Facebook Stupidity and a Heroic Kid

Two things to talk about in today's post, both from the same story.

A teenage Michigan boy was a hero recently, when he let a desperate woman into his house and then helped fend off her attacker.

The unidentified woman was apparently kidnapped, raped, and then the perpetrator was transporting her somewhere in her car when she jumped out and escaped. She saw the light on at the boy's house (his father had left to pick up his fiance and so the boy was taking care of his two younger siblings) and pounded on the door, calling for help. The man was chasing her.

With quick thinking, the boy let her in, made sure all the doors were locked, and didn't let the man's shouted threats intimidate him. He called his dad and the woman called 9-11. After an aborted attempt to set fire to the house, the man ran away, and was later killed by police.

It's an inspiring story, and I encourage you to go to the link above and read the details. The kid is a hero.

The story also prompted something else to pop into my mind, though, and it's the real reason for this post.

Stupid Facebook behaviour.

The Consequences of Being Stupid on the Internet

In the olden days, if you did something disrespectful or stupid, you would only really hear about it if somebody saw you. If somebody did see you, your reputation in the village may get a bit tarnished, but perhaps you could appear in front of the Village Council, make amends somehow, and go on your way? People might look at you funny for a while. But over time, if you behaved yourself, your offense may have been forgotten.

That is, unless you created a leaflet with a pencil drawing of you doing the stupid thing, hand-drawn about 5000 times, posted it to the notice board on the village green and dropped it off at every house in every village for miles around.

Even then, nobody in, say, Moscow would have any idea what you did if you happened to go there.

Now? Being stupid can place a permanent stain on your reputation, cost you your job, and maybe even prevent you from getting more jobs unless you do a massive, public mea culpa.

Yes, we have this thing called social media now. There seems to be a virus running rampant throughout social media, though, because it seems to infect millions of people and make them broadcast their stupidity for all the world to see.

Why be informed by something you don't trust?

(Thanks to Invicta Properties)

Last week, on one of the best Twitter blogs out there, AllTwitter, I saw an interesting post , which made me stop and think for a minute.

Apparently, Americans increasingly use social media of various types to stay informed, yet their trust level of social media is actually pretty low, according to a new study.

"The Allstate Corporation and National Journal surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults aged 18 and over, and found that while some 60 percent of Americans believe that the internet and social media has made it easier for them to stay informed as consumers, more than two-thirds (69 percent) believe that brands and political candidates are active on social media to advertise or because they want to collect information on their customers or supporters, rather than to engage."

So in other words, these people use social media, and feel more informed because they use social media.

Yet, they also mistrust what they're reading/seeing.

What am I missing here?

How can you be "better informed" if you don't believe what you're seeing?

When real-life death hits online

One of life's certainties, in addition to taxes, is death. Since the dawn of time, humans had to deal with not only the death of our loved ones, but the aftermath. Settling accounts. Changing our life to compensate for the loss.

Yes, we should always make arrangements so that our loved ones have as easy a time as possible in regards to settling our affairs.

In this day and age, with the rise of social media as well as other online fora where people can hang out and socialize, it becomes even more of an issue. I blogged about this before, but two recent articles on All Twitter made me think about it again.

The first article is called "When You Die in Real Life, Who Will Keep You Alive on Twitter?" and was written back in 2010. The reason I found it is because there is a new article up, dated May 22. Entitled "What Happens To Your Twitter When You Die? Creating A Social Media Will," this one talks about the nuts and bolts of things just a little bit more.

Like Something on Facebook? You Could Get Fired

Oh, how powerful Facebook has become. We all know that doing something stupid and then posting a picture of it on Facebook may affect your future job aspirations. Or even your current ones if you call in sick and then post photos of you living it up on the beach.

The Onion recently did a hilarious piece on how, due to Facebook and other social media, every conceivable Presidential candidate for the 2040 election is already unelectable due to what they've posted on social media sites.

But can you really get fired for just pushing that little "Like" button on a Facebook page, blog, or whatever?

Apparently you can.

A judge in Virginia has recently ruled that "Liking" something on Facebook is not protected free speech. (h/t: CNET)

That's right. If you "Like" something on Facebook that goes counter to your boss or company philosophy or whatever, this judge is saying you have no legal recourse if they fire you for it. You can say "I like stewed clams" and you're fine. But if you find a Facebook page extolling the virtues of stewed clams and click that little button, your clam-hating boss can fire you for it.

This came up when six workers in the sheriff's office in Virginia "Liked" Sheriff B.J. Roberts' opponent in his re-election bid in 2009.

Understandably miffed, he let them all go. The workers sued, and believe it or not, Roberts has won the case. Roberts says that they were fired for other reasons, but the basis of their suit was that their First Amendment rights had been violated. Judge Raymond A. Jackson said "Whoa, Nelly! Hold on a minute."

