Microsoft says “No” to Sexting

Take a look at this ad for Microsoft’s Kin, its new line of phones targetted at hipsters who loooove to socialize and let me know if you see something a little too scandalous/creepy/controversial/all of the above:

So if you’ve ever wondered what the act of “sexting” looks like, Consumer Reports called out the friendly man 33 seconds in who slips his super-cool new Kin under his shirt for sexting a lovely lady also at the party.

So Microsoft has since announced that the company takes sexting very seriously and never meant to offend anyone and has quickly edited out the incredulous act.  Kudos to Microsoft’s PR team for acting quickly, but I’m just not sure this video really symbolizes the dirty pictures of private parts that 1 out of every 6 young people send to their lovers, friends, and frenemies.

AP Style Catches Up with Pop Lingo

Okay- As a public relations major in a journalism school, AP style is implied to be our writing bible.  Well three years after buying my first style book, a few failed grammar exams behind me and a dozen mediocre style quizzes, the Associated Press has finally announced (via twitter) that they’re updating one of their most out-dated and generally ignored guidelines:

“Responding to reader input, we are changing Web site to website. This appears on Stylebook Online today and in the 2010 book next month.”

Move Over, Betty White; iPad is America’s New Sweetheart

On Saturday, the iPad busted free from the Apple secret labs with the vivacity and boldness of a Dreamgirls diva, belting to the world, “you’re gonna love me!!!”  And that’s exactly what we did.

In 24 hours, Apple sold an unprecedented 700,000 iPads, outpacing the iPod, iPhone, and iPhone 3Gs instantaneously making it America’s favorite new tech toy.  While months ago, the iPad founds its way into the hands of the the country’s media movers and shakers, it has now made its way into the American consciousness.

What’s amazing about the iPad is the way the media has welcomed it with open arms with that hope that the iPad might save their dying industries.  To the print media its their savior, to the broadcast media its one tool in a worldwide plot to bring “TV Everywhere.”

I knew the iPad had joined the major leagues when last Wednesday it guest starred on an episode of my favorite show, Modern Family.  Hilariously, the show perfectly captured the hysteria around the imminent iPad release.  Product placement?  No actually, in true Apple tradition of never paying for publicity, the company just donated an iPad for the shoot and the writers just went from there.  the “Game Changer” Modern Family episode is the iPad’s crowning moment as it assimilated completely into popular culture.

Facebook Relationships Get A Bit More Complicated…

EDIT: After more investigating with my friends, we’re starting to believe this was a horrible horrible April Fools Joke.  Anyways, continue reading if you want but don’t fall for the prank like this young and impressionable undergraduate student.

As a self-proclaimed Facebook stalker browser, I’m a little shaky about Facebook’s latest move into the social dating world.

The new “Relationships” feature to be released at the F8 conference in a few weeks is facebook’s attempt to capitalizing on the millions of hot and steamy virtual hook-ups, open relationships, and “it’s complicated” status updates that spring up in users news feeds everyday.  By molding online matchmaking with social gaming, Facebook hopes to strike gold with its newest endeavor.  Here’s a quick run-down of the features of Facebook Relationships from TechCrunch:

• Facebook’s going to size-up your past boyfriends and girlfriends interests and photos and (attempt to) determine the physical features and characters traits you’re attracted to and who might satisfy your assessed desires.
• So then, Facebook will merge profile activity and relationship status updates into a “flirts” section, giving that poke you sent Rico Suave the other day a new meaning.
• My least favorite part- Facebook’s going to allow users to see how often other users have viewed their profiles to see who’s feeling who, etc.  (basically I’m going to have to re-do my facebooking habits).  Facebook says this will encourage its biggest stalkers to be a little less creepy.  Thanks for that, Facebook.

So what made Facebook decide to become my personal matchmaker by throwing out all my dirty laundry?  Well, by partnering with Zynga, it hopes to encourage users to interact and flirt through social gaming, or more directly, get its foot in the door in the booming market for games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars.

So what will users think?  No big deal? Just another step in the already disappearing line between public and private lives?  Who knows.  But boys and girls, for your own information:  I’m not on the market, so please choose to flirt and poke at your own risk, who knows, I might just splurge on a $1 facebook teddy bear for ya; I’m pretty generous like that

Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives

You know, it’s quite the responsibility to be a digital native.  Always tweeting and googling and digging and multitasking and managing my life both online and offline, it’s really pretty exhausting.  The strange thing is that this is my normal and I (like the billions of other young people who have grown up using digital technology) am blissfully unaware of constantly accelerating effects of technology on our global culture.  Sometimes you have to remove yourself from your world and get a birds eye view to understand the big picture and the implications of your actions on the future.

