08 MAY 2015 by ideonexus

 The Social Network Political Bubble

In the growing social media space, most users encounter a mix of political views. But consistent conservatives are twice as likely as the typical Facebook user to see political opinions on Facebook that are mostly in line with their own views (47% vs. 23%). Consistent liberals, on average, hear a somewhat wider range of views than consistent conservatives – about a third (32%) mainly see posts in line with their own opinions. But that doesn’t mean consistent liberals necessarily embrace cont...
  1  notes

Liberals are more likely to defriend conservatives, but Conservatives are less likely to have liberal friends to defriend in the first place.

27 NOV 2013 by ideonexus

 Adventists Live Longer

In America here, life expectancy for the average woman is 80. But for an Adventist woman, their life expectancy is 89. And the difference is even more pronounced among men, who are expected to live about 11 years longer than their American counterparts. Now, this is a study that followed about 70,000 people for 30 years. Sterling study. And I think it supremely illustrates the premise of this Blue Zone project. This is a heterogeneous community. It's white, black, Hispanic, Asian. The only t...
Folksonomies: culture health longevity
Folksonomies: culture health longevity
  1  notes

Habits and characteristics of Adventists that may lend to their longer lifespans.

05 AUG 2013 by ideonexus

 Sociological Metaphors for the Public

Social science and philosophy have generated a vast number of other metaphorical descriptions of the public, rooted in different and often scientific perspectives on systematicity and relation. These are technologies in the broad sense that they enable different kinds of questions to be asked. An account of these would include the public as: A Physical System or Mass: This metaphor underwrites work in mass commu- nications and allows one to ask questions like “What is the impact of a given m...
Folksonomies: metaphors modeling
Folksonomies: metaphors modeling
  1  notes

Metaphors are an important means of understanding abstract concepts.

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 negoti...
  1  notes

Because of the limited kinds of interactions possible within a Social Network.

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 technology h...
  1  notes

While we may have hundreds of friends on social network sites, the human brain is only capable of handling a smaller social network.

Various notes taken from the conference session on science education with Stacy Baker's biology students:

  • Jack – into games, not many learning games out there. – homeVSschool technology use: what’s allowed in the different contexts, home is about socialization, school is about productivity, need to intersect the two. (Media needs to relate to him, technology, chemistry “New Social Network of Atoms Creates New Compounds”)
  • Michael – into vlogs, recording things on a research boat – students want hands-on activities, looking for internships, homeVschool: school tumbler account and home personal tumbler account to distinguish uses of productivity and socialization. PLoS was a great resource.
  • Carl – into Classroom blogs, likes tumbler sciokid.tumblr.com. Baker sends opportunities all the time and preparing for scio11. Was inspired by Baker showing him how people around the world were seeing her website
  • Paul – into wikis, allow students to express themselves, science online wiki, Proj: you have to put yourself out there, read newspapers and follow links to find things, NYT and Wired, (Interest: be interesting enough and esoteric as well, be terse without complicated jargon)
  • Naseem– into science literacy, how media , nature blog (Adult readers) rely on word of mouth for students to find the blog
  • Samantha – encourage more student blogs, students communicate at  a level appropriate to other students, Green Science, global warming, (What about Adult readers) adults can still read her blog, but she is targeting her
  • Alexandra – believer in personalizing education, more into humanities, used podcasts and youtube, youtube.com/vlogbrothers, - teenagers want to feel like they are doing something, they want to participate and contribute. homeVSschool: the more competitive college search gets, the more she uses her laptop at home for educational purposes, looking for opportunities to improve chances of getting into colleges, MSNBC, Google News for facts, This Week in Tech Podcast, Relatability (how something relates to me) is important for having something catch her eye, Carl Zimmer cut to the chase about Duck Mating by calling it Duck Sex
  • Justin – blogging, using blogs in a variety of ways in science learning, frogs with the citric fungal disease and blogged it
  • Rachel Ward – chemistry teacher, using online tools to make the classroom a more exciting place
  • I’m A Scientist, Get Me Out of Here: imascientist.org.uk, website where students chat with scientsts and vote for their favorites, least votes get evicted, connected students in remote areas to scientists around the world, allows quieter students to participate more in class discussions, what about when scientists give wrong answers (they should say “I don’t know”), why isn’t there a USA version of this? (Kiome Jarrets: People need to complain. State by state engagement)
  • Shanahan – research online science communication, science education professor, works to get students interested in science, reduce their fear, arsenic life story, had students choose a blog and follow it for a month and write a book report on what the blog was about and a lesson sequence for future classes on the blog, students found science blogs were interesting, easy to understand, students used blog the same way they used books and magazine-no engagement no using comments, need bloggers who will give students an interactive experience,
  • Audience Comment: everone is trying to find balance between professional and personal technology use, separating and integrating.