Last week several news organizations including Ars Technica shared information about Facebook’s new passive listening feature.
From their report:
“Facebook has added a new feature to its mobile app as of Wednesday that uses a phone’s microphone to identify ambient TV shows, music, or movies and include them in status updates. The feature is off by default, though the app offers to turn it on in an intro screen that it pops up for users.”
This means if you use Facebook on your mobile device, you should take notice in the coming weeks and choose NOT to use this feature if you are not comfortable with it. Many of us are used to just bypassing these sorts of pop ups without a second thought. This is one you may want to pay attention to before you agree to it.
Do you have or know someone who has an iPhone or iPad? If you or they live in either Australia or the UK, here’s a heads up. Make sure your device has a 4 digit passcode and back up your data to your computer. Secondly, enable multifactor authentication. Otherwise, you may end up losing it to a hacker who has hijacked your iCloud account.
How often do you use your email? Your Twitter / Facebook / other social media accounts? Your cloud apps? What would you do if you lost it all? What is recovering it worth to you?
When we have something of value, it becomes a target. And, the more we entwine our lives with technology, the more valuable those 1s and 0s become to us.
Though cyber extortion is not new, it is interesting how common it is becoming.
The latest attempt I recently read involved the loss of the @N twitter handle, which was facilitated by both PayPal and GoDaddy.
Then there is the case of Hunter Moore who was arrested and indicted by the FBI for his involvement in hacking private email accounts to gain access to explicit pictures that were meant for private use only. While this was not exactly extortion, it was a method of hacking and stealing of personal digital property that was used to shame and make money off of unsuspecting people.
Last year the story making the rounds was about Cryptolocker hijacking people’s data and then requiring money to unlock it and regain access to it.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, rather just one to show the different ways your data can be used against you.
What does this all mean for you? It should heighten your awareness of cyber security and the very real threats that exist out there today. How do we mitigate these threats? We do what we can to protect our data. Following is a simple list of steps you can take immediately to avoid becoming a victim.
Back up your data
This means not only data you physically have access to like your financial documents, family photos/videos, or your music – but also your online presence. Many social networks let you download the entire contents of your user profile. You should also consider redundant backup options such as physical backups and off site backups. Just remember to make sure both are secure.
Use 2-Factor Authentication
Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, Paypal and more utilize 2-factor authentication. My first introduction to this was using an authenticator for my World of Warcraft account, which I opted for as soon as they were made available. I still use 2-factor on that account today. This Life Hacker article has a great rundown of all the places you should enable it. Do it now!
Hide Sensitive Information
While sites may require you to provide a birthday or email address, the also usually give you the ability to keep this information private. Those who need to know the year you were born or your private email address already have that information or can ask for it. There is no need for it to be out in the open for everyone to see. Also, don’t let sites save your credit card information. While it is an added convenience, as the case of @N above demonstrates, it can be used against you. Other advice he offered in his article was to call your institutions and require them to NOT share any of your personal information over the phone. That means birth dates, names, or partial information like last 4 of social or credit cards.
Be Wary of Strangers
This may sound odd as the whole allure of the internet is connecting with strangers. However, if you don’t know someone, you should be very cautious about letting them into any social network circle where they can find out more information about you as this can be used against you.
Be Careful Online
Don’t click on anything you can’t easily identify. Don’t submit information to sites you are not familiar with. Don’t trust things just because they come from people you know. Don’t download things to your computer without some sort of software protection installed.
In summary, treat your digital property much like you would treat your physical property. Follow the Hide Lock Take philosophy. It works for both your email and your car.
Salon recently featured an article (Salon.com) about a study (PDF) that reveals how Facebook monitors self-censorship by tracking everytime we type something, even if we decide not to post it. While it is understandable that people are concerned with this tracking of information that we do not share, I believe it is also important for us to understand that Facebook is not a free service. We pay for the opportunity to use this service by providing our precious data. Therefore, it is Facebook’s goal to gather and retain as much data as possible, even if that data is never explicitly shared.
