The following originally aired on KQED-FM.

By: Bianca Brooks

When I joined Tumblr, a photo blogging website; I was in awe of all the “beautiful” people. I too wanted to be “internet famous”, to be appreciated for my beauty. I honestly believed with nice clothes, a cool camera, and a little luck, that thousands of Internet users would love me too.

It was an escape that let me be the person I felt I could never be in real life. My own faults and insecurities were hidden behind a computer screen. The praise I never got from my family and peers created the need for compliments, “likes”, and “reblogs”.

The problem was not that I enjoyed the attention, but mistaking this praise for validation of my beauty and intelligence, instead of taking it at face value for what it really was: The Internet.
But how could I resist slipping into a world where it’s so easy to “add” who loves you and “delete” who doesn’t? Photoshop and Picnik gave me that whiter smile I could never get with my nonexistent dental coverage. I said I was born in Hollywood instead of Orange County to sound more glamorous.

Max Dougherty's new social networking service Envoy- to be released in the near future- bridges a digital divide that was previously ignored... the one between this life and the next.

Envoy essentially allows the living to connect with their loved ones who have passed away. Envoy starts with the deceased person's Facebook account and analyzes every status update, comment, photo, and chat in the person's digital history. Envoy uses this information to create new updates, posts, and status feeds in the person's style of language. Basically - you can pretend that your loved one is NOT in fact deceased.

This demo video leaves me asking the question... why??

Keep an eye out for WEIRD media demos at 3:30 and 4:24 that show how you can have voice chats with the deceased and incorporate them into your every day life.
 

By Asha Richardson

Are you in love with your location-based mobile services and app? Well, look for the fine print because Google and Apple are tracking how you use those services.  Both Google and Apple are now under scrutiny and some investigation with regards to how they are tracking people’s mobility and why it is important.  According to a recent New York Times Article, there are two main reasons: research to improve location-based services and location based mobile advertising.

Just so we are on the same page, a location based app or service is one that requires GPS capability or can recognize your location. Services like Google Maps, Yelp, FourSquare, anything that gives you directions or locates items on a map is a location based service.  Basically, you are letting a service know where you are. The worrisome part is that when you are not using the service, it still knows where you are. Location based mobile advertising capitalizes on that, and pushes advertisements on you depending on where you are. 

Google and Apple both say they are collecting information anonymously from their users to better their networks, denying any claims that they are tracking their customers individually.  Google says that they allow users to opt-out if they do not want to share their information, but if you opt-out you cannot use any apps that require GPS.

It just so happens I have an Android cell phone, as soon as I read this I went to the Location setting. Yes, I have the option to allow networks to detect my position. I had it set to “9-1-1” for an emergency situation, and then I changed it to “Location On.”  It warns me that I am “enabling third party access to Location Information through software.”

So yes, Google kind of warns you that it may use your information. That’s better than nothing. But, if I don’t agree to these terms I cannot use many of my favorite apps. There is no feature to turn on my GPS, and decline sharing my information.

By Noah Nelson, Turnstyle News

Tonight, all signs point to Sohaib Athar, a 33-year old IT professional living in Abbottabad, Pakistan, as being the inadvertent front line reporter for Twitter of the raid on Osama Bin Laden. Athar, who tweets under the name Really Virtual, began the possibly OBL-related feed at 1AM local time with the report of helicopter in the usually quiet city.

Join youth from around Sacramento to showcase the power of youth voices to lead social change efforts! UC Davis School of Education along with many partners including the California Endowment, Access Sacramento and The Sacramento Bee present the Second Annual Youth Media Forum for Social Change on May 7, 2011 from 9am-12pm.  For more information on the projects, please click here.

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Sam Fuller

I don’t have a choice when it comes to social networking – it’s either Facebook or nothing.

There are other social networking sites out there, but they aren’t really an option – none of my friends are there. And email is useless since nobody I know checks it more than once a week.

I was late joining Facebook, I only signed up because everyone else was on it. Even my mom was on before me. Yet even though I was one of the last of my friends to join, I may be the first to quit.

