mobile generation as another form of attention deficit hyperactive disorder. I know; it takes one to know one. While I take medication for ADHD to help me focus on what I need to do, others are willingly becoming ADHD, piling on the things to do and squeezing them in while driving down the road or going to the movies. I have actually seen someone on their iPhone sending out an email that looked rather business-like to me.

The idea that we can multi-task using our smart phones is easier than doing one thing at a time is wrong. Cut the stress out and stop playing Angry Birds.

In Defense of Distraction

Okay, time to take my Vyvanse and mentally prepare myself to focus long enough without turning on Sports Center or checking my Facebook. Sam Anderson says distraction is the catapult for creativity. I can’t say that I disagree with that to the fullest.

The argument that scientists who have researched the effects of Adderall claim that users complain of the lack of creativity when taking the drug is to me, false. I take Vyvanse every day, literally every day, because of my ADHD severity. It is a newer form of amphetamines than say Adderall is. I do not agree that ADHD medications inhibit creativity. I will argue that those users who claim this must not have any creativity to begin with!

Taking the medicine for me actually allows distractions in the background to become a white noise in my mind. Prior to my medicine days, I would get irritated and easily turned off by any hard work simply because I had no attention span to do it.

Does distraction expand creativity or simply disable your ability to work? You might want to talk to a psychiatrist if you are having problems!

Distracted Drivers

Distracted Drivers comes off to me as a news story. It explains facts and statistics and talks to the everyday American. It is a generalization of how drivers can be distracted easily by multi-tasking. It doesn’t give a human face to the story.

Texting While Driving

The emotional story of the car crash gives a human face to the reality of texting and driving. When I saw the video, I was shaking and my heart dropped. I had never seen a video that through all of this information out there. It is blunt. Directed at teenagers, our generation needs to become aware of what can happen when texting and driving. You’re not just putting yourself in danger, you are risking the lives of everyone around you. One text can wait!

Digital Nation

I am right. My generation is always right. We know everything, didn’t you know? I know drunk driving is not right, but I won’t get into an accident. I don’t care if I text and drive, I am a great multi-tasker. I can show you, look, I’m texting and driving and I don’t even need to look at my phone. I am such a professional. I don’t want to talk on the phone, I will just text you how I feel about you and me. I will break up with you over Facebook and change my relationship status. I saw you check in on Foursquare at her house. I’m right and you’re wrong. Because why? Technology says so.

Well that was a fun vent. I sounded like every annoying teenage girl. I might not agree with all of the information, in fact it sounds like a parody. Unfortunately it’s not. I know all too many people who have fallen into the ruts of social media, who always feel the need to stay connected. Our brains are turning into mush. We are growing dumber by the minute.

Technology and access to everything you need at the touch of your fingers isn’t all that bad. How can we use these resources for the positive, disregarding the unnecessary?

There have been countless times where I had wished I recorded incidents. Some of them may have been a friend falling in a freakish or bizarre way. Video taping their actions would bring comic relief to them. It’s the “Oh my God, did you see that” moments that I want to capture and share with all of my friends who weren’t there to witness it. The other incidents in which I wish I had recorded them may have been for argumentative reasons. Don’t you wish you had the transcripts or images of past events in order to prove a point?

Scott Carlson explained how many people are experimenting with lifelogging, including his own attempts strapped around his neck. While an interesting concept, the constant recording of every moment in one’s life, Carlson talked about the negatives of lifelogging.

The Jewish law, which translate in English as “The injury caused by being seen” is an interesting opposition to lifelogging.

We act differently depending on whether we’re with our family, our friends, or our business associates, a social flexibility “necessary to cultivate the bonds of intimacy,” Mr. Rosen says. “If the goal of the lifeloggers is to record real life in intimate and formal contexts, they would have to be defeated in some respects because the candor would dry up”

And so Carlson experienced the Jewish law when his own wife prohibited his recordings when he was home. She too thought he acted as though he was on the stage.