Though I do not agree with their practices, as I am an advocate for the user and users rights when it comes to their data, I do understand them and contend that it is within their right to do this – even if it is an unsavory practice to perform. As a user, your rights and your power lay solely within the choice to use the product. If you want to retain ownership over your data, sharing it on a service where you provide said data for payment of using the service, is likely not the wisest choice. Keep that in mind when you type anything into any text box anywhere on the web, because as this example proves, that data may be saved even if you hit cancel.
Being the 2-factor security person that I am, I know many of you have probably read about Facebook, GMail, and Twitter passwords being hacked. Though you can’t do much about that (other than not have accounts with those services of course), there are steps you can take to keep those accounts secure even if someone else has your password. All that is required is that you have a mobile phone and that you set it up from your computer (I don’t know of a way to do this from the mobile side only).
Facebook:
Facebook users, to enable the 2-factor setting click on the lock icon and click on the link at the bottom that says “See more settings”.
Once there, click on the Security link 2nd from the top on the left.
Then click on Login Approvals.
There you will be given a checkbox to “Require a security code to access my account from unknown browsers”.
You can check that box and then choose which method you use to get your codes. I chose the code generator because that will work even if I only have access to WiFi, whereas receiving a text message may not. I would also at this time generate extra codes just in case you lose your phone. Save them in a place that will be easy to access, so you can get back to your account easily should you need to.
While you’re in the security section I would also suggest you check the active sessions and recognized devices. End activity on anything you don’t recognize. Lastly, setup your trusted contacts. Be sure to choose people who actually use Facebook regularly.
GMail:
GMail users who use their accounts on multiple devices may find this method a bit cumbersome, but it’s only cumbersome to setup. Once it’s done, you don’t have to make any changes unless you get a new device or wish to disable it.
Login to your GMail account and then find the cog icon under your picture on the upper righthand side of your screen and click settings.
Once there, click Accounts at the top and you will find security settings.
Clicking Account Recovery Options lets you set up your phone to use to recover your account should you forget your password or to challenge hackers. You can also add a recover email address as well as an alternate email address you can log in with. I would highly suggest doing both.
Clicking Other Google Account Settings will take you to a page that lists all of the settings for your Google identity. If you’ve never been here, I suggest you read it so that you understand more about the way Google views & uses your information. For our purposes today, click on Security from the menu on the left.
From there, scroll down to the bottom to find 2-Factor Authentication and turn it on.
After you set it up, you will want to create device / application specific passwords for your account so that you can log into your email through your phone, tablet, or other device that doesn’t use 2-factor authentication. You can click on the link visible in the screen shot above to get there.
Pro-Tip, you can use one generated password for all of your devices if you enter it into all of them at the same time. Caution though, if you do that and have to revoke it for some reason (you lose your phone), you’ll end up revoking it for all devices instead of just that one.
Twitter:
Login to Twitter and click the cog icon on the top right hand side of the nav bar.
Then select settings from the menu.
Then select Security and Privacy from the menu on the left.
Then select one of the two login verification options available.
Hopefully this was helpful to some of you. I know these settings can seem buried and intimidating if you’ve never used them before, but I suggest it is worth it to go through all of this trouble so that you don’t end up losing your digital life to someone else’s malicious activities.
“I am against censorship. In all forms. Not just for the right of masterpieces ”high art” to be scandalous.
But what about pornography (commercial)? Find the wider context: notion of voluptuousness la Bataille? But what about children? Not even for them? Horror comics, etc. Why forbid them comics when they can read worse things in the newspapers any day. Napalm bombing in Vietnam, etc.
I do not have many words to add to the multiple that are already out there. What I do have to say is that about a year ago I was protesting SOPA with the rest of you. It was one of those things those of us who care so deeply about freedom and the Internet did in hopes that it would actually bring about change.
Internet and Information freedom are near and dear to my heart. My entire Masters research was on FOSS / Fedora. I’ve posted on this blog about many of the things that are threats to this freedom including cyber bullying, censorship, and net neutrality.
Though I have a few papers floating around on the Internet, you will not find any of them in a journal much to the dismay of many of you who have contacted me for copies and citations. Why? Because I refuse to have my research (especially that which I do of my own free will and with no outside funding) published in a journal that cannot be accessed by the public, even if this hurts me academically.
