Category Archives: Sharing

March 23, 2013 · 1:30 pm

Basketball Twitter Diaries

I work at a super cool high school library that is fortunate enough to have a 70″ flat screen in its space. This last Thursday and Friday, we aired the NCAA Basketball tournament from 11 am to 4:30 pm. Previously to turning on the games on Thursday, we had not promoted the viewing, and when I first turned the games on, I noticed a student texting his friends. Pretty soon, we had more, more spectators, phones in hands, arriving as the games got under way. We were at capacity both days, and on Friday at 4:30 pm, I had to literally force some of our male students to leave against their will.

During the games, the students were very engaged-yelling at the screen and reacting to the plays. They were also talking to each other and on the internet and their phones. Many were commenting on the Twitter feed on the sidebar-commenting on the comments and commentators. They were participating and connecting, in both the physical and virtual environments.

This level of engagement can be replicated in the classroom using Twitter and other chat tools. Students have something to say that can be said in 140 characters or less.

Danah boyd, Scott Golder, and Gilad Lotan.“Tweet Tweet Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter.” Proceedings of HICSS-42, Persistent Conversation Track. Kauai, HI: IEEE Computer Society January 5-8, 2010

New on the Shelf: Teens in the Library. Findings from the Evaluation of Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development, An Initiative of the Wallace Foundation. Final Report.

Social media demographics 2012: 24 sites including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Teaching Teens to Twitter: Supporting Engagement in the College Classroom, Rey Junco, Associate Professor and the Director of Disability Services in the Department of Academic Development and Counseling at Lock Haven University

2 Comments

Filed under Connecting, Sharing

Tagged as Social Media, Teens, Twitter

March 22, 2013 · 6:12 pm

Share and Share a “Like”

According to WebHostingBuzz, 86% of internet users are bothered by the need to create accounts on different websites preferring to use social login as an alternative.

Social login allows you to use your social identity to access various accounts; it also allows a hosting site to personalize your user experience by accessing data from the your social network and to also post your online activity. For example, if you use Facebook to log in to Pinterest, then your pinning activity is posted to Facebook. The same is true for the online music streaming site Spotify; when you log in using your social networks, Spotify pushes the titles of the songs you are listening to to your friends or followers.

So how much sharing is too much sharing? In a world where there are more than 250 million tweets and 800 million Facebook status updates published every day, how much do we really need to know about each other? Do I need to know what you like, listen to, or want to read? If you are Justin Bieber, the answer to that question seems to be yes. Privacy appears to be a thing of the past. I know you; I know what you like; I know what your friends like, and you know the same about me.

In 2013, “social media sharing became the second most important factor to search engine rankings, surpassed only by strong content.” (WebHostingBuzz) Every minute 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter, and every day, 40 million photos are shared on Instagram. About half the adult internet users say that they post original content to the web while the other half claims to repost content they have found online.

This sharing of content leads to videos and photos going viral. In the same way that a virus spreads from person to person, “going viral” refers to content being shared by a large number of people over a short period of time. According to CNN, “Gangman Style” with over a billion views is the most watched YouTube video of all time beating Justin Bieber’s “Baby”.

Obviously friends know what friends like.

Barnes, Susan B.. A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States. First Monday [Online], Volume 11 Number 9, September 2006.

Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., Lampe, C. The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 12, Issue 4, 1143–1168, July 2007.

How Social Login is Changing Business–and Your Privacy from Forbes.com, Feb. 2012.

Lange, P. G.. Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 13, Issue 1, 361–380, October 2007.

Social Login: A Data Capture Game Changer by Loren McDonald, Nov. 2011.

2 Comments

Filed under Sharing

Tagged as Gangman Style, Going Viral, Privacy, Social Login, Social Media, YouTube

March 21, 2013 · 2:01 pm

The Evolution of an Online Community

In August of 2007, a group of friends in New York City got together, made a video and posted it to YouTube. Though not a totally unusual occurrence, what made this video unique was that it was a birthday card to award-winning author John Green from his writing and critic partners who are also popular young adult authors. This was the result:

The awesomeness of these friends-so willing to put themselves out there-fueled the online popularity of John Green and his brother Hank who were already on YouTube as Brotherhood 2.0.

