Comments for In the Facebook Age http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022 Tue, 11 May 2010 14:15:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Comment on We have become YouTube susperstars? by pcuddeba http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/05/04/we-have-become-youtube-susperstars/comment-page-1/#comment-177 pcuddeba Tue, 11 May 2010 14:15:32 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/?p=350#comment-177 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp2uttq_AFA

]]> Comment on Top Ten Reasons To Quit Facebook by rcentann http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/05/03/top-ten-reasons-to-quit-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-168 rcentann Mon, 03 May 2010 18:13:02 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/05/03/top-ten-reasons-to-quit-facebook/#comment-168 Lynn- I had the same reaction to all of the changes in format…I also deleted all of my interests etc. because I was uncomfortable with them being linked to other pages, but still do have ads on the side of my page relating to them. I feel like all of the changes are making profiles more and more public, which in turn has caused me to be even more cautious about what I post. And while I have always had my settings set to private, I find myself double checking them much more often.

]]> Comment on Top Ten Reasons To Quit Facebook by Danica http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/05/03/top-ten-reasons-to-quit-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-167 Danica Mon, 03 May 2010 16:53:09 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/05/03/top-ten-reasons-to-quit-facebook/#comment-167 I agree that how the information is treated–basically owned by Facebook and public to anybody they want to distribute it to–is rather sketchy. I probably wouldn’t use Facebook if I wasn’t going to college so far from home and so far from where my high school friends go to college. However, at the end he sounds a bit like he’s a proponent of MySpace (he’s even bummed that he can’t personalize the colors on a Facebook profile) and mentions that he’ll be finding other providers of online social networks. What are the privacy policies of other social networks? I think the way in which this article was written put me off–taking the form of a rant, it seems strongly backed by emotion, perhaps more so than information. I think it is kind of creepy how widespread Facebook is becoming and how much information they can glean from you, but when the argument ends with “1. The Facebook application itself sucks,” I felt less likely to side with the author. Agreed, Farmville and Mafia Wars and pretty much every other application are pretty stupid, but he gets all nit-picky about how slow the feed loads and how if HE took the time to customize it, it could be better, but it’s just not worth the effort. Reading the comments below the article was interesting, with both propoents and opponents of Facebook. One stuck out to me that said with anything online that we give information, if someone chooses to give that information it is because the benefits outweigh the risks. I’m actually not sure if the benefits outweigh the risks with Facebook for me, but I’m not going to be deleting my account until I hear an argument that is less of a rant–one that perhaps examines both benefits and risks to let the reader decide if it’s time to leave Facebook.

]]> Comment on Top Ten Reasons To Quit Facebook by lefreedm http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/05/03/top-ten-reasons-to-quit-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-166 lefreedm Mon, 03 May 2010 13:35:22 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/05/03/top-ten-reasons-to-quit-facebook/#comment-166 I’ve not been too pleased with Facebook lately. Every time they change their layout they make profiles more and more public. Recently they are forcing you to link all your interests and favorite things to pages. Kind of sucks. I am pretty uncomfortable with this so I just deleted all my interests and favorites. My profile is even less personalized now than the already bland ‘unable to be personalized’ default profile. Also, even though I deleted my interests, I still get ads relating to them. This really suggests that your data is never gone. Everything on Facebook can be accessed. Pretty scary. I guess we just have to be more careful about what we post. I sure will.

]]> Comment on Post cases of where the Internet is a Habermasian ‘public sphere’ and where it is not by Danica & EJ http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/04/29/post-cases-of-where-the-internet-is-a-habermasian-public-sphere-and-is-not/comment-page-1/#comment-165 Danica & EJ Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:22:28 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/?p=336#comment-165 Okay, we found a possible Public Sphere–> The Public Sphere Project!!
http://www.publicsphereproject.org/drupal/

“The mission of the Public Sphere Project is to help create and support equitable and effective public spheres all over the world.”

At least they’re trying.

]]> Comment on Post cases of where the Internet is a Habermasian ‘public sphere’ and where it is not by Danica & EJ http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/04/29/post-cases-of-where-the-internet-is-a-habermasian-public-sphere-and-is-not/comment-page-1/#comment-164 Danica & EJ Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:20:38 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/?p=336#comment-164 http://www.liberalforum.org/
—Titled “Political Forum and Chatroom” but the URL indicates its liberal bent.

We were unable to find a site that is arguably a public sphere in this class time. However, thinking about how previously people were rather limited by geographic location to people they would be discussing issues with, they would have to reach a consensus about issues because it would be decisions that would affect them all (although often this is debatable if consensus decisions occur or if it’s just majority rules), so we were thinking that if there WAS a public sphere site, perhaps it would be geographically oriented. As you go online, geographic barriers to communication may be lowered, but new interest barriers grow because cyberspace is so large that people can just gather with like-minded people and agree with each other about how bad the other side is. If the issues discussed online were about affecting a group’s offline life, perhaps it would act more like a public sphere.

]]> Comment on Post cases of where the Internet is a Habermasian ‘public sphere’ and where it is not by elepage http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/04/29/post-cases-of-where-the-internet-is-a-habermasian-public-sphere-and-is-not/comment-page-1/#comment-163 elepage Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:18:42 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/?p=336#comment-163 we couldn’t really find anything that reached a real opinion… but this was a good go at a public sphere because it allows people to join to together to solve their personal problems… with some ‘assholes’ in the mix
http://isitnormal.com/story/stinky-bellybutton-58/

]]> Comment on Post cases of where the Internet is a Habermasian ‘public sphere’ and where it is not by pcuddeba http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/04/29/post-cases-of-where-the-internet-is-a-habermasian-public-sphere-and-is-not/comment-page-1/#comment-162 pcuddeba Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:17:43 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/?p=336#comment-162 almost a public sphere but not
http://www.phantasytour.com/bisco/boards_thread.cgi?threadID=2292499&page=3

]]> Comment on Post cases of where the Internet is a Habermasian ‘public sphere’ and where it is not by pcuddeba http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/04/29/post-cases-of-where-the-internet-is-a-habermasian-public-sphere-and-is-not/comment-page-1/#comment-161 pcuddeba Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:17:05 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/?p=336#comment-161 not a public sphere but close:
http://www.phantasytour.com/bisco/boards_thread.cgi?threadID=2292499&page=3

]]> Comment on Post cases of where the Internet is a Habermasian ‘public sphere’ and where it is not by Hassan http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/2010/04/29/post-cases-of-where-the-internet-is-a-habermasian-public-sphere-and-is-not/comment-page-1/#comment-160 Hassan Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:16:42 +0000 http://learn.bowdoin.edu/courses/sociology022/?p=336#comment-160 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-why-did-brown-make-this-blunder-1957036.html

This news story’s comment section is an example of a public forum in a sense. It is easily accessible to everyone, and it is an example of discussion that is mostly free of flaming. However, it is not a true public sphere because the discussion in the comments section does not continue beyond the discussion of the article.

http://2chan.com

It is not an example of public sphere because it is not really designed to encourage discussion simply because it is in japanese.