Blog post 3

Another good week of class has brought us some more interesting stories about social networking. For example, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has recently donated 100 Million dollars to Newark, NJ public schools. Zuckerberg was very public about this donation, as he did it on the Oprah Winfrey show. As generous as this is, you can't help but wonder if there were any ulterior motives. That's a large chunk of change, and it just so happens that there is a movie coming out this Friday that may not portray Zuckerberg in the best manner. Hmm.. Anyways, the winner here is certainly the Newark New Jersey public school system. I bet they are going to get some really nice stuff from that.

On a more sobering note, a very sad story emerged this week about a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey who announced his suicide via Facebook. Prior to the suicide, his roomate allegedly broadcasted his homosexual acts via webcam, which ultimately prompted him to kill himself. This is such a misuse of technology on two accounts. Obviously webcams should not be used to film someones personal relations without their consent, and secondly, it is unfortunate that someone would say they were going to kill themselves on facebook. People may have thought this person was kidding or not really thought about it at all. Clearly it would have been better if he expressed his suicidal thoughts in person so that a friend of his could possibly talk him out of it. Very Sad.

I find it very interesting how much social media is in the news. Just google'ing "facebook" under news yields 30,400 results.

I'm looking forward to reading your blogs and to another good week of class next week!

-Will

Blog Post 2

For my second blog post, I'd like to talk about a news story that I read this week about Facebook. A girl in england created a Facebook invitation to her birthday party and neglected to make it a private RSVP. Much to her surprise she received 21,000 RSVPs to her event. This led her mom to cancel the party, take away her daughters internet privileges and even call the police to make sure guests did not come to the party.


I think this is a valuable news story because it shows the dangers of social networking sites if they are not used properly. It is a pretty humorous story, but the odds are that at least some of the 21,000 respondents show up to the party location and there will be some backlash from this. The worst part is, this all happened because she forgot to uncheck a little box on the side that says "Anyone can view and RSVP". What a shame. 


Here is a link to the article: http://www.examiner.com/cyber-safety-in-national/teen-posts-public-birthday-party-invitation-on-facebook-21-000-rsvps-teach-kids-facebook-privacy


I've enjoyed the class discussions this week about the origins of social networking sites. It has been fun to listen and participate in discussions about the Myspace era, and it is funny how most of the people in the class have similar thoughts and views on the way we approach social networking. 


Looking forward to another good week of class, see you all tuesday.


-Will

1st blog entry

This class has been very interesting so far, and I find it useful. As a Media Studies major, I know that in whatever job I have after graduation will probably require me to be very good at using the newest forms of media. I'm sure this is the same for most of the students in this class. We will probably be looked at by our older and less tech-savvy bosses as the employees that will be best at maintaining the organization's facebook or twitter.

An interesting story concerning social media has just come up at a college in Pennsylvania. The school is blocking their students from using any social newtworking sites for one week. The students had mixed reactions. Some felt that they got their work done quicker, while others were annoyed that they could not plan social events or study groups because of the ban.

I think this is an interesting experiment, but it is unfair in the long run. Also it may be slightly arbitrary because students now can access facebook and twitter on their cell phones. I do think that facebook has been a major distraction from school work for me personally, but I also wouldn't like to be banned from accessing it. I think stories like this prove how important social media has become to students and all types of people.

Here is a link to the article on this experiment: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hUGObKRnjF5jinszyrGvMEU3sTQgD9I94MTG0

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty excited to see the movie "The Social Network". The preview looks pretty cool and it is an interesting story. It comes out October 1st and hopefully I will have a chance to see it. Here is the link to the wikipedia entry on the movie, which has a lot of information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Network