Megan C-IMS 201A

But in an age of exponential technology growth, it might not be wrong to ask...what took so long? In fact, Wii U is the first game console to be released from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo since 2005-2006.  Has it really been that long? Nevertheless, the end of the gaming stalemate should definitely help Netflix...a service fighting for dominance in its own technological realm. 

Romney has officially received a virtual cold shoulder from his pack of Facebook friends since the end of the election on Tuesday night. Of course, the silent treatment would have been one thing. But more than 50,000 of your friends unlike you within a matter of days, you know you have a problem. Indeed, Romney has lost 55,025 Facebook friends since 11:30 on Tuesday night. What does that come to? Approximately 847 friends lost per hour. Some friends, right? On the other hand, Obama has gained 804,479 friends since election night. Needless to say, he already had 8 times as many supporters on Facebook on Twitter than Romney at the time of the concession speech. Of course, Obama has been continuously praised for his capture of the youth vote and his conquering of the social media world. But what else does this say? Perhaps, Romney was not the best choice for the divided Republican Party. With Romney down, the Republican Party is eagerly anticipating the rise of their own political hero. 

Apple is at it again. The time has come for this media giant to challenge yet another popular online commodity. Who will it be this time? Pandora--the current leader in Internet radio that forms a playlist personalized to a listener's specific tastes.  Apple is currently working with record companies to create the radio addition. What would make it different? As many of us know, there is nothing more frustrating than running out of "skips" on Pandora. According to Apple insiders, the company is seeking licensing pacts with the record labels to give listeners more flexibility toward what they hear. This would  mean earlier access to new releases. There would also be an option for users to purchase the music they hear directly through iTunes. Whether you are Team Pandora or Team Spotify, it appears that the new Apple Radio might have something better to offer. And of course, it would not be Apple if they were not looking beyond the computer screen. Apple has discussed created apps for the iPhone, iPad, and new iPad Mini....not to mention taking over the radios of cars across the country.  But who is to confine them even to that? It is Apple...

We all know that presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle are increasingly using social media to spread their views and attack ads. However, are candidates now using social media to form their attacks? In a Virginia rally on Friday, this is exactly what President Obama did. Using the term "Romnesia," the president described a condition in which Romney moderates his views the closer we get to the election in order to appeal to more voters. Maybe not quite the same as "flip-flopping," this still ridicules Romney's ability to be swayed. But it has to make us wonder, did Obama say this term specifically in hope that it would go viral in the twittersphere? To say the least, the Obama campaign created a hashtag for the term seconds after the word left Obama's mouth. Since then, 50% of Obama's tweets have used the hashtag, and these have been retweeted by thousands. #Romnesia was trending all day Friday and is still being tweeted several times per minutes. Even a meme has been created, showing that the only cure to Romnesia is a good dose of Obamacare. Without a doubt, #Romnesia contains all the elements for a successful social media attack.  But how great is the power of a hashtag?

The Art of Ghosting

In the debate, Romney said he would cut subsidies to PBS (employer of the moderator himself). But it was the next comment that pushed social media over the edge: "I like PBS, I like Big Bird, I actually you too." According to the Twitter Government account, @gov, the phrase "Big Bird" appeared in around 17,000 tweets per minute.

Let's be honest for a second...at what age did you get a Facebook? Granted, this question may not be pertinent to anyone college-aged or older. However, let us look towards the generation proceeding us. Children are setting of Facebook accounts earlier and earlier, posting stereotypical mirror pictures before they go through puberty. Do their parents know this is happening? Probably not. And let us all remember, Facebook is not MySpace. But I digress... The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently considering an alteration to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). What exactly did this act do in the first place? Originally, COPPA was created to protect children's privacy on the internet. This means that children 13 years old or younger had to have parental consent before a website gathered any personal information. Indeed, this is the reason Facebook bans anyone 13 or under. It was simply an easy way to escape the rule. Nevertheless, Facebook may no longer be able to escape the bounds of COPPA any longer. If the change is made successfully, COPPA would prevent websites like Facebook from tracking children's Internet activity. Let us not forget, this is how Facebook displays relevant ads in our sidebar. For a website the relies heavily on personalized advertising, this change could be huge. Also still up for debate are the differing regulations for first and third party advertisers.  Ultimately, the proposed FTC change would be nothing if it were not for the established goals of Facebook. Let us recall, Facebook is a business, constantly trying in increase its marketability. And frankly, Facebook has been trying to figure out a way for children under 13 to use the site without breaking COPPA since June. But with the new regulations, are Facebook's efforts even reasonable? It is also worth bringing into question how successful Facebook's age restrictions really are. Let's be honest...we all know that one 10 year old who has a Facebook account, but magically his profile says he was born in 1990 and is graduating from an Ivy League college. If a child really wants a Facebook, they will find a way. And with the amount of advertisements a person sees in a day, will a child even recognize the sidebar ads? Familiarity breeds contempt...

