Shayna's A-ha...

I am a little late coming into this blog. I am sure that everyone else posted several days ago, but I am just now finding the time. This week, my a-ha moment came from my son on Thanksgiving day. I informed my son that I was the most thankful for him and his daddy. He informed me that he was most thankful that his daddy wasn't sick anymore (he just got over a nasty cold), and that his daddy and mommy can play with him for Thanksgiving. My son is almost 4, and this was one of the sweetest things I have ever heard him say. I spend a lot of my time checking off tasks, and making list of what I need to get done. This is especially true right now with work, school deadlines, my son's birthday party and the holidays. I came to the realization that sometimes it is ok to take a break and play, so that is what I did this weekend; played with my son. For those who celebrate Christmas, I found this great site. It gives tips on various fun Christmas things you can do with your family. I hope you are able to find something fun.

http://www.allthingschristmas.com/traditions/christmas-family.php

Politics on the Internet

I remember watching presidential debates with my parents when I was younger. I mostly remember my father explaining to me that the majority of what the candidates said was not true. This idea stuck with me, and will continue to stay with me throughout all elections. It is a jaded viewpoint; the idea that I cannot trust what our elected official say, but it is often true. Candidates want votes...period. It is not their responsibility to make sure we are informed on their policies or ideals. Most of the time it is better for them if we are not informed, but simply vote with our prefered party. The Internet is changing this. We are now in a world where knowledge is at our fingertips. We are able to fact-find and debate the topics away from the television. We are able to interact with our candidates in a way that we never could before. It is exciting to watch.

Here is a site that I find extremely interesting. People are begining to pole for the 2012 election, and are trying to express the need for inteligent thinking for voters. Please enjoy.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/4290141

Metzler's Week 7 Aha?

After completing a bit of research this week I found that I fit the over-50 demographic nicely in terms of connectivity and social networking/  The aha in this is that I'm only in my early 40s.  I've often thought folks in the younger generations were hyperconnected -- the archetypal teenager you see watching TV with an iPod plugged into his ears, texting while carrying on several IM/chat conversations as he updates his Facebook status.  That's certainly not me, but I had no idea I was so out of step with people my own age.  I tend to text less than 10 times per day, engage in fewer non-work phone conversations, occasionally log into Facebook, and I never Tweet.  I'm perfectly comfortable with this, but oddly, I'm an outlier in my age group. 

I find that I'm online and networking the most as a requirement for our class.  The blogging, research, and projects we're involved in have caused a dramatic spike in my digital media use.  There was a time when this would have concerned me -- I'm one of those linear thinkers Niel Postman wrote about, but the more I learn about our new connected way of life and learning, the more comfortable with it I become.  A certain amount of digital savvy is a necessity today, especially if one's objective is to become roundly educated. 

I suspect the transition from text media to digital media is similar to the old salty firefighters of a bygone era lamenting the change from horse drawn steamers to those new-fangled gasoline powered fire trucks. 

And the Future of Social Media Is.......

What is the Future 5 to 10 years down the road for social media? According to Gerd Leonhard at the 2009 PICNIC conference in Amsterdam, the future is one of changing the world's operating system to an "Open System". By this Gerd means that we will all become 'broadcasters' and to connect, we need to be in an open mode. Now what does open mean? Open is trusting more strangers, communicating while we 'broadcast' to people we've never seen but that we have accepted in some way or another. Gerd said 'knowledge grows when shared' and I think this is the best statement from the video. In fact, this is what I will use to reflect on the future changes of technology. The more we share, the more we will obtain knowledge. Instead of 'broadcasting', Gerd uses the term 'peer-caster' since we as individuals will be sending information (knowledge) to our peers. Check out the video as it is fodder for thought.

Politics and the Internet

This is an interesting video about politics and the internet. Our topic for the week shows that the Internet and social media presented opportunities for candidates never before available. Candidates could secure funding, find volunteers and present their platforms to voters who until this point in time depended upon the print media more than the digital media.
The following video is from the DLD Conference (Digital, Life, Design) which jokingly named "Barack Obama has been named the first Internet President." The panelists discuss how technology is changing the way politics work. They mention new social media tools and its impact on political campaigning and fundraising. It's over an hour and a tiny bit biased towards Democrats, but it is worth watching. Cover your ears when there is Democratic talk and enjoy the rest.

