Author Archive
Getting on the last Nerve
So for my last intervention on Nerve (which has been sufficiently difficult with financial barriers), I have realized that the site though most often advertised as a a dating website, is in reality a site that “…exists because sex is beautiful and absurd, remarkably fun and reliably trauma-inducing. In short, it is a subject in need of a fearless, intelligent forum for both genders. We believe that women (men too, but especially women) have waited long enough for a smart, honest magazine on sex, with cliché-shattering prose and fiction as well as striking photographs of naked people that capture more than their flesh.â€
Read the rest of this entry »
Nerv…ous?
So for this week, I was planning to submit ‘erotic’ photos to Nerve’s photography gallery. After bribing my friend to model for me, I had plans to submit photos of her fully clothed and even overly clothed to their ‘nude females’ section. However, when trying to see how the process of getting photos into the gallery, I was directed to a site asking me to upgrade to a premium Nerve account which required my credit card number. So this plan was clearly unsuccessful.
However, I did stumble upon member’s blogs in which I plan to respond (how, is still an idea brewing). But I also came across a Nerve amateur photo contest which asks for submissions of ’sexiest photo of someone wearing an apron.’ I am currently looking for an apron which I will buy tomorrow if need be and will plan to submit a rather unsexy photo of someone in an apron. Hopefully this works….
On another note- Mushon, I still can’t upload images on this blog. I am hosting images off of photobucket and none of the codes are being translated into my posts. What do you suggest?
The Nerve!
Off to a rocky start with my 3rd Travelogue as there were some technical difficulties with my screen name and password for my account on Nerve (which was just resolved this past week). So, over break, I spent the majority of my time emailing the customer service representative from Nerve and believing that I was truly missing a bolt in my head. Alas, my account is now up and running again and for this week, I filled out 90% of my ‘personal details’ section of my account and started sorting through and responding to people who have contacted me so far. My plan as of now (that my profile is fuller) is to engage in the community that is Nerve I have gone through the photography section of the site (a huge portion being dedicated to erotic photography) but perhaps not exactly go along with the posts (I will need to creatively think of how to oppose posts and members). I am also thinking of maybe trying to start a post that will be offensive to the site (criticizing the content and reason for the site, as someone who is really conservative) or I could try to contact the makers of the site and complain about the emphasis on sexuality…?
Any suggestions are welcome.
Dating-wise, I am hoping to go through preliminary introductions with members who have already contacted me and start browsing through other members and their profiles myself. Since I haven’t had much of an opportunity to ‘intervene’ in the site, that is my priority for this coming week.
My objectives are to actively establish myself as a member of Nerve by browsing through the links they offer and if possible, responding or initiating my own posts to interact with members. I hope to interact with members in terms of not just interest in ‘dating’ but also to see what the draw of joining an online community like Nerve is (since it’s predominantly advertised as a dating website). Personally, I think there is less of a draw to strict dating websites and more to social networking sites so this seems like a merging of both.
Exploring Douglass Rushkoff’s Response to Wikipedia
“…we can’t go on pretending that even our favorite disintermediation efforts are revolutions in any real sense of the word. Projects like Wikipedia do not overthrow any elite at all, but merely replace one elite — in this case an academic one — with another: the interactive media elite. Just because the latter might include a 14-year-old with an Internet connection in no way changes the fact that he’s educated, techno-savvy, and enjoying enough free time to research and post to an encyclopedia for no pay. Although he is not on the editorial board of the Encyclopedia Britannica, he’s certainly in as good a position as anyone to get there.”
I think Rushkoff has made some great arguments for the ability of the internet to connect people not in content but rather just contact. In my opinion, sites like Wikipedia serve as general information but are no means an outlet for primary research. The internet, in allowing users to insert their own knowledge and opinions have accumulated a reputation for both having a vast amount of available information but also a lot of false information. Therefore, when doing research for academic work, the internet becomes a touchy subject yet most of us do not go to sites like Wikipedia (or user content sites) to get information for papers.
Therefore, Rushkoff tells us to focus less on the content of user generated sites and more on the connection it provides for users alike. What sites like Wikipedia offer for us as a whole is a push on individualism while connection strangers together. This ultimately serves as a sign of intelligent life- people coming together to share common knowledge that is accepted by each others’ checks and balances.
“In any case, the true value of the collective is not its ability to go “meta” or to generate averages but rather, quite the opposite, to connect strangers. Already, new sub-classifications of diseases have been identified when enough people with seemingly unique symptoms find one another online. Craigslist’s founder is a hero online not because he has gone “meta” but because of the very real and practical connections he has fostered between people looking for jobs, homes, or families to adopt their pets. And it wasn’t Craig’s intellectual framing that won him this reputation, but the time and energy he put into maintaining the social cohesion of his online space.”
I think Rushkoff has some great arguments for what Wikipedia has done to the internet and its users. I agree that some people may take information available on the internet too seriously- but finding facts versus general information is something we all have to learn to sort through.
www.nerve.com
So I have created an account on Nerve which is a social dating site that encourages anything really. The one good thing about it is that it’s entertaining… the site isn’t JUST about trying to meet people online though it’s a large part of the draw but it has a lot of other things to check out (photography, blogs- a lot of interaction is encouraged).
