I’m going to endeavour to keep today’s posting as short as I possible can.  This is because:

1. It’s Sunday and I don’t want to write a long post that visitors may well abandon half-read
2. The idea I want to talk about is very nascent indeed.  In fact, it might better be describe as pre-natal.  Offering the barest of its bare bones is, I think, the only way to avoid unnecessary confusion and infuriating waffle.

So, I’m sure that many of you out there have come across a particular one of Oscar Wilde’s famous aphorisms even if you weren’t aware of the source.  In The Decay of  Lying Vivian tells his companion Cyril:

Paradox though it may seem — and paradoxes are always dangerous things — it is none the less true that Life imitate Art far more than Art imitates life. “

Like many overly-sensitive undergraduates I was floored by the implications of this statement when I first encountered it and I’ve spent a least 10 hours of my life trying to explain it to my own students.  Despite its ubiquity there’s some important truth to this paradoxical aphorism stating that ‘Life imitates Are far more than Art imitates Life.’  Far more eloquent thinkers and writers than me have spilled a good deal of ink over it.

That being said I want to rip Wilde’s statement from its roots and (mis)apply it to a much more contemporary context.  One thing that occurs to me is that so much, if not all, of what we find on the internet is, at some level, a construction.  This is true even of purportedly objective and reputable sites just as much as some of the wilder flights of fancy out there.  I’d be among the first to agree that much of the internet isn’t art and that a good deal of that has little or no redeeming aesthetic quality.  At the same time, however, it seems to me that real life increasingly takes its cues from the non-corporeal realm of the web.  Rumours spread, people liive exciting lives as idealised avatars, bets in the pub are settled by recourse to wikipedia.  Hell, I’ve been having an extended and rather one-sided conversation for around two months now using this blog as a soap-box.

I have no idea what Wilde would have made of the internet.  I am beginning to suspect, however, that his famous aphorism might have something to teach those of us who inhabit and have our lives shaped by this electronic, digital age.  What that might be, I’ve yet to work out, but it does strike me as at leasts potentially different from much of the thinking I’ve come across before.

Or something. . .

And yes, I neglected to even mention Baudriallard  by design.

First steps, first break…This week marks the first full year of this blog. Reaching this far was something I have not expected for 18th Moon as I was unsure when I started in December 8, 2008 of how to keep an on-line platform going.

It turned out that topics, issues, assorted rants and raves all come naturally. One just have to master the skill of waiting for a moment of clarity when things slowly fall into place and you can speak across that space where the cursor blinks out from a daunting digital emptiness.

And the best sources sometimes are those that come to me from the past. Writing a blog then becomes a careful dredging up of impressions,  a recall of  forgotten incidents, chance remarks and other details that usually fall between the cracks of our febrile memory.

Although the more mainstream thing to do in a blog is to comment on the here-and-now, upload photos, post them and write a cursory remark or punch-driven line, I realised that the tougher challenge is to lucidly write in retrospect.

In that space (and time) the mind actually does little tricks, picking out details we didn’t notice in the real and actual experience, or prompting us to translate an experience into the “now” with a newfound attention or focus. Engagement.

Careful attention or focus, though, is often the collateral damage in our frenzied, tweeting media landscape, where the only constant is the barrage of information that continually blitz our networked lives, 24-7.

Touch-and-go is the dominant emblem, whether you line-up in a McDo queue, SMS a friend or press the ‘Send’ button.

The tempo of our digitally-landscaped lives makes us masters of quick sampling. A line or a recurring beat is more than sufficient to propel us to the next level, the next scrolling page or the next beat. In the stream of digital stimuli, many are caught in the ebb and flow and, perhaps, the only way to stay afloat and reach the shore is to consume and compress experience in well-digested bytes.

I recall the famous arcade game Pac-Man of the 1980s with its vast appetite for smileys, devouring as much as it can to maintain a forward trajectory. The reminder of this gobble-and-go icon for this generation is that a consumption-fired lifestyle creates its own inertia since the next level can only lead to the next–  an endless maze of collapsing alleys and blind corners.

Back to the word ‘engagement’ which this blog has reminded me to pick up again. Since writing is the basis of this blog, I am prompted to recreate if not record, and to do that I am oblige to engage, actively. Ironically, in the dim corners of the big vast Net, there is a place to hold back the Pac-Man obsession.