I am not the only one that has a problem with the journal system and there are a few journals out there that have risen up against the status quo. There are also a few people who have taken a stand against the privatization of publicly funded information. Aaron Swartz was one such person. While he should be remembered for the many awesome things he did for Internet and Information Freedom, it is the ending of his life over the weekend that is being talked about today.
All I can say is the world, especially those of us who feel the same way he did, lost a great mind and advocate. He has been an inspiration to many of us, and he will only continue to do so. It will be interesting now to see how he has changed the world through the ending of his own. I am just an academic and a wanna-be hacker, but I will always do what I can to fight many of the same fights he did.
In the words of famed anthropologist Margaret Mead:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
How are you changing the world today?
P.S. If you are reading this through an RSS feed – thank Aaron…
I just spent the last 24 hours intentionally without access to Facebook. What struck me was not that I missed it as in fact I did not and to be honest there was a bit of relief that washed over me as I walked away from my computer after disabling my account in protest to SOPA. No, what struck me was how many times I, as a matter of habit, considered opening a Facebook tab during the course of my day. Please don’t confuse this as missing it. Understand it instead as how habitual my use has become that it was just second nature to want to act on this subconscious thought of “I have a moment to spare, so I should fill it with something.” The happy thing was that I easily filled those moments with something else without too much effort or thought.
Overall I was just surprised at how often the thought of visiting Facebook occurred to me. I remember just 5 years ago when it was Livejournal that filled up my pauses in work or school. Over 10 years ago it was a local message board for a club that kept me refreshing Netscape every five minutes as drama exploded online. What about 15 years ago? Well then it would have been my first college issued email account (yes, I’ve been in school a long time!) or my first Hotmail account. Two decades ago I was in high school and I filled all of my spare moments with a book. There was even a joke made about this at my senior assembly where a picture was taken of a woman at a mall reading a book and that was supposed to have been me 10 years later. (Instead it ended up being me on my Palm Treo 300. I like to think I invented mobile Googling to solve arguments almost 10 years ago. But, I digress….)
I suppose the point I am trying to make here is that no, it wasn’t that I missed Facebook itself. Rather, I realized that as of late I have been using Facebook as an escape that 20 years ago was reserved for mystery novels and fantasy books. I believe the reason for this is not that I value Facebook over my books of times past. Instead, it’s that I have so little in between time these days that I fill it with a brain snacks instead of a healthy meal. That said, with work and my PhD classwork I get plenty of high quality brain food. I guess what this all boils down to is that I just miss the brain snacks that were both filling and tasted good.
I know someone like me, a little blogger, taking down my blog for the day will not move mountains or change people’s minds about their political stance. That said, this is a warning to those who do actually read this blog that it will be taken down for the day tomorrow to protest SOPA in solidarity with Reddit, WordPress, NVidia, Wikipedia, and more.
On Friday December 30th, my husband and I had a wedding ceremony in North Texas exactly one year after we were married in South Korea where he was stationed serving in the US Army the year before. We planned our entire wedding from El Paso in far West Texas (only about 600 miles away from where we had it) as my husband is currently stationed at Fort Bliss, and I used Evernote to help us do that every step along the way.
Using Evernote meant that no matter where I was, I could add things to my todos, inspirations, growing expenses, guests lists, and more. I also used it to write my vows the day before the ceremony. This is where it gets fun.
About an hour and a half before the ceremony I realize that my vows and the reception music were still on my laptop, which was at the house where I had started getting ready and not at the venue of the wedding where I had already arrived. I had one of my bride’s maids shove it in the car of another to bring it so that I could fix my overlook. (Funny that my todo list on Evernote did mention putting the music on a flash drive, but alas in the chaos of it all I didn’t have a chance to refer back to it!)
All of my bride’s maids arrived in time and we were getting ready when we realized that the car where the laptop was had its keys locked inside. This meant that both the music and my vows were now in the car and I only had half an hour to go before the ceremony. Realizing that I had typed my vows into Evernote, I took out my phone and looked them up in an attempt to memorize them. Then one of my bride’s maids said, “Why don’t you just use your phone? Better to have it and read them, then not have it and forget them.” With that they all agreed that not only was the the best choice, but for me – a cyber anthropologist, it was apropos.
