A recent study by mobileinsurance.com has revealed that the average person spends 90 mins a day on their phone. That figue may not sound like a lot but that amounts up to 23 days a year and 3.9 years of the average person's life is spent staring at their phone screen.
Americans aged 18-64 who use social networks say they spend an average of 3.2 hours per day doing so,according to new research released by Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange (OTX).
The amount of time I spend on social media and on any technology in a day is pretty significant. I wake up in the morning and immediately check my phone and I check my texts, emails, social media and any other notifications I get. I would say I spend about 15 to 20 minutes in the morning on my phone every morning.
Then after doing my morning routine I check my phone again to make sure I am not behind on texts or emails. Then I head to lunch and I usually surf the web for about an hour and do homework or research. Then I go to class and my teacher is usually using the Internet and I use the Internet to look up information so that’s another hour of using technology. Then after class I check my phone and go on social media for another 10 minutes. I usually head home after class then sit down for 1 hour of 2 and watch TV usually the discovery channel. Then I head back to class and that’s another 1 hour of my laptop. After class and the rest of the night I am on my laptop for 2 more hours and probably watch 1 more hour of TV.
The next time you pick up your phone try to spend less time on it and do something more productive!
Since taking over Late Night and later the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon has pretty much created the manual for how TV personalities should utilize social media. In today's world, it had become much more rare for viewers to sit down and watch television live. With Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other subscription based streaming services, the appeal of live TV just isn't what it used to be. So for shows to get into public view, they need to take advantage of all the mediums now available. While all programs should utilize Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, I would argue that it is most valuable for talk show and late night programs. These type of programs often play more like variety shows then one long piece, making them perfect for Internet. With so many different blocks/segments on late night TV, internet videos services are the perfect way to share chunks of the show without having to push the entire hour of content.
Over the last few years, no late night personality has done this better then Jimmy Fallon. A staple of Fallon's Tonight Show has been his many different comedy bits. Fallon consistently rolls off hugely popular segments, with great celebrity cameos and his popular band The Roots. He does everything from funny games, to musical numbers, to surprise reunions. Each of these 2-10 minute segments, instantly goes on to Youtube, where they are viewed, and shared and a rapid rate. These blocks are perfect for Youtube and almost always build enough buzz to start trending on social media. The great thing about sharing these individual segments is that they show the greatest part of Fallon's show while allowing viewers to skip the rest of his program. On a show like the Tonight show that airs five times a week, not every bit hits, but with Youtube, Fallon fans can skip the mediocre parts, pretty much getting a best of highlight reel instead.
Last night, Fallon continued his streak of popular segments, when he reunited Kenan and Kel, popular Nickelodeon stars from the 90's for a "Good Burger" sketch. A big chunk of the Tonight Show's audience has been college students, a group the Fallon usually plays to in his segments. During his run he has staged a series of 90 reunions from "Full House", to "Save By The Bell." These videos have millions of views on Youtube and I'm sure his latest bit will reach high numbers. The "Good Burger" sketch is just the latest example of how Fallon uses perfectly utilizes YouTube, something I'm sure we'll see more of during his reign.
Earlier this week, I threw my backpack on top of my bed upon arriving home from class. Before even taking my shoes off, I got my computer out and did my habitual scroll through my Twitter feed. Within a few seconds, I opened Facebook and continued to scroll until I saw a link to a short film that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival called Noah. I figured I'd give it a shot, because I thought it was interesting that the short took place on a teenage boy's computer screen for the entire 17 minutes. The film was unlike anything I have ever seen done before. It did not take me into a different world. It did not act as a diversion from my every day life. It showed me a world all too familiar.
If you haven't already seen Noah, you need to be watching it right now. Unfortunately, the original video has been taken off of YouTube. Here's a
different upload, but I'm not sure how long it will be before it's taken
down. If it isn't working by the time you read this, then I suggest taking some time to search for it. It's worth it.
Noah begins with the high school protagonist logging onto his computer. His desktop picture of a girl and a guy pops up. I didn't even think about it. She was his girlfriend. And I was right. The short then proceeds to follow Noah as he flips back and forth between social media, online porn, gaming, music, etc. In the midst of all these distractions, Noah finds his relationship spiraling downhill. The style of storytelling through his conversations on various social mediums (Facebook, Skype, Chatroulette, and iMessage), along with the natural distractions of the internet, shed light on the frightening reality of modern romance's lack of human connection in the digital age.
