As a social network junkie I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a secret rush when I find I have several new Twitter follows or I get a direct message from someone I respect. I have often been victim to this sense of anxiety over what Christine Rosen refers to as “status seeking” in the article “Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism”. I have experienced this feeling of urgency in wanting to brand myself a certain way on Twitter so I am prepared for potential networking opportunities that may arise or when asking for a flattering testimonial on LinkediN.

While a great deal of my SNS activity is self-induced, I feel it affecting my life differently than previously. While before my personal endeavors were more for personal satisfied now I feel pressure to perform a certain way. For example, I recently had an interview where the interviewer asked me how many followers I had on twitter. This was considered a serious qualification. Another interviewer added me on Facebook before we even met. This was uncomfortable because I felt like I was being seized up in an unfair setting. At times I have felt like I am just trying to stay afloat in the vast sea of my online entities. I have asked myself the most absurd, but sadly relevant of questions: What if my potential employee doesn’t like grunge or metal ? Will that effect if I get the job or now ? Will my favorite movie offend her ? The possibilities are endless. Like what if she finds this blog ? I even know journalism students who have been discouraged from displaying their religious or political views on SNS sites. Is the price for gaining “digital neighbors” too much ? I think this is even more damaging than misrepresenting oneself online, as Rosen argues.

SNS sites use to be places were people went to unleash their alter egos or strengthen/create friendships. Now these sites have evolved into places where people feel pressure to present their selves a certain way. With employers, co-workers, and other professional contacts start friending individuals on SNS sites that were previously used for social reason, these sites become volatile.

I am now feel like I am obligated to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of my online profile. If I put too many interests I may seem unforced or cluttered, but if I don’t put enough than I may appear one dimensional. This constant struggle of balancing a personal and professional image online is exhausting. This takes all the fun out the site. I know just feel like I am trying to sell myself, and it is not fun.

Don’t get me wrong, the networking that is available on SNS sites is invaluable, but I still am reluctant to forgo the personal aspects of my online profiles. I feel like I am being robbed of something because these awkward connections on SNS sites exist. For instance, I am friends with woman on a scholarship committee ( I am recipient of this scholarship), my mom’s friends, my ex boyfriend’s mom, and a previous supervisor. These are just a few examples of my uncomfortable online relationships. I am friends with these people to avoid outside hassles, but they force me to compartmentalize my online life. I am mildly bitter about this “evolution” , but I predict that I will slowly weed online the private aspects of my online life (as I have been) and shift more towards the professional.

http://mashable.com/2009/04/08/social-media-recruitment/

The Obama Administration is known for being technologically savvy and enlisting the masses through social networking tools. This legacy continued this weekend when the Administration moved the White House Web site to run on open source system. The White House is now running on the open source Drupual content management system and Apache Solr search server.

This will produce an even more interactive White House. Drupual will support blogs, comments, polls, and user profiles. This is a huge opportunity to engage citizens in interacting with the Administration. The social components to this switch allow for dialogue and conversation to ensue in an almost Democratic way. While in theory this open source switch seems like it will promote more access into the policy and government, it could be potentially restricting like we have seen with the evolution of Wikis.

Not everyone has access to a forms capable browser and language still presents a barrier. Even though the White House does have a Spanish version of their Web site, it lacks new updates and substance. Spanish speakers are the fastest growing population in the US so the White House Web site should reflect this.

Despite potential problems, the develop of open source is a step in the right direction for the government in terms of embracing new technology and engaging citizens in new meida.

“Now it is time to extend the power of individuals to stimulate the mission of government”

Perhaps you’ve noticed the their ad campaign plastered all over the metro recently. Adobe has taken on an open government campaign, and pledged to hold the current administration accountable for their promises of transparency. There is a lot of talk about government interference or regulation in the internet, but I think it is interesting to note a software that develops internet applications’ interference in the government.

Adobe has been responsible for much of the administration’s interactivity online. Hillary Clinton’s address to the European Parliament was broadcasted by the State Department and Obama’s Town Hall meeting in Turkey were both available online for citizens to watch, comment, and ultimately interact with through Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro.

* Screen Shots from Adobe Blog

Adobe is even hosting a free conference on election day in DC to promote open government.

