How cool is it to see which tweets are trending around the world with a geographic map. Check this website out: http://trendsmap.com/

This is possibly the easiest way to follow social media trends at different locations globally.

Check this website out:

http://www.redbubble.com/about

It provides an online platform for artists to upload their work and sell it. Red bubble takes a fixed fee and the artist can charge what they want on top of this fee. Websites like these are starting to pop up all over the world and are reducing the barriers to starting you own business. Sites like Lulu let you publish your own books, Youtube – your own videos.

Sites like this help art and creativity thrive and are making it possible for starving artists to earn a meal.

Did you know that facebook is tracking your every move on the internet when you log in without your consent? Even when you log out the third party social applications are still tracking you. Facebook has denied this claim but regardless of who you believe there are some steps you can take to ensure your privacy.

When you “Like” something, you’re sending that application a lot of your internet information to this third party. Most people are completely unaware this happens. One way to avoid this is to avoid liking anything on Facebook.

Another good strategy is to logout as soon as you’re finished using Facebook. However as previously mentioned, if you do like any third party applications on Facebook, you’re not safe. You can also enter private browsing (Firefox) or open an incognito window (Chrome) whenever using google or Facebook.

The best way to stop your privacy from being invaded without too much effort is to download the Disconnect application for Chrome users. This application “disables tracking by third parties like Digg, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Yahoo without any setup or significantly degrading the usability of the web.”

Facebook hasn’t been a “service” to it’s general users for at least 5 years now, it’s been a marketing resource with us as commodities up for trade; our interests, demographics, and networking circles are used for direct marketing. This is generating huge revenues for Facebook but also raising ethical issues. If you’re concerned about your privacy take action and protect yourself

Facebook is Watching You

As of March 8th, in the afternoon Pacific time, the Kony 2012 Video has received almost 40 million views on YouTube, and has surpassed 13.5 million on Vimeo. This brings up several issues about both ethics and viral marketing in the MTV Generation.

So why has this video been around for under four days and already has almost 60 million hits in total?

People in the first world love to think they can make a difference with no effort. It’s the same reason the internet is covered in advertisements on how to become rich with no effort or date women with no effort:

Effortless?

The main thing that should be noted here and has been mentioned in my previous posts is the power that social media has. It is very possible that enough momentum will be gathered behind this one viral video to ensure the United States keeps it’s military advisors in Uganda and sends even more.

While social media phenomenons have had great impacts in other instances. I mentioned in my previous blog posts of about the Egypt Uprising and social media killing Kim Jon Un. The significant thing about #KONI2012 is it’s the first viral movement that could have enough backing to influence United States foreign policy – to influence involvement of the world’s most powerful military.

This is the reason that politicians are trying to harness the power of the internet. Movements like this can spring up and be exposed to an incredible amount people over social media. Nothing like this has ever been seen. With almost 60 million views, there will be enough people to take the initiative off the internet and physically lead.

I certainly hope 3 days of mindless buzz created by a video that has an irrelevant cause will not dictate the foreign policies of power nations. One man, Joseph Kony, is not the source of the problem. There are several examples recently of why chasing one man is not the solution to a problem; Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein. Arresting Koni will not change anything. There’s several people below that will shed even more blood to take the reigns where Koni left off. What will change things is stopping the cash flows of militant organisations:

<iframe width=”640″ height=”360″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/aF-sJgcoY20″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

To give you an idea of the explosion of this “Koni 2012” Video:

Youtube Statistics as of 3pm Pacific Time on March 5th 2012:

#KONY2012

Here are the Vimeo Statistics as of 3 pm pacific time on March 8th:

Another thing tied into the Koni 2012 campaign and many other social trends is memes. A meme is defined by Merriam-Webster as “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.”