birthdaiz

in the last two weeks, more than like 10 of my facebook friends have had birthdays. i never ever know what is the most appropriate action to take. if i haven't talk to said birthday-er in over a year, do i still comment? if we're close enough to have exchanged numbers, but not to hang out alone, do i text, or will a facebook comment suffice? and if i am so close to a person that it is almost guaranteed that i will see them on their actual birthday, and because of the celebrations have not been able to get to a computer to leave a comment because even if that option did arise it would be weird to comment someone while they were in the same room, do they have a right to be offended? i really hope that the birthday boys and girls that i came across are okay with my decisions, because i'm really very nervous. i wish there was some sort of source for facebook etiquette.

oh hey! http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/154374/facebook_etiquette_five_dos_and_donts.html

good start.

trackingyrkidz

although being sick is kind of awful, i am given the opportunity to watch good morning america. today they featured a family who is now taking advantage of OnlineFamily.Norton, which was made so "non-techy" parents could see what their kids do online. it shows your child's online history, and potentially worrisome things show up in red, which is kind of cool, and is more effective than just showing a list of different urls. what i am not so keen on is that they can check social networking profiles and read IM conversations. i mean, if a parent has something to worry about in an IM conversation, then yeah i guess it's okay for them to read it, but a large part of what i talk to my friends about, online and in real life, might not be inappropriate, but might not be something i feel comfortable having my parents read. i don't want my mom referencing an IM conversation i had last night. the motive of this particular program is that if kids know their parents are watching, they're more likely to talk about it irl. i do not know how true this is. i feel like this program will only make kids paranoid that even if they accidentally come upon an inappropriate website, their parents might mistake it as intentional.


maybe they'll check back with the example family and see how it goes.

internetisscarii

i am sure that everyone has heard about Philip Markoff, the "craigslist killer," who allegedly killed a woman who advertised on craigslist. while it's terrifying to think that he found his victim, Julissa Brisman, on the internet, what is interesting is how he was caught. they traced the email he used to contact Brisman to his internet provider, and then received an address. the footprints you leave on the internet make hiding a crime almost impossible.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/04/22/2009-04-22_internet_craigslist_killers_ugly_domain.html

but anyway, blue planet is on, and you should probably watch it if you are interested in shouting "WOOOOOAH" every time a bio-luminescent fish comes on screen.

maaaaaaam

my mom has become obsessed with posting everything she does to her twitter, plurk, and facebook. i can now know every single thing that she does by just going to her twitter. this is unsettling. i would like to have to give her a phone call to know that she is playing scrabble. i do not appreciate this in the slightest mom if youre reading this please get help.

VOOOOOOTE

"Vote on Facebook's Governing Documents
We’ve revised the two new documents we proposed to govern the site, the Facebook Principles and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, based on your feedback. Now, we want you to vote for the system of governance you think is best. Voting will close on April 23 at 11:59am PDT. Visit the Facebook Site Governance application to learn more, read the documents, and vote."

TWEETINGINTHEMILKYWAY

aaaahahahahaha sorry.

anyway. HEY TWITTER WHAT ARE YOU DOING TAKING OVER THE WORLD.
an astronaut has been tweeting about his training and preparation for his trip to the Hubble Space Telescope!

maybe he will tweet from OUTER SPACE WHAAAAAT!

i don't like twitter, but i am very impressed.


http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131323&intsrc=news_ts_head

bulyinncybastalkinn

"Account Unavailable

Your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience."

