Some Are Content to Sit Out

“To be sure, the Facebook-free life has its disadvantages in an era when people announce all kinds of major life milestones on the Web. Ms. Elser has missed engagements and pictures of newborn babies. But none of that hurt as much as the gap she said her Facebook account had created between her and her closest friends. So she shut it down.” -Jenna Wortham

December 24th, 2011 | 9 notes

Facebook and one-night stands

“Think about relationships. Create a plan for Facebook that is measured in years, not weeks or months. This will be hard, because agencies and brands will need to work together in new ways. New types of contracts, new types of engagements without a middle or an end. Be patient. Create the best first date you can, then create the best second, third and fourth dates you can, and take it from there. Have lightweight interactions with people. Be flexible. Be responsive. And stop trying to sleep with your fans on the first night.” - Paul Adams

December 24th, 2011 | 7 notes

It’s complicated. (for Elena)

(Source: allystar, via rickfu)

December 21st, 2011 | 83,485 notes

Rushdie Wins

“Mr. Rushdie’s predicament points to one of the trickiest notions about life in the digital age: Are you who you say you are online? Whose business is it — and why?” -Somini Sengupta

December 4th, 2011

Protect The Internet

“Congress is considering two well-intentioned but deeply flawed bills, the PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). As written, they would betray more than a decade of US policy and advocacy of Internet freedom by establishing a censorship system using the same domain blacklisting technologies pioneered by China and Iran.” -Tumblr

November 16th, 2011

Frictionless Sharing

“… read a newspaper article and Facebook knows what you’ve read. LOL at a lolcat and your LOL gets logged for all time on your indelible activity record. Facebook calls this ‘frictionless sharing’, which is their euphemism for silent total surveillance. Once you’ve signed up for this (and it is optional, at least for now) you don’t need to do anything else to ‘share’ your activity with Facebook. It’s completely automatic.”

October 13th, 2011

What is data science?

“The thread that ties most of these applications together is that data collected from users provides added value. Whether that data is search terms, voice samples, or product reviews, the users are in a feedback loop in which they contribute to the products they use. That’s the beginning of data science.”

October 11th, 2011

I was once a Facebook fool

“… If you are entrusting your life data to Facebook, or if you are depending on Facebook and its platform for your livelihood, beware. In the real Facebook world, there is no trust, and there is no friendship — there is only money and power. Think really hard — really, think — before trusting Facebook or its employees with anything.”

September 27th, 2011 | 27 notes