Twitter vs. Blogging

As I have mentioned before, I am in the middle of writing my dissertation, so I don't have much time to write blog posts. However, this is a topic that has been peculating in my mind since Karyn Romeis announced the end of her Karyn's Erratic Learning Journey blog.

This caught many readers off guard. However, I have noticed that many of the blogs I have been following have given up blogging over the last year. I have addressed this in previous blogs, so I won't do so now. But I wanted to address the rising popularity of twitter.

Honestly, for my personal web based habits, I don't see the importance of Twitter. One thing that has been needling me over the last couple of months was a blog report I read that said the African Americans are more apt to use twitter, while the majority of Americans use facebook. Finally, I received the answer from one of my student groups in a presentation they gave on group technology use.

In the presentation they mentioned that twitter was especially effective on mobile technology. Just looking at the access to the internet that my students use, I would say that the majority of my African American students access the internet through their phones, while the other students access it through their labtops. As they say in Costa Rica, the coin dropped (I made the connection). Those linked to the internet (and whose main form of communication) via smart phones, cell phones, or pda's would prefer twitter. Those linked to the internet via labtops, macs, and other pc's have the luxury of seeing and posting a longer reflection.

So as technology gets increasingly more mobile, I predict there will be less blogging.

But wait!

What about the ebook devices, ipad, and netbooks? Perhaps blogging isn't passe, but rather for more "academic" purposes. What do you think?

How mobile technology and facebook is changing how we communicate

I have noticed lately that the emails I get from my students are shorter and much more direct. I have also noticed that some of the comments on my kids' facebook seem almost cruel in their brevity, communicating something that can be misunderstood. After doing some quick analysis, I realized that those messages that stood out as being "different" were sent from mobile technology. After a little more investigation, I realized that the way in which facebook is being used is changing as more and more people have mobile devises that interact with the internet.

My nephew just got a droid. He is a teacher in his late 20's, not a teen. However, if I want to get a hold of him quickly, I have found facebook as the most effective tool. Facebook is becoming the format of choice for informal communication. As a result, companies using facebook who are formal or spamming (I'm sure it's called something else, I'm just not up to date with the jargon) may turn off potential customers (just as people don't answer the telephone at dinner time any more due to telemarketers).

As younger people get used to being informal on facebook delivered via mobile technology and as they develop their own protocols in communicating via mobile texting, they may not make the register change when sending a message via the internet (which will show up as an email)by mobile phone. This might be why recent emails I'm receiving from my students are very direct and to the point. Sometimes, it almost resembles an order; other times they provide me with very little information (including their name!).

The biggest concern is that this style of writing can be brutal (for lack of a better word), lacking in any empathy. Received by the wrong person, these messages can cause hard feelings. Surprisingly, my own children seem to be immune to this (they don't seem to be as insulted as I am about things written about them on facebook). When I pointed out to them that they would probably be upset if someone said that to them face-to-face, they did not see the similarities in the intention. However, as I remind them on a regular basis, not all people are immune to the change in language, register, and communication mode, so they are often having to modify what they would write. My son got a kick out of the Saturday Night Live skit last week on the facebook filter ap "Damn, my mom's on facebook."

Web 3.0 or Neo-Web 1.0?

Lately, I have felt that the discussions have ended and I am no longer a part of a community online. With the advent of tools like twitter and even the changes to facebook, I feel that we have reverted back to "I'm going to give you sound bites and it is up to you to listen or not. I'm not really interested in your opinion."

I felt that when the new web tools first were established (blogs, myspace, etc...) that there was a renewed engagement between people in cyberspace. Suddenly those that never had a voice were given a voice to craft their message and engage in dialogue. Time was not as much of a factor. A deeper level of understanding between writers and readers was established.

However, I currently have three facebook accounts. One is actually my daughter's, the other is just for family and friends, and the last is for students and colleagues. I post, but there is always a resounding silence after. I am sure for many of my students, I my comments are hidden. With so many comments coming in, many of them just have very superficial conversations.

Now don't get me wrong. I see a valuable service in facebook and twitter, especially when you want to communicate information to a large group of people quickly. But there is no two way communication the way a blog or a ning or even the original design of facebook allowed. And what two way communication there is usually private, so there is not the same level of community. I also feel that the people that originally embraced the Web 2.0 to give themselves a voice they never had have been pushed aside for commercial and mainstream opinion leader's use. It is a bit like starting a conversation with someone in the popular group when you were in high school and having the rest of the popular group join in and push you out to the side because you aren't part of their group.

