Prince thinks the internet is “completely over” - and though we know what a tech visionary he is, let’s keep blogging as if that weren’t true…
Subscribing to (then promptly unsubscribing from) a mailing list. Ordering the latest trashy beach read from Amazon. Poking your crush on Facebook. Sending that generous Nigerian your bank info so he can get around harsh government regulations and let you earn millions (hello, easy money). Chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you’re already pretty entrenched in the internet. Well, here’s some news for you: YOU’RE NEVER GETTING OUT.
While there are services that can help you hunt down every cookie and megabyte of data that is tied to your identity, they are in no way comprehensive, removing only 80 to 90 percent of personal information from the World Wide Web. You can try to do it yourself…and I don’t know about you, but I barely remember what I ate for lunch last week, much less every single website I’ve visited since my family finally installed AOL 2.0 (dial-up!) some 13 years ago.
But let’s say I’m one of those people who only check out “the Yahoo” mail (hi Mom!) once in a while. Even if I could list out every URL I’ve ever typed or clicked, the company or organization at the other end may be hesitant to help me delete whatever information I’ve left behind on their servers. In their eyes, this data is their asset, helping them create more tailored advertising and marketing strategies.
This doesn’t really bother me, as I never really planned on quitting the internet and I’m pretty used to Big Brother, but I can see how it would concern those with privacy concerns. What about you guys? Do you see yourself paying someone to scrub the interwebz clean of your identity?
Con: That Zuckerberg will probably know more about you than your future spouse.
Pro: Falling victim to the Praetorians may not be so easy now.
[Full disclosure: i took the title right off their blog post because, let’s be honest, I wasn’t going to come up with a punnier one.]
The Library of Congress, already the largest library in the world, is about to add to its ginormous collection with its acquisition of the entire Twitter Archive. Every single tweet since the start of Twitter back in March 2006 will be digitally archived.
50 million tweets a day x 365 days in a year x (4 years + 1 month) = a whole lotta tweets!
This may be a brilliant move on their part, as it’s becoming increasingly evident that important parts of our history may no longer be found only on front pages of newspapers or via radio broadcasts (say what?), and tweets can reach a mass (global) audience with only 140 characters. We’d be remiss in not capturing these for posterity, too. It’s a new world, as I say when I complain about kids these days and their newfangled trends.
Just a few examples of important tweets in the past few years include the first-ever tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, President Obama’s tweet about winning the 2008 election and, more importantly, this gem of a tweet from yours truly about achieving that perfect hair pouf courtesy of BumpIts.
More details and the ramifications of this decision (both positive and negative, as I’m sure there will be naysayers who oppose this) should come out shortly.
(My main concern: What will the omnipresent “Justin Bieber” trending topic reflect about our society to future generations? One shudders at the thought.)
Log into Facebook and you’re bound to be inundated with (mostly unwanted) updates about how Jenny bought 3 trillion more acres of tillable land or how Tommy is now a made man and wants to recruit you. And you wonder to yourself how these people get any work done, given the amount of time and energy they spend on this social networking site. You might assume these students’ grades must suffer, much like the unfortunate stories of teenagers whose lives have been put on hold because of role-playing games like World of Warcraft.
Well, you know what they say about people who assume (Oh you don’t? Don’t worry, neither did this person)… A new study from the University of New Hampshire has revealed that heavy users (defined as those logged on for more than 61 minutes a day) do not do fare worse academically than the light users (those logged on for less than 31 minutes a day) do.
Surprising, no? Especially when you also subscribe to Lamebook’s RSS feed and see gems like this. (These kids are our future, people!)
If you see a chair like this on the sidewalk, grab it! Inspired by the culture of “curb-mining” (finding cool things on the sidewalk and bringing it home with you), Soho furniture store Blu Dot began an experiment to track the journey of these sidewalk treasures. Beginning today, 25 of these chairs will be placed all over NYC, up for grabs for whomever spots it first. Many of these chairs will be GPS-equipped so we can all keep track of where they are and where they ultimately end up. The chairs’ journeys will be updated on the website and on Twitter.
Maybe following the travel patterns of a piece of furniture doesn’t sound appealing to you, but this whole experiment will culminate in a documentary featuring the chairs’ final owners, set to be released during Blu Dot’s one-year anniversary of its Soho store opening.
Personally, I think this is a classier way to get on camera than The Real World or The Bachelor. But then again, I also have a weird fascination with furniture…
You know how some people you follow on Twitter seem to forget that their posts are public? And sometime it’s just a little TMI? No one really needs to know about the details of your love life, however steamy or dull, so save the drama for yo’ mama… or for Relatious.
This new micro-blogging site is dedicated solely to relationships and love connections. Users have 400 characters to write about their triumphs and mishaps or ask for advice from fellow users. Like Facebook and many other community-based websites, each post can be “liked” and commented on by others.
