TED'S QUESTION: "I've got a question for you. If your mum's presence on facebook provokes the response "ugh", why is this? What function does the technology play for you as far as managing your family relationships go? We often see cmns technologies as ways of keeping in touch - but your comment indicates that they're also about getting out of touch....I'd like to hear about your experience of facebook in that regard...."
As I mentioned in the title, this blog post is a response to the question Ted brought up in his comment on my first post. He noticed that my newest facebook friend...my MOM...provoked the response "ugh" (sorry mom).
The thing is, I really do love my mom. I guess the real reason her being my friend on facebook makes me shudder a little is because she is one of those mom's that just wants to know everything about everyone, ESPECIALLY me. I guess that's fair, but, you know, being a 21 year old, and doing what we 21 year olds do best, while still living at home I try to keep an element of privacy in my life. Buttttt, she still likes to poke her head into the little things...like "who was that on the phone??" or, "whose pictures are those you're looking through??"...and quite frankly it's often a little hard to even begin to explain how you came to be friends with that certain person on facebook, and really you've only met them once, you just like to look at their pics because they always wear the cutest outfits, or do such nice makeup, or hang out with your x, or whatever. And then she just kind of rolls her eyes like she can't even begin to understand WHY I would be looking at so and so's pics, even though my reason is perfectly legit in facebook world!
Anyways, now that she is my actual facebook FRIEND (because come on, you CAN'T reject your beloved mother's request, she CREATED you after all), she can look at all 608 of my friends and that reallly gets the ball rolling on the old whodoyouknow-whatdoyouknow-howdoyouknow nattering. Not only that, she can read my wall posts (yes mom, me and all my friends have awful potty mouths, I'm sorry), my relationship status (I just erased it all together now..just one of those privacy things you need to consider. Otherwise people start saying, GOD THAT RENEE GIRL GOES THROUGH GUYS QUICK!! - haha, just kidding), my dirty/sexy bumper stickers, and my pictures!! However, facebook being the massive network that it is, I do try to keep the pics limited and PG rated only. Oh and one more thing, she can now tell me to walk the dog or do the dishes via my facebook wall..
So, although facebook is a social networking tool designed to stay in touch with those who are near and far, when you actually LIVE with your mom, is it really necessary to be able to get in touch beyond vocal limits? In a way, this new media allows for a whole different, often private world/secret society, one that we don't always expect parents to join. Like Ted said, it is..well, WAS, a way to get OUT of touch with mom and dad, but in touch with people you barely know! (In a different but similar way, an Ipod lets you get OUT of touch when your sitting on a stinky bus, or a blackberry lets you get OUT of touch when your in the classroom, at a lame party, or wherever you may be, and in touch with something more stimulating online.)
However, the fact that my mom now has facebook also goes to show how new media is not only affecting us info babies, but touching and often improving the lives of the young and old alike. I think my mom really appreciates being able to figure out what this whole facebook phenomenon is. Its no longer this mystery that every one is talking about but she has absolutely no idea what it is, never mind how to work it. Now she's figured out it's really quite simple and been able to add her own friends from high school! That's the great thing about these new technologies - they just keep getting simpler...we've come a longgg way since Babbage's Difference Engine!
Anyways, after this whole rant and rave, I feel I need to point out again that I really do adore my mom, and I should give her a LITTLE more credit, considering she raised me, cares for me when I'm sick, houses me, and even sometimes (ok, most of the time) makes me food and does my laundry (+ she just gave me a whole blog topic!). I don't REALLY mind that she's my facebook friend, I think its kinda-sorta cute and my friends can appreciate that I love my mom, and if they don't, who wants them for friends anyways?!
<3,
R
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Crackberrys and Crackbook
Social networking (for me at least) started out with ICQ (uh-oh!), moved over to MSN, which developed into those profiles you could add picture to, which grew into Myspace, and eventually, was overtaken by the vast entity that is Facebook. (ComScore says Facebook attracted 132.1 different visitors in June 08, vs Myspace's 117.6 million.)
Something that I find pretty interesting about all new media is its unanticipated duality - that is, it preforms both as the creator intended it to, as well as how to user adapts it. This has been so since the beginning of technologies. For example, the post system was designed for government use, and soon exploded as a means of personal communication. Likewise, the computer was originally intended by Babbage to be used as a mathematical device, and now look at it (it's used for Facebook!)!!
Well, obviously Facebook has many many uses. Though it was intended as a social networking site, there comes many other uses, all of which I won't discuss here.
Something that I would like to touch upon here though is the way advertisers are using Facebook to sell OTHER products - mainly phones. Because you can access the Internet via data device phones like Blackberrys and Iphones,the phone companies (who are obviously trying to target a younger audience for their products) are using Facebook as a selling point. For all the Facebook addicts out there, you can get you fix 24-7, everywhere and anywhere, as long as you have your trusty blackberry handy (or is it Crackberry?? in that case, maybe its Crackbook!!)