UGH. so instead i watched a movie.

from the old nokia cellphones whose most advanced feature is the ability to take a video to the shocking realizating that "kids can wander through cyberspace all by themselves," the CWKNetwork's "Cyberstalking & Bullying" seems slightly outdated despite being from 2008. The message is still there though, that the internet holds numerous threats for children.

once you get past the background music that is reminiscent of a 1980s horror film, it's actully terrifying. this video seems to try to scare kids from the internet, which obviously isn't happening very soon. the scariest part was probably kurtis sawyer, a convicted child molester, who said that he felt as though he was just talking to another human being, not a young girl. and another story about a girl named kylie, who was abducted and kept prisoner by someone she met online. the anonymity of the internet is the scariest aspect.

toomuchtime

i realized i spent 7 hours on facebook yesterday. i rule lolol. :(


i got invited to become a fan of carl bergmanson yesterday on facebook. that's pretty smart of him, to take advantage of the internet like that.

corzine has one too! this is weird. but exciting!

http://www.baristanet.com/2009/03/have_you_fanned_jon_corzine_on.php

supersuper

LOL

aprulfoools

i like that websites choose to celebrate april fool's day.

"GO TO YOUTUBE. ITS UPSIDE-DOWN," shouted my brother as soon as he got home from school.
i also almost fell for the washington post's "conficker worm" joke.

then i realized i could just read a list of all of them and never be fooled again.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512050,00.html


this made me lol
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/autopilot/index.html

pattimartinvisitomiescuela

during her high school years at manasquan, Patti Martin was the editor of her school's paper. martin has not strayed far from her jersey shore roots and has been writing for the local Asbury Park Press for the last 25 years. she took the time to visit my journalism class today and gave a great deal of insight into the future of journalism.
Martin at first appeared to be an advocate of newspapers' unavoidable move to the internet(she even gave us advice on how to become a successful blogger), but later admitted to having mixed feelings about the age of "citizen bloggers"
"[i feel] sort of a resentment because we're held to a different standard," said Martin on the subject, "that's damaging sometimes."
one point that Martin made that i find particularly interesting is to always ask the "eternal question": why? why is it important to write about these things? why would people care? i am wondering why people are more interested in these "citizen bloggers" than qualified journalists. the internet has changed how almost everything is viewed. i am also conflicted on the switch to the internet, but it is probably better to work with it than fight it.
this is a nice transition to what i would like to propose, a website, for our Crimson Courier. i have been meaning to bring this up for quite some time, but Patti Martin's visit made me realize i should suggest a website now. i feel like it would create more work for us, but the results would be so overwhelmingly positive. we could more accurately advertise when the paper will be out, and all of the articles that will be included. we could have snippets of the next months articles and archives of the previous. i feel this would be such a great addition to the already amazing Crimson Courier, and i hope it happens!

lolololol

there is an almost daily comic called dinosaur comics and it rules. this guy ryan north takes the same picture and just changes the dialogue for every comic! genius!


anyway the comic from a few days ago just made me lawl.


i am sorry i find this hilarious.


IF YOU ARE REALLY BORED AND WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A LAUGH NEARLY EVERY DAY READ INTERNET COMICS. THANK YOU.

whatdidyougiveup?

apparently a group of college students gave up facebook for lent. the extra time that would have been spend surfing the internet will give the students the time they need to become closer to God. but even without a religious reason, maybe we all should spend a little bit less time on the internet. i have realized i spend almost every hour not spend in school signed in to facebook, even if i am not at the computer. maybe i'll start by spending a day without facebook, i don't know if i could stand 40.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510484,00.html

whatissextin'

"have you ever heard of... 'sexting?'" my dad recently asked. i had not ever heard of the term until the now almost daily headlines warning of the dangers associated with it. this is not new to teens, but suddenly every adult in america is checking their child's phone for nudie pics. the recently unveiled mystery of sexting has only put a deeper fear of technology into the older generation, but maybe this fear is justified.


if i were to write a feature about sexting, i would probably describe it as the sending of inappropriate pics via text message.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0508/520195.html

losingtotheinternet

how often do we hear about someone posting something about their job or their school and how often does it end up coming back to haunt them? i came upon ANOTHER story, this one not involving an unfortunate facebook album, but a twitter tweet that insulted a future employer. this is already been turned into an internet meme and has sparked my interest in twitter.

