Photo by Kerosene Photography

It can’t be easy being Justin Bieber. That super-abundance of raw, unique talent, all those adoring fans (or “beliebers”), the ill-timed eruptions of acne when the hormone suppressant therapy starts to wear off. And, recently, being hated on by half the Internet.

The comments section of his YouTube videos were hacked last weekend, redirecting viewers to porn sites or opening pop-ups saying he’d died in a car crash. According to the BBC, there was also a campaign to push the search “Justin Bieber syphilis” to the top of Google Trend’s Hot Searches list.

For those of you who aren’t quite sure who Justin Bieber is, check out this YouTube video. Prodigious. Talent.

The latest episode of the Bieber cult soap opera was all set to take place in North Korea. This BBC article claims a competition on Bieber’s My World Tour Page asked people to vote on which country he should tour next. Imageboard site 4chan got hold of this and encouraged people to vote for North Korea. It went viral, and hundreds of thousands of votes were submitted in favour of sending him to the People’s Republic.

The article is pretty funny, containing dry observations such as:

It is not known if Kim Jong-il is a fan of Justin Bieber’s music.

Problem is, they didn’t check their facts properly. The competition wasn’t on Bieber’s website, but on a spoof site called Faxo. Needless to say, it wasn’t endorsed by Bieber or his record label. (The BBC have since printed a correction.)

Which means that even though 659,141 people voted to send Justin Bieber to tour North Korea, sadly he won’t be going.

Which is a shame, because the newspaper headlines would have been brilliant:

Justin Bieber commissioned to write new North Korean national anthem.

Teen singer Bieber performs to packed crowd of 11 at North Korea’s only disco.

North Korean dictator’s latest blood transfusion to come from young virgin Bieber.

Jong-il ditches Hennessy Brandy, becomes world’s largest importer of Coca-cola Zero.

Peace talks between North and South Korea open with Justin Bieber’s cover of Yellow Submarine.

I’d love for Justin Bieber to tour North Korea. It would be a kind of Worst-of-West vs Worst-of-East Death Match. Who knows, maybe he’d even come back a true belieber.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Where would you send Justin Bieber if you got the chance? Let us know in the comments below. Extra karma if you include a newspaper headline of your own.

For more on social media going awry, check out Social Media Faux Pas and How to be a Social Media Douchebag.

Photo by bengsoon

Last month, Diaspora launched it’s campaign to begin another social media site, meant to be similar to Facebook but without all the pesky privacy and censorship issues.

They gave themselves 39 days to raise $10,000. They made their goal in 12. Even more impressive, they reached $50,000 mostly of small individual donations through microloan website Kickstarter, where they give you a chance to “decentralize the web” by supporting their project.

Now, Diaspora has moved onto the big time.

They’ve been featured in the New York Times and Techcrunch and have well known supporters, the likes of TWiT’s Leo Laporte.

Will Facebook learn from its tiny rival and change its privacy and censorship policies? Or will the giant be forced to step aside for this latest addition to the social networking family?

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Will you join Diaspora? Or is this just another flash-in-the-pan social media flap that will eventually die out, and we’ll all go quietly back to Facebook?

Or to join our discussion on privacy in social media, check out Andy Hayes’ How To Live Life When Everyone Is A Stalker.

Photo by mr. toaster

You might assume that as Matador’s social media ninja, whenever the topic of social networking comes up, my view is all puppies and rainbows. Most pundits tout all of the benefits of social media, but I do think that as this new media platform evolves and slowly moves mainstream (remember when your grandparents finally got email?), there will be good and bad. Consider:

If you’re off ill from work but busy tending to your virtual garden on Facebook, you could get fired.

You could be sued for complaining about your landlord on Twitter.

Location Based Social Media: It hasn’t happened yet, but isn’t it convenient for your stalkers that you can now be tracked down to exact GPS coordinates?

In case you were wondering, there is an entire website dedicated to robbing people while they aren’t at home. Useful option in the event you’re a thrill seeker or a travel writer without a day job.

How to Stop Freaking Out

So this whole situation started just a few years ago, when Facebook appealed mainly to the college and university crowd. Students posted their drunk party photos on Facebook. Meanwhile, interviewers ran internet searches on potential candidates online only learn more about their underwear brand and which flavor Absolut they preferred.

Now, all your information lies only as far away as the nearest keyboard. Try typing your name into Google and see what you get. Then add to that, the pressure to join and share on any of the many varied social networking platforms. It is difficult to know what you should share and what should be kept private.

Perhaps your late night adventures are an obvious opt-out, but what about everything else?

Guidelines To Navigate Your Social Media Privacy

• If you’re in a precarious situation, social media is not for you. This includes people in the witness protection program (they still have that, right?), have a stalker, a violent or abusive relationship, or have a restraining order out on anyone, then broadcasting updates on social media really is just asking for trouble. Stick to email for now. Is it really worth the risk?


Photo by albany tim

• The so-called protected status updates aren’t as protected as you think they are. If you think your protected Twitter account is private, allow me to follow you, and I’ll retweet your latest update for everyone to see. I’ve even done this by accident. It’s easy to do. Your private LinkedIn profile is viewable to me if I join one of the groups you are in. And ven if I’m not your Facebook friend, I can still see your thumbnail photo and a sampling of people who are your friends.

  The Internet works because it is open and it is social. It’s like trying to keep a secret in a room full of people talking – ultimate privacy just isn’t going to happen.

