Tomorrow I will be beginning a small experiment inspired by the fast we tried out earlier in this course. Instead of going on a total fast like the last time, this experiment is constructed to generate data about my thoughts and feelings toward, not being able to connect to social networks and media all the time, with a touch on the large screen on my phone. To do this, I've come up with the idea of making my phone dumb by stripping off all of it's smart features. This means that for a period of 48 hours will be using my smartphone as a regular phone, for only SMS and calls, it will be unusable to search the web for anything, it won't notify me on activity on social media, and I can't use it for killing time checking something or everything that falls into my mind.
So how do I actually feel about this experiment? I've previously posted about my thoughts on the "myself as a heavy user"- experiment, which I wasn't very happy about participating in, this experiment on the other hand, I find very interesting, and that is why I'm going to conduct it! When I think back to my younger years, and to the time I got my first phone, which was when SMS was first emerging, it opened up a whole new world for me! The reason I got this phone, was due my switch to a new school, and my parents wanted me to be able to get in contact with them, and my new friends at this school, wherever I was. The phone was quite limited, and also quite expensive to use, so it was more of an emergency-thing, than for entertainment (that came later when i got my Nokia 5110, which had snake!). In the recent years we have seen the emerging technology of the smartphone, before this period, smart phones (not smartphones!) where primarily reserved for businessmen that needed to check their email and be connected to their business all the time. These phones where powered by Windows Mobile or Symbian, and had internet connectivity, which at this period in time shifted from being by-the-minute (WAP) to a more stable passive but stable (and faster!) connection in EDGE. The cost of data was still so high though, that it still was reserved for the 'important' businesses. Today we have smartphones, which basically means a phone, that is capable of 3. party apps and internet connectivity primarily through the cellular network at 3G or 4G (almost, since LTE is technically not 4G) speeds, speeds that are actually higher than what most people have in their homes. The availability of WiFi-hotspots around the cities and in the homes, made this evolution possible, as people wasn't forced to pay high data-rates at first, but could start out with using the new features, when they were at home, or another place with wireless connectivity. With the recent drop in data rates, we are using our phones like never before, and where SMS was the cash cow of the 00's, data is definitely the cash cow of the 10's!
I have to stop my self before running out of hand with anecdotes.. What I'm trying to say with this, is that the evolution happened so quickly, and for a child growing up with the change, and experiencing it on first hand, it was interesting and exciting! I didn't think about how my usage changed, I just followed along and tried to keep up with the latest technologies (yes, I'm tech savvy, I talked my parents into buying modem, broadband internet, switches, routers and wireless networks for the benefit of the whole family). This has put me in a position where I never really had to make up my mind about jumping onto a new technology, as the evolution was already on-going and coming so fast, that there was no time to take a decision, you could either follow along or step out. But now I believe that we have reached some kind of standstill in the development, as out phones are only getting faster, getting more space and larger screens, the innovation of the market has slowed down, to more of an incremental type of innovation. This gives time to catch our breath and reflect upon our use in the past, and this is what I try to be doing this experiment, reflect on my usage, by taking myself back to the time where i had my first colorscreen phone with a separate camera (my SonyEricsson T310i, what a badboy!), which could send SMS, call and take pictures if I brought the camera along. It was WAP-capable, but since there was really no sites available this can't be transferred till today.
By doing this I'm still connectable, but by forcing myself to use media on my laptop, I hope to see a glimpse of what impact the smartphone really has made to my life, by taking myself on a journey back to the start of the era, and relive the experience, although only for a couple of days.
fredag den 6. december 2013
torsdag den 5. december 2013
Brain dump - Heavy user experiment
I've been thinking about doing two different experiments to gather data for my exam paper. One is to make my smartphone a dumbphone, and stripping it for all it's fancy capabilities, and using it only for SMS and calls. I'll be talking about that in another post. This post will be about the other experiment I've been thinking about: being a heavy user of social media. This experiment will be based on me setting som rules for my social media behavior, where I force myself to comment on others post's as well as posting content xx times a day. This experiment would force myself to do something I don't do a lot; be active on social media! I usually lurk and be passive, I really don't know why I don't use the different media to a higher degree, but I now how I don't want to be perceived on social media; as a person who post everything, all the time! I hate like-hunters, these people whom only post to get likes, and whom get disappointed if they don't get 'enough' likes from their connections. I just don't see the point.
Unless these persons are important to me, and I want to know what they are doing, I block their content, as I think it's kind of irritating that they are posting everything they encounter on the internet, every, useless, unimportant, thing. I don't want to be that type of person! I want to have some kind of distance to my media use, and every move I make on social media is usually thought of for some time, before actually getting posted. I'm trying to have a healthy relationship to my media use, even though this means I seem passive, and that others don't get a lot of information about me and what I do. As mentioned earlier I'm a 'freerider'; gaining the benefits from the media and others, not contributing to the greater 'good' (I really don't believe that there's a good in this, but for the sake of the saying, I use this term here..).
Actually what concerns me the most about being a heavy user for a day or two, is if others would recognize my sudden increased interactivity, or maybe the opposite, that it would be recognized at all, and that it would be a waste, for anyone other than the sake of this experiment? Maybe the overall thought related to this, my change in behavior, is connected to my feeling of being seen on social media? I don't have an urge for showing off, and telling others what I do, and don't need the recognition connected to this, and others commenting on my posts and thoughts. Some would believe this could be connected my fear of not getting any comments or recognition at all, I don't, because as mentioned I don't have this urge, and I see Facebook status updates and other media as something used to say my opinion, and not asking or posting stuff that I want response to, this is simply not how I see these types of media. I use it for other things as well, as chatting or getting information about people, but actually posting to get some kind of interaction is useless to me.
My fear of being seen by some as the person who without any particular reason starts posting stupid things, and commenting without any other reason than just doing it, is what is holding me back. I don't know if it would be healthy for me to try it, and get some kind of 'insight knowledge', but my fear for been seen this way is to high, I don't want to be this person..! I guess this is highly related to my need for managing my social media facade, and maintaining how 'I' is perceived by others on the internet. I don't think I'm doing a lot of maintenance, but this is some of the things I do, and prior to writing this, I really wasn't aware of it. It was more a thought of not showing off, and not having a need to interact this way, but actually it seems like a way for me to manage my facade, and instead of posting and doing stupid things, I do nothing at all. The question is, if it is better to do anything, even the slightest, than nothing?
Unless these persons are important to me, and I want to know what they are doing, I block their content, as I think it's kind of irritating that they are posting everything they encounter on the internet, every, useless, unimportant, thing. I don't want to be that type of person! I want to have some kind of distance to my media use, and every move I make on social media is usually thought of for some time, before actually getting posted. I'm trying to have a healthy relationship to my media use, even though this means I seem passive, and that others don't get a lot of information about me and what I do. As mentioned earlier I'm a 'freerider'; gaining the benefits from the media and others, not contributing to the greater 'good' (I really don't believe that there's a good in this, but for the sake of the saying, I use this term here..).
