May 23, 2013

Posts Comments

WSJ: Web Profiles Haunt Students

October 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In a piece published today in the Wall Street Journal, Web Profiles Haunt Students, it’s pretty clear that too many kids today forget that those social networks – Facebook, Twitter and Google+ – are not nearly as private as they think.

Here’s an excerpt:

About a quarter of admissions officers at the nation’s top 500 colleges have used websites such as Facebook and Google to vet applicants, according to an annual Kaplan Test Prep survey. Of those, more than one-third say they have found something that has hurt a student’s chance of admission, up from 12% last year.

It goes on to say:

Vetting by using social-media sites including Facebook and Twitter still hovers in a gray zone at most college admissions offices. Just 15% of the schools in the survey had an official policy about whether to do so, and more than two-thirds of those schools said they won’t use the technique.

Among schools without a policy, more than a quarter say they have checked out a student’s online persona, up slightly from last year, said Jeff Olson, vice president of data science at Kaplan Test Prep, who conducted the survey this summer. Kaplan has included questions about social media in its annual survey for four years.

“The trend line is there,” Mr. Olson said. “My advice to students is to be smart and think twice about what you post online.”

We’ve said this before (more precisely, Abby said this last February in Talking Tech With Your Kids ), but it’s obviously worth repeating:

Make sure your kids understand how social network activity, if not handled properly, WILL come back to bite in very uncomfortable ways.

Yes, the Grandmother Rule is a good rule: do not post anything online (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) that you would not want your grandmother to see.

So as Crosby, Stills and Nash once sang, teach your children well.

(Note: WSJ is a paid service, so access to the full article may require membership. Sorry, we can’t repost it in its entirety here.)

 
0 Comments

Following the 2012 Olympics Online

July 30, 2012 by 3 Comments

The 2012 Olympics are here and I’ve got the Olympic fever.  If the TV is on at my house, we are watching whatever Olympic sport is on at the time.  When I can’t watch the Olympics on TV, I go online to keep tabs on what’s going on.

London 2012 Results App

My go to app is the London 2012 Results App (free, iTunes & Google Play).  I’ve got it on my iPad and Android phone and I can see the events schedule, track results, follow athletes, and my personal favorite, keep tabs on the medal count.  I’ve even setup push notifications to let me know when USA earns a medal, the daily USA summary, and daily medal summary for all countries.

NBC

NBC has exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in the United States, so we rely on NBC to show as many events as possible.  Our cable provider currently has 7 channels dedicated to the Olympics.  Check your local listings and set your DVR if you are so inclined.  We actually dropped DVR at our house about a month ago and there’s been a few moments where it would have been nice to rewind, but for the most part we haven’t missed it at all.

You can also download the NBC Olympics Live and Live Extra apps to follow the games and watch clips on your preferred device.  I haven’t done too much exploring on either app but I can see using the Live Extra app to catch up on events I missed.  (You can only use the Live Extra app to watch live events if you sign in with your cable provider account.  If you don’t have cable, then this app isn’t going to work well for you.)

Twitter

Twitter, the Olympics, and the time zone differences can be tricky.  If you want to wait and see the results as you watch it on TV, don’t get on Twitter unless you want to see a spoiler.

Another way to follow your favorite Olympians on Twitter is to create a list.  Lists are a great way to follow a group of Twitter accounts.  You can create your own lists or follow lists other people have created.  I like using lists because I can follow someone on via Twitter list without following them and their tweets showing up in my main Twitter feed.  And since they aren’t in my main Twitter feed, I don’t see any spoilers.

I’ve got a Twitter list started that I’m trying to add to as I can.  You can check it out here and follow if you want.

How do you follow the 2012 Olympics?  Do you use an app or Twitter?  Or do you avoid social media completely until you’ve had a chance to watch the competition?

What’s your favorite Olympic sport and favorite Olympic athlete?  Let us know in the comments!

Additional Reading

See something we missed? Got a question you’d like to see answered here? Just want to chat us up?

Try one of these:

Use the Contact Us page to drop us a note.
Follow us on Facebook (if you haven’t “Liked” us yet, you should be ashamed).
Shoot a tweet our way.

 
3 Comments

Twitter for #Rookies

December 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

For my friends and colleagues who have joined Twitter and have no idea how to use it or maybe you read Sam’s post about Twitter and you want to know more of the basics, this post is for you.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking site that allows you to post messages that are 140 characters or less.  You can post text or links.  Twitter’s character limit forces you to get directly to the point you are trying to make.  There’s no room for fluff.

What should I tweet?

Anything you want, as long as its 140 characters or less.  Not sure if you should tweet about what you had for dinner?  Ask yourself if you would want to read it if someone else posted it or how would you feel if you had to read every tweet you posted out loud.

What are the hashtags for?

Twitter hashtags, also known as tags, are used to indicate a keyword in a tweet.  Tags are easy to search and you can click on a tag to see other tweets with the same tag.  The best part about tags is there are no rules or predetermined list you have to use.  You can make up your own or use common tags.