• Decide what’s private and draw the line. You need to know what is private and what isn’t; make yourself a personal policy and stick to it. Here are some examples of my personal policy:
• I typically don’t check in on Foursquare until I’m leaving, if I don’t want anyone to join me. If I don’t want people to know I’ve been there, I don’t check in at all.
• I often talk about my travels, but I never Tweet or update my Facebook status with specific flight name or number until after I have landed on the other side. If someone needs to know, they’ll get an email or Direct Message.
• TwitPics and photos of my family are off limits. My mother is adorable, but she prefers to stay on the sidelines, and I respect that. (Hi mom!)
• I regularly review the privacy settings on my social networking accounts. Facebook privacy, in particular, always seems to be adding additional “features” that you have to opt out of. Frustrating, to say the least.

What’s the bottom line? The decision on what to share on social media is yours and yours alone. Chances are you will not get stalked, fired, or otherwise be exposed by social media, but isn’t it worth taking five minutes to decide and make a personal policy on what’s worth sharing with the world and what is best kept to yourself?

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

How do you protect your privacy when using social media? Are our lives becoming too transparent? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo by emilio labrador

We already know the social media douchebag, but there are specific actions that really get under our skins. Kinda like public nose-picking or assertive, unwanted flirting.

Here are some of the top social media faux pas we hate.

The Know-It All

This is the person who lurks around Facebook and negatively comments on everything. It very well could be a family member, or a close friend. Matador Nights editor Kate Sedgwick says: “There is a woman who inserts herself into nearly every thread on many friends’ pages and reprimands commenters for their choice of words with a complete absence of humor. Usually she is commenting on a joke she fails to perceive.”

The Know-It-All will often have any opinion that goes contrary to the rest of the world. You know, when everyone is all a-buzz about the 2010 World Cup, this person will update their status with: “Who cares about the World Cup? We’re wasting millions of dollars.”

The Witless Wonder

The world doesn’t want to hear about the peanut butter sandwich you’re currently eating, or the color socks you’re wearing and certainly not how bored you are. Nobody ever cares as much as you do.

Photo by webtreats

The Internet Boyfriend or Girlfriend Wannabe

Probably the most drastic mistake you can make as a social media user is scouting out potential love interests, like Matador Life editor Leigh Shulman’s experience: “The guys who IM under guise of something professionally related but then it somehow makes its way around to them telling you how cute your profile picture is. Cute? I’m not a puppy.”

Heather Carreiro also dislikes these greaseballs: “Guys who not only hit on you, but who continue to send you photos of themselves. Hey, it’s me with my motorbike. Here’s me with my dog. And fifty photos of me with my car.”

There are Internet dating services for this kind of thing. Use them.

The Internet Stalker

Don’t follow someone if they have no photo, no location or barely any activity in their profile. I sometimes accept friend requests from strangers thinking I may know them through someone else, but usually they’re people who want to creep on my profile and send me endless Facebook chat messages.

If we have nothing in common at all, the only reason I can think of you contacting me is to get in my pants. That’s not the way to do it.

The Opinionated Brown-Noser

Don’t be the person who is in love with their own perspective on life and cannot be convinced to listen to other opinions. They’re usually the person who likes to put their nose in everyone’s business, even if they’re not welcome. This person likes to follow up a smug comment with a winking-face: . As if that annoying little one-eyed bastard makes everything better.

The Bible Quoter or Inspiration Giver

Freedom of speech is cool, and I’m all for learning about religion, but can you throw in a little variety every now and then? You know, so I don’t feel like my soul is going to be consumed in fiery hell?

Please leave out the inspirational quotes as well. Like Mike Sowden says: “Nothing says, ‘I have nothing to say today’ more than a good Mark Twain quote.”

Photo by topgold

The Dreaded Spammer

A Spammer is someone who will send out 20 messages in a row, apparently at random and without ever actually paying attention to what they’re posting and will generally alienate their following. Kate Sedgwick finds this group particularly annoying because “their posts become a bunch of noise in unbroken chains of links and updates. I prefer selective posters who select nuggets to share, not people who spray us all down with information I then have to weed through.”

Spamming also includes game invites and updates. I will not help you hunt down a ural liberation front contact in Mafia Wars; I don’t even know what the hell that means. I also don’t care if your virtual sheep is starving to death on Farmville. Butcher the stupid animal and move on.

The Bogans (Not to Be Confused With the Brogan)

“Bogan” is an Aussie term for “redneck.” I have several of these on my Facebook, which I keep around mostly for entertainment. The horrid spelling and grammar and mind-blowing mundane status updates never fail. Here’s a real one:

Oh my watching john play game. My little gurl playin with my belly saying i want 2 babies. She dont wanna settle for just 1 lol. Tells her theres only 1 in mommys belly and she no 2.

The Self-Proclaimed Expert
Let’s say you put a call out on Twitter, Facebook or Linked In asking for information and you end up with the needlessly long, over-hyped response from someone who claims to be THE expert on the topic. Nobody else could compete with this person’s knowledge, it’s just not possible. They have a book.

True story: there is always someone who knows more than you do. Deal with it.

Community Connection

What social media faux pas do you hate, or what faux pas have you committed? Share in the comments.

Photo by arvindgrover

Whatever you think of the ongoing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the possibility of increased sanctions on Iran, at least President Barack Obama got the Health Care Reform Bill passed.

