"Brain Hacking" - Another Unintended Consequence of Technology http://t.co/EOoZ1roK via @sharethis
Wall Street Protests
Back in August, the self-proclaimed ‘culture jamming’ Canadian magazine Adbusters launched a call to action to all disenfranchised Americans. It was time for the USA to have its ‘Tahrir moment’ they said, and they began a movement to ‘Occupy Wall Street’ with at least 20,000 people.On September 17, the date finally arrived, and fewer than 1,000 people showed. Only a small shadow of what the original call was. Come next morning hundreds had left, and by Monday the 19th, only two days into the Wall Street protest, a mere 150 committed people remained.
Those who followed the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement expected it to fade out into the background and disappear, obscured by a mainstream media blackout. Now, 20 days in and contrary to early forecasts, the movement has not only grown, but snowballed nationwide beyond the already high expectations of the original organizers.
‘Occupation’ actions are being held and organized in over 200 US cities, including Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and the District of Columbia. It has also grown internationally, with ‘Occupations’ taking place in Spain, Canada, France, Brazil and Greece to name a few.
The occupation movement was originally met with derision and condescension by the media, due in great part by the lack of a cohesive and unifying message. But it may perhaps be this lack of a clear demand what is the most telling about the Wall Street Protests.
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Why Facebook Needs a Hit
While Facebook still reigns over the social media kingdom, boasting over 750 million subscribers and $4 billion in sales so far in 2011, the site seems to have hit a snag. Essentially, Facebook hasn't come up with anything innovative in recent years, and is unfortunately falling victim to the curse that so many businesses have fallen victim to; getting too big for your own good. Facebook, it seems, has begun to stray away from their core audience; people that want to interact with their friends. Instead, the site has tried to incorporate a litany of options to do so, leaving many people to wonder just what Facebook is anymore.In the beginning, the concept was simple. You signed up, filled out some info about yourself, uploaded a picture, started adding people, and before you knew it, you were stalking your friends. Most people enjoyed the fact that it was simple, as the "less is more" approach is a key element to survival on the web. Google has proven this time and time again by remaining minimalist in almost all of its offerings. However, as Facebook has grown in popularity, the site's developers seem to want to cram anything and everything into the site and it seems that no one has told them that the vast majority of users really don't care about this stuff.
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Google Plus Open To Everyone
Google has opened the doors on its new Google+ platform allowing anyone join. Over the summer, they had been beta testing this platform to compete with Facebook, and users could only get in by invitation only.This shift to being open to everyone coincides with recent changes that have frustrated Facebook users. Some of those unhappy Facebook users are seeking an alternative, and Google has opted to be available to those seekers.
Google+
Google+ is a social media platform designed to compete with Facebook. Google's version offers many features that Facebook does not yet offer, or did not offer until very recently. Google+ distinguishes itself with circles, hang-outs, and search capabilities far beyond other social networks.
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Facebook Changes
Along with the September 2011 changes made to Facebook came many angry users. While Facebook has had complaints about changes it has made in the past, the latest round of changes has drawn criticism from even the most supportive Facebook fans, and many users have even vowed to leave the social networking giant for good as a result. The reason for this is because Facebook essentially changed the way the site operates, leaving many users in the dark as to how to even navigate the new system, let alone enjoy its new features.For many regular Facebook users, the draw to the site was its simplicity. Users posted status updates and could read their friends' status updates in a real time, chronological order via a news feed. This meant that site members could keep up with their friends, family, and coworkers in an easy to read list, all without having to search for information. If someone did not want to have a post or a particular person's posts in their news feed, they could simply choose to hide the post or hide all posts by a particular person. As well, Facebook tailored each ad to the specific post being read at the moment, allowing for more targeted ads relating to what the user found relevant.
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Is Facebook the Next Big Thing in Music?
Facebook saw a bevy a new features and changes recently, and while they have been met with mixed reactions, it looks as though they may be just the start of something even bigger. As Facebook gets even closer to a billion users, more changes are coming and this time they have to do with how users share their music. Will these changes make Facebook the go-to site for music?While illegal file-sharing is certainly not a part of their plans, reports state that Facebook is reaching out with many legal music services to deliver a new sharing experience for its users. For instance, they are partnering with Spotify, which allows users to listen to streaming music for free. In addition to the ad-supported free version, Spotify also offers a paid-for subscription that is completely ad-free. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek spoke at the 2011 Facebook F8 conference to announce that Facebook would be partnering with Spotify. He detailed a plan to have users connect with not only words, but by sharing music as well. Facebook's nearly one billion users will be able to play music shared by their friends over Spotify right from their browser without leaving Facebook at all. He also stated that Facebook's Spotify users are also more likely to purchase music.
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