ISYS100 Assignment 3 - 180 Seconds: Social Media reviews

We took it to the streets to find out what social media really means to the people of Macquarie University. From your host, KV and reporters, RZ, DL, KS and DH, we hope you enjoy this edition of 180 seconds:

Google+ - A new beginning ?

Google+ is basically a social networking website created by no other than Google. It was first launched in 2011, and it is now the second largest social networking site, right behind Facebook. It is basically an account that links to many Google properties and your account is 'publically' visible. It uses a feature called the "Circle" which allows sharing of almost anything just by simply 'dragging and dropping' files or websites and so forth. The shared data will only be seen privately by the "Circle" which you can group. It is also possible to have more than one Circle so you can really choose who gets to see what in different groups.

I first got around this when I made an account on my phone to link my Gmail account, but haven't really explored on the features. But i think it's really a "knock-off" of Facebook. Like I can see the concept they were going for as Google is best said to be the number 1 website, but give it some time and maybe I'll use it in the future or so.
-K.S

Skype - Free calling service

Skype is known best for its free video chatting, allowing communication between users who have the program. Being released in 2003, it's name is derived from the words "sky" and "peer". It is a great messenger for chatting and calling having excellent video quality and voice quality. Global communication has never been this easy, allowing interaction with another, behind your laptop or computer. The requirements to communicate by voice is using a microphone, for videos a webcam, and instant messaging can be simply done by your keyboard. You can also call 'actual' phone numbers, but there is a cost to this service so I recommend to just simply let the other person download Skype and call free of charge. All you have to do is register a username and password, and add some friends and sweet, your good to go.

I personally haven't used Skype in a while, but i used to use it to catch up with a few mates overseas, and we'll just talk for hours like we're actually right in front of each other. Great way to keep connected with people especially when travelling, to save you all the international costs with phone calls.

-K.S

YouTube - Not just for videos

YouTube

I feel as though an introduction isn’t necessary. Everyone knows what YouTube is. The video hosting website has been around since 2005 and has been considered the gold standard for several years. YouTube isn’t targeted at a particular population; it’s for everyone. It is used by even the largest corporations and educational institutions. For many people, YouTube is their job. Ad revenue is shared between Google and users who have been upgraded to partners. The website has seen many changes over the years, of which the most recent that I know of was the mandatory integration of Google+.

Of course, such a massive website inevitably finds dual purpose as a social network. Videos are posted in response to other videos and the comments sections of popular videos are swarming with activity. Although the comments section is said to be the cesspool of the Internet, one must remember to instead read what people have to say about videos that aren’t viral. In fact, YouTube used to be my main forum for many years. I wasn’t on the best of terms with the website when I left the comments section behind, but nevertheless, I have many fond memories.

• An example of the homepage. The list of videos is constantly being updated according to trends

- D.H

Tumblr - How does that make you feel?

Tumblr

Tumblr is a blogging platform that’s managed to stay popular and relevant throughout all seven years of its existence. It even survived a change of ownership, a feat that not many websites can claim.

Although I have not had much experience with the website prior to writing this review, I’ve long been aware of Tumblr’s reputation. It appears that the place is considered a haven for teenage girls and their older, university-aged siblings. Blogs are either spattered with pink frills and anime characters or filled with dark, gloomy imagery that none of us simple-minded folk could ever hope to understand. Users of Tumblr are fiercely loyal to the platform and will continue to use it until Yahoo pulls the plug.

Although it may sound as though I dislike the website, I do feel that it has some redeeming qualities. It’s rare to find a blogging platform that offers so much customisation. It reminds me of the Myspace days, when I spent hours making sure that my background GIF was properly aligned.

• A popular Tumblr blog. Now I know where all those captioned GIFs are coming from

- D.H

flickr - next picture thanks

flickr

So I’m sure at one point or another we’ve all come across flickr, maybe you were searching for a picture in Google images and instead of hitting “save image as” you've accidentally clicked on the picture and boom before you know it… You’ve been linked to flickr. 
                             
So what is flickr? flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, and web services suite that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, and effectively an online community, the service is widely used by photo researchers and by bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs and social media. flickr’s got some pretty neat features that allow users to organise their photos in albums, add tags to photos, descriptions, and also the ability to place photos on a world map (which I think is pretty nifty). 

                              

flickr’s done the basics rights with having the privacy settings tightened up (with filtering pictures that are safe, unsafe, restricted) easy enough UI that is aesthetically pleasing. 

• So I can't really fault flickr, it’s fulfilled its purpose and overall its a good social media website.

-DL

Pinterest - Pin it to the board

Pinterest
Back in 2010, I remember hearing about Pinterest but I can’t say I was proactive in following its development but maybe I should of… So what is Pinterest? You may be asking, well I’ll tell you. 

Pinterest is an online pinboard, a visual take on the social bookmarking site. Unlike other social bookmarking sites, such as Digg content shared on Pinterest is driven entirely by visuals. In fact, you can’t share something on Pinterest unless an image is involved.
Like every other social media site, Pinterest has its own lingo:

• When you share something on Pinterest, each bookmark is called a pin.
• When you share someone else’s pin on Pinterest, it’s called a repin.
• You group pins together by topic onto various boards or pinboards in your profile. Each board mimics a real-life pinboard.