A-Ha...so I'm not a Millenial

In researching politics and the Internet, I came across some articles cheering on the Millenials and their use of technology. Well, I wasn't sure exactly what a Millenial was so back to the research...."A Millenial is a person born between 1977 and 1994." Well, the definition made be feel really old....as I was born before 1977. So I decided to take the Pew Research quiz, "How Millenial Are You?". There are only fourteen questions....it takes just a snap to take it and you can get your score. Well, let's just say my score is between a "Silent Member" and a "Baby Boomber"......which is VERY, VERY low. It's ok, I kind of figured I would be low. But CLICK HERE to take the quiz.

Who is on the Internet?

Our topic for this week focused on the different demographics of people on the Internet. From an anthropological standpoint, Internet use categorizes people into a particular standard of living. The Internet has become a symbol for financial gain, education, socialization and globalization. It is a standard form of communication, and is the basis for business in our current society. So why isn’t everyone online? We live in a nation that prides itself on being forward-thinking and technologically sound, yet we have citizens in this country who do not have access to the Internet. Our younger generation is growing up in a world filled with technology, yet we have students who go to schools that do not have a large enough budgets to properly teach about technology. We have apps designed to help people through almost every situation possible, yet we have prices to use these apps that are too high for many people to purchase.

I found a great website called Internet for Everyone. This site focuses on the need for all of our citizens to be technologically educated and have the access to the Internet. One individual interviewed in a video for this site stated “There’s a huge population of people who don’t have access, who won’t be able to engage in our society as a whole.” That is a very profound and scary statement. We have moved into a new era in our world. People are communicating and making decisions on a global scale, however we are leaving others in the dust. How many ideas and collaborations are we missing out on by excluding these people? So, check out this website. They have many articles and videos that will hopefully get you thinking about these people who are missing out on the globalization of our world.

http://www.internetforeveryone.org/americaoffline/urban

Shayna's A-ha...

My a-ha for this week has to do with Internet privacy. It baffles me that privacy is something that we have to strive for in this new social network driven world. Why? Why is it ok for others to know all of my business without me being involved in sharing it? I am on Facebook and was previously on MySpace, and I did share information with my ‘friends’ on these sites. I did not however, provide my address, phone number, number of pets, number of vehicles, ownership status of my home, family income, etc….which is apparently available online for all to see. When did this become ok?

We have watched a lot of videos in this course discussing how wonderful the Internet is; how great it is to have this tool that is managed by the people. People who are all working to keep us plugged in to the information. While I appreciate the knowledge and capabilities that the Internet provides, it is not ok to share everything about everyone. I should not have to search my name to find out what information is available about me so I can try to remove it. I should not have to search my family and friends to do the same thing. I don’t know how others feel about this, but I’m irritated by the entire thing. Ok…I will get off of my soap box now.

If interested, here is a link about internet privacy. It is from 2009, but I still think it fits.

http://http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/technology/internet/13privacy.html

A-Ha...I'm Right

As a teacher of Spanish, I'm always interested to see in print what I personally feel is happening to the Hispanic population. Now after browsing through the Pew Survey Libraries, I'm pleased that what I thought was happening really is occurring...Hispanic Internet usage is growing. Latino adults are increasing their use of the Internet faster than other ethnic groups, according to a new survey from the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Latinos who were born in the U.S. were much more likely to go online than those born outside the U.S. This gap persisted even after accounting for differences in education levels, household income and English proficiency, the report said. This makes perfect sense as those born in the U.S. are accostomed to "everyone" having computer access. In our school, we have many Hispanic families who have immigrated from Mexico. These families are not used to having readily available computer access. Cell phones and texting are totally different as all Hispanic students have cell phones. While Hispanic use is increasing, much of the use is from the computer at the local Hispanic store which is used by many Hispanics who don't have their own computer or Internet access.

According to vivirlatina.com, there are some 20 million Latinos online and that number is growing fast. Latinos as a user group are growing at a rate of close to 50% faster than the general population. I knew it!!!!!

Metzler's Week 6 Aha!

