February 23 2010
Things

Social Engagement Etiquette

I remember when I first got on Facebook. The first thing you did was friend/find everyone you knew because Facebook was a privilege. You needed to (1) be accepted to college and (2) needed to have you college email address. It was a mad rush to show that you knew as many people as possible.

Facebook - Events_1266953866034But that was close to five years ago. Since then, I’ve done a few “friend purges” as Facebook became an integral part of my social interactions. The latest element of Facebook I recently depend on is Facebook events. Right before the latest Facebook redesign, I fell in love with the stalker-esque “Friends’ Events” feature.  And the redesign made it that much easier to see what events are happening and what I could possibly miss.

It also brings up events that “low priority friends” (the people who for some reason constantly miss the purging cuts) are going to that are interesting to you. The best part, and strangely, the most anti-social part is, you don’t have to acknowledge the Facebook friend at said event.

With Facebook events and learning about events you have not necessarily been invited to come more social etiquette. Things like, don’t go to a small gathering (i.e. has less than 100 attendees) unless the host has invited you; along with if it’s an event that you found out about through a friend with complicated history (e.g. estranged best friends, ex-boyfriends) don’t go alone, bring your own friends.

Within the past few months, I’ve never been more dependent on Facebook to fill any blanks in my busy schedule. And as I become more dependent on Facebook to tell me what’s happening in my friends, family and contacts’s lives, more of these social rules come to light. What rules have you been following?

No Comments
September 16 2009
PR / Thoughts

RFID: The Social Media of Tomorrow

RFID tags on Flickr - Photo Sharing!_1253116099298

Now while part of me is afraid of what RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology can do, a majority of me is excited. This, RFID, is the future, not augmented reality. It has all the buzz words of today such as traceability, social, public/personals personas, e-commerce and mobility. As a digital communicator, this is what I am looking forward to. Depending how early developers and marketers harness these RFID tools, it won’t be an invasion of privacy, but rather something completely intuitive and captivating.

Like the Internet and social media has affected all aspects of daily life, I believe RFID will begin to do the same. As of now the possibilities that RFID can contribute to communications, marketing and PR are so unfathomable, it might as well be labeled as sci-fi. So I’ll keep on dreaming.

Here is a video what a single swipe of an encoded RFID card can do.

Nearness from timo on Vimeo.

Discuss.

image source: Ti.Mo’s flickr

No Comments
September 2 2009
PR / Thoughts

High School Wasn’t That Bad (Pre-Social Media)

Maybe it was because I grew up in a typical suburban environment, had a small group of close friends, and was just not cool but not uncool in my teenage days, but I don’t remember high school being that awful. I knew a handful of kids who had it rough, but I don’t believe it drove them to self destruction, or worse, school destruction.

This past week, Chicago’s Public Radio’’s This American Life’s program revolved around bullies, and 2 teenage boys in the UK’s plans to blow up their school were foiled; and in the previous months news programs reported ad nauseum about school bullying. I don’t say it doesn’t exist. But at the same time, it’s not news.

As main stream media continues to sensationalize common day occurrences/horrors, and social media makes it easier to get every Tom, Dick and Harry’s opinion out to the world, the little things that were usually swept under the rug, or dealt with behind closed doors are now out in the open and have become entertainment.

In high school, I kept a blog. When my feelings were hurt, I posted about it. When there were new photos, I posted them. I created events and poetry and they were all found on my Xanga page. The difference was that only my friends really had an interest to see what was going on in my life. And every once in awhile, I would post something that could cause either drama or a riff among friends, but it was a big splash in my small social life pond. But now, the social networks are more tightly bound. I tweet it, it goes to my followers and it is also posted onto my Facebook, where a whole new variety of people have access to it, including classmates, teachers and parents.  As a result, I constantly have to keep in mind what I want people to know about me.

Back in 2004, comments would come from the people I talked to every day, now “likes” and @replies pop up from people I haven’t even seen since 2004.  I run a casual PR program just for me, thinking about the audience and the message. And that got me thinking. Now is the time that an educational program (that goes beyond the retro-active “you shouldn’t have done that”) should be instated. When someone complains on their Facebook about getting a wedgy, they should be prepared how easy that wedgy-giver can see that and realize their impact and continue with their actions.

Image source: tigronx254’s Flickr

No Comments
August 10 2009
General Review / Things

Augement… Augmented Reality

It could be that I don’t have an iPhone or that it just looks stupid at this stage, but I don’t get this augmented reality thing.

Augmented reality is a tool/trend that allows images to pop up that don’t exist and interact in real time. Augmented reality has found a home in rudimentary commercials and in iPhone app demos. If you haven’t checked it out, do so asap because this technology is cheap and will be available to the masses, resulting in people creating magic tricks, ecommerce gimmicks and hair mimics.

In my opinion, it isn’t ready for the mass market. It looks great for iPhone apps, but as far as using it to virtually try things on, becoming a virtual furry and even 3-D book animating, it’s just not there. With choppy graphics and the lack of customization, augmented reality has too many kinks to be worked out. And like every tool, there is a time and place to be used. Right now, there’s a rush to jump on this band wagon, but with patience, the evolution of augmented reality will either step up to the plate and create great products and ads, or it will create a few “fails” and then sputter out.

Image Source: Przemion’s Flickr

3 Comments
August 5 2009
Film / Thoughts

Is Ellen Page the new Thora Birch

I’m tired of acting like I only care about pretentious music and social media marketing. There’s more to me. There’s a superficial, pop culture addicted side. And bam, it’s coming through!

Thora Birch was an indie movie star. She had that attractive, attainable and snarky thing going on. She starred in the award winning, indie classic American Beauty as an insecure teenager that had few friends at school and a pretty wacky family dynamic. It was kinda hard hitting. There was death and took an interesting perspective in an otherwise mundane life. Well enter Hard Candy and Ellen Page. Page played a little girl, attractive, yet unattainable, due to her being underage, and was very snarky and smart. Once again, it was hard hitting, ya know, for dealing with pedophiles and all, and there was death. Act One Complete.

Now this is a bit out of order, but for the sake of a time consuming post, I’ll go there. They also both went mainstream. Thora was in Hocus Pocus. Ellen Page was in X-Men.

But then Thora Birch made another indie film by the name of Ghost World. It was good. As a future hipster, I loved it. I thought it was deep, funny, quirky and artsy. It talked about music (awesome points!), it flirted with pedophilia (hot topic!), and ultimately made you wonder (where did that bus lead to?). But after that, what then? Thora continued doing projects, but more or less fell into oblivion.

Juno is Ellen Page’s Ghost World. It had a trend inducing soundtrack (indie anti-folk,woah), it flirted with pedophilia (<3 Jason Bateman) and made you wish you had a quirky family, a quirky boyfriend, and a quirky pregnancy!

So what have we learned? Quirk and oddities are great for teens and early 20s, but after that… what do you have? A Drew Barrymore directed movie and lesbian admirers.

And I’ll leave you with this thought: Jason Bateman, the new Steve Buscemi?

Image sources: Hollywood Grind, Greg Wilker


1 Comment
 1  2  3  4  5 Older ...  22 
Opinions expressed on this blog are purely and personally those of myself, Sara Knee.
Powered by Wordpress / Site by Lettini