For this I may be inspired to keep 18th Moon for another year, and I hope that this promise is not a threat to those of you who, by pure chance, happen to happily pass by this web page looking for treats.

http://www.interrobang-mks.com/

Interesting as hell and around longer than you’d think.

Who hasn’t thought about it?

Yes, but how hard is it for someone to disappear in the digital age? Author Evan Ratliff goes on the lam for WIRED Magazine with that question in mind. The article “Gone” reads like a techno-thriller,but ends with a poignant twist that touches the heart of story, and why we need one.

Turns out the biggest hazard is loneliness.

He writes:

Had I shown that a person, given enough resources and discipline, could vanish from one life and reinvent himself in another? . . . More than all that, I’d discovered how quickly the vision of total reinvention can dissolve into its lonely mundane reality. Whatever reason you might have for discarding your old self and the people who went with it, you’ll need more than a made-up backstory and a belt full of cash to replace them.

The story of what happens when you don’t have a story is worth reading.

Newsgarden / BlockTalk

This was my last week on Serra Media’s Fall Internship Program. I joined that in the end of September - an opportunity to have an ‘international experience’ with a propose I’ve been working some years with and which became more popular recently: hyperlocal news.  

In this program, we are four community cultivators – from Seattle (WA), Portland (OR), Los Angeles (CA) and, yes, Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil. The position’s goal: we should “grow a meaningful, constructive community of Web users through outreach, participation and creativity”. 

I was curious about how is working with another audience, who has different culture and ways for accessing internet and digital tools. On my daily job, here in Brazil, I edit a supplement and a blog about the neighbourhood where I grow up. Everything could be so different from I’m used to do. I’ve never been in USA or Canada – for while -, but I’ve picked up news for four cities/regions in these countries for nine weeks.

Actually it isn’t so different. Hyperlocal news can be similar anywhere: weekend markets, traffic interruptions, festivals, city hall decisions, interesting people. Example: last Thursday, there’s a storm in Porto Alegre, and some bloggers sent me photos, published on Blog do ZH Zona Sul early afternoon. At night, I checked The Bellingham Herald’s Newsgarden and found out a report submitted by a user: That Blows, with photos of a Vintage Ford Truck crushed by a tree fall. Stormy weather caused damages in both cities.

As community cultivators, we identified who is blogging about that city and share their posts in Newsgarden – and, of course, I invited them to add more contributions there in the future. As here, sometimes people invited me to visit their places (“Oh, thanks, but I live out of the city…“). 

Both cases, in Brazil and in US, one of the main challenges is the audience’s engagement. I haven’t created an amazing formule to this question during the internship – if someone has it, let me know (some tips in the post Social Tools and Hard Work Drive Local Audiences, Serra Media Blog) -, but I’m glad to finish the task with some result: the number of views increased in all these sites since this internship began. Now I can face another hyperlocal experience.

* * *

Related post:

> Working With Newsgarden/BlockTalk

Blog do Editor, em zerohora.com

 

Texto originalmente publicado no Blog do Editor, em zerohora.com

 

“Na segunda-feira, o Blog do ZH Zona Sul publicou o post Que obra é essa?, relativo a uma obra iniciada ao lado da ciclovia da Diário de Notícias, na zona sul da Capital, pedindo a ajuda dos leitores para desvendar o mistério. No final de outubro, fotografamos um buraco raso, por alguns metros, aberto dias antes por uma retroescavadeira.

Sem placa no local ou funcionários que pudessem dar informações, ligamos para diversas secretarias e empresas para saber o que seria feito ali. Nenhuma soube dizer do que se tratava.

Em meio ao mistério de uma obra inacabada, o blog lançou a sua dúvida na rede e perguntou aos internautas se teriam alguma pista para passar à reportagem. Essse “chamado aberto” aos leitores é conhecido como crowdsourcing, em uma ideia de que o coletivo pode resultar em informações mais precisas.

A prática, claro, ganhou força com a internet. Um dos exemplos mais expressivos é o do jornal The Guardian, que publicou em seu site 458.832 documentos com os gastos dos parlamentares britânicos. Até a tarde desta terça, dia 18, 24.603 internautas já garimparam 215.503 papéis.

