Social Music Revolution- why/why not?

Pretty much everyone knows what Facebook is. The same goes for Pandora. But how come Last.fm doesn't get the same credit?
Last.fm is a website which combines the best of both worlds: music and social interaction. The site allows users to make a profile and select their favorite artists and songs. Much like Pandora, Last.fm will recommend music for you based on these selections. Also, the site helps connect people to their "musical neighbors" as they call it, or people who love the same type of music as you do. This capability is similar to the social networking through personal interests and connections on Facebook. The site also conveniently recommends concerts and events in your area and also lets users listen to personalized radio stations.
I can't help but wonder if this site isn't getting as much credit as it deserves- is it just me or should this be a website on par with Twitter, Stumble Upon, and other extremely popular new media websites? If you disagree, why? What does the website lack?
Of course, there is always another side to this story- maybe I am living under a rock and am one of the few that have never heard of this before. Please give me some insight!

Photo from: http://www.thetechherald.com/media/images/200819/Last_FM_1.jpg

The Android Takes Over

We live in a generation, where having cool stuff matters. What I mean by this, is that you don't want to be that guy walking around school with a flip phone or something lame, you want to be like everyone else and have an iPhone or BlackBerry...right? Wrong, according to recent data, the Android has surpassed the BlackBerry as the most popular smart phone market. Androids, make up 31.2% of the market, while BlackBerry is 30.4% and the iPhone is 24.7%. As I read about the Android taking over the cell phone industry, I was shocked.

According to the article I read, there were are many reasons as to why the Android has surged into first place in the last six months. First, unlike the BlackBerry or iPhone, the Android does not charge for its mobile operating system. What this means, is that many smaller cellular providers such as T-Mobile, BoostMobile and Alltel are able to have their own versions of the phone for free, as opposed to the millions of dollars it costs them to deliver BlackBerry and iPhone service. Not only does the Android's availability help it reach millions of more customers, but because Google (they created the Android) offers lucrative rebates, the phone can be close to free when if you sign up for a long term contract. Another major reason for Android's surge is simply the name behind the product, Google. In today's world, certain product names hold weight with consumers, and when people see the Google name, they know they will be getting a hi-tech and reliable device. Also, because nearly everyone in the world is familiar with the Google operating system, they are more inclined to buy a device that won't require much of a learning curve.

One of the most important reasons for the Android's recent takeoff is its unparalleled App. store. Something that many iPhone users have complained about is that there are far too many applications that provide the same service, and that many of the applications are not even useful. The Android, has taken strides to limit which applications make it to their market, by reviewing each of them to ensure uniqueness. Also, almost all Android applications are free, while nearly all of the 300,000 iPhone apps. go for a dollar a piece.

Citations: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/03/08/android.top.smartphones/index.html?iref=NS1

http://www.thebluntblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/google-android-htc-g1-vs-iphone-3g.jpeg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o85xQbPN1o

Facebook: The Effect

It is only natural for society to have norms.  Norms allow for there to be a sense of what is normal, and what of course is not.  In today's modern age, it is normal to have a cell phone, to have a computer, and to be able to read.  These things are almost expected.  If you were to tell me you could not read, my first guess would be that you are legally blind, then that you were born in a poor nation that could not educate you, then I would ask if you simply never learned in America.  Norms create boundaries, and allow us to know what is creepy and what is not, what is normal and what is weird.  Facebook is used by millions upon millions of people around the world, each of which has a profile that defines who they are in the Web 2.0 era.  People post information ranging from age, hometown, and favorite quotes, all the way to things like religion, past life experiences, and other things that can be seen by some as intrusive and invasive.
According to the work "The Facebook Effect" the older you are, the more likely you are going to find the plethora of information overwhelming, invasive, and most of all unnecessary.
Today's society feeds off of the Internet at this point, as basically anything can be done from ones own living room.  Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook says that people should not have a split between the personal and professional life, stating that it is not honest.  But in a world where every company now does background as well as Facebook checks on your past profile, why shouldn't there be?  Due to a wealth of information, can one not be a workaholic by day and a party animal at night?  Can one not go out and enjoy themselves because of the fear of people taking Facebook pictures and posting them?  People now need to monitor anything and everything they do, simply because anything can end up being posted on a Facebook page.  The effect of Facebook on society will never be able to be truly measured, but one thing for certain is that Facebook has changed social norms more then anything in recent memory.
Facebook began as a place for college students to connect with one another and stay in touch.  But now with the millions upon millions of users and apps, it has basically became its own society.  People can now buy airplane tickets online through Delta's Facebook page.  I personally have bought concert tickets through Facebook, but is this good?  Can one website have this much power?  Is Facebook a Monopoly 2.0?  Facebook records all, and because of this it invades on anything and everything people do.

