Tag Archive for 'twitter'

From Newspapers to Newsreaders: The Quest for Contemporary Eclecticism

Published on December 12, 2008 in New Media, New Politics?, Politics, Tech and Tufts. 1 Comment Tags: election, microblogging, Politics, twitter.

Here’s my final exam (blog post) for my favorite class this semester at Tufts. Just so you don’t get confused, Alex is the name of the instructor for the class. You’ll be able to figure everything else out. I like this post a lot, so maybe you will, too.

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Much of our classroom discussion over the last semester was premised on the future of “old media”, especially newspapers, which are currently hemorrhaging funds. We came to a general consensus that they may transform into something resembling an online content portal/filter, coasting off of their huge brand for readership. Many speculate that this will generate enough income to sustain pieces of “traditional journalism” into the future. As we speculate, we wait for something big to happen – a giant to fall. For better or worse, it may happen sooner than you think.

Throughout the semester, we analyzed a handful of trends like these – from the supersonic two-hour news cycle of this last election to Clay Shirky‘s tagline, “the power of organizing without organizations”. We observed how blogs were pushing stories to the forefront of traditional media and how investigations from these traditional sources trickled down to the partisan blogs as evidence that fit into their distinct frame.

Although we covered so much in our lectures, readings, posts, and discussions, looking back, I feel that we took an important aspect of our changing media world for granted. That is, how does an individual consumer of information fit into all of this? How does this changing landscape affect our responsibility to ourselves and each other as consumers?

On the first day of class, Alex had us take the Gladwell Test, to see whether we were “connectors” – people with a certain threshold of connections to others, vital for networking. A related topic is that of the thought leader, someone who has a substantial intellectual influence on the people in his or her life. Some of us were dubbed “connectors”, but many of us weren’t. However, due to our shared interest in politics and world affairs, I’m willing to bet we all influence (read: we’re thought leaders) for our friends and family on a day to day basis.

Similar to how many of us see the future of the newspaper as a filter, we are information filters to many of the people in our lives. It’s an enormous responsibility for citizens of a democracy – one we should take seriously. In addition to talk over dinner, much of the technology we discussed all semester enables us to pass stories, comments, and opinions on to others. Although many of us will cease blogging after the semester ends, it’s trivial to continue. Microblogging sites like Twitter or features like the status message of Facebook make it effortless, perhaps even addicting.

In one of my favorite books, The Assault on Reason, former Vice-President Al Gore argues that democracy is only sustainable in a nation with a healthy marketplace of ideas, where information flows freely and the citizenry can discern the media’s intent. Clearly, information flows more freely than ever. The two traditional barriers to the consumption of information in our democracy, money and time, have been diminished. The financial barrier has collapsed as ads take the place of subscriptions, and as cellphones get smarter, we’re more connected than ever.

However, as Kevin begins to ask in his final post, are we better off? With content slanted to specific viewpoints, you can get any story framed exactly the way you want it. The potential for niche blogs to contribute to extreme political polarization is frightening, and therefore, we must be vigilant in our individual efforts to avoid this pitfall.

As a result, I propose that each of us forms our own media and information consumption strategy. Throughout our lives, we’ve been taught study, fitness, and organizational strategies. Yet, I’m confident that I’m not the only person who was never formally educated on achieving contemporary eclecticism.

My advice on this subject is in no way profound or original, but circumstances make it worthy of writing here:

Read. Read a lot. Read a lot from many sources.

Sure, you can read sites that share your personal political views. And yes, it’s great to read elite media or non-partisan blogs for analysis of complicated situations. But, why not try subscribing to a feed whose content you normally disagree with? Assuming it doesn’t inspire you to violence, you will learn more about yourself and the world than you could by solely reading what you want to read.

Today, you’re the media outlet. Remember, you’re more important to your friends and family than most newspapers and TV shows. Develop and challenge your worldview by reading dissenting opinion. Subsequently, go out and be the filter you want to see in the world. Perhaps you’ll accumulate some followers who trust you to help shape the person they’re becoming; enjoy the power, but use it wisely.

Feeling Fantastic

Published on November 27, 2008 in Boston, Dover and Tufts. 3 Comments Tags: Boston, Dover, thanksgiving, twitter.

As you can see, I haven’t written on the blog in a long time. That’s okay. I’ve given myself permission to slip, to fall, and get back up again. Let’s not dwell on it, because really, I write when I need to write and never for the sake of writing. My life doesn’t start or end on this blog; there’s always Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm, if you’re wondering what I’m up to.

Now that I’m back home in my bedroom in Dover, life has slowed down for me significantly. Let’s catch up!

Academically

I’m doing well at Tufts academically. After my first set of midterms, I had a huge panic that involved the expectations I was setting for myself in a more challenging environment than I was accustomed to at Dover High School. After some work in managing my expectation and tightening my studying skills, I’m growing happier with how I’m doing.