I find this participation in helping government to achieve openness an interesting contrast to the usual concern about government’s big bother activity online. This action is in response to Obama’s memo on transparency in government being achieved through technology.

“Facebook and other social networking sites like it have increasingly become places where college students live and, in some cases, die.”

Discussion in class lead to a group discussion about the social media phenomenon of online profiles turning into memorials for those who have passed away. I remember the first time I saw a tribute to someone who had passed away in the online world. It was in form of a “blogring”, which is similar to a group on Facebook. It was “RIP Person’s Name”. Like social media, social memorials have evolved as well.

I’ve seen several Myspace and Facebook profiles after a person passes away. And while at times it may seem a borderline disturbing or inappropriate, these profiles are serving as a digital, Web 2.0 version of a memorial service. I have seen people writing to their love ones months or years after they had died. To young people social networking sites are a focal point of life. They connect, laugh, and record their memories on these SNS so it makes sense that the profiles might continue after the people are gone.

Facebook memorials are parallel to our generation. There is even a how to guide on how to turn a profile into a memorial. People are able to express their grief and say goodbye in a familiar medium. After the Virgina Tech tragedies students urged their follow peers to update their Facebook statues if they were okay, and used the victims’ Facebook walls to express their losses.

Online memorials are becoming more mainstream and natural. The more time we spend online, and the more we integrate our lives into the webosphrere, the more it makes sense to memorialize our SNS after we leave this earth.

interesting link

In today’s world females are more likely than their male counter parts to complete bachelor degrees or accepted into law school. We know that women have been leaving men behind in the dust when it comes to higher education for quite sometime now, but but is this surge of girl power translated into the social web as well ?

According to data complied by Brian Solis from Google Ad Planner data (gmail account required to view) there is a strong overarching presence of women on social media sites compared men. Though there is some equality between men and women on sites like YouTube, DeviantArt, and LinkedIn, women dominate almost every other site. The only site that men do dominate over women is Digg (I wonder why). This data isn’t surprising. It also corresponds with the Pew Internet and American Life Project data which states that females are more likely than males to be on a social networking site.

Many of the responses from this finding state that women are naturally more social than men, and have more time of their hands to engage in social networking sites (stay at home moms, work from the home, etc), ergo they are more active online than men.

“I think overall, there’s less women that work outside of the home. More home time = more opportunity and desire to connect via social media. Many of my female friends are stay at home moms and many run businesses from home, like teaching piano lessons, selling art or crafts, some have consulting businesses, etc. Some men do too, but overall, most of my male friends work outside of the home.”

I actually find these responses quite condescending and very invalid. While it could be argued that women are more social than men, I think it is more than that. It is scientifically proven that women are better multitaskers than men. And that is my own personal hypothesis as to why women flock to modern media in higher percentages than men. Take for instance what I am doing right now: listening to itunes (one ear plugged in), writing this blog, looking for skirts online, drinking Starbucks, bbming, and talking to a friend across the library) Does this affect my attention span? Doubtful. I think it makes me more productive and thus more able to sync into the social media world. Observe: male sitting by me. Reading one book and taking notes. And I think he has been on the same page for the past 20 minutes.

The second heading from Emily Nussbaum’s article particularly speaks to me in an accurate and eerie way. I started “blogging” in 7th grade on Xanga because the site was really popular a town over, and my cousin coerced me to.

I put blogging in quotes because my entries were more diary like, but I still wrote like I had an audience. Most entries were of me retelling my day through my pubescent scope, and sometimes I’d make the random observations on society or popular culture. They are really cringe worthy, but I’m glad that I have them, and I despite the hysteria of something online coming back to haunt you, I am glad that I am part of this modern media generation. There is something comforting to know that I can basically look back on anytime in the past 7-8 years and find my thoughts, feelings, and whereabouts on display. And while I could of just simply kept a hand written journal, my blog entries were interactive, with personal pictures and videos.

After 3 Xanga accounts, I finally stopped publicly displaying my middle school musings and privately archived my life in various Livejournal accounts, though I don’t consider my Livejournal entries to be apart of a new media spectacle because they were written for my eyes only. I possess a certain candor and frankness, that while subconsciously at times, was not present in my Xanga entries. In other words in Xanga I was writing for an audience, and with Livejournal I was not. Livejournal also lacks the multimedia that Xanga possessed (pictures, videos, etc), and less care was put into the look and feel of the site.