It's mind-boggling the way Noah showed how much
information our generation is accustomed to taking in on the internet. This was not done solely through Noah's short attention span on the internet, but the audience's ability to follow his ever-changing computer screen and piece together the story. As I mentioned earlier, that first picture immediately told me that Noah has a girlfriend. But an
even better example is that tiny little notice that his girlfriend
read his Facebook message. It isn't even the focus of the shot since he's writing in a different message, but it acts as the rising action to the climax. I
mean, we're talking about being in the same minute that she read it, yet we feel him boiling in
panic. All of these subtle cues tell the story and the fact that we can
follow along and pick up on them weirds me out in itself.
I found Noah to be a horrifyingly fascinating film. It was a fearless depiction of how easily digital technology can be used as a cheat: having a serious talk on video chat to leave when things get hard or overstepping boundaries to find out the truth or using distractions to bury your feelings rather than deal with them. I recognized each wrong turn as they all brought back high school memories.
I remember the multi-tasking boyfriend who thought he mastered the appearance of giving his undivided attention. I was the girlfriend who accepted it and even felt comfortable starting a serious conversation, though well aware he's only partially present. And the worst part is that it wasn't just me. The film reminded me of every single person in my life. I set up that couple that was constantly in contact through digital technology to the point where they would panic if the other took more than a minute to respond. I knew that couple that continued to sneak onto each other's Facebook to find out who the other talks to when they aren't around. A friend of mine even dated a guy from Australia that she met on Chatroulette for a few weeks.
Perhaps the freakiest part is that some people I showed Noah to did not find it disconcerting. In fact, they were confused as to why I was freaked out after watching it. They found it interesting. I suppose as in they enjoyed the storyline? Maybe I've spent an abnormal amount of time thinking about digital technology and it's impact on our lives, but I think "interesting" is taking it a little too lightly. One of my friends even paused and minimized it to check if someone responded to them on Facebook. I wish I were kidding.
I truly believe Noah will hit you uncomfortably close to home, if you can manage to go 17 minutes without checking your phone, and leave you feeling uneasy with your current lifestyle. So please. If you didn't take the time to before. Scroll up and watch this. Maybe it won't disgust you that way it disgusts me, but if nothing else, it's powerful. And powerful films like this need to be watched.
This week my group and I have been contacting each other via Facebook and email. Matt finished the script which looks really solid. I contacted Nicky Wood who we hope will play Art in our script. I have not heard back from him yet but I await his answer. We have not decided where we want to shoot yet but figured that we need two days to shoot the film at two separate locations. Our main actor is going to be played by one of our friends who is absolutely perfect for the roll and is very excited. We are contacting our other actors this week to find out their availability for possible shoot dates. Hopefully the weather will be a little warmer by the time we are ready to shoot next week.
Along with Craig Babcock and Matt Roser, the three of us have decided to make our next project about a young man named Jhaqueil Reagan and a restaurant owner Art "Papa" Bouvier. On a cold and wet snowy day a few weeks ago, Jhaqueil was walking to job interview at a local thrift store. As he was walking he stopped and asked for directions. He came across the owner of a cajun restaurant, "Papa Roux,"getting ready to open the local eatery. He asked Art Bouvier for directions and Art said that the thrift store is about 6 or 7 miles away and that Jhaqueil should probably take the bus because of the bad weather. Jhaqueil told Art thank you and just kept on walking.
About 15 minutes later, Art was driving down the road and passed by a familiar person, it was Jhaqueil. Art pulled over and asked Jhaqueil why he was walking all the way to the interview in the terrible conditions and why he had not taken the bus. Jhaqueil told him that he did not have any money for the bus because his mother died two years ago and he had to provide for his younger siblings. Art was so moved and touched by this young man's work ethic that he drove him to the thrift store and also offered him a job at his restaurant, Papa Roux, that pays double what the thrift store would.
Art Bouvier posted this story on the Papa Roux Facebook page and since then the story has gone viral. Both Art and Jhaqueil have appeared on television shows such as Good Morning America and Fox and Friends. Bouvier said that after five minutes of the story being posted on Facebook, it had 500 likes.
Since the story came out, Jhaqueil is now set up with a stable job and was able to get a new apartment. The local transportation company also donated a free one-year bus pass for Jhaqueil so he will be able to get to and from work. There have been many donations to Papa Roux since the story became viral so, Art and Jhaqueil have also decided to set up a non-profit organization with the donation money. The organization will help unemployed job seekers with transportation, clothing and resume building.
