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Something for a lil’ midweek cheerin’ up. This video made me laugh so hard!

This guy went around trolling tourists trying to take forced perspective shots of themselves holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa – by running up to them randomly and giving them high fives hahahahahahaha! Look out for something at 0:56, my favorite part!

Back to my K-drama. I’m watching Rooftop Prince now, hehe.

Week 2 of work: 60% completed! I can do this!

Image via CrunchBase

This blog now moved to  www.experiencemyjourney.com.

In January 5, 2009 was the day I joined Facebook. I remember vaguely; a few days before that, I had sent a birthday card to my friend Min. Min is Korean-American who I met in Thailand. She came to Thailand to learn about Thai Massage and Thai cooking. We liked each other so we hung out until she had done with school. She then went back home to New York City. We emailed when we remember and wonder about each other. She is now still living in New York.

Anyway around New Year 2009, many people at a restaurant that I worked were talking about Facebook and hi5. I have heard of hi5 and in fact have an account with them too. So they told me that both of them are similar ideas. I never heard of Facebook before, so it was very interesting to hear about them. Min had sent me an invitation to look at her profile so I did and signed up. It was just because I liked Min picture profile with herself taking picture of a photographer. I use Facebook ever since and now have about 200s Facebook friends. I want to say that I am happy that I can get in touch with my old friends again. I now know how they are doing, happy or sad. I want to say “Thank you” to Min who got me started. Well sadly I don’t see her in Facebook anymore because she deactivated her account. We still emailing, she now engaged and living happily in New York City.

Related articles

• Things I Like Thursday – Thai Massage (veganurbanite.com)
• Facebook in New York: the search for ‘universal truths’ and the future of news (theverge.com)
• Bigger Than HP, Bigger Than Apple (tightwind.net)
• Facebook Helps Leukemia Sufferer Cope (allfacebook.com)

So this is the final chapter for a little while, I’d like to wrap up what we have discussed to this point in time. We know all about identity construction by now. You’ve seen my examples, start looking at yourself and how you construct yourself online.

Sherry Turkle said that we can have multiple online personae. What these last few chapters have explained is the way I interact with Social Media, Virtual environments and provided real life (RL) examples of these. Please feel free to follow me on any number of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.

Based on Turkle’s suggestion about online identity construction and exploration, it’s evident that we as consumers and users have multiple selves, be them an extension or an exploration of our self, they contribute to our identity and help construct it in a virtual and digital way.

We have established that there are two categories that people can fit into in terms of social networking. These categories are College Days and Business World. It is evident that the younger generation of Facebook users are not catering themselves to the business world in terms of their online social activity. I certainly don’t do this.

What was also evident in this exploration is that we as users and producers of content need to censor ourselves and what we let out to the wider community. What is posted and constructed online stays online, for ever, you may never retrieve it. When you think about your identity as a flexible thing it stretches across a multitude of platforms, Titter, Myspace, Facebook, Hi5 and YouTube; at the same time we all have our ‘real world’ identity, our identity isn’t fixed online or in person it’s multifaceted just like our online construction of it.

From this research what is evident is that our identity is not fixed. We transform it and adapt it when we need to, sometimes we even change it. As we grow older it changes, as we move through different stages of our life, our identity will change with us. It is definatly not fixed, that is evident through Turkle’s suggestion of multiple personae. Her suggestion applies directly to our identity construction virtually and physically. I think that speaks loudly and clearly.

When you post your next Facebook update, or Tweet your next Twitter post, ask yourself, is this really who I am. Critique your own online connections. Hopefully, you got something out of this to make you think and wonder.

Bye for now, see you on Facebook,

Justin Fenwick.

Reference List:

Weir, D 2012, The Rebirth of Frankenstein, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW

DiMicco, J Millen, R 2007, Identity Managmenet: Multiple Presentations of Self In Facebook, Cambridge University, USA

Zhao, S Grasmuck, S Martin, J 2008, Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships, Science Direct, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol 24.

Turkle S, 1997, Multiple Subjectivity and Virtual Community at the end of the Freudian Century, Sociology Inquiry, Vol 67, No 1.

Mathews, B 2006, Do you Facebook? Networking with students online, C&RL News

Sheldon, P 2008, Relationship Between Unwillingness to communicate and students’ Facebook use, Journal of Media Psychology, Vol 20, No 2

What is Facebook for? What do you use it for? I thought this video was indicative of what people use Facebook for.

I use Facebook. What do I use Facebook for? I use it to interact with my friends, both who I know and some I don’t. I feel a connectedness to them. Brian Mathews talks about this connectedness in terms of ‘exclusivity.’(Mathews, B 2006:306). If we think about when Facebook first launched onto the scene, it was only people who had an edu email (exclusive to University students). If we think about Facebook in this way we are exclusive to our friends, we only let them see what we want them to see, we have the power to shape our online identity. Why don’t we do this?

So the question is now, who is Justin Fenwick? What do we know? And What don’t we know? Well ladies and gents, get ready to meet,  Justin Fenwick.

This is the profile page of Facebook. The first thing people see. From here people can check out my friends, photos and even where I’ve tagged myself (locations).

What does this profile say about me? From this short snap shot, you can see my location (the town I live in), my relationships, you can even see my family. This depicts almost a virtual person, except this representation of myself is only a 2D version. If we just reflect on a previous chapter I fall into the category of College Days. I use Facebook to interact with friends and family, what I post sometimes isn’t what I want the public to see, however, I don’t hide these comments, I make them public.