Social Networking Today

What I found to be the most interesting concept of "The Facebook Effect" is the whole idea about the positive and negative outcomes about expressing too much of yourself on the internet. According to Mark Zuckerberg, social and personal lives should not be separated from one another. The world should be open and honest and a place where each individual has one identity. Evan Sheryl Sandberg explicitly states, "You can't be on Facebook without being your authentic self." My biggest question is determining whether or not this is a valid statement. There is always that chance of a fake identity which "The Facebook Effect" talks about later in the article. Someone could create a fake name and create an entire persona based on lies. To counteract this assumption, Zuckerberg explains how the people around you help create your persona even if it contradicts the fake life you are trying to create. In other words if you write one thing on your status but your friends write something else on your wall, it is clear that there are many different aspects out of your control that contribute to defining your identity.

Following along the pathway of not having control, nothing on Facebook is confidential. Although there are multiple privacy settings that have been tweaked due to popular demand, Facebook contains information that extends beyond a small circle of people. For instance, companies have rejected 35% of applicants due to inappropriate pictures uploaded on this website. Athletes have been suspended from schools after the principal witnesses pictures of these students smoking or drinking at a party. There are even more extreme measures such as a women being arrested due to animal violence after publicly displaying pictures of drowning rabbits on Facebook. Overall, this leads back to the same repeatedly asked questions. How much information should be displayed on Facebook? How is Facebook positively and negatively affecting the lives of people on a more extreme level? How could we be sure out information is being used the way we say it should?

In my opinion, the idea of being your open, honest self is not necessarily the best thing to do. There are consequences for revealing your full identity on the web and I think some aspects of your life should be kept private. How do you guys feel about this idea?

Social Media comes in many forms

"Social Media Today is an independent online community for professionals in PR, marketing, advertising, or any other discipline where a thorough understanding of social media is mission critical." This website is interesting because it talks about the different kinds of social media and how they affect society. This is necessary because with so many different forms of social media, we need to learn how each specific form of media works This website has posts about about how mobile media can be a strategic element in market plans as well as how twitter can be informative for real - life events. This website helps people learn how to publish a blog, along with how to become a social media manager. SocialMediaToday is a reliable website where the authors provide "insight and host lively debate about the tools, platforms, companies and personalities that are revolutionizing the way we consume information." The article I found most compelling was titled, "Twitter - New Media or News Media?" This article talks about how although television reporters and broadcasters successfully cover certain events, Twitter is a source of news for it's own community. Before TV broadcasters were able to get a live shot of "The Sinkhole on North and Oakland" someone tweeted a picture of the event. Before the local news covered the story about the Escalade stuck in the sinkhole, a citizen of the community tweeted about the event and became the first informative source. Overall this specific story shows how much of an influence new media has on our society. It creates a community in and of itself and it even provides accurate information before it has been covered on television. Do you think twitter and other forms of New Media will continue to be the primary source of information? Do you find these tweets accurate and helpful for the community? Also on the topic of socialmediatoday.com, do you think this website has a distinct purpose that will help viewers to further understand how to benefit from new media in the world today? New Media is extremely confusing due to the multiple different forms. In my opinion, this website is definitely informative because it discusses these different forms of new media and their purposes in everyday society. Check out this site for yourself so I could hear your opinion on this topic.