Short of immediately going out and getting ill, how best to celebrate this so-called landmark victory? Easy: visit the Organizing for America website.

Organizing for America

This is the flagship of Obama’s social media campaign. It includes information on the core domestic issues facing America (the economy, education, energy and health), ideas on how to volunteer or get otherwise involved, and a frequently updated blog about all things Obama and change.

Photo by boltron-

Most importantly, it has a store. This is where you can show your support by buying t-shirts proclaiming, “I stand with the President”, or buttons that identify you as a “Community Organizer.”

There are hats, a fleece, and even baby clothes! The “Organizing for America” mug has sold out, but thankfully the water bottle is still available.

And there is a whole section dedicated to products commemorating the health care reform.

Taking social media to the next level

During the 2008 election, candidates used social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube to connect with and engage voters, and organize their campaigns. It’s generally recognized that the Obama team’s savvy approach to these media was one of the main reasons for their win.

Organizing for America is them taking it to the next level. The interesting thing is how it differs from the dry, official White House website. A cynic might say it’s simply an ongoing exercise in “Brand Obama”. But the site genuinely seems to take a grass roots approach to change.

People can join up as volunteers, connect with local community groups, make a donation or simply sign up to the newsletter. Obama himself is all over the Internet. As well as big hitters like Facebook, twitter, YouTube and flickr, he’s a member of social networks you’ve probably never heard of.

Photo by Torley

That said, the site is slightly creepy. It feels like a cheesy form of cult propaganda, and is peppered with inspirational quotes.

For example, “I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington… I’m asking you to believe in yours.” And the site itself is “Powered by hope and supporters like you.”

But at least he doesn’t claim to have a direct line to God, and only one of the t-shirts has his picture on.

A game-changing tweet

According to sparkplugging, the 2008 presidential election was a game-changer in terms of social media. It wasn’t so much that Obama’s use of social media helped spur his victory, but that his early adoption of technology such as twitter helped define the way we use it.

The first ever tweet from @BarackObama was posted on April 29th 2007: “Thinking we’re only one signature away from ending the war in Iraq. Learn more at http://www.barackobama.com.”

In a mere 94 characters, this helped set in motion the astonishing growth of twitter from 500,000 tweets per quarter at the end of 2007, to 4 billion tweets per quarter at the start of 2010. (Figures from Wikipedia.)

Since then, social media has become an indispensable tool during elections, used for campaigning, reporting and monitoring.

Social media in elections around the world

During the 2010 Sri Lankan Presidential campaign, candidates used flickr, Facebook, YouTube and even Wikipedia as part of their campaigning strategies. Similar tools, along with Google Maps, were used to monitor the election and report on outbreaks of related violence.

Photo by Intersection Consulting

Potential Egyptian presidential candidate, Mohamed ElBaradei, has founded an organisation called The National Association for Change. Their website has collected thousands of signatures to a petition calling for political and constitutional reform.

He too has a twitter account he is using to connect with his supporters.

The Facebook group, Elbaradei for presidency of Egypt_2011, has nearly a quarter of a million members. Egypt’s population is around 80 million and – according to ElBaradei himself – has “Internet penetration of only about 16%.”

These figures appear significant, translating as “proportionally…more than what Obama had in terms of Internet support”. (Big thanks to Jack Shenker for allowing us to quote from the transcript of his interview with ElBaradei.)

Finally, in the run-up to the May general elections in the UK, Labour advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi ran an online competition asking supporters to design their campaign posters.

The winning poster depicts David Cameron (the leader of the opposition) as a character from a Thatcher-era TV show, and carries the tagline, “Don’t let him take Britain back to the 1980s.”

Now that would look good on a t-shirt.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Here at Matador we write a lot about social media. What do you think about Obama’s use of the Internet? Do you know other examples of using social media during elections? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Yesterday, our very own Candice Walsh took us on a tour of the sordid, silly and surreal world of Chatroulette. Today, I ask where will this latest fascination take us?

What is the allure of ChatRoulette?

It is a challenge to find the weirdest, most interesting, most sexually odd stranger. It is anonymity. When you don’t have a name, you can say what you like and not take responsibility. That is extremely liberating.

It is human contact. It is human contact with absolutely no strings attached. We all wonder what it would be like with a stranger. It is a chance to see a naked stranger possibly shirtless and masturbating..

It is a search for the self. Deep down, how many of us hope that we’ll find our doppelgangersoulmateselfstranger?

Photo by Buzzfeed

Every article I read about ChatRoulette discusses in detail the rejection, more than one describing the “horrifying” moment of watching your stranger reach a hand out to the keyboard before F9ing you.

It is as the name suggests, an opportunity to shoot yourself in the head with every flip of the keyboard. Yet, every single person went back more than once to this place where you can be anyone. A cat. A whore. A samurai. A complete and utter pervert. You can travel to Turkey or have a drink with a stranger in Amsterdam even if you’re under 21 and couldn’t get into the bar in real life. You can play “Make this face” or “Hey, I’ll draw you!” Then settle down for a chat with a nazi, ghost, skeleton or dog. Real dog, not just someone dressed up as one.

Only your imagination limits you.

Is ChatRoulette the So-Called Next Big Thing?

It could be.

Sam Anderson tells us in his New York Magazine article that “if ChatRoulette catches on, it might even swing our collective online pendulum back toward chaos.”