On saturday night I watched the Social Network for the...ah I've lost count of how many times at this point. Still after seeing this film on more than one occasion it hasn't gotten old. Even though it sounds cliche and I think it was used in the advertisements, it truly defines the digital age and the world we are living in today. However it does not stop there. Thanks to the meticulous directing of David Fincher The Social Network is more than just a movie about facebook. It delves deep into interpersonal relationships and is not afraid of producing unlikeable characters. I think one of my favorite scenes throughout the entire film is when (SPOILER ALERT) Eduardo finds out that his share in the company has been reduced to next to nothing. The way in which the camera captures his anger and follows him throughout the entire scene makes the feeling so realistic. The dark and moody lighting used throughout The Social Network, characteristic of Fincher, gives the movie an edge and intensity that never disappears even in the deposition scenes where the rooms are lighter. This all being said it would be an understatement to say I am a little upset with the results of the Academy Awards last night. Having seen the Kings Speech I understand why it won, I just don't completely agree. Still, judging the two against one another is nearly impossible since they are such polar opposites. For example, one is quintessentially American while the other is British, one is about friendships forming while the other is about them falling apart and the eras they represent though both important are different in many ways.
According to the World Weekly News (and Mark Zuckerberg) facebook will come to an end the fifteenth of March. thousands, maybe even millions of people around the world complained because they actually believed, and i quote "Facebook has gotten out of control, and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.” - zuckerberg. The website also posted a petition that can be signed to "save facebook". 26,531 people signed it so far. hilarious. especially because Zuckerberg actually had to prove the weekly news was a hoax by telling CNN that he"didn't get the memo" about facebook being shut down. The report was started by a site known for its reports of impending attacks of alien spaceships and false reports of a Michelle Obama pregnancy. yet people still love to believe it. People will really just believe anything nowadays.
I wanted to elaborate on some ways Facebook can be used to visualize social networks since my project will use Facebook's social network to generate content from users. An application on Facebook called the friend wheel visualizes contentions you may have amongst friends that you might not have realized.As you can see this application uses multiple colors to visualize the connections. Others have created visualizations of their friendship networks as seen below. This visualization distinguishes the relationship we have with others into several categories. In figure 4 of Visualizing Social Networks by Freeman shows Moreno's visualization of friendship choices among fourth graders. Obviously, since 1934 the technology of data collection and storage has come a long way as Freeman mentions in section 6. The World Wide Web has in fact made creating and sharing visualizations of networks easier and faster. In terms of visualizing relationships, Facebook and other social networking sites have an advantage of using the profiles their users have generated to compile and visualize networks.
I just wanted to remind everyone that if you have not yet joined and commented on the Facebook Travel Application event please do so as soon as possible. Also, I wanted to say thank you to Arturo, Francesca, and Garrett for commenting. If you have not commented it is not to late. Your comments do not have to necessarily be travel application specific. For example, you can comment on some features to make the application more user friendly. It should take you less then 5 minutes to comment.
Some of you may not have Facebook. If you do not have Facebook, please comment on this post of what you would like to see in an travel application.
I just wanted to remind everyone that if you have not yet joined and commented on the Facebook Travel Application event please do so as soon as possible. I am planning on doing an initial mock up some of the different components of the application before our class next Tuesday. It would be helpful to have everyone's feedback before I make the first prototype. I especially want everyone in the classes individual feedback. It should take you less then 5 minutes to comment.
Some of you may not have Facebook. If you do not have Facebook, please comment on this post of what you would like to see in an travel application. Your comments do not have to necessarily be travel application specific. For example, you can comment on some features to make the application more user friendly.
I created a Facebook event to collect travel application ideas. Anyone can join and post there ideas. Please join the event Facebook Travel Application. If you could get some of your friends to participate that would be terrific. The more feedback I get, the better the end product will be. I appreciate everyone taking the time to post their ideas.
Last week I wrote a long post about the reading, this week I decided to focus my post on our project. For my project I was originally planning on doing an interactive tourism environment that was almost game like. Then a few days ago, I read an article (the link is below) about Apple’s plan for their new tablet. It made me consider a few good points about creating the project. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Use resources that are available to you. You should be filling a void in the market. I discovered through research there were environments that did exactly what I intended to do already available. Additionally, I discovered that Facebook doesn’t have any really good travel applications. The best one available is Going Places, which only has a few hundred users (less then 200 active users). Thus, creating an interactive travel application for Facebook would fill the void in the marketplace. Products can have multiple uses. These uses can be from educational to fun. I realized that what I create should be interactive and fun while still having some educational value. Having a product with multiple uses will expand the market of people who would be interested in the product.
