angry sounding questions about facebook

I don't have facebook.
*GASP!*
I know, I know, I'm pretty radical
.....just kidding.
the thing is, with social networking sites, I've signed up to far too many in the past... Hi5, bebo, myspace, facebook(of course), and all those other annoying ones that i can't remember the names of that occasioanlly still send me annoying emails about random people wanting to 'friend' me.
*shudder*
(i can't delete them, i dont remember my passwords =( )

When people ask me why I no longer use facebook I used to mumble something about how i dont like social networking sites.
But now, I respond "BECAUSE IT'S PART OF A CONSPIRACY THAT WILL ULTIMATELY LEAD TO WORLD DOMINATION"
of course, it is all in jest....

BUT

Facebook has taken over huge chunks of people's lives.

When did everyone start relying on facebook so much?
When did it start dominating so much of the time we spend on the internet?
Why does so much of so many people's lives happen in the realm that is facebook?
Why is it that people feel the need to check facebook so much when they're at uni?
Aren't they in a place where they can interact socially?
Aren't their friends nearby, IN THE FLESH?!

I've heard this line countless times: "Oh right, yea, you don't know about it 'cause you don't have facebook."
What happened to the good old days when gossip was passed by word of mouth and people gave out cute little enveloped invitations to events?
Why is it that everytime two people get together they have to "make it official" on facebook?
And why do people freak out if they're not included in the guest list on facebook for an event? As if that's the official invite as opposed to your friend asking you if you wanna go to that party.

Why is it that everytime you meet someone new you go home and add them on facebook as a 'friend'?
this leads me to my next point.
Are all your facebook friends really your friends?
Do all the people who boast 500 or 600 'friends' on facebook really have close ties with ALL these people?
of course not.
Is it really that important to have that many facebook friends?
Have these people heard of Dunbar's number? it's 150 meaningful relationships. It's impossible to have more. One does not need more. Once cannot maintain 150 easily, let alone 600.
It's impossible that they are actually good friends with 600 people. It is impossible that they even talk regularly to HALF of these people.
What happened to quality over quantity?

Sometimes people make it sound like i miss out on a lot becasue i dont use facebook. But that's not true.
My friends tell me to get facebook again.
but even they can't think of a good reason why i should.

_

Social Media for Music Exposure

Recently, my brother has been trying to launch a music career. It's pretty normal nowadays for bands to be launched online, as opposed to the traditional form of getting a few low-key gigs at a pub to start off somewhere. Take for example, the band Gorillaz, who pretty much started out as an online band only (they did no live gigs at first) and used MySpace to get popular. This got me thinking about the options that an aspiring musican has to gain exposure through the new media forms, these being social networking and viral video sites. I want to look at a few sites and lay out the pros and cons of their use as music exposure platforms.

Facebook is probably one of the most useful platforms for this purpose; with having 500 million active members and being at the forefront of most media-savvy minds, it's a pretty good place to start. Being able to upload, say, video performances of songs and have them on your friend's newsfeed definitely helps to get your music out there. The way Facebook is set up is that something that your friend may comment on is shown on the friend's friend's newsfeed, therefore catering for the viral spread of media (especially video). The downside is that while it has the ability to create fan pages for anything, it doesn't have a specialised music section, unlike the next platform.

MySpace is arguably the most well-known platform for launching bands and artists, owing to the fact that the Music section of MySpace is well established in music industries worldwide. An artist/band is able to create a fully customisable site with music, graphics, influences, pictures, info about upcoming shows, basically anything anyone needs to know about the band. MySpace peaked in popularity a few years ago and while it has been overtaken by Facebook as the premier social networking site, it still has a large influence on especially the American music industry and is popular as a site for teens to go explore and find new bands and types of music.