Actually what concerns me the most about being a heavy user for a day or two, is if others would recognize my sudden increased interactivity, or maybe the opposite, that it would be recognized at all, and that it would be a waste, for anyone other than the sake of this experiment? Maybe the overall thought related to this, my change in behavior, is connected to my feeling of being seen on social media? I don't have an urge for showing off, and telling others what I do, and don't need the recognition connected to this, and others commenting on my posts and thoughts. Some would believe this could be connected my fear of not getting any comments or recognition at all, I don't, because as mentioned I don't have this urge, and I see Facebook status updates and other media as something used to say my opinion, and not asking or posting stuff that I want response to, this is simply not how I see these types of media. I use it for other things as well, as chatting or getting information about people, but actually posting to get some kind of interaction is useless to me.
My fear of being seen by some as the person who without any particular reason starts posting stupid things, and commenting without any other reason than just doing it, is what is holding me back. I don't know if it would be healthy for me to try it, and get some kind of 'insight knowledge', but my fear for been seen this way is to high, I don't want to be this person..! I guess this is highly related to my need for managing my social media facade, and maintaining how 'I' is perceived by others on the internet. I don't think I'm doing a lot of maintenance, but this is some of the things I do, and prior to writing this, I really wasn't aware of it. It was more a thought of not showing off, and not having a need to interact this way, but actually it seems like a way for me to manage my facade, and instead of posting and doing stupid things, I do nothing at all. The question is, if it is better to do anything, even the slightest, than nothing?
søndag den 10. november 2013
Brain-dump #2
This post will be a short 'status'-update on my situation. Since last dump, I haven't even looked at my phone, which mean I don't even know whether there's additional new mail. I have placed my phone at the kitchen table, and there it have been sound asleep for the last couple of hours, no tones or anything. To be hones the thought that it could be dead have touched me. Along with this I got to think on something I find both interesting and frightening; the tracking of our social media use.
The thought came from my brain building scenarios for what would happen, if I kept getting messages (not that it have happened, but just to have some kind of 'plan' for what I would do), since I'm a heavy user of Apples iMessage system, other persons sending text-messages to me, will be able to see (provided that they also use iMessage), whether or not I've received the message, and even if I have read it! This means that people are unable to 'hide' and come up with an excuse for not responding to a given message. The same thing has recently been introduced to Facebook messages, where users are able to see if a message has been read, on what particular platform it was read on, and even the location when the recipient read the message! This kind of tracking is to me quite frightening. I'm aware of different services/apps that can provide others with my location, if I give these others the permission to do so, but at any moment I'm able to disable their accessibility to my location data. This is not an option using these two mentioned forms of communication, either you use the service provided as is, or you don't. This has led me to only use Facebook's messaging service in situations where there was no other option available. This is due the fact that I'm willing to show others if I've read the message (and I want to know if others have read the messages I've sent as well), as I find this option very useful, to both sender and recipient, which is also why I keep using iMessages. As for the location-part provided in Facebook's model, I really can't accept that way of displaying information, at least not, when they don't provide the opportunity to turn it on/off. In fact, they don't even tell the users that the option is enabled by default. I don't think users should have their location tracked in this way, and presented to others as a part of a messaging system, I really don't see the point. Not that I want to hide in any way from the people I interact with, but I don't think it is any of their business where I was, when i responded to or read their message - I just don't see the point.
We're tracking ourselves more than ever, and most of the tracking is used for personal purposes like calories, steps/movement and location for use in navigation. But the point of this information being shared, is weird to me. For the purpose of showing of a running route through RunKeeper or sharing a location to meet up, there is a purpose, both in messaging? Really? And this in a way sums up one of my main thoughts on this whole digital living/identity thing; purpose. I've mentioned my concerns regarding purpose previously, and have tried to be more focused on the purpose in my own use, and then I've started thinking about other kinds of purpose. I have, or at least strive to have, a purpose in my use, and unquestionably so does the service providers. It is no secret that Google makes a living of users searching habits, and Facebook users habits and likings, but I'm struggling to find a purpose for showing this particular information to other users? And where does it stop? Is there a purpose in making everything available to all user, all the time? I don't know, but I'm starting to think that the purposes behind these social media giant's actions, should be clear, and find it more important that they are clear to the users, at least prior to sharing and showing all these other types of information.
As a sidenote; the fast have been easier on me than expected, and I see no trouble in continuing my fast for the rest of the day. (Not said I would be able to do this for a longer period, but as of now, I'm fine with zero-use of internet and social media..)
The thought came from my brain building scenarios for what would happen, if I kept getting messages (not that it have happened, but just to have some kind of 'plan' for what I would do), since I'm a heavy user of Apples iMessage system, other persons sending text-messages to me, will be able to see (provided that they also use iMessage), whether or not I've received the message, and even if I have read it! This means that people are unable to 'hide' and come up with an excuse for not responding to a given message. The same thing has recently been introduced to Facebook messages, where users are able to see if a message has been read, on what particular platform it was read on, and even the location when the recipient read the message! This kind of tracking is to me quite frightening. I'm aware of different services/apps that can provide others with my location, if I give these others the permission to do so, but at any moment I'm able to disable their accessibility to my location data. This is not an option using these two mentioned forms of communication, either you use the service provided as is, or you don't. This has led me to only use Facebook's messaging service in situations where there was no other option available. This is due the fact that I'm willing to show others if I've read the message (and I want to know if others have read the messages I've sent as well), as I find this option very useful, to both sender and recipient, which is also why I keep using iMessages. As for the location-part provided in Facebook's model, I really can't accept that way of displaying information, at least not, when they don't provide the opportunity to turn it on/off. In fact, they don't even tell the users that the option is enabled by default. I don't think users should have their location tracked in this way, and presented to others as a part of a messaging system, I really don't see the point. Not that I want to hide in any way from the people I interact with, but I don't think it is any of their business where I was, when i responded to or read their message - I just don't see the point.
We're tracking ourselves more than ever, and most of the tracking is used for personal purposes like calories, steps/movement and location for use in navigation. But the point of this information being shared, is weird to me. For the purpose of showing of a running route through RunKeeper or sharing a location to meet up, there is a purpose, both in messaging? Really? And this in a way sums up one of my main thoughts on this whole digital living/identity thing; purpose. I've mentioned my concerns regarding purpose previously, and have tried to be more focused on the purpose in my own use, and then I've started thinking about other kinds of purpose. I have, or at least strive to have, a purpose in my use, and unquestionably so does the service providers. It is no secret that Google makes a living of users searching habits, and Facebook users habits and likings, but I'm struggling to find a purpose for showing this particular information to other users? And where does it stop? Is there a purpose in making everything available to all user, all the time? I don't know, but I'm starting to think that the purposes behind these social media giant's actions, should be clear, and find it more important that they are clear to the users, at least prior to sharing and showing all these other types of information.