So in Pinterest users can upload, save, sort and manage images (pins), and other media content (e.g. videos and gifs) through collections (pinboards). Pinterest acts as a personalised media platform, whereby users' content and the content of others can be browsed on the main page.Users should also keep in mind that Pinterest stores actual copies (not just thumbnails and links) of the images being pinned. This has caused controversy with regards to copyright issues for photographers. 

Moreover, there is an option that allows you to make ‘secret boards’ which only the user logged in can see (its like making a Facebook status but having your privacy settings set to ‘only you can see’). But with that being said Pinterest still stores those images… So just be careful when pinning.

Pinboards can be used by educators to plan lessons which. Teachers can pin sites for later referral. Students can pin and organize sources and collaborate on projects. Which I can see being a pretty neat tool for education. 

• All in all, it’s a great way to see some cool home-made things, places, people heck a lot of things. Would definitely give it a go if you’re looking for some inspiration or for some ideas on… well anything. 
  
  
  -DL

Reddit- Aaannnd its 4 am.

Ahh Reddit, the fall back of more comp-sci students than tumblr, Facebook and twitter combined. Am i joking? Yes. A community that boast about 2.45 million as of February 24th, 2014. It is a News aggregator that is organized according to 'up-votes' and 'down-votes' which are positive and negative respectively. these votes are given by 'redditors' which is simply the name for the user when they make an account. Speaking of which, making an account is very simple. Username, password, done. Couldn't be easier. As a content aggregator , one might wonder where the social networking comes in, especially as this site is very well known for its ability to get news out quicker than twitter. The social aspect occurs in the comments section where  people discuss ideas or make jokes or whatever. The submissions in the contents themselves are also ranked according to the up-votes and down-votes system. As a minimal designed website , its fast, works and better yet, you don't actually need an account to use! Not having an account simply limits the features you can use like the voting system and submission of content and comments.

So how is it? Fantastic. To me its the ultimate time killer. there are many  jokes about how people have no idea what they did in their spare time before using the website. the content is varied and can filtered and catered to taste. Reddit. Indeed , the front page of my internet usage.

-K.V

Good Reads -Time enough at last!

 Good reads. A rather unique take on the social media/networking idea. It takes the books that you've read previously, books that you're currently reading and enables you to compare it to to books your friends are reading and vice versa and give each other recommendations towards other interesting books they might like to read. It also allows the user to read reviews friends and other people have placed up and even let you put a up a review of books you've read. On the more social side, it allows the user to talk trivia quizzes on various popular books, and partake in pools. Made in 2006 by an independent group, it was bought out by Amazon in 2013. Its current interface is very much like the Google Play store by which it allows you to search through various recommendations that are made against selected criteria eg 'New releases this week, Top releases for last month, etc"

So is it any good? Well if you're a habitual reader or someone who easily loses track of what they read sure, but i find that it might rely on friend recommendations a bit too much. Personally whilst i enjoy reading, i don't have as much time for it and as such am quite envious of those who have the time to use this service and continue to read. So Good Reads? Sure , its decent, looks nice and works very simply. But i won't/can't use it so Good Riddance.

-KV

Twitter - retweet this?

Twitter is an online social networking service that allows the user to send and receive short posts called “tweets”. These “tweets” are 140-character text messages that can literally be about anything, from what you are doing right now to just about anything that you can think of. This social network can be accessed through the website, SMS, or the mobile device app. The social network was created in March 2006, whose CEO, Jack Dorsey, is currently worth $1.8 billion, and employs approximately 3,000 people. Twitter roughly a billion users with an average 500 million tweets posted daily.

Every “tweet” that is posted is publicly visible by default. Twitter also allows for posts to be “retweeted” where the post is forwarded via Twitter by the user. Users may subscribe to other members so that all their posts will show up on the follower’s news feed. Twitter revolves around the concept of followers, where the more followers one has to more users will see their “tweet”. Currently, the twitter account with the most followers is Katy Perry, with over 52

million followers.  Twitter is ranked as one of the ten most visited website worldwide, China being the country with the most Twitter users, with 35.5 million users.

So what is the point of Twitter? According to Twitter it self, “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected”. However in my opinion it hardly used for this purpose, it is used primarily, for users to share their thoughts and feelings, as well as what they are currently doing/eating, and for businesses/celebrities to promote themselves.

-R.Z

SnapChat - 1 Snap too many

SnapChat is a photo sharing application that allows users to send photos to other users. However, SnapChat differentiates itself from other photo sharing applications by allowing the user to choose how long that recipient can view the photo for. Choosing a 1 second to 10 second expiration periods for that photo does this. This ultimately allows users to send photos that may be inappropriate, silly, or embarrassing without the fear of that photo being saved and sent around. Approximately 150 million photos are shared on SnapChat daily.

