Losin’ It using Social Media
Two weeks ago I went to a conference called South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas. Some of you may have heard of the South by Southwest (or SxSW) music festival–well this grew out of that and it’s now 3 weeks of Film, Interactive, and Music. I only had a pass for the Interactive, but that meant 5-6 sessions per day, of which I generally had 10-12 choices, plus a great many evening networking parties ranging from Karaoke to Storytelling (I attended both of these), to a manicure party, to just hanging out and drinking–it was warm enough to be outside all but the last day, which made it better than Saratoga anyhow.
Most of the people who attended work somehow in online media and most of the speakers had written popular books about new media or technology. Unlike Empire’s own All College conference I went to last week in Saratoga, or the Popular Culture Association Conference I’m speaking at this week in St. Louis (yes, my life is so glamorous), most people who attended were not academics. They worked for companies that develop things like Google or Twitter, or for companies that use social networking for marketing, advertising or public relations. There were also a lot of journalists, along with some film, television, and music people who attended other parts of the conference.
The importance of social media is nothing to sneeze at. Watch this video, by Erik Qualman, one of the speakers I saw, and the author of Socialnomics to see why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8
I don’t know how many of you use tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, or how many of you have a TiVo, but marketers are trying to find ways to get you to use applications like those more, and to harness the power and expertise of “your friends” to market to you, to help you do searches, even to recommend television shows to you through your DVR. Personally, I’d be freaked out if my friends could see what I was watching on TV (mostly because I have the sort of friend who say they never watch, even if they do, and some I really believe do not–they don’t even own one), but these speakers all seemed to think it would be a good idea. What do you all think?
One of the best speakers I saw, and the most relevant to this course, was 
the first keynote address (there was one each day), Danah Boyd. She has a chapter in this book: Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media . She writes about “digital kids”–kids who have grown up using social media, and simply take it at a matter of course that their lives will be lived somewhat online. Her talk was called “Privacy vs. Publicity” and she talked a lot about how kids use the Internet to promote themselves, even if it means things like providing sexy photos of themselves or describing themselves doing provocative things. Privacy, she said, is all about control and feeling safe. Social media, however, requires vulnerability–we have to share something about ourselves or it isn’t interesting to be anyone’s friend. The question is where to draw the line.
She said something I thought was profound “Adults worry about what they have to lose when using social networking, young people what they have to gain.” Girls and young women think they’re going to be discovered like Tila Tequila was, and end up with a modelling contract or TV show, so will put up the sexy photo. Those of us who have been around a bit longer worry more about what a potential employer or admissions counselor at graduate school or a date or new friend might see. What are those of you with daughters (or nieces or young friends) telling them? How are you monitoring what they are doing and how are you teaching them to monitor themselves?
Because I tend to get assigned mentees who want to be communications professionals, I also attended a few sessions for journalists. Most of the social networking types were very self-confident, good looking, people in their late 20s and early 30s. The journalists looked a lot more beaten down by life, as well they should be given the state of that profession. For any of you considering that path, I asked what they wish they knew how to do now that actual journalistic writing has become such a low-paying profession (thanks to all the magazines and newspapers than have tanked or gone completely online). Lots of people these days write for free or for very low wages, hoping to get “discovered” and given a book contract or paid online column.
I was told 1. Be a great editor-lots of the articles are being written now in India, and they will pay for people who can turn that into readable American prose, 2. Technical writing–if you can translate “tech-ese” into readable prose, you’ll always be in demand, and 3. Languages–if you can translate an article from a foreign language into English (not Spanish, there are too many of those already), there will be demand for you.
Photos:
Socialnomics book from www.socialnomics.net
Danah Boyd on Global Nerdy
http://www.soozmedia.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/sxsw-interactive-2010.jpg
carol7212 replied:
First, I would have to say I really would not care if everyone knew what I was enjoying on television however, I would be a big liar. If my husband and I wanted to watch something a little spicy or a lot spicy, I would like to have the choice of keeping this to myself so maybe if someone asked me if I watch some porn now and again I could lie and get away with it.
As far as social networking and our kids go, this is tough. Sometimes I wonder if they let it all hang out on sites like face book and MySpace because they can be themselves or pretend to be what they hope they can grow into. My little niece has a page on My Space, so the sneak that I am, I had to check it. This kid is thirteen and here she is in her bikini with a profile pretending to be twenty-one from California. She lives on Long Island. Her screen name is Sarah Baby. Unbelievable, however this is Pop Culture. This is what our kids have been seeing repeatedly in the media. Control It? It is just about impossible. However, educate them we must.
