Skeptic Geek - Latest Comments

Re: On Our Online & Offline Identities

Anil — Thu, 03 May 2012 06:20:18 -0000

O_o

Re: On Our Online & Offline Identities

Paul B. — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:14:02 -0000

This is such a poignant question, especially one that young people are engaged in constantly. I'm not sure they are conscious of the stress they are putting on themselves maintaining all of their identities, and most kids I know wouldn't think of withdrawing from their online lives. I love the theme of your blog, as I am a high school teacher of digital media but also a restrained technology user. I've recently relaunched my own blog--check it out! www.mindfulstew.wordpress.com.

Re: On Our Online & Offline Identities

Nittinj — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:30:59 -0000

not sure if online world is meant to compliment, complete or complicate oneself ! But yeah, soon we will read books or perhaps e-books such as 7 Habits of Highly Successful e-People !!

Re: On Our Online & Offline Identities

Bandwidth Test — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:46:57 -0000

Very interesting approach on social identity!

Re: On Our Online & Offline Identities

Shalu Sharma — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 05:35:56 -0000

People are different personalities be it on our own, with someone else, with family, with friends, on line, off line. Good article, thought provoking.

Re: On Our Online & Offline Identities

Mahendra — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:37:50 -0000

Thank you!

Re: On Our Online & Offline Identities

vishvajit pandey™ — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:38:56 -0000

great read!

Re: On Smart Phones and Anti-Social Networking

Mahendra — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:04:08 -0000

Holden, thanks for sharing this personal story. Sad, isn't it? But I see you've become wiser for it :)

Re: On Smart Phones and Anti-Social Networking

Holden Page — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:47:00 -0000

I have actually lost an online friend because I said even though I am an Android user, I am only one out of necessity. T-mobile US doesn't support the iPhone, and I simply can't afford ATT or Verizon.

Said person called me ignorant and blind, and I shouldn't be talking about Android at all if I don't even like the platform.

At first I was angry that something so dumb could ruin a friendship, but then I realized if someone was that shallow over their dedication to a smartphone that will lose relevancy in a month, then I don't need to be talking to them anyways.

Re: On Smart Phones and Anti-Social Networking

Mahendra — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:39:07 -0000

Thanks, Nithin. Appreciate your comments and feedback - will try :)

Re: On Smart Phones and Anti-Social Networking

Nithin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:36:42 -0000

Well first, off, nice to see a post after a long time. Always fascinating to read your thoughts. You are spot on with your observation with regard to fanaticism with respect to the device as well as the social network. Sadly, I don't think this is going to get any better. Please write more often :)

Re: On Smart Phones and Anti-Social Networking

Mahendra — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:13:05 -0000

Couldn't have said it better :)

Re: On Smart Phones and Anti-Social Networking

Mahendra — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:12:39 -0000

Verity, I concur with the gist of your comment. I have never implied being social is to like everyone. The boundaries you describe make perfect sense as long as we are civil about them. I fear, increasingly, that that is no longer the case. Civility and humane behavior is being replaced with vitriol and ridicule, which is a wholly different matter altogether.

Re: On Smart Phones and Anti-Social Networking

Darryl Jonckheere — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:03:11 -0000

I don't know about you, but when I meet someone in 'real life' I could care less what type of phone they use or which social networks they frequent. Forming character judgements based on this type of criteria is shallow —but you're right, it does unfortunately happen.

Re: On Smart Phones and Anti-Social Networking

tacanderson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:01:32 -0000

I've actually been pondering how the ubiquity of social media + data with mobile context has turned "social" into something seemingly unsocial. It's cool that I can open an app and pull up information about locations aggregated from thousands of other's updates, rating and pictures, but their just data at this point, there's nothing social about it. Then add to this the shifts in the Web from open to proprietary platforms. and all of a sudden social media is starting to indeed look anti-social.

Re: On Smart Phones and Anti-Social Networking

Verity — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:20:34 -0000

It's an interesting point but I didn't realise the point of being social is to like everyone. I thought being social was finding 'your' gang.

We use everything in life to create the boundaries of who we are and what we stand for, and as such, we use these to distinguish the things we aren't and things we disagree with. We do it in the way we dress, talk, work, drive, socialise, eat.

I don't think social networks are any different. After all, they're just another way for us to communicate, not a different world with a different set of rules. And I do think that the way you use different social networks says something about you. Therefore, people will interpret what that is as that's what humans do. We interpret messages from each other every second of every day and they dictate how we respond in return.

Also, social networks make it easier for the people who used to find it harder to find their gang because while we might not like everyone we come across (and that is life, we don't, and we couldn't like some people so actively if we liked everyone equally because we are, thankfully, all different) we come across a lot more people.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Divya Divya — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:46:10 -0000

Things have changed so much over the years. The apps that are being created by these tech giants are becoming a great marketing tool.

Divya Bhaskar
MyGrahak.com

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Shailendrasingh4mk — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:25:09 -0000

happy new year

love sms

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

AwkwardEngineer — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:50:53 -0000

since the google reader "like" integration into google+, I have indeed noticed a change in the number of +1's a post gets. it's a little early to tell, but I like where this is headed.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:09:45 -0000

I had written about this problem in 2009: http://www.skepticgeek.com/soc...

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Carl-Johan Sveningsson — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:19:39 -0000

Thanks for your deep analysis, I will certainly dig through it properly soon enough. Maybe you care to comment or reshare my attempt to figure out the current situation, as I too have been a very avid Reader user... https://plus.google.com/u/0/10...

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

mcored — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:20:37 -0000

Your point brought forward is logical. This reminds me of a Google+ posts where an author said you should be creating circles based on content, not by people. So in your instance, if you want tech news to be shared, then you have a Tech circle, just like you described. With Google+ with circles, one could avoid the requirement of having multiple Twitter accounts for different topics.

However, Google+ still is not the solution for your request of the core problem of online identity. This is essentially multiple personalities. It is not achievable in real life. You look the same wherever you present yourself. Representing yourself differently could be even a crime. Anyway, the only common piece of information I could see that is presented for all circles is the Profile Picture. Everything else in Google+ you can limit per circle basis. Therefore, as long as you are happy with your current profile picture, Google+ does solve the problem better than any other service.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

AwkwardEngineer — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:16:04 -0000

Yep! I have faced a similar problem myself. I had my blog hooked up to google buzz, where my friends (my only buzz followers) would comment and like the post. Some people would leave comments on the blog itself. Other times, people would "like" the post and share it from the RSS feed in google reader. People would comment on facebook as well. The whole thing was a giant boondogle.

I'm glad google is killing buzz and integrating reader with plus to make an overall more cohesive platform.

Also, I made a blog post about this very fact:

http://www.awkwardengineer.com...

I really wish commenting, liking, and sharing had a sort of unified structure across the web. My email works with any email client I send it to, I wish there was a better parallel across facebook / twitter / tumblr / etc.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:25:48 -0000

Thanks for sharing that, Mark. Some of them are insightful while others simply confuse the issue with the related issue of identity vs. anonymity.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mark Essel — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 05:37:43 -0000

I was intrigued by the reappearance of the identity debate enough to read the RWW post on Chris Poole: http://m.readwriteweb.com/arch...
The comments there are well thought and highly valuable perspectives.