YouTube, being a viral video site, automatically has an advantage over the other two in that it deals exclusively with video, making the material posted more representative of the artist and more visually engaging too. YouTube has been a launching ground for countless 'online celebrities', who usually start by uploading covers of popular songs to prove their talent and gaing a following before uploading original content. The downside is that in the Sea of YouTube with hundreds of millions of videos, it is a bother trying to get a few friends to view your uploaded videos so they appear closer to the top of a search query, otherwise they will be doomed to obscurity in the depths of the YouTube servers.

So folks, there you have it. If you want to launch a music career online, I'd suggest using all three plus a publicist of some sort to get the ball rolling, like this kid (who was scoped out by Ellen DeGeneres and now has a record deal):

I like.. the internet?

When recently browsing through the extensive catalogue of videos on YouTube, i was directed to an odd home video. This video was of a little girl, Jessica performing her 'Daily Affirmation'.

"I like my house, I like my haircut, I like my stuff," are just a few of the things she declares to herself in the mirror. Her energy is so uplifting and positive which got me thinking, why do we treat the Internet in such a negative way?

There's so much focus on the negative side of Internet, always talking about bullying, privacy policies, creepers, stalkers, predators, addictions etc but where is all the good. Yes, these things are important to know about but can we not learn to balance the good and the bad?

By focusing on the bad, we are sometimes missing out on some of the greatest features and uses of the Internet. Skype and YouTube are two great examples of this. I mean where else can you go to watch funny videos to keep you entertained for hours? and have you ever been able to talk face to face with your family in a different country before? Not only are the entertainment aspects great but also in terms of updated, its the best place to turn. Online news websites such as New Zealand's own tvnz are always up to date and are often the first port of call for information about breaking news.

Online social networking sites are in particular shown in a negative light. This is especially highlighted with the recent focus on unsuccessful job applications due to social networking sites such as Facebook.

I think it's about time we get out of this negativity and stop focusing on the bad because we may miss out on the little gems of the Internet such as Jessica and her daily affirmation. We could all learn a thing or two from her.

Subliminal Messaging

Subliminal messaging is just in movies right. You can't cause people to buy things through hiding words in songs or having someone drink a coke in some clever product placement can you? I don't know the answer for sure, but I do know a far more useful use of subliminal messaging...

Subliminal messaging music

Listen to the track above. What do you hear? Probably a horrible sounding electric guitar ring tone, and you are right, but this is a ring tone with a twist. This melody was made by a Japanese cognitive scientist named Hideto Tomabechi and will increase your girl friends bust by about 2-3cm. HOLD ON GUYS! Before you run off to secretly insert it into your significant others phone and put them on speed dial you should know how subliminal messaging actually works.

Subliminal messaging works in music by building a song around with auditory components associated with a naturally occurring physiological condition - or in layman's terms - creating music with sounds that already trigger a physiological response. For example: In a restaurant you could make some music with undertones of a rumbling stomach, then disguise it alter it so it isn't obvious and play it along side musical instruments, in this case it could make patrons more hungry. Alternatively you could create a music piece with low intimate tones to get your partner in the mood aka a subtle Berry White! hehe. Contrary to popular belief it does not work by reversing a song!

How this piece of music works is to resemble a crying baby, which causes the body to believe there is a crying baby, which in turn makes a woman's breasts increase in size in preparation of nursing their own child. Of course this isn't a one time listen! It takes about 200 listens before an effect is measurable (10 days at 20 listens per day).



Although I would guess subliminal messaging is not used often in music, it can be seen often in visual advertisements and follow the main themes of Sex and Hunger. As NPR "Wait Wait Don't tell me" Host Peter Segal said: "It is nice to see the Japanese spending some of their sexual energy on Woman and not just robots."

For anyone interested here is a CIA report on Subliminal Messaging.

Collective stupidity in multiplayer gaming.

A group of people tasked to work together towards a common goal can usually be assured to cooperate to some extent, this does not always apply to to the internet and multiplayer games, an example of which is the multiplayer flash game Transformice.

