Facebook: Database to Narrative

            Every single time Facebook makes a major change to its interface, the statuses containing rants and complaints come in droves. People don’t like change, generally, so they find it annoying when Facebook alters the design of the website once they’ve finally gotten used to it. It was only natural, then, that Facebook went into an uproar when they converted their design to the “Timeline” format a few years ago.

            I remember that when it was first introduced, Facebook gave you the option of changing to Timeline before it became the standard. There was soon a rift between Timeline people and non-Timeline people. I was not one of the first people to convert, but I did change to Timeline before the masses were forced to change.

            The Timeline format really appealed to me. It wasn’t just the new aspects of the design like the cover photo (which has now been adopted to other social media platforms like Twitter). I, like many of my fellow human beings, love stories. Movies, novels, and even stories that my friends tell me are what keep me sane in the world of monotony. Stories entertain and teach me, and I know that pretty much everyone else feels the same way too.

            That is why it did not take too long for people to adjust to Timeline. Our culture thrives on storytelling, and Facebook simply allowed its users to tell their own story for everyone to see. It’s a pretty romanticized idea of Facebook, but it’s true. Facebook is a place for you to tell your friends and family who you are.

And the funny thing is, most people probably don’t even remember what the old Facebook even looks like, so all that complaining was for nothing.

Shhh... Whisper

            I spotted an article about a social media platform called Whisper a few days ago while I was perusing Facebook. The heading of the article boasted that Whisper is the “anti-Facebook,” which struck me as ironic as it was being promoted on Facebook.

            The app allows users to anonymously post how they feel without having to worry what their “followers” think of them. The app does not save any personal information from its users, allowing them to post freely what they wouldn’t normally on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. The posts, called “whispers,” are composed of stock pictures with text overlaid, similar to how memes are formatted. Whisper is attempting to become the opposite of Facebook, where there is absolutely no privacy and you can’t help but feel that your friends’ profiles aren’t entirely honest. An example “whisper” from the article says, “I wish my life were as perfect as my Facebook page makes me seem.”

            I checked out the actual Whisper website. Some posts are funny (“Whenever I go through an automatic door, I pretend I’m a Jedi. I’m a 20 year old woman!”) or just plain obvious (“I am tired of the snow and freezing temperatures. I wish it was spring…”), but many of them delve into deeper issues.

             “Sometimes I wish mental illness were visible so I didn’t have to feel like I’m pretending all the time.”

“I’m a female and I’m bi, but haven’t come out yet.”

“I spent a week in a psych hospital and no one even knows that I’ve been depressed and suicidal for two years now.”

            Other users can then respond with their own whispers, many of them giving support or advice. It’s encouraging to see people express themselves and vent their feelings in a relatively safe environment. I’m interested to see how this app develops and I hope it will be used to help others.

Source: http://mashable.com/2014/01/26/whisper-beginners/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link

My Digital Journal

            In the fall of 2012, I studied abroad in London for three months. It was an absolutely life-changing experience and I love talking and writing about it. In fact, I have a whole other blog dedicated to studying abroad and traveling. You can check it out here: http://studyabroadkailahbuckwalter.blogspot.com/

            On the very long list of advice I received from advisors, friends, and family members was, “Keep a journal! Write down your experiences! You think you’ll remember, but you won’t!

I kept a journal when I traveled to India for two weeks when I was sixteen, at least for half of the time. I gave up even sooner when I arrived in London: I didn’t even finish my first journal entry. I just didn’t have the time or the motivation to keep a journal. I was too busy soaking in my amazing surroundings.

My two best friends and roommates studied in Greece the same time I was in London. They did keep a journal; in fact, they wrote in it every single day. Then this past semester, they read the journal day by day, lining up the days of both semesters. It was as if they were experiencing their time abroad all over again.

As a result, I began to regret not keeping a journal. Then I realized I could go back through my Facebook history and read the statuses I had made while I was in London. It wasn’t like reading out of a journal, but it was something. It was amazing how I was able to sift through the memories of the best semester of my life, living vicariously through my year-younger self.

I relived seeing Big Ben for the first time, shopping on Oxford Street, traversing the Highlands of Scotland, perusing the glittering city of Paris, sobbing as I watched Les Miserables on the West End, and finally flying home, leaving half of my heart in the UK.

I was indebted to Facebook and social media for helping me accomplish the feeling of journaling without ever putting a pen to paper.

First Blog Post! Yay!

            Since I’ve just recently discovered Mashable, I thought it would be nice to write my first blog post about a good old Mashable article. I’ve heard of Mashable before, but since starting this class, I’ve followed them on Twitter and Facebook and now follow the website fairly regularly. I really like that it’s a relevant news source, but also includes the fun and quirky stuff that I like to read on my off time.

            I saw the article today when we pulled up Mashable in class. It’s called “Snapped Lets You View and Send Snapchats on Your Mac,” and it grabbed my attention. Snapchat has been taking over social media for a while now, and it’s no longer weird to view a picture for no more than ten seconds. Snapped is a new app still in beta that allows Apple users to access their Snapchat account on their Macs and send and receive Snapchats from their friends just as they would on their phones.

            In my humble opinion, apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Vine are tailored mostly to phones and other mobile devices. They were not made for stationary devices like laptops. Why would I want to Snapchat from my laptop? It would just be pictures of my face, and that would get boring pretty quickly. What I mostly send to my friends are Snapchats of interesting or funny things I find when I’m walking around.

            The only aspect of “Snapped” that I would be interested in is the fact that you can upload and send pictures that are already on your computer. Another new feature is sending messages on the app. Uploading your own pictures would be useful, but the messaging does not appeal to me. Do we really need another platform to message our friends?

            I think that the Snapchat app for laptops is a little redundant, but someone else could find it very useful and fun. Let me know what you think!

Here is the original article: http://mashable.com/2014/01/21/snapped-snapchat-app/