More Facebook Changes
Today, Facebook rolled out changes to the way users view their News Feeds. Now, when you login to your Facebook account your News Feed will show Top Stories. The Top Stories are chosen based on your relationship with the other user, the number of comments and likes the post has and a variety of other factors. These posts will be identified with a blue corner in the upper left of the post. The News Feed will also show Recent Posts in the same feed.
Another new feature is the Lists options on the left side of the News Feed page. Users can add friends to a certain List and then only view the News Feed for that particular List or only post content that friends from a particular List see. Facebook has default List titles set up for Family, Close Friends, Acquaintances and Restricted. Users can also add their own Lists to create a more customized experience. The Lists feature is very similar to the Circles feature in Google+.
Below is an example of the Lists.
Below is an example of selecting a specific List to view your status update.
I have seen mixed reactions from Facebook users on these new changes. I personally like having the Lists feature, but I am still not sure about the Top Stories. It seems that Facebook is attempting to give users more control and for a user with hundreds of friends I think these changes could be very helpful.
Illegal Music Downloads
In 1999, Napster, a music file sharing service, began operating a peer-to-peer based sharing system that led to massive copyright infringements and lawsuits. The service didn’t last long and ceased the free sharing operation in 2001. Napster was the first site I can remember doing this type of music file sharing and I knew a lot of people who used it when it was popular. Ten years later Napster has grown into a legit business model, but it seems that others haven’t learned that same lesson.
For example, a music fan in Boston is being held liable for a $675,000 judgement against him, because he illegally shared 31 music files (not on Napster). He was contacted in 2005 by several major music labels who then filed suit in 2007. Just last week a US Circuit court upheld the original ruling of $675,000.
That means each song cost $21,774.
That’s some expensive music.
Do you know what your kids are downloading online? Most children don’t understand copyright infringement laws and probably don’t even realize they might be downloading something illegal. However as a parent you are responsible for what is downloaded using your internet connection. It is important to explain to kids and teens the difference between legitimate music downloading sites and those that share music illegally. It is also a good idea to install a trusted internet filter to block illegal file sharing sites altogether. It is much less stressful and cost effective to block those sites to begin with, rather than paying huge fines and spending years in a legal battle.
Images in the Media
I often see articles online about “scandalous” photos of celebrities without their makeup, or an image of a celebrity that gets posted online before it has been altered. When I ran across an article about Lady Gaga being “stripped down” to an “almost bare” face as opposed to her usual costumes, it made me realize that very few images we see in the media are real. Even the “real” photos of Lady Gaga were obviously retouched and her “almost bare” face had been carefully made up by a professional makeup artist to look “almost bare.” As someone who uses Photoshop on a daily basis, I know how easy it is to take ten years and ten pounds off a person’s photo in five minutes. I get a surprising amount of requests to do so. With increasingly advanced photo editing software we are becoming consumers of increasingly unrealistic media.
As adults we (for the most part) know that the images we see in the media have been altered to make the women fit an “ideal” that is completely unrealistic for the average person. These images are everywhere we look: TV, magazines, movies, pornography, billboards, etc. As a culture we are inundated with the idea that women have to look and act a certain way to be of any value, and that value is based on being sexy and beautiful.
These images have led to overwhelming issues of low self-esteem and eating disorders. According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, “80% of 13-year-olds have attempted to lose weight.” That means 80% of little girls are trying to look like a celebrity photo that is so altered, even the celebrity doesn’t really look that way. According to the same set of statistics “the mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old.” So not only are these young girls trying to achieve an unrealistic perfection, they are dying for it.
As parents what can we possibly do to fight something that seems so much bigger than us? We can lead by example. Don’t complain about your own appearance or degrade the appearance of others in front of your daughter. Remember that every image we can keep her from seeing is one less image that leaves a negative impression on her. An easy way to do this is to start filtering out the sites she can look at online. Absolutely block out porn sites because they completely misrepresent real women. But also consider blocking certain beauty magazine websites, online shows, and any sites offering eating disorder “how tos” (and yes, those really do exist). Kids spend a lot of time online and we can keep them from seeing thousands of negative images, just by installing a trusted internet software filter to block inappropriate content. You can have a lot of control by filtering online content. When your daughter does see these unrealistic images in other forms of media that you have less control over, talk to her about what she is seeing. Let her know what you feel her worth is truly based on.
I would never want my daughter to feel that her worth is based solely on her body. Would you want your daughter to feel that way?
Internet Safety a Top 10 Health Concern
In recent poll by the University of Michigan adults rated their biggest health concerns for children in their communities. Internet safety and sexting were two of the top ten health concerns. According to a WebMD article about the study:
“Overall, here is the top 10 health concerns of all adults polled:
- Childhood obesity, 33%
- Drug abuse, 33%
- Smoking and tobacco use, 23%
- Teen pregnancy, 24%
- Bullying, 24%
- Internet safety, 23%
- Stress, 22%
- Alcohol abuse, 20%
- Driving accidents, 20%
- Sexting, 20%”
According to the survey adults feel internet safety is a bigger concern that alcohol abuse and driving accidents. Very few parents would allow their children unlimited access to alcohol or let them drive without guidelines. So why would a parent allow their child unlimited internet access without guidelines? Protecting our children online is just as important as protecting them in the “real” world. Setting online rules, signing an internet safety contract with your child and using a trusted parental control software will help protect your child from dangers online.