A little bit of chaos may be just what the techgeek ordered in this overly monitored and measured world. Who are we kidding? This isn’t just for techgeeks. Everyone occasionally seeks escape from the self to find adventure. That’s why we travel. That’s why we jump out of planes. That’s why hostel sex is fun, then you get up the next day and are on your way. Chatroulette provides just a small taste of letting go before you return to your normal life.

Says Jonah Lehrer at ScienceBlogs

Human interaction, of course, is pretty damn predictable. We’ve got elaborate rituals for dealing with strangers, thus minimizing the chance of a surprising interaction. (“How are you?” “Good, thanks. How are you?” “Great. Thanks for asking. Have a nice day.”) And then there’s the fact that the vast majority of our interactions are with people we already know, whether it’s family, friends or co-workers. So they probably won’t surprise us, either. The end result is that our social exchanges become tedious and rote. They might be rewarding, but they’re rarely exciting.

Many don’t get it, though. Just like people didn’t get online dating, then Facebook, then Twitter. They didn’t get it. They didn’t get it. And then suddenly, everyone realized they had to get it because if they didn’t, they’d be left behind.

I keep hearing metaphors for what ChatRoulette is like. Speed dating, urban subway ride on your computer, slot machine made of other people. This revolving door of metaphor is part of the not getting it. We’re all trying to get our heads around it. We want to understand what it is and what it means about us but don’t quite know yet.

-Photo by Rodrigo Basaure

Here’s a tip. If you hear a large group of people saying something like “I don’t get it. What’s it for?” you’re probably onto something.

What does the future hold for ChatRoulette?

The future of ChatRoulette will be guided by two things. Will it be monetized? Will it remain anonymous?

Andrey Ternevskiy, the 17 year old creator of ChatRoulette, provides some insight on monetization in an interview with Brad Stone in the New York Times Bits blog.

I think it’s wonderful that I do not have to put a lot of advertisements on my site to keep it running. I am not sure why it is so. Maybe because Google AdSense (the thing I use to show the advertisements) shows links to various video chats. I don’t think this is a bad thing. I actually think it is a good thing, because only people not interested or tired of using my site click those links, to explore other services.

How’s that for pure sentiment in our post modern, advertising media savvy days?

But can ChatRoulette remain alive with such minimal monetization? The ability to make a living doing something you love, be that travel blogging or coding anonymous chat websites, is hugely alluring. If Mr. Ternevskiy doesn’t do it, it’s inevitable that someone else will come along to fill the void.

The Case For Giving Up Anonymity

While the ability to say and do what you want with no strings attached is a beautiful thing, if you don’t know what someone wants, where they live and what they need, it is extremely difficult to market to them, thus making ChatRoulette into a business rather complicated.

Again, Sam Anderson nicely sums up the possibilities:

I found myself fantasizing about a curated version of ChatRoulette—powered maybe by Google’s massive server farms—that would allow users to set all kinds of filters: age, interest, language, location. One afternoon I might choose to be thrown randomly into a pool of English-speaking thirtysomething non-masturbators who like to read poetry. Another night I might want to talk to Jets fans. Another night I might want to just strip away all the filters and see what happens. The site could even keep stats, like YouTube, so you could see the most popular chatters in any given demographic. I could get very happily addicted to a site like that.

The ability to keep stats strips away anonymity. Without it, ChatRoulette becomes a different animal but one with a world of possibility.

“Like what?” you may ask.

Psychoanalysis.
Professional or pop, you can log into a room looking for someone who will listen to your problems and hear you vent. Choose between Freudian, cognitive behavioral, gestalt and eclectic flavors. If you like the person you meet, you can arrange to meet again.

Games.
Here you can play chess, connect with a World of Warcraft buddy or even an entire group for mahjong or bridge. No, I don’t suddenly see a market for college mahjong tournaments, but it sets the stage for older users as well.

Babysitting.
Tired of your child sitting slack jawed and wide eyed while watching the same video over and over and over. Here you can connect with a real person who will occupy your child.

For an fantastic vision of what computer babysitting and education could be, read Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age: A Lady’s Illustrated Primer. (Definitely up there as one of my favorite sci-fi books of all time). We can require sitters to register and login with work history, favorite games, and even police record.

-Photo by Don Hankins

Online Dating.
It doesn’t take much thought to see how ChatRoulette adds another dimension to online dating. Instead of e-mailing for a week, you immediately connect, see if there’s attraction before wasting time with an awkward, man-you-seemed-cool-but-in-real-life-you’re-a-lot-doughier-than-I-expected night on the town.

Art and Entertainment.
Flip between live shows, plays, improv, comedy, and it’s all there just for you, the audience of one or however many happen to be in front of your monitor at the moment. The longer the audience stays with a program, the higher the rating. Highly rated shows, as in any other system, get advertising.

Trivia.
Need an answer to a question? Connect with experts from all over the world on any number of subjects.

Parental Control
Right now, no one monitors you as you wheel through a world of strangers, but what happens the day some 12 year old logs on to watch two naked men in leather beating a third while a fourth jerks off in a corner. Suddenly, lack of responsibility doesn’t seem so funny anymore. And like Google executives who have recently been convicted of privacy violations because of a video uploaded to YouTube of an autistic boy being bullied, someone will be held accountable.

Any of these fit easily into many different potential business models, but once this happens, once we’ve begun to quantify, qualify and find ways to monetize as is natural in the course of internet entropy, we lose the spontaneity and freedom that currently makes ChatRoulette so damn appealing.

