This is for school

No. Really. If you couldn't tell, this tumblr is dedicated to observations in social media

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PitchFX, a new past time (Extra 7)

Digital media has become so pervasive today that it has infiltrated every facet of our lives. Even Americas national past time, baseball. PitchFX is a system that collects every pitch of ever game during the entire baseball season on camera, all 354,780 pitches. All the cool graphics of players running in the outfield? That 500 foot home run that you can pinpoint the location down to the seat. All possible thanks to PitchFX. 

But PitchFX is starting to creep into the world of big data. What is big data? Nobody really knows. But now we can spout out statistics like WAR (Wins above replacement), DIPS (Defense independent pitching statistics), OPS (On base plus slugging), with lighting speed. Or the all important, what a specific players batting average after the 6th inning when hitting lefty after 8 PM with his left shoe untied below the mason Dixon line.

We even have movies that expound the virtues of this. Money ball, how the little guy (Brad Pitt, and Jonah Hill, because they are underdogs, right?) against the rest of the baseball with this crazy idea of using numbers (nerds, again exactly who I think of when I think of nerds Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill). 

But isn't this polluting the game? The beauty of baseball is the gut feeling about what to do next. Pitchers in the major leagues pitch so fast that the batter needs to start swinging almost as soon as the ball leaves the pitchers hand. What is more of a gut feeling than that. The 1980's baseball classic "Field of Dream" make the phrase "If you build it he will come" famous. That is a feeling. Is it immoral and unsacred to take this feeling and turn it into numbers. Let America’s past time become a deluge of statistics?!

No thanks. I'll just stick with my hot dog, beer, and 7:10 PM first pitch.

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Music Listen Apps (Extra 6)

Spotify has change the way I listen to music.  Not even iTunes, Napster, or Torrent did what Spotify did for me.

I try to pin point why I value Spotify above all else. Here is my list: It is not add free ....

Actually that is the only good reason I can come up with why I don’t like it.  This is the only music app I would ever consider actually purchasing. I don’t even mind listening to music only on shuffle on mobile.  I prefer Spotify to youtube when using my phone because you must be in the youtube app to listen to music.  Youtube mobile is also tedious, I have to choose a new song ever 3 or so minutes and it is huge interruption to my day. Spotify continues on and I can access other apps on my phone while listen to music via Spotify.  It also automatically syncs to my phone because my account info on my computer is the same as my phone.  With iTunes I need to actually plug my phone into my computer and load music onto my phone.  This also takes up space on my phone were Spotify is accessed via Wifi and I do not need any extra space for a world of music on my iPhone.

There is also an ease of listening to Spotify. I can search moods, artists play lists and choose what I want to listen to.  I can star this music or drop it into a playlist, there is more discovery and exploration where as iTunes is a similar to a shopping (for some at least), you go when you need to buy something not when you want to see what’s new. There is purpose in iTunes, but Spotify allows me to relax, be wireless and efficient. That is what I want when I listen to music, I want my experience to be effortless not a task. 

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Over Sharing (Extra 5)

It is said to be an immodest thing, I take pleasure in it.  Not my own oversharing rather I love gossip.  And gossip is easily accessed by the keystroke f-a-c--e-b-o-o-k

We live in an age of over sharing and as long as I don’t have to participate in it, I’m a fan. I must admit it is a guilty pleasure. It is less of a joyous event such as getting to share in a graduation or and engagement and more of a tool to bolster my own ego. I like knowing peoples misfortunes. There, I said it, I don’t cheer on their misfortunes for my own benefit, but social media is the rubber necking of technology.  It is polite to drive by a car crash but really you’re curious and you slowdown and try to make sense of what’s happening. It is a phenomenon that no one likes to admit to but everyone does. Gossip is juicy and honey, I’m thirsty.  

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Web Presence Predicament (Extra 4)

As someone who is about to graduate into the ‘real world’ after college, i find myself and my friends in the Web Presence predicament.

As a communications major it is actually vital for me to have a web presence, for a potential employer to search my name, find my social media and see that I am successful in that area of new age expertise. This require a certain type of curation, smart, funny, not too stuffy and defiantly not too casual. Of course, if you do not know me and are simply reading through my 4 year old tweets you might not think so highly of me.  It is a shame that our presence on the web is archived.  It is like say

“hey, I’m 23 years old now, but remember that 12 year old who was going through puberty, yeah, I want you to judge me based on her too.”