I'm not sure I have a very interesting or original aha this week, but here's what's been popping into my mind a lot recently: Graduate school is fairly intellectually demanding, but more than anything, it takes a lot of time and a lot of attention to detail.  As our projects and assignments have begun to overlap the last couple of weeks, it's clear that the single most important skill needed to stay afloat is time management.

Certainly everyone is juggling their own hectic schedules -- job(s), family, perhaps managing a household, throw in a personal crisis or two -- and grad school is but another layer of stuff draped over what takes place in real life.  At some point, something must give; one must triage the most important tasks, give it their best shot, and let it be good enough.  I suspect for folks who've made it this far in their educational career, that's nothing new.  I also suspect that's not easy, as most folks are here because they're driven to do their best. 

So, keep your heads up, 21st Century IQers . . . we're almost there. 

Ordinary Average Guy

It's nice when a bit of research bears out a preconceived notion or two, and that's just what happened this week as I perused several Pew reports regarding computer and cell phone use.  It turns out, I'm what Joe Walsh calls an ordinary average guy.  The Pew foundation found that white, college educated males send or receive about 10 text messages a day, that they'd rather text than talk, and that they use their phone primarily for communication rather than entertainment.  Hey, wait a minute . . . that's me!  I just love to fit a stereotype. 

I hadn't really thought much about my phone habits until I mistakenly included text messaging in my digital diary a few weeks ago.  Each day, I counted about 10 texts and fewer actual phone conversations.  I thought that number sounded about right for me, but a little light for most people in my demographic.  Turns out, though, I represent the average with surprising fidelity. 

Like most people I know, texting is much easier and far superior than having an old-fashioned conversation.  For one thing, I love the asynchronicity of it . . . if I don't feel like responding to a text, I just ignore it and go about my business.  That's much more awkward to accomplish in the middle of a phone call.  In fact, I get kind of irritated when my phone actually rings; I often think, "now why didn't they just text me instead?" 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and, having just recently figured out how to send a picture as an MMS message, I tend to abridge my texts to photos only whenever possible.  I wonder what Joe Walsh and the rest of the Eagles would think about that. 

An Extra A-Ha

I know Facebook was a previous topic, but today on the radio I heard a Facebook trivia segment that caused me to think. In a survey recently completed, 21% of new hires were hired because their employers actually looked at their Facebook account and thought they were extremely creative. I've heard of people being fired because of a Facebook entry or not hired because of a Facebook entry, but I have never heard of the reverse happening. The survey said that creativity, initiative and pure resourcefulness beat out the other applicants. How many people can say they were hired because of "Facebook"?

The Digital Divide

This is an interesting video about the Digital Divide....a phrase I'm learning is a serious deficit in our world today. This video is a two years old, but the facts are the same today as then.



Now this video says it all.....

Racial differences in information technology use in college

In an article from the CBS Business Network available on line, research has proven that racial differences do exist in terms of information technology use in college. While use by black students was just below that of white students, ethnicity did play a role in the use of technology. Ethnic affiliation of Hispanic,Asian, American Indian or from the Pacific Rim showed that use of technology is less. There are obvious reasons including availablilty, funding and awareness but in a college environment the use is less. The authors, Flowers and Zhang, indicated that a student's race and ethnicity also impacted information technology use for two-year and four-year college students. Their research showed that computer use resulted in significant increases in student learning outcomes.

An example of the research includes the amount of time undergraduate students spent using e-mail to communicate about course-related matters. This data is typical of the research by Flowers which showed that all ethnicities show heavy use the computer. With this chart, I found that the Asian use was the top ethnicity who used the computer "often" (96.8% overall) while the white usage at the "often" level was 59.4% (92.8 overall)

Another example of the research showed the time spent using electronic chat rooms for class discussion or homework. Data shows that Asians used the chat rooms either sometimes or "often" 45.9% of the time while whites used the chat rooms either "sometimes" or "often" 24.5% of the time. What does this say? Well Asians might be further from home and family so I don't feel this is a surprise.


The link for this article has additional information and provides interesting reading.

Shayna's A-ha

This week has been incredibly hectic, and honestly I have not had time to reflect in order to find my a-ha moment. I have moved through each day checking off my to-do's and then trying to find time to rest. I am now sick, and trying to muddle through my school work, but still have not found the time to reflect as I should.....but my house looks great!