Transformice is a game with a simple concept, the player is given control of a mouse and tasked with retriving a cheese and returning to a mouse hole in a given amount of time. This is complicated by the fact you are to some extent racing against up to 20 other mice with the same goal as you and because most levels are imposible to pass without the help of a 'Shaman' a mouse with powers to create ramps, trampolines, balloons, boxes, balls etc and to combine them to create nearly limitless potential ways (a platform with balloons attached to each end creates an elevator to lift mice to their goal).

Problems arise when a shaman either cannot or chooses not to help or a mouse decides to prioritize their own success at the sacrifice of the groups. An inexperienced shaman can have trouble solving problem and a large crowd of other players yelling advice to him through the chat can quickly become overwhelming while a shaman can also choose to use his powers to hinder rather than help the group, he can block the exit hole with an unmoveable barrier, he can use a cannonball to push others of the map killing them or can choose to simply do nothing to help. Some levels can be compleately destroyed and rendered incabable of passing if done wrong or rushed, for instance the level where the mice have to get from one platform to the other be traversing a seesaw, 98% of the time, as soon as the level starts about 30% of the group imediately rushes toward the exit with 1 or 2 making it and the rest dying and taking the seesaw with them stranding the other 70% with no chance of clearing the level, over time people start thinking that the only way to clear the level is to rush at the start.

From experience the size of the group playing is directly proportional to the percentage of the group who pass the level, when playing with a group of only 6 almost every level was passed by everyone with the shaman given enough room to think about the problem and build the solution and when the shaman did not know the solution to the puzzle advise was alot easier to obtain while larger groups resulted in rushing and abuse of shamans who did not know answers instead of helpfull advice.

I want my privacy compromised at times.

Unfortunately last weekend I lost my phone. This is rather annoying for many reasons including have to get a new mobile, new sim cards and try and track down people's phone numbers. I had assumed my contacts could be recovered on my sim as this has happened to some of my friends before. So for this reason I had been saving contacts to my sim card and had not bothered to back them up.

Turns out Vodafone have changed their privacy policies since my friends had their sims replaced. Vodafone and 2degrees no longer store your contact details to my annoyance. As I was in the process of getting a new sim card I suggested that you should be able to choose whether they save your contacts or not. This way if you're like me and silly enough to mislay your phone, you don't need to go through the arduous ordeal of trying to restore your phone and contacts. This is because they will be already waiting for you.

Cyber-Relationships: Changing Moral Positions

With the advent of virtual worlds and cyber communities for individuals to have a meeting of the minds, it is no wonder our relationships today are becoming so much more complicated. As if working out the intricacies of relationships (platonic and romantic) wasn't challenging enough, the internet has added a whole new dimension to cultivate. This is particular harrowing for romantic relationships. In class we had the example of a woman divorcing her husband because he was married to another woman in Second Life, while The Sunday Times columnist commented that she’d just lure her husband off the computer and back into reality. These two views show the schism developing in the new relationship “rules” of a digital age.

There’s always a lot of debate surrounding big topics in new media, like privacy, ethics and dependency, since these have potential policy connections. There is minor coverage of shifting relationship norms, but these are often handled with humor and disbelief. Just like people resisting the new technology at first, people are resisting the need to assess their stance on relationship boundaries within their technologically saturated lives.

To continue with the example above, what exactly constitutes cheating in a relationship now? The idea of the “emotional affair” is not new, but it used to be manifested in a seemingly harmless friendship, which then began to damage the emotional connection to their respective partners. With the internet now, and the constant connectivity, it is much easier to develop these affairs, especially in forums like Second Life. After our talk about cyborgs it would stand to reason that since technology is becoming a part of our identities, that affairs online are a form of cheating. There is a real person on the other side who is communicating and investing time in a “relationship.” It’s easy to discredit these relationships because of their video game like qualities, however they should be held to higher standards. It is yet another part of society in transition due to the integration of new media into our lives. It will be interesting to see how the morals sort themselves out over time.