With that, my phone was handed to the officiant and off I was rushed to hide in the final moments before the ceremony began. It was a pretty emotional ceremony as we’ve spent almost as much time separated as together in our marriage due to the fact he’s serving his country. I had already been tearing up before he got to his vows and by the time he uttered his words to me I was about to start sobbing. That’s when it was my turn and the officiant took out my phone and handed it to me. All of the guests began laughing, which was a blessing in that I was able to laugh too. Otherwise, I may not have been able to actually read my vows without being a blubbering bride.
After all of that, and all of the other uses I have for Evernote as a PhD student (all of my class notes, paper drafts, project notes), Research Assistant (all of my meeting notes and todos), an Anthropologist (all of my field notes), and a User Experience Designer (notes, todos, ideas, drafts etc) – I just want to say thank you for making such a great product and for all of the extensibility that is offered through its various application interfaces. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. Using your product really did save me on my wedding day!
This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, I am a cyber anthropologist after all and I do pretty much LIVE online, but perhaps I should explain.
My husband is in the US Army currently stationed in Uijeongbu, South Korea. We have been married all of a month and a half as of today, Valentines day – however, our wedding isn’t until December 30th of this year.
Just Married!
You see, he proposed to me on Christmas Day last year (the proposal story is posted on my Facebook) and we decided the day before we did it to go ahead and get married while I was there celebrating the holidays with him. Yes, we got married just 6 days after we got engaged and yes, we really surprised our family and friends with that one. As his little brother said, “it just kind of Facebook happened” commenting on the fact we let everyone know we were engaged and then married via Facebook status updates as we made each one “Facebook Official”. Now, I haven’t written up the marriage story yet, but let me tell you – getting married in a foreign country is a story in and of itself.
The last picture I took of us, taken the day before I left.
Just 11 days after we were married I was on my way back to the states leaving my new husband on base back in Korea. And, though we were married 6 weeks ago, we haven’t had an actual wedding. Our one year anniversary will be spent having our wedding with friends and family back here in the states. This means I’m currently working two jobs (one as a UXD for a web hosting company and the other as a community manager for the virtual barcamp community I mentioned in my last post), going to school full time for my PhD, and planning a wedding. No I don’t sleep…
Not only do I have all that to contend with, but I also have to help make a 7 thousand mile long distance marriage work. Add to that the fact that our schedules are 15 hours apart (when it is DST it’s only 14 hours) and you can see this makes for an interesting set of circumstances when trying to coordinate and spend as much time together as possible.
You may be wondering how we make this work? This is where we enter the world of cyber marriage. What do I mean by “cyber marriage”? Well, at the moment, we spend our time as a married couple completely online. How do we do this? Our number one tool is Skype and we each have laptops with a built in web cams and mics, which means we can see and talk to each other on a fairly regular basis.
In addition to that, I bought him an iPod touch with camera for his birthday and I have an iPhone 4. Having these allows us to video conference both over Face Time and now Skype. We also use Facebook quite extensively both through our laptops and mobile devices. For us it is used mostly as an instant messaging service since we can’t text each other, a way to send notes to each other rather than emails, and as a way to keep up with one another via 4sq check-ins and wall posts. This way all we have to do is get real time status updates during the short time we have together rather than having to hash out our entire day when the other can keep up with it in our “off times” via our Facebook wall posts or notes. Lastly, we have a shared Mobile Me account where we can upload files to each other, share our calendars with one another, and even post pictures to one another. Having all of these options for connecting is very handy given our schedules.
Watching Blizzcon together over Skype (day here - night there)
Speaking of schedules, this is where we have to get really creative. Currently, with the 15 hour time difference, I hang out with him before he leaves for work, which is my afternoon from 4:30 to 6 pm and his morning from 7:30 to 9am. Then we hangout during his lunch, which is his 11:30 to Noon and my 8:30 to 10 pm. The only other chance we get is when I get up in the morning before I go to work my 7 to 9 am, which is just before he goes to sleep as it is his 10 pm to midnight. Sometimes things get in the way, like the fact I have class on Wednesday nights and I don’t get home until he has to be back at work. That and once a month I have class Friday day, Friday night, and Saturday day, which ends up being his ENTIRE weekend. Lame huh?
