I'd work in Social Media if I could find a company that isn't insisting everyone go out to get hammered with new candidates before offering them the job, or perform head tilts with "are you a weirdo?" looks when someone 'inexplicably' turns down an offer to go sit in a loud dark bar for a few hours after work.
@ Dream Chaser: Don't have an answer to that one. Never really thought about it. But then since I'm a female, don't think I'd really care for "that's what she said" jokes
Must say I see benefit in social networking for many folk who otherwise are shy, homebound, or living in remote areas. Let's not forget the advantages.
I can, however, point to things like occupy and the arab spring as something positive the social web had a hand in, while it sems to me the assertion that Facebook and the like are making us more isolation is weakly correlated at best
@smkinoshita: Actually, I agree that you can tell mood by email and text tone; if you spend most of your time during the day communicating that way, you get good at it.
@SecTech: Actually it does make the computer an idiot. The computer is incapable of making its own decisions. It's has no common sense. He used it so we understood we couldn't assume the computer would be intelligent enough to be able to cobble together what we wanted while writing code, and that stupid things anyone would naturally assume would be automatically done the computer wouldn't do. If the computer was a person, it'd have severe mental defficiencies. It would just be very quick at doing things.
@SecTech, Mary: I have to disagree. My wife and I can tell when something is bothering each other simply by the change in which we type. When upset, we stop caring as much about punctuation and become laconic.
I'm not sure, to be honest tec. As Andrew said, and I agree with him, that this may be something that is hard to quantify. However, positive claims are being made in reference to the social Web. If you are making a claim that you would like me to accept, then I'm going to need something more than assertion.
@ChrisTop : "..that social web is the detriment.." I agree. The computer and web are tools. What people do with them may be good or bad. It is just a tool for people to use.
I am going to open a Bologna sandwich shop on the social web. Now, no one will actually get a sandwich but you can stream a video of someone who looks somewhat like you enjoying the sandwich, you just purchased, to any device that can play video.
Hows that for a killer app? Solves a problem as well as makes people feel less hungry.
@SecTech: Yeah, it was taught to me frequently that the computer's just a very fast idiot. Until the day comes where software stop asking me stupid questions and malware stops working because the computer knows its trying to issue malign instructions, computers are just very quick idiots who do exactly what we tell them.
@Mary: Have to agree with you there. the funny thing is that you can't tell from looking at a person or even know a person in real life what they are like on the net.
@ChrisTOP: What kind of proof or compelling argument would you need? What kind of stats would it take to illustrate the concerns with social web? (even though it NOT the web at fault but the people using it)
Agree with you, SecTech. But it's sad to see people make fools of themselves on the Web when they don't have to. Perfectly nice people otherwise. And that's just one reason I'm not a fan of FB.
I agree, Sec, the problem I have with the other side is I haven't exactly heard much in the way of compelling argument to convince me that social web is the detriment they say it is. At this point, the arguments seem more like assertions to me
@ ChrisTOP: Having never been a 'fan' of the social web and having only a limited rarely used presence, I can see both sides. The problem isn't Social Web, itself. That's just a tool. The problem is the people who tend to loose touch with reality when on the internet
@Nicole: It's not so much a maginification now, but you know the old saying that a computer is just a very fast idiot? Well, just as a computer allows us to do stupid things in a fraction of the time, social allows us to quickly share the stupid things we've done so quickly with the rest of the world.
it seems that way, tech. I wouldn't say people like Andrew's concerns are completely unfounded, but it does seem to me that we may be pushing the panic button just a bit early on the social web. I should say, though, that I have not read his book, and so this is just me reacting to what was said today.
mmm, no idea how vegan, gluten free french toast is so scrumptious, but it is*!* I may nap soon...verrry sleepZ, tehe. (Obviously some of us are irrelevant in this kind of environment.)
Oh man, SecTech, I applaud you being on the chat. ChrisTOP: those are fair points. Perhaps it's just that the social Web puts everything on display that human flaws seem magnified now.
Perhaps, Nicole. But i fear that we migh be scapegoating the social web a bit. We can debate the merits of movements thats sprung up, in part, as a result of the social web, but the fact that we can now bring people together on such a scale in the first place is, in my view, a very positive thing
@Nicole: Hand is sore. Numbness/tingling in two finger and thumb, nerve damage, fluid retention, swelling, but better than it was when my entire hand went numb. bad thing is it's my right hand, which is dominant. but since I'm ambidextrous, it's not that big of deal except for tasks requiring two hands
I have to agree with smkinoshita. It's not the Social web causing the problems as it is the user's inability to let go or their need to find validation in what ends up being less than healthy ways.
