Mark Smithivas’ Neighborhood

What about Facebook could possibly make you smarter? And on the flip side of the coin, what about Twitter could possibly make you dumber?

There are a few factors involved, according to Dr. Tracy Alloway.  A psychologist from the University of Stirling in Scotland says her studies show more brain activity on Facebook than on Twitter, as you are actively keeping up with multiple friends.  Twitter, on the other hand, requires less brain engagement as the context of Twitter activity is in more short-form.

Still skeptical?
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From my understanding of Dr. Alloway's study, this all boils down to brain activity and the creation of new neural connections.  In other words, the making of new neural connections means that you are learning something, which in turn makes you a smarter person.

The best way to learn is through experience, right? So having new experiences means that you're learning something.  The act of having an experience, remembering the actions involved and modifying future behavior from there is the process of learning.  This is the way in which we train and exercise our brains.  This is the way in which we steer clear from losing it from lack of using it.

In this regard, I understand where Dr. Alloway is coming from.  But it does seem a bit radical to apply these notions of learning to social networking in such a way.  It's an over-generalization of both Facebook and Twitter, turning to small averages of social networking use.

As is the case with any social science study, there is a difference between the average experience and the individual experience.  and since I haven't conducted any studies to replicate or refute Dr. Alloway's findings, I can only speak from anecdotal experiences that highlight individuals' social networking experiences.  In essence, it's up to each individual to glean their own experience from social networking.

If you're keeping up with 50 good friends on Twitter versus Facebook, then perhaps your brain engagement is at a similar level than what you would find on Facebook.  Or perhaps the fact that all your friends' relevant information is accessible directly on Facebook as opposed to Twitter, where you'd have to visit another site to read their latest "note" or view last weekend's photo album means that the social network's presence as a conduit is irrelevant towards the act of deeper brain engagement.

What I find particularly interesting with the implications of Dr. Alloway's study is that Facebook is currently striving to turn its newsfeeds into a more open format, similar to Twitter.  If information is more fluid and requires less time directly on Facebook's site, will its affect on our brain engagement remain the same?

It's easy enough to look at these two sites for comparison purposes when it comes to Dr. Alloway's study, but it's important to note that other sites were included as well.  YouTube, for instance, falls in the Twitter category of not requiring deep brain engagement for the average usage.  That undoubtedly leaves out the fact that you could be watching a documentary on YouTube, or an educational video on how to change the brakes on your car.

Again, that leaves things entirely up to the individual on how you'd like social networking and media sites to cater to you--take what you need from social networking sites and you'll have the experience you deserve.

This article was originally posted by Kristen Nicole on MultiSocialMedia.com

I love video games. Puzzles, mostly.  I was that kid that always had a book of crossword and logic puzzle books in my purse, on my nightstand, in my carry-on luggage.  I suppose that need for accessible entertainment carried over into video games, because I couldn't be happier with the improvement of mobile gaming in the past few years.  But maybe it's becoming a detrimental aspect of my life.

I mean, my phone is always with me.  There's no longer a need to have multiple versions of the same game on multiple devices for multiple places.  One little cell phone packs in all the entertainment I need, whether I'm in the car or in the bed.  It sometimes takes me hours to fall asleep, and believe me; Backgammon on my cell phone has been my saving grace.

But that right there could be the problem.  Maybe it takes me hours to fall asleep because I'm so busy playing Backgammon on my phone.  I've found myself pulling out my cell phone while in the car with my boyfriend, or at the dinner table.  Waiting in line or waiting for a movie to start, I just can't seem to help myself.

I constantly need to be mentally stimulated and occupied at all times.  I can't even simply watch television.  I'll start playing a game, even in the midst of the most enthralling History channel program.  Sure, I think it's awesome that I can multitask, but I also know there's no such thing as true and absolute multitasking.  Just because I'm doing more than one thing at one time doesn't mean I'm doing any one thing particularly well.
I think my brain is shrinking.  I should probably delete all the games off my cell phone.  It's too damn handy.  It's like My Buddy, or more like Kid Sister.  I am a girl, after all.  And I'm fearful of the future of mobile devices, because I know how much I'll always love them and their game-playing capabilities.

Ah, games.