Is someone using your unsecured wireless network to get child porn?
A Kingsport, TN police officer has been arrested for being involved a large child pornography ring. Guess how he accessed the child porn? It wasn’t via his home Internet connection. It was via other homes, churches, and businesses in his hometown that had unsecured wireless connections. Now, those homeowners, churches, and business owners are “in the system” for having child porn accessed on their Internet connections.
It is your responsibility to make sure no one can access inappropriate information on your network. If you don’t secure your Internet connection and someone accesses illegal material on it such as child porn, be ready to spend time and resources proving it wasn’t you.
For some basic tips on securing your wireless connection, check out my previous blog called Who’s Surfin’ on Your Internet Connection. In addition to securing your wireless router, be sure to have an Internet filter in place so that you can also block inappropriate and illegal sites. You lock your doors to your house to keep out burglars, so why aren’t’ you locking your Internet connection to keep out those “burglars”?
No Cell Phones Allowed!
I just finished reading an interesting news article about a restaurant that requires its guests to sign a contract before eating. What is the contract for? It’s so you completely understand that while you are in the dining area of the restaurant, you are not allowed to use your cell phone.
Why would they do this? The restaurant management says that people come to their restaurant and pay hard earned money for a very nice meal with a relaxing atmosphere. If the restaurant is full of ringing cell phones and people talking extremely loud so that the person on the other end can hear them, your nice, relaxing night out is ruined.
Could you last without having your cell phone on during your next meal at a restaurant? I want to put the challenge out there for you and myself. The next time you go out to a restaurant, turn the cell phone off and leave it off. Challenge those with you to do so as well. We all might find a much more relaxing, pleasurable dining experience that our hard earned money is paying for. Let’s be real…. One family dinner out at a restaurant costs 1/2 a week’s worth of groceries, so why not enjoy it?
The iPad in School
Yesterday was the first day of school for my son this year. I have to admit, I was a nervous wreck all day! New school, new teachers, and catching the bus home for the first time made for a long day for me. I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders when my son texted me that school was over and he was successfully on the right bus home.
Last night, we talked about how his first day of school went. In the conversation about classes, he told me that the school issues iPads for the students to use in Science. The teacher has her students use certain science apps and websites to help them during class. Pretty cool, eh?
When you think about it, I could see school operating 100% off of an iPad. Think about it… Schools probably have to invest a lot of funds into purchasing books for the students that are dated by the time they’re shipped to the school for use in the classrooms. Parents have to spend a lot of money on notebooks, paper, pencils, backpacks, etc. which the child then has to carry around all day from class to class, tugging on his back and shoulders from the weight. Think of the simplicity of a student only having to carry an iPad from class to class with up-to-date curriculum on it and ways to electronically file their homework.
The reality of this is probably not that far off in the distant future. With this technology that provides great benefits, parents (and schools) must also be knowledgeable of how to keep their child/students from access inappropriate sites at school and at home. Just checking the browser history on the device doesn’t cut it anymore. Kids know how to delete that information (and delete it fast). However, if you have a trusted parental controls software package in place that logs the activity in a place that the child cannot get to or erase, then you aren’t being duped by your child and can truly know what they are looking at on their wireless devices.
Don’t be caught off guard. Learn about the technology now so that you are prepared for tomorrow.
Cell Phones and the Americans that Use Them
You know you’ve done it…. You’re walking through the Mall and you pull out your cell phone to pretend like your on an important call so that those pesky marketers in the middle kiosks won’t try to pull you over to their station to show you how shiny they can make your nails. Just admit it. I’ve done it! If I don’t, they’ll sometimes run me down to the end of that hallway trying to get to test their product on me. As my co-worker would say, “Holla!”.
According to a new survey published by Pew Internet, 13% of us pretend to use our cell phone to avoid interacting with people and 42% of play on our phones when we’re bored. Yep, it’s hard for us to just be “still” and enjoy the quiet times of life. Instead, we have to start up Mr. Giggles or PacMan on our phones. The majority of us (9 out of 10) seem to be using our cell phones for text messaging and taking photos. Eight in ten of us go online to watch videos, interact on our social networking sites, or just check out various web sites.
We’re all familiar with the phrase “there’s an app for that”. Well, guess what? There’s an app for protecting yourself from inappropriate content online when on your phone! It’s called Bsecure for Mobile.In fact, Bsecure has a free app for iPhone/iTouch/iPad in the iTunes store and a free app for your Android phone in the Android Marketplace. Now, go install that app!