There are usually several websites that I can count on people visiting during class time where computer screens are open. I often see my classmates browsing Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Barstool or ESPN. Recently, there has been a phenomenom with a Tumblr called "What Should We Call Me". It's an entertaining site that has short silent video clips along with a caption that usually relate to some everyday thing a lot of college students can relate to. I became aware of "What Should We Call Me" about a month ago when a friend posted a link on my Facebook wall. At first, I was extremely confused on what the link was, until I started seeing dozens of similar posts throughout Facebook.
What is so compelling about this site? Well, it is highly addictive for one. Once you start browsing through all the funny comments, you can't stop scrolling through the pages. One clip pops up and you automatically think of a specific person it reminds you of, or perhaps it is yourself.
Due to the popularity of this site, people started creating their own similar sites, mostly made to represent a specific college. For example, Yale has one called "Life Of A Bob Kitten" and several of their captions are specifically related to things that occur on that specific campus. Is #whatshouldwecallme just a fad, or will more sites be created that attract older audiences? Maybe some "What Should We Call Me" posts can be about meetings or phonecalls or job interviews.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Prime Time Television In Trouble?
I recently read an article in the New York Times discussing the face that prime time program viewing has decreased significantly. In mid March, NBC lost about 3 percent of its prime time viewers. Last year around the same time, ABC, CBS and Fox had even higher percentages of decreased viewing. What does this mean for the networks? Will networks soon be extinct because of online television resources such as Netflix and Hulu?
Netflix and Hulu give viewers a chance to watch their favorite TV shows whenever they please. Although there are still some people who like the thrill of watching a Wednesday night show at 9 o clock because the thrill of knowing this is new and no one has seen it yet, a large majority of people would prefer to watch it the next day, perhaps during a lunch break or free time.
Although the major networks might be in a little trouble due to lack of viewership on the television itself, I still believe their time is not over. Networks often hit this trouble spot after daylight savings time. Since at 8 o'clock it is still light outside, people either forget that their favorite show is about to start or they are not in the mood to watch television since it still seems like it is day time. Hmm, maybe prime time television should keep it's hope for the winter seasons.
Netflix and Hulu give viewers a chance to watch their favorite TV shows whenever they please. Although there are still some people who like the thrill of watching a Wednesday night show at 9 o clock because the thrill of knowing this is new and no one has seen it yet, a large majority of people would prefer to watch it the next day, perhaps during a lunch break or free time.
Although the major networks might be in a little trouble due to lack of viewership on the television itself, I still believe their time is not over. Networks often hit this trouble spot after daylight savings time. Since at 8 o'clock it is still light outside, people either forget that their favorite show is about to start or they are not in the mood to watch television since it still seems like it is day time. Hmm, maybe prime time television should keep it's hope for the winter seasons.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Socially Removed
Something I like to observe when I'm sitting with a group of my friends is how many of them are involed in separate activities using their technology. I touched upon this topic in the post about 'screens' so I took it upon myself so observe some of my friends closer.
My roommates and I have dinner together often. We all like to cook and we invite our other friends over for dinner pretty often. Recently there were about 7 of us sitting at the dinner table. Usually it is silent because everyone is eating, but this time I looked around and 5 out of 7 people were on their phones. I had just put my phone down so only me and one other friend wasn't engaged with their technology. I made two or three comments before anyone really looked up and reacted. I said something like "what is going on?" assuming there might be something interesting going on.
One of the most common reactions when everyone looks up from their phones at the same time is something along the lines of "did you see what 'so and so' tweeted?" or " did you see her status?". Even though a large group of my friends could be sitting in the same room, everyone is still contsantly occupied with knowing what everyone ELSE is doing. Although everyone is engaging in the same social activity of sitting together at the dinner table, people are socially removed from this specific situation and are entering themselves socially through their phones or other forms of technology.
I find myself doing this and get mad. If we continue to be so involved with our screens, the future will look quite depressing. There is a scene in Wall-E that reminds me of what the future could come to if we are constantly involved in our screens. Everyone is large and round sitting on motorized chairs with screens surrounding their heads. No effort needed at all. It's a scary though.
My roommates and I have dinner together often. We all like to cook and we invite our other friends over for dinner pretty often. Recently there were about 7 of us sitting at the dinner table. Usually it is silent because everyone is eating, but this time I looked around and 5 out of 7 people were on their phones. I had just put my phone down so only me and one other friend wasn't engaged with their technology. I made two or three comments before anyone really looked up and reacted. I said something like "what is going on?" assuming there might be something interesting going on.
