21 NOV 2017 by ideonexus
The Attention Arms Race
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google have produced amazing products that have benefited the world enormously. But these companies are also caught in a zero-sum race for our finite attention, which they need to make money. Constantly forced to outperform their competitors, they must use increasingly persuasive techniques to keep us glued. They point AI-driven news feeds, content, and notifications at our minds, continually learning how to hook us more deeply—from our own behavior.
Unfortuna... 1 
notes
notes09 JAN 2017 by ideonexus
The Machine
Vashanti"s next move was to turn off the isolation switch, and all the accumulations of the last three minutes burst upon her. The room was filled with the noise of bells, and speaking-tubes. What was the new food like? Could she recommend it? Has she had any ideas lately? Might one tell her one"s own ideas? Would she make an engagement to visit the public nurseries at an early date? - say this day month.
To most of these questions she replied with irritation - a growing quality in that acce... 1 notes
notesA world where everyone lives in isolated rooms underground and communicates through social networking tools. Very prescient for 1909.
03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
Why Social Networks Fail
Identity management is what we all do, every day, consciously or unconsciously. We do it in-person, in face-to-face meetings at work, with our friends, and yes, even with our partners and lovers.
But we do the vast majority of it consciously online. Identity management is simply the curation of the details of your life — what you choose to share, when and with whom. We’re doing it when we share a link on Facebook, or a video on YouTube. What network do we share this with? Who will see it...Folksonomies: social networking
Folksonomies: social networking
1 notes
notesBecause eventually you have so many friends that you can't post anything without fear of offending someone and the image-management becomes to stressful.
15 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
The Internet as a Brain
The brain is one of the most complex networks in the world, with more neurons than there are stars in the galaxy. Its hardware is a complex network of neurons; its software a complex network of memories. And so too is the Internet a network. Its hardware is a complex network of computers; its software a complex network of websites. There is a lot we can learn from the brain and it can tell us where the Internet is headed next.
[...]
In practice, the Internet is clunkier, slower, and smaller...
1 The question for me is: How do you detect the intelligence? If we are only interacting with neurons, how to we see the big picture?
05 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
The Fakester Genocide and Revolution
When Friendster eliminated the “most popular” feature in May 2003,
they also deleted both Burning Man and Ali G, each of whom had more than 10,000 friends. This was the start of a Whack-A-Mole–style purge of Fakesters, in which Fakesters and Friendster competed for dominance. Fakester farms were created and Fakester owners would duplicate their Fakesters for rein- sertion. In late June, a group of Fakesters gathered on the Friendster bul- letin board (and later in a Yahoo Group) to begi... 1 notes
notesAn interesting and obscure bit of Social Networking history.
05 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
Social Networks Limit Interaction to "Autistic" Levels
It is hardly surprising that many participants find social interactions
on Friendster formulaic. The social structure is defined by a narrow set of rules that do little to map the complexities and nuances of relationships in other contexts. Formula-driven social worlds require everyone to engage with each other through a severely diminished mediator—what I have else- where called autistic social software, as a metaphor to signal the structured formula that autistic individuals learn to nego... 1 notes
notesBecause of the limited kinds of interactions possible within a Social Network.
07 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Privacy is Impossible on the Internet
The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we're being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads. One reporter used a tool called Collusion to track who was tracking him;105 companies tracked his Internet use during one 36-hour period.
[...]
Sure, we can take measures to pr...Folksonomies: privacy sousveillance
Folksonomies: privacy sousveillance
1 notes
notesThere are too many companies gathering too much data in too many ways.
25 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Media-User Typology (MUT) Identifies Five Types of Social...
User typesFrequency of useVariety of useTypical activityTypical platformStudiesOther labels
(1) Non-users
No use
No use
No
All
Largest of all user types
Non-Internet users, Off the net, Inactives, Non-users, Non-users, Anxiety,
(2) Sporadics
Low use
Low variety
No particular activity, low interest, newcomers
All
Found in 20 studies
Followers, Sporadics, Laggards, Confused and Adverse, Followers, Indifferents, Indifferent, Media Lite, Average users, Inexperienced experimenters, Risk-averse dou... 1 notes
notesA table of different Social Media user types and their characteristics.
ToDo: Fixe white space style for this table.
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
The Internet is Empty Calories
But sometimes I think much of what we get on the Internet is empty calories. It’s sugar — short videos, pokes from friends, blog posts, Twitter posts (even blogs seem longwinded now), pop-ups and visualizations…Sugar is so much easier to digest, so enticing…and ultimately, it leaves us hungrier than before.
Worse than that, over a long period, many of us are genetically disposed to lose our capability to digest sugar if we consume too much of it. It makes us sick long-term, as well as... 1 notes
notesIs the information we consume on the Internet like refined sugar, leaving us hungrier than before?
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Can Social Networking Change the Human Brain
Consider, for example, the fact that the size of military units has not changed materially in thousands of years, even though our communication technology (from signal fires to telegraphy to radio to radar) has. The basic unit in the Roman army (the “maniple”) was composed of 120-130 men, and the size of the analogous unit in modern armies (the company) is still about the same.
The fact that effective human group size has not changed very substantially — even though communication techno... 1 notes
notesWhile we may have hundreds of friends on social network sites, the human brain is only capable of handling a smaller social network.