my mom is very into twitter, which is weird. just last weekend she found out that a friend's hotel room was given away via twitter, and immediately sent sympathetic emails. she wants me to get a twitter to update from my phone when im out, so she doesn't have to call me and ask where i am. i don't know how comfortable i am with having it on the internet, i could just as easily text the people that would care to know. twitter is kind of like status updates i guess. except its just status updates and it kind of creeps me out.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29796962/


heres a thing about twitter that i might have made me lol a little.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w&feature=featured

NEWFACEBOOK

"Welcome to the new home page
You're looking at the real-time stream of posts from your friends and connections. Control the stream using the filters on the left. To hide posts from friends in this stream, click the "x" in the upper-right corner of a post. Learn more."


I DONT GET IT REALLY.
so i have to consciously point out who i do and do not want to show up on my newsfeed? i could not find my event invites for like a day (which is probably just me being dumb) but like i guess it's ok. people complained about the old new facebook for like months. just as i was getting used to it it changed. but oh well!



WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEW FACEBOOK.

"The visual hierarchy is less effective than the former layout, and the interface is less intuitive. It seems to me that the Facebook developers are Twitter wannabe's," said Jon Laing, a Sophomore at The University of the Arts.

However, not all consumer reception has been negative. "The new layout may be somewhat of a chore to learn, but I think that the newest version of Facebook will actually be a welcomed change. Granted, it seems to be a consolidation of some other popular social networking sites in existence. But the idea of attempting to compress our Internet needs into just one click should be lauded for being a step in the right direction towards convenience."
Matt McCue (via text message)

Anne Thoma at 7:36pm March 17
it rules.

Arielle Rebecca Fieltsch at 7:46pm March 17
i hate it.

Paige Laino at 7:56pm March 17
i did not like it but am already used to it since i only refresh my own profile and my inbox anyway

Joe Fadem at 7:56pm March 17
It has little relistening value and I cannot seem to get into the sets of ambient noise.

Justyn Plaskon at 8:14pm March 17
its stalkerish... it stalks everyone for you and i don't want to know/see that stuff cause im not a stalker

also as a side note: i hate when people do something to warrant a notification and then delete it because i almost always think it was something mean that they realized was mean even though it could have just been a typo.

billspassed

yesterday, a bunch of bills were passed which increased penalties for online abuse, and also made it mandatory for computer repair-ers to report child pornography.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1237263371298890.xml&coll=1

impressive!

internettakesovur

it's been speculated that soon the internet will replace newspapers as the source for news.

http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2009/031609bradner.html

^that article gives a number of statistics relating to the decline in popularity of newspapers.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10197136-94.html

^here's an article on how phoneinternet usage has grown. the thing it was most used for was the news, which could only speed up the extinction of newspapers.

it's upsetting that something so fundamental to our society is being put out by the internet, but at the same time it was almost unavoidable with the internet's growing popularity.


:(

interview

i emailed Jayne Hitchcock, WHOA President, and was able to ask her a few questions about internet safety. i got some really awesome info, expect to see a lot of this in my feature!


> What is the most common type of online abuse? Why do you think this is true?

There is no "common" type. Anything online can be used against you. But my organization, WHOA (at haltabuse.org) has found that no matter where the victim encountered their harasser, the harassment primarily starts via email. You can check out our stats at http://www.haltabuse.org/resources/stats/index.shtml

> Why do people feel more comfortable harassing others online as opposed to in person?

It's the perceived anonymity. People think if they open up an account with a free service such as Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or a fake persona at Facebook or Myspace, that no one will be able to tell who is doing the harassing. That's where they are wrong. They can and will be found out and with over 40 states with laws on the books, they could quite easily go to jail for what they do online to others.


> Have you noticed an increased awareness of online harassment in recent years?

Yes and it's due to the media, for better or worse. The word is getting out about the bad things that happen online, but mainstream media tend to sensationalize only a few cases without letting the public know the broad spectrum of online abuse and harassment and that there are organizations like mine out there to help them.


> What precautions can you take to avoid becoming a victim?