It is unfair to this generation that everything is so permanent, especially because we grew up in a time of instant gratification were the now mattered way more than the then.  The access to archived person information is the same as a mentor saying “do as I say and not as I do.”

This generation was brought up in a certain type of mentality and it is unfair to hold someone to something they were never really taught.

I can’t say I am personally offended by my web presence, but I can say for sure many of my friends wish it could all disappear.  I had a friend recently who went so far as to email a newspaper that published a short report including her name 5 years ago that she wanted taken down.  She found this report simply by googling her name.

Balancing web presence is a tricky scale in the social climate we were brought up in.  It is unfair to hold someone to something that occurred 5 years ago that is completely irrelevant to the person they are today. Unfortunately what is read cannot be unread and is damaging to real people’s potential in succeeding in life.  

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Buzzfeed, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. (Extra 3)

Buzzfeed has changed my life.  It is as if someone showed me the light when I didn't even realize I was fumbling around in the dark dark space of the internet. I spend many joyous hours watching people who I’d like to think I’m familiar with teaching me things, telling me secrets, making me laugh and experiencing new things together. 

Wait - what time did you say it was? 1am? I still have a paper to write! Oh, My, Gawd. I hate Buzzfeed, it is such a time suck and it’s dumb and I hate it.

I go through this conundrum, this love hate relationship with Buzzfeed every few days. At first I think i’ve seen the light, until i realize it’s just hell fire making my dark living room glowing. I truly am a fan of Buzzfeed but when I get straight down to it I wish it didn't exist, because it is really isn't a necessity in my life and it just take precious moments of my life away from this planet when I could be doing useful things to better myself as a human being...or at least get my homework done.

Buzzfeed is the Swiss Roll when I know I should be eating Kale. Buzzfeed is empty calories as I believe much of the internet is empty calories, then why do we keep come back for more? Because empty calories are delicious and a guilty pleasure. The internet is a vast space to get lost in an finding your own niche of a corner to curl into is not hard at all. It is easy just like those 50 cent Swiss Rolls which I will continue to unabashedly eat as I watched Buzzfeed for the next 3 hours.

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Who said binging is bad, I’ll let them have my Netflix password and see what they say then (Extra 2)

We live in a culture of binge watching tv shows. What do you do on a lazy Sunday? Or when you’re sick or just bored? Netflix to the rescue! We all have our tv shows, those once a week special events we must clear our Sunday evening schedule for and subsequently discuss with all of our friends and even enthusiastic strangers the next day. Who decided this was a bad thing, I want to meet the person who attributed a negative word like “binge” to such a wonderful thing called sitting on your butt for 8 hours blissfully staring at your glowing blue screen and thinking “ah, this is the life!”

While book clubs are not out of style, I certainly do not know anyone of my current generation that frequents book clubs. Perhaps it’s time to modernize the book clubs of yesteryear and begin meeting up with strangers to discuss the inner workings of this week’s episode of Game of Thrones. 

TV shows and books share a common purpose; narrative, entertainment. The object of storytelling, whether via print or digital media remains the same. They allow us to generate discussion and in bolder times tackles topics that run through our society but are difficult to face head on.  

For people not who did not grow up with racing home after school in order to watch your favorite show, this might seem like blasphemy. What could possibly replace the complexity, depth and thought of a good book. Can any 45 min tv show really encompass all that can be conveyed in a 200 page novel? Most including myself would agree not, but is that really the point of the TV medium? While many tv shows are adapted from books( which is begs to answer questions regarding originally), tv shows allow for expansion beyond the original material within books. 

Television, both it’s content and modes of watching (we are no longer confined to a television set) is in it’s golden age. I still find it shocking that people, including myself watch made for internet shows with fervor and genuine intrigue. TV today is good, it’s really good and we people should take more pride and thought in what they watch and find a group of peers to discuss this revolution with. 

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Winter Is Coming

Winter is coming. 

Wait winter is coming? It was here, it’s past, its gone, thank god it is spring and there is no snow.  Confused by the statement “Winter is Coming”?  You are probably not a fan of Game of Thrones or GOT as it is more often referred.  On the other hand this fandom is so large you most likely do have some cultural knowledge of the famous one liner to describe the start of a new season of the show.

