rossmahoney-blog

[rossmahoney-blog]

[rossmahoney-blog]

[rossmahoney-blog]

The like economy refers to how the like button on facebook has evolved to impact how the entire web operates. What people like can now be used as a tool by facebook and other companies to zero in on their behaviors and what kind of content they will respond to. And with the addition of the facebook like plugin on many major websites, facebook now has constant eyes on every user and even potential users. Whether or not this is appropriate is questionable. On one hand, a personalized experience has the capability of improving all online experience, but on the other hand, the more personalized the experience gets, the more privacy that gets taken away. The rub is that the privacy being taken away is done so without many users knowledge. 

[rossmahoney-blog]

The celebritization of everyday life is often found in social media, in where the small things that everyone days everyday become news when turned into posts. Sharing your everyday life, while seemingly silly, is often rewarded with attention from anyone who follows your post. As a result, your everyday life is celebrated.

[rossmahoney-blog]

Networking is the idea that several things in the new technological era are linked. An example of streamlined networking that comes to mind is the universal charger. During the boom of smartphones, there were several different kinds of chargers because each brand of phone wanted to distinguish their brand as unique by having its own charger. However, eventually that silly process was done away with and all of the brands have (pretty much) agreed on one charger 

[rossmahoney-blog]

The confessional society is the idea that the internet as a society, has become an environment where, in order to achieve a high social status, one must confess more personal details about themselves than they would have to do otherwise. For instance, someone who gains a lot of followers on twitter would probably have to keep up a high rate of posts, and therefore that person would wind up having to post things about their daily routine or personal thoughts that they would not have shared without the pressure of social media. However, sights like 4chan, reddit, and youtube not only allow for anonymity, but even encourage it at times; even facebook has very little defense set up against someone making a fake account. So has the internet really become a confessional society if many sites with high amounts of content production don't require a confession with an exposed identity?