My classes are challenging, and I’m learning so much, both “inside and outside the classroom”. Although I find that phrase very cliché, it’s cliché because it’s true! Always being surrounded by highly motivated people was initially terrifying, but now that I’ve gotten more accustomed to it, I thrive off of it. I’m only just beginning to grok the plethora of opportunities I have at Tufts, and the most exciting of those opportunities are my peers.

On a more serious note, over the last 13 or so weeks, I’ve been studying in Tufts’ School of Engineering. For better or worse, although I tend to think better, I’ve decided to transfer to the School of Arts and Sciences. I’ve decided that I have so much more to study, so much more to learn in so many different areas, than the focused course disciplines in Engineering can ever give me.

Personally

I’ve been having a wonderful time in the backyard of Boston, as I like to call Medford. In the last three months, I’ve seen more and done more than I ever could have back in Dover. The list of people and groups I’ve seen includes Jonathan Coulton (with the wonderful Paul and Storm), Death Cab for Cutie, Nicholas Negroponte, and Barack Obama.

The new friends I’ve made at Tufts are delightful and charming people, and although I already miss them all, it’s great to be back home. I’m overjoyed to be spending time with my family (and dog!), and I’ve been catching up with my hometown friends, which is always a pleasure.

Giving Thanks

It’s no coincidence this post is going up on Thanksgiving in the United States. In a funny way, this is my way of giving thanks to all of the people and circumstances that have made my life amazing over the last three months.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that the people and circumstances in your life are healthy and pleasant, as well.

Tonight

Published on November 4, 2008 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: Obama, twitter.

If you want to know what I’m thinking as results come in tonight, watch me on twitter.

aim buddy updates beta

Published on August 15, 2008 in Social Media and Tech. 0 Comments Tags: aim, aol, away message, buddy updates, microblogging, twitter, web 2.0.

I rarely put post titles in all lower-case, but since this is an article about web 2.0, peer pressure kicked in. I figured I’d try to fit in – you know, be hip? Lower-case letters are “hip”, right?

My Relationship with AOL

I’m weird when it comes to social networking and online presence. In my crowd of “real life” friends, I’m one of very few people with a twitter account. In that respect, I suppose I’m forward-thinking. However, it wasn’t until very recently that I set up a myspace account. My “protest” wasn’t all that visionary, I admit. I needed to suck it up, it being my loathing of poor design, obnoxious advertising, and Rupert Murdoch.

In my computing history, the last five years, I’ve had one constant – AOL Instant Messenger, AIM. From the very beginning, AOL has been in my computing life. My family used AOL as our ISP for a few months before moving up to high-speed Internet access. In that time, AOL’s stronghold on the dial-up market established them as the instant messenger of choice for all of my born-in-the-90′s friends. Although I’ve long since dumped the official AIM client in favor of Pidgin or Adium, you’ll almost always find me on AOL’s network.

AIM Buddy Updates

AOL made a very interesting play that just came to my attention. The company launched a service called Buddy Updates, a status (away) message and buddy profile archiving feature. For someone used to having all content (away messages, buddy profiles) lost forever after alteration, this is a game-changer.

Although I feel ridiculous writing this, some people (rather foolishly) feel that AIM status messages are the last place they can quickly create content that won’t come back to bite them. With the default configuration of AIM Buddy Updates, this is no longer true. Before panicking, note that this feature is opt-out. Just go to the Buddy Updates website and login with your AIM username and password. From that interface, you’ll be able to shut the service off, but AOL’s hoping you’ll browse your friend’s recent activity (everyone), look at your content (just me), or setup the service (setup).

Impact?

AOL, a company that’s hemorrhaging money, is still making plays into Web 2.0. The idea of archived microblogging will be new to many users of AIM, but Buddy Updates still targets the more advanced social media user. That is, at the setup screen, users can add other web services, a la FriendFeed. Big names include Twitter, Blogger, LiveJournal, Flickr, del.icio.us, YouTube, and MySpace. Yes, the omission of Facebook eludes me, too.

I have few complaints about FriendFeed, but competition is almost always good. Even if it’s just another redundant web 2.0 service, I think AOL is welcome to the party of content aggregation.

US News and World Report, Media Literacy and Social Media

Published on April 11, 2008 in College Admissions, Press Appearances and Ricky. 8 Comments Tags: christopher penn, financial aid podcast, Social Media, social networking, student loan network, twitter.

Surprise! I’ve been “featured” in an article from US News and World Report about the student loan industry!

Click here and read the article for yourself before reading my commentary. Be sure to take some time and analyze it. I never want to impose my opinions on anyone and I’d like your honest feedback. I think the article raises concerns about marketing, media literacy, and social media.

Some Thoughts

The article you just read involved my Internet-based quest to find information about financial aid and my relationship with the Financial Aid Podcast and its parents company, the Student Loan Network.

