In the last few years, some commentators have predicted the death of television, some even championed it, declaring that it was obsolete – superseded by interactive media that offer true user participation. They cite massive user figures for the likes of Facebook, World of Warcraft as evidence that traditional media is on it’s way out. […]
Archive | Social Media
RSS feed for this sectionFacebook cartoon meme
You may well have seen the campaign on Facebook to change your profile picture to a childhood cartoon character. The changes were accompanied by a status update like this: Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, December 6, there should […]
Exploring Interactive Narrative – Simultaneous
I had thought that I would be able to conclude the series on interactive narrative with a flourish talking about 2-screen TV, this being the season for reality shows and all. Alas, for reasons known best to the broadcasters, this year’s incarnations of Strictly Come Dancing, The Apprentice and others are bereft of the social […]
Ping – too little, too late?
We’ve become accustomed to rather cynical annual software updates from the likes of Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Studio that deliver dubious new ‘features’ and diminishing backwards compatibility. Likewise we’re increasingly familiar with the perpetual beta nature of apps – software released early and continually refined. But I wonder if we’re entirely sold on the […]
Adapting to new technologies
A report in the current issue of the Journal of Service Research describes the changing nature of customer relationships and how new technologies have altered the way consumers interact with businesses. The authors from Europe and the US describe a ‘pinball’ framework that characterises the to-ing and fro-ing of these more equal relationships, which they […]
Friendship Business
A couple of weeks ago I talked about a piece of informal research I’d conducted with teenagers about their use of Facebook and wondered aloud how their average of 400 ‘friends’ correlated with Dunbar’s number of meaningful relationships? Could those many hundreds of connections translate into a genuine social circle? Likewise, Twitter’s ability to broadcast […]
Raoul Moat’s Facebook Page
There’s been all sorts of hoo-haa about the ‘RIP Raoul Moat you Legend’ Facebook page and its 30,000 fans. Now it’s been removed by its creator, Siobhan O’Dowd. What the media hasn’t reported is that one needed to be a fan in order to comment. And most of the comments were virulently anti-Moat. Evidently most […]
Social Media in Education (Part 3) – Learning
This is my last blog of the thoughts I shared at the recent Social Media in Education podcamp. In my previous two posts, I’ve suggested that educational initiatives using Facebook et al have often failed to appreciate user behaviour or offer any genuine social value to their audience. I end with the thought that for […]
Social Media in Education (Part 2) – Value
In my previous post, I suggested that for learning providers, simply having a presence on social media networks is not enough to engage students: not only are teens fabulously fickle, they are wary, resentful even, of authorities encroaching into their personal space: “Facebook is more a ‘personal’ thing and i don’t really want to get […]
Social Media in Education (Part 1)
I was fortunate to participate in the recent Social Media in Education podcamp at Doncaster College. In the midst of many people highlighting the benefits of social media, I speculated about the reasons so many initiatives from educational establishments fail to engage. Not to ridicule or condemn but to improve. This is about learning, after […]