However, what if a Business person saw this profile? What would they say about my Facebook? They wouldn’t be impressed, especially if they were someone from a corporate company offering me a really big opportunity. For this very reason I have a online resume. The site which, I use for this is called LinkedIn. On this site I can show who I’ve worked for, what I’m interested in; and what I would like to do. It also allows for employers to contact me via email. This profile also links future employers to my blog, my online portfolio and even my twitter.

This profile allows me to establish a Business identity. I design myself around what I want future employers to see. However, all these are different to how I present myself in SecondLife, where my screen name is SamWorthington001. Who is Sam Worthington? He is an Australian actor. So why did I establish myself in this way, to identify to other users that I am in fact Australian.

SecondLife is a virtual world, where you create the life you want to live. It’s almost an escape from reality. Sherry Turkle said that “online experiences challenge what many have traditionally called identity.” She states that, “on the Internet many people recast identity in terms of multiple windows and parallel lives.” (Turkle, 1997:72).

What Turkle suggests is that people can establish a different identity online. Turkle focused on MUD’s (Multi User Domains) however, MUD’s can be related to SecondLife, it’s just a more advanced version with images. “We construct our objects and our objects construct us.” (Trukle, 1997:72). My identity on SecondLife can take the form of a girl. I don’t have to be myself, therefore I can explore my sexuality, gender and even what I would look like if I were female. The way I establish my identity in this way, allows me to experiment and develop a more deeper identity.

Before we start to examine the construction of online identity, we need to understand a few basic concepts first. These are Identity and Subjectivity. These deserve separate chapters as they are complex and hard to explain as they constitute one another.

What is Identity?

I guess you could say that the term Identity brings with it a variety of meanings. It’s like a lucky dip you never know what you’re going to get. We’re all different and we use the term ‘Identity’ to differentiate ourselves from one another. I am not the same as you because, I am a boy, I am 20, I live in Australia, I am a musician, all these ‘traits’ of my characteristic contribute to my Identity.

HANG ON! What about other facets of me, such as my thought process, my dreams and aspirations? What about my political views and my religious views? aren’t they all apart of my Identity construction as well?

Yes, indeed they are. My identity isn’t as simple as how old I am, where I’m from and my gender. It’s much complicated and multilayer and multifaceted. As humans we are complex beings. We experience different emotions at different times. My experience of life will be different to yours. You may come from an upper middle class, while I come from a lower class. Therefore all these social and experiencial factors will contribute to my Identity and it will always, like life, be changing. My Identity is not fixed.

The reason we don’t associate these ideas with our Identity is because we can’t express these or explain them in simple terms. Therefore we forget them.

Social networking opens up channels for us to shape our identity the way we want. We present ourselves online in an idealized form. The way i present myself online on my Facebook is my utopian view. The perfect Justin. Although some may argue, they do not present themselves in this way, their online representation is just an extension of themselves, an online representation of them. How these people interact online may be exactly the way they are in RL (Real Life).

SO how do we construct ourselves online?

Sherry Turkle suggests that ‘it is possible for an individual to have multiple personae.’ When I log onto Facebook, I’m essentially taking on a role, a character. Shakespeare’s famous words from All The World’s A Stage, ‘we are actors on a stage’, displays simply what Turkle is saying. We have multiple accounts across a multitude of platforms from Facebook to Twitter even a YouTube account. Each time we log on to a particular account we take on traits that are suited to the climate of that account.

As seen in SecondLife, we can literally be whoever and whatever we want to be. ‘Your World, Your Imagination.’ Your different personae takes on his/her own Identity. A fixation of yourself that perhaps you’re afraid to express.

If you look for a free online photo collage maker then you will run into a lot of dead ends.  You will find that many of the so called ‘free” online collage makers are not free.  Some do not allow you to download your collage to your computer.  Some collages can only be viewed online. Some have extreme functional limitations.   For example, PosterMyWall only allows you to upload pictures from Facebook.  Bloggif offers a very buggy and very limited collage maker.

Big Huge Labs has a couple of very specialized collage makers. Hockneyizer  is fun but limited in functionality .  Mosaic Maker, at Big Huge Labs, can handle square tiles!  You have many output options.  You can control the number of rows from 1-36 and the number of columns from 1-36 for a total of 36 pictures.  You have a lot of shadowing options with the tiles as well.  You can also fiddle with the spacing of the borders and the color of the border.  Mosaic Maker is probably the best tool online for making a collage with square graphics.

However, if you do go for the 36 picture limit as I did for a poster, then you will find that the site does tend to crash and burn more often than not.  I figure you can actually make a 36 picture mosaic after about three or four false starts.  I would assume traffic levels affect the reliability of the site.  You will not run into this reliability problem with the big three collage makers.

Another online collage maker with limited functionality is 16pics.  This online collage maker is free and has no watermark but as the name suggests, you can only make collages of 16 pictures and one template! However, multiple templates are supported when using a browser with HTML 5 support such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari or IE9.  You cannot upload photos from your computer but you can upload photos from Picasa, Facebook and Photobucket.  Definitely aimed at the Facebook crowd that wants to make a quick collage for social network purposes but useless for someone like myself who uses collages as visual advanced organizers for instruction.  The output is a puny 625 x 625 pixels but that’s just fine for online sharing.  I do think the big pro of 16pics is the seamless and easy way you can make collages.  The collage making process was lightning fast and the interface is great.  I think for someone who wants to make a quick collage of an event and post it on Facebook then this site is perfect.