Maybe for now, we can relax and just enjoy this little slice of painful, horrifying, rejection with a side of titillation. There’s plenty of time to put order in the chaos.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

What do you see as the future of Chatroulette and other live video chat feeds?

]]> http://matadorlife.com/the-thermodynamic-theory-of-chatroulette/feed/ 12 http://matadorlife.com/candice-does-chatroulette-the-search-for-the-cat/ http://matadorlife.com/candice-does-chatroulette-the-search-for-the-cat/#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:44:24 +0000 Candice Walsh http://matadorlife.com/?p=3926 Feature photo: briannaorg/Lead photo from Trueslant.com

Chatroulette allows live webcam and audio conversations with strangers, but it’s entirely anonymous (if you don’t recognize the person you’re seeing). Click “Connect” to come face-to-face with a stranger from anywhere in the world, and then hit “Next” (or press F9) to move on. You can also mute your audio or turn off your webcam to really become the ultimate creeper.

Of course, you can imagine that an anonymous webcam chatting platform allows all the weirdos to come creeping out of the woodwork. After finding the picture of the cat (shown above) and laughing hysterically about it for days, I decided I needed to track down the feline who had brought so much laughter into my life. Here are my adventures into the scary world of Chatroulette.

Round One

I needed a stiff drink to get started. Actually, I needed several. After applying extra lipgloss and feeling pretty good about myself, I invited my friend Mike to join me. Our first entertainer was a pretty blonde lady wearing nothing but red lacy lingerie. My friend swooned while she rolled around on the bed like a stripper, legs-over-head and views from behind that would make a pornstar blush. Unfortunately for Mike, the red vixen was more interested in me. I resisted, and she hit F9.

We stayed up until 7 a.m talking with people. Several times, I had to remove Mike from the camera’s view because everyone just wanted to see a girl. Our other drunken friend, Steve, eventually wandered into the room dazed and confused after passing out on the toilet for an hour as he usually does. Him and Mike stood in the background with only their torsos visible while I looked on. I’m fairly certain Chatroulette was invented for people like this, young 20-something males who can find various suggestive things to do with their index fingers poking from their jeans’ zippers, in front of strangers.

Round Two

Ok, I figured this time I would try Chatroulette solo and sober. Turns out there is never really an appropriate time to be using the program.

I was so grateful when I found these lively disco dancers blaring techno music in the background. They were a little more interested in dancing than chatting.

Most often, however, I ran into guys who asked me to remove my shirt. The depth of this conversation is overwhelming.

Stranger: hey
You: hey
You: what’s up?
Stranger: nm hbu
You: just trying this chatroulette thing. i’m glad you’re not a penis.
Stranger: lol. any boobs?
You: nope, girls keep rejecting me.
Stranger: cn i c urs
You disconnected.

I later found a guy holding a sign saying: “Show your boobs to a French guy.” His face wasn’t visible, just the sign.

You: Why is your sign in English?
Your partner disconnected.

Nearly all the males I encountered were teenagers. These young lads took a more subtle, sincere approach.

Others carried swords.

Even better, some sported fantastic beards.

Conclusion

The New York Times suggests that 90 per cent of people using Chatroulette are looking for real, genuine connections. There were supposedly 20,000 people logged on while I was online, and within the span of an hour, I had sufficiently received my daily dose of penis imagery. In fact, I probably overdosed.

The only girls I encountered immediately hit “NEXT.” It felt a little insulting at first, like rejection. But then I decided, “Hey, for once in my life I have the power to reject someone!” And then browsed through the masses like a maniacal speed-dater, grinning all the while.

Against all odds, I did encounter two charming, handsome gentlemen who had wandered over here from a CNN article. Both were absolutely shocked to be face-to-face with a woman. They were also downright disturbed.

You: what’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen on here?
Stranger: ummmm…i saw a woman, riding her excercise bike that looked like she had hooked up some kinda dildo thing to it that as she peddled, it went up and down
Stranger: no kidding
Stranger: you can’t make that up

Alas, they were much too normal for my entertainment. NEXT!

Community Connection

Because it’s virtually impossible to weed out the pornographic material and other questionable displays, many people predict Chatroulette won’t be around for long. What do you think? Want to know more? Read about the future of Chatroulette.

If you want to read more about social media’s evolution, visit our Social Media Focus Page.

Above photo by author. Feature photo byTorley

My five-year-old daughter Lila spends a decent amount of her time on YouTube. She loves hopping from video to video, and I always get a kick out of her favorites. The overweening appeal of cats — and the effect they can have on a blog or website — dawned on me this weekend when she found The Mean Kitty Song.

Over thirty one millions hits. Yes, you read that right. Thirty. One. Million. Hits.

It’s a cute video, and even taking into account the number of small children who, like Lila, will view this thing 30 times a day if left to their own devices, that’s still a lot of people watching a cute little tabby cat in action.

The adorable spiky haired guy singing? I can’t help wondering how many times he got laid because this video.

But it doesn’t stop there….

This video of a cat freaking out also holds its own as far as Youtube views with well over 9 million views.

Why is this poor thing acting this way? According to the video notes, she’s never been abused, she just doesn’t like men.

And finally, this next video of an orange feline clocks in at over 2 million views.

I suppose I’d also be somewhat miffed if someone named me Burger and Fries.

