For as far back as I can remember, I have highlighted words while I read on the screen. I don’t know why. It’s kinda the equivalent to moving my finger along the written text. Apparently, this is not a common practice. If I highlight words at the NYTimes and accidentally click on a single word, the NYTimes tries to look up the word with a new window. I really don’t need a definition of “the” and it just makes me lose track of what I was reading. Lately, I’ve noticed that blogs are starting to sport these annoying javascript-y in-page popups that block text with information about the links that I’ve accidentally scrolled over. Again, I lose track of what I was reading. Usually, I just give up and quit any blog that has those annoying things. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I really don’t want to see a screenshot of a website when I mouse over the link. A mini-picture of a page full of text does nothing except annoy me. It’s not additional information; it just feels icky. Le sigh. Am I alone on this one?
Author Archives: zephoria
history of social network sites (a work-in-progress)
As many of you know, Nicole Ellison and I are guest editing a special issue of JCMC. As a part of this issue, we are writing an introduction that will include a description of social network sites, a brief history of them, a literature review, a description of the works in this issue, and a discussion of future research. We have decided to put a draft of our history section up to solicit feedback from those of you who know this space well. It is a work-in-progress so please bear with us. But if you have suggestions, shout out.
In particular, we want to know: 1) Are we reporting anything inaccurately? 2) What are we missing?
cat predicts deaths, web folk LOL
Oscar the cat lives in the dementia ward of a nursing home. When one of its residents is about to die, Oscar comes in and settles into their bed, comforting them for the last few hours of life. Researchers and doctors are intrigued by this. How does Oscar know that people are going to die?
Web folks can’t help but LOL. They want to know if Oscar is really predicting deaths or causing them. Their discomfort is emerging through the production of LOL cats, arguing for both in that distanced way that you know comes from nervous laughter. I mean, it is kinda eerie that a cat knows that someone’s going to die before they do, right?
Research on Social Network Sites (Take 2)
A while back, I blogged a list of known research on social network sites. I’ve since moved that list to its own page:
I’m in the middle of doing a literature review and I’m worried that I might be missing new research in this area. If you have recently published a paper on SNS-related topics or know of new research in this area that’s not on my list, could you send me a link or add a citation in the comments? I’m particularly concerned that I know of very little research outside of the US and I have to imagine that there’s a lot taking place there that I simply don’t know about.
in-flight newstainment is paid-for advertising
I fly too much. Far too much. When I’m bored out of my mind, I can’t help but get distracted by the TV that they show – CBS Eye on America, a sitcom or two, and some various newstainment (or late-night TV reruns). I also read the magazine. I figured that, like other magazines and TV drivel, what was being run was reporting. It may not be the best reporting, but I figured that when they featured someone, it was because that person was in theory of interest to people.
This morning, I was notified that American Airlines was doing a series on “America’s Innovators and Entrepreneurs” and that I could pay $3995 (off from the normal $6995) to be included as an innovator. Ewwww. This reminds me of when in high school, I could pay to be in the “Who’s Who of America’s Students.” I realize that the blurring of news and entertainment is pervasive and I guess I should suspect that a lot of news is paid-for advertising, but knowing for certain that I’m being locked into a vessel of misery with pervasive advertising is depressing. Le sigh.
(I’ve included the full email in the Extended Entry if you’re curious to learn more.)
responding to critiques of my essay on class
One month ago, I put out a blog essay that took on a life of its own. This essay addressed one of America’s most taboo topics: class. Due to personal circumstances, I wasn’t online as things spun further and further out of control and I had neither the time nor the emotional energy to address all of the astounding misinterpretations that I saw as a game of digital telephone took hold. I’ve browsed the hundreds of emails, thousands of blog posts, and thousands of comments across the web. I’m in awe of the amount of time and energy people put into thinking through and critiquing my essay. In the process, I’ve also realized that I was not always so effective at communicating what I wanted to communicate. To clarify some issues, I decided to put together a long response that addresses a variety of different issues.
Please let me know if this does or does not clarify the concerns that you’ve raised.
re: MySpace and sex offenders
Regarding the report that MySpace has obliterated 29,000 accounts that are linked to registered sex offenders, please read Stephanie Booth. Her analysis is spot-on and I couldn’t say it any better than she did. So go read it already.