Also some sites advertise themselves as collage makers when they are really online graphic programs.

A collage maker, as opposed to an all purpose graphics program, has templates.  With a collage maker you just drag and dump your pictures into the cells of the template as opposed to carefully aligning and resizing your photos into a graphic program’s table.  The collage maker should do the aligning and resizing for you!  If you are doing the aligning and resizing then you are not working with a collage maker!  You can make a collage with just about any graphics program and even Word but you will spend ten times more time aligning and resizing the photos than with a specialized collage maker and in the end the results may not be very professional looking.

Some sites are switch and bait sites and you find out they are actually selling a collage maker that you can download for a fee.  The only thing free is the “free” trial period.  Even this “free” trial period comes with limited functionality and other problems.  I did try to make a collage with a free 15 day trial of Picture Collage Maker (PCM) and I ended up deleting the program from my computer within one day!  The output options are absolutely pathetic!  800 × 600, pixels, is the highest quality jpeg you can turn out!  Even this output option has quirky limitations.  The program automatically downloads a PCM file!  Good luck opening this file with any program but PCM.  The PCM file only downloads to the “My Pictures” folder.  I was really, really disappointed with the collage template options.  PCM  has losts of cutesy templates but if you want serious looking templates then you are out of luck.  I even looked at extra templates you can download from the PCM site and just more cutesy junk.  PCM is clearly aimed at the housewife market versus someone like me who wants to make professional looking collages he can use in his presentations at work.  The PCM watermark with the trial version is horrible and makes anything you create with the trial period totally unusable but I suppose that is their call.

I also downloaded the 30 day trial version Collage Maker. Don’t waste your time with Collage Maker!  The trial version of Collage Maker is even more useless than the already useless trial version of PCM!  The trial version of Collage Maker has no collage templates!  Incredible!  Without the templates the program is not a collage maker but a third rate graphics program!  Maybe the full blown version has templates.  Who knows? Creating such a totally sucky trial version kind of defeats the purpose of a trial version!  I am not going to spend money with no idea what templates the program has!  The templates are basically why you mess with a collage maker and not Photoshop. In the end there are really only three choices if you are looking for a fully functional, truly free, truly online, collage maker and that’s Kizoa, Photo Collage and Photovisi.

Kizoa

Kizoa has some very obvious disadvantages including the extremely low number of free collage templates.  If you pay then you can get a lot more templates but mostly they are very cutesy, personal event driven themes and not the sort of templates you would use for a collage for work related presentation purposes.  The pixel output is the lowest of the three and too low for a collage poster that you could put on the wall. You can get larger pixel output for a fee but how big the output will be is not specified before paying!  Kizoa does have the best template creation tools! You have dozens of different cells for your photos that you can use to make your own unique template and these are called labels. Kizoa also has dozens of online stickers called elements organized along different themes.  The Kioza 800 x 600 output would be more than enough for any sort of situation in which the poster will be displayed on a computer screen but not printed.  If you were making a collage for PowerPoint, not your wall, and wanted to make something original, then Kizoa would ok. Kioza also works very well with Facebook and you can add pictures from your Facebook account to your collage without any trouble.  Still even for a Facebook only collage, the lack of many free templates is a fatal weakness.  Overall, Kizoa is the weakest of the three programs reviewed.

Photo Collage

Photo Collage has slightly less templates than Photovisi and ten times more than Kizoa.  The maximum pixel output is respectable at 1280 x 1024 and more than enough for a decent sized poster.  The templates tend to be more professional and less cutesy than Photovisi and this is a plus for someone like me who uses collages for presentation purposes rather than for personal purposes.  Photo Collage does not have a watermark and this can be a big deal in some situations.  The one big advantage is that you can make a template with unlimited photos!  This option is not available in Photovisi. I consider this unlimited option to be a type of template creation.  You can theoretically add an infinite number of cells/labels to the template you create in Kizoa but given the low pixel output, why bother?  Anything above ten cells in Kizoa will be practically impossible to see even on a computer screen due to the low pixel output.  The user interface is a little quirky.  Putting pictures in the cell you want to is very easy in Photovisi compared to Photo Collage.  In Photo Collage photos are uploaded backwards.  The first photo uploaded in Photo Collage will be the last picture in your collage.  There is no way to reorganize photos once they are in the template even if pictures are not in the cell you want the picture to be.

Photovisi

You don’t have to register to use Photovisi!  I wonder how many hundreds if not thousands of users only use Photovisi because of this one feature.  Signing up for a program you know nothing about is a little like a blind date.  The experience could go very wrong or very right.

What is needed is a system that allows a user with a certain IP address to use the online program fox X amount of times before having to register.

I will admit to having used Photovisi for dozens of collages and having not used Kizoa and Photo Collage for months because Kizoa and Photo Collage asked me to sign up and that is a big turn off for me and I am not alone.  I don’t like signing up because it’s often a waste of time and I wonder who I am sharing my data with.  Mostly I am just lazy.  Ironically, Photovisi uniquely creates a watermark and is the only one of the three reviewed that does that so I guess this is to make up for the lack of signing up.

