Have you ever found yourself constantly checking your e-mails for new offers or your  Facebook for new friend request or to see what your friends are doing? Have you ever wondered why you can not stop glancing at your I-phone and engaging with its apps?

If you said yes to any of the above and even if you didn’t it does not matter.Our society is facing attention deficit, we just can’t seem to pay attention whether it’s texting while walking on a pier or checking your Facebook while your professor gives a lecture. Hey but don’t be too hard on yourself even Harvard students check their Facebook while their professors lecture.

To get a better understanding of how and why the internet influences our attention to the point it demands our attention, I suggest the two books below.

1. “The erosion of attention and the coming dark age”
   
2. “What the internet is doing to our brains, the shallows”

In comparison both Carr and Jackson’s use of the historical examples of our culture’s attention deficit gives us a quick look into understanding how it is possible that social media now steals our attention. Every day students check their Facebook while a lecture is being given by the professor. In most cases it is no longer frowned upon because social media is here to stay and professors have to except that this information age will affect them in some area of their life. Whether it is unpleasant in that a student is chatting with a friend on Facebook or looking at videos on Youtube . Or whether the professor uses social media sites like Twitter to engage with the students. 

Both of these books give the reader a better perspective of how and why we are distracted. However it seems that Carr gives the reader a more in depth look at how the internet affects us by giving not only historical examples of attention distraction but on a more personal note; how I our minds work  and why we become addicted to the Net in an almost compulsive fashion. 

My question to you, have you noticed your attention being distracted by engaging with the Net and other new technologies and although you have tried to stop checking your favorite social networking sites 30 times a day you just fail to do so? There is a reason for this rush and consequences of information overload as well.

This article gives a brief definition of what gamification is and how it can help companies to improve loyalty. Loyalty is imperative to the success of any company. Loyalty means that customers are happy and will in turn bring you business. If I’m happy I will return as a customer, how about you? It was stated that a majority of companies do not know what gamification is. So I would say, if one is not aware of a particular tool how can one use this tool to their advantage or to meet a particular business need?

As stated in the article, Oxford University Press defines gamification as the “application of concepts and techniques from games to other areas of activity.”

A few companies like AOL and Dell have used Gamitifacation in 2011, but a year later  in 2012 businesses are finally understanding that adding game mechanics to digital experiences can drastically improve engagement, participation, and loyalty. I see customer participation as a very important aspect for gaining business because it allows a customer to feel like they are a part of important decisions that may directly or indirectly affect them. Since we are social creatures we like to engage and participate.  I believe participation is in our nature, if you look at a mother and  her young child you can see participation in certain activities. For example, Mom in the kitchen baking cookies, what usually happens? The child will ask, ”Mommy can I help bake the cookies.” Participation starts at a  young age as you can see in my example.

Three areas that were mentioned where gamification can be momentous in facilitating the success of a company.

Human Resources

• Gamify incentives for employee loyalty and contribution. Gamifying allows employees to be engaged in incentive programs.

Brand Marketing

• Gamification allows brands to reward users who spread their name through social media.
•  Gamification allows the quickest, most influential promotion of your name by letting your users do it for you.

New Product Promotion

• Gamification helps with product placement by encouraging and rewarding customers to compete for and attain “pre-sale” or “advance preview” of a highly anticipated product.

I believe we all love games in some way, even as adults. Gamification sounds like an exciting and fun way to do business. Do any of you engage with companies who use gamification? If not, would you participate in gamification if it was offered by your favorite company?

I try to keep myself aware of the way I communicate on social network sites. I attempt to make sure that my grammar, spelling and the structure of my written post are consistent and make sense. Why, because the way you write can be used as indicator of your written communication skills. Employers who have access to posts that you have allowed to be publicly viewed (privacy), may use your posts to help facilitate the hiring process.

I am not the greatest writer, but I do understand that being able to write well takes practice. Your prospective employer may see how well you write by viewing your posts. 

eyelikeveggies:

In an article titled “Workshop to address privacy, social media” author David Sharos discusses privacy in social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter,Tumblr), and how it can affect you life negatively. Sharos is quoted saying, “Facebook, My Space, Twitter and others have expanded our…

I took a college course in environmental science, it was one of the best classes I’ve ever taken so far as a student. It made me aware of how resources are distributed throughout the world amongst the rich and poor and developing country use and third world and I learned about the carbon foot print as well other things that affect the environment.

We all need to be conscious of our resource use. To get peoples involvement in these apps, one may need to apply the 3 components of persuasion into their presentation of the app.

1.       Knowledge , information or awareness of problem

2.       Attitude towards the problem so that opinion can be formed

3.       Behavioral component , once people know about it and have an opinion about it they may or may not participate

What is my carbon footprint? 

“Would you be more likely to weatherize your house if your college roommate said that it had cut her heating bill by 30 percent?” My answer is yes, I want to save money in every way possible.

