Social media in real life

A couple of days ago I read this story about C&A who found a way to bring Facebook into the real life. Whenever people like an item on their Facebook page, it is transmitted to a digital device embedded in the clothing`s hanger existing in the real store. This made me think of the digital future and how Facebook has been walking in our lives.

Mark Zuckerberg describes his company as a “social utility“. At first I thought he was exaggerating. But what is happening with the C&A store in Brasil makes me wonder whether I have been wrong or not. In the future, it may become a social utility, helping us choose our clothing based on the “intelligence of the crowd” (e.g. the number of likes a clothing item has gotten).

It is well known that one of Zuckerberg`s targets is to make the Facebook id your identity everywhere (see the high amount of sites on which you can log in using your Facebook account).

How to hide your Facebook status updates

I am sure that all of you want to hide some Facebook status updates from certain friends. Here is how you can do it when you have already a timeline.

1. On your wall there is a feature called “Activity Log“. Click on it.

Pinterest: Individual vs Business

There has been some debate going on during my University seminars about Pinterest and how we can use it.

I will make a parenthesis right here. It seems almost like a trend to be on every social media new platform. I am studying Media Production and we are encouraged to make an account on everything: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest etc. On one side, it is good, because we have to be up to date with everything. You like it or not, it is an important part of the world we live in, especially if you want to work in an online-related field. On the other side, I find it wrong because instead of being pushed to make a bunch of accounts in order to build “a good online reputation”, we should be taught how to make good use of them. We should be encouraged to find innovative ways to use all these social media tools. And here I go back to my argument about Pinterest.

What do you love? by Google

Here it is, What do you love?, an apparently not so new service. It was launched last year and it gathers various other services offered by Google. The interface is simple to use, asking us what do we love.

The Cult of the Amateur

…or how to pretend that the Internet is the evil in our lives.

Andrew Keen is a critic of the Internet. He has a very elitist way of viewing what role the Internet is playing in our lives and the one it SHOULD play.

Here are some of the main points he makes:

• on the Internet you can be anyone. That is why we should not trust the “academic” materials on the web, because we cannot be sure if they are written by an university professor, a dog, or the Easter Bunny. He gives the example of Wikipedia;
•  “the noble amateur” is everywhere on the Internet. It takes time and a high amount of knowledge to become a lawyer, a doctor or a journalist. But in this cyberworld there are “amateurs” without any degree who give their opinion without having any authority;
• the Internet brings the death of music businesses, book businesses, and especially film industry;

Here is what I think about his points: they are highly exaggerated.

Cat destroys iPad

I was intrigued by the video below. The guy actually lets the kitten “play” with the iPad. You must be really rich or really stupid to let a cat scratch like that an over £400 Apple device.

P.S. There is a post coming about why I dislike Apple. So stay tuned!

The old and the new

Nothing of this social media world would exist without our beloved PCs, laptops, smart phones etc. Last semester, a lecture about the histoty of PC made me recall my first experience with my own computer and what I used if for.

I had my first computer when I was 6 years old, in 1997. Yes, you read right. I was a six years old girl fascinated by Solitaire and Mahjong.

The old and the new: Compaq vs Dell

    

I remember my first mobile phone as well. I got this one when I was 13, in 2004. I absolutely loved it. It was a Nokia and I have remained faithful to this brand up until today.

10 things NOT on my Facebook profile

We (and by “we” I mean “people studying media/ PR) all know the old story: be very careful with your online image; a bad experience can ruin your chances to get your dream job. And it is very true. If I were an employer, I would not hire a person who appears drunk in the majority of pictures or who makes racist remarks on Facebook, for instance.

These are 10 things you will not find on my Facebook profile:

Pinterest?

Pinterest seems to be on the lips of more and more people. To be honest, it still confuses me a bit. Below you can watch a presentation about this new social platform by Stephen Davies.

An Interest In Pinterest

View more presentations from Stephen Davies

Now lets take a look at what others do with it.

Ready, steady, go…

Here is my first English blog trying to accomplish two things at the same time: completing my Social Media assignment and making (maybe) myself useful to some of you by explaining what is really going on in this social media world. I am not an expert (yet), but I am studying it. And I am using it all day long. So it is actually my passion put into words and, hopefully, getting me a job in the future.

Why write about social media? As I said, I am studying it  and I am learning more every day. But, more important, I noticed that there are quite a few people out there using these tools and not knowing exactly what they do. That is how sometimes they find themselves in unfortunate situations such as a friend tagged me in a picture when I was drunk and half naked. I asked him to untag me but he/ she would not do it (I invented this example, but you know it is true; we have all got trough something similar at some point).

I will be posting reviews about new platforms and my personal experiences on the web as well. Feel free to give me your opinion on everything. I might not agree all the time but be sure I will respect it.