Internet Addiction

So I will admit it. After teaching about internet addiction in a variety of articles and texts, from Sherry Turkle to those New York Times articles about how obsessed we all are with being plugged in, I had to do a little self-evaluation. In fact, this class has made me think about my own problems with the Web.

First things first. I spend too much time on gchat. The days when I go invisible, I get 1000% more done.

Second, Facebook really does make me feel bad about myself. Like, legit. Just like that Slate article, when I go on Facebook I often see the following - and this is age specific, I suppose:

1) Tons and tons of wedding photos (from weddings I couldn't go to, or ones I wasn't invited to...can't tell which is worse)

2) BABIES. SO MANY PEOPLE HAVING BABIES.

3) Professional stuff. People publishing new academic articles, people writing books, people getting broad acclaim for say, being interviewed in the Washington Post.

It's intimidating to know, for instance, that my friend Ari Cohen is now a producer for a show on the Oprah Network. My friends Graham Sack and Adam Perlman are in the final stages of making their way through a super competitive screen-writing competition. To name a few. It's all very very exciting. But scary nonetheless. My college classmate Vin Vacanti's Yipit is going to make a killing now that Groupon's IPO has been show to have so many flaws. (BTW, check it out, it's awesome. My friend Lucien Smith narrowly lost a bid for state treasurer in Mississippi.

I don't talk to Graham or Ari every day, and ran into Vin randomly last year --and have supported Lucien over Facebook- So I guess you could say I see them on Facebook. So I wonder, if I cut Facebook out, would I miss this knowledge? Or would I feel in a bubble, rocking my own accomplishments?

At the end of the day, though, I'm inspired by what my classmates are able to accomplish. It's great. But I should definitely spend less time on Facebook, gchat, and all the rest, and more time focusing on my students and my research.

I think about what I used to procrastinate by doing before we had wireless, and I'm sure it was just stuff like talking on the phone and wandering down the college hallways, or listening to music. So I'm not sure it's all that different now that I'm always wired. But still, I KNOW how much time goes away.

So when we talk about addiction, we're also talking about social connection - but we're also talking about emotions, and procrastination, and a lot of complicated things.

RIP Amy

Sharing Explicit Content - For Teaching Purposes

So today I ran into an interesting dilemma: in addition to having our guest speaker, Nisha Chittal, from the Travel Channel, talk to us about social media marketing, we're also talking about stupid idiotic stuff one shouldn't do on the Web.

So articles I've sent out include references to drugs: but in the context of failing a social media background test. Some students said they think they've had them, but they don't know.

Then I sent out the article that really got USC going last year: the sexist frat boy article that came out over a discussion list. It's horrible. A lot of women can't get through it. Maybe a lot of guys too. But it was intended to show what happens when you think the things you send are private.

It just freaked me out to send these things to students, but they were for pedagogical reasons, and it's OK, especially in the context of how not to destroy your life using social media and navigating life on the Web. But still, I feel like I have some responsibility to keep things PG.



But my students, you guys, are smart. You know, more than your professors think, that you shouldn't be doing stupid stuff. Maybe that's why you're all taking this class - you're ahead of the game. You do social media work for Congressional offices and for sports marketing places and Fortune 50 companies.

So the message I got from above: "Scare the daylights out of them" was completely unnecessary.

BUT: It isn't all about privacy.

One of the interesting things Nisha pointed out, though, was that students shouldn't be on Facebook lockdown, and that Twitter should be an open place.

You should be promoting your voice, your brand, and your Google presence. Don't let Google control you. Appear smart, articulate, and control your presence. Don't be afraid to brag. And share content that you think builds you as a professional.

Great advice.

Dispatches from Todd: Confessions of a Blogging Latecomer

I must admit: it takes me a while to appreciate something. It’s not that I’m not aware of things when they happen. But to really understand, appreciate, and eventually love something, I usually have to give myself some time. It took me until their fourth album to realize thatRadiohead was my favorite band in the world. It took me viewing after viewing of his films to realize that Stanley Kubrick is the greatest film director that ever lived. And although I had been to every home game throughout my college life, it took me graduating from college to realize how important a part of my life Penn State football is.

And so it also went with social media. I remember hearing about Facebook when I was a sophomore at Penn State. Like most things, I was skeptical. “You’re telling me to sign up for a site where I put up all my personal information on the internet for all to see? Why?” My private nature could not comprehend the need for such a thing. Eventually, after seeing how other people used it and how vital it can be in connecting to and meeting others, I caved. Now I check my wall every few hours and sometimes learn more about people through their Facebook Profiles than I do actually speaking to them. (Is that sad?)

The relationship between blogs and I followed a similar path. Again, I had friends in college who started blogging early and, again, I could not comprehend why. I thought of blogs more as online diaries where people wrote their innermost thoughts for all the world to see. My private side once again got the better of me and shielded me from seeing the other possibilities blogs can bring. When I left college and started working for Dscape Interactive, a media company in New Jersey, I started to see the value of blogs. This value came in various forms: information,entertainment, and, most importantly for my purposes at the time, business (Benjamin Moore was one of our clients).

So now, as we start this semester and you begin to cultivate your blogs, I am very excited. From what I have read so far, food and drink, sports, and pop culture seem to be the biggest themes, however the variety between all of them is great! I hope that my appreciation for blogging grows as I get to delve into what each of you are interested in. I have already learned a lot about pizza (thanks Lauren!), photography (thanks Sandi!), and fancy, overpriced Aqua gel bags (thanks Alec!), and am looking forward to see what else you guys can come up with. If you haven’t already, remember to include lots of links, blog rolls, and about pages so that we can learn more about you. In the end, though I may have been a latecomer to blogs, like everything else in my life, I am now a huge fan and I’m sure my appreciation will grow when we get to see what your blogs can expand into throughout the semester.