Em Zero Hora, você pode já ter percebido esses convites ao público há um tempo — um dos mais recentes, foi o chamado no Twitter (@zerohora) sobre a passagem do Sucatão pelo céu porto-alegrense, no domingo. As respostas dos leitores ganharam espaço na Reportagem Especial da segunda-feira passada.

Com mais de 1,6 mil acessos e 28 palpites no post — dos que sugeriam ser uma obra da Bienal do Mercosul aos ciclistas e pedestres que disputam lugar na via para bicicletas devido à falta de calçada no local —, o ZH Zona Sul realizou uma segunda rodada de ligações, mas o mistério permanece.

Aliás, se tiver uma dica, mande um e-mail para zonasul@zerohora.com.br. Afinal, esse post também é um chamado aberto.

* Melissa Becker, repórter dos cadernos de Bairros da Zero Hora“

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I was pretty blown away by how far-reaching some forms of technology are. I loved learning that lolcats are older than I am. Plus, anything filtered through the lens of cracked.com is always better. What this tells me is that the South Park “Simpson’s did it” mentality that everything is recycled is more real and scarier than any of us could ever imagine. Le Sigh. Yes, I am a nerd.

8 Staples of the Digital Age That are Less Than Digital

Levy stresses the importance of the role of listening for journalists. A role that is commonly over looked in the media. We may not be psychologists, but we must use listening skills in a different way. In order to understand the expression of a problem, to assume and take a position on an issue, and to formulate arguments based on positions, we must take listening into consideration.

Christopher Harper describes the roles of the digital journalist rather well in his article Journalism in a Digital Age.

Harper states;

“Online journalism places far more power in the hands of the user, allowing the reader to challenge the traditional role of the publication as the gatekeeper of news and information. The user can depend on the gatekeeper to select and filter the news in the tradition manner, or the user can drill down to the basic documents of a story. In short, the user can look over the shoulder of the reporter by researching the original documents and easily comparing one reporter’s story with those of others by scanning news publications throughout the country. Archives also become easily accessible.

Second, online journalism opens up new ways of storytelling, primarily through the technical components of the new medium. Simply put, online journalists can provide a variety of media–text, audio, video, and photographs–unlike any other media. Data searching provides a means to acess information unable in other media.

Third, online journalism can provide outlets for nontraditional means of news and information. The internet enable everyone who owns a computer to have his or her own printing press. “

The digital news environment will constantly continue to evolve throughout our lifetime.

There was an interesting article on one of “the best journalism blogs”, Teaching Online Journalism which was describing how journalism students of today should have keen knowledge in;

1. Capturing audio and editing it
2. Video recording, production and editing
3. Web skills (which could be production, design and coding, Web journalism and blogging).

All of which are going to become required knowledge in the near future as we enter the digital age.

No cabe duda que en este siglo, la tecnología ha sido una inmensa parte en el desarrollo de la comunidad mundial. Se puede generalizar que todos, de una parte u otra, han modificado algunos aspectos de sus quehaceres cotidianos para complementar cualquier fase de los adelantos provistos, en especial la web 2.0. Incluyo las madres que se están comunicando con sus hijos que se encuentran en San Juan o Alemania por video chat y Skype (utilizo la mía como ejemplo), los abuelos utilizando Facebook para estar en contacto con sus amigos de Bingo y nietos por igual, los negociantes utilizando aplicaciones en el iPhone, Web o cualquier otro dispositivo electrónico con capacidad de conección wi-fi para estar al día con sus stocks, y muchos más ejemplos más que se pueden mencionar pero correría el riesgo de sonar redundante. La cuestión es que, a pesar de todos estos que se benefician de una u otra forma del internet, los que el impacto ha sido de mayor magnitud son para los estudiantes. En la actualidad, desde la era de pre-school, existen websites y actividades cibernéticas cuya función es ampliar los dispositivos de educación para crear un sistema educativo mucho más integral y dinámico para el individuo, y nosotros estudiantes universitarios sabemos mejor que nadie cómo ha evolucionado esto. Ahora, esto no significa que las instituciones en sí han notado el cambio suficientemente para modificar sus métodos de enseñanzas, y ahí es donde proviene los mayores inconvenientes. En orden para que el proceso este siga evolucionando, debemos todos aceptar la revolución ya como algo dominante e intentar modificarnos para lo próximo que no obstante vendrá. El colegio no ha llegado a este punto, pero con un poco más de preparamiento, puede que esté listo de aquí a otra década (excusa mi hipérbole).