The Magical Allure of Kitty Cat Cuteness

Beyond Youtube, you’ll find a proliferation of funny and popular cat websites like Lolcats.com which features the ever famous cat in a fruit helmet photo. There’s also sparklecat.com apparently written by cats for cats. It even has a Cat-To-Cat advice column offering tips on everything from how to keep your human from dressing you up in costumes to methods of coping when your person comes home smelling of other cats.

Even the most hardened human cannot resist a pissed off cat dressed as a taco, two cats talking or yet another cat in citrus head gear, this time with wayfarer animation.

How do we harness the all powerful attraction of cats for our own websites and projects? I’ll let you know when I figure it out. In the meantime, hang in there!

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Just can’t get enough? Take a look at photos of Matador member’s pets or learn more about taking your pet along when traveling.

Cards of Change is what would happen if Post Secret and Operation Beautiful had a three-way with Linked In. This website allows you to upload your new and improved business card in order to connect with others who have been laid off as well as potential employers.

Our mission is to collect as many business cards and stories of positive change of people who have recently been laid off and connect them with new opportunities from potential employers, business partners and people who make the effort to look on the bright side of life

The current beta form of the website includes a place to upload your revamped card to a searchable database which can be parsed by location. Unfortunately, it seems this search function isn’t entirely in working order yet. All searches I tried yielded no results. Hopefully, this will be functional soon.

In the meantime, I suggest checking out the Top 100 Cards list.

There you’ll find a former Chiat Day employee who now volunteers reading to children. Or Tiffanni who is making the time to doodle. And over and over, the message resonates from people who are living more freely, richly, openly and lovingly even though they’re not making as much money as they did before losing their jobs.

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Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter can be a great way to connect with awesome people while marketing your own writing, blog or business. If you do it right, you can form strong bonds with others and share your work with a wide audience.

However, if you do it wrong, you’ll alienate people and your reputation will suffer.

Are you guilty of social media douchebaggery? If you’ve done three or more of the following, the answer is “yes.”

Photo by micahb37

Discuss What You Had For Breakfast – Writing about the mundane parts of your day is an annoyance. This rule applies to constant updates on your baby, the hot shower you just had, and the colour of your poop.

Update Under the Influence – Sappy song lyrics and quotes of wisdom often find their way into someone’s Twitter feed or Facebook status update when they’re under the influence. Close the laptop and just back away.

Ignore Anyone Who Attempts Conversation – I’ll never understand why some people follow me on Twitter and then do not reply when I try to connect. Thanks jerks, glad to know I’m just a way to boost your audience.

Think You’re Internet Famous – “If you have to preface the word with ‘Internet’, you’re no celebrity.” There is nothing more obnoxious than a condescending douchebag who doesn’t want to give you the time of day because you’re a newbie and therefore not worthy of attention.

Brag About Your Fitness – If you spend five hours a day at the gym and then come home to update your status about it, you’re probably a douchebag who walks around the gym flexing your muscles more than actually working out.

Photo by Mykl Roventine

Self-Promo All the Time – You know you’re awesome, but keep it to yourself. Sharing your work with your followers is fine, just make sure you share links from other people also. It’s like having good table manners.

Be a Spammer – You’re not going to miss out on anything big if you shut down your social media programs for awhile. Let people miss you.

Share Your Heartbreak – Stop whining to the world, clean up your act, and get back out into the game. This refers to all other types of “over-sharing” as well, i.e. job woes, self-image issues, and your busy life.

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Find out how to be a social media pro and Twitter ninja.

Feature and lead photo by simminch

Then this earthquake hits Haiti. It’s horrible. Unimaginable, really. We sit at our computers and by our televisions waiting to hear what’s going on, wondering what we can do.

That is when Matador’s own Julie Shwietert Collazo set out to create her own viral media campaign, capitalizing on the ever growing Matador Network. It began with an e-mail to all of us on the Matador team asking for us to tweet the following message.

@JetBlue: If @MatadorNetwork could fill a plane with volunteers, would you fly them to Santo Domingo to help#quake vics in #Haiti?

So we tweeted and retweeted. Then members of the extended Matador Network picked up the mantle. Then they told a few friends, and they told a few friends and so on. JetBlue heard. The media heard. Better yet, hundreds, no thousands of people all over the internet heard and began to respond in e-mails, comments on Matador, gave donations and with contacts and ideas to help further the campaign.

Then Came the Criticism

@mikebarish If we send people to Haiti “more chaos would ensue.” Looking at you @MatadorNetwork. http://bit.ly/8xDix8

The link leads you to an article stating how it is completely misguided to send all those who want to volunteer into Haiti. Untrained volunteers would not only get in the way and, yes, cause chaos, but would be an additional burden to the already hurting country.

Photo by simminch

And I completely agree.

But no one ever said Matador or Julie ever said anything about sending untrained volunteers to Haiti? If only the author of that article had been privy to the internal Matador team updates or bothered to reach out to Julie to address her and Mike Barish’s concerns.

They would have known the following:

1. Priority will be given to volunteers who have demonstrated one or more of these skill sets: French/Creole language fluency; military experience in Port-au-Prince (mainly b/c they know lay of land and have disaster relief experience in the area); and nurses/medical professionals.

2. We do NOT have proposed dates yet. While I want to capture the good energy while it’s fresh, I also will not put anyone in danger by taking them into a place where we have no reliable contacts or information.

3. In addition, Julie’s husband Francisco had been talking with the Haitian consulate in NYC in order to coordinate efforts in a useful, efficient and timely way.

I’d say they had their basis covered.

What do we learn from this?