Photovisi and Photo Collage are in a dead heat!  Photovisi is a wee bit more reliable.  Photo Collage is a little glictchy but nothing you cannot fix by just going through the poster process again and this doesn’t happen often.  You can probably make twenty collages on twenty different days and nothing goes wrong. Once every twenty times you do have to remake the collage in Photo Collage.  Photovisi is more reliable than Photo Collage.  I have used Photovisi dozens of times and it always works.  The user interface of Photovisi is slightly better than that of Photo Collage but only marginally.

However, the ability to make a photo collage with an unlimited amount of pictures in Photo Collage could be really handy if you wanted to make a really big collage with tons of pictures.  Photovisi has one template that can handle 60 photos but what if you wanted a hundred photos?  Ironically, Photovisi has the output capability to make giant, giant posters that could support a hundred pictures not Photo Collage.  If Photo Collage added a 1600 x 1200 output option like Photvisi then Photo Collage could rebrand itself as the giant poster maker as opposed to Photovisi.  Conversely, Photovisi could add an unlimited photo option but frankly Photovisi is better known than Photo Collage and doesn’t need the edge yet.

Picture2Life (This section was added August 12, 2012)

Since I wrote this article, a new collage maker has entered the field.  Picture2Life has 20 templates.  Many of the templates allow the addition of “elements” which are mostly textual and/or iconic graphics.  Many of the templates are unique.  You can upload pictures from your computer, Twitter, Flickr, Photobucket, ImageShack, MySpace, Friendster, Hi5, FotoLog, Facebook, Blogger, and WordPress.  Uniquely for online collage makers, you can add gifs (animated pictures) and also do some standard photo effect editing.  The site is a bit buggy and the pictures take a while to upload.  Downloading also takes a while.  The output of my experiment was a respectable 792 x 504 pixels but there are no download options.  The templates are unique and if you love making collages like I do then you will definitely use this site. You do not have to create an account to use this site!

If you do create an account and sign in to use the site then an application is installed! This request to allow installation is after two pop up ads showed. One pop up was for auto insurance and the other for government services. Not the sort of ads that engender trust since those industries generate a lot of spam. The site also wanted my zip code! Picture2Life wanted my email and that’s ok but also my zip code and the site wants to install software? My fox-sense was ringing like crazy. I quit the site when the site wanted to install software. I have been bit by thinly disguised adware sites before and this may or may not be the case with this site but why take chances? If you are a trusting sort then go for it but again you have other safer options.

Picisto (this section was added October 8, 2012)

Picisto is a new entrant to the online collage maker list that was created after I wrote the first draft of this post.  You get 38 layouts.  You can unlock more layouts with Picisto coins.  You cannot save the collage generated but can print the collage or post the collage online.  You need to create an account to use the site but can sign in with Facebook so this process is fairly painless.  There are also special effects available.  Picisto offers some none landscape layouts not available elsewhere but all in all this site is not in the same league as the big three: Kizoa, Photo Collage and Photovisi.

CollageMaker (thie section was added January 8, 2013)

You do not have to sign up to use this collage maker.  The number of templates is limited.  There is a lot of control over text and background compared to other online collage makers.  I made a collage without any prior experience with this site in less than ten minutes. So I would have to say the user interface is excellent.  You can download the results to your computer or share them to Facebook.  If you want to make a cutesy collage quickly then this is a good site to use.

Conclusion

If you have limited time and energy then you might want to skip Kizoa.  You do have to sign up to use it, and aside from superior template creation, is inferior to the other two programs reviewed.  If a watermark is a big deal then you will chose Photo Collage.  If you want a poster with over 60 pictures then you will also pick Photo Collage.  If reliability is more important to you than size then Photovisi will attract you.  If you are a collage making maniac like me then probably you will do what I do and use both Photo Collage and Photovisi and not Kizoa!

All three sites do have one giant common weakness.  The page orientation of all the templates in all three programs is landscape not portrait!  If you want to make a collage of magazine covers, book covers, or comic books then you are out of luck!  The top of the covers will be cropped off in all three sites.  I made the following comic book cover collage with Word and would not have been able to make the collage with any of the programs reviewed:  Jimmy Olsen Transformations Collage.  The side edges of the Jimmy Olsen covers are slightly uneven relative to each other despite my best efforts to align and resize the comic book covers just right and this would not have happened with a collage maker!

Now we need a topic to every timeline we create, so i thought about the Social media’s history : how did it started and how it looks like today ! As i said earlier, it took me some time to stumble upon the net and gather all types of informations and visuals to put this plugin on run . I won’t lie to you, it was hell ! it’s like you always have to dig and dig to get the right infos or search for many sources to find the right one to trust. Plus social media is a huge topic !

But overall it was quite interesting, believe it or not i have learned a lot of things that helped me understand social media in its different aspects. For instance did you know that there is lots of social networking company that looks like facebook and that you probably never heard of : like hyves in netherlands or mixi in japan or bebo in belgium, Huhh ?? Even better, there are social community network for cats called: Catster, and for dog too : Dogster. Ya kinda weird but they run perfectly and their users are active.

So what are you waiting for? Click on the link below and get access to the Social media history timeline. A piece of advice : take your time and surf on each event separately coz there is a lot to know and get excite about

Hope you will love it and feel free to leave a comment in below

Stay put for next time ! more cool stuff to come!

When I am able to compose sentences  to describe these emotions, to allow my mind to free itself in a lyrical devotion, then , and only then shall I be able to say :

 “ Love came my way.”