I try to make myself feel better by noting the types of games I'm playing--brain teasers and board games that keep the mind astute.  But then I recall my days of high school, and lugging around a book bag before they came with wheels.  The front pocket was always full of tiny toys and cutesy trinkets that fit atop my pencil erasers and surely distracted my fellow students and teachers alike.  So I guess I've always been this way.  Always in need of some mental stimulation.

Yet this is the world we live in.  There are a lot of businesses that are going to take advantage of people like me, always needing to indulge myself in constant cerebral tinkering.  Our culture is full of instant gratification and the mobile phone has brought such joy straight to our pockets.  And as I sit back and witness this trend in all its wonder, I'll be playing Backgammon on my cell phone all the while.

This post was originally published on KristenNicole.com

Facebook and MySpace have been at war for years now, with the two major social networks vying for world domination, claiming country by country, demographic by demographic.  A recent speech titled "The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online" by Danah Boyd of the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society begs the question, why does there seem to be a race and class divide when it comes to Facebook and MySpace?

Is Facebook really more elite, with MySpace having become the "ghetto" of online social networking?  It's an interesting question that forces us to look at social networks in a new light.  Chris Matyszczyk of CNET likens the shift from MySpace to Facebook to the white flight we see all too often when a once-established neighborhood becomes a little too diverse for its white residents. 

An interesting perspective, and one that's readily able to relate to in American culture.  It's a major part of our history and has been so even before the days of the modern suburbs.  But it also speaks to a long history of institutionalized classism as well as racism, which often go hand in hand.  Is that really the level of analysis we're ready to apply to online social networking?  If that's the case, then there are some serious questions we need to be directing to the founders, executives and investors of both MySpace and Facebook.

But first let's look at the Utopian side of things.  Both Facebook and MySpace are online social networks, meaning that they're virtual pieces of property and can be accessed by anyone that has an Internet connection.  Utopia, right?  Not really.  There was already the long-standing matter of Internet access as it applies to the race/class divide.  If you're a racial minority and economically deterred, then Internet access is a novelty.  You are relegated to public access Internet points and your mobile device, which may or may not be a smart phone capable of high functions for social networking.

While the technology divide is narrowing, it becomes less and less of an issue for the purposes of this particular case, but it cannot be entirely ignored, especially as it was still a factor when both MySpace and Facebook were launched and began to gain major traction.

But another factor I find noteworthy is the approach employed by each social network in question; MySpace began as an online tool for getting musicians set up with their own website, while Facebook began as an exclusive network for Harvard students.  MySpace came about when the only other major option for widespread social networking was Friendster, which also targeted the college-age demographic.  The tactic used for MySpace included posting photos of scantily clad users and enticing new sign ups.  Facebook required a confirmed .edu email address just to let you in the front door.

The two strategies towards growth, new user acquisition and existing user retention are vastly different and inherently attract different crowds.  So is this race/class divide self-selecting or in fact more institutional?  If the trend is self-selecting then we can attribute much of the world's view on these social networks to be indicative of current mentality for those that use the networks.  We can also expect to see some changes with both MySpace and Facebook.  Perhaps Facebook will too become a dated neighborhood, run down by the "wrong crowd" and witness another white flight to the next hot spot.  And that hot spot would likely be a revived and gentrified MySpace, full of nostalgia and gritty determination to be hip.

We'd also be able to apply these theories to other social networks, and I don't think online social networking has been around long enough to draw any solid conclusions in that regard.  This is mainly because very different strategies are applied to each social network that is launched, and many of the social networks we've seen in the past decade have been rather niche.  From LinkedIn to BlackPlanet, you can expect a different crowd no matter where you go.  There will almost always be a different crowd with a different objective.  Fortunately these are all factors that Boyd studies in her ongoing work and research in social media.

What's disappointing is the fact that these strategies can ultimately lead to an overwhelming sense of distinction based on race and class, especially when you think of the business concerns revolving around the spending power of the actual demographics on MySpace and Facebook versus the widespread perception that could either deter or encourage the stimulation of an economy around each network.  From developer apps to advertising campaigns, the affect that race and class distinctions have on any business is real.