Twitter is Becoming Even More of a Force

(Thanks to The Dutiee Blog)

Many people follow Twitter to keep up on the lives of some of their favourite celebrities, or to network with others in their chosen field. I maintain a Twitter account for our office that is becoming well-known in the field of educational technology. It's a great way to stay informed on a whole variety of subjects.

It really came into its own during the Iranian Green Revolution of 2009, where the Iranian government blocked mobile phone feeds and other avenues of access to try and restrict what got out of the country. But they couldn't block Twitter without blocking the Internet totally, and Twitter became the place to get a lot of information out about the protests, the violence, the government crack-down, and all of that. I think a lot of people gained a new respect for Twitter after that.

There have been other examples of Twitter becoming prominent in the news cycle, of course. Just ask former Congressman Anthony Weiner.

However, it was only recently where an example came up that showed Twitter to be not only an outlet for the news, but also as a driving force behind some of it. In this case, if you don't follow Twitter, or the blogs that referenced it, you probably didn't hear about it.

I'm not going to get into a political debate in this post, but the example does involve politics. The Obama campaign has been making hay with a Mitt Romney family trip many years ago where the carrier containing the family dog was tied to the roof of the car. The campaign has noticed that whenever this story is brought up, Romney's negative ratings go up. It's pure gold, baby!

But Jim Treacher from the Daily Caller actually read The Audacity of Hope, one of Obama's memoirs, and noticed a line in there that struck him. It was about a time as a child when Obama was living with his stepfather in Indonesia.

"With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy)."

Yes, you read that right. Obama ate dog meat. And didn't seem to mind it.

Getting Into Bars - Show Me Some Facebook

(Thanks to Moncton Blogger)

Would you rather hear that rather than "show me some ID?" Or do you see that as a massive invasion of privacy?

Believe it or not, some clubs in the UK are having their bouncers check your Facebook account on your phone rather than (or sometimes in addition to!) your driver's license.

According to the BBC, "Some bouncers have been demanding people hand over their smartphones so they can check Facebook accounts...". This is ostensibly to verify their age. (h/t: Boingboing)

Never mind the fact that this means that you always have to have an Internet-capable phone with you whenever you go out (believe it or not, some people *still* cling to the idea of just having a phone that's only a phone, though maybe that doesn't apply to people young enough to be carded in the first place).

The most important thing is that this can conceivably be a massive invasion of privacy. I'm just looking at my Facebook account on my phone right now (yes, believe it or not, I actually do research for some of these posts!), and my "About" section has my place of employment, Education, and a bunch of other information in addition to my birthday on it. Do I really want some bouncer at some night club to be looking at all of that? I don't think so! It's none of their business where I work, and if they scroll down enough, there's a phone number there too. Assuming you put it in there, of course. But really, how many young socialites are not going to have their numbers on their Facebook accounts, even if they're on their privately? Probably not many of them.

Of course, the night clubs and bouncers defending this practice fall back on that old canard "If you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry about?" That reasoning is completely specious because it misses the point. Nobody should have to present any part of their private lives to a bouncer just to get into a club. While Facebook is social media, the user chooses who to share that information with. Thus, it is private.

There is one other reason why this is the stupidest policy I've seen in a while for similar situations.

People lie.

Spreading Blog Traffic - Where to Respond?

With the increase in the number of social media platforms, and with the urge to spread ourselves over as many of them as possible to get our words out to the largest group of people, it sometimes feels like overload. Not an overload of information, but an overload of time and effort, checking the various venues where we hang out to see if somebody has responded to our work. It also has that effect on the reader too, especially if you're following somebody who's on all these different platforms. Where is it best to respond?

Dawn, a friend of mine who often comments on this blog (and vice versa), recently went through a rather frightening experience with an unknown man potentially trying to abduct her, that also has turned into a good lesson in safety for all of us. She posted what happened, as well as what it has taught her, on her blog. She wants to share her insights with the rest of us, and I think it's a very valuable (not to mention gutsy, re-living it in order to write about it, and then share it publicly) post, and I encourage you to go read it when I'm done here (or, if you promise to come back, you can go read it now...but you'd better stick to that promise! I'll be watching.).

It's a powerful post, as well as being filled with great advice and information.

Welcome to my Stumbled Brethren

Yesterday, somebody submitted all of my one-hit wonders posts to the social sharing site StumbleUpon. It's a site, like Digg, where you can share stuff that you find on the web with others.

When you create a StumbleUpon account, part of your profile that you create is a series of interests. Then you can submit sites that you think others would find interesting as well. You can find people on there who share interests and follow them, so you can see what they share.