I think I might look into creating an app on energy/resource use. 

katherinemckeon:

In this New York Times article, a new type of sustainability movement is discussed-one that involves the revolutionary powers of Facebook. A new app has been released that allows people to post their energy consumption levels to their Facebook page and challenge their friends to energy reduction…

 Social technology, from past to present to future is the last section of study  in my MCO435 social media class for Spring 2012. I came across an online article that attempted to address the future of social technology .

The article starts off by stating that every day there are emerging social platforms, startups, which marketers are adapting to and focusing their campaigns on.

This article covers an all student perspective and addresses the following issues.

1. Too much engagement
2. Defining or discovering  the line between innovation and overload
3. Temporary ceasing of social technology
4. Disconnectedness through the use of social media
5. Humanizing social media
6. A shift in the direction that social media is heading towards

According to the article people have stated that there is too much engagement on sites like Facebook. They stated that they are not interested in where their Facebook friend is headed or what time they woke up. Also anther questions is, does social media  penetrate too much of society and encroach on privacy and life? Well with the ever changing Terms that can be found on Facebook, I would say that we are being desensitized to the point that we are willing to give up our privacy to be a part of a social site because of the “everybody is doing it mindset”.  And I guess the, “if you can’t beat em join em attitude.” Although there will always be that few elite that will subvert the hierarchy of this social kingdom.

“Another student argues that ,”social technology needs to be humanized? That it has failed to a certain extent because it needs to be personalized and aim at assuaging to the general public with social health programs. For example have physicians advise patients or an app that encourages people to stop smoking. And if not that, the programs that exist now should sharpen skills or build on them.” Can social media be any more humanized than tattoos that vibrate when your cell phone rings? I was thinking about shooting an idea out to Nokia, asking them if they would add a Twitter app that vibrates your tattoo when you get a new Tweet. I could make millions,okay, not really. 

Where do you see social media technology heading in the future? Or better yet, because social media will affect some facet of your life, what would you like to see happen in the future with technology and social media? 

Thank you for the link to the video in this post it was well……pauses and thinks…., wait hold on, I have to be careful with what i say on here. I don’t want to be classified as a class 1 misdemeanor troll.

Any way I think Arizona law makers are putting a bad taste in everyone’ mouth by trying to pass this bill. There are other states that are watching us and see this as a ridiculous an outdated approach. 

I mean come on, imagine running into your cell mate and he says ,” I’m in here for second murder what are you in for?” How do you answer that question? Uh who me?,I’m in for internet trolling.”

In Arizona, if your convicted of second degree murder you work with high numbers like serving 25 years at the maximum. So I would ask, how do you compare internet trolling to a more serious crime like second murder? I mean 25 years for trolling?

ahappeninglife:

We all know that we should be mindful about what we post on the internet but recently an Arizona House Bill took it one step further. Arizona House Bill 2549 was originally introduced to update the state’s telephone harassment law as this article from DailyTech.com points out. The new bill…

First, I would like to say thank you for this blog I needed this. I find it to be informative because I myself am a musician, there are nuggets in this post that I can stay conscious of so that I can apply them when seeking out new fans. The MCO435 social media course I am taking fell under the list of related digital culture course work/historical and theoretical studies  that  I could choose from that counts towards my degree so I snatched it up.

Besides taking MCO435 to gain credit, my intention was to use this course to gain understanding of how social media affects culture and how to use it as a tool for promoting my music and interacting with multiple people at once.

You stated “It seems as though, these days, having a twitter account and a Facebook page is not enough to generate a noticeable difference. Musicians have to work harder to play the social media game!”

I agree with the above statement, I have been sending out multiple Tweets just recently trying to promote non exclusive beats that I am leasing.Tweeting so far has done little to increase the small amount of followers that I have, and it has not brought forth sales as of yet. See I am an unknown small artist that has to push harder to be noticed on social media sites were as a bigger and more well known artist does not have to push as hard to gain followers; well at least Beyonce doesn’t have to push a single key on the keyboard to gain followers. As stated by one online article Beyonce has 1 Million Twitter Followers, Never Tweets. I can lose sleep tweeting and get few if any followers as a result, what am I missing here? 

brdunham:

I found an interesting article the other day concerning Musicians and social media. I found it very intriguing due to the fact that musicians have been using social media to connect with fans, but only for the past few years. Since the invention of Napster, and other platforms for downloading…

Have you ever came across an annoying person who has posted a comment that almost incites an online riot? I mean statements that are clearly intended to offend and piss people off like the one I found on Yahoo answers. Here is an example below:

” Who else hates fat people?

Who else hates fat people and thinks they should just stop eating crap and do some exercises so they won’t be too fat to get into their cars without denting other peoples cars with their doors ?