Hay que darle crédito donde crédito es merecido, y es que por lo menos, en el colegio ya se están ofreciendo algunos cursos en línea… es más, en dos años que llevo estudiando ya he tenido 3 clases así. Pero el proceso todavía a sigue siendo bastante primitivo. Aunque hay algunos que utilizan edu 2.0 (como la clase de Software Social) que es sumamente avanzado y ofrece varios dispositivos, la mayoría utilizan WEBCT y Moodle, y estos dos sistemas tienen interfaces limitadas con poco ajustes para ser personalizados, y opciones seriamente  inflexibles. Por ejemplo, los foros son expuestos de forma primitiva, donde hay que manualmente “refresh” la página cada vez que desea ver si su entrada fue posteada, y es poco responsivo y no muy intuitivo. Para la universidad dar paso adelante, debe incorporar los sistemas más “user friendly” (como edu 2.0) y que cada clase tenga por lo menos la opción de ser tomada por internet. Así es el propio estudiante que hace los ajustes necesarios para ver cuál sería de mayor provecho para él/ella y no la institución. Otro punto que daría un paso adelante sería publicar las conferencias diarias como videos o podcasts para ser transferidos en cualquier reproductor móvil para el estudiante. Si hacemos esto, obviamente el estudiante tendría mucho más oportunidad de comprender la lección, ya que no corre con la preocupación de copiar todo en 50 mins. y no prestar atención a la explicación dada. Estos dispositivos deberían estar formateados de tal forma que se puedan ver con facilidad en los celulares, ya que según las estadísticas del reportaje asignado, más estudiantes están utilizando los smartphones pero no muchos con propósitos educativos. Claro, ¿cómo lo pueden usar para ese fin si no le dan la opción de tenerlo así? Las bibliotecas tienen su rasgo digital, pero no se compara en nada a las verdaderas bibliotecas 2.0 que existen en campus estadounidenses. Aquí contamos sólo con la base de datos, que los recursos que presenta enteros se limitan mayormente a las revistas y artículos, no a los libros más utilizados por los estudiantes. Esto debería ser modificado, para incluir la opción de poder leer todos los libros encontrados en la biblioteca colegial en línea. El último punto la cual voy a referirme es el de la librería colegial. Con tantos servicios ofrecidos como el de Amazon, Craiglist y ebay, pienso que se puede crear una página la cual contiene los libros ofrecidos, junto con la comparación de precios y previews también, para ser comprados directos y ser enviados en tiempo corto ya que, sí se encuentran en la librería, pueden distribuirlos ligeramente a los salones y hospedajes de los estudiantes. Esto sería de gran beneficio, ya que todos sabemos las filas horripilantes que se crean de horas y horas en el comienzo de cada semestre. Quizás con estos mejoramientos, podemos de verdad llamar al Recinto Universitario Mayagüez como una universidad 2.0.

Aunque estos puntos no abarquen todos los cambios necesarios para totalmente revolucionar nuestro instituto universal, son algunos claves por la cual debe comenzar si está serio en seguir siendo uno de las mejores universidades de Puerto Rico y no cae atrás. La reputación que tiene no se debe perder, pero es posible que sea el caso si sigue en sus caminos anticuados. Cómo dije en el comienzo, tal vez se tarde unos largos años para lograrlo, pero no lo veo como imposible, y quien sabe, tal vez mientras leen esto, ya están en proceso… no lo creo, pero sería sumamente excitante, ¿No?

If you are looking for a resource to suggest to your school’s parents then check out ‘Rules of the Road for Parents in a Digital Age’ at  http://bit.ly/1v4ncn A balanced view brought to our attention by Carol once more (you can tell she has a little more time on her hands at present!)

Digital world is an ocean.

People navigate upon the surface of data, picking up pictures, words, videos, sounds and diving to get more. The Web explorer is a seaman. And Web business is more related to fishing than any other industrial activity. As in any ocean, there are currents, waves, strong winds and storms. There are islands, land masses, continents, swarming with an incredible variety of activities. As for the 16th century traveller, you may encounter mercantile populations or hostile savages. Not all lands are hospitable on the digital ocean.

