Facebook Project

The schedule has been very hectic lately as I'm finishing school and taking off with my new promotion.

For those interested in seeing my MSTD 335 project which focuses on Facebook, check out the link below:

The Facebook Frenzy - The Social Platform and the Society That Deems It Important.
http://www.bobbyhash.com/facebook

Flirting with Disaster

While enjoying a cup of coffee at McConnell library at Radford University, I sat down to read a few articles in Wired magazine. One that really jumped out and maintained my attention was an article by Nadya Labi entitled "Flirting with Disaster" (or "An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance. Then the Truth Came Out" for you online readers).

The article focuses on an online relationship that focused primarily on a 45-year-old man and a "17-year-old girl". The man was posing as both a father and son, whereas the 17-year-old was falling in love with the son. Not to spoil anyone's read, but the relationship becomes one giant dramafest, ending in the man killing his competition that was flirting with the girl AND with the girl actually turning out to be the 45-year-old mother of the girl she was pretending to be.

This article is a great read mostly because it focuses on an issue with new media. On the Internet, how safe is it really to know who you are talking to? I know from previous experience that it is hard to really zero in on exactly who a person is.

Take myspace for example - millions of people login everyday to post bulletins, chat with friends, and to meet new people. Just for the record, how easy is it for one to be able to tell the other person is legit? I've taken some crazy steps in the past to "prove" if you will, that the identity is legit.

• Try to see if you have any common ground - common friends, family, associates, etc.
• Make them take a picture that only they could on the spot - lessens the fact of them stealing another photo from someone's page

Overall, this story really brings up an interesting topic. How safe is social networking? How can we protect ourselves against this? Why is it that people feel the need to pretend to be someone that they are not? Ah, the interesting subjects this brings up!

Feature Fools

As a college student I have a few years under my belt in terms of using social networking. I've been around since the debut of Myspace, Facebook, and Xuqa. Now, a few years later I shall look at the three applications and see how they rank up.

Myspace
Back in 2003, www.myspace.com was a very simple place to set up a profile and meet online friends. At the time Friendster.com had a major share of the newest idea on the horizon - social networking. Over time though, Myspace became more and more popular, especially in 2005. What set Myspace apart was the fact you could customize your own profiles with html codes. Now in 2007 Myspace has a variety of features, including but not limited to:

• Myspace Jobs (utilizes Snagajob.com postings)
• Comedy and Music profiles (for those of us that would rather not pay for music)
• Blogs
• ChatRooms
• Events
• Classifieds
• Horoscopes
• Schools/Univerities
• MySpaceIM
• Music
• Filmmakers
• Profile Editor
• SMS Alerts
• MySpace TV
• Mobile

That may look like a lot, but it really branches out for the various mediums that attract our attention. It's not just a way to make friends anymore - Myspace has quickly become a highly attractive promotional tool. What else will they bring to the plate?

Although they are feature-full - this won't keep me happy. The website isn't dependable at all. The fanbase is too large for the servers to handle. I would highly recommend updating the equipment to hold the bandwidth that the users require or at least.. investing in some better technology than Coldfusion :).

Facebook
Facebook started with a simple idea - make an online contact listing with a photo to attach to the information. It worked splendid for quite some time. It was also very nice because only college students from various networks had access to it. Take that spam!

Then.... Facebook added features - something which they have proven to lack effectiveness. For example, in the later 2006/earlier 2007 period, Facebook launched a feature that allowed for members to track what everyone in their network was doing (literally). Many have labeled the feature as a "stalker" tool. All it really is though is an RSS feed.

Facebook's next reasoning - allow the release of the Facebook API so that developers can create their own tools for Facebook. Is this the way to get the features people want? Yes. Is this the way to drive users like me up the wall? YES!

Now, rather than a feature here and there, I have my contacts sending me requests for using various applications that are just plain stupid - see below:

• Movies Friend
• Horoscope
• X Me
• Zombie
• Beer
• Top Friends
• Poke Me Pro

The list literally goes on. Rather than helping the user connect to their network, they can sign up for applications that allow them to be "zombies biting other zombies", "giving a beer to a friend", or whatever. Since 2006, Facebook has lost its true niches that set it apart from Myspace. It has lost its community sense by opening up to the public and it has lost its pure simplicity that set it apart from the decorative Myspace. At least it's developed in PHP...

