Where have you been?

Looking for a good place to eat? Trying to find where your friends are going out for the night? Traveling in a new city and curious about what's around? Just pop out your smartphone, pull up Foursquare, and all of your answers are right there!

I was quick to adopt the use of Foursquare, and have been addicted ever since. I don't know what is so fulfilling about getting imaginary points for simply going about your daily business, but something about it just makes you feel good. Not to mention the potential for gaining mayorships and discounts at local shops.  

Another 'perk' Foursquare gives you is the ability to earn badges. Oh the badges, there's badges for just about everything. If you check into 10+ movie theaters you get a 'zoetrope' badge. If you check into 3 places with photobooth you get a photogenic badge. It's nice getting rewarding for things you're doing every day even though the rewards don't really transfer into real life. 

Foursquare is primarily for smart phone users, however there are ways to get around this by using the mobile site on your computer to check into your location. 

Foursquare users have also taken it upon themselves to create 4square meet-ups. Users will decide a location for everyone to meet at and then everyone goes and checks in together. It's a way for people in a city to get out and meet other locals! Plus if enough people show up to the event, you can earn a swarm badge.

For examples of meet ups in Indy and who's the reigning champs of points for the week check out FourSquare Indy's website!

Why do you need a Second Life?

This week in class we have been learning about Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual reality game where players create avatars and live a literal "Second Life." For the most part it is the same as real life, with a few minor exceptions such as you can fly. Second Life, to me, seems like a waste of time. I already more or less have a "second life" just by having all of my social networks that I have to constantly keep up with.

However, some people have taken Second Life to the next level by making a living off of it and almost made it their first life. Take Anshe Chung for example. She managed to take Second Life and invest her time and money into being a realtor to other avatars on Second Life and she is now a millionaire. In Second Life, you buy money using real US dollars and then can also make money by selling things. Anshe has built an entire world around her real estate and her Second Life homes go for big money, making her in turn a millionaire.

The fact that this is possible absolutely blows my mind. I do not see what these people are doing with their money, why they are spending it on a fake self online as opposed to investing it in their real lives. However, if they enjoy doing it more power to them. The world will always baffle me.

Do You Digg?

The World Wide Web keeps growing every day and keeps allowing us to make it more personal for ourselves. With each new creation there are ways to incorporate yourself more into the web and take part in the Internet.

Social Bookmarking sites, such as Digg and Reddit are a perfect example of this personalization of the Internet. Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to "bookmark" or save links that they are interested in. From there, they can share their bookmarks with other users. Some social bookmarking sites have a ranking system where people can vote the story up or down on the social bookmarking sites page, and then the stories with the highest ranks are the ones featured on the front page. This is where the sites above come in.

Digg is considered to be "the largest focus group." The top stories that are featured are (supposed to be) chosen by the rank of how many "Diggs" they get.  Digg's website explains, "Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by our community (that would be you). Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see. "

If you look at it that way, essentially us, the users are deciding what we deem newsworthy. This definitely has it's perks. A complaint throughout the ages has been that the news community never really has the readers in mind and only reports on what they want to. This system is controlled by the readers, who vote for  what they deem newsworthy and hopefully get that featured for all to see.

Now just because something doesn't end up on the front page doesn't mean no one reads it, there is always  to each his own. You can also personalize  your Digg to categorize posts and make it easier to browse the news.

Digg and other social bookmarking sites, such as StumbleUpon which literally brings you to a random website at a click of a button based on basic preference information you gave when you signed up, contribute heavily to the info snacking age we seem to be a part of.

Will Digg and such sites completely trump the news for people's sources of information? Probably not for a while, if even ever, but it does give the consumer a fresh new way to consume and create their news.

The Internet Celebrity

This week we read about "Dating on the net" among various other things. It was discussed how people often make fake personas to seem more appealing to other users on the internet and that got me thinking about the new era "celebrity."

So many people you see in the magazine and obviously the internet can be deemed "internet celebrities." They somehow caught the publics attention enough (or shoved themselves in the public's face enough) to catch on like wildfire and make a career out of it.

That being said, I decided to google "How to become and internet celebrity" and found a couple websites. They are a bit sarcastic and joking in some areas, but still pretty accurate none the less.

Instructions for being an internet celebrity 1

Instructions for being an internet celebrity 2

Instructions for being an internet celebrity 3

It is kind of unreal how some of these people skyrocket to fame. Take Tila Tequila the claimed "most popular artists on myspace." With a myriad of bikini clad pictures and music she became everyone's "friend" and now she has a record deal, multiple tv deals and who knows what else. Some people even become internet stars accidentily. Through the easy accessibility of the internet and websites such as Digg people's stories and viral videos can spread twice as fast and be brought to the public's attention, making whoever or whatever is the subject of the video a star.

Before internet fame

After

That being said, be careful what you post on the internet (or not), or you just might end up being the next internet sensation.

The Internet Is Ruining our Children's Lives

"The Internet is ruining our children's lives." You hear it all the time. People blame the internet for children's problems in today's society. While the internet may definitely add to some problems it is definitely not the source and sole cause of the problem at all.

Outside of class we watched Growing Up Online a Frontline program about a handful of different teenagers and their stories of their lives and how the internet affected them. While the stories told are not the only cases of things like that happening, I'm sure, it still only represents a handful of kids.

One of the stories was about a girl named "Autumn" created a whole online persona for herself completely without the knowledge of her parents and launched a whole new life on the internet. While the internet definitely allows for easier access for something like that, it is not like children were not sneaking off in the middle of the night or lying to their parents before the internet came around.

Honestly, how the internet affects children's lives really lies heavily upon the parents. I'm definitely not saying that parent's should have 24/7 access to everything their child is doing (like Cam's mother in the Frontline story) but they should be involved enough in their child's life to make sure that they are doing alright. Parent's should also make sure in younger children especially to monitor how much time is allowed on the internet and make sure that their kids still get to grow up playing outside and using their imagination rather that staring into a screen all day.