With the holidays approaching, and I hoping to have more time to reflect and find all of my a-ha moments, whether they be for class, or just personal insight. I hope that everyone is able to find time for this reflection, because it is a healthy exercise. In the mean time, I will continue checking things off of my list and awaiting the day when it is done. :)

Privacy in a Digital World

This week we looked at privacy issues, and how those issues can create chaos in our world. This got me thinking about our responsibilities as adults, and how I think we have been neglecting those responsibilities. We live in a world that is opening up to new technology, and we have entered it blindly...with unfounded trust. Shame on all of us for not demanding that these social networking sites protect our privacy; not for us, but for our children. Yes, identity theft is a huge issue and should be addressed, but the safety and well being of our children should always be most important...even if we don't have children.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/11/13/2429318/area-teenagers-try-to-find-their.html

This article was posted today by the Kansas City Star. It made me sad to think of these teenagers going through the identity crisis that all teenagers go through, but publicly. They are living in a digital world, and receiving their information at warp-speed. They are not emotionally equipped to handle this, and we have not properly prepared them for what they are going through. Not because we don't care, but because we don't know. Yes, we all went through the teenage years, but not like this. We did not have to worry about our every movement being posted on You Tube. Our gossip was word-of-mouth or hand written notes passed in class, not texting to an entire community in a matter of minutes.

Overall, I think that it is time we take a step back from the excitement of our new found technologies and look at the potential impact on our children. Obviously the digital world is not going away...and it shouldn't. But we need to understand how it affects the younger generation so that we can buffer and guide them as we should.

Digital Community -- What Does It Mean?

I've been thinking a lot about what Digital Community means this week.  After reading several blog posts and watching many videos, I've come to understand it's about more than not being a cyberbully.  Certainly this is a problem, and because it's our topic of the week it's taken up residence in the forefront of our collective consciousness, but living and working in a community, digital or otherwise, means more than just being nice and not bothering the neighbors. 

When contemplating our digital society, I think one must continually ask the question: What do I expect to gain from this experience and what do I have to offer?  Many people in our class (including me) have indicated they're more likely to simply lurk and "people-watch" when logged into a social networking site than to actively participate.  I often log in, see what folks are up to, then log out.  I wonder, though, what kind of community it would be if everyone did this.  Community, at least in my mind, means interaction, contribution, and a shared sense of togetherness. 

In order to thrive in an off-line community, say a neighborhood, workplace, or town, it's necessary to do more than be nice.  One must contribute to the common good (shop locally, pay taxes, produce work, etc) as well as follow the established rules of conduct.  I hadn't really thought much about this concept until we kept our digital time log a few weeks ago; one of the questions we answered was "Did the time you spent in digital community accomplish your goals?".  To be honest, I'd never thought of accomplishing goals through socail media -- I just wanted to see what everyone was up to.  Now, though, I think more about being a valued contributor to my digital society, and, by extension, my non-digital society as well.

Scott's Week 5 Aha!

Each week it seems I think about or learn something I hadn't expected . . . this week is no different.  We've spent a considerable amount of time talking, researching, blogging, and learning about digital society, and this is just something to which I hadn't given much thought.  I suppose I knew there was such a thing as a cyberbully, but I really didn't know how it could be all that different from a mean kid on the playground.  Turns out, the differences are profound. 

What I don't know, however, is just how big the problem is.  It seems to me that a thoughtful news consumer should ask meaningful questions and approach news stories with a healthy dose of skepticism rather than mindlessly accepting every detail without critical thought.  I wonder if cyberbullying is as ubiquitous as primetime news anchors would like us to think, or if the subject has been sensationalized lately with a few high-profile cases.  This is not to say a problem doesn't exist; it's to say we should place the problem in the proper context when assigning priority and proposing methods of resolution. 

In my view, digital citizenship has quite a lot in common with the regular old process of being a good person, whether on-line or off.  Teaching children right from wrong, holding them accountable for their behaviour, and protecting them from harm have always been parental responsibilities; the advent of digital communities simply provides yet another set or relationships for parents to monitor. 

In short, I don't think I really have a firm enough grasp on the problem to speak with authority one way or another, but I tend to think the problem is a bit overblown, and that parents, rather than educators and public service websites, are positioned to make the largest impact. 