The concept and application of Relatious is reminiscent of Yahoo! Answers + texts from last night, with a sprinkle of Craigslist’s Missed Connections. It gives readers a voyeuristic look at the scandalous lives of others, providing a fix of relationship gossip for us to live vicariously through (or to make us feel slightly better about our own love lives). However, like TFLN, it reeks a little of facetiousness; some posts are surely made up or highly exaggerated. I do feel bad for those who attempt to use this website for relationship advice, as it doesn’t really seem other users are taking their questions seriously and often give sarcastic, rude responses.
On the other hand, at least these people won’t be clogging up my Twitter stream.
Apparently there are still people who haven’t joined Facebook or Twitter or MySpace, and they’re not all necessarily century-old technophobes like my parents. The Washington Post published an article about social networking refuseniks, people in their 20s and early 30s who just refuse (refusenik = refuse + beatnik, get it?!) to join any of these digital communication websites. They truly are in the minority as a study showed about 85 percent of all Internet users between the ages of 18 and 34 visited Facebook, MySpace or Twitter in August.
Of course, these refuseniks cite reasons like “Oh, I like my privacy” or “I can focus on things I really care about,” but let’s face it, these kids miss out on a lot. To name a few, you can’t see embarrassing pictures from the pub crawl last weekend, you don’t get to know exactly which one of your friends is in the bathroom/work/bar at any given time and, most importantly, you don’t get invites to all the cool, ragin’ parties (and then you miss out on seeing the pictures of the parties you weren’t invited to…it’s a vicious cycle, really).
But maybe these kids do have the right idea. Perhaps, in the semi-words of one Janis Ian, [Facebook] is a life-ruiner; it ruins people’s lives. Sometimes Facebook gets too complicated, drama gets started over something trivial and people can break up. But where would we be without status updates and wall posts? It’s really just a toss-up.
It’s like, well…um…it kinda sorts your…um, it’s just REALLY COOL and I need it NOW.
That’s pretty much the conversation I’ve been having regarding Google Wave. I don’t really know what exactly it does, but it’s from Google, so it must be great, right? Well, a new website has been launched, pitting Google Wave against other difficult-to-understand topics.
As fun as this may be (voting is fun!), the interesting tidbit is that it seems this website was created by a Facebook employee, clearly with a negative view of Google Wave. Is it jealousy? Is this beginning of another internet turf war? Will we be seeing some sort of integration of this new service into Facebook (à la the Twitter-standard @replies in the statuses)? Oh Mark Z, quel scandalous.
Need to find out if your date is a crazy or a creep? Now there’s an app for that. I’m not sure if blind dates still happen, but if you find yourself in such a situation, don’t be caught unawares! Assuming you have one piece of data, such as a name, e-mail, or phone number, Date Check from Intelius can give you a whole range of information on your suitor.
Features start at the very basic end (showing horoscopes and calculating astrological compatibility), going to the mid-range crazy (checking for the names and ages of everyone living at the subject’s residence), to full-blown psycho (with the Sleaze Detector and Net Worth features). Sleaze Detector warns you of any criminal convictions, felonies or misdemeanors (um, hello, bad boys!) and Net Worth (my personal favorite) tells you all about his/her property, because obviously the square footage and assessed property value are excellent indicators of romantic suitability. Why stop there, Net Worth? What about investment portfolios, savings accounts, and maybe inheritances, too?
The app itself is free, but pulling the information is not. But who can put a price on a possible love match? I’m eager to see how well this app fares, given that the Offender Locator app was such a hit. Caveat emptor: sometimes it’s better not to Google before your date.
![Apparently there are still people who haven’t joined Facebook or Twitter or MySpace, and they’re not all necessarily century-old technophobes like my parents. The Washington Post published an article about social networking refuseniks, people in their 20s and early 30s who just refuse (refusenik = refuse + beatnik, get it?!) to join any of these digital communication websites. They truly are in the minority as a study showed about 85 percent of all Internet users between the ages of 18 and 34 visited Facebook, MySpace or Twitter in August.
Of course, these refuseniks cite reasons like “Oh, I like my privacy” or “I can focus on things I really care about,” but let’s face it, these kids miss out on a lot. To name a few, you can’t see embarrassing pictures from the pub crawl last weekend, you don’t get to know exactly which one of your friends is in the bathroom/work/bar at any given time and, most importantly, you don’t get invites to all the cool, ragin’ parties (and then you miss out on seeing the pictures of the parties you weren’t invited to…it’s a vicious cycle, really).
But maybe these kids do have the right idea. Perhaps, in the semi-words of one Janis Ian, [Facebook] is a life-ruiner; it ruins people’s lives. Sometimes Facebook gets too complicated, drama gets started over something trivial and people can break up. But where would we be without status updates and wall posts? It’s really just a toss-up.
-Kelly](http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_krk9gwj4gL1qznz4co1_500.jpg)
