Human nature in the socialsphere

Sometimes it’s a good idea to reflect on why something has worked. If it’s a commercial venture, say, social networks like Twitter and Facebook, you may have to start thinking about the human psyche.

In order to begin any sojourn into the values of human nature we have only to look at the most recent ‘hit’ in the media. On the third of May, Emmanuel (Lolly) Jackson was murdered by a business associate. This was fairly big news because controversial people tend to be more interesting to us humans; but beyond the event itself, was the news event and corresponding media frenzy.

Privacy Problems Part 3

Even though Facebook appears to have conducted the change to it's privacy settings in a bit of an underhanded way, at least we can appreciate that the internet is the biggest, and indeed the most profitable platform for making money today.

It was ironic then that on the 5^th of May, TechCrunch posted an article on how Facebook’s privacy options could be manipulated so you could see your friend’s chats. TechCrunch alerted the people at Facebook who promptly changed it so that by the time I tried it at around 2pm, chat was down and they had fixed it within a couple of hours.

Privacy Problems Part 2

In my last blog I talked about privacy on the internet and how social networks and other kinds of web-based applications allow their users to effectively hide who they are. I asked whether the fact that we construct our identities online and so shouldn’t be concerned about privacy issues wasn’t too simplistic a conclusion.

Well, this was all brought on by Facebook’s new privacy settings which essentially seem to be encouraging us all to share far more information than we would ordinarily. I won’t go into the details of the privacy changes, as Electronic Frontier Foundation covers all the changes.

Privacy Problems Part 1

Privacy is a sticky subject when it comes to social media. Ever since the ordinary internet user began to be able to connect themselves to a potential audience of thousands, the problem of privacy has become a leading debate around new media.

There is a blurry line between public and private on the World Wide Web – especially when it comes to social networks. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube make it easy for Joe from down the road to consider himself very famous thanks to his hundreds of followers.

Social media make legends

Human beings have always found a way to rally and discuss issues in society. In the days of the town crier, people would gather around and listen to the news of their world and then stand around and discuss ideas.

Coffee shops became a masculine place for minds to meet and ideas to circulate; washing areas were where women got together to add to the debates. It’s not inconceivable that society’s first intellectuals gathered around some communal space and began debating. It is from these spaces that great things begin to happen in society.