March 30, 2010 at 10:30 pm. Permalink.
luvsteph replied:
Nowadays, it seems like the only way one can avoid being searched on the net is by not accessing the web at all. My friend posted a YouTube clip yesterday on her Facebook wall about a teenage girl that had a profile where anyone could basically access it. She added anyone regardless of whether she knew them or not. However, this one guy she decided to deny ended up being her worst nightmare. Because, she had all her personal information open to the public, the man came to her house and murdered her. I personally don’t put any private information on my page except for the city I live in.
March 31, 2010 at 10:40 am. Permalink.
shaggies replied:
Well I really had not thought about the profound statement of Danah Boyd. It is true! I allowed my son’s who are grown now to talk me into opening a Facebook account. Of course when I get emails from someone wanting to be my friend whom I do not know or do not remember from my past, I am incredibly suspicious. I am protective of my information and even the picture, yes only one, I put on. My son told me not to worry, that what it is all about people making friends. His words were “not everyone is out to get you Mom.” Well needless to say, I have not been on in months (I DON’T HAVE TIME). I get emais to join clubs, check out or take tests and play games to test my skill level—who has time for all of this? But this is what our younger generation does. It is a part of their lifestyle. My older son does write poetry and stories and post them on a sight, but I do not think he is looking to be discovered; his writing is mostly for his friends to enjoy.
Anyway, I do have a 16 year old niece who is into the whole social media thing, but her dad has the computers set-up so he can check out everywhere she goes. He is worried about sexual predators. She is a really sweet kid, and is not one of those who puts out provocative pictures. She is a straight A student who wants to be a doctor and seems to have her head on very straight. She is “Geek Chic” without the glasses, and does not seem to care.
I work for a college, and have seen some of the stuff these young girls put on the social networks—UNBELIVIABLE. I guess it is true what Danah Boyd says about adults worrying about what they have to loose and the younger generations worrying about what they have too gain.
April 10, 2010 at 1:21 am. Permalink.
gueneviererose replied:
Social media is good in one way for the next eneration because it IS the future… but it is very scary too. My sister met her husband on a dating site, but I would not recommend that to anyone. Danah Boyd’s statement about the loss one generation sees and the gain the younger sees is true… but isn’t that what happens with all youth when they see adults who oppose something? It’s like when older people say, “I remember when I was in college and we would get trashed.” The same things happen, over and over again, just at different speeds, and with different media… I wonder what our children will be worried about when their kids think MySpace is corny and TXTing is OMG LOL. Ha!
April 14, 2010 at 8:33 am. Permalink.
luvsteph replied:
I have a friend that is a race car model. She’s 28yrs old and promotes herself through MySpace. She records music at the studio and uploads it on her site hoping to be discovered by a music agent. She also has sexy photos uploaded to attract more fans on her page. Her dream is to become a famous musician one day and she reckons she’s not too worried about her image since it’s not pornography. I guess it’s a way of marketing herself but I think it’s a problem when you see young girls that are in middle school engaging in these types of behavior. It’s a bit disturbing to see these young girls half naked on these networking sites.
March 31, 2010 at 11:07 am. Permalink.
reba1234 replied:
A friend of mine set up a Facebook site for me so that I could keep up with friends at home. I kept it up for 2 weeks then forgot all about it. I did not put down any personal information, except my age (I have no problem with people knowing how old I am), I guess by nature I am a private person. But I realize others are not; I have heard of skateboarders getting sponsorship by putting short films on YouTube for all to see, and I guess it attracted the right people. It never really occurred to me that young people, particularly girls would be using the internet to try and get ‘discovered.’ I think that could be quite dangerous, and judging from the comments above me, I am not wrong!
When I started my small company, the people who sold me my domain name said that I should buy privacy rights so that no other company could find my personal information and sell it. My problem was (at the time), why should I have to buy my privacy? If he had a way to secure my privacy, shouldn’t it have been included? It seems that the internet can and is used as a tool for exploitation. With that in mind, I think everyone should be aware of the pros and cons of internet usage.
March 31, 2010 at 9:14 pm. Permalink.
womengirlsmedia replied:
I do think that social networking is all about marketing. Marketing yourself as a commodity for business purposes, romantic purposes or just for friendship. It’s a marketing tool advertising who you are. I’ve used librarything and facebook and blogs. I keep my personal information rather personal, as I want to use some of the online tools, but I am not trying to market myself to make new friends.
So what are teen girls marketing themselves as when they embark on social networking? Are they trying to increase their popularity by seeing how many random friends they can make online? Does this increase their self esteem? The depth of most social networking is rather shallow and not “true” friendship. But the girls involved can get plenty of attention from what they chose to disclose on these sights. But should teen girls be allowed to market themselves in such an unmonitored way? Would these girls share all this information with people waiting in a train station with them? Probably not. We should be educating our teens about what privacy means and why privacy might be important.