Xuqa
Xuqa.com was rather nice when it jumped into the field in 2005. It found a niche in the college market by encouraging the posting of photos from college parties. Collegehumor.com anyone? Another feature was that you could earn peanuts to buy E-items to send to friends. Granted, these features alone were very nice when Xuqa first debuted. Who really wants to stay on the Internet and do this for the rest of their free-time though?

Xuqa found a new way in 2006 to seperate itself from the two social networking giants - make the social networking scene a competition. Just read their tagline -

"Xuqa is a network of 1,000,000+ University Students. Compete with your friends to be the richest and most popular person in the world!"

Nice. Now we can earn peanuts, add people for useless reasons and claim the realm of being the Internet social networking's most popular person. Where is the bragging rights for that gonna hold against .. reality?

Overview:
As you can see, these tools have changed the social life we live. In ways it has made it easier to meet new people, promote businesses, and spread ideas to a greater number of people with less work. In other ways though it has just cluttered our social space with useless tools that will furthermore make our spare time just that - useless. The future is limitless for social networking. I just hope the big guys can use their power for the greater good.

VT Rampage Game Questions Taste and Freedom of Speech

I might be on an edge by even giving this attention, my input, or other media coverage. I do feel though this is an important subject and I would like for those of you to read through this blog before making any judgements at all.

I was scoping Newgrounds.com today and I ran across a game that really caught my attention. Unfortunately, the game itself isn't one I'd recommend to others. It seems as though someone has tried to exploit the events of April 16th at Virginia Tech (just a mere 12 minutes from my home in Radford) through a video game entitled simply "VT Rampage".

At first my thoughts were simple - How could anyone be this tasteless?

So then I played the game. The creator literally programmed a flash game to "relive" the events. You are Cho, the relentless psychopath that looks to send a message to the world. Your first mission through the 1st stage is to shoot Emily Hilscher - the first victim in the actual events. Events then move on as you return to the dorm to film the manifesto tape. From there Cho must "stealthily" make it past a ward of police to drop the package off to the Post Office. From there is where "the fun begins", as the creator puts it in Cho's words.

Norris Hall is nothing more than a glorified bloodfest. You have a time limit to slaughter as many students as possible, even with a theme song playing in the background encouraging "Go Cho Go!"

At the end of the time limit, with 32 dead and various injured, Cho is left with only one choice - to take this life. The game ends there, with credits rolling in shortly afterwards.

Personally I am all for freedom of speech. What I am not for however is the right for people to be so distasteful. It is an outrage that this online game portrays the events, let alone NAMES one of the victims in the game and allows you to murder her. This is truly a lack of respect towards the victim!

With further research I see that the media has really picked this up and has even conducted an interview with the game's creator - Ryan Lambourn. Turns out he's a 21-year-old living in Australia, but grew up in the United States (credit - MSNBC). With that being said, Ryan should be able to connect since most of those killed were students HIS age. So why would someone still do such a thing?

It has also been stated that he will remove the game if the government pays him a price. Should the government fold and pay the "ransom"? How does this play into freedom of speech and freedom of the Internet?

Frankly, if the government pays to have the game removed, it will create a few scenarios in my opinion.

• By paying the ransom, you open the gateways for similar games. Oklahoma City Rampage anyone? So what will the government do then? Pay to have each game removed?
• By taking the game off, it takes away some of the freedom of the Internet. Should legislation be passed to limit what can be posted on the Internet? Who will be the judge of what is tasteful, politically correct, and eligible to be posted?

Either way, Ryan is getting exactly what he wants. He's getting cheap press and has become highlight of chat through various media, including this blog. What he has done on the bright side has screwed any chance he had at becoming a respected professional in his field of work, let alone a respected human being.

Incase you're interested, this video game can be found at www.newgrounds.com