I’ll be forthright with you; I’m not disturbed by the article, but I’m not pleased with it either. I think it paints me as a typical student, taken advantage of by clever marketing. It juxtaposes a positive story of me getting a serious question answered with the threat of biased information. Luckily, we live in an age where any individual can share his or her side of a story with a blog; that’s my goal for this post.

The story I shared with Kimberly Palmer, the article’s author, is approaching its happy ending. Although I myself am biased, I strongly believe this isn’t an instance of me getting taken advantage of. After my Dad lost his job last year, I needed to communicate this change of income to my colleges. I felt that the CSS/Profile application didn’t go far enough in this regard, and wanted to make sure I did this properly. Being a loyal listener to the Financial Aid Podcast, I sent Christopher Penn an email to see if he could help me out.

Within hours of the next morning, I had dozens of emails sent to me by financial aid professionals. For me, a student panicked about the entire financial aid process, this was tremendous. For that, I was and am very grateful. Thanks to my academic rigor, some preparation, and information from the Financial Aid Podcast, I’ve been accepted to some great colleges with some stellar financial aid packages.

As Kimberly wrote in the US News article, I would turn to the Student Loan Network for a private student loan. Here’s the ultimate irony; it appears unlikely that I’ll even need a private student loan for college.

Where I Take Issue

The forth paragraph of the US News article is what I consider the offending paragraph.

But consumer advocates are concerned that students may not realize or consider that these educational messages are coming from people who want their business, not unbiased sources. “It looks a little bit too much like disinterested information when in fact it is a student loan company…. There’s a conflict there,” says Robert Shireman, executive director of the Project on Student Debt, of the Student Loan Network’s website and podcast. (Penn says the company affiliation is always clearly displayed.)

Conflicts of interests are always a problem. In my own high school career, I’ve had to step back from situations involving different parties I’m affiliated with for ethical reasons. A student loan company putting out information on financial aid and painting it as pro bono would most certainly raise concerns. However, in the case of the Financial Aid Podcast, there is a clear disclaimer at the beginning of every episode.

The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

As a result of that disclaimer, I take everything from the podcast with a grain of salt – as should every other listener. Fortunately, Christopher’s style of marketing in the podcast revolves around plugging (or mentioning) other properties of the Student Loan Network, often prefaced with, “I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of our services, X.”

These are clear and upfront disclaimers. In my opinion, marketers will always be marketers. It’s their job to manipulate you into purchasing their product or service, and this isn’t arguable. This may or may not be a problem depending on one’s personal philosophy, but I’ve grown to accept it. If I ever felt that the helpful content of the Financial Aid Podcast was compromised by slanted information, I’d refuse to listen to it.

This notion of marketers masking their intentions is sidestepping the real issue.

Media Literacy

Wikipedia claims that media literacy uses “an inquiry-based instructional model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, see and read.” Media literacy is a fundamental skill in a functioning democracy, one that students evidentially aren’t taught these days. Al Gore speaks about this at length in one of my favorite books, The Assault on Reason. He argues that democracy can only exist in a country with a healthy marketplace of ideas, where the citizenry can discern the media’s intent.

The fact that an article like this even needed to be written is a sad statement on the current affairs in our nation. One must always be critical of someone trying to sell them something. The very motivational Randy Pausch claims that the same reasoning applies to something as complicated as a romantic relationship. He gives simple advice for women dealing with men who they suspect are romantically interested in them.

Don’t listen to a word they say. Observe their actions.

It’s actions that build trust, not words. If we’re on the Internet, what constitutes as an action?

Building Trust with Social Media

Again, quoting Wikipedia.

Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings. … Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video.

I wrote earlier that I’d turn to the Student Loan Network for a private student loan, if necessary. I trust them because I trust the CTO of the company, Christopher Penn. Why is it that I’d trust a man that I’ve never met?

Like other social media pioneers, Christopher is transparent. Much like myself, he has two very important things, a personal blog and a twitter account. Personal blogs let people express their thoughts, long-form; it’s exactly what I’m doing right now! This pales in importance, however, to feedback and responding to feedback, usually in the form of comments. Responses and gestures are actions, and these are clear-as-day on twitter.

Twitter

There are those who get twitter and those who don’t. If you don’t get it, watch Twitter in Plain English.

If you read someone’s quasi-stream of consciousness for long enough, I think you can confidently judge his or her character. There are twitterers out there who I wouldn’t want to come close to and there are others who I’d pay to have lunch with. I’ve read the tweets of dozens of different people and I’ve followed and unfollowed them depending on their usefulness to me and their personal values.

It’s this transparency that lets me confidentially put my trust into a person, and thus, his or her company. If all students could learn to discern who is worthy of their trust and who isn’t, the problem addressed in Kimberly’s article would disappear.

The Takeaway

The ultimate lesson from this all is different depending on whether you’re the content creator or the content consumer. Creators should strive for transparency using social media tools and networks while consumers should always keep a critical eye on these creators. If both sides make a decent effort to do these things, our world would be a better place.

This is what I wish the US News article had discussed.