It makes historical sense to develop a way a lifelogging to give researchers in the future a way to understand who we were as a society. From a sociological viewpoint, it inhibits our ways of remembering memories. I agree with one point made in the article about romanticized past. We indulge in remembering events from our childhood and certain sayings or actions our grandparents had said or done. In my opinion, I want to hold onto my own memories in the way I remember them, not a video or audio recorder.

What makes me curious about the concept is the distinction between social media and lifelogging. Although I understand the wide gap between constant surveillance and the exposing manner of lifelogging in comparison to snippets of status updates and tweets, I think the gap is closing to a fine line. Foursquare, for example, is one tool used to record in a sense where someone is. “Checking in” at a local restaurant or shopping center logs where you have been not only to yourself, but to your friends. It’s one step closer to constant lifelogging.

Jennifer Ringly/ Justin.tv/ SocialCam launch

Lifelogging is not unfamiliar grounds for many people who already blog about their own lives. Creator of JenniCam and a former “lifecaster” Jennifer Ringley allowed others to view her every day life activities completely uncensored. Did Ringly get distracted by the webcam and break the Jewish law, injury by being seen? 

I consider Justin.tv to be the YouTube of a younger generation. While it’s not necessarily a continuous stream of someone, much like Jennicam, it can be very invasive. The young man who broadcasted himself committing suicide was completely uncensored. His father blamed the people who viewed the webcast and I do not blame him. Webcams can be a dangerous tool and cause damaging after effects. The student from Rutgers who committed suicide after his roommate and girlfriend shared it with others is just one disastrous example.

SocialCam launch became more mobile and accessible lately. The most negative aspect of SocialCam has to be the extreme lack of privacy.

In the video I linked below, SocialCam is under extreme criticism. Very interesting.

One website I am curious about is TalkShoe. It is a social networking site that uses group chatting and group video to have discussions and meetings. While this website is similar to others, I view it as a more intellectual way of connecting and making livecasting more useful in a way.

Web Upgrade HTML 5 May Weaken Privacy

Faster internet access is appealing to everyone; weaker internet privacy is a different story.

HTML 5 is going to store an internet browser’s information a lot more often and easier than previous version have. According to Tanzia Vega, the user’s “cookies” will be stored in at least 10 places, thus making them more susceptible to hackers. User’s privacy may be an open access to others, putting them at risk for identity theft and many other disastrous effects.

Even though I am just a student and one who is dependent on my parents for financial needs, I am still worried about my privacy on the internet. From time to time, I will buy things over the internet in what seems as a safe place. With HTML 5, I will be a lot more cautious with the risks it comes with.

How To Unlock Your World With Foursquare

Debate me if you feeling otherwise, but Foursquare is a “You’reWhere?!” tool. It is useful for stalking others and finding out where your friends are your boyfriend is when you are feeling a little crazy. A few months ago, one of my friends saw that her ex-boyfriend checked in at a local bar when he claimed to be working. Yes, very stupid on his part, but Foursquare is to be blamed! I am not in defense of his lying or his actions, but she would have never known if not for the Foursquare application.

Foursquare does have some positive aspects to the application. I was unaware that users can save money if they are a loyal customer and “check in” often. In this economy, it is definitely a boost for not only the customers who save money, but a way of free marketing for any business.

Bruce Schneier at EWI Cybersecurity Summit 2010

When we think about using the internet and what motivates them socially, we are living in a fundamentally unnatural world, as Schneier says it. I have never looked as my internet use as a package of data, one that cannot be “deleted” or forgotten. Talking to friends online or even using wordpress for a digital literacy class which by the way wouldn’t be a negative personal reflection of myself. The ways in which he explained the Ezpass is no longer a quarter and a credit card transaction is the new dollar bill at a store.