This article was originally published here on KristenNicole.com

Has Twitter trending topics gotten too spammy?  It's a question we've needed to address since the moment Twitter introduced trending topics, which were once relegated to Twitter's search page and now display on all public Twitter pages.  But a recent incident with a group of pranksters on the anonymous forum 4chan is pushing the limits of Twitter's ability to deal with trending topics-related spam.

The 4chan prank has not only pushed an offensive term through to the trending topics, but did so as a result of several fake accounts that have been created in order to do so.  It's the creation of the fake accounts that minimizes Twitter's ability to curb spam and the people behind it.  
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While it's easy enough to create regulations on what terms can be pushed through as a trending topic, and subsequently easy enough to remove an offensive trending topic, it's not as easy to get rid of the fake accounts behind it.  From keeping up with the creation of fake accounts to the measures necessary to ensure that a suspended or terminated account is indeed fake, there's a lot more to deal with than just the spam itself.

It's an issue that Digg was once notorious for having to deal with, leading to a series of changes made to the very way in which Digg operates.  Perhaps a complete overhaul for the way in which Twitter manages and promotes trending topics is in order, but that would require careful monitoring and decisions on an executive level.  As Twitter is working towards building close relationships with advertising brands, trending topics is likely to be one channel by which marketing can readily take place.

We've discussed ways in which Twitter could curb trending topics spam here on MultisocialMedia.  Certain cues and user behavior are ways in which Twitter can begin to determine which users are spamming and which accounts are fake.  But as we've seen with many platforms, from Digg to Facebook, a great deal of ongoing tweaks to platform regulations and users' terms of service is a necessary growing pain.

See here for more.

This post was written by Matthew Kraft (@MKraft) spends entirely too much time online. One of these days that will pay off, as will all those years he spent reading obscure literature in grad school.

Last week I was researching Swine Flu/H1N1 for a client, using Twitter. The WHO had just upgraded the pandemic to Phase 6, so lots of people were talking about it. This looked like it would make my job easy--use Trending Topics to take the temperature of the Twitterverse, as it were. It turned out to be more like getting a room full of kindergartners to tell you about their pets while an ambulance screams by - you may get some information, but it's mostly useless blathering and screaming.

Trending Topics has the possibility to be a really useful tool, from both a research point of view and a marketing perspective. Want to find out not only what the Twitterverse is talking about, but *how* they're talking about it? This is your place. It's zeitgeist central for the hottest communication tool on the planet. However, since Trending Topics came to the front of everyone's twitter homepage, the increase in spam is immense.  Today, it's a pretty safe can bet that any trending topic is half-full of bandwagon-jumpers and coattail-riders, spammers who throw up topic keywords just to get on the front page of results.

This phenomenon wouldn't be so bad were it not for three things:

Click here to read this post in its entirety

As was noted in my college days, people no longer keep jobs in one company, or even one industry in their lifetimes as it once was. What you're good at only becomes refined as you try out more and more opportunities that come your way.

Such is the song that has been calling me back out into the world, and as of this past week, I have answered.

As a colleague and friend defined, I am officially FUNemployed!

So what does this mean for me? 
Ill be on a scavenger hunt to find where my passions lie, ill be taking more time to love my apartment and its inhabitants, ill be taking more opportunities that I couldn't fathom adding to my once filled plate.. ill be changing up how I roll in this world.

And what does this mean for you?
We can hit up that place I've been telling you about for so long! You can be excited! Be supportive! Keep your eyes and ears open about places and projects that could be a good fit for me. You can write me a recommendation on LinkedIn, if that's how you roll :) but most of all, you can humble me by continuing to be a part of my truly amazing network of friends, mentors, cheerleaders, nerdstas and peers.

With all the Apple announcements this week coming from the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, there are bound to be a lot of expectations swirling around the new iPhone 3G S.  The most anticipated feature of the new generation of the iPhone is the support of video sending options and the ability for developers to access the iPhone video capabilities for various applications.

One such application that is taking advantage of the added video support is TwitterFon, which will be integrating with the video-specific Twitter app TwitVid for enabling TwitterFon users to capture videos with their iPhones and subsequently post them via their Twitter stream [via Venturebeat].
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It's an important step for Twitter apps, as much of Twitter's activity is attributed to mobile users such as those that own iPhones.  Having a more direct way to marry Twitter with iPhone videos means a slew of related applications are expected to arise in the coming year, as well as many iPhone-specific video update applications that operate outside of Twitter all together.