Look familiar?

Today as I researched the topic of the week, I found this Extra Normal video about digital manners so I thought it was appropriate.

I also read a term that I had not heard before...that of "digital disease". Digital disease is a sickness, yes a sickness that includes "sexting", cyberbullying, privacy issues and the like....certainly not a part of good digital citizenship. The problem is that "digital disease" is growing; it's spreading and involves more users than ever before. What can stem this spread? There is no "doctor" or "medical professional", no pill or syrup.....there needs to be more laws, stricter rules and most of all users who feel compelled to follow good ditigal etiquette. That is the bottom line....users who follow the rules, don't steal information, respect privacy and finally are good digital citizens...Wouldn't it be nice? Here's to hoping!

Enjoy the video.

Nancy's Fifth A-Ha

Check out the following link from the Discovery Channel. Through this site, I discovered that I'm not really leaving a digital footprint in my daily life.  Take this quiz about your daily actions and see what your score is and how you can lower your footprint. Where did you leave your data today?

Ok, let's talk about your privacy on the internet...your name for example.  For true safety and privacy on the WWW, it is up to us...yes up to ourselves to protect ourselves. We must be wary of everything, everyone, every site. We can never be sure what is safe and what isn't...the little padlock at the bottom of the screen still makes me worry. To be sure, learn from your friends and colleagues. When you hear of a scam or privacy issue, be wary.  Have you received any e-mails lately that are totally from left field?  From businesses that you have not used, for products you definitely don't want? When you do take the big step and do business on line, don't volunteer information and for heaven's sake, don't give them additional contact information.  Our tech guru at school told us to clear the "cookies" after ordering anything on line to prevent any tracking. Little did I know that  the site used cookies to gain access to users’ Web browsing activity. Every time I visit a site that has advertising partners, it's possible for the site to share that data with those partners. In other words, the site can give third-parties my information....my good credit information. 

Did you know the top three "passwords" are 12345 and 123456 and 1234567890? How creative!

Did you know that the following names and passwords are used by over 20% of the population -
Your name
Your pet's name
The city you live in
"God"
"Letmein"
Money
Love

Now really..if you are worried about privacy you would use your name?  Are you blushing out there yet?
Did you know that 1 in 5 people use the word "password" for their banking?...Again...so creative!

Did you know that it takes only 2 hours to "crack" an 8 letter password?  By adding a symbol and one upper case letter can extend the time to crack a code to years.

So back to digital citizenship....we have to beware of ourselves...if we use such obvious passwords, let's just open up our bank accounts to make the theft easier!

Community Internet

The videos I watched this week focused on the idea of the Internet being maintained by the community. I find this idea fascinating because it seems to be at odds with our world. We live in a world filled with cynicism and mistrust, and yet one of the most impactful inventions in our lifetime is maintained by everyone.

Kevin Kelly talked about the future evolution of the Internet in his video about the next 5000 days of the web. He discussed the eventual need to become totally transparent. I am not sure we will ever get to a point where people will be able to be totally transparent on the Internet. Although the majority of people are good, it is those few bad ones that make the world unsafe. Opening yourself up to being transparent is basically asking to have your identity stolen. In theory it is great. I love the idea that we can live in a cyber utopia where everyone loves each other and shows mutual respect. I believe, however, that this is not the future of our Internet.

Shayna's A-ha

My husband and I went to see the Zack Brown Band this past weekend. Before the concert we has seen that mobile phone commercial where everyone is using their phones during odd moments. This results in someone saying..."Really?" The concert started at 7:00pm, so the Chiefs/Raiders game was still on while people were arriving. My husband and I got there early and were sitting, enjoying some pre-concert people watching. We were so amused by the amount of people on their phones; not talking, but looking up the score on the Internet. The concert began promptly at 7:00pm, but people did not put away their phones. I spent the first half-hour of the concert saying "really?"

Yochai

After watching Yochai's video discussing how social connections will reshape markets I have decided to do a little reseach of my own. The video was really hard to follow. It might have been because I have not been exposed to his theories  before. I searched (online of course) for more information about the person that I just saw on the video. He has a very impressive resume and has theories that challenge technology and society to look deeper than the face value of information sharing. One example that he came across was that these scientists wanted to map pictures that they have seen. They did not have the resources to complete this. So they posted them online and then people volunteered and most importantly contributed information that when reviewed was indistinuishable from the Phd scientists themselves. What does this tell us? I think that it has an important message. Society as a whole can educate one another to a level far above what we have realized. In general, Yochai is right, volunteered information is the next big thing and will shape our future of our culture.