And that is just what Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives does.  Harvard Professors John Palfrey and Urs Gasser attempt to explain the habits and behaviors of digital natives to their parents, teachers, and other adults who just can’t comprehend what motivates this different generation.

With more than 1 billion digitally literate young people around the world, Palfrey and Gasser thinks of the “digital natives” as not just any other generation, but a population born after 1980 and has grown up with digital technology.

But what makes this extraordinary group of individuals so special?  Technological advancement has ALWAYS occurred in the past, but never to this speed.  Consider this food for thought: Gutenberg didn’t create the first European printing press until centuries after the Chinese first developed theirs.  On the flip side, in just a few short decades billions of people around the world have quickly adopted new digital technologies.

With the foundations of our culture shaking now faster than ever before because of the Internet and other tools, it’s no wonder that adults everywhere are concerned about the future of our society. Are we scared about the unknown, but no generation has lived their entire life immersed in this digital world, so while we can discuss the digital natives now and how culture has developed to this point, the rest is completely unwritten.

In Born Digital, Palfrey and Gasser’s main message is clear: To present the positive and negatives surrounding the digital revolution and suggest how we can work together to ease the massive transition.

Text “DOLPHINS” at the Oscars?

I spent my Sunday night sitting in my room, cranking out a research paper and listening in on the Oscars, one of my favorite nights of the year that reminds me how much I love movies and how unfortunate my crazy-busy life is that I can’t see all the nominees.

When The Cove won best documentary I whipped myself towards the T.V. and felt overwhelmingly happy, like I vicariously helped this incredible film receive the international recognition it deserved and increased awareness for its cause.

When Wendy Cohen, Participant Media’s Manager of Community and Alliances, visited our class a few, she discussed the production houses ultimate goal of creating films that create social awareness and inspire individuals to take action through their online communities at takepart.com.

While Participant Media is effectively marketing communities around issues that support its films, who knows if these communities will be sustainable after the lifespan of the film.  The Oscars “text dolphin” stunt was a perfect example of Participant Media’s somewhat reciprocal relationship between its films and its social causes.

Alice Shatters Records (In Disney Digital 3D)

I’ll go ahead and throw it out there again:  I am a complete Disney nut.  So take it as no surprise that I’ve been counting down the days until Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland finally premiered for months.  I’ve followed the film’s roller coaster production history for years and have been pulling for the movie to be Disney’s next champion, pulling the studio out of the gutters and re-christening a fruitful relationship between the studios, Tim Burton, and Johnny Depp.

So as you’ve probably heard, Alice completely shattered records this weekend raking in $210.3 million internationally, making it the largest non-peak season opening of all time and the largest 3D opening.

I’ve always been fascinated my new technology and can say I’ve seen about every modern 3D film released to date (minus Journey to the Center of the Earth) and while the technology is stunning, I completely understand that 3D can not make a movie; a bad story is a bad story and no amount of eye-popping tricks can fix it, and, in some cases (like Alice in Wonderland) 3D might detract from the performances and story.

But what I love about the 3D revolution is the technology’s ability to bring audiences back to theatres and reinvent the total movie-going experience. Audiences are forced back into their local AMCs and Cinemarks for a cinematic event event that they can’t wait 12 weeks to watch online or on DVD.

Now with every studio jumping on the bandwagon (see How to Train a Dragon and Clash of the Titans, both set to open in the next month), the question remains unanswered:  will people continue to flock to the movies for these must-see movie events  or will they simple wait a few weeks to watch it on their new (soon-to-be-released) 3D blu-ray home theatre system?  Hopefully the former…

PS- If you haven’t seen Alice yet an witnessed the new TRON: Legacy trailer, you are seriously missing out.  Disney’s waiting a bit to release it online but I’ll keep you updated….

@khloekardashian said what about #THON?

Two weekends ago, Penn State hosted their annual Dance Marathon (affectionately called “THON”) and raised nearly $8 million for their local children’s hospital.  While hundreds of colleges around the nation host these events (USC being one of the newest), no one comes close to bringing in the national attention or raising the cash as THON, without a doubt the world’s largest student-run philanthropy project.

So two weekends, as I sat glued to my mac watching the live webcast on Ustream for nearly the entirety of the 46-hour event, something incredible happen.  Within the webcast window was a real-time twitter feed tracking the #THON trend.  After noticing parents giving shout-outs to their babies “all grown up” or alumni congratulating the students, all of a sudden, the flood gate burst open as #THON became one of the top trending topics of the day.