One of the most common reactions when everyone looks up from their phones at the same time is something along the lines of "did you see what 'so and so' tweeted?" or " did you see her status?". Even though a large group of my friends could be sitting in the same room, everyone is still contsantly occupied with knowing what everyone ELSE is doing. Although everyone is engaging in the same social activity of sitting together at the dinner table, people are socially removed from this specific situation and are entering themselves socially through their phones or other forms of technology.
What is your Tattoo Saying?
Several of my friends spent a semester abroad in Thailand during
their junior year. Near the end of their journey, several of them
decided to get tattoos. One particular friend of mine, Patty, shared
her tattoo experience with me. Her tattoo, which is displayed across
her left forearm, is written in Thai and is translated in English to
“wild is the wind”. At first I assumed that ‘wild as the wind’ was just
a traditional Thai phrase that Patty liked so she decided to get it
tattooed on her arm. When I asked her about it, she told me it was
actually something she always says. When she was younger and still to
this day, “wild is the wind” is just a phrase she always enjoyed saying
in regards to freedom and spontaneity.
“It just means, you know, be like the wind, be free, be spontaneous. It’s a phrase I always say so it really means something to me,” Patty said.
Most people I know with tattoos say they do not regret getting them or at least claim they do not regret getting them. Patty was one of these people. When I asked her if she had any regrets about getting her tattoo she said absolutely not. She told me that she only loves it more and more every day. “Wild is the wind” is a phrase that has made her who she is and will continue to shape her in the future so she thinks it is meaningful to have it inked onto her skin. Will she change her mind in the future? Who knows.
For Patty, getting this tattoo was a way for her to outwardly express something that is meaningful to her, which is an aspect of pop culture. Today, we are able to tweet about something we care about, or post a picture or video, many visual things. Getting tattoos falls somewhere in this category. We can change our mind a lot on the internet, but getting something as permanent as a tattoo shows a strong devotion to that topic. It is a way for Patty to express her identity and will forever remind her of the amazing journey she had while studying abroad. It relates one particular time in her life to something that defines her whole identity and whole life.
Another person close to me that has a tattoo is my sister, Katherine. For about 16 months after she graduated college, she traveled around Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea for a volunteer program called Oceans Watch. Near the end of her experience, sometime when she was in Australia, she received a tattoo on her ribs in a nice thin font saying: “mad to live”. Similar to Patty’s reasoning for getting her tattoo, my sister has lived by the quote “mad to live” for a while. It comes for her favorite book On the Road by Jack Kerouac. The full quote reads: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars, and in the middle, you see the blue center-light pop, and everybody goes ahh...” This is her favorite quote from the book as she feels it relates to her life. My sister loves to travel and meet interesting people along the way, and during her travels she was only reminded of her favorite quote and felt it was important to her to get it tattooed on her body. When she first got the tattoo, she told me that as her life goes on, she could eventually add more to the tattoo to go along with the quote. For example, under her original tattoo, she might eventually get the tattoo “mad to talk”.
She was extremely nervous to tell my parents about getting the tattoo and both of us had to keep the secret until one day we were on a family vacation in Florida and my sister had to wear a bathing suit. Fortunately, my parents were not angry at her, and actually had expected that she would get a tattoo. My parents, however, do not think that getting a tattoo is the best way of expressing something meaningful. My mom always says to me: “when I die, please do NOT get a tattoo of my name”. Although I will rightfully respect my moms request, what’s to stop me from getting a tattoo later in life when something meaningful rolls along. Is it more meaningful for me to express something with a tattoo, or with something simply social like a tweet or Facebook upload? Do people really get tattoos because it means something to them, or is it a way or showing the rest of the world something about his or her identity. Eventually people go from just having one or two tattoos to having 10 or 20. Each of these tattoos might say something about a person, whether it is extremely personal, or very simple, like a tattoo of a wave because that person likes to swim. It’s a different way of expressing identity.
“It just means, you know, be like the wind, be free, be spontaneous. It’s a phrase I always say so it really means something to me,” Patty said.
Most people I know with tattoos say they do not regret getting them or at least claim they do not regret getting them. Patty was one of these people. When I asked her if she had any regrets about getting her tattoo she said absolutely not. She told me that she only loves it more and more every day. “Wild is the wind” is a phrase that has made her who she is and will continue to shape her in the future so she thinks it is meaningful to have it inked onto her skin. Will she change her mind in the future? Who knows.
For Patty, getting this tattoo was a way for her to outwardly express something that is meaningful to her, which is an aspect of pop culture. Today, we are able to tweet about something we care about, or post a picture or video, many visual things. Getting tattoos falls somewhere in this category. We can change our mind a lot on the internet, but getting something as permanent as a tattoo shows a strong devotion to that topic. It is a way for Patty to express her identity and will forever remind her of the amazing journey she had while studying abroad. It relates one particular time in her life to something that defines her whole identity and whole life.
