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Interpassivity on Facebook

Social networks give online opportunities to construct social connections, stay in touch with our friends and create/share user-generated content. They are characterized by interactivity; users are capable to react to each others’ actions. However, as our connections grow, our...

Second Life meets FaceBook: Why do we like being part of a virtual community?

Even though Levy‘s writing style is not my favorite (and that is probably because I am getting used to the Dutch style, very to-the-point), I still can handle it (probably because, in the end, I’m Italian and his mother...

Twitter Poetry and the Re-use Era: the Creation of Meaning

As I wrote in the last post about my new media research on Twitter, this new social networking site offers a very specific new format for communication. It gives a constraint of 140 characters to write a status update....

In search for universal language

Umberto Eco, a cultural critic, semiotician, and a writer said that we live in an age where the “diminutive, the brief and the simple are highly prized in communication” (Thurlow & Brown). New communication technologies can empower young people...

“ILNY, it’s a gr8 plc”

According to the recent statistic from ITU (International Telecommunication Union), in conjunction with UN, more than half of the globe population is subscribed to mobile telephony systems. And this number competes with that of the Internet subscribers. While mobiles...

Collective writing: How literature is changed by the new medium

There are many variants of social networking sites. Some of them are based on an analog medium. The use of the Internet and the computer has resulted in that the digital medium differs from the analog medium. Examples of...

Ning’s Privacy Issues

My background is not only media studies/theories but I’m also enrolled in the Bachelor program of Law at the University of Amsterdam. This post is about my critique on the interaction between privacy and user on Ning.com. For class...
Facebook THE example of data portability

Facebook THE example of data portability

Every now and then privacy issues of Facebook are addressed when a new feature, like News Feeds, show the accessibility of information. This discussion deserves to be in the limelight even when the media are not creating a hype...

Online Conversations & Social Networks

When Facebook bought FriendFeed to take on Twitter, there was a lot of discussion whether or not Facebook could provide the end users with enough added value to ‘make the switch.’ Personally I found that question to be irrelevant....

Facebook vs Ning – what is “social”?

A social network is, according to Wikipedia, a social structure made of individuals or organizations, which are connected by one or more specific types of interdependency (friendship, kinship, financial exchange, sexual relationships, and relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige)....

Social Networking Sites: Safety First

The rise of social networking sites makes people put a lot of personal information on the internet. The idea behind this is simple. How more complete and updated your profile is, the more easier you are to find on...

Facebook, Connecting and Controlling People

Facebook connects people. Not a very new phenomenon, but the amount of people using the social network increases every day and so does the amount of information people show and share with (too many?) others.

The Construction of an Online (Facebook) Identity

The web has become something other than the illusive place where we can get as much information as we want at all times. More than a knowledge database, the Internet has transformed into a place where we can not...

Twitter and its networking (in)capabilities

Nowadays, many of the popular social network sites are advanced platforms that more or less evolved from simple community platforms or fora. Where Myspace, Friendster and The WELL (later the Dutch De Digitale Stad popped up as a similar...

Are We Addicted to Social Networking Sites?

Social Networking sites  such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Hyves have exploded in the past five years and have caused a societal shift in the way we communicate and connect with others. In 2009, time spent on social networking...

Is open always better than closed?

I went to an exhibition in the Tropenmuseum called Dono’s code, by the contemporary artist Heri Dono (1960). The first of his many politically charged works was Fermentation of Mind. I sneakily took a picture of it because it was quite impressive....
Recommendation vs Consumption in the social networks

Recommendation vs Consumption in the social networks

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine published The Long Tail article in October 2004 to describe an statistic feature of some statistical distributions that affect to current and future business models. Since then, traditional marketing field has became totally...

Are you a nerd, a geek, a dork or a dweeb?

In a new media class at the university everyone always has some kind of addiction. There are students who are addicted to games, some who are addicted to blogs, others to dating sites or stream-videos and chats. Eventually, they...

Wikipedia and Social Networking

It’s easy to feel excited about Wikipedia when you’ve just created your own article. But soon after you publish it, the thrill seems to fade away. Wikipedia has relied on a participatory system and it can’t be denied that it’s been very...

Can we find true love through the internet?

The popularity of online dating is increasing. It’s no longer a taboo. This low-profile way of meeting new people is increasingly finding a place in our busy society. Barriers to contact unknown people are being blurred due to social...
A review of: Blogging

A review of: Blogging

Blogging is written by Jill Walker Rettberg. She is a blogger her self. On her blog she presents her self as “an associate professor at the University of Bergen, and I do research on how people tell stories online.”...

Book Review of YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture

Show off your favorite videos to the world. Take videos of your dogs, cats, and other pets. Blog the videos you take with your digital camera or cell phone. Securely and privately show your videos to your friends and...

Children and Hyves

The most popular social networking website in the Netherlands is Hyves. It’s similar to Facebook or MySpace, but far more used in Holland: since it’s founding in 2004, the number of users has grown explosively and today Hyves has...