Additional Details

Just because their fat doesn’t give them the excuse to dent peoples cars as they struggle to get into their car.

The above question surely did not demand an answer, however the purpose of the comment was to elicit a response triggered by the offenders comment.

Here is an example response to the comment of the offender, “wtf your so low
everybody is different sorry if they aren’t all boney starved models that don’t eat in magazines

I love food!!!! if that makes me fat you can hate me I don’t care! you’re a stranger anyway .

People who go around posting comments just to elicit an emotional response, specifically in a negative harassing manner are considered Trolls. If you are a Troll and live in Arizona, you may soon be breaking the law.

According to an article on Digital Journal.com, an Arizona law could outlaw trolling on the web. This new proposed law in Arizona is currently awaiting the signature of Governor Jan Brewer. The signing of this law also presents potential ramifications that would include a form of Internet Censorship. This law already has the signature of Arizona politicians. This law is known as Arizona House Bill 2549. Bill 2549 is designed to combat bullying and stalking, but may have a larger impact than expected by lawmakers.

According to First Amendment rights group Media Coalition, Bill 2549 updates Arizona’s telephone harassment law, seeking to include all electronic devices.

Bill 2549 has been updated to read: “It is unlawful for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use any electronic or digital device and use any obscene, lewd or profane language or suggest any lewd or lascivious act, or threaten to inflict physical harm to the person or property of any person.”

“It is also unlawful to otherwise disturb by repeated anonymous electronic or digital communications the peace, quiet or right of privacy of any person at the place where the communications were received.”

The problem noted is that the Bill does not limit one to one communications and could apply to the whole internet. For example any comment, forum post, blog post or other public web spaces where discussions or shared thoughts take place could be held accountable if deemed in violation of the law.

The Media Coalition has pointed out that the bill contains ambiguities such as,  “The communication does not need to be repetitive or even unwanted. There is no requirement that the recipient or subject of the speech actually feel offended, annoyed or scared. Nor does the legislation make clear that the communication must be intended to offend or annoy the reader, the subject or even any specific person.”

Bill 2549 has the potential of impeding upon the philosophies and rights of web use such as freedom of expression. As stated by Media Coalition, “all manner of writing, cartoons, and other protected material the states finds offensive or annoying,” would be considered a crime. A crime that if found guilty and depending on the level and whether or not deemed a misdemeanor or felony in Arizona, an offender could spend 6 months to 25 years in jail.

This legislation takes a law meant to address irritating phone calls and applies it to communication on web sites, blogs, listserves and other Internet communication.

Do you believe that Trolling should be considered a crime punishable by law? I mean 6 months to 25 years for making a comment that may or may not offend and individual. Do you think this penalty is harsh ? I don’t believe the punishment fits the crime. There are people out there who have murdered people and get less time than this.

6 hot years, I don’t see Twitter going anywhere soon. People are just recently catching onto to Twitter’s effectiveness as a tool used by agents of cultural change; created by agents of change.

Twitter is a paradigm shift in the way we communicate. 2008 and 4 years later the effectiveness of Twitter’s use in the political realm is just now being realized, recognized and  mentioned as a potent tool for social change and connection.

dropontheworld:

Last week Twitter officially celebrated its 6 year anniversary, a major milestone for the social media site. Its hard to believe that a simple site could radically change the way we look/interact in the world and drastically penetrate social and political culture. Twitter, along with others…

Thanks for this blog, I was not aware of Pinterest until I read your blog. So I took the initiative to click on the link directed at Pinterest to see what the noise is about. The site is very interesting, at the time of this post there were  a total of 11,285 followers. I took the time to refresh my browser, the updated following increased by 2 followers.

Obama’s online pin board so far has 8 boards:

1. Obama-inspired recipes

2. Pet Lovers for Obama

3. Just the facts

4. Obama 2012 in action

5. Faces of change

6. The First Family

7. ObamArt

8. Obama 2012 Store

Followers can stay informed by reading anyone of these boards that is of interest to them. For instance, on the Just the facts board there is a cleverly displayed picture that shows a stamp of approval with Obama’s signature below it. This picture surely creates a positive image of Obama when people visit this site.

Below the picture there is text that states.“It’s easy to find out how the Affordable Care Act affects you and your family.” What Obama’s campaign is doing is staying in the peoples face. Remember people only want to listen to how they can be benefited and this Pinterest site does a great job at it. People can address there concerns or just comment to show support of a particular issue.

Rhetoric in the digital age, the tool used to transmit the message is “social media.”

sisterscanwespeak:

In #MCO435 Tuesday March 27, we talked about social media and politics. It interested me that for the primary elections, the number of Facebook fans for Republicans was significantly higher than that of Democrats. My teacher, Dr. Gilpin, noted that it was also interesting to see how the primary elections turned out, and we all know that was pretty much red. So I wonder, just how important is social media when it comes to politics?

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