Some data may not be such a bad thing online. YouTube videos, such as Schneiers and newspapers online. The internet has added convenience to the internet generation. It gets dicey when we think about what information you wouldn’t want saved or even traceable. When it comes to credit card information, what makes one site a more secure site such as PayPal different from another?

Schneier’s idea of psychological manipulation frightens me. The newest generation gap is no longer rock and roll; its internet use. Our generation’s uncensored use of the world-wide web is almost ridiculous, yet we know no other way. I agree with him when he says we are unaware of the problem at hand when it comes to internet privacy.

The Web Means The End of Forgetting

Jeffrey Rosen’s intriguing article made me aware of my “celebrity” status. The internet makes the average person famous in a sense. We can be googled and looked up on Facebook, really leaving no privacy whatsoever.

The example of the one woman who is afraid someone will notice the two outfits she wears out is the most comical. Pictures capture things that may at times be explicit in nature and may not express the person you are.

It almost makes me mad that companies and someone’s future employers can practically Facebook stalk you or google your name. Prior to reading this article I thought it was fair play. But now I think it is changing the game. Prior to Facebook, MySpace and google, management and staff were supposed to ignore the break room chatter. Private matters weren’t to be discussed and gossip about others ignored. So what’s the difference? Do you think it’s fair for employers to do a background check online?

We cannot be blamed for posting pictures at “keggers” or having a house party; it’s generational. Are we regretting some of this information now? Um- yes. I don’t want my employers to see information from my MySpace page that was created when I was 14. 7 years later, I look back on my MySpace days and I want to rip out my computer’s wi-fi. It doesn’t represent who I am today.

Rosen’s discussion about giving all of this data an expiration date was one of the most interesting ideas. We need to put this system into place. There is no reason someone shouldn’t be hired for a partying picture they had back in college. Future generations will see our internet partying and will lose respect. Delete the spoiled milk!

Google Debates Face Recognition Technology

Not only our information and identities can be traced online, but now my face can randomly be tagged on Facebook. Okay, since when is this right?

Google’s “Google Goggles” are an interesting use for recognition. Snapping a photo of something and googling it online is a wacky but awesome and futuristic concept. It puts convenience in googling when you are not by the computer. When it comes to googling someone’s face? No

What disturbs me is the fact that Google would be generalizing us. We will become little lab rats and we will be just a face online. Forget having your pictures as a public record. Now, not only your credit cards and aim chats will be stored, but your face will!

What do Facebook Quizzes Know About You

I had watched 60 minutes a few years ago when Facebook was in the first stages of being the “it” social network. My mother had pulled me aside and made me watch it. I was not pleased and did not want to hear a lecture about how Facebook was bad and blah, blah. I was wrong. It was eye-opening. I never knew how bad the quizzes on Facebook were.

Everytime I would want to take a Facebook quiz to find out “what super powers I had” I would allow access to my profile, make my quiz public and so on and so forth. What was I thinking!? I was accepting terms to an agreement that wasn’t even in fine print. I was so blinded by the fact that everyone was doing quizzes and I wanted to see if I was the same animal as my friend who took the animal kingdom quiz.

Twitter Frenzy: The Daily Show

Before I had signed up with Twitter, I would have had no clue as to what they were referring to with the crazy applications, but it makes perfect sense to me.

Besides the applications, Twitter doesn’t necessarily mean just a stupid social networking site. If used properly, Twitter can be a valuable tool for networking with others and using your tweets to broadcast your work, such as articles you have written or any accomplishments.

On another note, I found it so comical but unfortunate that members of congress and legislature were busy tweeting away at meetings that affect our entire nation. Is social media becoming too much of a distraction when it comes to someone’s job?

GPS Tracking Sparks Privacy Debate/ I Know What You Did Last Math Class

I feel luckier and luckier that I didn’t grow up as a young child in the crazed parents world. Although my cell phone did not have a GPS tracker, my mother knew where I was all of the time; it’s called honesty. When I was in my pre-teen stages, I was rebellious. I would sneak out and go places my parents had told me I was not to go to. I was punished fairly. I held a grudge throughout my punishing days, but I couldn’t have been more thankful. Without tough love and old-fashioned parenting of trial and error, I wouldn’t be who I am today.

