What is "The Press"?

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I exchanged a few ideas on this topic yesterday on Facebook. Here are my thoughts:

Defining a "legitimate" press organization these days is pretty much a matter of opinion. Does one really think that organizations that are more pundit than press are legit? For example, I love your blog but would not consider it an outlet of the press.
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Guess I associate "the press" with journalism and journalists and not pundits.

Not saying that blogs and FB are not good sources of opinion but, I may be wrong, I don't see them as "the press". Yet I think that it is all covered under free speech.

So how would you answer the question? What do you think of as "The Press"?

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We really do like to hear ourselves speak. ツ

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Today marks my 6th Twitterversary. I have to admit, I do not tweet much. I seem to post more here and on Facebook.

Interesting how this cartoon seems applicable to all forms of social media. Guess we all like to hear ourselves speak. ツ

I try not to blog about nothing but I think that I sometimes do.
Perhaps this post is an example of posting about nothing?

Can you relate? Do you write to hear yourself speak? ツ

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Science and Religion on Facebook

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My friend Brian said this on Facebook a few days ago:

        "Science is good at the how questions, but suck at the "should we" or "why" questions.
        Religion is good at those questions."

I like that! I wish that more scientists and theologians embraced this view.

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Not liking Like

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Interesting note last week from the LA Times:

Attention Facebook users: Do you "like" Mozart, science, "The Colbert Report" and curly fries? Chances are you've got a high IQ. Have you clicked the thumbs-up icon for Tyler Perry, Harley-Davidson and Lady Antebellum? Perhaps you're not quite as cerebral.

What you endorse on the popular social media website may say a whole lot more about you than you intended, researchers from the University of Cambridge in Britain have found. You may not think twice about your fondness for NASCAR, "The Bachelor" and Oklahoma State University, but those affirmations fit the pattern of a person who's conservative and less open to new things, they reported Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Even traits that users of social networks may not want to broadcast — including smoking behavior, drug use or sexuality — can be sussed out pretty accurately by their patterns of likes, the researchers found after combing through data from 58,466 Facebook members in the U.S. More than a quarter of regular Facebook users click the like button for content they find there.

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Social Media Donuts

This image makes me feel sorry for Google Plus.

I do wonder why G+ has never really taken off in the Social Media world. I go there a few times a day and find the content to be a bit different than stuff on FB & Twitter.

If you feel sorry for Google, click on the G+ image on the right and add me to your circles. If you don't want to do that check me out (above) on Twitter or Facebook. :)

Follow Me.. not so much anymore.

This cartoon reminded me that I don't tweet much these days and read tweets even less.

When I first got my Twitter account (I think it was last year) I tweeted and read tweets all of the time.. so it often is with new toys.

How about you? Do you twitter? What do you like about it?

On Blocking Website Advertising

Ever wonder how blogging platforms (you know the ones I am talking about) can be offered free? On Saturday one of my Facebook friends said:

"yes, those ads for dating services are terribly annoying. but I have to remember that ads are why these websites are free."

Of course my initial response was to say that I would still be using Chrome Adblock - one of my favorite extensions.. I also employed it when I used the Firefox browser. I have also installed other Ad-killer Chrome extensions to hide ads in Facebook too. But it does cause me to ponder how websites would "make money" if everyone used the Ad-blocking software. That leads me to ask a few silly but thought provoking questions:

1. How does certain big search engine companies make any money providing "free" services like pop3-email and blogging services? These services do not use advertising.
2. Apart from mega-bloggers does anyone really make money from blogs? I personally find ads on blogs to be a bit annoying.
3. Does the presence of advertising affect the content of what is written on blogs? Can advertising present a conflict of interest?
4. Would you pay for access to some of your favorite blogs if they agreed to not have advertising? Do you pay for content from online news sources like the Wall Street Journal?  I would not and I do not.

Yes, I realize that this is a bit silly of a topic.. but I do wonder about these things. Do you?

You also might want to click on the image above for a discussion of the ethics of Adblock.