As a sidenote; the fast have been easier on me than expected, and I see no trouble in continuing my fast for the rest of the day. (Not said I would be able to do this for a longer period, but as of now, I'm fine with zero-use of internet and social media..)
Catching up!
After having fasted for a whole day there is obviously a lot of catching up to do! I checked my phone this morning, to see what I had been missing out on yesterday: 17 mails, 5 Tap-A-Talk (forum) notifications, 2 text messages, 2 Facebook notifications, 1 Twitter notification and 1 Snapchat. It sounds like a lot when written this way, but actually it surprises me, that it ins't more? I would have expected more mails and Facebook notifications, especially when yesterday was saturday! The sad thing is, that my disappointment didn't stop here, as i opened my email app, 9 of the received mails was spam (I have quite some trouble with this lately..), and only two of the remaining had actual and relevant content to be interesting enough to be read, and here I went all day hoping for something interesting to await my attention.. Pff.. Moving on to Facebook, the notifications received (I have Facebook set to only send notifications regarding friends put on my self-created Friend-list) was about one of my friends finally moving on to the real world, becoming a graduate-student (congrats Isak!) and a status-update asking if anybody was going out. Not really that interesting a night it seems.
The funny thing is, many of the thoughts running through my head while the fast was on, was really with no reason, I didn't miss out on anything (except the one text-message regarding a meeting next week, i needed to respond to, but not urgently), everything seemed to progress nicely without me knowing about it, and really, I had a great day, not being mentally pushed to check the media at all times. Of course I've been catching up today, to see what have happened, but to be honest, none of it really seemed interesting enough, and my morning-routine only lasted five minutes. Nothing popped out as important, interesting or relevant - It was more of a 'okay, moving on' kind of feeling.
I don't know how to interpret this at the moment, but I'm feeling that social media ins't as 'important' and relevant to be a part of, as I had thought prior to yesterday?
The funny thing is, many of the thoughts running through my head while the fast was on, was really with no reason, I didn't miss out on anything (except the one text-message regarding a meeting next week, i needed to respond to, but not urgently), everything seemed to progress nicely without me knowing about it, and really, I had a great day, not being mentally pushed to check the media at all times. Of course I've been catching up today, to see what have happened, but to be honest, none of it really seemed interesting enough, and my morning-routine only lasted five minutes. Nothing popped out as important, interesting or relevant - It was more of a 'okay, moving on' kind of feeling.
I don't know how to interpret this at the moment, but I'm feeling that social media ins't as 'important' and relevant to be a part of, as I had thought prior to yesterday?
lørdag den 9. november 2013
Brain-dump #3
As a last thing before going to bed, I've decided to do a last brain-dump with my final thoughts on this day being 'disconnected'. Overall I think that everything went according to plan, if it is possible to have some kind of plan before going into a period of no internet and social media. By this, I men that I had hoped I wouldn't be tempted too much, and at some point be overwhelmed by the urge to check my phone, and see what had been going on in the 'lost' time. I can proudly say that I haven't checked my phone all day! To be honest it was really just the first couple of hours that was/felt, to some degree, the worst. After a couple of hours out of the routine, I really didn't think about checking the phone. I believe this has something to do, with the phone being out of reach, and thereby not tempting me with it's vibrations and notification-tones, but still, the feeling that I needed to check in, hasn't been present all night, even though it is saturday night! Personally I think that is some kind of achievement in itself.
The only time I felt left out in some way, was while I was watching Danish Music Awards, this live TV show had all kinds of references to social media, and some of the prizes was related to online and live voting, plus a lot of hashtags for Twitter and Instagram, providing 'backstage' access. These things were presented in a way, that made me feel like I was missing out on things, that everybody else was able to participate in, but without the different apps and internet access, I was 'stuck' with the 'regular' edition, and all the extras felt like premium subscriber-only content - And the worst part, I haven't even seen it, so I really don't know what I'm missing out on! All these feelings are connected purely to the talked presentation in the show. Maybe the content was bad, or uninteresting, I don't know, but I missed out, on what could have potentially have been awesome stuff? Or on the other hand, I didn't miss out on anything else, than bloatware, and uninteresting crap. I hope for the latter, even though I would have liked to jut have a glimpse..
Oh, and one last thing from this show; they handed out a prize for best 'Innovation', covering an artist's use of social media, to include and give fans an extraordinary experience! Social media really is everywhere nowadays.
By the way, the winner was Nik & Jay, provided snippets of songs from their new album, at certain 'hotspots' in Copenhagen, allowing users to listen through an app, designed for this particular stunt. Interesting approach, even though it doesn't sound that innovative and social media related to me..
The only time I felt left out in some way, was while I was watching Danish Music Awards, this live TV show had all kinds of references to social media, and some of the prizes was related to online and live voting, plus a lot of hashtags for Twitter and Instagram, providing 'backstage' access. These things were presented in a way, that made me feel like I was missing out on things, that everybody else was able to participate in, but without the different apps and internet access, I was 'stuck' with the 'regular' edition, and all the extras felt like premium subscriber-only content - And the worst part, I haven't even seen it, so I really don't know what I'm missing out on! All these feelings are connected purely to the talked presentation in the show. Maybe the content was bad, or uninteresting, I don't know, but I missed out, on what could have potentially have been awesome stuff? Or on the other hand, I didn't miss out on anything else, than bloatware, and uninteresting crap. I hope for the latter, even though I would have liked to jut have a glimpse..
Oh, and one last thing from this show; they handed out a prize for best 'Innovation', covering an artist's use of social media, to include and give fans an extraordinary experience! Social media really is everywhere nowadays.
By the way, the winner was Nik & Jay, provided snippets of songs from their new album, at certain 'hotspots' in Copenhagen, allowing users to listen through an app, designed for this particular stunt. Interesting approach, even though it doesn't sound that innovative and social media related to me..
Brain-dump #1
First brain-dump in my fast. The fast has been going on roughly since 7 o'clock this morning (this means 8 hours by now), and really hasn't effected me that much, or at least, that was what I thought prior to writing this.
Is stated earlier, I've chosen to go all-in, cutting all cords, and staying away from all internet-related activities throughout the day. I would have expected by now to have almost craving-like feelings towards checking Facebook and Twitter, but actually the thing that annoys me the most, is the non-checking of my mail. Right now I have nine unread messages (according to the small icon at my phone, when I need to check the time), and as a person who fights for keeping a zero-inbox this is kind of frustrating! It surprises me that I'm not that concerned about the actual content and senders of these messages, and have convinced myself that since it's weekend, it can probably easily wait a day or two, but my fight to keep the counter a almost none, is postponed and I'd wish I'd find the option to toggle this information off. This has led me to dig out a small case for my phone, in which it can be stored throughout the day, not showing me anything at all. Even though the push-notifications is disabled, the different counters are still showing, wanting me to get rid of them, and I find it quite tempting.. The phone is now tucked in, in the case, and I'm only going to take the phone out, if it starts ringing!