Everyone needs a clear view of what works and what doesn't in Social Media

Image: (http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/201927)

The future is soon

http://cdn.myverse.com/mod/money/graphics/count_money.jpg

Every movie of the future has a few predictions of how society will change in common: flying cars, shinier clothing, and of course all money being electronic and off of paper.  You can look at Back to the Future, Blade Runner, Minority Report, all of which involve money being something other then a combination of cotton and green dye.   Imagine a world with no real money, but where everything is swiped.  Businesses like pizza places and bagel stores would lose thousands of money, gas stations would have to make prices based on credit and debit rather then cash, and places like strip clubs and brothels will now have to show up on the credit cards of thousands.
Now some think this change is inevitable, simply because we are shifting towards a society that everything is monitored, from the information on your Facebook down to the blogs and people you follow.  Minority Report actually satires this in their movie whenever a customer enters a store, his or her eye is scanned and then a consuming profile is pulled up showing all of their past purchases and recent transactions.
But how unrealistic is this?  Facebook now sells its user's information to advertisers and marketers for not only research, but also for sales information.  If we take a logical progression it is only logical to assume that stores will now be able to swipe our cards and know everything from the clothes we wear and even to the things you like and dislike.  The world is changing, and information is becoming more and more available to anyone and everyone.
The sad thing is there is very little anyone can do to prevent the trend.  People are not going to get off Facebook.  All the power lies in the users, and they are to obsessed to find any type of solution or compromise in the matter.  Now all that is left is to sit back, relax, and enjoy the electronic ride.

Response to "The Facebook Effect," "Writing, Technology and Teens" and "Social Media and Young Adults"

After doing these required readings, I learned a lot about teenagers, Facebook, and social media. I found all of these readings to be very interesting and filled with facts and statistics I never would have imagined to be true. I mean, let's be honest here, who would have imagined that Facebook is searched more frequently in Google than sex. I think one of the most interesting parts about "The Facebook Effect," was reading about its ability to show the "realness" in anybody. What I mean by this is that Facebook does not judge you on who you are, what job you have or how much money you make. For example, a banker was recently fired for saying she needed the day off to attend to family matters when in fact Facebook pictures later circulated showing that worker drinking and partying the entire day. Facebook even showed its ability to intrude in the life of Sir John Sawers, who is the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service. Recently, his wife posted Christmas pictures on Facebook that seriously compromised his family's security because they it revealed his address and personal interests. Who would have thought that the head of one of the most private and powerful agencies in the world could be compromised by Facebook?

I think another really interesting part of Facebook, is how people use it to make judgements about other people. For example, in a recent poll, 35 percent of all companies admitted they have rejected applicants based on information they found on Facebook. I found this to be so startling, because in Barack Obama's autobiography, he admitted to smoking marijuana and even doing cocaine, yet he is the President of the United States and arguably the most powerful man in the world. I think this is a really interesting example, of how it's important to consider the platform in which you are projecting information. Had President Obama arbitrarily posted on Facebook that he had used Cocaine, it would have caused absolute outrage, but when it was mentioned in his book, it really was not a big deal. This showed me how people are easily judged through the information they put on Facebook, and as Jared Cohen, a Google executive said, Facebook is really a "digital democracy" in terms of how easily people can be judged from what they post on their profile.

One last thing I would like to touch on, is some of the interesting stuff mentioned in "Writing, Technology and Teens." Something that I honestly found to be disturbing, is how research is showing a connection between the online writing of teenagers and the writing we use in the classroom. At first, I thought to myself, there is no way I would ever write the way I do on Facebook or AOL as I would in this blogpost or an academic essay, but then I realized, it happens all the time! The fact is, nearly 50 percent of teens admit they shorthand their writing on the internet, and it's spilling over into our academic writing. I found it really interesting that the internet is able to have such a strong impact on our thinking that we are subconsciously are writing u instead of you, in the middle of a research paper! As technology continues to progress, I think it's crucial teenagers find ways to separate their online writing from in school writing, or this may become a problem an even bigger problem than it already is.