But one thing that's unique (in my limited experience, anyway) is that you can "Stumble" your interests by clicking the "Stumble" button. This will take you to a random site that has been submitted to StumbleUpon by other users, a site that will match one of the interests that you stated in your profile.

I'm not sure how the algorithm works for determining what web site to take you to. I'm sure it's in the back there, silently plotting world domination.

What I didn't know is just how much of an impact that site can have.

My blog usually gets 30-50 hits a day, and many of those are family/friends or image searches.

Yesterday?

6615

Better Facebook - changing your Facebook experience for the better

Are you frustrated with the new Facebook user interface? Are there things you would like to do on Facebook that the interface just doesn't allow you to do?

There's an app for that.

Ok, an "extension," but that doesn't sound nearly as trendy.

It's an extension called "Better Facebook," and I find it works like a dream.

One of the most popular posts on this blog is my "Somebody Unfriended You on Facebook?" post, detailing a Greasemonkey script for Firefox that allows you to see who has dropped you from their Friends list.

(Incidentally, the family member referred to in that post is now on my Facebook friends list, so I hope she doesn't go back to read that!)

April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is a long-standing tradition in world, dating back hundreds of years.

April Fool's Day pranks and hoaxes have been done by multi-million dollar companies, news organizations, even politicians have gone along with the joke.

In fact, there's even a list of the Top 100 April Fool's Day hoaxes of all time.

Some of these hoaxes reflect very poorly on the gullibility of society at large. The Alabama legislature voting to change the value of pi? How do you arbitrarily change a mathematical constant? But hundreds of people from all over the world called in to complain about it.

Or how about 1996, when Taco Bell announced that they had bought the Liberty Bell to help with the national debt, and had rechristened it the "Taco Liberty Bell."

"The Taco Bell Corporation announced it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known, he said, as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial."

Some things are so close to plausible that many otherwise smart people get taken in by them, and those are the most effective.

And the most annoying.

Submitting posts to Digg - Questions and Thoughts

I've been a member of Digg for a while now, but I haven't really used it much. Part of me wonders if that should change, so I'm checking things out a little bit and deciding whether I want to jump into the waters or not.

For those of you who don't know, Digg is a sharing site, where users can share articles, blog posts, and other things they find on the Internet that they think are interesting, cool, or just something they feel their followers should know about. People set up accounts there, and can follow (and be followed by) other Digg users. If somebody follows you, then what you Digg will show up on their home page.

If you've explored the web at all, whether blogs, news sites, or what have you, you've probably seen something at the bottom of an article that says you can "Digg" it. That makes it easy for people to do it, because the only other way is to go to Digg and manually cut and paste the URL. Not fun.

So anyway, back to my thinking. I've got a couple of thoughts/questions to discuss.

Facebook Nostalgia

So last night, I got into a nostalgic mood, and this was the result. As I said in that post, one of the things I do late at night when I'm all alone is get a bit nostalgic.

I posted a brief status update on Facebook about writing late at night. And got a quick response from an old high school friend that I've been FB friends with for a while now.

And it hit me.

You know, this Facebook thing is actually pretty cool.

Should Journalists Engage on Twitter?

One of the cool things about Twitter is the back and forth that can develop between parties, short and punchy discussions about various issues. It can also be a valuable way for companies or organizations to respond to public input and inquiries.

Journalists on Twitter can have it tough sometimes, but most of them do a wonderful job of mixing the personal and the professional.

But is there a grey area when it comes to responding to the public regarding stuff that you've reported or written?

The Washington Post seems to think so.

Is social media here to stay?

Saw an interesting article on Mashable today that I thought I would share with you, more to get your opinion than anything else.

It seems that some "technology experts" (who the hell are they?) took a survey, and most agreed that "Gen Y will not grow out of social networking." It seems that, despite all of the privacy concerns about Facebook recently (something which may have slowed Facebook's growth to a crawl last month), the all-out sharing of personal information on social networking sites will probably continue.

Mashable quotes the Pew research study:

"By 2020, members of Generation Y (today’s ‘digital natives’) will continue to be ambient broadcasters who disclose a great deal of personal information in order to stay connected and take advantage of social, economic, and political opportunities. Even as they mature, have families, and take on more significant responsibilities, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will carry forward."

I like what one of the commenters on this article said, though.

"I agree that the generation will continue to use social networks to stay connected and play games. What exactly they say publically may change, but I feel certain they will continue to communicate in this way."

I agree that social networking is here to stay, but I think I'm with the commenter that what people share may change as these people get older. It only takes one case of identity theft hitting close to home to make you rethink exactly what you're putting out there.

On the other hand, I've put a lot out there with this blog and my Twitter account, linking to where I work and all that other stuff. So who am I to judge? Maybe that's why I'm not as worked up about the whole Facebook privacy thing as others have been.