By now I could tell from the tone, that I have received a text-message from someone. I don't now whether I should check it, or just ignore it, but for the sake of this fast, I've chosen to let it sit. I don't know if I am able to keep it unread for the rest of the day, since the thought of it's 'maybe-importance' still takes up place inside my head.
During my previous tracking of my media use, I found that I didn't have a lot of purpose connected to my use, and this bothered me a little. Now, I have a brand new smartphone incoming (from Germany), and the last couple of days I've been tracking it like a mad. This is due the fact that it was posted on wednesday, and the tracking have been showing no movement, whatsoever since! I'm therefore eager to see it move closer to me, and I've been wanting to check for any news since I woke up. This my sound kind of silly, since I'm, as mentioned, aware of it being weekend, which should mean that the package shouldn't be moving anyway. Hopefully great things come to those who wait..
Another thought I had a couple of ours ago, was if I should allow myself to check-in on news-sites. I somehow feel responsible for keeping up to date with the things going on, in the world around me, and as with social media, I don't want to feel left out, of important stuff. I decided it would be okay, to do a quick head-line check on my iPad, and did so. It was quite disturbing. I was hoping for real world, and actual news, and the site I checked has the whole front page plastered with fridays proclaimed 'scandal' in Dancing With The Stars. After a quick glance, I decided this wasn't worth breaking out of the all-in thinking, and that if I wanted news, I should instead turn on the TV watching the news sometime in the evening, for the sake of actually getting informed of real and relevant news. Actually I felt stupid for checking, both for the sake of my fast, but also because of the content displayed, I felt like I was wasting my time with this kind of news, instead of using it on more valuable stuff. Realizing this, I think I'm going to ask my girlfriend if we should go for a walk without our phones, spending time outside 'off the grid'.
fredag den 8. november 2013
All in!
When I first heard that we were going to do a (social) media fast, I was sceptical. I couldn't see how that possibly could be done in the world we live in, were our phones and media play such big parts in our lives. The thought of not being reachable and connected, is in my mind connected to the thought of being left alone on a deserted island! As mentioned previously I'm a 'free-rider' when it comes to social media, which means I really don't contribute a lot. I've come to the conclusion that this could be based in one of two things; either I find myself and what happens in my life too boring to share what is going on in with others, or that I'm very reluctant when it comes social media, and only feel that it should be used with a decent purpose. Especially the second option is highly contrasting with how I use social media, since the most of my time spent on social media, is related to just browsing and reading what happens in other people's lives and what generally is going on within different areas. One thing that strikes my mind is; how would the internet and especially social media be if there wasn't any free-riders like myself? Would it be too crazy and overwhelming if everyone started pouring every single thing they experienced into the social media. Or is the term free-rider open for interpretation? Basically social media wouldn't exist if nobody read what others posted, I'm still reading post, digesting them, and bringing them into my life, maybe sharing the information with others as a base of conversation with mutual friends, so even though I don't contribute, I'm using it in a different way, and maybe thereby actually contributing? Another thought relating to this is that when I don't throw around 'likes' and 'favorites' like they were halloween-candy, don't that just make my opinions more valuable, since they are so rare? Or could it be the other way around, that the decrease in value, since I'm so passive that my opinion really doesn't matter?
I really don't know where to begin, and definitely can't see where to stop, but I had to get these thoughts out there before my next topic; the fast!
We're all conducting a day of fasting, a day with no social media (free passes can be given), and throughout the day have to do some notes and thoughts on how it is going. For this occasion I've decided to go all-in, which means I'm cutting all cords to social media and temptations. I'll be starting tomorrow (saturday) when I wake up, and won't access the social media i usually frequent, until sunday. This means I've had to set up some groundrules for myself;
Fortunately we are visiting my in-laws on the countryside this weekend, and hopefully this could be a fine opportunity to just let everything be, and focus on being social with the people around me. (On the other hand, I fear for not being able to take a break from everything, and know wether interesting is going on, while I'm there behaving nicely..)
I'll post my brain-dumps in readable editions on the blog, after finishing the fast.
I really don't know where to begin, and definitely can't see where to stop, but I had to get these thoughts out there before my next topic; the fast!
We're all conducting a day of fasting, a day with no social media (free passes can be given), and throughout the day have to do some notes and thoughts on how it is going. For this occasion I've decided to go all-in, which means I'm cutting all cords to social media and temptations. I'll be starting tomorrow (saturday) when I wake up, and won't access the social media i usually frequent, until sunday. This means I've had to set up some groundrules for myself;
- Tell my boss that I'm unreachable all saturday
- Mail disabled on computer + smartphone
- Disable all push-notifcations on my smarthphone
- Unmuting my phone, and leaving it somewhere to be haerd in case anyone should call (I don't find calls to be within social media), contrary to carrying it in my pocket all day
- Try to be as much away from computer as possible, to reduce temptation
Fortunately we are visiting my in-laws on the countryside this weekend, and hopefully this could be a fine opportunity to just let everything be, and focus on being social with the people around me. (On the other hand, I fear for not being able to take a break from everything, and know wether interesting is going on, while I'm there behaving nicely..)
I'll post my brain-dumps in readable editions on the blog, after finishing the fast.
tirsdag den 29. oktober 2013
My social media use
As posted on my blog a couple of weeks ago, I had a period where I was left with a dumbphone, since
my smartphone was off for repair, this meant no internet-connectivity or social media apps
whatsoever. This period made think about my daily use of social media, and how they affect my daily
and social life. I therefore decided to cut down on my social media use, and try to be more aware of my
surroundings, trying to push the urge for checking the different media, to the back of my head. This
experience, and the following thoughts have obviously influenced my media use in the past weeks, and
naturally the amount of data gathered in my 48 hour tracking period. Nonetheless I have been tracking
myself for 48 consecutive hours during a weekend, trying to note down every single encounter with
social media, how long it lasted, on which platform it happened and very important; the purpose.
After looking through the small notes I made, and watching the screen capture of my social media routine, I’ve come to different discoveries regarding my social media use. The following section contains some of my observations and my thoughts regarding what happened and why, presenting a type of overview on observations, along with a reflection on my social media use.
When I look through the notes I find it quite obvious that the tracking happened during a weekend, where my use of social media is somewhat different from my use on a daily basis. I have more time to do the stuff I want, which is reflected in my visit to a lot of different forums, where I gather different types of knowledge not connected to my education, but instead to the things I’m interested in such as; cars, games, mobile phones and soccer. Counting the different encounters, I can see that I have visited four different forums (two of them several times), in a total of three hours. In this time I have only posted twice, but been reading countless of threads. Some of these threads have a lot of discussing going on, making me check them regularly for updates, just to keep myself informed. The more ‘traditional’/popular social media as Facebook and Twitter are checked a couple of times a day, not really with a particular purpose, but just to either make me feel updated on the people I know, or to kill time going to the bathroom or waiting on my girlfriend while she tries out new clothes in, what seems like, every single shop in Aarhus. Only one time did I go to Facebook with a real purpose; to coordinate with my BookClub on the readings, everything else I’ve noted down, seems to be ‘stuffing’ throughout my day.
