Craigslist Gets Busy

I was having a random conversation with a friend a few days ago. We were talking about my roomates and he asked me how I had found an apartment, so I obviously answered: "Craigslist, of course!". Before coming to New York, people would say it was the best website for housing but also for buying all kind of things like tickets, furniture...

But my friend had a surprising reaction: "Oh my God, you're brave!". I didn't understand why so I asked him for further explanation and he told me something that scared the hell out of me: "Craigslist is known for being dangerous, heard people got killed" he said.

After considering the possibility that I was currently living with serial killers, I stopped being paranoid but did some research out of curiosity. It turns out that Craigslist is actually in the news for suspecious activities.

It seems like the success of Craigslist partly depends on a controversial revenue called sex ads. Indeed, more and more people are posting ads on the website to promote prostitution. Users have to pay from $10 to $15 to publish an ad on Craigslist, and as there is no efficient regulation for sex ads, the website makes money by promoting horrible things such as child exploitation and human trafficking. This is completely scandalous.

Craigslist used to give all the money from the sex ads to charity, which is kind of gross when you think about it. Solving problems by making money out of another huge social issue is not helping. But the icing on the cake is that now the company stopped committing to give that money away! Basically it's almost like saying "We make money by promoting prostitution, so what?" to people's face.

The ads of Craigslist are likely to bring $36 billions to the company this year, which is three times the revenue of last year's projection. But can a company really grow and spread its influence while being involved in such unethical issues?

Just because Craigslist provides online services doesn't mean it should be exempt from regulations. My point is, we should expect integrity from the Internet too, especially from Craigslist which is in the top ten most visited websites in the US. Can you imaging ads for prostitution on the New York Times or CNN? The digital media shouldn't be a no man's land in terms of rules.

Too Much Texteen

Pew Research Center recently published a study revealing that one in three American teens send more than 100 text messages a day. Text messaging becomes centerpiece communication nowadays, as it is the first channel of basic communication between teens and their friends, before cell calling.

That trend keeps on growing since 88% of teen cell phone users do text messages compared to 51% in 2006. That sharp rise doesn't really suprise me, as I'm pretty addicted to texting myself. But I'm not a teenage anymore and I still remember the time when I didn't own a cell phone. Even if this memory is getting blurrier and blurrier, it makes a difference. No matter how much I depend on mobile communication, I'm from the generation that discovered cell phones. I mean that when I got my first one, I was excited about it and didn't take it for granted, it was a major event. But now, it became totally normal for teens to own one as soon as they enter mid school, and maybe even earlier. I think this habit has an impact on many levels of our society.

Another study made by the University of Maryland reported that college students using social media showed signs similar to drug addicts. To avoid this dangerous trend, Riverdale Country School took a really interesting initiative by lauching an experiment in text-free living. They asked the kids not to use their cell phones for texting or chatting on social media for two days. As difficult as it was for teenages to keep their phones away, they were all suprised to see how fast they would finish their homework.

Texting and chatting with friends on social media are a part of our daily language. Although I recognize it can be really convenient to communicate this way, I also think it tends to narrow our thoughts and ideas. It's a really distracting activity that makes people use simple vocabulary, and that's why it's scary that so many teens are addicted to their smartphones. I believe we should encourage young people to express themselves in a more complex way, so that they always know the line between digital communication and traditional one.

Unlike The New Facebook "Like" Button

Facebook launches a new "Like" button allowing the social network to spread its influence beyond its own website. How can I unlike this?

We all know the "Like" button on each Facebook profile that allows people to show their interest in others' activity. The more friends like your status, the more influential you can consider yourself on your network. But Facebook is now applying this popular concept to a different field. Indeed, we should all prepare ourselves to see a new "like" button on famous entertainment or information websites within the weeks to come.

Becoming a fan of a brand requires the user to actually search for the company on Facebook. So in addition to that, the new "like" button will appear on the brands' official websites so that Facebook users can directly like them when they log on. It completes the function of "share" buttons already established and very popular on many websites such as Youtube.

