Reddit and the new Internet

Lately on the social media site Reddit, there has been a lot of discussion over SOPA and other government plans for censorship and filtering of the internet.
In my opinion this is one of the worst uses of government time and they have no right since the world wide web is used world wide, no one government should have control over it, but I digress.
There is a group of people on Reddit who has created a subreddit (subcommunity)called Darknet where they are working on creating a new "internet" that would not be under control of the tyrannous government acts.
I am excited to see where this goes.

Penn State Alumni Tries to Help Out

Found this article about some Penn State Alumni who are trying to do a good thing and raise some awareness during this awful tragedy. Hopefully, something good can come out of these evil acts.

http://www.examiner.com/social-media-in-newark/penn-state-alumni-turn-to-social-media-to-raise-awareness-for-child-advocacy-1

No longer Six degrees...

Six degrees of separation has just gotten closer. New research has shown that it is no longer 6 degrees that separates people but it is now 4.74. The experiment used Facebook and a series of algorithms as the means to calculate the links between people and the friends they have. This experiment shows how social media has created a vast network of people. A person can easily connect with a person on the other side of the world through connecting with 4 different friends. Facebook is bringing people closer together.

This makes sense, because 1 out of 10 people in the world have a Facebook.

The full article can be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/technology/between-you-and-me-4-74-degrees.html?_r=1&ref=technology

A Viral Video Waiting To Happen

Last week the on campus police of UC Davis were ordered to remove the students who were Occupying the campus. The police officers pepper sprayed a group of students sitting on the ground linked together by their arms. The video can be seen here.

I think it's amazing what social media can do. This particular video has the perspective of 4 different video cameras. I think once the order to remove the students was sent down the chain of command a viral video of the events was inevitable.

Now some of the officers have been put on paid administrative leave, but Chancellor Linda Katehi, who gave the original order says she has no plans to step down. I think if you're going to put the officers on administrative leave, it's only right to do the same for the person who gave the officer the order. Although Katehi may not have had control over what the officers did specifically, she had to have known extreme measures were going to take place due to other removal efforts of Occupy rallies around the country.

I think it's very important that people start thinking of the consequences before they order action. It has to be assumed with today's technology that videos, tweets, and fb statuses are going to get out quickly and cause an up-roar. Someone on this campus was not thinking ahead......

Tweet me at the Alter

As most of the class could probably guess I follow all things Disney on different social media platforms due to my newly found obsession with it. On Facebook I follow the page for Disney's Fairytale Weddings, since I desperately want to intern for them. The other day they posted a link to an article letting you know how to tastefully use social media at a wedding.

My mouth dropped. Social media platforms have truly taken over our lives. I thought in NO way could I ever consider tweeting or updating your status on your wedding day because you have a billion things going on.

But after reading the article and putting down some etiquette rules I did find some helpful tips, especially for those addicts that tweet everything.

Main sections of the article go over 1. Pre-Wedding preparations 2. Staying offline during the ceremony 3. Appoint a Chief Twitter 4. A social media station 5. Live stream for those who can't make it. and 6. Enjoy the moment!!

Some really cute idea that I never considered was changing your status from engaged to married shortly after the ceremony (cute). I really liked the idea for a hash tag for wedding guest to tweet about so the bride and groom could look back on after everything settles down. Having the photographer upload images to flicker and then stream them at the wedding. And loved the thought of live streaming for those who can't make it.


But as far as a social media station I put my foot down on that and say no way! Unless of course I become a huge social media figure which I don't for see in my future.

Embracing the force that is social media and incorporating it into your wedding sounds crazy but might give the newlywed's some great memories to share.

Here is the link again:http://mashable.com/2010/11/09/social-media-wedding-etiquette/

YOU WILL BE GOOGLED

Prepare your social accounts.  Make sure you are comfortable with your potential employer viewing everything on your profile.  Even the pictures "only friends" can view.  Also, it's a good idea to get connected with potential employers by following them on Twitter, "like" on FB, and connect with them on LinkedIn to increase your chances of being noticed.  To read more of this article visit moneyunder30.

Facebook Hacking

So in the past few days I've seen a lot of people post ABOUT recent hackings on Facebook, but I hadn't actually seen any myself. So I decided to look into it to see what everyone was freaking out about. Apparently within a span of 48 hours pornographic, violent and just plain disgustingly graphic images were flooding people's newsfeeds and message inboxes. This of course wasn't the first time Facebook hacking has happened, but its reportedly one of the quickest spreading hacks that anyone has ever seen. Facebook users were posting about the nasty images on Twitter and claiming that they were officially leaving the social media site because of what they had seen. CNN posted that Facebook reported that they have eliminated almost all of the spam caused by the hack and are working to better improve their systems to prevent such an attack in the future. Other articles and reports online have offered advice on how users themselves can prevent their own pages from any hackers. It's pretty plain and simple, DON'T CLICK ON IT IF IT SEEMS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

CNN Story:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/15/tech/social-media/facebook-porn-spam/index.html

Tips on avoiding a hack:

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/business/facebook-users-flooded-with-porn-dpgoha-20111115-fc1321394427379