People navigate and skim what they need or whatever they seek. Sometimes they may need to sample some data found and transfer it to their ship, their computer. The hard drive forms the hull, operating system is the crew and software is the equipment fitting the ship, like sails, compass, maps, etc. The ships come in various sizes from handheld devices to cumbersome PC towers fitted with multiple large and flat screens. Unlike the 15th and 16th century ships, price is not related to size. And more and more tools of the trade can be found in freeports.

Several kinds of people sail the digital ocean. Pirates are common. Some raiding boldly private and secretive islands, others simply skimming some of the data for fun and entertainment. Fishers are a large population, looking for specific game, for bits and details useful for trade. Gamblers look for opportunities and sometimes risky business. Explorers are always trying to make some new discovery, to pull out of the data stream some new fish. Lots of different characters populate the digital ocean.

The Web is like the 16th century ocean. It’s the new frontier. Where many forsee fortune and fame, others stay ashore relying on traditions and known worlds. Not everyone is a sailor. And few are eager to actually sail in deep waters beyond the horizon to seek adventure and marvels. This new digital ocean is the 21th century adventure, where the bold and the fool will eventually set foot on a terra incognita and claim a new world for a new life.

Timelessness is an illusion.

Books, cards, photos, diaries… but also paintings, drawings, sculptures, etc. are mostly ending up in the trash can or the incinerator. People don’t consider every scrap of human life as memory. And unless you are among the happy few, all these solid material production of human intelligence and talent evaporate into oblivion.

Real time is also an illusion.

Although most of our digital acts are to be lost in the crowd or forgotten in the next couple of minutes, it does not mean that some (or all) will not be archived somewhere and kept for future digital archeologists. Tweets, JPEGs, mails, IMs, but also posts, comments, links, votes, etc. are part of a vast connected web of collective conscience. Again, it depends on people and not on machines or tools, that human intelligence and talent productions become common culture or collective memory.

Opposing timelessness and real-time is symptomatic of a nostalgia for the realm of material things, and the attachment to them. We no longer live in a material world and things are no longer the only mean of fixing memory. Should we accept or not this reality is irrelevant. Memory is shifting. And so is culture and use.

We need real time to manifest a collective conscience. We also need timelessness to build the former upon a collective culture. These are two sides of the same coin.

Both entertaining and enlightening, the Library 101 project has just been launched by David Lee King and Michael Porter.  Aimed at inspiring us to integrate past, present and future librarian skills in order to continue thriving in a changing environment, the project is collaborative and ongoing.  Check out their ‘music video’ below for a fun introduction to their idea:

Library 101 by David Lee King and Michael Porter

Do be sure to check out their list for 100+ past, present and future skills for the profession, many of which could easily apply to librarian 2.0.  A very thorough and thought-provoking list!

You can check out an interesting assortment of essays from library professionals on the website as well.  Happy reading!

If you find something that you feel is important (or lacking) for librarian 2.0 skills and knowledge then we would love to know about it – we’ve been discussing similar ideas on our “Librarian 2.0?” page.

I grew up in a generation where the internet was invented, cell phones are used instead of land lines and people communicate via technology in more ways than we ever would have thought possible, but for the generations who did not learn how to use a computer in junior high or send a text message before they could walk (a hint of sarcasm) all of this tech talk might by a bit too much to handle. This is what is driving a group of students, including myself, to pursue a project on bridging the gap between people and technology and how they use or don’t use today’s newest inventions.  We want to investigate in a range of people more around 60 years old and up.  It’s funny to think that the newest tech device to someone might just be a computer vs. today’s generation of students who may now own a kindle.

Computer confusion?

Times are constantly changing and it seems today that technology is moving along quite rapidly. What then happens to all of those people who didn’t grow up with a mouse and keyboard in front of them, to the people who don’t even know what the word skype means? That is what we want to look at and explore. Listen to peoples experience and how they deal today compared to years ago. We want to find out how technology can enhance their life in ways they wouldn’t have thought possible. How may you ask? By providing them the tools and assistance needed to get in touch with a loved one or old friend with the use of technology. By looking at stories of triumph and failure in the digital age we can give those who are afraid a glimpse at the positives it can provide.

Myself, John Carney, Jonnie Motomochi and Mahria Zook are taking on this project for the next month and a half with the end result being a documentary film, blogs of interviews and stories, more knowledge of computers among elders and a program set up to continue sending volunteers to retirement, assisted living and senior centers to teach and educate people about technology.