Though those are the only times we actually get to hangout and talk with each other, he’ll have me up on his Skype from the time he gets home at just after 5 pm (my 2 am), until I get up at 7 am (his 10 pm), and I’ll call him back when I get to work at 9:30am (his 12:30 am) and let him sleep until he has to get up at 5:45 am (my 2:45 pm). Though that may sound odd, it really is a comfort just knowing the other person is there, even if they are unconscious.
On the weekends it’s a bit different and we both make adjustments as best we can to spend as much waking time with each other as possible. Usually we spend our time playing World of Warcraft or Borderlands together. This does become hard when I have things like homework to keep up with, but even then, it’s nice having him up on my screen while I write papers. As I said before, knowing he’s there and being able to see him and interact with him whenever I want is a great comfort. It’s almost like him being in the room next to me, just hanging out at his computer playing video games, while I’m at my computer working on a paper. Almost…
The funny thing is, if you count up all the hours where we are both conscious and unconscious with each other, it turns out we spend more time together now than we would were we physically together and both holding down jobs and me with my school schedule.
This is the schedule we kept up while we were dating and still keep up now that we are married. When he comes stateside in May/June, we’ll be able to keep a more regular schedule with each other and actually be able to use things like phones to communicate, but until then, this is good as it gets in our cyber marriage.
Self portrait of us and our first kiss as husband and wife.
So, for those of you this Valentine’s day who have the opportunity to reach out and physically touch the person you’re attached to, be thankful. There are those of us who wish for that every day, but we do what we can to make it work with a computer, a web cam, and an internet connection.
I miss you Rob, my Cyber Husband.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
P.S. In case you’re wondering, his Valentine’s present consisted of Steam games I bought for him off his wish list. He bought me an in game pet and in game mount for World of Warcraft!
Well, it looks like I’m SXSW bound yet again this year. Still trying to find a hotel as they are all sold out and I was late to sign up – but that’s another story entirely!
While at SXSW this year I hope to not only enjoy a lot of great panels, but also recruit some of the top speakers and participants I find there to hopefully contribute to and collaborate in a virtual barcamp community I’m helping to launch. (There may even be a private rooftop party at SXSW for the chosen few *hint hint*).
If you’re a technologist who would like to connect with your peers, share your knowledge, and learn from others through teleconferences where you choose the topics to speak on and/or choose from a list of sessions led by others you wish to participate in, please contact me (diana [at] cyber-anthro.com)! We need thought leaders on all subjects who aren’t afraid to share their knowledge with the masses. Each conversation will be recorded and then posted as a podcast on our site to be shared with anyone who wishes to listen.
There is no catch to being a part of this community other than you have to participate! Only those who wish to participate in leading or joining in these conversations need apply. That said, this service will not only be free to all participants, but it will also all make all recorded sessions available to the public.
That means if you just want to listen, there is no need to join! You can visit the site, or follow the RSS/Twitter feed to hear the latest and greatest discussions on tech today. So, if there is someone you think would be great at leading and/or participating in these tech conversations, I need you to please send them my way. Otherwise, there will be no one to listen to and that just wouldn’t be any fun now would it.
I’m really hoping people in the Open Source and Fedora communities will step up and participate. This is not only a great way to get your voice heard, but it is also a great way to talk about the projects you participate in and may even help to get the word out to get other developers to join your cause.
Lastly, this isn’t just for developers. If you’re a scripter, coder, designer, or usability professional we need your voices too! The goal is to have thought leaders in all aspects of technology connecting, sharing, and learning through live audio conversations and collaborations.
We figure barcamps are very cool, but they are limited to the geographic area in which they are held. So, why not find a way for people from all over the world to participate in one without ever having to leave their desks.