For reasons that I cannot explain, the Attorneys General have far better PR machines than MySpace. What you are seeing in the press is what the AGs have spun out in their ongoing efforts to force legislation to ban youth from social sites. This is about throwing out numbers that will make people feel afraid; it is not about trying to paint an accurate portrayal of what’s happening. The construction and perpetuation of fear from our most powerful lawyers in the nation makes me sick. (Then again, the most powerful one keeps lying to Congress so what should I expect?)
Berkman Fellowship
I am excited to announce that I will be a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School during the 2007-2008 school year. I will not be in-residence although I will visit Cambridge regularly. I am truly inspired by the Berkman community and honored by the fellowship. My hope is that, alongside other Fellows at Berkman, I can take some of what I’ve been doing concerning youth culture and figure out how to affect policy and social change.
Also, for those who aren’t aware, I’m no longer a USC Annenberg Center Fellow because there is no longer a USC Annenberg Center. To the best that I can suss out, this has to do with academic politics and poor decision making on the part of the USC leadership. Regardless of why, the closure of the USC Annenberg Center has devastated (or embittered) many who were hoping that interdisciplinarity would flourish at USC. I count myself amongst that group. When it comes to mourning the loss of the Annenberg Center, I’m trying to move beyond the anger phase, so I’ll stop now.
Education.AU = me + Australia
For the Aussies out there, I will be making my first trip to Australia in August. I will be offering two seminars as part of Education.au’s series. On August 6, I will be in Brisbane and on August 8, I will be in Melbourne. At each seminar, I will be lecturing for at least an hour, answering questions for a while after that, and participating in a panel with youth. There will also be workshops and other activities where I will help those present think through how to leverage what’s going on in relation to education, policy, technology, parenting, and social work. They should be pretty in-depth days and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to dive deep on issues related to youth and technology with a group of interested folks.
My understanding is that there is still space available if any of y’all are interested. You just need to register here. I should note that this is not a free event (getting me to Australia isn’t exactly cheap), but I think that it will be worth it. Deep dives on these issues usually are. So come! Bring questions! Let’s explore these topics together!
(My advance apologies to those in Australia who aren’t attending these events. My time is pretty heavily scheduled and so I won’t be able to meet up. Press is being handled by the folks at Education.au – feel free to contact them.)
processing Harry Potter
I just finished reading Book 7 and am now back online.
Like many other Harry Potter fans, I’ve avoided the Internet like the plague since the book leaked two days before the release. I added mail filters to prevent anything related to Harry Potter from reaching my inbox temporarily. I restrained myself from visiting websites that allowed open content and resisted from doing searches. I simply did not want to know the ending.
For the final book launch, I decided to stay in Boston since I knew so many fans that lived there. Besides, I absolutely love the independent Harvard Book Store and figured that the excuse to support them would be just wonderful. It was a good decision because there was so much enthusiasm in Harvard Square. “Harry and the Potters” played Harvard’s lawn and thousands of costumed children wandered about. They shut down the streets and there was HP music everywhere. The excitement was just overwhelming. And I couldn’t help but repeat over and over again, “all of this is for a book???” The little geeky fangirl in me was having a field day. As we stood smooshed in the crowd to pick up our copies, my friend was astonished by the number of college-aged boys willingly dressed like adolescents. He kept chuckling and repeating things that were being said further back in the line. My favorite? “How many people do you think have hard-ons here?”
Some of my friends were too afraid of spoilers and chose not to go out and celebrate on the eve of the book launch. The mere existence of people who find such joy in ruining others’ pleasure irritates me and so I was trying not to explode as friends were texting me with the antics of mean-spirited folks. One friend kept promising me that there was a most insidious place in hell for such folks. The spoiler who took the cake in the reports I got? The asswipe who had the gall to rent a plane and fly it over San Francisco/Berkeley with spoilers.
When I got to the airport on Saturday morning, I was giddy with joy over seeing hundreds of people waiting for planes, their heads all stuck inside the same book. The flight attendant kept asking me, “are you done yet?” and I kept glaring at him. It was clear that the dozens who were enjoying the book on the plane wanted to be left alone to read.
Personally, I had a hard time reading the book. I promised myself that I would read it immediately so that it wouldn’t get spoiled. But I wasn’t prepared for how much of it would center around Harry’s relationship to his mentor. I guess if I thought about it for a second, I would’ve known that. But I had to put the book down on a number of occasions as Harry worked through different emotional responses. I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun by going into more detail than that, but for my friends out there, I feel the need to share that the book was a surprisingly cathartic experience for me. Grief is an odd thing, but thinking about Peter as Dumbledore brought a smile to my mouth alongside tears to my eyes.