got the message? describing social media | shuaism

It is useful to consider the culture of different social media sites in terms of everyday scenarios. This really helps to demystify the uneasiness that exists around new media. Shuaism blogger Josh Peters shares his take on social media, and this is what he got:

Twitter – It’s like a large cocktail party and everyone brought their computers. Everyone is sharing pictures, videos, articles, links and there are discussions constantly going. You can follow any of the conversations / people you find interesting and just ignore the rest.

FaceBook - It’s a bit like a big house party. You show up and the first thing you do is find someone you know and then they introduce to people they know and so on. There are people playing games in different rooms of the house, people are holding groups discussions and the whole thing is ran by a very attentive host that tries to introduce you to new people and games or activities to enhance your experience.

MySpace – It a lot like High School. The profile is much akin to your high school locker. Pictures of your friends, bands, books, all the stuff you like is plastered all over the front and people decorate them in often gaudy expressions of themselves. There are “study groups” where you can discuss things you like or don’t like, a place to play games and even find some of the businesses you like getting involved. This is a very ME based site but don’t disregard the value there. If this is the crowd you want to target then it’s the place for you.

LinkedIn - A business mixer / meetup. People are exchanging their opinions and advice on business and what’s happening. Q&A sessions and group discussions on business issues are being discussed, and you can leveage your contacts to meet more contacts.

Delicious - Your own personal refernce library filled with the information you’ve ever found useful and you can share it with other people, organize it and network with people who are interested in like subjects.

via shuaism

a genealogy of generation. generation what? | new york times

It all began in a quotation Ernest Hemingway attributed to his Paris patron, the poet and salonkeeper Gertrude Stein. On the title page of his novel “The Sun Also Rises,” published in 1926, he quoted her saying to her circle of creatively disaffected writers, artists and intellectuals in the aftermath of World War I, “You are all a lost generation.”

In the cultural nomenclature after that, the noun generation was applied to those “coming of age” in an era. Anne Soukhanov, U.S. editor of the excellent Encarta dictionary, observes, “Young people’s attitudes, behavior and contributions, while being shaped by the ethos of, and major events during, their time, came in turn to represent the tenor of the time.”

via generation what? | new york times

In this fascinating article, William Saffire traces the genealogy of the word “generation” and illustrates the complex cultural origins that contribute towards our understanding of its meaning today.

meaning, significance, knowledge and power

With every change in the way we communicate in our culture there is a new struggle over meaning, significance, knowledge and power. Old rules and orders cannot be applied perfectly under the new regime of communication and thus formations of power are under threat from these new forms of expression.

P.David Marshall; New Media Cultures

students serious about social media

Thanks to gen y, social media are seriously taking off – according to partial research just released by Anderson Analytics and Genx2y. This includes blogging and forum hopping, social and even professional networking.

The attitudes and behaviours of US tertiary students, the majority of which are generation y, have been tracked by Anderson Analytics since 2005. This study is good because looks beyond the standard spectrum of standard web sites in order to scrutinise the rapid adoption of social media by this generation. And results of this partial study show just how popular they are.

This will be the first in a series of posts I will make on the relations between gen y and social media.

Some of the insights back up a lot that we more or less already know. Like the fact that facebook is the best thing since sliced bread most of us have already gathered. The study, however, provides the stats to prove it, tracing myspace lost the popularity stakes in 2007.

Students

are heavy users of social networks, however Facebook is by far more popular both overall and in terms of frequency of use. Over 80% of students use Facebook compared to 40% for the second most popular MySpace. Facebook is also used more often with 74% of students accessing the site at least once a week. Interestingly, social networking site LinkedIn, which has a much older member base, is also starting to catch on among 10% of students.

The tables below illustrate just how serious a player facebook has become among those surveyed.

It also reveals things we don’t already know. For instance, the revelation that female tertiary students are three times more likely than male to blog than their male counterparts. (I would suggest that this has something to do with the ratio of female to male students, but it is an interesting fact nonetheless)

The fact that ’students are four times more likely to blog’ is also particularly revealing. You have to wonder about the cultural politics of this.

This longitudinal study will run till 2009, tracking what I believe will (in future) be considered the most significant in terms of the rise of social media.

Overall this is one of those rare studies that actually provides us with gems of information alongside relevant insightful statistics that further back up what everyone has been saying. I just think that the evidence further blows everything away, because it really adds something tangible to these claims about the rapid momentum that social media are taking all the way.

I find it particularly important to consider alongside the findings in this research that it not only coincides with more female tertiary students being enrolled – but also the fact it coincides with the moment gen y are enrolling, graduating from higher education and embarking on their early careers.

I look forward to reading more on this research as it winds towards completion and will be keen to read up about similar studies.

Anderson Analytics – GenX2Z College Study is conducted every year in the Fall semester among 1,000 US college students. All participants have confirmed .edu emails. Sample provides statistics with a +/-3.1% confidence interval at the 95% confidence level.

via jeff chandlers blog

via Social Media – Including Blogging – Now Popular Among Gen Y

extra via   Gen y blogging becoming more popular