Another person close to me that has a tattoo is my sister, Katherine. For about 16 months after she graduated college, she traveled around Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea for a volunteer program called Oceans Watch. Near the end of her experience, sometime when she was in Australia, she received a tattoo on her ribs in a nice thin font saying: “mad to live”. Similar to Patty’s reasoning for getting her tattoo, my sister has lived by the quote “mad to live” for a while. It comes for her favorite book On the Road by Jack Kerouac. The full quote reads: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars, and in the middle, you see the blue center-light pop, and everybody goes ahh...” This is her favorite quote from the book as she feels it relates to her life. My sister loves to travel and meet interesting people along the way, and during her travels she was only reminded of her favorite quote and felt it was important to her to get it tattooed on her body. When she first got the tattoo, she told me that as her life goes on, she could eventually add more to the tattoo to go along with the quote. For example, under her original tattoo, she might eventually get the tattoo “mad to talk”.
She was extremely nervous to tell my parents about getting the tattoo and both of us had to keep the secret until one day we were on a family vacation in Florida and my sister had to wear a bathing suit. Fortunately, my parents were not angry at her, and actually had expected that she would get a tattoo. My parents, however, do not think that getting a tattoo is the best way of expressing something meaningful. My mom always says to me: “when I die, please do NOT get a tattoo of my name”. Although I will rightfully respect my moms request, what’s to stop me from getting a tattoo later in life when something meaningful rolls along. Is it more meaningful for me to express something with a tattoo, or with something simply social like a tweet or Facebook upload? Do people really get tattoos because it means something to them, or is it a way or showing the rest of the world something about his or her identity. Eventually people go from just having one or two tattoos to having 10 or 20. Each of these tattoos might say something about a person, whether it is extremely personal, or very simple, like a tattoo of a wave because that person likes to swim. It’s a different way of expressing identity.
What Screens are you Using?
I took this picture of my roommate in our apartment the other day. We were both sitting on our separate beds on our separate computers simultaneously doing really nothing. Even though we were three feet away in the same room, instead of talking to each other we were staring at the screens of our computers. My roommate’s computer screen also shows that she is on facebook chat. In this case, her use of the screen is helping her communicate easily with others. Chatting via facebook is one way that people find extremely necessary to communicate through and it would be impossible to do this without a screen, whether it be a computer screen, iPhone, Android, etc. This particular photo would be an example of how screens can sometimes create isolation. More often than not, when I see people walking around campus alone I see them on their cell phones or ipods. I am definitely a victim of that as well. Since we have the option to whip out our “screens” to interact, play a game, listen to music or browse the Web, why wouldn’t we? We are physically alone, but we are using our sources of technology to feel surrounded and interactive. In reality, I’m sure there have been times where I’ve been too glued to my phone and didn’t look up to say hello to someone. With that person criticize me for being isolate on my technology and ignoring them? Or will that person not have seen me either because they too were distracted by a certain screen.
This next picture is of my friend Gina intently watching a Justin Bieber music video. I took this picture a few months ago when my roommates and I had serious Bieber Fever. We would occasionally watch Justin Bieber’s music videos for entertainment. Although Gina could have easily been watching the screen alone in a corner, we were indeed surrounding the screen as a group so it was a somewhat inclusive activity rather than isolation. To go into deeper context, the use of the screen in this case was our way to get closer to a celebrity. Since we can’t be with them in person and have them perform for us, we turn to the use of screens to get a close enough feeling. The sad thing is we didn’t just watch one music video, the time flew as we watched about six Justin Bieber videos. So we watched for about a half hour. Maybe that’s pathetic, but it felt like we were just watching an episode of television, except we were able to control what we wanted to watch, and that’s the bottom line. The role of technology in pop culture today has a lot to do with control.
These two photos are a before and after picture of my friend when she died her hair. She made a split second decision while we were abroad last year to die her golden locks brown. In the first picture, she is using her computer screen to follow directions on how to use the hair dye. She used her computer screen as a reference point during the entire process. Although printed out directions also came with the dye, which is also visible in the picture, for some reason it seemed more trusted to look up how to do it online. This also says something about screens and pop culture: instead of trusting one source, we feel it necessary to use our technology to see what other people have to say. The next picture is when her hair is actually dyed. After using her computer screen to follow instructions, she is now using her screen to communicate to people “Hey! I just dyed my hair! Omg!” In one situation she has used the screen in both an informative and a communicative manner. Did this isolate her? No, not exactly. The screens helped her to feel more comfortable and confident during her hair dying process. It also enabled her to keep all of her friends and family in touch with what she was doing. Not only is a ‘status update’ wildly used in society today, but it was also helpful since we were in Europe and using our computers was the easiest way to communicate with people.