I hope we go back to the idea of community on the web and the feeling of belonging in an online community. But I'm not sure that can happen in today's battlefield over users (how many friends can YOU collect?). What do you think? (I have a feeling without tweeting this, there will just be a big resounding "silence." Oh, well).

How safe are social networks?

Mike Gotta, on his Collaborative Thinking blog, discussed a good article available at Knowledge@Wharten addressing the security issues around social networks. As I read through the linked article, I thought of some issues I have not seen addressed as yet.

At the conference, Hoffman illustrated how social connections are made online and the ease with which a stranger can become part of a network. He noted that he is regularly added to mailing lists and invited to become a friend -- or "friended" in the social network parlance -- of businesses that use the sites as a marketing tool. Indeed, pages used by businesses on Facebook were recently redesigned to look more like those of individuals.

The implications for this is mind boggling. This means that marketing representatives or organizations would have access to a person's personal information and preferences. So what's wrong with that? Unless someone has set their facebook privacy on "friends only" thousands of others will have access to your information. For example, my daughter "friended" her favorite local radio station when her status was "friends of friends" could see her data. This means that any radio listener has access to her information. At a minimum, the radio station knows the topics she discusses with her friends, what her interests are, and what she is susceptible to.

On the other hand, as a marketing professor, I also see the strength of this tool as more and more people are resistant to marketing research via phone or person interviews. This is less obtrusive than traditional forms of market research.

Another point made in the article had me thinking of personal responsibility and educating users of social networks:

When a business contact from the LinkedIn world wants to become your friend on Facebook, do you accept the invitation, giving them access to the photos on your Facebook profile from last summer's rowdy beach party?

And what about the person you don't really know who wants to be your friend because you have some friends in common? According to Hoffman, that new friend may just be mining your social circle for information. As networks grow and more friends of friends (and their friends) are accepted by users, it's unclear who can be trusted.

As my kids use facebook, I review who their friends are. Sometimes friends are declined which can be a form of bullying for middle or high schoolers (I don't accept you as a friend). On the other hand, students do need to feel they can decline interaction with anyone on the internet. This is not a new problem. I remember when my son was a toddler, he would speak to anyone. I had to teach him that he could be friendly with anyone, but he needed to keep his distance and never go away with them. My daughter, on the other hand was always very skittish around men especially. I did not want her to be rude, but I wanted her to trust her instincts. The same balance needs to be achieved in using social software.

The article recommends:

Ultimately, social networking security rests with each user of the service (those friend invitations can always be declined). Hoffman recommended that social network denizens know the privacy policies -- governing, among other things, how the information you provide can be used -- of the sites they frequent.

At the same time, Hoffman said, web site operators need to make privacy policies easier to understand. "Privacy policies differ in theory and practice. In theory, consumers know about a site's privacy policy and trust the network. The reality is that no one reads the policies. I don't read them myself." Hoffman cited Facebook's privacy policy -- which promises that users have control over their data and what information is shared -- as typically murky. (The most recent version is more than 3,700 words -- more than twice as long as this article.) Hoffman advocates new formats for privacy policies that act as simplified "nutrition labels," like those on food products.

Vicky Davis also suggested last year that there be different "friend" categories and different ways to block depending on the friend category (i.e. family, best friends, business friends).

As more and more of my information creates a digital finger print, though, I keep asking myself, "How is this different than what I do face to face?" In fact, before I post anything, I always wonder, is this something I would do in a face to face situation? When my kids are posting things, I will look over their shoulder and ask, "Would you say this out loud in a class?"

In fact, I find most of the youth use texting as their private form of communication and (for the most part) understand the public nature of social networks. Just like they may not be so careful when they are with their friends in a Mall, another public setting, they may not be careful when they are on facebook.

Getting into the head of a teenager on facebook

When my daughter turned 14, I decided to set up a facebook account for her---with some restrictions. First, I used my email address so I knew what was going on in her account. After a week in which my email was loaded with fzcebook updates, I changed the security settings (as per my son's directions) and only received updates on new friends and friend requests, photos tagged with her name, and allowing only friends to see her facebook.