I side with parents when it comes to making sure your child is on track with their academic work. Younger children and pre-teens are not aware of what kind of importance school has on their future. There needs to be a line crossed, however, between checking up on your child’s school work and the need for digital information about your child’s work all the time. My theory is that children’s grades don’t always reflect how hard they are working in a class room setting. What happened to simple parent/teaching conferences?

Parents need to understand that trust and honesty needs to be experimented with. Children and young teens don’t go out of their way to cause trouble but they will want to cross the line when told not too. It’s better to guide than to direct someone in a path.

Epic Video:

Online dating is becoming a phenomenon due to the increasing convenience it has made in the dating world. I can understand why people would be attracted to online dating. Online dating websites give people the opportunity to surf through singles while they are busy at work or with their children. My mother, who is a psychologist with a busy schedule, has used online dating in the past. Through Match.com she found her boyfriend now, Roman.

While some claim there is a science to online dating, it can’t always work. People and personalities cannot be traced to a key. We cannot always say for sure that something will always work out. Love is faulty. It may look good on paper that two people are both active, religious and want 3-4 children, but personalities clash.

Do you believe in love at first click? 

Just a video I love ..

Artifacts from The Future: Online Dating in 2020

The parody of online dating sites in the future is comical but I fear not very far off from where we are at now.

In another extreme parody site, Morphthing.com is a website where you can place your and your partners photo to see what your baby will “look like”

Roommates Who Click

When I started reading this article, I instantly remember what Ramapo’s attempt was at trying to match roommates together. I have to say, I disagree with any reasoning behind this. I saw first hand that trying to match up roommates based on studying, drinking and social habits was not a guaranteed thing.

I instantly clicked with my roommate, but I was very lucky. In my dorm, we had a suite. Three rooms were connected by our common room and we shared a bathroom. I was roommates with Jenna, while Lea and Oleysha were paired together and Saige and Stephanie shared the last room. If Ramapo had one epic fail in matching roommates, it was with Saige and Stephanie. Saige was a very shy girl who up until then was schooled at her ballet performing school. Stephanie was outspoken and high sprung and had a boyfriend who did drugs. That freshman year had ended with a confrontational fight between all of us against Stephanie. Needless to say she moved out and it has been uncomfortable seeing her on campus ever since.

What other tools could colleges use to determine how to match up roommates?

Search Takes a Social Turn

Social networking sites have figured out how to help people decide what restaurant is better than the other and what brand of clothing is more comfortable, all through suggestions from their own friends.

On the side of my Facebook page, there is an application where you can “like” certain products, brands or even celebrities. It is eye-opening to see what different things my friends have on Facebook.

Google is now coming out with their +1.

It is the same kind of recommendation tool that Facebook uses. It would be helpful in Google because it shows you what websites your friends have +1′ed already!

The Song Decoders at Pandora

It’s a rough job, but some musician has to do it! Taking 20 minutes to gather the data for a single tune in a song just sounds exhausting. The Music Genome Project seems to be doing just that for more than 700,000 songs.

Pandora has been the king of this genius music industry. It is different from hit lists and billboard top 100 lists because it focuses more on the individual, not the industry. After you pick your initial song or artist, it continues to give you other songs you may like based on previous play. There is also a “thumbs-up” and “thumbs-down” button to more specifically narrow down your choices of music.

Everything cannot be free, however. Pandora offers the site to the public for free, but limits the number of times you can forward to the next song. To have unlimited plays, there is a small fee of $36 a year.

As a free user of Pandora, I have always enjoyed the “wonders” the website does and have always been curious of exactly how. At first I thought it was simply about the sounds the sound had and played songs from similar genres and artists. After finding out more about the Music Genome Project, I am amazed on how much work goes into it.