I’m really stoked about this unique opportunity to bring people together from around the world to have live conversations with one another about all the wonderfully awesome things that are going on in tech today. I’m even more excited that these conversations will then be made available for FREE to anyone who wishes to listen and learn something.
If you’re willing to speak on something as early as next week and you have the perfect topic in mind (and perhaps know of a few people that can jump in on the conversation with you), I need you to contact me ASAP (diana [at] cyber-anthro.com)! We are still in the very early stages of getting the site up – but I need content to make it happen, so I need people now (who aren’t afraid to work through a few bugs with me) to help me get this going.
40.Interface Designer Pretty soon your PC won’t be the only interactive digital element of your home. It’s probably already started with your television, but more scientists are needed to work on ways to streamline the home experience. From integrated entertainment elements to simpler multifunction pads to adjust climate control devices, part of the challenge is to devise ways to make new interface elements attractive and user-friendly.
I love the bit about ‘more scientists’ are needed in design. Most people look to engineers overlooking the fact that social scientist, as in anthropologists, can play very key roles in design!
Anyone need me now? I am currently open to new opportunities of any sort! Resume | Portfolio (large print ready file!)
While there is censorship in place now it has been stated:
Australia’s laws on Internet censorship are, theoretically, amongst the most restrictive in the Western world. However, the restrictive nature of the laws has been combined with almost complete lack of interest in enforcement from the agencies responsible . [src]
With this renewed interest in censorship and the want to establish a nationwide filter I have a few questions that I feel should be asked and answers made public and accessible (written to a level that everyone can understand and made available to everyone through an effort by the government) before this is established.
1) What is the goal and what is the end result the government is hoping to achieve by establishing nationwide censorship? Does the ends (a safer population) justify the means ($44.2 million dollars)? How are they going to measure the effectiveness of this? Have they done any research in this area? If so, who performed it and what were their findings? If not what are they basing this idea on?
2) Who determines what is to be censored? What right do they have to determine it? And by whose standards are they doing so?
3) Have they really determined the effectiveness of the software? What sites get accidentally caught in the crossfire? Is there a way to tell when you’ve been blacklisted? Is there any way to fight being blacklisted?
It has been mentioned that they want to block things like access to pro-anorexia groups, but does the software have the intelligence to tell the difference from a pro-ani group and a support group for those who have suffered through anorexia? Or does it just search out the term ‘anorexia’ and ban any access to it?
# All filters tested had problems with under-blocking, allowing access to between 2% and 13% of material that they should have blocked; and
# All filters tested had serious problems with over-blocking, wrongly blocking access to between 1.3% and 7.8% of the websites tested. [src]
4) How does this effect social networking sites where the content on the site is user generated? Consider YouTube videos, Livejournal communities, MySpace pages, Facebook, as well as dating sites.
5) Will this have any affect on gaming such as MMOs or services like Xbox Live or Playstation Online?
6) Unsure as to how they will actually implement this have they assessed the costs of not only establishing it, but supporting it and upgrading it over the years? By how much will access to the net be slowed down due to this filtering put in place and is it worth it?
# One filter caused a 22% drop in speed even when it was *not* performing filtering;
# Only one of the six filters had an acceptable level of performance (a drop of 2% in a laboratory trial), the others causing drops in speed of between 21% and 86%;
# The most accurate filters were often the slowest [src]
Who ultimately suffers here and is that the intended target? I just don’t see any good that comes of censorship unless you option to do so for yourself. I can see why families may want a ‘clean feed’ but they should be the ones to establish that for themselves through the use of their own filters software and hardware to do so. If the government has a burning need to use all that money why don’t they offer vouchers or something to that effect for those families who wish to participate? I understand that there is a split level in filtering and the only one that is nationwide is the illegal content filter, however, even in that respect it doesn’t seem feasible to be able to provide the hardware, software and man hours necessary to keep up with the sites especially when it comes at such a high bandwidth performance cost.
This is something I intend to keep up with in the coming months to see what comes of it. If it wasn’t so far away, I’d petition to do research for them as part of my practicum.
For more information from an Australian point of view check out the EFA site.
It sounds pretty interesting and reminds me, a bit on the surface at least, of Sim City. It even makes me think of Jane McGonigal’s a World With Out Oil, if only because of the subject matter.