Over the last month, I have been able to monitor how she uses facebook, who she invites as her friends, and how she communicates with her friends over facebook. Here are some of the insights I have gathered:

1) She uses facebook to share photos. This is a very important social tool as she has been able to show friends from one venue who her friends are and what they are doing from another venue (i.e. camp photos, photos from graduation, hang-out photos, etc...).

2) She uses truncated speech, but it took some time to learn the texting norms. There is always the assumption that the younger generation knows these abbreviations almost by default. However, many of her friends are newbies to facebook and they are even coming up with their own form of shorthand.

3) She told me yesterday that she finds facebook a great tool to organize events (its original purpose). These might include play auditions, parties, public meetings (i.e. all meeting to go bowling, play miniature golf, go to the movies or a play).

4) A surprising aspect of facebook has been seeing the connections that those from one venue have with others in other venues. For example, she found that the exchange student who was staying with her second cousin (we have a large, close extended family) was friends with a member of the cast where she had been working. They went to different schools and lived in different towns. So how did they know each other? It ended up they were friends though their church. There have been similar connections for both my son and daughter through what would appear to be totally unconnected lives. As a result, both my kids have been able to learn more about their friends outside of the venues that they knew their friends.

5) The amount of information the comes up on facebook can be overwhelming and often information is lost if my kids don't check their facebooks daily. When there are 70-100 friends in your network, the means a lot of messages.

6) Friends tend to post in spurts. There are many that don't post for weeks, then suddenly have a number of posts (to walls, comments to friends, quizzes). One of the most common posts are the quizzes. As this is the summer, it seems that this is a way to while away the time.

7) Teenagers are (or at least proport to be) bored throughout the summer. I think the most common status I have read this summer is "I'm sooooooo borrrrrrrrred." The second has been, "my summer reading is soooooooo boringggggggggggggggggg."

Time, technology, and the younger set

This post is actually going to be a series of questions that have arrived this week as I spent time with my kids and niece, leaving me with snippets of time to read some blogs (but that was about it).

Facebook and our youth

I am living in the land of You-don't-understand-I-can-do-it-because-I-know-best: in other words, a house full of teens! Imagine my shock when I found out that unbeknownst to me, my son has had a facebook for 2 months. Part of the shock was not that he wanted one, but that he didn't tell me. Of course, he got his own shock when he discovered that I had a facebook account myself. And my reaction was not to forbid him from facebook, but to friend me so I have access to his wall. There are two reasons for this: 1) I see what he is up to, and 2) his friends see that I am there--sort of like having a chaperon on the school trip. They'll still try to sneak things, but at least they know they have to be a bit more careful when they do so, because they might get caught. My son is not happy that I visit his wall and read what is on it. But I am still his parent, and he is not old enough yet to handle problems on his own when they come up. This does not mean I will handle the problems for him, but rather, I will be there to walk him through as he makes mistakes (which I am sure he will do) and not allow him to panic. Mistakes are made when we panic (Tom Haskins has some interesting insights into that) and teenagers especially tend to do stupid things when they panic.

I did notice however, that facebook provides a valuable service for teenagers. Research has shown that this is the age in which people develop socially and the social world is very important to the teenager's development. As many of my son's friends live about an hour away, he is able to maintain ties that would be difficult otherwise. He feels a part of a group. While it would make my life simpler if he was not a typical teenager, and liked to just sit at home, not succumbing to peer pressure, and growing up to be the perfect adult, I also know this would be a bit creepy. So, as any parent knows, I live in a constant state of anxiety (thankfully, I have one more year before he can drive). However, I know he is a normal kid and find that facebook helps him to feel less isolated. We did come to an agreement, though, that he is allowed only one hour a day on facebook.

Interesting Language use

Another aspect to being with teenagers for the week is the need to watch your language. The slightest thing leads to a snicker (whatever you do, don't try to discuss Lacrosse with a group of boys that don't play the game--the terms send them into gales of laughter and sexual innuendo). This lead me to something I want to work on more this year in my communication classes: the differences in register when communicating with different groups. I find many students (especially undergraduates) have difficult in changing registers. My idea is to maybe have them give a speech, then have them change the speech for a different audience (i.e. a group of your grandmother's friends, government officials, police officers, a Mother's group, a sports fan group, etc...). I'm open to any suggestions.