These are a few things we offers as tips:

Select a gender-neutral username, email address, etc. Avoid anything cute, sexual, diminutive, or overtly feminine.
Keep your primary email address private. Use your primary email address ONLY for people you know and trust.
Get a free email account and use that for all your other online activity. Make sure you select a gender-neutral username that is nothing like anything you've had before. There are many, many free email providers, such as Hotmail, Juno, Yahoo! and Hushmail. We suggest that you do a search using your favorite search engine and choose the email provider that best suits your own needs.
Don't give out information simply because it is requested. Countless web sites ask you to give them your full name, date of birth, address, phone number, email address, etc. when you might just want to search their catalogs or read messages on a discussion forum. Give as little information as possible, and if they insist on information that doesn't seem justified, leave to go elsewhere. Some people give false information at such sites, especially if they don't plan to return in the future. Be especially cautious of "profiles" and "directory listings" for instant messaging programs or web sites.
Block or ignore unwanted users. Whether you are in a chat room or using IM, you should always check out what options/preferences are available to you and take advantage of the "Block all users except those on my buddy list" or adding unwanted usernames to an Ignore list in chat. If anyone bothers you and won't go away, put them on block or ignore!
Ego Surf. Put your first name and last name in quotes in a search engine such as Yahoo!, Google or Dogpile and see if there are any results regarding you. You just might be surprised at what you find. Also put in the names of your spouse, loved ones and/or children. Remember to put their names in quotes to refine the search results. Better yet, use TracerLock or a similar service to do it for you on a regular basis.
Don't allow others to draw you into conflict. That may mean that you don't defend yourself from personal attacks. It's safer to ignore them and keep yourself above the fray. When you respond to a harasser in any way, you're letting him know that he has succeeded. No matter how hard it is to do, do not interact with a harasser. When he realizes that he isn't getting a reaction from you, in most cases he'll move on to find an easier target.
Lurk in a new forum to learn local customs. Read mailing list or discussion board postings for a week or more without responding or posting anything yourself. In chat rooms, just sit quietly for 10-30 minutes to see if the discussions that are going on are truly something in which you wish to engage. Don't respond to private messages in that time, either.
If a place becomes stressful, leave it. There are many stressors we cannot avoid easily in our lives, so why put up with those we can avoid? If someone is being asinine in a chat room or on a discussion board, there are countless others that are likely to be more pleasant. If another visitor to a chat room or forum is harassing you and the forum owner/moderator refuses to take decisive action, why would you want to be there? Don't allow yourself to get tied up in battles over territory.
When you change, really change! If you need to change your username or email address to break off contact with a harasser, using a variation on your real name or anything you've used in the past leaves tracks allowing the harasser to find you again fairly easily. If you've always been "Kitty" and you change your handle to "Cat," you haven't really changed. The harasser knows that you have particular hobbies or interests. For instance, perhaps you like to play Scrabble. If he's really obsessed or simply has too much time on his hands, he's likely to poke around in different Scrabble-related fora looking for feline names to see if he can find you again.
Watch what you "say" online. When you do participate online, be careful--only type what you would say to someone's face. If you wouldn't say it to a stranger standing next to you in an elevator, why in the world would you "say" it online?

innervewe

for my feature, i am going to interview average high school students, and hopefully discover more about how my peers experience the internet. if you are a teenager and feel qualified to answer these questions, please let me know.

1. on average, how many hours a day do you spend on you social networking site (ex: facebook or myspace)? what about on instant messenger?

2. have you ever been or know anyone who has been a victim of cyber bullying?

3. have you ever been sexually harassed on the internet?

4. is your facebook/myspace/other profile private? if so, what influenced this decision?

5. do you often accept friend requests from people you don't know?



also, if you know anyone who could help me learn more about why teens feel so attracted to the internet despite the dangers associated with it, that would be great too!

innernestin

http://www.accentadvocate.com/spotlight/internet_shifts_social_relationship-1.1603228

video+vblog=VLOG

GOAL: vlog more. or at all.