Robyn's Aha Moment Again..

This week's videos provided some insight to the complexity of the internet from the beginning or the "First 5000 Days" to the Yochai video which was really hard to follow but had a respectable underlying message. If we think about it, we use technology every single day. I don't know about anyone else but I am dependent on it. My calendar is on it, my contacts and even lately my social life. What will the next 5000 days be like? What innovations will the internet bring to the world. What cultural shifts will take place? It is a great thing to take a step back and realized how far the technological advances have brought us and the simple fact that the possiblities are endless. What you think could be impossible might be the next greatest thing that the internet will make possible.

I can sleep easier

Well, I can certainly sleep easier tonight. I just heard that the Queen of England is on Facebook. What took her so long, you ask? I certainly don't know. She's already been twittering away...and can you believe it she has over 60,000 people following her on Facebook. What is this world coming to? Now don't rush to "befriend" Elizabeth because that isn't going to happen....her site is for pictures, videos, etc. and of course her schedule should you want to know where she is. So rest easy, classmates, The Queen is well on her way to leading the technology world...

Viva the Revolution!

I enjoyed watching all the TED talks this week; I've always enjoyed them, but considered them a guilty pleasure, as I usually watch them when I should be doing something else.  A central theme I noticed running through each talk was the concept that we're in the midst of a digital revolution.  As defined by dictionary.com, a revolution is:

–noun

--an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

 

--a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, esp. one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence. Compare social evolution.

 

 

I think it's safe to say we're embroiled in radical and pervasive change; as Clay Shirky points out, only 4 media revolutions precede the internet: the printing press, the telephone, recorded media, and radio/TV.  The interned has made possible the widespread use of the many:many communication model.  In other words, we can all communicate with as many people as we desire at any time about anything.  If one is adept at cutting through the immense clutter, there's a lot of important information making the rounds these days.

 

The most exciting part of our little revolution, I think, is that we really have no idea how this will all end up.  The predictions we made 20 years ago have been wildly surpassed as technology and human ingenuity have taken tangential turns.  I shudder to think that the innovations we'll take for granted in the next 20 years haven't even been conceptualized yet. 

Week 4 Aha!

I enjoyed our research assignments this week; one of the most striking realizations I made was the profound youth of the million- and billionaires presented for discussion.  A common theme for most digital moguls of the 90s and 00s is their seeming habit of attending a prestigious graduate school for a year or two, giving birth to a brilliantly simple plan, starting the project on a small scale and shoestring budget, nursing it through a few growing pains, watching the whole thing become wildly successful, then looking for another interesting project in which to invest their time, money, and talent.  This is a remarkable path to success on its own merits, but it gives me pause to think how little time had elapsed between their learning to drive a car and their steering a socially and economically transformative company through the global marketplace.  It reminds me of the day I realized my medical doctor was closer to my kids' age than to mine. 

As an admitted late adopter when it comes to technology, I'm simply amazed to hear someone say something like, "Well, I was sitting around my dorm room thinking interesting thoughts, I wrote a few lines of code, then I had to borrow money from my parents to keep the servers from being overwhelmed."  How impressive!  Especially when I can barely change the ring tone on my phone. 

Can you "Twitterstand"?

Have fun watching.

Nancy's A-Ha - Week 4

The eye-opener for me this week was to learn about the social network gurus who have made significant inroads in expanding the virtual community. What impressed me the most I would say is that they are all not out for the almighty dollar. Prior to week 4, I would have been a proponent for saying that "all virtual moguls" are only interested in making huge sums of money. But after researching my two video stars, Ethan Zuckerman and Mena Trott, I can say that a virtual mogul can be very successful, yet at the same time voice their opinions about the less wealthy, show personal interests in those who have socio-economic challenges, and venture into environments where they can give back. I was impressed. They both appeared so down to earth and unpretentious.....how refreshing.
Now if all of the virtual moguls would be so giving........

