Anonymity
Last night, while I was conducting a Social Media 101 workshop at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance, my Twitter account was hijacked… by my girlfriend. I’d logged in on her laptop before the workshop began, and then I forgot to logout. Since she’d accompanied me to the workshop, she suddenly found herself with two free hours to [...]
Continue reading about What I Learned From Having My Twitter Account Hijacked
Last week, I wrote about Spokeo, a service that lets people who barely know you find out more about you than either of you might realize. But the problem isn’t the service itself — it’s our expectations of privacy, and our intentions for wanting privacy in the first place. As Ian M. Rountree writes in [...]
Continue reading about Fuck Privacy. What About the Rest of Your Life?
Somehow, even though it’s been around for years, I managed to remain unaware of Spokeo until yesterday. But lord knows they’ve been aware of me — and you. If you’re also unfamiliar with the service, it’s basically an aggregator of anything you’ve ever done online. You join, and then Spokeo scrapes your email contact list [...]
Lately, I’ve been discontent with the state and quality of social media. I’ve lamented the lack of trailblazers, questioned the purpose of an audience and even called for an outright rebellion. And now, amid all this white noise that passes for communication, we have yet another sign that independence in America is more discouraged than [...]
Continue reading about PittGirl: A Lesson in Anonymity, Paranoia and What’s Wrong With America
We’re All Trolls: 11 Ways We Can Stop Being So Damn Divisive!
Lately, I’ve been arguing against the perpetual “us vs. them” method of storytelling because I think it’s ruining our ability (and desire) to understand each other. Opposing groups have always been quick to condemn “the other,” but the degree to (and zest with) which we do it these days borders on alarming. A few days [...]
Continue reading about We’re All Trolls: 11 Ways We Can Stop Being So Damn Divisive!