 Developers, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, originally created the application as they felt that emoticons like J and L, were not enough to express an emotion, however in my opinion it has allowed users to send inappropriate photos to each other and encouraged the act of “sexting”. SnapChat CEO, Evan Spiegel, is of the opinion that SnapChat is not typically used to send inappropriate selfies as usage of his application falls by 11pm. While the photo that has been send disappears from the phone after the expiration time, it does not prevent the recipient from taking a screenshot, however the sender is then alerted that a screenshot has been taken.

Just because most users may be using the application to send inappropriate photos, it doesn’t mean that SnapChat cannot be used for fun. Majority of users use SnapChat to share what they are doing, what they are eating and most times just a funny facial expression.   

R.Z

Twitch.Tv -For those of twtichy attention spans.

Twitch.tv , the medium through which amazing victories and crushing defeats are proudly/shamefully broadcasted around the world to any one who will watch. Its most recent claim to fame is the creation of a pseudo-religion that spawned such phrases like praise helix and an interesting view upon a debate over anarchy vs democracy. Twitch.Tv is anything but dull in terms of history. However , the content it normally produces is in many respects quite dull.The concept is simple. A person with a webcam and suitable hardware broadcasts a live video stream of themse3lves playing video games. Thats it. Anyone can watch or not. So how is this service popular? That answer is also quite simple. Many videogame related YouTube persona's will actively broadcasts themselves on twitch for fans and post up the resulting video on youtube for easy content production. the number of views can easily reach anywhere from 2000 to 50000+ viewers for these people, but on average a regular person will most likely get around 3 to 20 people watching.

-the usual UI that you will see when using this service. It works. Mostly.

The chat interface however is different. it works usually but lag and high levels of input render this service catatonic sometimes. The text itself is cryptic  to most non gamers as well.

-K.V

Facebook - A Global Connection

 

Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook has got to be one of the most addictive sites on the internet. It has evolved into a social media platform that has seamlessly blended into our daily lives with interaction through an accessible push of a button. When Facebook first made a grand entrance to the social media scene, it was meant to create a form of communication for college students to socialize and connect. Facebook has many features and along with constant updates of the website format and layout to appeal to the current audience and maintain its 'fresh' and innovative approach. Facebook has significantly impacted the processes and technology behind other social media networks. Its wide variety of communication,picture, video, advertising and security features allow Facebook to maintain its strong presence within the social media market and our society as a whole. Facebook is the 'way of life'. You can instantly communicate with old high school friends or check out a few of your mates vacation photos. This social network is so pervasive that it's unusual if you hear someone claim they don't have a Facebook account. Because of the number of members it has and its vast features, it is an exponentially expanding website that has become the central means of communication for me.

• Newsfeed tells me whats going on around the world

-K.S

#instagram

Welcome to Instagram, a world of hashtags, filters and food blogs. Instagram allows users to capture photos and videos, apply digital filters to them and post them on a variety of social networking sites, such as Twiter, Facebook and Tumblr. Since its launch in October 2010, Instagram’s popularity has sky rocketed with an estimated 200 millions users, with 60 million photos shared daily.

Starting off as a photo-sharing app for iPhone users only has now become a massive social network. However as its creation may have been intended for individuals sharing cool and interesting photos, in my opinion it has now become a platform for users to post “selfies”, composing of 58% of all photos posted on Instagram. The other main use of instagram is food blogs, where people feel the need to post photos of every single meal they eat….thinking people care.

#Hashtags is the foundation of instagram. Most of the photos that are uploaded include hashtags to identify their image with a specific topic. Hashtags are used and abused in almost every photo on Instagram with the perception that the more hashtags used the more likes the post will receive, which unfortunately, in my opinion, this is true.

 This YouTube video, performed by Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon, pretty much sums up how hashtags are overused:

Instagram: rickyzinn1

-R.Z

Ask.fm - A twelvies paradise

Ask.fm, personally for me, was an annoying trend. Let me paint you a picture of what it was like. You'd be on Facebook scrolling through your news feed, checking out the latest news in sports or whatever, thinking “ooo that’s cool” then all of a sudden half of your friends are saying “ask me anything lol” then linking you to a website. It was a sad time for humanity. Once on this website I was given the choice to either sign up or ask my friend a question anonymously. Of course, my trolling instincts took over and I chose to ask a number of stupid questions anonymously just for a laugh. After hitting enter and having a chuckle, I sat there waiting for a response… a few minutes went by and then I got the “who are you?? Get lost” reply for one of my questions and the rest were deleted *sadface*. In a nutshell this was Ask.fm. Ask.fm was extremely similar to the once popular ‘Formspring’ or ‘Spring.me’ as it is known now. From the beginning Ask.fm, wasn’t anything new, it was just trying to get its 15 minutes of fame. From the beginning I could see this website just screaming out ‘stranger danger’ imagine finding out your child has been answering questions by either complete randoms or friends, relating to what they like, when their birthday is, who their best friends are, where they live etc. For me ask.fm was an all time low. But with that being said you could always find a witty answer to a stupid question.

An example of a Ask.fm

• Ask.fm had a short life span, it was alright for a laugh, but thankfully my news feed is ask.fm free.

- D.L