Social Networking Watch

In researching the social network topic this week, I cam across a website (CLICK HERE) that focuses only on social network statistics. While the huge number of followers of the biggest networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc) are listed, some unknown little facts caught my attention. Did you know that 19% of teens who were faithful Facebook users have either dropped it altogether or visit the site much less? Why you ask?....16% of those who left did so because their parents joined...What might they have been hiding? Who knows.
I also learned that 90% of the online 18 to 34-year-olds visit a social networking site daily. It's not just a youth thing either, as 41% of online adults aged 50-plus make monthly visits to social networks. The aging population of the US and abroad is making significatnt inroads to participating in online activities. In my community, seniors can sign up at the community center to learn about Facebook. I never thought there would be a senior citizen class on "Facebook How-To" but the times they are a-changing for sure.
A scary fact (and a hard to believe fact) is that that social networks in the United Kingdom now receive more hits than search engines. So in England they are more interested in keeping up with their friends than in searching through Google? Interesting it is for sure. Check out the web site....there are facts you would never have thought about...

And One More Thing...

One more thing...I saw this article today and since it is from a local magazine I thought it worthy of reading and passing along. Click Here
Even though it's from 2009, it had info I didn't know. The article is kind of like a blog...but has some good info. For example, at the end of the article/blog is a glossary..I learned that "Poke" in Facebook terms is a wordless virtual “thinking of you", I would never had know that one for sure. Or that a Tag is a label for friends or family in photos that you have posted on your FB account. These tags are then linked to those individuals’ FB profiles.
I'm sure this is known to most, but for us "newbies" enough is never enough.

One More Thing

Today in a staff meeting our Principal talked about a new site. (Click here). This is a great site for initiating a conversation with your students and lo and behold, there is a section on social networking... Since Election Day is tomorrow, I found the following interesting...
"On Nov. 3, 2008, the day before the US presidential election,Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had 2,379,102 Facebook supporters while Republican candidate John McCain had 620,359. Obama had 833,161 MySpace friends and McCain had 217,811. Obama had 384% more Facebook supporters and 383% more MySpace friends than McCain.

Did social networks help sway the election? Most assuredly yes...but did they "win the election"? I don't know if I would go that far but they definitely impacted it.
Check out the Pros and Cons section...Did you know that through social networking sites a 2009 study found that 17.3% of middle school students have been victims of cyberbullying?
A fact from this site that really blew me away is that 35% of adults and 65% of teens in America who use the Internet have profiles on social networking sites. The teen number I am not surprised about the the adult number I am...I thought it would be lower
The site is not biased and presents both sides of social networking issues. While we all agree that these online communities promote increased communication with friends and family, familiarize people with valuable computer skills, and allow contact with people from around the world, they expose children to predators, increase vulnerability to computer viruses, lower worker productivity, and promote narcissism and short attention spans....so I'm still learning about the major impact that social networks have and I'm leaning toward perhaps using them...maybe not this week...but by the end of the course? Very likely. Check out this site....it says it all.

Tracking Social Media . . .

I really thought the social network log was going to be a drag this week, but I was interersted to find how little time I actually spend online.  It was kind of like a budget, where you're surprised at how much money you spend on things you don't need, only in reverse.  By far, most of my social networking this week was an effort to stay current with all of our class blogs: reading posts, watching videos, posting comments, and updating Team 3's blog took way more time that I spent on all other social networking sites combined.  Perhaps  that means I'm just not a social person?  Could be.  I also noticed that most of my social networking time involved reading others' posts, status updates, and other offerings rather than really "interacting" in a meaninful way.  I think this is known as lurking.  I'm OK with that; I'm not compelled to come up with some witty thing to say each time I log into a social networking site . . . most often I just want to see what everyone is up to.  When I say "social networking site," what I really mean is Facebook, because that's the only digital social networking I do other than the assigned blogs for our class, and frankly, that's quite enough.  So the project, I think, was a success: I feel pretty good about the actual time I spend online engaged (or disengaged, as the case may be) in networking.  I don't feel like the time spent is inordinate or wasted; a few minutes on Facebook here and a few minutes updating a blog there is probably equivalent to the time some folks spend on a smoke-break.  Ooh . . . the digital smoke break.  I think I just thought of a great new iPad app . . .