I AM SO INTERESTED IN VLOGS. i have never made one but they seem like so much fun! so many internet celebrities started out as mere vloggers. it seems so appealing i would like to become a frequent vlogger but i am not sure my life is interesting enough. i will maybe start blogging soon because i just got a youtube account today (lol behind).

but in other news, there is a nice blue box on the top of my facebook home page:

"Changes to the Home page are coming soon"

PREVIEW: http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/homepage_tour.php

i like it, but i dont like how i did not notice new friend requests for like five minutes because they are at the very top of the page. also i cannot figure out why all the status updates are not together. i really like that box of status updates. it keeps me aware of what everyone is doing, even though people i temporarily forgot about. oh well, we'll just have to get used to it i guess! i just hope it is not as big a problem as new facebook when it became permanent. LOL REMEMBER THAT.

onlineclasssss

i am currently taking the SAT class i missed online. if this option was not available to me, i would have had to drive to cherry hill, which is like forever away, to make it up, as opposed to sitting here in my comfy chair and learning equally as much. without the internet, i would have wasted a lot of gas and time, and i think its super that companies are taking advantage of the internet like this. just thought i would take a minute to share how much ilti (i love the internet).

daweatherrr

how would i know what was going on outside without the internet to tell me?

"... WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 4 PM EST MONDAY..."
THANK YOU WEATHER.COM

negativez

this is unsettling
Study: Internet Addiction May Fuel Teen Aggression
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,499105,00.html

i think it takes a lot to be addicted to the internet, but apparently it has very negative effects?!


also: when i logged into myspace today, i got the "friendly reminder about Safety!" note again. !!! good

sourrrrrrr(ces)

this is just a couple of people i would like to talk to about my feature, internet safety.

1. Det. Dean Textor or Det. Michael Steitz from the Wall Township Police.
they deal specifically with crimes in which children and teenagers are involved.
according to the website, i can call 732-449-4800.

2. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
they deal with children who are missing, abducted, and exploited, and occasionally, these children are victims of internet predators.
while i am not entirely sure who i would talk to specifically, the general phone number is 1-800-THE-LOST

3. Neil Izenberg, MD
editor-in-chief and founder of KidsHealth.org, and writer of their Internet Safety: Safe Surfing Tips for Teens article.
the website says they cannot reply to everyone BUT members of the media can email their PR at PR@KidsHealth.org.

4. Wall High School Students
it's important to get a teen's perspective on the iddue of teen safety, and their are many questions that could be put into a questionaire and handed to students. it's very possible that many students aren't aware of online harassment, or don't take precautions against it, and it would be interesting to learn how much wall students know about their safety online.

tryagain

today, i signed up for a myspace after like a year of not having one. what i found interesting is that before it told me to upload a picture, this lil window popped up.

"Please read these safety tips before posting any photos or personal info.

MySpace is a public space. Don't post anything you wouldn't want the world to know (e.g. your phone number, address, instant messenger screen name, or specific whereabouts). Don’t post any nudity, violent, or offensive material, or copyrighted images. If you violate these terms, your account will be deleted. [ photo policy ]

People aren’t always say who they are. Exercise caution when communicating with strangers and avoid meeting people in person whom you do not fully know. If you must meet someone, do it in a public place and bring a friend or trusted adult.

Harassment, hate speech, and inappropriate content should be reported. If you feel someone’s behavior is inappropriate, react. Talk with a trusted adult, or report it to MySpace or the authorities."


i do not remember this being there, or at least being as noticeable, the first time around. good improvement imo.

watchit

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--internetsafety0223feb23,0,2987246.story

^^^^^in new jersey, a number of bills petaining to internet abuses, and worsening the penalties for online harassment.

oscurz

while watching the oscars, i had too look up so many things and people. my internet history is filled with imdb, wikipedia, and youtube videos of the winners. i did not realize how little i knew about movies until the oscars, but thanks to the internet, i now know way more about james franco, eric roberts, and many other people and movies i did not consider to be as interesting as they actually are. thanks internet, for making me feel less awkward and more informed.