What I don’t like about the site is the attitude – the people who run it think they know best. Even when it comes to privacy. I saw founder Mark Zuckerberg on TV saying that the reason his site is popular is because people want to share more. But I don’t think everyone wants to share their profile information with online marketers, which is what happens now.

When I look at this kind of “data mining” rationally, it probably shouldn’t creep me out. But it does. It’s like having someone looking over my shoulder all the time.

So congrats Facebook -- you’ve trapped me! You’re creepy, but to delete my account would be the end of my digital life.

Yourlifebox.com (YLB) is a social networking site based around making your dreams come true.  Every user’s profile is centered around a passionate dream that they have.  Then users have the opportunity to enter a YLB wish: If you could ask for something, what would you ask for? The idea of the site, is that users share information, human resources, knowledge, and sometimes money to make these dreams and wishes come true.

“We feel that a little positive encouragement can go a long way.  People often hear why their dreams can’t happen, but this is to show people they can. That’s the whole concept,” said founder Jonathan Bullard.

Bullard has seen all kinds of dreams on the site.  “It varies, a dream can be anything. A dream can be something huge or small.  I’ve seen a girl who wanted an internship and needed to shadow a doctor - she found a contact through the site. A guy wanted to make a children’s book series and was looking for support, a guy who wanted to direct moview in NYC, a girl who wanted to travel around Europe, and a guy who wanted to open a karate studio.”

According to Bullard, users try to get high numbers of votes on their profiles. The more votes they have, the more prominently their dreams will be featured on the site, and the more support they’ll receive for these dreams. “Support comes from other members, and sometimes benevolent sponsors outside the YLB community,” said Bullard.

The site currently has 700 users, but Bullard said they regularly do outreach to college students in Florida to encourage them to sign up.  YLB even started a scholarship program that will give away money to pursue educational dreams. “A lot of the most ambitious people are high school or college age kids, and we wanted to start a scholarship program where we give away money on a quarterly basis,” said Bullard.

Users have to be at least 14 years old to join the site, but it is free to join.  Users can choose if their profile is public, private, or public to those who are currently logged in to the site.

Talk about relevant curriculum. Emerson College in Boston now has a social media course that is underwritten by big companies, like Sprint Nextel Corp., Levi Strauss & Co. and Mattel Inc., in which students create social marketing strategies for these companies and implement them.

For example, Sprint supplied the class with smartphones and  unlimited service and the students returned the favor by tweeting, blogging, and pushing the company’s name through social networks, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Rubi Godinez promoted the class on the Emerson College Admissions blog, “As one of the semester-long projects, we are given a for-profit client. For this client we are to create a social media campaign to increase their social media presence.... I will be working with the Boston Symphony Orchestra working with Google Adwords. Google is sponsoring our class with a $10,000 budget a month to work with Google Adwords and create ads for our clients. This is big.  This class is allowing us to try out ideas with clients, use real money, fail, and succeed. Pretty good deal.”

Students get a good deal, but the WSJ points out, “Of course, some parents may be surprised to learn their tuition dollars are helping to underwrite corporate marketing in addition to their children's education.”

A few months ago Youth Radio posted about a social networking site for parents and children called Togetherville. This website aims to facilitate an online community for children, since they aren't allowed to have Facebook accounts under the U. S. COPPA Law.  Recently, Togetherville was purchased by Disney, according to Mashable.

The site is unique because it is specifically for children under the age of 10, and gives the parents and guardians complete control over who joins their child's social network.  Kids can interact, play games, use educational programs, and be creative.  Disney has yet to announce how and if the site will change.

President Obama said in his State of the Union address last night, "The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation."

A project called No Right Brain Left Behind agrees.  This project challenges the test-prep obsessed culture in our school system today, by claiming a creativity crisis is upon us.  Their challenge to us is to innovate on the spot.

According to their website, creative agencies can form a team.  Each team will have five days to come up with an idea.  An expert panel will pick 3 ideas to be piloted in 2011 and 2012. 

Their mission statement reads, “It is not about creating more artists. It’s about giving the students tools to efficiently solve 21st problems. We must understand that creativity is a key constituent that can no longer be neglected in the school systems.”