The iPhone device as well as its platform has long been setting standards for the mobile marketplace, spurring development across the board for different manufactures and mobile providers alike.  But will the added support also spur Twitter itself to finally delve deeper into media sharing?

Granted, Twitter has done a pretty good job of sticking to its core competency, and that solely revolves around microblogging within the realm of easy mobile access and integration.  But should Twitter go ahead and support various media formats, such as images and videos?  Other microblogging platforms such as Pownce and Tumblr support all media formats, and the added support hasn't necessarily given these other services a leg up in the race for dominating the microblogging space.  And Flickr stuck to its core competency of photo-sharing for years, only recently adding video support, and the upgrade hasn't made a huge dent in Flickr's overall service or standing as far as video-sharing goes.

For Twitter, however, adding more media support wouldn't hurt the web service, though Twitter may wait until more mobile support is available for incorporating multimedia support via its microblogging platform.  In the meantime Twitter remains to rely on third party applications for added value in certain aspects of its microblogging potential.

Note: originally posted on MultisocialMedia.com

Xbox Live announced its upcoming support of Twitter sign-in and Facebook Connect this week, which just reminds us all of the power of social networking and its impact on so many aspects of media--traditional or otherwise.

I'm a believer in the ability of social networks to make an impact.  So I'm quite interested to see how Microsoft will be leveraging Facebook, one of its investments, for promoting its services and adding value to its end users.  From marketing to better competing with casual gaming, Microsoft is taking steps towards effectively leveraging existing social networks.

Nick has a great post about Xbox's Facebook Connect integration on AllFacebook, and I expounded on my above points on a Bublicious post.  Let me know your thoughts on Xbox's announcement!

Read more of my blog here, at KristenNicole.com

What Are Celebrities Doing on Twitter?

So what exactly are all these celebrities doing on Twitter?  Even though celebrities are often later to adopt certain technologies once considered especially geeky, their adoption doesn't seem to fend off the faddish as our parents' adoption does.  In fact, the celebrity use of Twitter is only helping drive more to the popular microblogging platform, as it seemingly justifies the service's popularity and value as a communication tool.  But seriously.  Why are the celebrities here?

For the same reason as everybody else.  Twitter is an easy way to keep in touch with others, share mundane facts about your life that most people probably would never care about, and also build one's brand.  What better way to portray yourself as a down-to-earth and accessible celebrity than to post frequently on your Twitter stream?

Those Trendy Celeb Twitterers...

The latest trend we're seeing on Twitter is actual celebrities taking control of their own Twitter streams, as opposed to letting their marketing or PR managers handle the task, as many celebrities have done with most social networking profiles and overall online engagement. And the celebrities are even talking to each other.
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The New York Times has commented on this current phenomenon, noting the constant back and forth the celebrities are having with each other via Twitter.  It's easy enough to send a message to another Twitter user, whether the message is public or private.  The New York Times has even gone so far as to post a "social graph" of sorts that displays the communication patterns amongst the stars.

The graphing of social interaction is nothing new: several third party applications, developers and Twitter itself has taken the time to map a given user's social reality across the Twitter network.  Services like Mr. Tweet and Twitter Grader take this social interaction into consideration when determining the influence and importance of said Twitter user, calibrating who their messages are being sent to, and from whom they're receiving messages.  Of course, this doesn't take into account any private messages that may be taking place between two Twitter users, celebrity or not.

The Twitter Elite

But it does bring us to another point regarding the public use of Twitter, and I'll reference an article previously written on this blog.  When certain Twitter users allow unlimited followers but have a restricted number of those that they follow, it makes their intentions clearer, and also streamlines the amount of incoming messages from others.  Nevertheless, such restrictions could make a Twitter user appear a bit snobbish, and in many ways it also makes them less accessible, as direct messages are not possible without mutual following settings.  Perhaps that is the very reason why celebrities are so comfortable "being themselves" and interacting with each other on Twitter.

