Twitter

How free is your Tweeting Bird?               

This module has brought around many firsts for me one of which is the use of Twitter. This is a medium which has been receiving a lot of attention. Radio ones hosts endless hash tag discussions and games inorder to engage listeners but also to demonstrate which presenters can get the most interaction and are there fore most popular.  Radio 1 Example of twitter advice. In terms of popularity Justin Beber is dong very well he makes top tweets most days and sneaks through your filter ( no I'm not a closset fan) on top tweets. Clearly teenage girls are the key demograpghic?

How has twitter changed my life? More than I thought, for a start I have not been buying a newspaper everyday. Eek This has been a somewhat horrifying revelation. I have enjoyed using Twitter to a point, well not enjoyed exactly more its become something I feel I need to do. Now like my email pile I hate when it gets to big.  I still hold with the notion of Twitter as a visual radio. Although this may be a characteristic of my use rather than global representation of it's use.  In fact I would like an addition where I can filter the tweets I want to read into a read later pile.  Once I pass a tweet I rarely go back regardless of my intentions.

I'd to date have been using Twitter more like a service than a communication tool. Discussions on twitter are of the moment and I always take a little longer to settle on an opinion, well at least one I be happy to defend down the line. I'm a bit like the fly on the wall.

Other people who a little more keen on twitter are Sean and Co
 self confessed media geeks who apparently enjoy a touch of arts and crafts Blue Peter style with their cube bombing efforts. They have made themselves a nest and interestingly enough a cage.

 

Which brings me to the key question twitter has raised for me. How free are you really when it comes to tweeting?

Firstly it turns out that bird can get you fired! the Huffington post ran an article on 13 tweets that got people sacked. It an interesting and controversial topic.The tweets that are highlighted here are quite clear cut on being asked to rate the fainess of these actions more than 70% of people agreed it was fair. What I want to know is where is the line. Companies are begining to issue guidelines but it seems unfair that where guidlines are not given with training for copmanies who want a positive publicity that they want your good words but can sack you if they don't like it now thats not really fredom of speech is it.  I would discuss this in relation to my company but that would be unwise.

 Mike Morrison states "With many organisations publicly encouraging people to “go social” and often their customers wanting the opposite, it is only a matter of time before people are either “silenced” altogether – of firms and organisations will be outed for restrictive inappropriate behaviour" .   I think the current financial climate and shortage of jobs however gives employers the edge currently. Although most companies have reacted slowly and have differing views on appropriate use of digital media most recognise it can also benefit them. This raises for me more questions than can be answered.

With these restrains and encouragements who owns your Tweeting soul?

Tomorrows World

How do we educate for a better future?         

                                                                                     
Speak their language is an article I believe highlights why simply teaching children to be better programmers will not help our problems. For them its not a question of changing your view of technology it has already been assimilated into there culture

The guardian ran an article "Why all of our Kids should be taught code"  by John Naughton. While some of these skill will doubtless be needed by individuals and to serve the future employment market they only serve to solve part of a problem.  I was the reading an article which stated very little is written about during the time of a revolution. Most writing takes place after a period of reflection. This happens regardless of  the size of revolution for example  the French Revolution or the Telephone but when it comes to young people I believe the Car car is a better analogy. Technology which changed everyone lives, gave young people new found freedom and took them out with the protection of there parents. How did we solve this problem? By teaching people to drive, having a test and once they had passed trusting them to drive safely. Three things education, standards and trust. We taught them to drive not how to build cars. We won't need everyone to be able to build a website, a programme and a what ever comes up in the future we need them top be able to use it safely. 

Digital judgement?

Digital Judgement

Is poor spelling a digital aged impediment? 

As you will no doubt have noticed, despite my best efforts,  I am a poor speller. I have always been a poor speller and the speed of my written work has never matched the pace of my thinking. Apart from being extremely frustrating , I wonder if this has been part of my reluctance to enter the digital age with enthusiasm. Instead of being frightened to open my mouth ( which I have never been )I have been frightened to commit my thoughts to screen. People judge it's what we do. I do not recount any of my previous statements, or questioning, it's just I think this is part of the reason, the catalyst to my ethical questioning. Generally we question less of the things we like and more on the things we don't.  

I don't think I'm alone in this quandary. Digital communications allow us to speak to everyone at once, this can be a good thing? Well one of the problems of mass communication is tone and language. We don't speak to everyone in the same manner, choose the the same vocabulary or use the same tone.

 Georgina Laidlaws article on the The rapid evolution of digital language  summarises the problem of ever changing digital specific language. The problem itself is a Little wider.

In the old days of the telephone (pre caller I.D) most of us would answer in what we still revert to as our telephone voice. Once we had established who was calling we would change our tone to reflect the relationship you have with the caller. You were speaking to one person if others were listening you could move out of earshot. Now no matters who calling everyone is listening. Its harder to have multiple strands to your identity. Will we all have to have multiple online identity's to re brand ourselves to each environment? Possibly we will become personal brands: Work Angela, Recreational Angela and realistically Drunk Angela but even if you meticulously mannage your brand it will not solve the problem entirely.

I thought all this time by not being on facebook I could opt out of digital inspired problems. Turns out I'm all over facebook, (well on it) in the pictures and pages of my friends. The age old interview question of how would your friends describe you ,will in future be answered by your friends! Not how would they describe you, how do they describe you!