Social Media and Political Participation

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Working for Obama

If anyone is interested .... Obama campaign is looking to hire social media experts in Chicago...Sounds like a wonderful opportunity for social media geeks who want to help support Obama.

http://www.politickerny.com/2011/08/24/help-shape-obamas-tech-campaign/

The Social Network

Last night I went to see The Social Network starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg. I wasn't sure what I would think of it, but I actually really liked it. As a movie it kept me interested from beginning to end. The problem with a movie being based on real people, and yet not everything being real facts, is that I found myself constantly thinking "Is this part true?". As soon as I got home I opened my trusty laptop (to Wikipedia of course) to learn more facts about all of these characters. I recommend going to see the movie. It is entertaining, thought provoking, and you will learn some facts you did not know. Just be prepared to be close to a computer since the movie may leave you with some additional questions.

Pets and Facebook

There was an article written in August, http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/08/05/pets.facebook.networks/index.html?hpt=Sbin, and I've been thinking about it for a while. Having a facebook profile for your pet does violate Facebook's policy ("Since accounts that impersonate anyone or anything can damage the integrity of this environment, Facebook doesn't allow fake profiles for pets."), and yet many are guilty of it. Does having a profile for your pet guinea pig, rabbit, cat, or dog really damage the integrity of the site? I have to say that I don't think it does. Just as Facebook friends want to know about what's going on in each others' lives, people may want to know what's going on in one's pet's life.

"Justin Smith, founder of the blog Inside Facebook, says it's not so much about the pets but the practice of assuming a false identity that 'hurts the quality of communication' on the popular site, which has more than 500 million users."

Is it really stealing one's identity when no one believes that a dog is really typing out their status. My pet guinea pig doesn't have a social security number that I can steal.

"Facebook did not respond to a question about whether the site removes pets' profile pages."

Facebook does in fact remove pet's profiles, or at least it did, since someone I know had 2 of her dogs' profile pages removed.

What is the solution? Let's train our pets to type their own status updates.

Spies

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/technology/02traffic.html?ref=business

Someone is always watching...Big Brother. Good or bad? Perhaps this will cause more careful drivers, but it is scary that someone is always watching us and possibly recording/snapping photos. What about privacy...interesting debate...

Tumblr

Blogs, Twitter, Tumblr...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/technology/02tumblr.html?ref=business

I don't have a Tumblr account yet, although I do have a facebook page, twitter page, and blog. Next on the agenda should be LinkedIn, although I had a bad experience with it.

No connection between social networking and GPA

Good news! Have fun on your social networking sites!

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Study-Finds-No-Link-Between/25541/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en