I have an account and it has already selected a handful of ‘potential matches’ according to my NYC area but I have yet to fill out the personal section of my account and add a picture. I’m very hesitant to do this but I think I’ll cave in about 45 minutes (if I need to submerge myself in this).
(My account homepage- I’m really popular already…)
I picked this site because Stephanie is exploring www.chemistry.com and I never received a confirmation email from www.funhookups.com. However, I think this website will be the most fun to explore since it does offer members other options besides browsing personals. I will start the exploring soon and will finish out my profile to see if anyone ‘winks’ at me during break. I don’t exactly know where I’m going with this topic or account but I do know that I don’t plan on meeting anyone for a ‘date’ or breaking any ‘poor guy’s heart’ so no worries there!!
Chemistry or Bull?
For my third travelogue, I think it would be quite a fun experience delving into the world of online dating websites. I think eHarmony is too mainstream (and from researches, very extensive in applying and it costs money…boo) so I am going to try Chemistry.com for free and see how it goes. I am interested not in the dating aspect but to see how getting rid of the physical component of forming relationships help or inhibit people from forming connections.
Still very open to ideas on how to approach this travelogue. Any advice (be it funny or serious) is more than welcome!
Steal This Film Question
Hey does anyone know how to open the downloaded torrent of the film for this week? I download them to my computer but have no application to open them with?
The Outsider’s Inside View of the Kindle
So, I don’t have the funds nor the connections to actually get my hands on a Kindle nor any other digital reader. I have read many reviews of people with their first account with Kindle and then people, coming back to edit their first review. The highlights of Kindle have thus been the convenience of it (especially traveling), the web browser on it (although there have been complaints about the internet connection), and the massive library of books Amazon offers. The price for the product is definitely going to decrease which will then make it likelier and easier for the mass to purchase it but at this moment, it is still squared off to the new tech junkies and people with connections (upper class/industry folks).
For me, I see this as a start of an integration between one media on two platforms. I was initially interested in digital books because I purchased one to my laptop for a class– clearly, Kindle is a much different device altogether than downloading digital textbooks in PDF form. For the record, they have e-ink which is NOT like reading text on the computer (which gets painful when reading a chapter that consists of 40 pages on size 10 font in PDF format!). Personally, no matter how convenient the Kindle is and how ‘new’ is may seem to the public, I think books will be around for a while, not necessarily because people are still into reading paperbacks (most of us do seek reading material online) but for the purpose of owning books (much like how CDs are still around now, albeit less than before but available no less).
I personally would LOVE to see this digital reader implemented to college systems as buying textbooks and lugging them around have always been a burden. The fact that Kindle has a built in dictionary would be helpful with class terms when reviewing, the option of ‘highlighting’ areas would prove useful and efficient when reading and reviewing for tests and finally, the size of the Kindle would prove to be a lot more convenient for students to carry to class instead of massive texts.
I see Kindle as an extra accessory at this moment and the public not willing to make it mainstream like the iPod. I do believe they will become mainstream because everything is becoming digitalized but I think books-wise, there’s still kinks in the Kindle that need to be fleshed out before people are willing to ditch their old paperback books.
Danah Boyd Essay on Socioeconomic Differences Between Facebook & MySpace
Mushon was right… that Danah is good.
The Time for Digital Books
Though the idea of digital books have been around for some time now, it wasn’t until the Amazon Kindle came out a few months ago that we really saw a change in the adoption of such devices. Sold out for months online, the Kindle offers a gigantic library (thanks to Amazon’s vast collection of titles) that are offered for free or an affordable price. What sets Kindle apart from previous digital book readers (Sony’s Reader) is that it has built in wireless internet, making it easier for readers to interact with Amazon.com in selecting and getting recommendations for books. It also sends subscribed periodicals directly to the device, usually before it hits newsstands. Finally, the Kindle also regularly updates internet blogs so the reader is getting the most up to date information on blog sites.
Reviews at first were negative about the Kindle but some reviewers have gone through the trouble of editing their negative reviews proving that the Kindle just takes some time to get used to. Most reviews I came across that have been written recently have been more intelligent, in claiming that the Kindle does have some flaws but it is a great example of the movement from hard copy books into the digital world. What sets Kindle apart from digital books downloaded to computers is it’s lack of backlighting and electronic paper display. This means that reading on the Kindle is not the same as reading on your computer and thus, is easier on the eyes.
I went on CNET to compare reviews for the Kindle and Sony Reader (which came out in January 2006) and came to the conclusion that Kindle proves to be more successful and attention worthy because of it’s built in wireless and library of books available for low prices and the option of sampling pages of a book before purchase. Design-wise, Sony still holds true to it’s sleeker design that is easier on the eyes (though this is only fraction of what’s ‘comparable’ with the two devices) but their partnerships with various eBook companies have made their offerings limited and not as appealing.
KINDLE:
SONY READER:
There have been many other E-paper devices besides the Kindle and Sony Reader. IRex iLiad came out in November 2006 but found little success. Jinke Hanlin eReader and Cybook by Bookeen are also two other manufacturers that have gotten very little if any coverage for their digital readers. It is perhaps now, at the height of ‘convenience technology’ and being able to have things at your fingertips (immediacy) that Kindle has stepped in and stole the thunder of what other devices have been trying to portray for the past year. I wonder at times if Amazon really has made the ultimate digital reader or if it just entered the market at the right time.