Until then, I shall articulate how I continue to bask in my euphoric state.

Crossing the ocean in as much expectancy as you held when your thoughts would often dwell on me.

The ‘I wonder ifs’ and ’ I wonder whens’ feelings of pleasure and the

 “ Tish, u real sweet den”.

The silent smiles and the loud stares, when words could not be uttered, these gestures of our care.

The choreographed movement of our bodies, the sculptured smiles created by the endorphins released by the night that we finally met. ..

The night that I won’t forget.  The night I met you. My Hi5 meets Msn meets Facebook and… Now, my paper meets pen to render a tribute to my lover & friend.

Increased heartbeats, footsteps, we just met… Outspoken yet reserved, lyrically still unheard, we exchanged loving with a passion that was long overdue.

Exchanging virtues of Knowledge. Commitment. Truth.

Becoming one being, no longer two.

Clothing

• One Shoulder Dress – Zebra Charcoal w/ Bow (Mesh) from Valentina E 0L (Debut Gift, SOM)
• Heels: Jimmy Who’s (Black) from *VERSHE*  (L’Armoire Discount Shop Review)

Body

• Shape: Charlie from -Factorie- 25L (One day 50% Sale, Now 50L) FACTORIE SHAPES HAS CLOSED
• Skin: Bara Light – Freckles from bonne chance! 0L (LL Board)
• Hair: Perri – Sable from ::Exile:: 60L (The Dressing Room Blue)
• Eyes: Glass – Charcoal (MP LINK) from [ROLY-POLY] 0L
• Eyelashes: Lashes 6 from .ploom. (Came w/ a skin I have)
• Pattern Nails – Brocade Pack from [VIRTUAL/INSANITY] 75L (50% off nails for the last La Venta Eventa)

Accessories

• Patricia Earrings & Necklace from RM-DESIGN 0L (Hi5 Hunt, Read Notes)

*Only issue I have with this jewelry set is they’re no mod w/o resizer & I was unable to show some of the pieces b/c they’re too large for my avatar but as far as quality…well made

Notes:
-If you missed the shape sale, you can still snatch up the group gift at least..Free to join.
-The Hi5 Hunt starts today, kicking off w/ a Launch Party @ The Fashioncentric Hunt Hideaway..12PM SLT.
-The L’Armoire Discount Shop was supposed to start on the 31st, nothing was out when I went to check prices but I’ll be sure to keep ya posted.

Ασχολούμαι με το ίντερνετ από τις άγουρες στα μέρη μας εποχές του 1998-1999.
Εποχές Napster…mIRC.Τότε που η AOL ήτανε μεγαθήριο και που το Google δεν ήξερε την τύφλα του και δεν έμπαινε ούτε ο ιδρυτής του.Εποχές χωρίς Youtube χωρίς κοινωνικά δίκτυα.Ελληνικά sites ελάχιστα και αυτά κακοσχεδιασμένα και ανενημέρωτα.Το κατέβασμα ενός τραγουδιού έκανε κάνα μισάωρο και τα βιντεάκια με τις τσόντες των 30-40 δευτερολέπτων έκαναν πάνω από ώρα! Έπρεπε να μπαινοβγαίνουμε πιο συχνά και από όταν κάνουμε σεξ γιατί έπρεπε να πάρει η μάνα μας τηλέφωνο.Ακούγαμε το μόντεμ να γρατζουνάει χειρότερα και από τρανζιστορακι

Μεγαλώνοντας το έβλεπα να ωριμάζει σιγά σιγά και να εξαπλώνεται με πολύ αργά βήματα και στην ψαροκώσταινα μας.Θυμάμαι να μπαίνω συνεχώς 17 χρονών πιτσιρικάς το 2003 στο ιντερνετ για να βρίσκω hostels,πτήσεις προσφορές και reviews για μαγαζιά και events που έψαχνα ενώ έκανα backpacking στην Ευρώπη.

Κάπου εκεί άρχισαν σιγά σιγά να ξεπετάγονται και τα πρώτα Social Networks και λίγα χρόνια μετά έρχονταν και στην Ελλάδα η οποία είχε και φτιάξει και μερικά δικά της.Zoo Joy και άλλα καχέκτυπα του Myspace και του Friendster είχαν δημιουργηθεί ήδη.
Τα chat του irc είχαν διαδοθεί πολύ στους χρήστες του ίντερνετ στην Ελλάδα οι οποίοι όμως ήταν ακόμα σε πάρα πολύ χαμηλά επίπεδα.Σε απίστευτα χαμηλά επίπεδα είναι και σήμερα απλά τότε ήταν και σε ποσότητα ενώ σήμερα είναι μόνο σε ποιότητα.

