I control my data therefor I am

Uncertainty. Uncertainty about the existing symbolic order, norms and values and which way out to choose. In ‘Life as a construction box’, Swierstra^[1] et al. begin their publication with the conception of ‘way out’ which, in my ayes is a bit heavy (my connotation of ‘way out’ has to do with escape). But then, the publication is a bout the most relevant, current and rather important issues of our days. Issues like privacy, man and machine, ambient and pervasive technology, health and being unhealthy and, as would like to put it, the makebility of reality, an as fundamental as rather intangible confusion trying to surface through solid ethical questions and controversies. Dutch philosopher Peter Paul Verbeek^{[see Swiestra]} questions whether people have the possibility to withdraw themselves from ambient and pervasive technology. And what about our log-time disputed basic right of privacy?

Tagged with: moorian, boyd, verbeek, swiestra, privacy, facebook,

Frictionless Sharing: a critical view on automated sharing of media texts in social media

On Februari 16 of this year, Volkskrant published an article called The future of social media is automated sharing; handy but sometimes a bit embarrassing in which the author Heleen van Lier notes that the future of sharing media texts lies in automated sharing. Central theme in her article stands Frictionless Sharing; a phrase introduced by social medium Facebook a couple of months ago. Representatives of Facebook, Reuters, Nokia and Microsoft debated Frictionless Sharing (FS) during the Social Media Week in London. The debate panel came to the conclusion that FS is here to stay. Use of the technology is simple; after agreeing once, the user starts sharing his data with other in linked media.

Tagged with: social constructivism, technological determinism, utopia, frictionless sharing, facebook,

Refreshing

When I was younger, I used too feel I had to go out. I had to meet my friends in bars, parks and squares to have a drink and socialize. I felt this way because I had the feeling that when I was not there, I was missing out. This feeling of not wanting to miss out was so powerful that for some time I argued with my parents in the middle of the night, because they were not agreeing with me going out yet again. This is called puberty.

Tagged with: curiosity, social network sites, facebook,

I'm less than 5 steps away from Kevin Bacon, now what?

This week, researchers at Facebook and the University of Milan published a study which concludes that the degrees of separation between any two people in the world is no longer the famous six degrees of separation. We are actually more connected than ever. The number has been reduced to 4.7. The study, which measured how many friends people have on Facebook, found that the notion of six degrees of separation had been shrinking over the past three years at the same time as the dominant social network bumped up its userbase. The study itself is unique in itself, the researchers used the actual Facebook data, 721 million active users and a staggering 69 billion friendships among them. This is the largest social network study ever released. 

Tagged with: study, social network sites, facebook,

The filter bubble

The amount of information available to us has exploded in the last couple of decades. With the enormous amount available comes the need to filter this information. Filtering the information we want to have has become big business. Just look at Google or Facebook. These information giants control a lot of what we see online. Of course we have some influence on what we see. But it’s just the illusion of that total control that’s the problem.
We’ve been talking about media literacy for a couple of years now, and what strikes me is that a lot of people that consider themselves media literate, don’t even know that Google arranges their ads and results based on your previous searches and visited websites. The same thing counts for Facebook. Facebook looks at what friends you interact most with, and puts them on the top of the list. Pretty nifty, and handy. But there’s a problem. If the company’s that control the filters filter everything they presume you like. How are you supposed to get balanced information. In other words, it seems that everyone online surrounding me is talking about the same thing. This is what’s come to be known as the “filter bubble”. Your online life is in a bubble created by filters. This phenomenon is not new. In a way it’s a form of censorship, I believe. Just imagine that a government decided what we find if we search. I bet the American Tea Party would be quite upset if it was the federal government filtering their search results. I imagine some comparisons to socialist regimes, and a couple of Nazi comparisons as a result. I wonder what Glenn Beck would have to say about that. Wonder if he filters information…
I assume that these filters are in place to make our lives easier, to find the information, we probably want to find, faster. And I for one do not object to that. As long as I know that I’m in my bubble. And as long as I can get out of the bubble, there’s no problem, is there?
Ah well, probably only the people interested in the CrossmediaLab will find this blog in their bubble.

Tagged with: filter bubble, google, facebook,

Like! part deux

As I promised, I’d think about liking. And so it came to pass that I did. For weeks I pondered about liking. I have come to realize that the “like” has a lot of aspects to it. I’ve been thinking about liking. How liking things helps us make sense of the world surrounding us. In a way, what we like defines us. If you are surrounded by things that you like, does it make you happy? I can imagine it will, so we tend to collect likable things and people around us. So we can create a personal utopia, built out of the things we like. We teach our kids to like certain things, so that we can share the pleasure of our liking. We meet new people and friends in places we like. Or we go to places people we like, like. Liking is emotion. 

Tagged with: emotions, social media, like, facebook,

Like!

I like a lot of things. I like snowboarding, I like to have a drink with friends, I like to have a good conversation, I like lobster, I like good wine, and so on and so on. People that know me well, know what I like. The basis of friendship is liking each other and doing things together you both like or love doing. Friendship starts when you’re doing something you like doing and meet someone with the same “likes”, we call the “interests” mostly. The same counts for doing things you loathe doing as well. This of course fits in the day and night equation(if there’s nothing to loathe, there’s nothing to like). This is the basis for fraternity or sorority initiation, make a bunch of people do stuff they loathe and the start liking eachother. This is also known as teambuilding. My point? Liking or loathing is a very big part of our social life, maybe even the very base of having one.

Tagged with: like, social network sites, facebook, social media,

Intelligence & Integrity

I’ve never really been into conspiracy theories, apart for entertainment reasons, but recently and for me more or less out of the blue the other day, Rogier Brussee mumbled something about Google being the CIA (or FBI for all that matters). Expressions like that make me cynical but also make me question why I am cynical about those ideas. Could it be true? Do you think it is like that? And if Google would be the digitized version of the all mighty watchdog of the US, than who would be the (moral) owners of Facebook, delicious, Foursquare, you name any social media originating from the US? If it really is the security forces of our modern western society, than let us ask what the role of social media in our society actually is.

Tagged with: alexander bard, android, cia, fbi, flickr, julian assange, the next web, facebook, iphone, wikileaks,

A trip down memory lane

Last week the faculty of communication and journalism organized a staff trip to see the movie ‘the social network’ in Pathé Rembrandt Utrecht. The movie focuses on the creation of Facebook, a popular social network site (for those who lived in a cave the last seven years).
At first I was reluctant to go to the movie at all assuming it was a mere movie about sex, drugs and rock and roll with a Silicone Valley touch. I was wrong… It was techno-music. The faculty asked me to participate in a panel discussion about social media and social networks afterwards so I had to go. Forming a panel could and should be a movie on itself but eventually a panel was formed. With little expectation I entered the movie theater.

Tagged with: stick-it, social network sites, facebook, business models,

Creative or not? That’s the question.

At every marketing event for at least the past 5 years you hear marketers telling you to use social networks in you marketing campaigns. This because you have to join the conversation, hear what everyone has to say about you, create your free fan base and most important: let your fans promote your brand for you! But they never tell you how to do that..

Tagged with: pink ribbon, ikea, facebook, social media, Marketing,