On March 29th I Twitted that the infamous Rebecca Black video was pulled down from YouTube after getting 1,276,475 dislikes. For those of you who live under a rock, Rebecca Black is a 13 year old aspiring artist who posted a video called "Friday” that quickly AND officially became the most despised video on the Internet (even beating Justin Bieber). Her label, Ark Music Factory, posted the video and it immediately became popular for being disliked by so many @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0.
Like all sadists, I saw the video and had a laugh with some of the reviews and comments, and OK, I'll be honest, with those painful lyrics: "yesterday was Thursday, today is Friday...we so excited, tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterward".
So yeah, I laughed and thought it was not the best thing out there, but after thinking for a while, i thought, who was I to judge this kid when at her age, I didn't even make it into the chorus, much less was I starring in a video. When I was 13, I was so incredibly self conscious of being accepted and liked by everybody; I had a major uni-brow, awful hair, and was a full on tomboy. Rebecca is beautiful and strong, and it's sad to see the amount of hatred she received over this bad "YouTube day". The news even made it to CNN, and Lady Gaga tried to come to the rescue by saying Rebecca was a genius, but no matter how much a genius she is, the effect of so much negativity at 13 could be devastating.
I thought that all these internet outlets were created to "connect" people, but what happens when the common connection stems from negativity and hatred? how dangerous can this get? We all saw what happened in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; granted, this collective resentment had a major cause that justified the outcome, but here, we seem to be channeling our emotions in the wrong direction and we forget that whomever we are judging, actually exists in the "real world" - far and away from the binary codes that bring them to our screens.
What would be nice is if so much attention, would be placed on videos where people hit the "Dislike" button on corruption, bailouts or unemployment. So instead of targeting a singing 13 year old kid, we should perhaps try to safely voice our opinions from behind a keyboard to issues that really deserve to be "DISLIKED".
Now I know for sure that I was lucky growing up without the internet. I probably dodged many YouTube, Facebook or Twitter illnesses!
With the explosion of social media, mobile applications and smart mobile devices - who really knows what's useful and what's hype. This blog is dedicated to sharing simple information and views on how to make sense of it all, and to find what you need when you want it.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Facebook booting underage users - a good move!
A few days ago, while Facebooking, I received a friend request from my 12 year old cousin. I was excited at the beginning since the last time I had seen her she was only 5 years old, but after seeing her pictures I could see she is certainly no longer 5, and she already knows how to "pose with an attitude" hence her profile picture. She also has more friends than I do, as well as more "tagged" pictures and "farmville" updates.
I figured this was uneventful, however I began to wonder the repercussions of her being digitally "socially active" at such a tender age. I know new generations act way older than their actual age, however they are still quite vulnerable and I began to search what were social media outlets doing to protect or prevent young kids from starting so early, specifically Facebook.
According to a study by the Pew Internet American Life Project, nearly half of all 12-year-olds in the U.S. are using social network sites, despite not meeting the minimum age requirements for sites like Facebook. And such popularity only balloons once the teens grow older: roughly 64% of 13-year-olds are social networking; between the ages of 14 to 17, that figure jumps to 82%, says Pew.
Facebook's chief privacy adviser Mozelle Thompson agreed that underage users were taking advantage of the site. When you sign up you can basically decide how old you want to be, and Facebook has no mechanisms to detect whether a teen is telling the truth or not. "It's not perfect," said Thompson, however, Facebook is trying to stop these youngsters from continuing to use the site. Thompson said "Facebook removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage." Of course, that's a fraction of the nearly 600 million users on Facebook, but underage users have become a growing concern for the network, especially as it faces increased pressure from regulators.
Although regulators pressure here and there, the fundamental concern should come from the parents and family around these kids. One cannot escape the fact that kids will find a way to be online and be "socially active" as soon as they can, so in their best interest, the one thing that can be done is to explain about privacy, navigate WITH THEM through Facebook and "HIDE" things from strangers while explaining the implications of sharing photos and posts. I mean, I am 30 years old and my Facebook page is as exclusive as a NYC club - the only people allowed in, are people I know in person, have met more than once in my life, and are actually people I like.
I figured this was uneventful, however I began to wonder the repercussions of her being digitally "socially active" at such a tender age. I know new generations act way older than their actual age, however they are still quite vulnerable and I began to search what were social media outlets doing to protect or prevent young kids from starting so early, specifically Facebook.
According to a study by the Pew Internet American Life Project, nearly half of all 12-year-olds in the U.S. are using social network sites, despite not meeting the minimum age requirements for sites like Facebook. And such popularity only balloons once the teens grow older: roughly 64% of 13-year-olds are social networking; between the ages of 14 to 17, that figure jumps to 82%, says Pew.
Facebook's chief privacy adviser Mozelle Thompson agreed that underage users were taking advantage of the site. When you sign up you can basically decide how old you want to be, and Facebook has no mechanisms to detect whether a teen is telling the truth or not. "It's not perfect," said Thompson, however, Facebook is trying to stop these youngsters from continuing to use the site. Thompson said "Facebook removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage." Of course, that's a fraction of the nearly 600 million users on Facebook, but underage users have become a growing concern for the network, especially as it faces increased pressure from regulators.
Although regulators pressure here and there, the fundamental concern should come from the parents and family around these kids. One cannot escape the fact that kids will find a way to be online and be "socially active" as soon as they can, so in their best interest, the one thing that can be done is to explain about privacy, navigate WITH THEM through Facebook and "HIDE" things from strangers while explaining the implications of sharing photos and posts. I mean, I am 30 years old and my Facebook page is as exclusive as a NYC club - the only people allowed in, are people I know in person, have met more than once in my life, and are actually people I like.
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