The GOT fandom is so large because of the strong dedication from the fans of the book the TV show is based off of which was published nearly 20 years ago.  And secondly because of the wide spread audience that the show captivates.  I would argue that is it because of the wide range of characters and numerous plot lines.  There is something for everyone in the show; the classic fantasy nerds, supporters of strong female characters, politics, gruesome fighting and sex and lots of emotion (and lack of emotion).  To sum up, the show has everything one could want.  Season 4 of GOT premiered to 6.6 million viewers, the largest audience that HBO, the network that produces the show, has seen since the finale of The Sopranos.  These fans are dedicated.  

I cannot say I have read the books but I am a vehement fan of the show and have friends who were inspired to read the books after the show aired.  I do not contribute so much as spectate to the fandom.  The GOT fandom includes classic online forums to discuss the book or the current weeks episode.  The way I see people participation is usually through online media.  Instantaneously (and I mean that with sincerity) when the show is over I know I can google a line and find it correctly transcribed to a blog post on Tumblr or gifs of an exceptional or funny scene along with memes and hashtags of people ranting about who was murdered or which character was the most ruthless this week.  The fandom is so over saturated with participation and production of media that if I miss an episode I know it is a dangerous thing to log onto Facebook or Tumblr because of spoilers.

People have viewing parties.  There are numerous drinking games online created by mainstream media outlets such as buzzfeed.  GOT’s popularity is so widespread it leaves the word ‘cult’ behind and can be more accurately described as a dedicated following.       

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The feedback loop: Ultimate Consumers and Producers Guide

How have these services helped and/or harmed our world of consumer choice? How does the role of anonymity factor into this feedback loop?

Because of platforms such as Twitter, Youtube, Yelp, Rotten Tomato ect. the world is a better place for consumers - not so much producers.  Having access to platforms that let users to post and read comments allows people to make better decisions, according to everyone else anyway.  I don’t know many people that would just see a movie without reading reviews and getting some opinions from people they trust (people they trust being the film community).  We are living in a world run by consumers, instead of being pushed a product by producers and having no choice but to feed into what is being handed us we have a say in the matter.

Pia Mancini reference “no representation without a conversation” while referring to democracy.  But honestly, conversation is exactly what producers want surrounding their product.  Think of some other words that go along with hype surrounding a topic - words like ‘buzz’ and ‘commotion’.  These words signify a human quality, meaning for a product to be successful there should be talk about it.

These types of services are extremely powerful for consumers and producers.  They let consumers sway the market place in terms of deciding and ultimately controlling through feedback what becomes successful.  It is also critical for producers to get consumers to be creating hype around their products, because at the end of the day the consumer is the one with the control.  

Another factor in feedback is anonymity.  The creator of 4chan Christopher ‘moot’ Poole comments that “saying what ever you like is powerful, doing whatever you like is crossing a line.”  These online spaces to give feedback provide a certain amount of anonymity regardless if our name if attached.  It is very much in line with having a virtual persona and a real life persona.  The feedback can be honest and represent who we are, but there is also an understand that who we are being a screen is a more honest and harsh than in reality.  This creates very truthful feedback for both consumers and producers.  Of course, emotions tend to get in that way and that is where trouble can start, but I would argue that for the sake of know whether or not to see a movie or go to a particular restaurant, I want the unadulterated truth of my peers and I hope the producers around me are keeping a mindful eye to this feedback because if they listen, I as a consumer will be happy and will have nicer things to say about their products online.       

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The Regeneration of Podcasts (Extra1)

The rebirth and regeneration of the podcast is an interesting phenomenon.  We have spent many years and lots of money on creating new, exciting, more advanced viewing methods i.e IMAX, HD, 3D.  We having been moving forward in the realm of visual media it as as if we had forgotten the audio.  But no longer.  Why is it that podcasts are having their 15 minutes of fame (and possibly longer?)

