Writing this from my iPhone using the WordPress app. I like the ability to write quick posts fe anywhere, but like email on my phone, anything that will require a lot of typing will have to wait until I’m at a keyboard!
On the other hand, this is a great way to handle comments, I can approve pending comments, delete spam comments or even reply to comments quickly, just so long as I have my phone with me. 😉
Spent a lot of time last night trying to find a work-around for her blog. Included in that was creating a new blog and seeing if it would publish to the server, but nothing seemed to work. Finally this morning, during a few moments of down time at work (It’s been a busy morning!) I…
I’ve been randomly taking a look at Facebook’s “People you may know” feature over the last week or however long it’s been available. It occurs to me today that this feature is actually a perfect example of the limits of the “friend” definition on Facebook and other social networking services. Here’s an example. I have…
Aaron has posted a few thoughts, comparing his efforts to improve on public speaking to the efforts on improving his writing via his weblog. It’s an interesting comparison because in some ways they are similar. When you speak publicly you are using words to communicate thoughts and ideas to people, trying to educate, persuade, and…
We took a little trip to Dayton today, meeting up with the wife’s brother and his family so we could take our niece to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. Between her parents her aunt, her day was more than well documented in photos, so I decided to just try and grab a few to see…
One of the most popular arguments we hear, and one I’ve made myself, is that to truly stay informed, and avoid living in the bubble of our own political bias, we need to make sure we are getting information from a variety of sources, including ones we may not agree with.
This study seems to be telling us that isn’t enough, and it can easily be manipulated. If I read an opposing viewpoint, and there’s no reward for doing so, I’m unlikely to really be influenced by it, but if I read an opposing viewpoint and get rewarded for it, I’m more likely to change my mind.
Now, remember that emotional contagion we might get from social media? What if I shared one side of a political view, and got rewarded by the algorithms or whomever with lots of likes and comments, and the post got shared a whole bunch, but posts from the other side, got none of that? Which side am I more likely to agree with? Right, the one that I got better grades on. Not because it’s true, better, or more accurate, but because I am rewarded for thinking that way. Rewarded the way I’ve been my whole life, since I was a little boy, from the first time my parents wanted me to behave a certain way, all the way through my school years, and for all of my career.
How hard would that be to fight against? Almost impossible, I’d say. How easy would it be for social media to do it, either the companies themselves, or large groups of users?
How does that influence what we do see on social media?
After years, and years of making my living supporting, and working with, Windows PC’s I ordered a Macbook Pro to replace my aging laptop this weekend. There’s no hope for me now, is there? I’m doomed to be a fanboy and have a Steve Jobs crush, aren’t I? 😉 OK seriously, one of the first…