Another Caffeine Party is Born

Just learned about this on Facebook this morning. This Coffee Party Movement was started on Facebook by Annabel Park, a 41 year old documentary filmmaker living in the DC area who got mad about the state of affairs in DC. It seems like it is way too early in their "movement" to have any political positions yet.. they describe themselves as a "work-in-progress". Here are a few of their major themes excerpted from their Facebook page:

• It's not about coffee or tea. It's about this simple question: are we as Americans getting the leadership and representation we need from our elected officials?
  
• Our message to Congress: You work for us, not for corporations. We hired you and we get to fire you. We pay you and give you great health insurance. Now get to work serving the interests of the American people, or get out.
• Another way of putting it is this: we have a democracy with a loophole. The most active, most well-funded, and most organized interests can dominate the process. And for many years, corporations have dominated our democratic process because they can afford to hire thousands of lobbyists to reside in Washington DC and actively influence the direction of our government.

So far these folks have 37,458 fans on Facebook.. even I became a fan. Maybe I need to find the official Tea Party page and fan them as well.. maybe one day these parties will come together.. maybe they will be known as the Caffeine Party.. a group of folks hopped up on morning stimulants and ready to revolt against the political machine that seems to run our country.. maybe closer than we think?

Are you, like me, frustrated by our leaders in DC? On a scale of 10 I am at 7 - you?

Facebook Friendships

Yesterday's Reuters article titled How to decline Facebook friends without offence got me to thinking about the whole "friend" thing.. I seem to have been processing for a long time.. wondering if the idea of a "friend" is a mainly seasonal thing or something greater.. consider this excerpt from the Reuters piece:

"Can I be your friend?" might work as an ice-breaker among small children, but it's not a question you hear often between adults, at least not outside of Las Vegas.

Friendship, it is generally understood, is a relationship that evolves through shared interests, common experiences and a primeval need to share your neighbor's power tools.

Yet for many people, Facebook permits a return to the simplicity of the schoolyard.

Rather than inviting someone to be our Facebook friend only after we've become friends in the real world, many of us are using Facebook as a short-cut around all that time-consuming relationship building.

Looking back I think that I have had many Facebook Friends in my life.. work friends.. church friends.. neighborhood friends.. relationships built around situational proximity and common interests that never went deep.. never got past the Facebook stage.. but I have other friendships.. not many for sure.. that went past the Facebook stage.. went deep.. were vulnerable.. evidenced transparency.. embraced honesty.. so encouraging.

So I am wondering today if Facebook friendship is the overwhelming norm or if you have found more in your life? I have to admit that I have found but few people in my life that I can bear my soul to.. not that I am opposed to sharing with more.. just seems that I have not found many who want to go deep.

What has been your experience in this area? I would love to hear your thoughts!

2009 in Facebook Review

Aaaah the life of a retired (or is that tired) old guy.. coffee, food, friends and quotes

Jockipedia

According to their website (jockipedia.com):

JOCKIPEDIA is where you can find an athlete's REAL Twitter Feeds, THEIR own Personal Blogs (as opposed to blogs about them), THEIR real Facebook and MySpace pages (as opposed to fan pages) and THEIR own Websites (as opposed to fan sites). It's also where you'll find links to their Video Channels (like their YouTube or Motionbox Channels), and their Photo Galleries (like Flickr and Shutterfly).

JOCKIPEDIA is a community reference site — just like Wikipedia — where everyone who registers can Create Athlete Pages (including their own) and Add Links to any athlete's Twitter Feeds, Blogs, Sites, Pages and any other first-person publications.

Does anybody want this? Anybody think it will take off?

Obama's Teleprompter Blog

Replete with Twitter and Facebook companions, as well as 1163 followers, I present to you a new blog authored by Barack Obama's Teleprompter.

Personally, I am outraged that the new president uses a teleprompter.. why can't he be more like the former president and just wing it? The late night comedians would like it so much more :)

Facebook

I have had a Facebook account for a while so I sometimes get requests to be a facebook friend. I usually accept but feel bad because I am never on Facebook.

Maybe you can help me - why do you Facebook?