I would say it’s their non traditional format and the ability to multitask while listening to them as well as a certain taboo factor.  More and more consumers are becoming savvy about how to obtain entertainment media.  They no longer are switching on their TVs or going to the movies, they are watching TV on their computers and iPads as well as reading the newspaper or books on similar devices.  As the consumer expands their way of obtaining media it is inevitable that the consumer will also find new types of media to consume.  thinking along these lines, it also throws a wider net for people producing the podcasts to cast.  It is inevitable with more consumers looking for non traditional media to consume there will be a rise in that new media.

Another factor in the rise in popularity of podcasts is they allow listens to do other things while listening.  I personally listen to The Moth while eating breakfast and getting ready in the morning.  During the day when I’m at my internship instead of listening to music for 8 hours a day 3 days a week, I’ll put on a podcast.  Instead of listening and becoming bored of the same music and constantly needing to find new music to stimulate my brain, I can put on a podcast I know I like and it’s different material with the same themes each time. Podcasts satisfy the craving I have to discover new things while letting me do my old things.  It’s pretty brilliant.  Podcasts integrate this listening experience into my day without taking anything away from it.

Finally, while podcasts are on the rise, it’s still a little bit of a underground movement.  When not many people are doing something, in this case listening to podcasts, it makes them exclusive-enviable.  People want to listen to them because they are trendy.  The problem with this is will podcasts grown and stick in popularity, or will there 15 minutes be go soon?

Podcasts do an excellent job of giving consumers a product they didn't even know they wanted.      

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Game Theory

Game theory was born of the Cold War when one nations was figuring out what the other’s next move was.  The traditional idea of what Game Theory is posing a dilemma in a competitive setting and finding all possible outcomes for that situation.

Game theory was just a guessing game-there was no communication going on between the Soviets and Americans during the Cold War.  After the Cold War once the Internet was added to the mix Game Theory had to change because feedback and communication could be added to a dilemma to create a more accurate prediction for an outcome. 

Game Theory on the internet is the difference between a producer telling a consumer what they think the consumer wants and a consumer telling the producer what they want so the producer can create a more enjoyable and usable experience for the consumer.  This feedback likes in comment sections, contact us pages, facebook walls, and information collecting data such as Cookies that lie with in your computer.  I would imagine it is very difficult to not collect data about what ways people use the internet.

It is also shown that in a competitive environment when the individuals know less information about who they are competing against they are less likely to cooperate and will make selfish decisions.  In the age of the internet, we know much more than ever about the people around us, what the want and how they behave.  It is possible that the study of Game Theory has led to a more docile, cooperative society. 

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What do we know of authenticity?

Theres a lot of fakes out there.  Hipsters who put up a facade of knowing “whats ups.”  To use Marshall McLuhan famous question, the fish does not know its wet, but baby, I’m outside the fish bowl and all I see is water.  These individuals think they are being true, pure, authentic, but they simply are under the illusion that they are.

As a modern civilization, with thousands of years of cumulative knowledge it is not necessary to discover for one’s self how to build a fire or to have heard Jimmy Hendrix play live to comprehend and appreciate these experiences.  They are apart of what we as a society know and can be accessed in a split second to further inform our present actions.  Because of the magical internet within weeks you can turn a regular kid into a Dead Head until the kid finds some new past experience to be a apart of while in reality “real” Dead Heads would follow the group around for years.  Whose experience was more “real”?  It is possibly to project authenticity, but it rests on a shaky foundation.

I truly believe this presenitst now we live in-all of the popular culture experiences that we have pushed into the world like a prepackaged twitter baby-will disappear.  It will disappear because it stands on the shoulders of past generations as Alfred Korzybski puts it, rather than find its own footing.  It is impossible to catch up with what is happening in real time, you will already be behind if you try to catch up on every tweet you missed from the past 3 days.  I do not believe that type of culture will persevere and be remembered.  

The book Present Shock  in previous chapters talks about the narrative collapse, traditional storytelling being replaced by fast paced, often crass entertainment.  In a previous posted I reviewed several predictions on the future of journalism compiled by the Neiman Lab.  S. Mitra Kalita discussed journalism becoming similar to social media updates (more personal and human) but she also made a point to say that the stories that stuck with her and became her favorites were tried and true “shoe-leather reporting, and grounded expertise.” 

