How is Facebook Changing the Writings of Students?

That's the question recently posed by Inside Higher Ed.

From the piece...

Facebook presents far more danger than the cultivation of lowercase first-person "i"s and emoticons :). The real threat posed by Facebook is not that it ruins writers' ability to punctuate or encourages them to replace words with pictures. The problem with Facebook is that it nurtures one of writing teachers' greatest foes -- the teenage fantasy that writers write only to themselves and to those who are just like them.

Although Facebook is properly classified as "social software," it is more accurately categorized as mirror-ware, a whole new kind of social that consists only of us and our self-projections. And it is that mirror, that seductive invitation to reflect us and only us back to ourselves that damns us.

On Facebook, we post pictures to represent ourselves: our best, shiniest, toothiest, happiest/sexiest ponderer/wanderer/adventurer. The fairest ones of all. Or we post some other person or object as icon. Puppy, baby, six-year old self. The poor person’s version of identity airbrushing. To deepen the portrait, we post our status, likes and dislikes — bananas, skiing, taxes — and photo albums of grand vacations, graduations and celebrations. To our walls we announce opinions, as they come. What we find good, stupid, evil, sexy.

Facebook writers expect homogeneity from their audience. All readers read the same observation, and insights in the same way, regardless of who they are, what they know, what they need to know or even what they seek. Facebook writers do not select, shape or color moments and thoughts for particular readers. They trade the pleasure of imagining the absent reader for the imagined adoring gaze of selves. And they expect their friends to "like" their posts, pictures etc. immediately, and to shower them publicly with praise.

With Facebook, we don't need to explain why Obama should be elected or gays shouldn't be allowed to marry or a hundred seagull photos merit viewing. If birds bore our friend Gerard, too bad. If Gerard didn’t vote for Obama or has a male partner, that’s too bad, too.

Authors: Why Aren't You Getting Noticed on Facebook?

Amy Potterfield, for the Huffington Post, offers some ways to get more notice on social media.

From the piece...

Arielle: Those experiences sound like a fantastic way to stand out on Facebook and also give great value to your fans in the process. I can see how authors can really carve out their own space on Facebook by using this strategy. For authors interested in creating a signature experience, do you have any tips to help them get started?

Amy: Yes, I have 3 great tips to share:

1. Be consistent and do them regularly. This will keep your fans coming back for more.
2. Make these experiences unique to your brand and also of great value to your fans.
3. Keep them simple. If you add too many bells and whistles, you might make the experience too complicated and lose your audience.

Overall, signature experiences are so valuable because you are increasing your viral visibility and strengthening your relationships with the people who matter most. After all, that's what Facebook is all about!

History - One Tweet at a Time

The Library of Congress is archiving all public tweets ever tweeted. The Washington Post takes note of its significance.

From the piece...

Although the library's acquisition might seem to be a capitulation to frivolity and short attention spans, historians say, it's actually about how digital archives such as this are shaping the future of history.

"We are in a period of great transition," Martha Anderson says. "We're trying to figure out the best way to leave evidence for future generations of scholarship."

Anderson works for the library's National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. She is the person charged with figuring out what to do with the billions of tweets in Twitter's archives. Some 50 million new tweets are posted every day; all of the public ones will become available to the library after a six-month delay from their posting, to better delineate between current events and history.