In this last picture, the screen is actually not visible. We were having a party in my apartment a few months ago and an important sports game was playing so everyone crowded around our awkwardly small TV screen. This was the only ‘screen’ in our apartment that was playing the game and therefore it became a priority for people to pay attention to it. Most of the people who were interested in watching the game stood around the television screen for the entire remainder of the game, not really aware of what was going on around them. It didn’t really bother other people at the party because it seemed like a normal occurrence
Screens are everywhere. In our day and age we cannot avoid them. Most of these photos, I took without the intention of pointing out that people pay far too much attention to the screens in our lives. That says something about how accustomed we are today to using these screens in every episode of our life. We look at a screen when we wake up. We pass several screens on our way to class. We use several screens while in class. And in this class, we assess the use of screens themselves. There is no way to avoid them. If someone asked you how much time on average do you spend in front of a screen, you might not give an accurate answer. We spend so much time in front of screens that we couldn’t even calculate it.
Is Pinterest Here To Stay?
In total Internet traffic in January 2012, Pinterest placed fifth, beating out YouTube and coming extremely close to overcoming Twitter. Can Pinterest compete with other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter? I think it can, but only to a certain extent.
Recently, Mashable posted an article reporting that Pinterest has developed a new layout. Rather than having five cluttered columns with photos for people to pin, Pinterest will do something that is pretty similar to Facebook’s timeline, although CEO Ben Silbermann claims that Pinterest is very distinguishable from the timeline setting on Facebook. Yet, it’s hard not to relate it to the top social networking site.
For those who are unaware of the recently popular website Pinterest, the site allows users to “pin” photos and descriptions that interest them. This could be anything from pinning a picture of a ridiculously cute bulldog riding a swing to pinning a picture of a blue window that you want in your future home.
This might seem like a strange concept; in fact, similar ideas have failed in the past. Pinterest, however, works. Pinterest gives users the ability to monitor whose pins they can see and what genres of pins they are exposed to. Each person can personalize his or her profiles with different pin boards. For example, I have a pin board entitled “Home Sweet Home” where I pin everything home-related that I like, such as gorgeously decorated kitchens or funky staircases.
Pinterest is unique enough to work as an additional social networking site rather than as a replacement for sites like Facebook or Twitter. An extremely visual site, Pinterest can be highly addicting, especially during class time. Sometimes browsing on Facebook can get extremely repetitive and boring, whereas Pinterest is rather, “pinteresting.” Pinterest also incorporates the idea of the “retweet” by allowing users to pin others posts.
I do have one concern, however, and that is Pinterest’s lack of appeal to all demographics. How many males are actually using Pinterest? Out of 133 people I follow on the site, only four of them are males. As successful as the site may be for females, I feel like males have other sites to express their interest in “masculine” pastimes. Pinning pictures of a basketball might not really do it for them.
Pinterest is definitely an exciting website to be part of the social networking mix, but how long will it last? I enjoy Pinterest, but new sites launch daily. Who knows which site will grab my attention next?
Recently, Mashable posted an article reporting that Pinterest has developed a new layout. Rather than having five cluttered columns with photos for people to pin, Pinterest will do something that is pretty similar to Facebook’s timeline, although CEO Ben Silbermann claims that Pinterest is very distinguishable from the timeline setting on Facebook. Yet, it’s hard not to relate it to the top social networking site.
For those who are unaware of the recently popular website Pinterest, the site allows users to “pin” photos and descriptions that interest them. This could be anything from pinning a picture of a ridiculously cute bulldog riding a swing to pinning a picture of a blue window that you want in your future home.
This might seem like a strange concept; in fact, similar ideas have failed in the past. Pinterest, however, works. Pinterest gives users the ability to monitor whose pins they can see and what genres of pins they are exposed to. Each person can personalize his or her profiles with different pin boards. For example, I have a pin board entitled “Home Sweet Home” where I pin everything home-related that I like, such as gorgeously decorated kitchens or funky staircases.
Pinterest is unique enough to work as an additional social networking site rather than as a replacement for sites like Facebook or Twitter. An extremely visual site, Pinterest can be highly addicting, especially during class time. Sometimes browsing on Facebook can get extremely repetitive and boring, whereas Pinterest is rather, “pinteresting.” Pinterest also incorporates the idea of the “retweet” by allowing users to pin others posts.
I do have one concern, however, and that is Pinterest’s lack of appeal to all demographics. How many males are actually using Pinterest? Out of 133 people I follow on the site, only four of them are males. As successful as the site may be for females, I feel like males have other sites to express their interest in “masculine” pastimes. Pinning pictures of a basketball might not really do it for them.
Pinterest is definitely an exciting website to be part of the social networking mix, but how long will it last? I enjoy Pinterest, but new sites launch daily. Who knows which site will grab my attention next?
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