ifoundit

there is a website where people post pictures from cameras that they found in the hopes that one day, someone in the picture will be recognized and the camera returned. at http://ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com/ you can go through the numerous posts, hoping to find a lost camera. you might find your camera, or you might be content just seeing people who are in the same situation you are. maybe if you tell people about this site all the cameras will be able to go home! spread the word!

ownership

the recent change to the facebook terms of service caused a huge uproar among facebook users. the change involved the removal of a very important part of the terms, which said if you removed your account, facebook's license to it would expire. this made many people believe that facebook owned everything you ever posted, and this led to a huge amount of facebook groups protesting this change. a facebook representative then sent this message:

"We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload. The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site. That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc...), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend). Furthermore, it is important to note that this license is made subject to the user's privacy settings. So any limitations that a user puts on display of the relevant content (e.g. To specific friends) are respected by Facebook. Also, the license only allows us to use the info "in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof." Users generally expect and understand this behavior as it has been a common practice for web services since the advent of webmail. For example, if you send a message to a friend on a webmail service, that service will not delete that message from your friend's inbox if you delete your account."

i guess this makes it a little clearer but it just reinforces the concept that anything you put on facebook is there to stay.

http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever
http://consumerist.com/5154745/facebook-clarifies-terms-of-service-we-do-not-own-your-stuff-forever

like

apparently while i was away, this happened.

Facebook turns on its 'Like' button
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10160112-93.html

you now have the option to tell someone whether or not you like the actions they are taking on facebook. this is a pretty awesome thing in my opinion, because instead of thinking of a witty status comment, you can simply press a button to let them know you appreciate it. i will no longer have to google search a status update to make sure it isn't song lyrics, or sound silly posting "i like this" on someone's newest profile picture. my mom has already used it on the photo album i posted of the cruise (which is an awesome way to not have to email every family member i have with a ridiculous large amount of files). i will be taking advantage of this shortly.

cruisingforabruising

my last week was spent of a cruise, which, while very fun and exciting as a cruise should be, had an internet cafe where internet time was $0.75 a minute, and i was not really interested in spending that. i was entertained most of the time, but i occasionally felt the urge to look up a movie i was watching on imdb, or to see what my friend's had been doing in my absence.


check out today's toothpaste for dinner comic!

safety

over the last few years, websites like facebook and myspace have gained a significant amount of popularity. with this popularity came warnings about internet predators, many a cyber-bullying assembly, and concerned parents. i feel like the question "is my child safe on the internet?" is asked all too often, and the answer depends on how your kid has been brought up to see the internet, how many of those assemblies he has attended, and how he would react to a random myspace ad from an 'attractive lady' he doesn't know. The topic of internet safety is very important, and for my feature i would like to report on how teens view the networking sites, and how parents and the reminder of "don't talk to strangers (on the internet)" has affected their opinion and activity on the internet.

experiment25

i couldn't help but notice the newly popular facebook note in which people announce '25 things' about themselves. in this note, you have to write "25 random things, facts, or goals about you" (goals about you lol) and tag 25 people in your note. in an effort to keep up with my peers, i posted 25 things about myself. this might have been the most difficult thing i did all weekend, not coming up with 25 things but thinking of who was an appropriate person to tag in such a note. i didn't want anyone to see a red notification flag only to be disappointed realizing it was just a link to a list of "random" things about sarah fadem. i know i felt strange being tagged by some people who i had occasionally made awkward eye contact with and rarely spoken to and while i appreciate the information, i do not feel completely comfortable reading about your unique taste in music or that you should be doing your homework.  i do not completely understand why this has become such a popular thing, but i am sure people will continue to post them for the next week, only to look back at them a year later and delete. i'm looking forward to it.


"It's absolutely ridiculous to be asked to publicly post intimate details and to personally inform 25 people what they are." -anne thoma, 17