Καλοκαίρι 2007 με καλοκαίρι 2008 έγινε το μεγάλο μπαμ!!!Τα περισσότερα λυκειόπαιδα είχαν προφίλ στο άγνωστο σήμερα,από τους συνομήλικους μου και άνω,  Hi5!
Αυτή η γενιά είναι που αύξησε τα νούμερα χρηστών του ίντερνετ…τα νούμερα χρηστών των social networks. Είναι η γενιά των παιδιών που γενήθηκαν στις αρχές τις δεκαετίες των 90′s.Τα παιδιά αυτά γεννήθηκαν μέσα στην τεχνολογία ενώ η δικιά μου ’85 και πρότερα την ανακάλυψε αφού μεγάλωσε.Αυτή η γενιά είχε κινητό με κάμερα από τα 12.Αυτή η γενιά είχε hi5 από τα  15.Αυτή η γενιά είναι που με την νοοτροπία του Hi5 κατέκλυσε από το καλοκαίρι του 2008 και έπειτα το Facebook.Το Facebook στο εξωτερικό είχε άλλη νοοτροπία.Ήταν ένα μέσο επανασύνδεσης με παλιούς γνωστούς και ένα μέσο να κρατάς επαφή με άτομα τα οποία δεν μπορούσες να τα έχεις στην καθημερινότητα σου.
Ο Έλληνας όμως όπως πάντα την είδε λίγο διαφορετικά την δουλειά!

Μέσα σε ένα χρόνο άτομα που μέχρι πριν αν τους μιλούσες για ποντίκι θα άρχισαν να ουρλιάζουν και θα ανέβαιναν σε καμιά καρέκλα έφτιαξαν Facebook.Και τότε το κουτί της Πανδώρας άνοιξε ξαφνικά.Για χιλιοστή φορά κάτι το οποίο θα μπορούσε να έχει 1002 θετικές χρήσεις έγινε κατά 90% ένα σκουπίδι.
Έδωσε την ευκαιρία στον Έλληνα και κυρίως στην Ελληνίδα να πραγματοποιήσει το νεοελληνικό του/της όνειρο.Να νιώσει σαν celebrity.
Έτσι φτάσαμε σε αυτό το σημερινό πανηγύρι.
Άνοιξε το κουτί και βγήκε από μέσα όλη η αυταρέσκεια…η ανάγκη για επιβεβαίωση…για προβολή.

Έγινε η εύκολη λύση για “φλερτ” και γκομενοκαταστάσεις και το μαξιλαράκι όλων των ανασφαλειών που κρύβει ο καθένας μέσα του. Πόσα όμορφα βλέπω κάθε φορά που ανοίγω το Facebook.Βλέπεις άτομα με 2,3 και 4 χιλιάδες φίλους..αν είναι άντρες το κάνουν για να την πέφτουν…αν είναι γυναίκες το κάνουν για να νιώσουν επιβεβαίωση!FACT!!!

Έχω βαρεθεί να βλέπω άλμπουμ ολόκληρα με πανομοιότυπες φωτογραφίες και γυναίκες να κάνουν την γκριμάτσα που έχει μετεξελιχθεί σε λαίλαπα…Duckface!!Με έχουν σβήσει “”"friends”"” μου γιατί έγραψα στην άλλη την ημέρα των γενεθλίων της “Εύχομαι η ζωή σου να γίνει τόσο τέλεια όσο πασχίζεις κάθε μέρα στο facebook να παρουσιάσεις ότι είναι” .

Άλλη γνωστή που είχαμε δουλέψει παλιά μαζί σε ένα κλαμπ με έσβησε γιατί ενώ είχε 5000 φίλους βλέπω μια μέρα να γράφει status “Σταματήστε ρε παιδιά να μου την πέφτετε στο τσατ…μην γίνεστε λιγούρια δεν ενδιαφέρομαι!!” και τις γράφω από κάτω..”κάνεις add τον κάθε άκυρο που δεν τον έχεις δει μια φορά στην ζωή σου και παραπονιέσαι γιατί στην πέφτει?Έχεις βάλει ότι φώτο με μαγιό έχεις…τριπλάσιες με σορτσάκι και το duckface κολλημένο στο πρόσωπο…τι πίστευες ότι σε έκανε ο άλλος add για να μάθει τις απόψεις σου πάνω στο πυρηνικό πρόγραμμα του Ιράν και της Βόρειας Κορέας?”
Βλέπω τις περισσότερες γυναίκες να βγαίνουν έξω για ποτό να μην φλερτάρουν καθόλου να μην χορεύουν καθόλού και ως δια μαγείας την άλλη μέρα έχουν ανεβάσει 200 πανομοιότυπες φώτο σε άλμπουμ με τίτλο Monroe 20/1/2012  και “galeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaa” με σχόλια τύπου

“ta spaaaaaaaaaaaasame pali xteeeeeees”
“isoyn thea xtes filenada”
“kaname zimia pali xteeeees”
“ooooooooxi alla sfinakiaaaaaaaaaaa”

Το facebook έβγαλε μέσα από την πλειοψηφία του κόσμου το απίστευτα ηλίθιο κόμπλεξ να δείξουν πόσο υπέροχη ζωή έχουν και πόσο τέλεια περνάνε!Νιώθουν όλοι ψευδοσελέμπριτι…πηγαίνουν σε κλαμπ και φωτογραφίζονται σε κόκκινα χαλιά.Συγγνώμη αν το μαθαίνετε από μένα αλλά δεν είσαι στα βραβεία MAD…έχεις βγει απλά Πέμπτη βράδυ στο Monroe στην Σαλονίκη ή στο Villa στην Αθήνα…σύνελθε!

