Occupy the world !

I have to start by saying I don't fully understand the whole Occupy movement. You see for me I was not there at the start, I was living in a remote part of Africa at the time, so the only exposure was CNN and a few posts on Facebook, mainly my daughter, so for me all it was was people moaning about life and how unfair it all was. So when I came home late last year I wanted to get up to speed on the whole thing.

I went to vist the Occupy London camp at St.Pauls, and I must be honest to say that the people there just reaffirmed my view. People just moaning about how unfair life was, how hard life was, how the rich were all evil, how bankers were all greedy and how the world would soon end. It was all negitive, I did not hear one positive idea or suggestion. I just came away thinking how pointless the whole thing was.

Then I went online, I now had access to YouTube and so I watched copious videos and started to see both sides of the debate. And it was there I saw the first positives, social media was really being used to convey a message, and thats a really good thing. But when you check Facebook, the Occupy Movement starts to look such an American thing, 90% of the groups were US, a good thing and a bad thing in my eyes. However thanks to this wave of voices, the injustises of a country I had been living in, Nigeria, suddenly have a band-wagon they could jump on, and so "Occupy Nigeria" could take place. This for me was the second real positive.

But my issues are this, what is the point ? what is the goal ? who are these people ? and most of all, what ideas are they putting forward ?

I have personally lived beside real poverty, lived in countries that excell at political and commercial corruption, I have seen first-hand the impact of greed, I have also lived in Nigeria and South Africa, but I do wonder if this movement can or will make an actual difference. One thing I have learned through life is never take things at face value, to question is to learn.

Facebook changes your mind

The explosion of Facebook and social media in recent years has sparked plenty of interesting societal, psychological and economic questions:

Why do so many people willingly splash their lives across the web?

What does it say about privacy in 2012?

How is this explosion changing media, technology and other industries around the globe?

A great essay in the Atlantic by Nathan Jurgenson tackles all of those questions and more.

The big idea?

Social media — like photography and other technologies before it — is altering the way that humans look at the world.

Here's how Jurgenson puts it:

For those who use Facebook, whose friends are on the site and logging in many times a day, we have come to experience the world differently. We are increasingly aware of how our lives will look as a Facebook photo, status update or check-in. As I type this in a coffee shop, I can "check-in" on Foursquare, I can "tweet" a funny one-liner overheard from the table next to me and I can take an 'interesting' photo of the perfectly-formed foam on top of my cappuccino. It is easy; I can do all of this and more from my phone in a matter of minutes. And, most importantly, there will be an audience for all of this. Hundreds of the people I am closest with will view all of this and some will reply with comments and "likes."
Simply, I have been trained to see the world in terms of what I can post to the Internet. I've learned to live and present a life that is "likeable."

To Jurgenson — "social theorist of media" who is working on a dissertation at the University of Maryland on "self-documentation and social media" — this should come as no surprise.

Technology has always changed the way that we view and interact with the world, from the discovery of fire, to the invention of the wheel, to the high speeds of railroads, to the earth-centric-shattering miracles of the space program.

Living life on the web is just another step on that long technological march.
"Today, social media has also provided a new, more social way to document ourselves, lives and world," he writes. "Never before was it possible to record and display to all of our friends a stream of photos, check-ins and status updates filled with our thoughts and opinions in such quantity and with such ease. The transformative power of social media surely is of similar magnitude and consequence as the invention of the photograph."

Interesting stuff, for sure.

Twitter rules the world @jack #Tweets

  Nearly six years ago, a small team of people started working on a prototype of the service that we now know as Twitter. On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first Tweet.

Today, on every measure of growth and engagement, Twitter is growing at a record pace. Here are some numbers:

#tweets

·         3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.

·         1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.

·         50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago. 2009

·         140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month. March2010

·         177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.

·         456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).

·         6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

#accounts

·         572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.

·         460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.

·         182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

The simple fact is that Twitter is now changing the world, it’s impact is startling and in truth just a little scary. Why are these 140 character messages just so powerful and what does the future hold ? Why are celebrities so hooked on giving us so much detail of their life, why are governments so afraid of this, does this mean we communicate more than before or less ? For me that’s the thing with Twitter, it has created so many questions rather than any answers.

I have a Twitter account, but in truth I have no real idea why, what I am doing with it, or if I will ever really have a use for it. But there are generations behind me that believe it is the most important application on the web. With all the millions of websites, the one that gives you 140 characters is the most important and most powerful. How weird is that.

To Tweet or not to Tweet ?

Like so many people I am on Twitter, and I am guessing like so many people I have no real idea why. I signed up a few years ago when it was the done thing to do. I was all excited and wondering just what doors it would open, and in truth the answer all these years later was none. Twitter for me thus far has been a total waste of my time.

My theory on Twitter is that it is suitable for the famous, suitable for those who have followers, footballers, TV stars and the like. I see politicians on there and I guess they see it as a way to communicate with the masses, or at least with the press who are following thier every Tweet. So if you already have a voice then Twitter is a good way of getting your word out there. But what, like me, you don't, what if like me, no one cares what you have to say, then why be on Twitter.

I guess if you have a network of friends then yes it could be a good way of keeping that group updated and connected, but unless you already have an offline group, then once again what's the point. But over and over I keep hearing and reading about the value and connectivity of Twitter. So maybe I am missing something. Certainly it is interesting to follow others, I follow certain footballers, from my team, and yep it is interesting to catch a peep into thier world. So although it has not openned a door, it has allowed me to peek through the curtains of these peoples lives.

Maybe I need to find followers, but I have to be honest and say I have absolutely no idea just how to do that. How do you get more and more people to follow you ? At this time I have about 50 people following me on the site and I follow about 150, so I need to find the answer to that, and if anyone can help, or advise please feel free to post up a message.