We are living in a time of truly amazing things being created and this is due to our ability to experience the past 10,000 years in 10 seconds.  But what credibility do these creations have?  Are they authentic because they feel authentic?  I can buy a vintage style coffee table from Crate and Barrel, but does it have the same authenticity of the table that was brought over from Europe by your great great great grandmother.  Simply put, no.  But no one really cares about that type of authenticity nowadays as a result of live stream internet culture.  This is not a bad thing, just not something that will stick in time.  The popular culture created today that will be remembered as classic in years to come are the media created in a slow brew fashion, with the time taken to gain first hand knowledge-similar to the way a pond forms an ecosystem rather then a river cuts a rock.  All of this pop culture shit that has been pushed into the world like a twitter baby will be forgotten, just like that tweet from 3 days ago you never looked at.  

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Red Bull Stratos, oh my!

Remember when space missions were broadcast in black and white on TV? They were a speckle, an event, a pretty big deal that everyone was talking about.  Disbelief that we lived in such an amazing, daring age.

Yeah, I don’t remember those either.  I wasn't alive.  But my parents remember the first mission to the moon, and I can relate to the nostalgia of space launches via my parent’s memories as well as scenes from movies that take place during that time period.       

Red Bull’s Stratos campaign took place in 2013.  The basic idea was that Felix Baumgartner - already a record breaking base Jumper, Skydiver and all around daredevil - would break the world record of highest free fall.  Building on Red Bull’s moto “Red Bull Gives You Wings” Baumgarter free fell from 24 miles above the earth.  It was live streamed and talked about for weeks before the event.  Talk about the event started via social media, twitter, youtube, Facebook, and went on to have traditional ad spots on TV.  As the event got closer the jump also gained attention of journalists and news broadcasters.

Red Bull was able to tap into several different target audiences with this sponsored event.  There was the niche extreme sports crowd, science and technology enthusiasts, people who were already fans of the drink, the older folks reminiscing back on the space age, not to mention the attention that was brought to an older audience later on in the campaign via traditional news reporting.  With more coverage of the event, more consumers were discussing and sharing it via social media.  It was already in a shareable format (YouTube, Twitter, etc.) which is ideal for spreadability.  Besides Red Bull building on what they already had - their moto-, a wide target audience, portable content another aspect of what made this spreadable was the aspect of the hoax.  It seemed impossible this man wouldn't die falling from the upper reaches of the atmosphere.  As any normal person with a healthy sense of curiosity, I needed to see is he was actually going to jump.

The free fall was the most watched lived streamed event in digital history.  Red Bull continued to release content after the event providing a regular stream of material that could potentially gain footing with the audience that watched this live event.

The Jump.

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NeimanLab: Predictions on the Future of Journalism

It is evident on all forms of social media that the stories we as consumers tend to see and read are the articles with a personal touch.  I cannot remember the last time I clicked on a link to an article from the NYT or WSJ that wasn't an op ed piece.  S. Mitra Kalita believes this is the direction journalism will be heading.  It is more and more what the consumers wants, and how buys the news papers, the public.  Kalita suggests that the uninhibited nature of the web will make it's way into print.  I think this is an interesting concept in terms of getting a younger generation reading the newspaper and maybe even catching some bylines that are not based on the intimate details of a story subject's life - as most information that gets disseminated today is in that form i.e Facebook updates, tweets et cetera.  I think one of the biggest problem with this in real world terms is personal bias infiltrating newspaper articles in what is supposed to be a facts only line of work.  Then again, most newspapers do lean to the left or right and it can be hard to separate fact from opinion.  If articles were bluntly written with a personal narrative it would be much easier to separate the bias from the evidence and therefore easier for a reader to process information.  Kalita finishes off her prediction on a very important note though.  And that is the the most memorable pieces of journalism that stick with her beyond a retweet were the articles that did not depend on the crutch of intimate detail but rather "...relied on rich details, shoe-leather reporting, and grounded expertise."  It is important to note that while trends come and go, there are the classics for a reason.