Δεν μπορώ να βλέπω άλλο άντρες να πιάνουν μπλα μπλα σε μπαράκια και μαγαζιά και να ζητάνε facebook για να συνεχίσουν το πέσιμο από  εκεί μια άλλη μέρα.Δεν μπορώ να βλέπω άλλο άχρηστα post απλά για το που είναι ο καθένας…”Maria Komplexaridou is at Goldfish”. Τα αρχίδια μου κουνιόντουσαν το ένα δίπλα στ’άλλο!!
Δεν μπορώ να βλέπω άλλο γυναίκες να λένε που πήγανε οι άντρες όταν ακόμα και όταν ωραία παιδιά τις πιάνουν το μπλα μπλά τα βράδια στα διάφορα μαγαζιά και αυτές να σηκώνουν την μύτη…αλλά την άλλη μέρα στον καφέ θα λένε με ύφος απηυδισμένου “Μου την έπεσαν χτες κάτι λιγούρια…”
Υπάρχει τρελή αγαμία εκεί έξω παιδιά…τρελή όμως.Η γυναίκα φτιάχνεται περισσότερο πλέον με 100 Like σε μια φώτο της αντί να φτιαχτεί με το γεγονός ότι ένα παλικαράκι ένα βράδυ σήκωσε τα αρχίδια του έβαλε την αυτοπεποίθηση του στις τσέπες του και πήγε να της κλέψει ένα χαμόγελο.
Το λέω σε σας τους άντρες που νομίζετε ότι η άλλη επειδή είναι όμορφη περνάει και καλά. Η γυναίκα πλέον δεν μπορεί να φτιαχτεί με κανέναν παραπάνω απ’όσο φτιάχνεται με τον ίδιο της τον εαυτό.(Θα το αναλύσω περισσότερο αυτό σε μελλοντικό ποστ)

Αυτή την νοοτροπία προσπαθεί πλέον σιγά σιγά να την περάσει στο Τwitter…εκεί είναι πιο δύσκολα τα πράγματα όμως και για αυτό ο Έλληνας φοβάται να πάει.Εκτός της ηλίθιας σκέψης “Γιατί να τον ακολουθήσω εγώ και να μην με ακολουθήσει αυτός?” αλλα και γιατί εκεί θα πρέπει να πει κάτι.Εκεί δεν έχει 4000 followers με μια ξέκωλη φωτογραφία ούτε 100 request σε άκυρες την ημέρα…εκεί πρέπει να πεις κάτι. Και όχι για να ρίξεις μια γκόμενα…αλλά για να ανταλλάξεις δυο απόψεις με κάποιον άλλο σε κάτι που σε προβληματίζει ή που απλά σκεφτόσουν.Γιατί εκεί μοιράζεσαι περισσότερο πληροφορία και άποψη παρά ποζεριά και δηθενιά.

Άλλο κακό το οποίο έχει κάνει το facebook είναι ότι έχει γίνει ένα υποκατάστατο έκφρασης…κακό αυτό…πάρα πολύ κακό και σε εποχές σαν την σημερινή επικίνδυνο.
Με το να μιλήσει κάποιος/α με κάποιον/α ένα βράδυ και να “φλερτάρουν” χάνει την όρεξη του να βγει το βράδυ και όντως να φλερτάρει. Με το να γράψει 2 ψευτοεπαναστατικά status σχετικά με τα σκατά που έχει πέσει αυτή χώρα νιώθει ότι έκανε το καθήκον του και δεν βγαίνει στον δρόμο.

Το internet είναι ένα τεράστιο μέσο…είναι αυτό το οποίο έχει επηρεάσει όσο τίποτα άλλο τον κόσμο τα τελευταία 20 χρόνια…και χρησιμοποιώντας το μόνο για facebook και Υοutube και να διαβάζεις 2 sites με αθλητικά ή κουτσομπολίστικα(όπως κάνει το 90% των χρηστών του) είναι σαν να έχεις ανακαλύψει την φωτιά και την χρησιμοποιείς μόνο για να ανάψεις τσιγάρο.

Το Facebook και το Twitter θα έπρεπε να είναι απλά μία επέκταση της καθημερινής σας έκφρασης παιδιά και όχι ο αντικαταστάτης της…

There are dozen and dozens of stores and designers, offering their items for you to hunt for in just over a week.  For a full list, check out the Fashioncentric website.

Fashioncentric

Fashioncentric is SL’s Premier User-Ratings Fashion Group that’s your one-stop group for all things fashion that let’s you decide which shops are the best with your ratings & reviews and much, much more!

Galea Steinbeck aka Group Guru
Sasun Steinbeck aka Kiosk Queen

Fashioncentric Website

Now, lemme clarify some perceptions – KONY is NOT a celebrity. He is NOT contesting for the Elections in America. Neither is he the leader of a movement against corruption in Africa. All these are mere misconceptions. So then What and Who the frig is Kony??? Let’s find out.

Joseph Kony is the world’s worst war criminal alive and is the leader of LRA or the ‘Lord’s Resistance Army’ in Uganda. Keeping it simple, what Kony does is he employs children to work for him under the LRA, maims the children and even defaces them. Then he forces these very children to kill their own parents and other children around. He makes them sex slaves and terrorists.

These aren’t just 70 school children he’s brain-washed, there are nearly 30,000 of them. You read right, THIRTY THOUSAND school-young children working for a Terror group.

Speaking about Terror, Kony is Not related to the Al Qaeda Or the Taliban. What he is related to, is empowering himself in Africa. FACT is that as you read this, he’s abducting and killing a child in his province in Uganda And simultaneously making other minors work for him.

The only apparent reason he does this is because he wants to promote himself in Africa and Uganda.