Facebook's automatic photo-tagging suggestion feature will be no longer available to users across all of Europe. According to this Mashable article by Eric Larson, all new European accounts will be banned of this feature. Existing European accounts will no longer have access by October 15, 2012. In the past, this feature automatically linked people's faces in newly uploaded photos to their Facebook account using tags. The facial recognition feature was activated automatically, but could be turned off manually by users. The change in European Facebook policy occurred because of continued complaints regarding Facebook's data use and it's users' privacy. Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner sent a request to Facebook regarding the elimination of the facial recognition feature.  Facebook responded quickly with compliance to the request.  Furthermore, this change follows a recent issue in which Austrian law student Max Schrems requested all the data Facebook had on him. In return, he was given 1,222 pages of personal information. Because of a culmination of issues such as this, monitoring of Facebook privacy policies have increased. Clearly, this is an issue that stretches beyond the depths of the Atlantic and affects Facebook users all around the world. Is Facebook's ability to collect and keep mass amounts of information on individuals ethical? Looking to the future, will the face recognition feature be banned outside the borders of Europe?

In this article from Mashable, Samantha Murphy informs that White House officials asked Google to remove the "Innocence of Muslims" video from YouTube on Friday. However, Google refused the request. Google, owner of YouTube, says that the video does not violate any terms of service. According to their policy, YouTube supports freedom of speech, but does not allow hate speech. The company defines hate speech as "speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity." Because the video speaks about the Muslim religion and not the specific group of people that practice it, YouTube does not classify it as a form of hate speech. The "Innocence of Muslims" has been all over the news within the past week. Many believe it to be the cause of recent uprises and the murder of four U.S. citizens in Libya. One of the four killed was a U.S. ambassador.  I believe that this article is relevant to our class because it demonstrates how a form of social media cannot only affect our own country, but news around the world. We must remember that the internet has the capability to cause immediate repercussions for people on the other side of the world if not handled with care. Not only this, but there has been much criticism from both sides of the political spectrum as to how Obama and Romney are handling the situation in Libya. I find it interesting that the Obama administration is going so far as to make such a request of Google. Without any doubt, this article proves the importance of First Amendment enforcement in the upcoming election. 

In this article by the New York Daily News, the author reports on a new youtube video that is on its way to going viral. Titled "My Mom Sleepwalking (Tomato Cage)", the video shows a mother dressed in her pajamas doing a bizarre dance around the kitchen. The catch? The mother is apparently sleepwalking and rambling about opening the "tomato cage." The video goes so far as to even get an interview with the sleepwalking mother. Speaking in odd, yet complete, sentences, the mother complains that her code for opening the tomato cage is not working. This particular article discusses the content of the video, as well as the reactions and memes that are already forming off of it. I believe that this video is relevant to IMS201a because we have been discussing what exactly makes a video go viral. As discussed in the meme article we read, this video features common people in an odd situation. Although it does not poke fun at masculinity, the video is funny by nature of its content. More importantly, because the kitchen setting is quite common, the video can be easily made into a meme. This article describes that the maker of this video, Nicola Foti, has already made another video showing the response of his mother watching the sleepwalking video. In another self-created meme, Foti dresses up in drag and discusses the tomato cages. I believe that this video shows that memes and follow-up videos can also be made popular by the original creator. I thought it was interesting that this video made the news in the first place. The fact that media is now covering the creation and impact of viral videos shows how much of a reflection YouTube is proving to be of our society. It is no wonder that media specialists study YouTube so much. Finally, I think it is important to note that Foti has created other viral videos. He is even competing in a "King of the Web" competition. Unfortunately, this makes me question the validity of the sleep walking mother. But nonetheless, this video shows the extent a person would go to gain YouTube fame from a viral video. 

This article is relevant to IMS201 because it illustrates how simple it is for deceitful advertisements to infect the internet. In fact, upon reading this article, I was not the least bit surprised that such behavior was occurring on Facebook. In an age where online advertisements are catered by what a person "likes" or searches, this article shows how some businesses will do almost anything to increase their online marketability. But the question is, what is ethical?

This article is pertinent to our IMS201 class because it proves how the most prosperous internet-based companies must continue to release new internet technologies in order to remain relevant in this constantly changing virtual world. I am interested to see how each company's marketing affects the success of these websites compared to the actual benefits of each. This article also illustrates how on-line companies must embrace the idea of convergence in order to survive. Finally, with all of our recent discussions on movies, I believe it is important to analyze the channels through which the public watches movies. 

Viral Video-Kittens Inspired by Kittens