But what looks like a partnership or an exchange of visibility from one brand to another is actually more strategic. Facebook has to pay a price to have a "like" button on other websites, because it represents a considerable opportunity for the brand.

Unfortunately, the price is people's privacy. Facebook will offer data about its users to the websites agreeing to display a "like" button. These websites will then be able to advertise for their service by targeting specific audiences thanks to the information that Facebook owns about us. I think this is the sign that Facebook crossed the line because it is openly using its users as merchandise. We think we are just expressing ourselves by saying what we like, but we are actually a part of a mercantile system we don't even get. Social media are supposed to connect people to one another, not to companies.

Social networks definitely have to think more seriously about the evolution of their business model if they don't want to loose their users' trust. The saddest thing is that people accustom themselves to the fact that they are being used because Facebook tends to be addictive. Even I, knowing the company's intentions, don't feel ready to give up on my social network.

One thing is certain: Facebook is blessed with an incredible base of brand loyal users. The executive team has to use this in a positive way if it doesn't want to turn Facebook into an unethical company. Because to me, that is what's happening right now.

Making Twistory

Last week, the Library of Congress announced that it will save all the public tweets from the day Twitter was created until the end of time....Or just until the end of social networks if that moment ever happens!

As surprising and unexpected as it sounds, this piece of news is really serious and deserves our full attention as users of Twitter and people involved in social media. I think this new initiative tells a lot on how public opinion is starting to consider social media in a way it never did. The 140 characters messages from millions of anonymous people along with celebrities will go in the archives of the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, becoming a part of “the universal body of human knowledge.”

As meaningful that step is on a historical angle, it is only legitimate to ask ourselves if all of this makes sense.

Are we being watched ?

It's probably human instinct to think that an institution interested in saving people's personal data is plotting something. The first thing I told myself when I heard the news was "Just another way to limitate privacy and freedom of speech". But I actually think my reaction was naive. It's one thing to be paranoid about companies or government trying to get information about people. But when it comes to a cultural entity like this one, I think we can let our guard down for once. After all, you can always choose to make your tweets private, like I do.

Are we making Twistory?

After reassuring myself on the privacy issue, I started to wonder if Twitter was really worth saving. Do people's tweets on personal doings or ordinary actions reveal something about our society or are we giving Twitter way more attention than it deserves ? It may sound weird to care about John Doe's personal feelings on random subjects, but it actually is a part of history to some extend. “This is an entirely new addition to the historical record, the second-by-second history of ordinary people,” said Fred R. Shapiro, associate librarian and lecturer at the Yale Law School. I have to agree, because if we wouldn't have kept letters or diaries written centuries ago, many traditions or social characteristics of certain times would have been ignored.

So in the end, I think this is a great initiative. I don't know if the tweets will help our grand-grandchildren to understand our society better, but at least, it shows that we care about knowledge of human kind.

Though one more realistic question remains:

Why did the Library of Congress and Twitter decided to team up? Is it only for culture's sake, or is there something more behind? This decision serves a lot of interests, as Twitter gains credibility and the Library of Congress makes one step forward into the digital area.

What's YOUR opinion?

More on that subject:

The New York Times

The Guardian

Social Media Vs. Human Nature

Today I discovered a website related to Twitter that I find absolutely amazing!

It's called What the trend, and its purpose is to list the most popular tweets, showing people's favorite subject on Twitter.

The week in review caught my attention, it's a page that provides a top 20 of Twitter's trends of the week.

I noticed that there are three kinds of tweets:

Those about the news

The week in review actually gives an overview of the news.

It shows that people talk about April's Fool, Easter, Earth Hour, but also Ricky Martin coming out of the closet! The subjects of the tweets are topical, which once again proves that Twitter became a full-fledged news platform.

Those about virtual activities

Many trends are about new ways to entertain that are specific to social media.

For example, the number one is sharing music through the network, and the third is to list other people to follow. This category of tweets is interesting because it shows that social media can lead to new activities.