What surprises me the most, is that I’m really passive in my social media use! I love reading and keeping up with a lot of different things and people, but I’m not contributing with anything myself. During the 48 hours I threw in a single ‘Like’ on Facebook and favorited one tweet, the rest of my time on these medias was just information gathering, and from my point of view, my feed is really not that interesting! I seems like my use of social media is more of a keeping up with the world around me, and the feeling that I don’t wan to miss out on everything, I want to know what is happening, and not too late, to feel left out. Until recently I wouldn’t have been able to categorize myself and my use, but after reading most of Howard Rheingold’s; Smart Mobs, I’ve found out, that I’m a ‘free-rider’. This means I want all the benefits, but I am not providing anything in return. I really don’t see myself as such a kind of person, but my use and data speaks for itself, this is what I am in the virtual world.
There is not a long time until we are doing the social media fast, but to me, it would sound more interesting, if it was the opposite! – If I was forced to contribute, and take part in the social medias I use. By forcing myself to find things interesting enough to be ‘shareable’ and make decisions about which would do me and my social network the most good, would, I think, change my view and use of social media.
After looking through the small notes I made, and watching the screen capture of my social media routine, I’ve come to different discoveries regarding my social media use. The following section contains some of my observations and my thoughts regarding what happened and why, presenting a type of overview on observations, along with a reflection on my social media use.
When I look through the notes I find it quite obvious that the tracking happened during a weekend, where my use of social media is somewhat different from my use on a daily basis. I have more time to do the stuff I want, which is reflected in my visit to a lot of different forums, where I gather different types of knowledge not connected to my education, but instead to the things I’m interested in such as; cars, games, mobile phones and soccer. Counting the different encounters, I can see that I have visited four different forums (two of them several times), in a total of three hours. In this time I have only posted twice, but been reading countless of threads. Some of these threads have a lot of discussing going on, making me check them regularly for updates, just to keep myself informed. The more ‘traditional’/popular social media as Facebook and Twitter are checked a couple of times a day, not really with a particular purpose, but just to either make me feel updated on the people I know, or to kill time going to the bathroom or waiting on my girlfriend while she tries out new clothes in, what seems like, every single shop in Aarhus. Only one time did I go to Facebook with a real purpose; to coordinate with my BookClub on the readings, everything else I’ve noted down, seems to be ‘stuffing’ throughout my day.
What surprises me the most, is that I’m really passive in my social media use! I love reading and keeping up with a lot of different things and people, but I’m not contributing with anything myself. During the 48 hours I threw in a single ‘Like’ on Facebook and favorited one tweet, the rest of my time on these medias was just information gathering, and from my point of view, my feed is really not that interesting! I seems like my use of social media is more of a keeping up with the world around me, and the feeling that I don’t wan to miss out on everything, I want to know what is happening, and not too late, to feel left out. Until recently I wouldn’t have been able to categorize myself and my use, but after reading most of Howard Rheingold’s; Smart Mobs, I’ve found out, that I’m a ‘free-rider’. This means I want all the benefits, but I am not providing anything in return. I really don’t see myself as such a kind of person, but my use and data speaks for itself, this is what I am in the virtual world.
There is not a long time until we are doing the social media fast, but to me, it would sound more interesting, if it was the opposite! – If I was forced to contribute, and take part in the social medias I use. By forcing myself to find things interesting enough to be ‘shareable’ and make decisions about which would do me and my social network the most good, would, I think, change my view and use of social media.
lørdag den 26. oktober 2013
Tracking started!
Just to let you know; I've started my media tracking today!
My thought was to start out tomorrow, and have both a weekend-day as well as a regular-day, but as things have turned out, it is more suitable to the tracking today and tomorrow.
I've started out by doing a scheme in my notebook for quick noting, and doing a screen-capture / think-aloud video of my 'morning-routine'.
When I'm done, I'll be posting the most important findings from my notes onto the blog.
Have a nice weekend!
My thought was to start out tomorrow, and have both a weekend-day as well as a regular-day, but as things have turned out, it is more suitable to the tracking today and tomorrow.
I've started out by doing a scheme in my notebook for quick noting, and doing a screen-capture / think-aloud video of my 'morning-routine'.
When I'm done, I'll be posting the most important findings from my notes onto the blog.
Have a nice weekend!
mandag den 21. oktober 2013
Tracking my media use
We have been assigned to do some thoughts regarding how we will track our media use for a 48-hour period, and do a so called 'tracking plan', of how we are actually going to conduct our tracking of ourselves.
This post is about how I am going to track my media use, and what what I have in mind, would be the outcome that I, in a later post, will be talking about in a video post, before I proceed to try out a media-fast, which will also be described in a video (cool right?)
To track myself and my use, I have a whole lot of different (some more or less crazy) ideas, that, in my mind, could be useful and produce an outcome worth of analysing.
Ideas include; Strapping on a GoPro camera, installing video-capture software recording my every move on social media sites, installing a video-capture app on my smartphone, doing a spreadsheet noting everything with exceptional detail or simply just using a notebook to take small, but extensive notes.
To be fair, not all of these ideas would give me a useful outcome, and i have therefore decided to stick with a the more conservative options, and my idea is to spice it up, by doing some screen-capture!
So basically what I plan to do is;
When I know when this whole thing is about to happen, I will let you know. (Since the notes should be posted on the evening of october 25th, I'm rather limited in choosing the period)
This post is about how I am going to track my media use, and what what I have in mind, would be the outcome that I, in a later post, will be talking about in a video post, before I proceed to try out a media-fast, which will also be described in a video (cool right?)
To track myself and my use, I have a whole lot of different (some more or less crazy) ideas, that, in my mind, could be useful and produce an outcome worth of analysing.
Ideas include; Strapping on a GoPro camera, installing video-capture software recording my every move on social media sites, installing a video-capture app on my smartphone, doing a spreadsheet noting everything with exceptional detail or simply just using a notebook to take small, but extensive notes.
To be fair, not all of these ideas would give me a useful outcome, and i have therefore decided to stick with a the more conservative options, and my idea is to spice it up, by doing some screen-capture!
So basically what I plan to do is;
- Pick a 48hour period suitable for tracking
- Sharpen a pen, preparing to note down all my social media encounters in this period. This will include e.g. Facebook, Twitter, forums and blogs)
- Notes will be taken in my small notebook, noting down time of day, the social media, platform, duration and most importantly; purpose! (I will be noting down both laptop and smartphone use, making no distinction, other than platform)
- I will screen-capture my 'morning-ritual', where I do a brief check of my different social media relations
When I know when this whole thing is about to happen, I will let you know. (Since the notes should be posted on the evening of october 25th, I'm rather limited in choosing the period)
onsdag den 16. oktober 2013
I'm ba-ack!
