Within the first paragraph of their article, Beldad, Jong, and Steehounder establish an undeniable truth in today’s world, “personal data have become a commodity.” I certainly use my information as currency on an almost daily basis. I trade my email address, age, gender and home address on a weekly basis in exchange for online coupons. I’ve used the authors’ cost-benefit calculations and determined that these 4 pieces of my identity are a fair trade for the savings I get on my living expenses. Bartering with these pieces of my personal information has become so common in my everyday life that I never even consider the risk anymore. The only time I even hesitate in giving out this information is to keep my email address from getting spammed, which my junk filter has mostly eliminated the need for anyway. I draw a hard line when it comes to my social security number, requesting an alternate identifier whenever possible. In this way, I’ve been using the protection motivation described in the article.

Bodle’s piece on Google’s Privacy Practices was a bit eye opening. Apparently I’m paying a hefty price for that spam filter on my Gmail account. Without strong regulation on companies like Google, they have no incentive to discontinue their practice of putting the responsibility of regulating one’s personal information online on the user. I think part of the reason that Google continues this practice is the general public (myself included until now) that make use of Google’s services are blissfully unaware that so much of what they are using Google for is being stored away for someone else’s use. Even when we do become aware, we feel so defeated that we wonder what the point would be of discontinuing use. They already have all of my information anyway, right?

My life is easier because of Google, there is no arguing that. However, with cloud computing making access to my documents easier for me, it is also making the acquisition of my information even easier for companies like Google. At least Google can claim it is not alone in these practices. After all, those with the iPhone should be aware that everything they say to Siri is recorded and stored at Apple. So is it unethical for these companies to write their privacy policies with “rhetorical patterns that render privacy protections ambiguous and misleading” (Bodle 2011)? Whether it is or not, the responsibility of self-censoring in our online activities has fallen to the user to protect our personal information.

In the Ford vs. Jurgenson and Rey exchange, I was persuaded in some aspects by both sides. Jurgenson and Rey claim that “the problem with the continuum model is that an increase in publicity does not necessarily imply a decrease in privacy or vice versa.”(2012) I would agree that this is true, since no one forces you to reveal things about yourself on Facebook. However, by giving people the opportunity to share online, we also give them the opportunity to expose themselves faster, and to a broader audience. The question then becomes, are they more likely to share private parts of their identity with the advent of social media than before? Does a broader audience encourage sharing of more sensitive material? Ford brings up the “meaning management” concept in her response, citing that users will share their information in a way that masks the meaning to parts of their audience they do not want to discern the true meaning of their postings (2012). That supports the idea that we are at least censoring some parts of our lives from everyone in the online community. I haven’t decided which authors I agree with more on publicity and privacy models, but I do believe we are more exposed in today’s world even if we don’t know it. If any of you are Parks and Recreation fans, check out this topical meme from a prior season episode here.

 Stalder’s article on Castell’s work defining and exploring networks seem to mirror the introduction of A Networked Self. Both gave a biological picture of networks and how communication creates the network between nodes, the building blocks of networks. In the keynote to A Networked Self, Barabasi uses the example of Google to give us a better understanding of how the fitness of a node determines how likely a node is to develop relationships with other nodes. In Google’s case, as a fit node develops lots of connections to other nodes, it becomes easier and easier to gain more relationships, becoming nearly impossible for other nodes to catch up. I liked this example because it gave me a concrete example and led me to see the same example in other areas as well. In particular, it led me to think about the telecommunications industry and what I learned about it during a brief post-college employment with a wireless provider. There are two dominant wireless companies in America today, and probably about 5 major brand competitors. Because the top two companies can afford the top two spots on every cell tower, their signal strength is better than their competitors and this leads more and more consumers to contract with them because of that reputation.

I mentioned in my introduction that one of the aspects of social media that I would like to explore during this class is this sub-type of etiquette that has formed around our online interactions. I’ve also come to realize that while platforms like Facebook make me feel connected to old friends and acquaintances by giving me the impression that I know what is going on in their life because we have had some kind of conversational interaction, the reality is that the only contact I’ve had with them is voyeuristic. I’ve seen pictures of their children and I know they got a new job last year because of what I have seen in my news feed on Facebook, but we haven’t exchanged information directly to each other for years in some cases. I may have “liked” their most recent status update, or wished them a happy birthday, as prompted by Facebook, but the truth is those are just as much for the other people reading the “news feed” of our mutual friends as those interactions fill a social obligation. Boyd talks about these interactions in the second chapter of A Networked Self, “Comments are not simply a dialogue between two interlocutors, but a performance of social connections before a broader audience. I know I have been guilty of writing the obligatory birthday message almost on a daily basis, and I know that at least to some, this is a way of saying, “Look at what a good friend I am, I remembered your birthday!” I hope this topic is something we will explore more in the coming weeks.

Going back to our discussion from last class on defining new media, I was further affirmed by our readings this week that new media, in my recent interactions, is giving users the ability to broadcast their own message. I am more convinced than ever that, at least the way I use it in my own life, new media comes down to one button on my smartphone and computer, the “share” button. In chapter three of New Media Cultures, Marshall writes about McLuhan’s explanation of cool media as, “those that allowed for greater interaction, where the audience as participants completed the form and its meaning.” (pg.31) When I read this, it dawned on me that this could be a completely accurate academic description of both Twitter and Tumbler. Most of the tumblers that I have read or check with any regularity do not even have much original content. They are usually a short two to five second gif file from a show or movie and the author has captioned or titled the file with their own witty comment. They are using the new media outlet, and someone else’s art to send out their own message.

My name is Meagan Fertig, and although I am a chronic blog checker, this is the first time posting. I received my bachelor’s degree in music with a concentration in music business from the University of Memphis in 2006.  I am currently the administrative associate in the Recruitment and Orientation office at the University of Memphis, and this will be my first semester as a part time graduate student in the Communications Department. While I was a music business student, I was very interested in how bands could connect with fans using social media, and worked with online promotions for label bands during my internship at a local recording studio.  At that time, before Facebook had music and video capabilities, most music promotion with social media was done using MySpace. While MySpace did have music hosting and calendar capabilities that were useful for bands, the connectibility and exposure to new fans was extremely limited in a time before Facebook’s “sharing” and news feed existed.

Now that I am working full time for the university, I am interested in further using social media to reach out to prospective student populations. For the last few months I have been helping to expand the use of social media for the Office of Admissions as well as Recruitment and Orientation by increasing our usage of Twitter and Facebook. This past summer we used Twitter in the program for our new student orientation and tracked the interaction using custom channels on Tweet Deck. We created a hash tag for orientation and included a Twitter contest for our parents and guests who attended orientation with their incoming student. Recently, I’ve also participated in a virtual college fair using CollegeWeekLive.com to live chat with students around the country who are interested in the University of Memphis, using  both Facebook and Twitter to promote the live chat feature.

I’ve enjoyed seeing the way social media has changed in the last few years to connect businesses and organizations directly to individuals. I hope to learn more about the nature of communication that takes place within social media, along with the privacy issues that are a by-product in this class. In addition, I hope to explore the sub-set of etiquette that has developed around social media behavior. As a full time employee, I’m excited that I will be able to understand and implement what I will learn in this class into my current position, and I think it’s the perfect class to start my graduate work.

On a personal note, I’m a huge music fan and a lifetime Memphian. My husband is nice enough to put up with my Netflix and Pinterest habits, and I’ve learned to live through his annual fantasy football season. I haven’t had a bad day yet that a plate of BBQ nachos from Central couldn’t fix.