Those about people's feelings

Sometimes, the tweets are nothing but the reflection of human's behavior. And that's the funniest kind of tweet! There are things I didn't even realize people talked about on Twitter. Not only whatthetrend.com reveals popular tweets, it also reveals human nature! Indeed, twitterers share the mood they're in. The number 9 trend of the week is "Don't you hate when" and number 11 "I love". People also use Twitter as a way to share their own vision by saying things others should stop doing, or claiming one thing is nolonger cool.

I think this website is an incredible tool for a sociological approach of social media, it tells a lot about the behaviors of the users. Being aware of its existence helps me to accomplish my mission as a blogger: reflecting about the impact of social media on society.

This made me ask myself a question that I can't seem to answer since I don't have any hindsight:

Do social media change us by creating a virtual version of ourselves or are they just a reflection of who we truly are?

And by who we are I mean cranky human beings!

We might know the answer in a few years, but since I don't like to wait, can you take a guess?

Are You An Influent Twitterer?

I feel that Twitter is a more professional social network than Facebook. The people I follow and those who follow me are not necessarily my friends on Facebook and in life. I use Twitter to get in touch with co-workers or even professors, but not to really say what's on my mind.

Thanks to a website called We Follow, I started to follow people with a lot of influence in the social media field like Pete Cashmore from Mashable or TechCrunch. Wefollow.com provides the list of people who have the biggest number of followers in different categories (celebrities, news, social media...). It's really helpful for me because these twitterers constantly talk about things that I need to know as a Communications major.

You can add yourself to Wefollow.com if you want to measure your influence on Twitter. But if you're anything like me, you'd rather directly go twinfluence.com where you don't need to fill out anything just to realize that you don't have any influence!

Social media are more than just the platforms themselves. You have to dig a little to see the whole universe around and how you can take advantage of it. That's what I'm going to do! I really feel I should use Twitter to promote my blog. My influence might be really small for the moment, at least I know it! With all these tools in my hands, I should be able to make it bigger!

So I might as well start right now:

Follow me on Twitter at Live_from_Liv

My First (Chaotic) Experience On Chatroulette

Today I tried something new and feel the need to tell the world about it, or at least telling you, dear readers!

Lately, a lot of my friends were talking about a new website called Chatroulette. I even noticed people on my Facebook page referring to it on their status and I must admit I felt like an outcast not knowing what it was. So I figured it was up to me to learn more about this new trend that is making so much noise, or at least virtual noise.

The concept of Chatroulette is simple but quite interesting. It's a a website that pairs random strangers around the world for webcam-based conversations. So basically, the point of Chatroulette is to start an online chat (video, audio, text) with another visitor. At anytime, you can stop the conversation and start another one with a new person, hence the word roulette.

All you need to do to experience Chatroulette is to accept the webcam invitation that pops out once you're on the website, and click on "new game" to see your new correspondent and start a conversation. I was so sceptical about total strangers being able to see me that I kept clicking on "next" to wait for a face that I could trust. Unfortunately, that moment never happened, it actually kept getting worst. All the visitors were men and let's just say that one of them wasn't all about chatting.

Anyway, if you never tried Chatroulette, I recommend you to do it with a friend so it's less intimidating and actually funny. Although my personal experience was chaotic, I still think it is an interesting social concept. Even if it is not considered as a social media, Chatroulette tends to redefine the notion of network. This website defends the idea that the Internet becomes a global network and that borders between users are pushed further and further.

It is interesting to see that several celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher have been spotted on Chatroulette. Though nothing can confirm it was really him, it wouldn't be surprising considering that the young actor was one of the first star using Twitter.

Chatroulette was created last year by a 17 year-old russian. The website is recent and time will show if celebrities or maybe businesses have any interest in it. Companies may start using it to launch virtual events and create a buzz, who knows? Some artists like Faith No More have already started to experience Chatroulette by broadcasting their concert on it.

The concept is still under construction and should have more regulation, but it could change the rules of social media as we know them.