Bottom line, I have sent my phone off for repair today, and I'm actually looking forward to a weekend, as they were prior to the smarthpone invasion, without any 'interruptions' from other peoples statuses or check-ins in my pocket - It will be interesting to see how I feel about this in a couple of days..
I've just been to the PostOffice to pick up my phone, coming back from repair, and there wouldn't be a better time to reflect on the last couple of days, than just before turning the phone back on, right?
Okay, most important finding first; the first day I was so restless! I reached in my pocket all the time, and felt kind of naked without the rather large phone in there. Sometimes I took out my 'new' Nokia dumbphone, just to unlock and lock it again, since it is capable of nothing, but I just had to check and do something! (Kind of frightening?!) But quickly, after the first day, I got used to not pulling out the phone to check everything all the time, and it was actually kind of liberating! Unbelievably quick I went from checking everything, all the time, to just check the different media once or twice a day (this was during the weekend, so I wasn't sitting in front of my computer all the time, but anyway). Yesterday and today I have been checking roughly three-four times a day, and the interesting part is, due to my 'limited' use throughout the day, I'm checking everything in large chunks, instead of all this small-use I usually do.
Overall the weekend was a success! An interesting thing though, was that I was much more aware of my girlfriends use of her smartphone. I don't know if it was because I was missing checking my own, but every time she used her phone, I was sort of aware of her sitting with her phone, using it. I found the use interesting, not the actual content, but which medias she was checking, and why. I could feel her presence decreasing every time she took out her phone, and it was like the whole mood in the room changed, when she used her phone, or when I occasionally took out my iPad.
I would say that being without my smartphone for a couple of days has been quite healthy, and I believe that I'll be much more aware of my use, and especially my presence to the people around me! I noticed a personal change, when not being able to check my phone, and to some degree I found it disturbing when people around me, took out their phones, when in a conversation, "just to check". This experience has made me take a step back, and see others use, and compare it to my own use, and have been quite and eye-opener! (of the more unpleasant kind..)
I've just been to the PostOffice to pick up my phone, coming back from repair, and there wouldn't be a better time to reflect on the last couple of days, than just before turning the phone back on, right?
Okay, most important finding first; the first day I was so restless! I reached in my pocket all the time, and felt kind of naked without the rather large phone in there. Sometimes I took out my 'new' Nokia dumbphone, just to unlock and lock it again, since it is capable of nothing, but I just had to check and do something! (Kind of frightening?!) But quickly, after the first day, I got used to not pulling out the phone to check everything all the time, and it was actually kind of liberating! Unbelievably quick I went from checking everything, all the time, to just check the different media once or twice a day (this was during the weekend, so I wasn't sitting in front of my computer all the time, but anyway). Yesterday and today I have been checking roughly three-four times a day, and the interesting part is, due to my 'limited' use throughout the day, I'm checking everything in large chunks, instead of all this small-use I usually do.
Overall the weekend was a success! An interesting thing though, was that I was much more aware of my girlfriends use of her smartphone. I don't know if it was because I was missing checking my own, but every time she used her phone, I was sort of aware of her sitting with her phone, using it. I found the use interesting, not the actual content, but which medias she was checking, and why. I could feel her presence decreasing every time she took out her phone, and it was like the whole mood in the room changed, when she used her phone, or when I occasionally took out my iPad.
I would say that being without my smartphone for a couple of days has been quite healthy, and I believe that I'll be much more aware of my use, and especially my presence to the people around me! I noticed a personal change, when not being able to check my phone, and to some degree I found it disturbing when people around me, took out their phones, when in a conversation, "just to check". This experience has made me take a step back, and see others use, and compare it to my own use, and have been quite and eye-opener! (of the more unpleasant kind..)
torsdag den 10. oktober 2013
My Social Media use
This post is a combination of brain dumps and thoughts for the last couple of days. The purpose is to try and map out hoe I use the different social media I am connected to, on a daily basis.
It all started with the need for my smartphone to be sent to repair, it wasn't functioning as it should, but as the gadget-freak I am, I was in a huge dilemma! And the one hand I would very much like for my phone to function as it should, but on the other I would not like to be without it for maybe two-three weeks! - And in the meantime be stuck with a 'dumbphone' that has absolutely no features except for calling and texting (you know, features that are the actual main point of having a phone..). These thoughts led me to the conclusion that I should start being more aware of what I actually use my phone for, and if my concerns actually had something to be grounded in.
I started out just trying to be more aware on when I pulled out - which situations would call for the use of social media on a daily basis. This wasn't supposed to be a big well documented thing, more sort of a making-myself-aware kind of thing, where I would try to be more focused on my used, and the actual use, instead of just using away.
Some of the situations I could pinpoint after just a few hours was; when I go to the toilet and when I'm watching television. The first situation constitutes a nice break, and here I am able to check how everything is on my social networks, without anyone watching what I am doing on my phone, to myself I think this is pretty common, and a way of using the 'alone-time' for something interesting (since there really aren't many other possibilities in a bathroom..). The other situation is some kind of strange, as I am already engaged in an activity; the tv watching, but here I often feel the urge to check the phone, simply because whatever I am watching, bores me. The strange thing is, that I can be sitting in my couch with my girlfriend watching a show, and still feel the urge to check if there is something interesting going on. There is no particular purpose in checking the different streams, I'm just checking, to check.. And here comes another, to me, interesting bit; I am very dull on social media! Yes, there, I said it. By being just a little aware of my use, I noticed that I rarely do anything on the different social media platforms, I just check, and read. Occasionally I throw in a like to a picture or a funny comment, but in the last week, I have done that roughly two-three times! Status-updates or tweets? None. Zero. Nada. Zip. This was quite confusing for me to discover, since I prior to this, saw myself as an active member, and user, of the most common social media platforms, but in reality I am, most certainly, not. At least not from the point where contributing is a requirement for being an active user, and really, isn't that what social media is about?
Bottom line, I have sent my phone off for repair today, and I'm actually looking forward to a weekend, as they were prior to the smarthpone invasion, without any 'interruptions' from other peoples statuses or check-ins in my pocket - It will be interesting to see how I feel about this in a couple of days..
It all started with the need for my smartphone to be sent to repair, it wasn't functioning as it should, but as the gadget-freak I am, I was in a huge dilemma! And the one hand I would very much like for my phone to function as it should, but on the other I would not like to be without it for maybe two-three weeks! - And in the meantime be stuck with a 'dumbphone' that has absolutely no features except for calling and texting (you know, features that are the actual main point of having a phone..). These thoughts led me to the conclusion that I should start being more aware of what I actually use my phone for, and if my concerns actually had something to be grounded in.
I started out just trying to be more aware on when I pulled out - which situations would call for the use of social media on a daily basis. This wasn't supposed to be a big well documented thing, more sort of a making-myself-aware kind of thing, where I would try to be more focused on my used, and the actual use, instead of just using away.