Social Media is only the beginning.

Twitter is a wonderful way to disseminate basic information. You can reach huge numbers of people with the goal of bringing them together in one place. In this case, the retweeted message brought people to Matador and to Julie’s article on how to help.

Twitter, however, does not provide the full picture and can in many cases, lead to disinformation.

You Must Do The Legwork For Yourself

It’s easy to take the little tidbit you get on Twitter and take it as truth, particularly if it comes from a trustworthy source, but it is crucial you do your own research. Follow any included links and read carefully. Google to find out more information.

Better yet, reach out to the source of information for clarification and solid fact.

Another thing to keep in mind: When crises are unfolding and, in particular, crisis responses are being developed and deployed rapidly, there are many elements of these plans that are occurring behind the scenes which cannot be disclosed. Early disclosure could lead to rumor, misinterpretation or will compromise other partners.

That said, Julie and Matador are happy to address any questions or comments you might have regarding this campaign. You simply need to ask.

Don’t criticize unless you have a solution.

Did Mike Barish’s critical tweet add anything? Did it further aid to Haiti? Did it even help clear up any confusion surrounding the viral campaign?

Not really.

Photo by Gauravonomics

By contrast, State of Place wrote an article providing five constructive criticisms for how to improve the campaign. They did contact Julie with their concerns and learned that everything they mentioned was already under consideration.

Many others contacted Julie with resources, ideas and other information that augmented the campaign as well. Their foresight and insight are well appreciated.

Know Your Source

I don’t know as much about Mike Barish as I do about Julie, so it wasn’t difficult for me to dismiss his criticism.

Julie is trained in crisis intervention and was an emergency counselor for Project Liberty immediately after 9/11 and for more than a year to follow. In addition to a full time job as the assistant director of a social service agency where she had a caseload of 30+ patients, Julie worked evenings as a bilingual therapist with women whose husbands had either been killed in the WTC or whose husbands had essentially been disappeared by Immigration.

I trust her decision making and process ability implicitly.

As she received responses from the viral campaign, she spent hours sifting through over 1,500 emails, meeting with the Consul, airline representatives and communicating with potential partners. She verified every source directly, leaving nothing to hearsay as is crucial for any viral campaign.

So even before knowing the specific details of her campaign, I was sure whatever was happening would be carefully planned.

Collaboration Leads To Better Campaigning

The Matador Network social media influence extended to reach the countless individuals, organizations and businesses. Julie told us in one of her updates that even she was amazed by the scope and reach of the network and the generosity and forethought of network members. Among them Partners In Health. SODA. Richard Branson. The Bresma orphanage in Port au Prince. And a military service man with GPS coordinates on the ground in Haiti.

Photo by simminch

Create Something Permanent For After the Campaign

Julie saw during 9/11 that so many people wanted to help but there was no organized means for them to do so. In creating Matador’s campaign, Julie wanted everyone who read our articles or who found our tweets on Twitter to feel like they had some degree of agency, input, and ability to make a difference beyond simply donating money . Thus, an integral part of Matador’s plan was to create infrastructure for them to contribute, one that will remain standing beyond the immediate needs of the emergency in Haiti.

Yes, it can be messy, but that is the nature of social media, not to mention natural disasters and emergency relief. This viral campaign may not be perfect in all detail, but in the face of untold destruction, perfection is a luxury. If just one life can be saved, one organization receives money or one household drink unpolluted water, then the campaign has been successful.

That said, I’ll only hint to tell you that as things now stand. The final result of that original tweet is far greater than anyone expected as all these separate elements come together in a plan that will provide some relief in this time of crisis.

We’ll let you know through regular social media channels as details unfold. So stay tuned.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

What other elements are important when addressing an emergency through Twitter? Tell us your experiences and thoughts.

Photo by imcountingufoz

Can’t get enough of Twitter? Belgian researchers have come up with a way to get your toddlers hooked, too. Meet Twoddler, a prototype activity centre guaranteed to make your kid tech saavy.

The brilliant thing about Twoddler is that your kid doesn’t need to be a child prodigy to use it. The activity center, jazzed up with attractive playthings, sends texts to a Twitter account based on how the child interacts with it. For example, pressing a picture of Daddy will submit a tweet saying something like “Daniel loves his daddy.”

Toddlers can also communicate with other toddlers via Twoddlers by pressing certain lights or buttons. See? There’s no need to take precious time out to teach your child how to speak, it simply isn’t needed.

Other people, however, are concerned that such a gadget will make kids more “socially inept.” Watch the video, and judge for yourself.

Twoddler: Twittering Toddlers from Bart Swennen on Vimeo.

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What do you think? Brilliant new toy, or total waste of time?

Screen capture of Men With Pens website logo. Feature photo by Brocco Lee.

Oh, poor, James, um, Jamie, you couldn’t get a job as a woman so you became a man. Oh, I totally understand. Of course, you’re in your late 30s. It was so much harder for us women to find work and support our children way back in the 1990s. Of course there weren’t any women in the workforce making their way back then. James, you poor thing. You’re so right. I’m sure Simone de Beauviour would agree, too.

This fills me with righteous indignation

It’s like watching Betty Draper told that even though her husband is cheating she better stay with him because basically as a woman she has no rights at all in a divorce. Or how women weren’t allowed to vote.

Photo by Mckaysavage

If only someone had thought to address these issues of discrimination against women at some point in history so that woman could begin to achieve the same things as men.