Quick Tip:  Don’t put any special characters into your hashtag as that will break up your hashtag.  Text only please.

What is a mention?

A mention is when someone else has put your username into their tweet.  You can see your mentions in the @Mentions view and you can also setup notifications to alert you when someone has mentioned you in a tweet.

Can everyone see when I reply to someone’s tweet?

Yes, if your profile is public anyone who visits your page will see your reply.  You can also follow conversations other people are having if you are following both people.

What if I want to send a tweet that no one else can see?

Send a message (formerly called direct message or DM).  The Twitter Help section has a good description of what messages are and how to use them.

What is a retweet?

If you like a tweet or want to share it with others, you retweet it.  For Facebook users, a retweet is the equivalent of a Facebook like.

When retweeting, its important to remember some basic rules.

  1. Don’t plagarize.  Don’t take someone else’s tweet and try to pass it off on your own.
  2. Give credit where its due.  Always include the username of the person who posted the original tweet in your retweet.

Marian Schembari at MarianLibrarian.com has a great post called Please (for the love of GOD) stop using the retweet button!  Take the time to check it out.

Finally, be easy on the retweets.  If I look at your Twitter profile and all of your tweets are actually just retweets, I am probably not going to follow you as it appears you have nothing original to say.

What else should I know?

  • Set a profile picture when you create the account.  It helps to have a face or image other than the default to put with your username.
  • Keep your username short, simple, and preferably relative to your actual name or business.
  • If you aren’t comfortable putting your tweets out there for the world to see, make your account private.  Others will request to have access to your page and you can choose who you let in.  I would also suggest making your account private if you are currently looking for a job or one day, will need to look for a job.  You would hate to not get a job because of that one stupid tweet.
  • Its okay to lurk.  Most people are consumers only, meaning they only read tweets and rarely, if ever, contribute with a tweet of their own.

Some other Twitter resources for you to check out:

This is not a comprehensive description of everything you can do on Twitter, but it will definitely help you get started.

Follow Beyond The Defaults at @BeyondDefaults on Twitter today!

 
0 Comments

Why Twitter?

November 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Yes, I am a Twitter person. Normally, I would get to blame Abby for my being on or using some form of social media, but I actually had an account before she did. She, however, uses it much better than I do (as you can tell by reading this site).

But it does bring me to a question I get asked a lot by friends: “What’s so great about Twitter?”

I think Twitter is useful to different people for different reasons. Of all the mainstream social networks, I personally think this one has the broadest appeal. It facilitates a lot of real-time communication to a very broad audience very easily – and most importantly from a lot of different sources.

For example, you can tweet with:

  • A computer with a browser,
  • A computer with a third-party aggregation tool (like TweetDeck or HootSuite),
  • A smartphone with either a browser or Twitter application, or
  • A feature phone (also known as a non-smartphone) via SMS Text Messages.

Needless to say, no shortage of ways to get the message out. For me, it’s either TweetDeck or the Twitter (from Twitter) app for my phone. Ive used the app for both the BlackBerry and iOS, and it works very well.

Enough about the “how”, the real reason for this is the “why”. As I mentioned, Twitter is different things to different people:

  • Social Sharing (its original intent and most frequent use)
  • Rapid Data Dissemination
  • Crowdsourcing Ideas
  • News Gathering and Filtering
  • News Reading (think of it as a really thin and streaming RSS feed)
  • Entertainment

For me, I’d probably rank my top three reasons for using Twitter like this:

1. News Feed

Any more, I get most of my news from Twitter. The stream can be overwhelming, so it takes some time to find the right people to follow that tend to cover the news areas of most interest to me. Managing the “follows” means making changes from time to time, to keep the most interesting things in my timeline. In addition to these, I also use a couple of lists (more for TweetDeck purposes than anything else) that bring together a more eclectic group of sources.

So why not use RSS? Because of its streaming nature, old news goes by and becomes just that – old news. When I open my timeline, I see what’s current. Not only is it current, it’s succinct: there’s only 140 characters to get the point across, so if it doesn’t catch my attention, I usually don’t read it. It’s also very unfiltered – you tend to hear more of the real person in the tweet, as opposed to a vanilla, politically correct media persona.

2. Social Sharing/Crowdsourcing Ideas (tie)

Ok, I know I have four, and it’s a top three. It really was a tie.

I share what I think is interesting and of value to those who follow me. In a lot of ways, it’s kind of replaced my use of Google Reader sharing – and since Googzilla has chosen to kill that feature, it’s probably a good idea I replace it anyway.

I’ve also found, and not just from my own needs, that tossing a question/thought out to Twitter tends to elicit responses from the community. Got a problem or something odd, and you need a sanity check to see if it’s just you? Twitter is a great place to do that.

3. Entertainment

A day without a laugh from something posted on Twitter is a boring day. Add @MeetingBoy, @DrunkHulk or @TheOnion to your feed and your you’re guaranteed something pretty funny. Not all of them are suitable for all ages, so spend some time looking at their timelines before adding them to yours.

That’s what makes Twitter interesting to me. What about you?

 

 
0 Comments