I may suggest that if you are interested in taking up the challenge of Energyville you watch the Story of Stuff first. I think the two might go well hand in hand.
Rather than considering ourselves beautiful because we ‘feel’ beautiful (internal), we require external validation of our beauty. This usually consists of seeing ourselves in a mirror, a photograph, or hearing that we are beautiful as stated by someone external from us. In fact, the closer a person is to us the less weight this statement carries. This not because it is not as true as a more external person’s statement, but because we tend to meld the ideas of those closest to us into our internal dialog and thus they fail to pass the external requirement for validity.
This is the same for possessions, and ideas. All your friends may possess an item or hold to an idea, but the item or idea is only validated when it is also possessed or held to by someone external from your circle.
In contrast are the non-conformist who only hold to feelings, possessions, and ideas when others do not. What they fail to realize though is that external non-validation caries as much weight for them as external validation does for everyone else. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, many non-conformist ideals are eventually conformed to through such external validation. This is not necessarily because these people want to conform to these non-conformist ideals, but that they have to due to the simple fact that these ideals exist. This is turn causes the non-conformist to seek out new ideals even though they are in fact dooming their non-conformity to conformity by this very act.
The ad works for the possessors more than for those that do not yet possess the product as it is an external validation of their purchase. It does the same for those who purposely do NOT possess the product (not those who do not possess it ‘yet’ but those who never want to possess it) as it externally validates their reasons to not possess it. Think of the ‘Mac’ ads for example.
The trick to all of this is that it is entirely turned upside down in the online world. If you can think of it, there is a site for it (rule 34) – thus everything is externally validated in one way or another however it is all done so anonymously now requiring us consider whether that is a true external validation or just an internal one as we sought it out ourselves by the act of being online where it exists for everyone instead of it being voluntarily given to us in the real world where it may or may not exist for us.
Everyone is simultaneous beautiful and ugly as the continuity of the world is displayed before us electronically. And, even though we are alone behind our computer we seek out companionship online in one form or another. The to/with continuum determines whether or not you’ve found an audience or a cohort and in some cases the same people travel up and down this line without a second thought of whether they are being pandered to or communicated with.
Often times we find we are our own audience as we reveal things about ourselves that even we did not know thus becoming our own external validators, something that could not be done in context of the real world. Adding to this is the public external validation of an internal validator online that, because it is public, makes it external where it were private it would be internal. So then we take the word of someone close to us as truer were it spoken in an online environment where other external validators can validate it than we would the same utterance in an internal and personal context even tough it is the same person saying it.
What the online world has done is cause us all require an audience now, if only to validate ourselves in ways we cannot be validated offline. This is why we share things online we would never share in public or even in some cases in private.
“To the young today, however, the dream experience is its own reality, a separate reality: it doesn’t need to be validated by translation into the historical world of sensory experience. It validates itself.
Similarly, they regard media as self-contained environments, having little correspondence with other realities or environments. TV is its own reality, radio its reality, film still another reality.
[…]
The young in particular regard media environments as designs, patterns – what William Blake called “sculptures” – states that have no separate physical existence. We pass temporarily into one or another & when in any one, it seems overpoweringly real & all other states shadowy. We imagine, of course, that any state we are in is physically real. This makes it splendidly attractive. It doesn’t occur to us that only our spirits can enter these realms, and that events experienced there can never be tested against observed reality.
I think this is one reason the young find nothing incongruous about conflicting reports in the press, radio, TV, etc. ” – Edmund Carpenter 1972
So nice when you read something that falls inline with your current thought (hah! external validation!).
Interesting though how the Internet provides a place where this self-contained environment can be observed by an outsider as it is a participatory form of media rather than a passive one such as radio, tv, or film.
A webtwitch is defined as: Our new-found need to immediately look something up online the moment it comes up in the context of our daily lives. (Source: Wired Geekipedia)
Because there is so much going on and I’m super busy these days this will be just a quick rundown of the top three things on my list of interesting happenings.
First is the really neat mashup between Google and Twitter for Super Tuesday, go check it out.
