"Look Up" from social networks and mobile devices.

A viral video that has been floating around Facebook and Twitter over the last week, has been calling for a digital revolution. Putting to one side the irony of creating a video promoting the dissolution of social networks, which is being promoted on Twitter and Facebook; does the video have an actual moral message about how we should remove social networks and our online self from our lives or is it just taking a narrow minded single view approach to how people use the online environment?

Related theories
Nathan Jurgenson - Facebook is real life.
Danah Boyd - Social networks blur boundaries of friendship.
Steven Handel - Digital Divide
Christine Rosen - Social Networks is about self-fulfilment.
David Gauntlett - Making is Connecting
Jean Burgess - Memes

Shut Your Facebook

Shut Your Facebook is a New Channel 4 program that explores the online world of Facebook and questions the ideals of 20 somethings. Posing questions about whether your Facebook, Does affect your ability to get employed? and Do we shared too much online about our private lives?

Watch the first episode HERE.

Caution is advised as nudity and strong language are present in the episode.

Virtual Reality - The Next Big Thing?

This Fast Co.Design article, following Facebook's acquisition of Oculus VR, asks whether virtual reality could be the next big thing?

With reference to classic Sci-Fi texts including The Lawnmower Man and The Matrix, the article considers the potential convergence of wearable technologies, social media and virtual reality.

#CyberPunk #FTW!

Social Media is a Game?

Watch the last 5 Minutes of Charlie Brooker's How Videogames Changed the World and you will find that the argument arises that social media such as Twitter and Facebook are now considered as games.

The idea that is presented mirrors that of Danah Boyd:

“As we Twitter our way to friendship, scoring ourselves based on the numbers of 'friends' we can convince to subscribe to our existence, perhaps we lose track of what friendship and connection mean.” 

What do you think? Are we "playing" a game online? Are you yourself online or offline or both? In fact who are you really?