One student a couple of classes ago raised her personal opinion about Blackberrys, wondering why a young, non-professional might need a data device. I'm sure many others have the same query, and the clever advertisers out there have found the answer - FACEBOOK!!!!! (eg: guy #1: "are you sure this is the place??" guy #2: "yea, this is the place, [looks at phone] Amy's Facebook page says this is the place!")
So, like I said, all new technologies end up having a certain duality to them, and it's always a mystery what they'll come up with next.
Well, until the next time,
<3, Me
Something that I find pretty interesting about all new media is its unanticipated duality - that is, it preforms both as the creator intended it to, as well as how to user adapts it. This has been so since the beginning of technologies. For example, the post system was designed for government use, and soon exploded as a means of personal communication. Likewise, the computer was originally intended by Babbage to be used as a mathematical device, and now look at it (it's used for Facebook!)!!
Well, obviously Facebook has many many uses. Though it was intended as a social networking site, there comes many other uses, all of which I won't discuss here.
Something that I would like to touch upon here though is the way advertisers are using Facebook to sell OTHER products - mainly phones. Because you can access the Internet via data device phones like Blackberrys and Iphones,the phone companies (who are obviously trying to target a younger audience for their products) are using Facebook as a selling point. For all the Facebook addicts out there, you can get you fix 24-7, everywhere and anywhere, as long as you have your trusty blackberry handy (or is it Crackberry?? in that case, maybe its Crackbook!!)
One student a couple of classes ago raised her personal opinion about Blackberrys, wondering why a young, non-professional might need a data device. I'm sure many others have the same query, and the clever advertisers out there have found the answer - FACEBOOK!!!!! (eg: guy #1: "are you sure this is the place??" guy #2: "yea, this is the place, [looks at phone] Amy's Facebook page says this is the place!")
So, like I said, all new technologies end up having a certain duality to them, and it's always a mystery what they'll come up with next.
Well, until the next time,
<3, Me
Friday, September 5, 2008
In my first semester at Uvic in 2005 a friend who had moved back east asked me how she could find me on Facebook.
"Facebook? What's Facebook?"
Well, from that second on, my life changed. Ok maybe that’s a bit drastic. But still.
Let me rewind a little. My name is Renee Thomson, and I am from beautiful Vancouver, BC. I’m in my second semester of my first year at Capilano College, in the Communications program. This of course leads me to why I am taking CMNS 253, and unfortunately, my answer isn’t that thrilling – it is, as most of you know, a requirement to the Communications degree. I hope to get everything I can out of this course, and as I know from last semester in 112, Ted is great at filling in the grey spots that always exist within those course descriptions. By the end of this semester I am confident I will be “that-much” more knowledgeable about my area of study.
The new social software I have chosen to examine in my blog is Facebook, because, like I mentioned earlier, it kinda-sorta changed the way us info-age babies communicate.
As pretty much EVERYONE knows (and if you don't, what rock have you been hiding under???) Facebook is a social utility designed to connect friends near and far. Originally it was a network solely for those of us who had gone away to school and wanted to keep in touch with our fellow uni-students, but soon it exploded, and everyone from my best friend in Kansas to my mom got it (ugh).
So, for the next three months I plan on dissecting and critiquing my personal homepage, Facebook (and this is work??).
As for my initial reflections on the course, I am somewhat overwhelmed, especially after returning from a work-free, school-free four months summer vay-cay. However, I’m sure the dust will settle and soon I’ll be back into the good old grind where things make sense and my attention span lasts longer than five minuets at a time. So in that case, I’m somewhat excited to see how the course unfolds.
So, until next time
<3 Me
"Facebook? What's Facebook?"
Well, from that second on, my life changed. Ok maybe that’s a bit drastic. But still.
Let me rewind a little. My name is Renee Thomson, and I am from beautiful Vancouver, BC. I’m in my second semester of my first year at Capilano College, in the Communications program. This of course leads me to why I am taking CMNS 253, and unfortunately, my answer isn’t that thrilling – it is, as most of you know, a requirement to the Communications degree. I hope to get everything I can out of this course, and as I know from last semester in 112, Ted is great at filling in the grey spots that always exist within those course descriptions. By the end of this semester I am confident I will be “that-much” more knowledgeable about my area of study.
The new social software I have chosen to examine in my blog is Facebook, because, like I mentioned earlier, it kinda-sorta changed the way us info-age babies communicate.
As pretty much EVERYONE knows (and if you don't, what rock have you been hiding under???) Facebook is a social utility designed to connect friends near and far. Originally it was a network solely for those of us who had gone away to school and wanted to keep in touch with our fellow uni-students, but soon it exploded, and everyone from my best friend in Kansas to my mom got it (ugh).
So, for the next three months I plan on dissecting and critiquing my personal homepage, Facebook (and this is work??).
As for my initial reflections on the course, I am somewhat overwhelmed, especially after returning from a work-free, school-free four months summer vay-cay. However, I’m sure the dust will settle and soon I’ll be back into the good old grind where things make sense and my attention span lasts longer than five minuets at a time. So in that case, I’m somewhat excited to see how the course unfolds.
So, until next time
<3 Me
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