On a positive note, readership is up among millennials, albeit in a mobile discourse.  From 2013 to 2014 mobile news readership was up 19% for 18-34 year olds.  According to Cory Haik, journalism should be focusing more and more on this mobile platform.  Consumers are willing to spend their time or money on news commodities.  Haik suggest shifting the focus of the producers - the newspaper - to the digital age.  This doesn't have to mean doing away with traditional journalism and focusing on more op-ed style pieces as Kalita predicted. Rather Haik suggests translating successful aspects of the digital age into the newspapers which seem to a a thing only grandparents read.  Social media is all about knowing, connecting, and maintaining an ongoing presence.  In the context of journalism switching over to mobile media Haik believes newspapers will begin streamlining their content and experience for consumers; providing good content and experience to keep loyal users, prioritizing topics and aiming content at a specific audience.  I think this is going to be a huge key to getting consumers, especially young consumers to engage in good, valuable content.

Another trend which I find very relevant presently is the way in news organizations give over their news stories.  Producers of media understand their consumer in the social media age in 2 ways.  One being, news organizations simply show the viewers what they ant to show without consideration into what the audience wants and two, trading coverage for softer, more easily understood news.  Rachel Davis Mersey in observing this trend offers some successful alternatives to traditional news media such as theSkimm, AJ+, Vice News.  As a subscriber to theSkimm I can personally vouch for this type of media.  I read the newspaper when it is available to me and theSkimm is perfect keeping me up to date and breaking down the news in a catchy, quick understandable manner.  I agree with Mersey that media producers should adopt an audience-centric approach to news.  She outlines a clean approach to what is happening now and what could serve the consumer well if welcomed with open arms.    

Here is a link to the Nieman Lab Site if you would like to read about the many other brilliant trends in journalism coming our way.

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Visual Overload

Anything in Italics is a category used to sort posts

I went through my Facebook and sorted everything on my feed into the categories. When I was actually concentrating on what was being posted to my Facebook the biggest characteristic that stands out for me is visual overload. 

Dear lord, my eyes hurt. My highest ranking categories for posts was Photos. This was surprising because I had previously thought that photo sharing on Facebook was a dying thing. But no, it is very much alive. Photos also accompanied Everyday Status Updates, for example "happy birthday mom!" had a photo of the girl and her mother, and "requisite coffee stop before boarding" shows a friend sipping on a coffee in the airport.  Photos also 100% of the time were featured in Branded Updates.  Anthropology has a sale? I saw it before I read it.

Our everyday activities, as meager and uneventful as they seem are now elevated and made important with an eye grabbing photo. 80% of the time I barely read the update that went with the photo, I went straight for the photo, glanced at the text and kept scrolling.

Another high ranking category was Articles.  While these ranged from politics to humor to lifestyle, I would say the majority of these articles were pretty useless to my life. Articles like "17+ Creative Recycling Ideas That Bring Trash Back To Life." and "What Famous Nice Jewish Boy is Your Soulmate." I have no use for these articles. Well, maybe the Nice Jewish Boy one.

I would characterize my Facebook feed as being overly inviting.  When Facebook started the response to my feed might have been "...and why do I care what you had for breakfast?" Now it is "I don't want to see that." The idea that social media is over sharing has always been apparent, but now I am being invited into homes, on vacation or to my long lost friends mom's birthday via photo and honestly my days already pretty pack for a virtual coffee with a friend.  

The state of my Facebook feed is overwhelming, and I would say it has such little value that I am considering getting rid of it altogether.

I don't think these discoveries will change my behavior on Facebook.  I personally am the Article posting type.  When I find something I deem worthy or interesting enough to share, I do and I will continue doing so.  

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The "List Article"

The current state of my newsfeed on Facebook is largely friends sharing articles and videos on their wall or on their friend's walls.  There is not so much a trend in the content that is being shared but instead in the format of what is being shared.  All of these articles are in list format.  For example "20 ways you're doing better than you think," or "This is what a cup if tea looks like in 22 different countries."  All of these articles come form different sites.  I would point to Buzzfeed in starting the current trend of information being shared in the form of lists.  These articles are generally reassuring, tell you something about your self and provides a way for you to connect with the larger world while we as individuals on the web are becoming more and more physically isolated.  Theses lists are like a horoscope, vague enough that you can see yourself in them.  They are also the way the current generation have adapted to digesting information.  It is easy to spend no more than 1-2 minutes on one of these "list articles." You go through 25 single sentences that have a photo attached for extra information and come out the other end of the minute more worldly.  It is just what I enjoy, information fast food.  These "list articles" on Facebook are popular because it is easy for the user to share, they are succinct, personal while connecting a user to their friend network and the world.