Some of the situations I could pinpoint after just a few hours was; when I go to the toilet and when I'm watching television. The first situation constitutes a nice break, and here I am able to check how everything is on my social networks, without anyone watching what I am doing on my phone, to myself I think this is pretty common, and a way of using the 'alone-time' for something interesting (since there really aren't many other possibilities in a bathroom..). The other situation is some kind of strange, as I am already engaged in an activity; the tv watching, but here I often feel the urge to check the phone, simply because whatever I am watching, bores me. The strange thing is, that I can be sitting in my couch with my girlfriend watching a show, and still feel the urge to check if there is something interesting going on. There is no particular purpose in checking the different streams, I'm just checking, to check.. And here comes another, to me, interesting bit; I am very dull on social media! Yes, there, I said it. By being just a little aware of my use, I noticed that I rarely do anything on the different social media platforms, I just check, and read. Occasionally I throw in a like to a picture or a funny comment, but in the last week, I have done that roughly two-three times! Status-updates or tweets? None. Zero. Nada. Zip. This was quite confusing for me to discover, since I prior to this, saw myself as an active member, and user, of the most common social media platforms, but in reality I am, most certainly, not. At least not from the point where contributing is a requirement for being an active user, and really, isn't that what social media is about?
Bottom line, I have sent my phone off for repair today, and I'm actually looking forward to a weekend, as they were prior to the smarthpone invasion, without any 'interruptions' from other peoples statuses or check-ins in my pocket - It will be interesting to see how I feel about this in a couple of days..
tirsdag den 8. oktober 2013
Field-notes from Netto
Thesee notes are from a small 15-minute field session, with the purpose of getting experience with doing field-notes. The session takes place at a smaller mall in the northern of Aarhus, just opposite a smaller grocery store, Netto.
General observations:
A lot of people at this particular time. All seems to be in a hurry, and the mood is tight with all the stress surrounding the store, and everyone is stepping and waiting for their turn in the queue, to get out of the store, as quickly as possible. People seems to be buying a lot, and there is a lot of packing going on, with people putting groceries in bags and all kinds of purses and bags.
There seems to be very little, if any, kind of communication between the cashier and the customers, almost everyone is just putting their credit card in the terminal, waiting to hit the green button, to leave the store. One of the registers had a new employee, and people in this line seemed kind of frustrated, and despairing,
Situation 1:
A father with his child daughter. The father is wearing working-clothes, and the daughter has a very bright colored jacket on. While the cashier is registering the items, the father is standing in from of the register waiting, looking at every single item scanned. The daughter is going to the end of the belt, to pick up the registered items, and put them in a bag. The packing of the bags seems to be very challenging for her. The father pays is waving with his credit card until the cashier is ready, and after paying the cashier, smiling, he joins the daughter packing up the bought items. While packing the bags, the daughter is imitating the father, packing her bag in the exact same way. He helps her with some of the larger items. The daughter tries to carry her bag, but the father takes it, leaving her with only a small item, for her to carry.
Situation 2:
A young man is standing in the line with the new employee. Everything seems to be processing in a very slow pace, and the man is rocking on his heels, awaiting the the cashier to register the few items he has placed on the belt. After the registering of the last item, the man is watching, and waiting, for all of the items go to the end of the belt, before proceeding to pay by credit card. He packs up a few of the items in his backpack, and walks out of the store with the rest in his hands. While leaving the store, he hands over a single item to his friend, who is waiting outside the store.
Journal (thoughts on the session)
As quite new in the world of ethnography, it was some kind of challenging to do the observation. It is hard to know what to look for, and just observing different situations while judging if this particular situation contained enough to be mentioned and written down. I started by just watching the whole scenery, and the people within, to be able to have an understanding of the situation, and how everything was happening. By luck I found a table to sit by, and not have too much focus on myself as a person while observing. This was definitely a plus, and helped me retain my focus on the situation, rather than focusing on keeping myself out of the situation. This type of behavior would be termed by Spradley as a nonparticipation.
As a note to myself, and my forthcoming field-session, I think I should have some kind of focus prior to going to the site, and have something particular to look for, instead of just people's purchases in a store. It could be things like, their behavior when paying or in the queue or something completely different! But to have a more clear focus, would be very helpful. I think.
General observations:
A lot of people at this particular time. All seems to be in a hurry, and the mood is tight with all the stress surrounding the store, and everyone is stepping and waiting for their turn in the queue, to get out of the store, as quickly as possible. People seems to be buying a lot, and there is a lot of packing going on, with people putting groceries in bags and all kinds of purses and bags.
There seems to be very little, if any, kind of communication between the cashier and the customers, almost everyone is just putting their credit card in the terminal, waiting to hit the green button, to leave the store. One of the registers had a new employee, and people in this line seemed kind of frustrated, and despairing,
Situation 1:
A father with his child daughter. The father is wearing working-clothes, and the daughter has a very bright colored jacket on. While the cashier is registering the items, the father is standing in from of the register waiting, looking at every single item scanned. The daughter is going to the end of the belt, to pick up the registered items, and put them in a bag. The packing of the bags seems to be very challenging for her. The father pays is waving with his credit card until the cashier is ready, and after paying the cashier, smiling, he joins the daughter packing up the bought items. While packing the bags, the daughter is imitating the father, packing her bag in the exact same way. He helps her with some of the larger items. The daughter tries to carry her bag, but the father takes it, leaving her with only a small item, for her to carry.
Situation 2:
A young man is standing in the line with the new employee. Everything seems to be processing in a very slow pace, and the man is rocking on his heels, awaiting the the cashier to register the few items he has placed on the belt. After the registering of the last item, the man is watching, and waiting, for all of the items go to the end of the belt, before proceeding to pay by credit card. He packs up a few of the items in his backpack, and walks out of the store with the rest in his hands. While leaving the store, he hands over a single item to his friend, who is waiting outside the store.
Journal (thoughts on the session)
As quite new in the world of ethnography, it was some kind of challenging to do the observation. It is hard to know what to look for, and just observing different situations while judging if this particular situation contained enough to be mentioned and written down. I started by just watching the whole scenery, and the people within, to be able to have an understanding of the situation, and how everything was happening. By luck I found a table to sit by, and not have too much focus on myself as a person while observing. This was definitely a plus, and helped me retain my focus on the situation, rather than focusing on keeping myself out of the situation. This type of behavior would be termed by Spradley as a nonparticipation.
As a note to myself, and my forthcoming field-session, I think I should have some kind of focus prior to going to the site, and have something particular to look for, instead of just people's purchases in a store. It could be things like, their behavior when paying or in the queue or something completely different! But to have a more clear focus, would be very helpful. I think.
tirsdag den 1. oktober 2013
Brain dump #1 - In class assignment
This is my first attempt to do a brain dump. As this is an exercise the quality of this note may lack, but as it is supposed to be a directly dump of what I was thinking at the moment, it should be considered as a look inside my head at the particular moment/situation.
In class assignment: The last time i engaged in social media of any sorts, mostly something meaningful..