I find that the social web isnt' causing problems as much as revealing things that have always been there. All the problems aren't so much an issue of the social web as much as they're human issues. It's how we behave in the dark, except now we're voluntearily exposing it to the light and are shocked at what we see.
Just to address something brought up during the talk. I'm not sure I would agree that we could characterise the failure of the occupy movement as a failing of the social web. The social web did its Job: it brought the people together. After that, it is up to the people to have a coherent, organized message, which I think was the failing of the occupy movement
@The Dream Chaser, I was amused by your updates and then realized I am participating in the social web right now on IE discussing the social web. Then my brain melted. :)
@smkinoshita: Sometimes people get in a mindset that no matter what you say you can't get them out of. Even if you provide proof. They see, hear, understand only what they want to.
@SecTech: To make this clear, I said "Hi, this is So-and-So, who is completely fictional". Then I more or less had a conversation with the character and 'we' both interacted with the rest of the room. One guy refused to believe I existed and that the character was a hot chick, even after I explicitly spelled out what was going on.
@smkinoshita: That gets back to a fundamental problem with the 'social' web... how can you be sure that the person you are friending/chatting with is the person they present themselves as?
By the way, all, I know this is a fun and provocative subject so feel free to hang around and keep the chat going. I'm just going to mosey back to my desk -- back momentarily.
@SecTech: Back in the days when I'd use chat rooms, I discovered that I could actually introduce a character as an imaginary friend and not only would people chat with it but some thought I was the fictional one.
@Andrew: It's okay with me if I don't exist. But if that's the case... I would have to wonder at the mental health of everyone talking/chatting/comminicating with someone who doesn't exist.
Andrew, this is a bit off the topic of social networking, but what do you think of folk who view technology as something humans should incorporate into their physical bodies and that would extend life and lead to new ways of "living."
Andrew I thought the Tweet you wrote out in Digital Vertigo "I Tweet Therefore I Am" (in its first version) was really interesting because it seems to me that people feel if they don't document their lives on the social Web, it's like they don't exist, or it's like their life events didn't happen.
yes, Nicole. Conversation is one of the casualties of social media. I hear more and more stories of people texting each other, even when they are in the same room. Not good.
Andrew, I quite agree with you there. But we must be able to justify our claims in some way. How exactly do you think we should go about doing that in this case?
Question: Do you think you've given enough consideration to the idea that our social media selves are often – to a large extent – personas or performances? Is it possible that social narcissism means adopting a series of masks, so that we're not in fact fully on display at all?
I think my question would be: I agree with Andrew that something like this would be hard to quantify and thus may not be borne out through research. That being said, how do we determine that the social web is indeed this detremental force?
Hi Andrew. What's your response to people who say that every development in communications – from books to telephones to television – has produced a chorus of Jeremiah's predicting doom and isolation, and the death of intelligence? Is it worse/different his time around?
SecTech: Apart from the privacy and security issues, I think it's stealing too much of our time and energy. People are thinking about who to be, who to portray themselves as online, rather than just living.
@Mary: I thought that was my point. Social is a publishing house given to the general public. I don't think it so much is changing human nature but revealing what's always been there.
@smkinoshita? We act according to the situation. A coffee shop conversation can't be replicated on Twitter. Even on blogs with well threaded comments, state of the art only very barely replicates the convesational flow.
@MaryJanger: I don't think it's a problem of social or the web though. It's just a matter of what happens if you give a publishing house to each member of the entire public.
"Better politicians" ... that sort of social structure works with paradigm shifts, and that means generation. But tech innovation moves at the speed of light.
Some say "sensationalism" ... I talk about salt peanuts and sugar coated popcorn. That's "low-hanging fruit" in #AttentionEconomy. 80 / 20 ... ROI ... click-throughs.
If we look at what happens "in real life" we see that snags and tangles and conflict actually act to focus attetion and energy. On the web? glib one-liners and standard boiler-plate rants.
Not leading to long-term, coherent political movements. Couldn't agree more. The absence of a coherent, alternative political tradition in the Arab Spring (apart from Islamism, of course) is striking.
For me, the argument against the social web being the key driver in revolutions is that...we've always had revolutions. Radio used to work pretty well; before that, pamphlets and broadsheets.
Great point. All these companies try to hide behind that their work is for the greater good. Yes, some of our technology improves lives. But we do have to be critical about the technology.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Subsidized handsets, rather than locked handsets, should be the focus of regulators. We're not getting good deals, not fostering innovation, and weakening our power as buyers.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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