KONY12: Evaluating the Public Discourse of the Social Media Phenomenon

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Unless you've been hiding under a rock or been vacationing for the past week, you've likely seen links insisting that you watch a YouTube video entitled KONY12 or something to that effect. Twitter has been abuzz the past few days with hashtags like #MakeKonyFamous or #stopkony being among the biggest trenders. Typically, hashtags may last for about a day when they first make the trend list, but not this movement trying to inform you about some guy named Kony. The short film has been created by the founders of Invisible Children, who wanted to bring attention to the actions of the Lord's Resistance Army, headed by Joseph Kony, involving using child soldiers. After doing that, the group wanted to spur enough social action to bring about Joseph Kony's arrest. I first heard about Invisible Children four or five years ago, when a friend of mine learned about what they were doing and felt compelled to share what he had found out. This friend felt his whole life's calling shifting towards intervening in the issue. He wanted to play a part in bringing an end to the Lord's Resistance Army's use of children in war, while also bringing Kony to justice. What was most significant about my friend's response was that he was a pretty politically uninvolved guy in terms of taking a stand with causes. He had his own things as a young guy that he kept himself busy with in Canada, but beyond North America, there wasn't a significant level of concern. Bring in knowledge about the atrocities of the past thirty years in Uganda and he felt spurred to take action. That to me is very significant and praiseworthy.

Click to read more ...

Why Twitter, Facebook and Google+ can Peacefully Coexist

 - San Diego, California - Amidst the unbelievable—perhaps exaggerated—buzz surrounding Google Plus, I've read many articles that pit Google's new social networking service against Facebook. One friend of mine predicted “Facebook will be the new Classmates by December.” Others declare that this is the latest of Google's many (failed) efforts to overtake social networking—first with Orkut and then with Google Buzz. I saw similar us-versus-them language when Apple announced Twitter integration with the new iPhone operating system due in September—some commented that it had lost the “social network war” to Facebook since Facebook has more active users than Twitter does. I believe these discussions make a critical mistake in assuming that all social networks are in direct competition with each other. From my experience with Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus, I have found that the three social networks serve different social needs and thus are only peripherally in competition. Though I know I am contradicting the doomsday prophecies of social columnists everywhere, I believe we benefit from having all of these social networks. Each of them serves a specific and unique purpose that the others (for the most part) cannot provide.

Click to read more ...

Lost in Translation

- Vancouver, British Columbia - Conversation is a lost art. In the not so distant past, when people needed to communicate, they talked face to face. If they were unable to do so, they wrote letters to the other person. A letter is so personal. You can see the individual's distinctive cursive, and their emotions through their words. You can tell by certain slants and spacing how agitated one was while writing the said piece. Anger is presented by the pressure applied to the pen during writing. You can see when they took time in what they were saying, as if they wanted to impress or are just slow writers. You can see the words that they crossed out either because it wasn‘t the right fit, or they just can‘t spell. However, even though letters are personal and tangible ways to communicate, you are unable to hear the tone of voice, or read a person’s body language as you are able to in order to better interpret the meaning behinds certain phrases that they say.

Click to read more ...