Since 2007, Brotherhood 2.0 has evolved into the Vlogbrothers, a YouTube Channel of John’s and Hank’s musing about everything from books and politics to romance and censorship. As their online popularity grew, their digital community began to make connections based on their similar interests. John and Hank rallied their fans around the idea of awesomeness and fighting against “world suck” developing the identity of Nerdfighters. Now, the Nerdfighters have their own Ning were they can post projects and join together to support different efforts. Their Kiva effort support microloans in developing countries, is one of the largest online civic efforts, and is mostly funded by teenagers, young adults and librarians.

When John Green’s book, Looking for Alaska, was challenged in a Depew high school, John made an online appeal to his fans to support his novel and the teacher who wanted to use it in their classroom.

The result was overwhelming, and as John posted, “The Depew School Board voted unanimously to keep “Looking for Alaska” in the curriculum; more than 99% of parents allowed their kids to read the book, and it was taught without incident or complaint. Huzzah!”

On March 8, 2013, the Nerdfighters added their one millionth member and their YouTube channel hit 1,037,00 subscribers. Through the effective use of social media, the Vlogbrothers have energized their fandom into a larger, cohesive digital community and a civic force to be reckoned with.

Bennett, Lance. Civic Life Online: Learning how Digital Media Can Engage Youth (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning). MIT Press, 2007.

Gladwell, Malcolm. “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted.” The New Yorker. N.p., 4 Oct. 2010. Web.

Halpern, D., Gibbs, J. Social media as a catalyst for online deliberation? Exploring the affordances of Facebook and YouTube for political expression. Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 29, Issue 3, May 2013, Pages 1159–1168.

Rideout, V., Foehr, U.G., Roberts, D.F. Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8-18 years olds. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. January 2010.

Youth in the Digital Age: Digital Media and Technologies for Supporting Civic Engagement, Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Teachers College Educational Technology Conference, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, May 2012, p. 14-15.

2 Comments

Filed under Civic Action, Connecting, Creating, Digital Communities, Sharing

Tagged as Civic Engagement, Friends, Nerdfighters, Teens, YA Authors, YouTube

February 18, 2013 · 7:41 pm

Book Reviews 2.0

Librarians use reviews to decide whether to purchase a book. When books are published, a paid professional reviewer reads it and then publishes an opinion based on the book’s merits. These reviews are published in newspapers like the New York Times and in journals like the School Library Journal or VOYA. A good review means some shelf space, a book tour and possibly a better contract for the author. However, using this marketing method, word of mouth is slow, and there are many gatekeepers controlling information about the book.

The Internet and social media have changed all that. According to Gefland’s research, the “omission of social media will delete you and your enterprise from the public radar”; the converse is also true. (Gefland 2012)

Social media decentralizes the power from publishers and professionals—thanks to blogosphere, anyone can be a critic, everyone has a voice. The YA Book Blog Directory lists hundreds of book review blogs. These blogs can be the work of one individual or a collaborative effort. Thanks to advanced reader copies (ARC) and websites like Netgalley.com, bloggers can read and post reviews even before the release of the book.

Like many authors, book bloggers may have a blog , a Facebook page, a twitter feed and a Pinterest page on which they will promote themselves and their reviews. YouTube and Vivemo afford reviewers and avid readers a platform to post original book reviews and trailers. Virtual communities like Shelfari.com, goodreads.com and Bookglutton.com revolve around book critique and encourage readers to share their thoughts and reflections.

Social media affords book bloggers the ability to publish in real time, media-rich, decentralized, collborative environments. Consequently for librarians, “the information about a text [has] become as important as the primary text itself.” (Barrett 1992)

Barrett, E. Sociomedia: Multimedia, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (1992).1.

Burns E. Curl Up with a Cup of Tea and a Good Blog. School Library Journal. (2007, Feb); 53(2): 40.

Furman J. Top 10 Tips for Marketing a Book Using Social Media. PM World Today. (2012, Jan);14(1): 1-7.

Gelfand J, Lin A. Social Networking: Product or Process and What Shade of Grey?. Grey Journal (TGJ). (2012, Spring2012); 8(1): 14-26.

Shank J, Bell S. Blended Librarianship: [Re]Envisioning the Role of Librarian as Educator in the Digital Information Age. Reference & User Services Quarterly. (2011, Winter2011); 51(2): 105-110.

Wasserstrom, J. Why read book reviews? The Chronicle Review. (September 9. 2011). B20.

3 Comments

Filed under Book Reviews 2.0, Connecting, Creating, Sharing

Tagged as Librarians, Social Media, YA Authors

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Category Archives: Sharing

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