I've a lot of social media encounters along my day, most of them aren't meaningful in any way, as they a primarily ways of using or spending my time, or just out of pure boredom, and because I have nothing better to do.. Yet sometimes I 'dig' into my different media, e.g. when trying to find a particular person (not necessarily stalking!) or getting updates from around the world. Most of my interactions are very superficial, just checking to see if there should be any news from my friends, scrolling and scrolling, just to stop if something seems interesting, even though I don't really read everything while scrolling - If something pops out from the crowd, or just my the look of it seems interesting I stop, else I quit the app and continue doing whatever I was doing for the next five minutes, until I have to check again.
This can continue in an almost endless way, and from my own perspective it isn't very productive or even interesting, it's plain simply to kill time, when the TV is of no interest or when it's commercial time!
I think I should be more aware of my habits in this regard, sometimes it feels like checking Facebook and Twitter is the most natural thing to do, all.the.time. This can't be very healthy, and for the purpose of nothing, is seems some kind of ridiculous as I'm sitting here writing this.
In my opinion social media can be used for a lot of different, some more than others, interesting things. But very often it seems to be used only for the purpose of wasting/killing time, rather than actually having a meaningful purpose. But as I'm thinking about it, I had a reason to use Facebook the other day! In the Digital Identities course we've been assigned to do a Book Club thing, this means that we're supposed to read to books in a group, being able to present them afterwards. These groups is, of course, consisting of people from the course, and since I don't have any prior relations to a lot of the people attending the course, I find Facebook to be an excellent tool to get in touch, and arrange meetings. This meant I had to find the members of my Book Club group and set up a meeting. I did start out by doing a group on Facebook, thinking that would be the way to go; we could share a message board/wall, and when people joined, we could all come to an agreement. The idea kind of backfired, since this particular use-cased required that I had befriended all the persons I wanted to join my group, prior to actually adding them - Irritating!
Nevertheless I added the other persons to my 'friend' list, even though I by this time wouldn't consider them as 'friends', as we have just started to get to know each other, and that I'd normally wouldn't add people without getting to know them first. This is my idea of personal defense, as I'm sure to only let people who is related to my in a given, but reasonable way, before letting them in beyond the walls of my personal world. To be honest I really don't understand all the fuzz about having hundreds and thousands of friends on a site like Facebook, in my opinion these can't be actual and real friends? In this terminology 'friend' has become a person that you are, and maybe not even, familiar with, which is making the whole 'friend'-thing misunderstood. On LinkedIn you have connections and on Twitter you have followers, these terms are reasonable and sound. You connect with people you have worked with, or want to work with, and follow people interesting or somehow else worth of following, but that doesn't make you friends! But that is how Facebook works, and I can just sit here wondering about the term.. Friends.. What are friends, or our definition of friends, really? Is there a clear difference between online, so called friends, and real-life, as we normally would term them, friends?
In class assignment: The last time i engaged in social media of any sorts, mostly something meaningful..
I've a lot of social media encounters along my day, most of them aren't meaningful in any way, as they a primarily ways of using or spending my time, or just out of pure boredom, and because I have nothing better to do.. Yet sometimes I 'dig' into my different media, e.g. when trying to find a particular person (not necessarily stalking!) or getting updates from around the world. Most of my interactions are very superficial, just checking to see if there should be any news from my friends, scrolling and scrolling, just to stop if something seems interesting, even though I don't really read everything while scrolling - If something pops out from the crowd, or just my the look of it seems interesting I stop, else I quit the app and continue doing whatever I was doing for the next five minutes, until I have to check again.
This can continue in an almost endless way, and from my own perspective it isn't very productive or even interesting, it's plain simply to kill time, when the TV is of no interest or when it's commercial time!
I think I should be more aware of my habits in this regard, sometimes it feels like checking Facebook and Twitter is the most natural thing to do, all.the.time. This can't be very healthy, and for the purpose of nothing, is seems some kind of ridiculous as I'm sitting here writing this.
In my opinion social media can be used for a lot of different, some more than others, interesting things. But very often it seems to be used only for the purpose of wasting/killing time, rather than actually having a meaningful purpose. But as I'm thinking about it, I had a reason to use Facebook the other day! In the Digital Identities course we've been assigned to do a Book Club thing, this means that we're supposed to read to books in a group, being able to present them afterwards. These groups is, of course, consisting of people from the course, and since I don't have any prior relations to a lot of the people attending the course, I find Facebook to be an excellent tool to get in touch, and arrange meetings. This meant I had to find the members of my Book Club group and set up a meeting. I did start out by doing a group on Facebook, thinking that would be the way to go; we could share a message board/wall, and when people joined, we could all come to an agreement. The idea kind of backfired, since this particular use-cased required that I had befriended all the persons I wanted to join my group, prior to actually adding them - Irritating!
Nevertheless I added the other persons to my 'friend' list, even though I by this time wouldn't consider them as 'friends', as we have just started to get to know each other, and that I'd normally wouldn't add people without getting to know them first. This is my idea of personal defense, as I'm sure to only let people who is related to my in a given, but reasonable way, before letting them in beyond the walls of my personal world. To be honest I really don't understand all the fuzz about having hundreds and thousands of friends on a site like Facebook, in my opinion these can't be actual and real friends? In this terminology 'friend' has become a person that you are, and maybe not even, familiar with, which is making the whole 'friend'-thing misunderstood. On LinkedIn you have connections and on Twitter you have followers, these terms are reasonable and sound. You connect with people you have worked with, or want to work with, and follow people interesting or somehow else worth of following, but that doesn't make you friends! But that is how Facebook works, and I can just sit here wondering about the term.. Friends.. What are friends, or our definition of friends, really? Is there a clear difference between online, so called friends, and real-life, as we normally would term them, friends?
mandag den 23. september 2013
What is a good research question?
In preperation for this weeks hand-in, I've been researching how to do a good research question, in order to do a great project. There is a lot of different things to consider when doing a research question, and below I've listed some of the most interesting/best sites, I've come across in my hunt, for a recipe to write a good question.
Mass Communication Theory - Writing Good Qualitative Research Questions
The Writing Center - How to Write a Research Question
Socscidiss - Research-question
Peter Caggia - Writing Good Research Questions
Mass Communication Theory - Writing Good Qualitative Research Questions
The Writing Center - How to Write a Research Question
Socscidiss - Research-question
Peter Caggia - Writing Good Research Questions
tirsdag den 10. september 2013
Where to start?
The goal of this blog is going to be a place for thoughts and research done in the course; Digital Identities '13 at Aarhus University.
As of now the blog seems quite empty, and you're not completely wrong! The blog have just been created, but hopefully in the weeks to come, it will start to evolve and expand, and by the end of the course be some kind of reference work for the complete course.
Thanks for stopping by!
/J
As of now the blog seems quite empty, and you're not completely wrong! The blog have just been created, but hopefully in the weeks to come, it will start to evolve and expand, and by the end of the course be some kind of reference work for the complete course.
Thanks for stopping by!
/J
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