Can you study the algorithmic of an entire music album and compare it to another?

Recommender System Entry on Wikipedia

Reading about how data is collected implicitly can feel invasive at times. I feel as though explicit data is not nearly as accurate as implicit because implicit behavior shows ones true identity and habits.

Examples of explicit data collection include the following:

• Asking a user to rate an item on a sliding scale.
• Asking a user to rank a collection of items from favorite to least favorite.
• Presenting two items to a user and asking him/her to choose the best one.
• Asking a user to create a list of items that he/she likes.

Examples of implicit data collection include the following:

• Observing the items that a user views in an online store.
• Analyzing item/user viewing times^[2]
• Keeping a record of the items that a user purchases online.
• Obtaining a list of items that a user has listened to or watched on his/her computer.
• Analyzing the user’s social network and discovering similar likes and dislikes

How to Have Culture in an Algorithmic Age

In a world where there are online dating websites that guarantee you a love life and an online music database that knows exactly what you want to hear, it’s easy to go along. People want to take suggestions because it’s easier and a lot more convenient.

It’s impossible for an online service to know exactly who you are and what you like. It’s time to start questioning the suggestions you receive via Facebook or Pandora. Facebook displays friends on the right side of one’s homepage with friend suggestions. 90% of the time, I have no clue who those people are. How does Facebook and Twitter suggest friends or followers to a user?

It’s not a surprise to me that YouTube is now a site that is thriving off their videos through advertisements. Now, teaming up with other companies and corporations, YouTube is seeing a bigger profit than before.

It’s comical, however, that the very website that does not take chances on copyrights had a difficult time starting partnerships with other companies. Now, a big paycheck settles the issue.

Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites

Julie Matlin’s shoe story is a familiar story for me. In fact, I can’t get away from it. Excited and eager to start searching or a new car, I would spend hours online comparing different models and dealers. All of my excitement faded away when I realized I would have to wait a few months in order to save enough for a down payment, but my computer didn’t want me to forget. Subtle advertisements in the corners of website pages advertising low APR rates for a new Infiniti G37 coupe just made me want a car more. The advertisements were very smart at first, but as I realized more and more the reasoning behind it, I was definitely turned off.

The retargeting scheme is the most updated form of internet advertising because it is so fitting for each individual.

In a column I found online, the media community tunes in to express different views in the industry. The following is an excerpt by Alan Pearlstein, CEO at Cross Pixel Media.

I am a big believer in retargeting and we do a lot of it because it is an effective strategy. My concern is with retargeters that use tactics that scare the consumer by exposing too much information in the ads. One popular tactic is to utilize the last products searched as the basis for the ad creative. The theory is that the ad will perform better because it is being personalized (dynamically) to the specific products that were of interest. It makes sense, in theory, but it can be annoying to consumers in practice.

When is personalized advertising too much? In today’s society, Pearlstein understands consumers. We aren’t all as dumb as we may appear. The “digitally literate” are understanding the different tools that are out there to suck them in. I believe that advertisers are not being nearly as subtle as they should be. Time for a new advertisement plan.

For The Love Of Google: Landing A Job With Search

Alec Brownstein has marketed himself in one of the most original ways. As students we are always being told how marketing yourself in the best light will get you hired. In the end, it turned out that this way of advertising actually helped Brownstein. Even though it was “stalker-y” it paid off in the long run.

I had gone to a workshop last semester at Rutgers called the Sales Huddle. I heard from speakers that were from the NFL industry. The Brownstein story reminded me of the story I heard about a young man who was very creative in seeking a job. He wanted a sales job, among the hundreds of others who applied. In order to stick out, he tried to be as personable as possible. Rob Sullivan, the Vice President of consumer and sales at the New York Jets was won over by the young man when he asked him to meet with him for coffee on his break. Although it wasn’t an advertisement online, it was personable and resilient.