March 2003, Xanga
“Today was a so so day. Me and Jermany had the funniest connversion today in 6th period. I love that kid. After sixth I was walking with Nick and talking to him and all of a sudden he grabs my hand. I was like wtf. Its just weird. So Yessnia saw and she was like omg. Yeah now tomorrow I will hear all these rumors about me and nick. There is NO me and nick!!! Ahhh I wish he would realize that. ! Hummm me and tanya need to get started on our article.”

Believe me, I am posting the above for case study purposes only. A large part of me would love to push the delete button (if it was that easy) and predict the above never happened, let anyone was ever displayed in a public medium, though it is interesting though to look back and read. I am the perfect example of evolving with modern media. As I got older my interactions with new media became more sophisticated. As much as I would like to purge some things that I have put into the webosphere, their presence is still invaluable.

After I graduated from high school in 2007 and moved to Washington, DC from California to attend college I noticed a shifting trend in SNS’ and how I stayed in touch with my high school peers. I had used Myspace as my primary SNS from 2003 and all throughout high school, but once I hit college this changed. Although I had signed up for Facebook when it became available for everyone in 2006, I was not a frequent user because the majority of my peers were still on Myspace.

Once I was fully emerged in college life I was dominantly interacting with Facebook (adding college friends, updating profile, and statues, etc) while I was logging in to Myspace less and less. My high school friends that had went off to college were on Facebook, but I began to notice that my friends that went to community college or didn’t go on to college at all did not make the transition from Myspace to Facebook. This obviously had a lot to do with Facebook’s original exclusion, making a college network a requirement, but even after Facebook allowed anyone to join, regardless of college network or not, my non-college high school friends still did not.

Over the past two years my presence on Myspace has dramatically declined, and now I only sporadically log on and do not maintain my profile. My friends that do not attend four year universities still do not use Facebook or only have inactive profiles. Through I have have account on both sites, Myspace no longer appeals to me like it once did. With Myspace you have the ability to blast music from your profile, decorate it with all sorts of pictures and applications. Profiles can get tacky and lack the structure and professionalism that Facebook provides, and that soon to be college graduates desire.

After making this observation various times over the last couple of years I sought out any academic research that would confirm my suspicions. I didn’t search too hard, but last year I did run across an essay by Danah Boyd, a social media researcher, who shares my sentiments. Boyd essay entitled, Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and Myspace, was written in 2007 which is consequently the same year I graduated from high school. Boyd writes, “Most teens who exclusively use Facebook are familiar with and have an opinion about MySpace. These teens are very aware of MySpace and they often have a negative opinion about it. They see it as gaudy, immature, and “so middle school.” They prefer the “clean” look of Facebook, noting that it is more mature and that MySpace is “so lame.” What hegemonic teens call gaudy can also be labeled as “glitzy” or “bling” or “fly” (or what my generation would call “phat”) by subaltern teens. Terms like “bling” come out of hip-hop culture where showy, sparkly, brash visual displays are acceptable and valued. The look and feel of MySpace resonates far better with subaltern communities than it does with the upwardly mobile hegemonic teens”

She also goes into detail about the military’s use of SNS’. It is a fascinating article which goes into greater detail on the class divisions between SNS’.

College student on Facebook

Non College student on Myspace

This is how the majority of my friends on both sites appear.

*permission granted for screen shots.

When I switched into a history class on early European history I was surprised (and a bit delighted to find) that my professor had implemented a new media strategy that could even work for a syllabus about expanding Europe. Who knew that the fall of Constantinople and the Hundred Years’ War could be so modern?

The new media used is Poll Everywhere. Students are asked to answer a poll on a question related to the subject material (ex: How responsible were the Portuguese for the diminishing Native American population?) and they submit their responds via SMS text, twitter, or on the web. In my particular class we text message our daily poll responds. This also serves as a crafty way to record attendance. Each student’s cell phone number is registered with Poll Everywhere so if there is record of s/he texting in class, then there is record of attendance.

In a day in age where is it practically unheard of for a student to not have a cell phone this is a very efficient and sophisticated way of keep track of attendance and collaborating with new media.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/18/MNS211BBRL.DTL&tsp=1