April 3, 2010 at 3:49 pm. Permalink.
Dawn replied:
When I was in art school, I used to make money as a life model. One time I was teaching an exercise class at a gym (another part-time gig) when the life guard recognized me. He remembered me posing in his life drawing class. Although, I was never embarrassed about my modeling, I felt exposed in a different way. The exposure in cyberspace would be this times 1000! Too much!!!
April 6, 2010 at 12:01 am. Permalink.
gueneviererose replied:
I was a nude life model for many years after graduating HS and often I asked myself… “with the digital revolution, someone may actually get a picture or a video of this…”. Although it seemed like paranoia at the time, it could have become a reality. Thankfully, other than awesome oil paintings and pastel creations… the experience amounted to nothing more than fantastic artwork.
April 14, 2010 at 8:14 am. Permalink.
Sherri Lever replied:
I wouldn’t want my friends or others to know what I’m watching not for any other reasons but it seems like we are being watched more and more with everything we do. We all know that social media is all around us now and it is spreading. The question is “are we ready?” It was great watching the You Tube video on “Social Media Revolution” because we do know social networking is increasing but I really didn’t realize how much. On Facebook it stated that it “added 100 million users in less than 9 months.” I’m not part of that count…I just don’t like advertising pictures and my personal information. I have problems with security issues and find that sooner or later I would be forced into to being a part of Facebook. It is so true that newspapers are getting smaller and we are actually using the internet more and more today. Don’t get me wrong it is great and eventually like the video mentioned that in the future you will no longer have to do the searching they will find you via social media. Look when on the internet many times the redirection is to another social networking media. It’s not a fad – the more they give us the more we want. I find that eventually I will be a part of the social group because I think down the road I want to open up an internet business and this is the way to go via Facebook by then there will be some type of new media!
Danah Boyd had a lot of interesting facts about where we are going with social media and she enlightens you on things you may not think about. I do monitor my daughter by making sure I have her password and username.
“Social Media Revolution.” You Tube. 30 July 2009.
April 7, 2010 at 6:40 pm. Permalink.
sue replied:
I feel really torn on the whole subject. My son is 17 and is on facebook, he has wonderful family connections, family pictures and contact with people he knows. He’s extremely conservative and I trust he is careful, we have spoken about revealing private information. I have seen some of the pictures that girls put on facebook, etc. from students at school, I don’t think they realize how dangerous it could be. I think they are trying to capture ‘boys’ and friends they are interested in and know. I personally am not on facebook or any sort of site (which I am sure you can tell from my incompetence in wordpress). Friends from work have asked me to join and I haven’t for several reasons, Firstly, I don’t want to get hooked on it, I have two jobs and 12 credits I simply don’t have time. Secondly, I don’t want the exposure, everyone has a friends list and I don’t want to end up somewhere I don’t choose to be. I know people who just go on to see what other people are talking about.
I think this can be an incredible marketing tool and I do want to be a part of the times, if I were to get involved in a business venture I would absolutely use it. Both of my son’s are on ‘online games’ they have made friends (platonic) and play with people from all over, one of the boys is from Florida. My son will play with him and I get involved in the conversation, he’ll say, Hi, Brandon’s mom. So I have a pretty good idea of what there doing.
To go to a conference like this is a world I am not acquainted with, before this class I had no idea that this topic was so involved and how many different avenues it entails. I suppose this means I’m seeing part of the world, ‘out of the box’.
April 8, 2010 at 12:42 am. Permalink.
gueneviererose replied:
What I call the “digital revolution” is taking over our once simple world and ,yes, invading people’s privacy. The idea that hackers can tap into your computer and steal passwords and plug worms and adware to your unit to shoot pop-ups onto your screen like magic… It is quite disturbing. I canceled my MySpace and Facebook account because the privacy settings weren’t enough for me. Twitter is a gossip girls dream and in general, the value of privacy has been buried with everyone’s tape players and VHSs because “advertising yourself” is paramount in the age of technology. Being talked about on the net is better than being seen in public. The amount of hits you can get after posting your flic is almost as good as how many friends you have listed on your cite.
It is unreal. It is scary how much times have changed and I do not agree with how little value is placed on remaining anonymous. If it is WELCOMED, then that’s another story…. But let me ask everyone something. Aside from people knowing what porn you watch or what food you eat… isn’t it even more disturbing knowing that people out there in the waves of society whom you don’t know can know what color hair you have, your favorite place to eat, where you work, and what car you drive? ADVERTISE YOURSELF? Nope. Not me. I think I will stay alive a few more years. 28 is too young to die.
April 14, 2010 at 8:25 am. Permalink.