Someones grandson or granddaughter could be over in the Middle East as a solider thus not allowing them to visit in over a year and we want to show them that they can visit, they can talk and they can see their grandchild with the help of a computer. That is just one example of what many people face today living in a digital age without the proper knowledge of how it works.  There will be a great deal of hard work and energy thrown into this project and we all are excited to jump to it.

Ryan provides both history and theory of narrative in the digital age. I must admit her theory went right over my head. The history I am somewhat familiar with.

One of the things I took away from the reading is that less is more. (Something I am trying very hard to learn for myself.) According to the author, the idea that digital narrative is about choice and the more the better is a myth. The more choices we have the harder it is to make a decision. This is something that the economists have been learning these past few years. Having so many choices leads to indecision for some or no decision at all for others. There are just too many colors in the crayon box.

Another point she made is that becoming a character in a story is not necessarily the best thing. Do we really want to live in the head of a character who is depressed, insane or some other negative type (like a serial killer). I certainly do not, but I suppose it takes all types. She suggests that we need to be an “external witness.” p 125

As I am in the New Media Studies program to learn the tools to bring my subject history into the digital age, I much appreciated her use of the example of the “Discovering Lewis and Clark site. The use of multimedia and a database is very exciting to me. In fact that is something I had hoped to create myself sometime in the future. However, based on what I have learned in the past six years, it is not something I think can be done solo.

The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University is a wonderful program for the historian who wants to learn how to bring history to life in the digital age. I dream that someday I will actually be able to study there.  I should be so lucky.

I’m currently in a Fall Internship Programm for Serra Media, a technology and services company based in Seattle (WA). For nine weeks, I’m a community manager working on the Newsgarden/BlockTalk platform in four websites: The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, WA), Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, WA), Kelowna Capital News (Kelowna, BC, Canada) and Penticton Western News (Penticton, BC, Canada). It’s being an interesting experience.

The Bellingham Herald

Kitsap Sun

Kelowna Capital News

I logged into my Twitter from the web for the first time in a while today, and out of the corner of my eye the words Tweet·Stats caught my eye. Out of curiosity, I pressed it and it ran a statistical analysis of my twitter activity complete with graphs and numbers!

Some of the more interesting stats include:

• I average 4.9 tweets a day
• I tweeted the most in July (292), which is almost double the normal monthly activity
• On a daily aggregate, I tweet quite evenly over all seven days averaging 160 per day
• On aggregate, I tweet the most at 11pm followed by 12am, 9am, 10am, 12pm and 6pm. See the trend?
• 51% of my tweets are replies

If you, a fellow tweeter, would like to see some statistics for your twitter, visit Tweetstats.

I found this rather odd website today and thought to share it with you guys. It got a few laughs at work, so maybe it might brighten your day for a few seconds.

For those with iPhones, there’s also an application too.

When you’re in strife and you need to go, just drop by this website and it will show you the way. It also considers the time of day the request was made so it won’t lead you to places that aren’t opened.

From the federal government’s repository of public toilets, I present… the National Public Toilet Map.

Happy surfing!

Mr. Radio DJ playing on my car radio this morning, I can honestly say that I missed listening to you.

You ask why I pose this statement? It’s simple, no matter how many times you can play a sound byte or YouTube video, nothing beats the concept of live. Actually being there or tuning in to watch a favorite show air. Watching the Today show at the actual time it airs or listening to a morning show with listeners calling in live with a question or request, these concepts before the era of Hulu are not as popular with the immersion of social media. Sure, you have a convenience factor with TiVo and iTunes. It would be the same on your favorite location (laptop, iPhone, etc.) with the show, but knowing it is new and fresh makes it something great, for that split second.

I fear that the younger generation will never experience this same feeling, in a world of easy accessibility of the media materials. It is sad to understand this, because I personally had great stories where I would go to a friend’s home to watch favorite shows, where we would have crazy car rides, listening to radio personalities give away tickets to the 9th caller, because it was never the first caller. Those stories and feelings will exist only with a specific generation.

But, I also realize that a generation is coming up knowing only Myspace and Facebook. Where Tweeting will be the new AIM that my generation grew up using religiously. I think this time is a new experience for them, and their stories will exist in equal greatness, but in a unique way. Isn’t that idea simply fascinating.