How the Old Spice Videos Are Being Made & Old Spice Campaign Generated 35 million video views in 7 days.

The Old Spice commercials are always original and fresh and obviously comical. The marketing scheme is one of a kind and how it uses social media to interact with its viewers is personable. Unlike a retargeted ad, the Old Spice ads become memorable and not repetitive.

The key to the commercials is how they have used one well-known and loved character and placed him in real-time content. When using a marketing scheme, keeping one aspect recognizable and familiar in different backgrounds is key to winning over people.

Something that has helped the Old Spice commercials and it’s team is the ability to write on their own. While they have guidelines, they have more freedom than many others do. This is probably the most important aspect of its success achieved. Because the team behind the Old Spice commercials and Mustafa are original and they enjoy what they do, it shows to the consumers and viewers.

These numbers are awesome

• -A total of 183 individual video responses have been posted to the Old Spice YouTube channel.
• -So far, the videos have attracted 35.7 million individual views, as of 9am, Monday July 19th.
• -The final video reply, addressed to “everyone,” has amassed almost 2.5 million views and over 5,800 comments alone.
• -The Old Spice channel was the most viewed channel on YouTube last week, and is now thethird most subscribed channel ever in the site’s “sponsor” category.
• -Total upload views for the channel, a metric that includes the original TV ads, currently stand atover 92 million.
• -At midday on Wednesday the brand’s official Twitter account had 32,000 followers.

Foursquare and MTV Team up for First-Ever Cause-Related Badge: STD Testing

I admire MTV’s cause for raising awareness for my generation and getting yourself tested. MTV has always been a strong advocate for safe and smart sex. Not relatable, foursquare is an application that tells everyone where you are. Where is the common ground between raising awareness and telling others where you are? I don’t mean to be negative but I think this is social application overkill. The next badge will be “Condom King” in which you check in every time you put a condom on. Oh, Foursquare, that last comment was sarcastic. No more badges please.

5Across: Social Media Marketing

Social media has been the most influential tool for social networking in our viral world. The 5Across video was eye-opening to me because I had never thought social media to be a part of so much in my life.

The different aspects ranging from Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook to forums and blogs has been generational and specific to an individuals needs. An older or professional form of social media would be Linkedin, in where we can see a different face of professionals. I liked the sayings that represent each source, such as Twitter is what you’re doing, Myspace is what your into and Linkedin is what’s in it for me.

On a side note, I question the negative impacts it has on our social world as well. Without Facebook, would anyone keep in touch with friends and share tangible photos?

For me personally, I use Facebook, Twitter and WordPress everyday. Facebook has been a part of my social life, keeping track of my friends, photos and keeping in touch with those I have not seen. Twitter has been a great networking tool for me as well. I liked how the video explained Twitter as giving little people a big voice. You can reach a big audience using specific #hashtags and @signs. Finally, if it wasn’t for WordPress, I would have not been pursuing my passion for sports writing!

In the beginning of the documentary, I felt as though it was a cliché documentary on how Girl Talk was simply using different songs in a mash-up of obvious infringement of copyrights. It started to disturb me when I saw how Disney wanted the different characters on the day care center to be taken down. The little children on the school seemed to be very upset while the adults in charge seemed confused by the fact that Disney had been threatened by their school. In no means were they trying to be like Disney. They were a simple daycare center.

It is a question of how far a record label is willing to go to get as much money as they possibly can. I can only blame our “American dream” and our pursuit of happiness, AKA our pursuit of how much money we can actually make.

When I saw the documentary, I thought of all the music I downloaded and all of the remixes I loved to play on my iPod. I love Disney with all of my heart, but it is so hard to think of Disney as anything other than a major corporation.

I love going out to places that have live music and entertainment. One of the best venues is Jenks, in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Jenks offers a venue for artists and bands to play live music including cover bands. It makes me wonder, however, if cover bands need to get permission to play other’s music to profit from?