It also begs the question: what's next for Twitter and its rapidly growing flock of celebrity users?  It's important to keep in mind the marketing power of Twitter.  We here at MultiSocialMedia use Twitter for marketing purposes in spreading the word about our Twitter Survival Guide.  Guy Kawasaki has deemed it one of the best online marketing tools around.  And when building a brand of any sort, it doesn't hurt to be on Twitter.  That goes for celebrities, too.  Take into account a public Twitter message sent from Martha Stuart to Snoop Dogg, requesting the rapper to check out her dogs' new pet-themed blog.

Twitter is the New Celebrity Publicity Stunt

Doesn't this just scream publicity stunt?  Whether the message was genuine or planted, the effect remains the same.  Celebrities communicating with each other in such a manner boils down to recommendations that can be applied to us all.  If we see Martha Stuart talking about her "doggie" blog, we're likely to check it out anyway.  If we see her asking Snoop Dogg to check it out, we're even more likely to take a look.  We're also going to be on the lookout for more celebrity-to-celebrity tweets.  It's another form of people-watching, except tweets between two celebrities can amount to some decent gossip every so often.

And there are a number of initiatives from other blogging platforms, online magazine outlets and entertainment portals that have been trying to incorporate more genuine content from A- and B-level celebrities for years now.  Tapping into celebrities' Twitter streams may be the perfect way in which to finally achieve these long-sought goals for building out their own content offerings.  Any interest in this particular use of Twitter will also drive the type of features offered in the third-party applications using Twitter's API.

As a result, we may see more traditional media sectors looking to take over various aspects of Twitter, which also doesn't have the same negative connotation that it once did a few years back (remember MySpace?).  Nevertheless, the future of celebrity branding and social networking has vastly changed thanks to tools like Twitter.

If it weren't for the SXSW conference in 2007, Twitter may not be the household name it is today.  But two years later, how did Twitter hold up to all the hype?  Is Twitter still the reigning champion of SXSW or is there room for another conference poster child?

I was at the SXSW conference both last year and this year.  While I missed the initial swelling of fans that Twitter gained at the conference in 2007, I was already a member of Twitter and watched in wonder as the service grew in popularity and began to realize its potential.  I witnessed the rapid uptake of Twitter's APIs from the developer community, and the subsequent output of relevant applications that gave Twitter its value on a fruitfully adorned silver platter.
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In 2008 the SXSW attendees seemed to know the drill: Twitter everything that's going on at the conference and you'll eventually find yourself in the tangible presence of others like you.  From passively stalking partygoers to merely meeting up with old friends, Twitter was an established necessity for navigating the thousands of fellow nerds that had flocked to Austin for SXSW.

So what about this year?  As a reporter of social media-related news, I found myself looking for the next SXSW success story.  Every fledgling startup that finds itself at SXSW is well aware of the possibilities that such a large group of early adopters can offer.  And before the conference even began there was buzz of many location-based services that could be the next big thing to emerge from SXSW.  In that category we saw services like Foursquare and Whrrl 2.0 emerge as location-based mobile applications essentially looking to take the Twitter concept to the next level.

I'd agree that location-based features will eventually be usefully integrated into Twitter itself, so it was great to see the excitement of new mobile services that could in fact be the next big thing.  But location-based mobile tools aren't new.  This leaves the problem of execution to the new services.  I particularly like Whrrl 2.0 for its social capabilities and the URLs provided for multiple users to contribute to a single event or story.  What remains to be seen, however, is if the location-based mobile tools will be most useful for large events such as SXSW, or if their value can carry over into broader use cases.

In the end I would say that Twitter still managed to hold its own.  I personally found myself using Twitter to connect with old friends whose numbers I'd misplaced in the past few months, or meeting people in person that I'd been following for some time.  Twitter's biggest success, however, may be the way in which it has allowed those unable to attend SXSW to still take part in the conversations going on at the conference.

Another way in which Twitter has helped expand SXSW is through its platform, which has catapulted third party developers into success stories on their own.  We saw a number of Twitter applications being promoted and utilized at SXSW, so in a way we're seeing the Twitter legacy live on.  May the symbiotic relationship between Twitter and SXSW live on for many years to come.

Kristen Nicole is the co-author of the “Twitter Survival Guide.” With Bob Walsh, this ebook covers the history and social importance of Twitter as a web and mobile tool, and is the perfect resource for getting your Twitter account set up and ready for personal or professional use.