Life can be so unfair when you have a vagina.

Is this just a deliciously ironic mistake in copy?

The Washington City Paper says this goes far beyond a simple constructed masculinity in order to make a living. That, too, was my first thought when I saw the Men with Penises web page. I went, saw the deep gray brick walls and that phallus-shaped object shooting through the logo. I thought to myself, what is that? Is it a bullet? Is that supposed to be a pen? What?

This morning, I check the Men With Pens website again to see a new article titled Taylor’s a Feminist — But So Is James with authorship attributed to James. I tried to read the author profile, though, but was led to a blank page. (I assume this will change later today, though.) Bulls-eye of success, indeed!

Luckily, we women are easy to manipulate and confuse.

What also strikes me is that Taylor-James begins the article with the ever provocative statement of “Feminism is starting to piss me off.”

I can’t imagine what effect that was supposed to have on readers. Certainly not anything cheap or tawdry like garnering our attention right from the beginning, roiling us up in a fine feminist frenzy against James or Taylor or whatever man with a pen is doing the writing.

Photo by Quinn.Anya

Then we find we are mistaken. Turned around, shaken up in our silly stuck ways of thinking when we find out this James is a woman. A woman who luckily, for the sake of her career, was given the ambiguously gendered name Taylor.

This female Taylor-James says she has kept the other-James’ secret, that she understands that all those years ago, it was so much harder for a woman to make her way in the world alone. She understands why the-other-James had to slop on a detachable penis and pretend.

Does this sound fishy to you too?

The original copyblogger article has almost 2000 tweets and 500 comments. And how high do you think the Men with Pens website has jumped in unique page views since the original article published? It has sparked discussion all over the internet, and who knows how far it will go. Today Show? The View? Maybe even Oprah?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, this 37-year-old woman who makes a living writing must head off and make breakfast for my daughter, and then maybe I’ll go get some chocolate to calm myself down a bit.

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Feature photo by playerx. Above photo by Sue Waters

Dear William Bradley,

I just read your Huffington Post blog about the Trouble With Twitter. When I tried to post a response, though, I found comments had been closed, so I’m writing to you here instead.

Let me begin by saying I completely agree with you.

Yes, Twitter is a method for deeply self absorbed people to give you too short bits of information that you never really needed. Then while the inanity and insanity stream by you at a breakneck pace, your head fills with tidbits of factoids and marginal information that all run together into a big blur until BOOM! Your head explodes.

Let me then continue by saying, I completely disagree with you.

I, too, have been a technology geek for as long as I can remember. I designed my first website well over a decade ago, chatted on IRC long before AOL cottoned onto the instant message and even programmed my very own “Hello World” in C — although I am somewhat embarrassed to admit this last one.

I never watched Max Headroom, but I did read a lot of William Gibson, and let me tell you, Johnny Mnemonic is my hero. Do I want to run around town, carrying unimaginably vast stores of information in my head? Do I dream of hooking into a virtual world that is in many ways indistinguishable from the so-called real world?

Hot diggity-dog-damn I do! Even if it means my head might explode,

You cite a number of issues with Twitter.

It lacks context and the medium is simply too short, you say. You don’t have enough room to create the context you need to send the message you want.

Good lord, I’d hate Twitter if people could drone on and on as so often happens in comments and blog posts. At least Twitter allows me to take just one bite of whatever a Twitterer has to offer, go back for more if I so desire. Or spit it out.

I also very much enjoy the challenge of creating both context and meaning in such a short space. As a life long writer, I find it hones the craft in a way only writing poetry in form can do. Seriously, try writing a Petrarchan sonnet. When you’re forced to make your words fill a very particular space with a very particular rhythm, you quickly learn not to waste words. By extension, you don’t waste your reader’s time.

You call Twitter inane. Yes, it most definitely can be, but we, as followers can choose to ignore. Twitter quickly teaches that you’re never going to absorb every single Tweet, so why even try? You just let go and accept that you get what you get. Most times, I find that even after a short time on Twitter, even if I’ve only followed a few links or read a couple of quotes, I’ve learned something worthwhile. Those who don’t have something of value to offer, I unfollow.

Photo by Doug Curran

You accuse twitter of driving the current themes of inundation, fragmentation and ADHD so ubiquitous in our culture. But does Twitter drive these things or simply reflect them? Glut of information is part and parcel of our world now, and has been for some time. We’re deeply into the post-MTV generation where we don’t invest time in thought provoking movies, develop film or read books anymore. Instead, we watch music videos that allude to old films, revel in digital photography and buy the graphic novel instead.

Is that innately wrong? Or is it simply the natural course of things?

That’s how I see Twitter. It’s a new medium for a new world. People think differently, see differently, and Twitter is our training ground. It’s cyberpunk-lite, and we are just beginning to see what the medium can do.

Are there people who abuse Twitter?

Sadly, yes, far too many of them, but you can’t blame Twitter for those people.

Twitter, like Facebook and other social media networks, is a hammer, a tool to be used for many purposes. It can be inspirational, motivational and creative. You can write haikus or novels, send in your coffee order and have it ready to pick up as you swing by on the way to work. You can raise money or awareness for a charity.

Myself, I’ve found among other things wonderful community, both work and friendship, through Twitter, without which, this very post would not have been possible.

But it’s still a hammer. If someone so stupidly decides to take his hammer and bash it repeatedly over his neighbor’s head, you don’t go blaming the hammer.

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