THON already is a phenomenon.  It’s left its mark on millions of children, students, and community members.  But this year, it completely transformed into a worldwide force because of the power of social media. When celebrities starting tweeting about your cause (cough khloe kardashian cause) and thousands of individuals retweeting and communicating and linking to your site and fighting for your cause, all of a sudden you’ve created an international viral sensation.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ve spent my college experience devoted to establishing Dance Marathon at USC and building TrojanDM as a brand into a anticipated and celebrated philanthropic organization.  From a PR perspective, our end goal is to change our audience behavior by building brand awareness for our organization and our beneficiary (Childrens Hospital Los Angeles).

This weekend we hosted our third annual Dance Marathon and blew our expectations out of the water. Raising more than$27,000, on Saturday we christened our position as one of USC’s premier philanthropies and a tradition for years to come as 600 students participated in our 12-hour event.

While students couldn’t scope around facebook without seeing our logo or flyer or event invites for the last few weeks, to take Dance Marathon at USC to the next level, we need to effectively harness social media unlike any other student organization to build a passionate community around our cause and our brand.  There’s so much room for Dance Marathon to grow and I can’t wait to see where we go next.

On a side note, look for more blog updates in the coming week as the monster that’s consumed my life has finally gone into hibernation (hopefully).

Some pics from DM:

Still Chatrouletting

Since I last discussed my love for Chat Roulette on this blog, the site has gone completely viral, outing its 17-year-old Russian creator and attracting the attention of nearly every major tech blog, celebs like Paris Hilton and the JoBros, and our very own Julie Epstein (during CMGT 538 no less, she just couldn’t get enough )

While I’ve always been a CR-head, lately I’ve gotten nearly every one of my friends hooked to the site.  While we’ve endured through countless pervy frat boys and lonely (in many cased TOO lonely) creepers, we have with out a doubt found our share of gems within the mountain internet-looneys.  Be it the girls in Jersey who share my friend’s love for Jersey Shore’s Snookie and Pauley D, the freshman theatre major in Oklahoma who dreams of performing on Broadway, or my new friend Brian Paul (we’re following each other on Twitter so that definitely counts as friends) who we shared a two hour long conversation with about life, philosphy, and his improv comedy troupe.

These experiences remind me of the reason I was spurred to join APOC in the first place.  Through Chat Roulette, we’re able to explore the commonality between complete strangers halfway around the world.  I know the concept of random video-chatting is slightly creepy, but in all honesty, it’s a visual representation of everything we love about the internet in the first place:  The thrill of not knowing what’s next, the entertaining experiences I can remember forever, the excitement of learning about new places and people, the possibility of sharing new ideas, and the thrill of building relationships and connecting with people despite geographic boundaries.

Call me a creeper, but I dare you to bunker down with a few friends, prepare yourself for full-frontal nudity, and enjoy the exhilarating roller coaster that is Chat Roulette.

And if you’re not feeling game tonight?  Check out this blog of hilarious CR moments, “ChatrouLOLZ.”

Ning

users can upload photos to the fan community of my favorite Dallas radio show, Kidd Kraddick in the Morning.

In high school I was obsessed with this local morning radio show called “Kidd Kraddick in the Morning.”  While I’ll admit, it was one of the few early morning shows I could brainlessly listen to as I drove to school at 6:30 a.m., I became quite the Kidd Kraddick groupie, even showing up even earlier at the studio with my friends to to watch the morning crew take to the airwaves through their big glass windows.

This week, Clint asked us to explore a few Ning networks before class.  As the self-professed “social platform for the world’s interests and passions online,” Ning allows users to quickly create their own social networks and build a community.

I quickly realized that Kiddnation, the fan community of my favorite local radio chat fest, was powered by Ning.  Kiddnation allows members to discuss the show, post on a community blog, watch videos featured on the show, and update their own profiles to reflect their personalities and interests.

So why create an entirely new community when a fan page on Facebook can handle the same capabilities?

Matt Bijar from KickApps (which also develops social media tools for its customers) believes that while facebook and twitter are necessary to ensure a clients comprehensive presence online, the end goal should always be to drive users to their corporate sites.  Ning gives community managers the ability to fully customize their sites which builds brand loyalty and creates distinct comunities with distinct personalities, unlike Facebook fan pages which all look the exact same.

On the other side, I don’t like Ning’s lack of “search” on its home page.  I would love to be in control and be able to search for networks that fit my interests, instead of having networks be suggested to me.  But other than that, I love the functionality of the platform and would love to use Ning to build my own community that suits my passions and interests.