#tweettweet

Oh hello!

I love social media. It is fun, inspiring and informative. And while I love a good hashtag as much as the next 25 year old girl, I really don’t like having to limit my thoughts to 140 characters. #notimpressedtwitter. I had to create a Twitter account for a uni subject which I haven’t used since. I just don’t feel that my thoughts are so profound and witty that they need to be shared with the whole “twitterverse”…all 555, 750, 000 (Twitter Statistics, 2013) of you! 

Source: Rauv, 2012

So who are these 555 million Twitters? Well, 40% of you don't even contribute, you just follow friends and celebrity friends who are in fact complete strangers (Twitter Statistics, 2013) which is actually a bit creepy when you think about it.

Check out Twiterholic's list of the top ranking profiles on Twitter!

For those of you who are active users - who comment, share photos, agree, debate, laugh,  gossip, brainstorm etc - you are now part of a virtual community, something which exists purely because of humanities drive to form new relationships, and advancements in  technology to provide new communication channels (without the restrictions of more traditional media).

"A virtual community as they exist today is a group of people 

who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words 

and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks." 

(Rheingold, 1993 p1)

It is great that like-minded people can interact without being constrained by time and geographic location, but is it becoming a little too convenient not to interact face to face anymore? When you consider last week's post about our dependence on mobile devices, is Twitter just pushing us one step closer to becoming cyborgs? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Maybe I shouldn't be too harsh on Twitter, it does have it's benefits...

• It is "portrayed as a new super fast news medium that can get round the traditional mainstream media" (Spreeuwenburg, 2009)
• It is a "communication-tool that can be understood as a reflection of our current society" (Spreeuwenburg, 2009)
• Dissolves barriers between gender, class, status and stereotypes
• Connects you to people and communities you otherwise wouldn't know about
• It allows you to find out about events before they are released through the news (and mostly unfiltered)

Plus, it has given me this little gem!

 Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live, 2012

Bye for now,

Lisa

Reference List

Twitter Statistics 2013, Statistics Brain, viewed 4 December 2013, <http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/> 

Rauv, S 2012, Four Twitter Tips to Triple your Twitter Mentions [image], Business2Community, 18 September, viewed 5 December 2013, <http://www.business2community.com/twitter/4-twitter-tips-to-triple-your-twitter-mentions-0282761#!oRSzH>

Rheingold, H 1993, A Slice of Life in my Virtual Community, viewed 5 December 2013, <http://public.callutheran.edu/~chenxi/Phil350_142_03.pdf>

Spreeuwenburg, K 2009, The Significance of Twitter, Masters of Media, 8 October, viewed 6 December 2013, <http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/2009/10/08/the-significance-of-twitter/>

Jimmy Kimmel Live 2012, Celebrities Read Mean Tweets #1, 22 March 2013, viewed 4 December 2013, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRBoPveyETc>

G2G TTYL

Oh hello!

Now that's better...full words. Text talk is one of my pet hates, but unfortunately it is unavoidable given the predominance and influence of mobile devices in our lives. Don't get me wrong, I am not immune to the wonders of a hand held mobile device...after all, I own a personal mobile phone, a work mobile phone, a tablet, an iPod Touch, a personal laptop and a work laptop (a bit excessive, I know!) 

Source: McCue, 2013

Mobile phones are the ultimate social media tool...I can communicate through phone calls (although who actually uses their phone to talk to people these days), but better still, I can text, email, Facebook post, 'tweet', 'pin', share, like, and as of this week, write an article on my very own blog! If that isn't enough, my mobile phone is also my recipe book, shopping list, budget tracker, exercise buddy and major source of entertainment. But don't go labelling me 'addicted'...I belong to an alarmingly large number of Australian's who find it a little hard to 'switch off' from the digital world.

A recent Telstra 2013 Smartphone Index survey (The Nielson Company, 2013) states that...

"Smartphone ownership doubled over 4 years and is continuing to grow" (p4) 

"4G users spend an average of 9.5 hours accessing mobile internet each week" (p7)

"54% (of surveyed Australians) agree that they use their mobile phone as 

their main 'time filler'" (p11)

"79% (of surveyed Australians) agree that their mobile phone is never off" (p14)

OK, so we know most of us are pretty much obsessed with our mobile devices, but we also know they are ultra-convenient and transforming the way we communicate, consume news and entertainment, and undertake boring menial tasks. But have we become too dependent on our mobile devices? 

Hans Geser (2006) has explored the social effects of being constantly switched on which includes an ability to "avoid reliance on our own judgement" (Geser 2006, p8) because we have constant access to family and friends who can make decisions for us. There is also the issue of privacy, and the blurring of lines between social circles. Do you want your boss knowing what you get up to on the weekend? What about your father? Given we are the generation of over-sharers, we might not have that control anymore.

Some critics go as far as saying we are so dependent on mobile devices, that we are at risk of becoming cyborgs - given that a cyborg is"a human who has certain physiological processes aided or controlled by mechanical or electronic devices" (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2000). What do you think? Is the human race so dependent on mobile devices that we are doomed to become cyborgs? Or are we just super-efficient humans when we use them to their full potential?

Source: Whitehead, 2009

Amber Case explores the concept in the video We Are All Cyborgs Now (Case 2010). Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Bye for now,

Lisa

Reference List

McCue, TJ 2013, How to Avoid Mobile Device Overload [image], Small Business Trends, 9 April 2013, viewed 2 December 2013, <http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/04/avoid-mobile-device-overload.html>

The Nielson Company 2013, Telstra 2013 Smartphone Index, Nielson and Telstra, Oct 2013, viewed 16 November

Geser, H 2006, 'Is the Cell Phone Undermining the Social Order?: Understand Mobile Technology from a Sociological Perspective', Knowledge, Technology and Policy, Spring2006, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p8

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2000, Definition: Cyborg, Houghton Mifflin Company, accessed 14 Nov 2013

Whitehead, J 2009, Cyborgs [image], Political Foundations of Edutech, November 2009, viewed 4 December 2013, <http://politicalfoundationsofedutech.pbworks.com/w/page/492653/Cyborgs>

Case, A 2010, Amber Case: We Are All Cyborgs Now, TED.com, January 2010, viewed 18 November 2013, <http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html>

A future blogger blogging about the future?

Oh hello readers!

Has the title confused you? Well this is my first attempt at blogging and I'm a little confused myself. Once upon a time I had big dreams for my very own food blog where I would recreate restaurants signature dishes. Maybe this social media experiment will inspire me and I will become the next Grab Your Fork? Or maybe not. I've always been more focused on the eating rather than the...

Source: Elite Daily 2013

Regardless of how my future plays out, what I want to focus on is the future of blogs. In just a few decades, we have witnessed the demise of traditional media and the rise of social or 'new new media', and with it...blogs. 

Consider how influential blogs are these days. Reading this list, are there a number of websites you access regularly if not daily?

Given our new found dependence on social media, how do you think blogs will be affected by the following areas:

1. Censorship
2. Privacy
3. Advertising

(I would elaborate if this was part of the assessment, but I am just trying to familiarise myself with the technical aspects of blogging).

Bye for now,

Lisa

Reference List
'Generation whY!? Stop Taking Pictures of your Food' [image], in Elite Daily 2013, April 15, viewed 3 December 2013, <http://elitedaily.com/humor/generation-stop-pictures-food/>

'Technorati Top 100' 2013, Technorati.com, viewed 3 December 2013, <http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/>