So, what’s the cause?

STOP KONY. Yes, its that simple.

Kony 2012 is an initiative by the group ‘Invisible Children’ to combat the growing menace called Joseph Kony, a menace which exists in Uganda. It was all started by Jason Russell, a common man like us. So, if you’re already seeing the video displayed below, it’s done by Jason Russell and his team.

So, what’s the plan?

Again, a short and simple story. Make Joseph KONY a household name by publicizing him like hot cakes.

How does that plan work??? Well, it’s a bit complicated.

The KONY 2012 movement has aimed at making an impact in the US of A. So much so, that the very White House has sent a 100 strong contingent to Uganda to fight against and finish Joseph Kony’s terror. All of the above is described in Russell’s video. He uses the analogy of his very own son’s safety to explain the need of countering Kony’s terror.

What do I do as a world citizen?

Make a note. 20^th April on you Calendar. This is the night the world will ‘Blink’. Posters about Kony Will be posted All over the world in the night-time for this cause. And That is how you can make an impact. However, 20^th of April is not the End. This movement stretches Beyond, and till the 31^st of December 2012.

Yes, that’s the plan. Make an impact so big by the 31^st of December 2012 that the world stands up and notices Kony, the modern day Hitler. It is high time we get Kony arrested. High time we clean the Earth of it’s ugly side.

Would You like to live in a world where your child is not guaranteed safety 24/7??? Would you like to see your neighbor’s child getting killed while you are powerless??? Well, the neighbor might not be next door, but he’s Human. Even he felt the same that you felt when a baby arrived in your family. And this is what happens???!

Stand Up. Fight for this movement against Joseph Kony. The US can withdraw the troops from Uganda anytime they wish to. And this movement can fizzle out. Let your effort be a secondary wavelet of propagation.

So that, when you turn on the News tomorrow and see “JOSEPH KONY CAPTURED”, you can proudly punch your fist in the air and cry in  happiness for the countless children’s’ lives you just saved. It is an appeal from my side, you’ll hear a lot of people criticizing this movement. But please do what you feel is right.

spread the word. It’s your Time to make an impact. Use it.

Here’s the link to the website you can visit

www.invisiblechildren.com

You can find almost anything related to the KONY 2012 movement herein.

I’ll be posting a Lot of Stuff about KONY 2012 here, and will be keeping you updated to the 20^th April and later, so keep checking this space for more.

Merely wearing “Being Human T-Shirts doesn’t make you Human.” Think Again.

Also, a link to my facebook page. Join in guys

http://www.facebook.com/pages/fr3lancerwordpresscom/163606347086650

I miss wonbinny :’(

The most recent proof of expansion is the fact that starting with February 15, 2012, Hi5.com will connect with the popular site Tagged.com to offer its users a new look, more advanced features, and improved security of users’ private information.

The new Hi5 will be supported in a variety of languages, such as: English, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Mexico), French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brasil), Portuguese (Portugal), Dutch, Russian, Romanian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Basa Jawa, Bahasa Melayu, Bengali, Marathi(Indian), Hindi(Indian), Punjabi(Indian), Thai, Turkish, and Hungarian.

For more information visit: Hi5+Tagged

Source: http://about.tagged.com/hi5/

Source: http://www.toprankblog.com/2011/03/social-media-seo-search-congress-barcelona/

Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/gartner_hype_cycle_2010_cloud_computing_at_the_pea.php

Hi5 has 275 tweets posted to date, and is followed by 2432 users on Twitter.  On Facebook, it has 17,758 likes and 391 people talking about it. The company has 55 employees connected through LinkedIn and 473 followers.

Sources:

https://twitter.com/#!/hi5

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hi5/107542859274800

http://www.linkedin.com/company/hi5

A social media channel is the revolutionary marketing tool that can help a business and a brand grow and reach a large pool of customers.

Although there are countless options to choose from, it is very important to build an online presence on a channel that is familiar and convenient to your target demographic. 68% of Hi5’s traffic represents the 18-34 age bracket. Therefore, if your target market is represented by people in that age group, than Hi5 may be a good place to start your online presence on.

Signing up on Hi5.com is free, as well as hassle free, since you do not have to scroll past ads and promotional offers to get to the signup link. After signing on, businesses have to option to purchase advertising space on the hi5 channel to emphasize their advertising and promotion efforts.

Therefore, Hi5 should not be considered just a place for meeting people. It is popular social networking site that offers advanced solutions to businesses, from promoting their brands to building trusting relationships with their target market.

Most small businesses decide to advertise on Hi5.com because it’s virtually free and very easy. One way they do this is by creating a profile where they can share pictures/company information and state their objective directly on their profile page. (E.g.: What is Fred doing now? Looking for new consulting clients.) In this case, the marketing mix is integrated in only one place, the company’s Hi5 profile. Another way to advertise your brand on Hi5 is by creating a group. Any member of Hi5.com can join the group  and advertise within the forum at the group. Some may reference their personal websites for more information about the products advertised; thus, integrating their marketing mix with other online resources. Therefore, Hi5.com is a great way to promote your product/small business.

Source:

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-use-hi5-for-business/

http://hi5.com/friend/p118832200–Fred_Plimley–html

http://hi5.com/friend/group/11296–Internet%2BMarketing%252FOnline%2BBusi–front-html

http://hi5.com/friend/group/21312–Small%2BBusiness%2BMarketing–front-html