The new Pew Internet and American Life Project shows how news is changing. We can carry the news around 24/7. It’s the ritual of communication that entices people to participate. People want to be a part of the “drama” of news–emerging media allows us to participate more readily. News is now becoming dialogically interactive–we now have multi-voiced reports that can give us a more vivid view of the world. As Walter Lippman said, “All the reporters in the world working all the hours of the day could not witness all the happenings in the world” (Public Opinion 338). With new emerging media–we just might witness all the happenings in the world.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project findings

The internet and mobile technologies are at the center of the story of how people’s relationship to news is changing. In today’s new multi-platform media environment, news is becoming portable, personalized, and participatory:

• Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
• Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
• Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

I find it entertaining that people complain about the changes to Facebook. The familiar that once again becomes the unfamiliar is the main problem people have. We have to navigate a new look that we’re not used to. In fact, we just got used to the last update. Let’s face it, people don’t like change! But, remember, change is inevitable, even in our virtual world.

Here is a quick look at what to expect from ABC News. You’ll notice that the video will discuss how Facebook is now up to 400 million members! Wow!

I have been trying to figure out the application Foursquare. Foursquare is an application for your smartphone or for your computer. The object is to check in places you visit. The more times you check in, the more you visit and the more you visit the more you earn badges. If you frequent a restaurant enough times, you become the “mayor” of that restaurant and/or destination.

Now, I’ve been checking in sometimes when I remember, but I really do not want people to know exactly where I am at all times of the day. It might be fun if I was in High School trying to hook up with my friends, but I’m a thirty-something who really doesn’t want stalkers finding me.

The flaw in FourSquare is that you can scam it. I said I was at Barnes and Nobles today and I was not there at all. I just wanted to see if Foursquare let you force a destination even though were no where near the destination. And, it did. I’m not impressed right now with the application because I don’t have a need for it. If I find a need, I may try it again, but when only 2 other friends are on the application playing with you–it’s really not that much fun. For now, I’ll stick with Facebook and Twitter for my social interaction and for planning F2F social outings. There are limits to my social networking, especially since I’m a professor at a university.

Wow! I can update the blog from my iPhone. Who knew that blogging would be so accessible?

Why compete with Twitter? Facebook is it’s own social networking site.  I find I like to separate my social networking activities.

Hey Facebook! Here’s a quiz for you – Technotica- msnbc.com.

42% say they don’t know what Social Networking means…

Across the 17 global markets surveyed, 42% of people know what online social networking is, says Synovate. The Dutch were most likely to know the term with 89% answering ‘yes’, followed by Japan at 71% and Americans with 70% answering in the affirmative. 26% across the markets surveyed are members of social networking sites. This peaked with the Netherlands at 49%, United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 46%, Canada at 44% and the US at 40% (though keep in mind that’s 40% of a huge population).

Here’s a neat site that lets people with different viewpoints debate:

Opposing Viewpoints

Google a controversial topic and you will be swamped with blogs and message boards filled with readers’ thoughts, some insightful, others biased or not factual. Russell Fine hopes to provide an alternative with Opposing Views, a Web site that went live in July. It presents debates between two experts on either side of controversial issues, along with reader responses.

“Our basic mantra is to focus on issues people really care about, the things that keep you up at night, and our goal is to provide you a way to become educated and well-informed,” Mr. Fine said.

Interesting article in the NYTimes that talks about social interaction and how intimate it is becoming.
Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye. Facebook is no longer alone in offering this sort of interaction online. In the last year, there has been a boom in tools for “microblogging”: posting frequent tiny updates on what you’re doing. The phenomenon is quite different from what we normally think of as blogging, because a blog post is usually a written piece, sometimes quite long: a statement of opinion, a story, an analysis. But these new updates are something different. They’re far shorter, far more frequent and less carefully considered.

Grandma and Grandpa have their very own social networking sites! 

New Social Sites Cater to People of a Certain Age  

Older people are sticky. 

That is the latest view from Silicon Valley. Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites aimed at baby boomers and graying computer users.

The sites have names like Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya’s Mom, Boomj, and Boomertown. They look like Facebook — with wrinkles.