I think it's a slam dunk that social media and networking, in some fashion, is here to stay. Considering how many adults now use it, I can't see teenagers who have grown up with it deciding that it's not for them.

Not as a group, anyway.

I also think it will transform in some fashion, as newer trends show up and new ideas become the norm. Just think. Who would have thought something location-based like Foursquare would become as wildly popular as it is?

So what do you think about this?

(I figured you were due a "regular" post too today, one where I'm not whining)

Email or Facebook?

A while back I did a post on social media obsession, asking whether you did things like tweet from the bathroom (25% of people in that survey said yes!).

Mashable has another article asking yet another good question, with some statistics to back it up. What do you check first: email or Facebook?

"If you check e-mail first, the company said, you tend to be more task-oriented and only interact with brands online when you need something, such as researching a deal, getting information about promotions or finding new product information.

However, if start your day with a visit to Facebook, you might welcome “extracurricular” content from brands, such as interaction and entertainment that isn’t directly related to a purchase or business transaction."

I have to say that, when I get up, I find myself checking Facebook, my blog and stats, and then checking my email if I remember. Sometimes I actually forget to check my home email address on work days (though now that I'm mainly using Gmail, I do check that regularly at work). On the other hand, I have to find out if anybody has reached out to me through Facebook, Twitter, the blog, or wherever. So I guess I fall into the latter category.

The study Mashable quotes found that Facebook is the first thing checked for 11% of the US population, and that email still rules at 58%.

Check out the Mashable article for even more interesting stats.

What kind of Internet users are you? Do you go to your email first, or do you hop on the social media wagon and take it for your daily spin?

Or do you go somewhere else?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Edit: What a weird typo on the title! Obviously it's not the Email *of* Facebook. I've now changed that.

Social Media in Our Culture

The wonderful and inspiring Mansi Bhatia asked me to do a guest post at her great blog "First Impressions dealing with social media and how it is affecting our culture.

You can find it here. It's pretty good, if I do say so myself (and I do!).

Many thanks to Mansi for asking me to be a part of her blog. You should definitely check out the rest of her stuff, as it's all top notch.

"The term “social media” is becoming so prevalent that even those who don’t partake in it have some idea of what it means. That’s how you know something has infiltrated the culture.

We are becoming increasingly a world community, where who we associate with online is almost as important Social media infilitration as who we associate with face to face.

Companies that want to succeed need to have an online presence of some kind, and that used to mean just a web site. Now, successful companies need to have a Facebook account or fan page, and it’s very helpful to be on Twitter as well."

This is the third time I've had a guest post on somebody's blog, and it's really gratifying when somebody asks me to do that.

If anybody else would like a guest post on their blog, drop me a line! I'm available for birthday parties, anniversaries, bar mitzvahs and the like. I do draw the line at Stipper-grams, though.

Oh, ok. Even those. Though I may have to demand payment for something like that. The rest I'll do for the fame.

Enjoy the post!

Is Chatroulette losing its already limited appeal?

And I mean "limited" in the sense that you must probably like male genitals if you're hanging around the site for long.

Chatroulette is an interesting concept. Basically, it's totally random, totally anonymous, chatting with people. It appears that it requires a webcam of some sort, though it doesn't require a microphone (though it would certainly help!). There's no way for anybody you hook up with to identify who you are, unless you tell them, so your anonymity is assured. The idea is that this will make people less inhibited to say and do things.

Sometimes that's a bad thing.

Philo - Watch TV with people all over the country!

Do you like watching TV? Do you like the social experience of watching TV with other people? How about discussing shows with your friends? Or with people all over the country?

Mashable's always good to watch for up and coming social media trends, and yesterday's another great example of that. They had an article on a new social media idea called "Philo." Or, as they call it, "Twitter + Foursquare for TV Fanatics."

"A new web and iPhone app called Philo makes watching TV interactive by having users “tune in” to TV programs as if they were checking in to venues on Foursquare or Gowalla, then discuss shows in a Twitter or Facebook newsfeed-like conversation stream while they’re watching."

It's actually quite the interesting concept. One of the cool things about watching your favourite TV shows is discussing them with a bunch of other fans (ok, maybe that's just me, but it is common). Philo gives you that opportunity with that chat-like feature.

Remember when I talked about "live-tweeting" TV shows? That always has a couple of downsides:

Facebook Exodus - Will you leave?

And will you take me with you?

According to Mashable, a couple of users are trying to organize a mass-deletion of Facebook accounts on May 31, due to the privacy issues that are plaguing the site since its recent privacy policy changes. They're encouraging as many people as possible to leave the site on that date, and (I would assume) never come back.

Oh no, think of the family photos that will go unexamined!