While I'm on the topic of language, I normally don't notice differences in the different terms used between American and British language. However, Karen Romais had the following in her blog on a very serious subject:

There is a pedestrian crossing (with traffic lights) across one section of the road, and an elevated pedestrian bridge across another, so that the boys can cross in safety. Nevertheless, many of the boys choose to ignore both these provisions and cross the road in between the heavy traffic. Many is the time I have had to slam on anchors to avoid a tragedy. The boys themselves make no effort to look before crossing - they simply step out. They make no acknowledgement of those who have had to stop for them. They seldom bother even to look in the direction of the motorist. On one occasion, when it had been a little too close for comfort, I hit my hooter. The child in question laughed at me.

Okay, I admit, I chuckled when I saw the last part about "I hit my hooter" (which I assume means car horn). I thought, yes, you have been spending too much time with the teens! But then I began to wonder how others perceived my own use of the English language. What terms might I have used that would take a second for my readers to say "oh, I think she means..."

The Time Crunch

I marvel at how people are able to maintain their blogs on a regular basis. I wonder, for example if Vicky Davis and Karyn Romeis ever sleep!

For me, the most difficult thing about summer and full-time with my children is that I don't have time to think during the day. As a result, I find I think at night when I should be sleeping. I wonder if we were given more time during the day to think, if we would be more productive at our jobs. I don't need quiet to think, but rather time when I don't have to pay attention. My kids are pretty good about "letting me get my work done". But they will still start talking in the middle of my "thinking" and even if I tell them to wait, I become guilty because I should be interacting with them. I wonder if we do the same in the workplace, interrupting work. This is especially true for those that work in open spaces or cubicles. Should we have a thinking space in offices, where those in the thinking space are not to be disturbed? I wonder sometimes if that would increase productivity. Likewise, I think there should be a "social space" in the workplace which could be a physical or a virtual space. This is were many new ideas are generated and problem solving can take place. Something to think about.

Corporate guidelines for social software

Tony Karrer's posting on corporate guidelines for social software/web 2.0 had some interesting links. Of all of the corporate guidelines, I liked the Sun corporate policy. First off, I have a bias towards open communication within a company. It is next to impossible to keep secrets in a company, and often the effort backfires and results in hard feelings to the employees. Sun's seems to have a balanced approach:

Don’t Tell Secrets · Common sense at work here; it’s perfectly OK to talk about your work and have a dialog with the community, but it’s not OK to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces. There’s an official policy on protecting Sun's proprietary and confidential information, but there are still going to be judgment calls.

If the judgment call is tough—on secrets or one of the other issues discussed here—it’s never a bad idea to get management sign-off before you publish.

In my mind, Sun treats their employees with respect and as grown ups with intelligence.

What surprised me about these guidelines, however, is that they assumed that all social software was the same. How can a social book marking program such as del.icio.us be on par with a wiki? A wiki acts very differently than a blog. And shouldn't there be more codes like Sun which recognize the difference between the use of these tools internally and externally? In looking at these codes, the one question that kept popping into my head was who do the management feel own the products of the social networking tools (often they feel it is the property of the individual when something goes wrong, but the property of the corporation if it adds to the corporate value).

Likewise, I wondered who users of social software imagine is their audience. I know that my students rarely think of others reading anything they write except for those in authority or their friends (another reason I like the Sun code as they point out that others might be reading blogs, wiki's, etc..., not just those the author intended should read).

This brings me back to who bloggers write for. I think many write with an imaginary audience (I do) whether that is true or not. I was surprised when Tony Karrer mentioned that my blog was "specialized" as I thought it was very broad. In fact, I tried to write my profile as broadly as possible (which I guess made it specialized).

Blogging vs. Wikis

While bloggers write either for their thought processes or an "imagined" audience, wikis are the result of group interaction. The product of the blog is a record of thoughts, often with little evidence of the thought process that created those ideas. On the other hand, wikis show the thought processes that created an idea. The importance of the wiki is the thought process (and group cognitive development) whereas the importance of the blog is the final thought.

Social networking software such as Ning and Facebook is still another tool that creates totally different dynamics and insights into the creators and contributers. Like a wiki, the process is important, but so is the development of social relationships. Unlike blogs and wikis, the final product is a "feeling", usually of trust or belonging (confirming or disconfirming behavior as group communicators term it). What is important to users are the patterns of communication, the roles that individuals play in their network, and the building of communication.

As a result of the differences in each of these tools, doesn't it make sense to create different "rules" for their use within a corporation? I think the real difficulty is in balancing "rules" with the affordances these tools can bring to the corporation.