Digital Birth

I was going through some news and came across this story that talked about parents posting pictures of their kids before they are even born! This internet security company called AVG did a hug survey on moms in North America and some countries in Europe and discovered at 81% of kids that are no older that two years old, already posses a Facebook identity, absolutely crazy.

According to the research, "the average digital birth of children happens at around six months with a third (33%) of children's photos and information posted online within weeks of being born". What do you guys think of this? I wouldn't say it's bad or negative in any way... but it doesn't feel right for some reason and I can't pinpoint it!

In addition to this, the study showed that 7% of babies and toddlers have email addresses set up for them by parents, and 5% have a network profile! Why ???

The only plausible reason for any of this is sharing the news or your baby or things that are going on in their lives with you family and friends but, there is still something kind of weird about it.

The more I think about it I have come to the conclusion as to why I may be a little turned off to this idea... with all the controversy lately in young adults lives of having this archived identify on Facebook, aren't these parents in a way jump-starting this process for them?? It's interesting to think about!

Facebook Status's of the Past

Thought this was hilarious and wanted to share it with you guys! Take a look at some of the different Facebook status's of the past if it would have existed! I LOVE THIS!

Cool Material

Will it ever end?

Just wanted to throw up a quick post that really struck me tonight. I was just hanging out in my apartment 'Perez-ing' as my friends and I like to call it, meaning we were on PerezHilton.com, and I was reading through a bunch of the articles and stumbled across yet another homosexual student from Oakland University, Corey Jackson, has committed suicide. I know we talked about Tyler Clementi's case a few weeks ago, but ever since that story erupted I feel like I'm hearing about these gay student related deaths so much more. I can't get over how sad these stories are that these kids feel that low or depressed about their sexual orientation and lives that suicide is the only answer...Now police officials are saying it wasn't 'bully related'- but who can be sure?

Take a look: Another Gay Teen Commits Suicide

Sports are Everywhere, Even Online

Kit's presentation really opened my eyes to social media. A few weeks ago I wrote about how social media is going out of control it seems. In any aspect of life nowadays, you can find anything you need online- it's kind of hard to imagine the days where you couldn't just 'Google' something. Crazy, huh?

After Kit's project was shown in class, I had to go on Facebook and get some more dirt on this media craze, especially with athletics. It's funny, the day of our sports and social media talk, I was friend requested by the CUACardinals on Facebook - here, they have constant updates about how all of the Varsity athletics are doing.

Anyway, since I'm from 'outside of Philly' like everyone else at this school, I had to look up the Philadelphia Eagles and shocker, they have a Facebook page. It has the same kind of setup that Kit was talking about, consisting of team updates, videos, and fan information- it was actually pretty cool and yes, I may or may not be a fan! HAHA

Does anyone in the class participate in social networking with their favorite team??

I found this really cool website where you can pick a team from any sport (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, and NCAA) and chat about sports, see updates and even video all on one page. It is pretty much the same as Facebook, but for some reason I like this site better. What do you think??

Sports Chat

Life on Facebook, After Death...

Some of the discussions on death and facebook have hit close to home for me. Two years ago, my best friend passed away and to this day his facebook is still active. Similar to the Courtney Purvin case, my friend, Freddy, keeps popping up on the sidebar of my news feed to 'reconnect' with him. It is kind of weird to see- someone who you so badly want to be connected with physically, can only be done so virtually. As far as the memorial sites go I can't say I have a strong opinion of them. Since Freddy's death I have probably been on his facebook everyday, and people comment on his photos, write on his wall, and visit it frequently- it is even crazy to see him still accepting facebook requests. I'm sure one of his siblings or friends knows his password, but when you see "Fred Eissler and XX are now friends", you can't help but get a sick feeling in your stomach.

His family is very into his Facebook remaining the way it is, they feel as if it is a way to keep his spirit alive, and I agree. If his page were to be shut down or anything of that nature, I think it would disappoint and upset a lot of people because the person Freddy is still remains in his photos and videos. Sometimes, when I write on his wall, I go back into our Wall-to-Wall conversations just to remember him- this may be a bit morbid I know, but sometimes it makes it easier to cope.

Is Social Media a Fad or a Revolution??

Where is social media taking us as a culture? If we take a look at the last few years, so many new technologies have sprung up! When we were kids, we didn't have ipods, iphones, laptops as light as air, cell phones with cameras, nothing like that! Now, we have all of these different capabilities that make life incredibly easy, maybe too easy.

I was looking different things up on the internet to post about and I stumbled across this video about social media. The movie is a little longer than 4 minutes but it is really interesting to watch! One statistic in the video says that if Facebook was a country, it would be the 4th largest! A second stat that really stood out to me was that Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire population of Panama, Norway, and Panama. HOW RIDICULOUS IS THAT? I just feel as if people don't talk as much anymore- it's texting, emailing, facebook, myspace, and twitter. Who knows what will happen in a few more years, we may not be talking at all! Do you think this social media revolution is a good thing?

Social Media Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8