social media

HisSpace?

/ Susan Scrupski / 1 Comment
Media_httpsusanscrups_wbwrh

All righty, then. I find myself in a parental/professional quandary. My pre-teen son has adamantly decided I cannot, under any circumstances, have access to his MySpace page. On the one hand, I think– the little $%^&*!! On the other hand, I am an advocate for both social media and privacy. I want him to get comfortable with these tools and have the privileges of private conversation within his own social network.I realize I have parental control in this situation and can easily tell him to delete his account if he’s unwilling to allow me access. But, is that the right thing to do? If my son were journaling, would I insist on reading his entries? Probably not. Why do I want access? Well, yes, I’m nosy. I want to know who his friends are and how they conduct themselves in private. (Of course, they’re all very polite in my company.) I want to know what they really talk about… at this age, boys tend to stop disclosing social details to Mom.And, as far as protecting him online… That would be a cop-out of an excuse. I can assure you, I have tried every conceivable trick I can think of to penetrate his MySpace page and have been unsuccessful. He simply will not add anyone he does not know.A while back I posted on Twitter: “Is it wrong to read your son’s text messages?” I got a lot of interesting feedback. So, I open it up to the community– what do you think? Have you dealt with this? Know someone who has? I’d love to hear your opinions/suggestions on this.

Do you have a card?

/ Susan Scrupski / 1 Comment

Media_httpfarm3static_kxfjw

Over the past year, I’ve fumbled around looking for business cards whenever someone asks me. I personally don’t like business cards. And I’m always hesitant to order new ones with new cell numbers, email addresses, etc. changing all the time. What I typically end up doing is taking one of their cards and writing “ITSinsider, Google me” on the back. All my contact information is all over the web in various places. If you Google ITSinsider, you’ll get my blog in the #1 page rank, generally. This site, alone, has over a dozen ways you can contact me on various social networks (see “Find me” widget).

So, I have decided this is my new card. We can’t escape our online identities, as detailed at length by this somewhat uncomfortable confessional in today’s New York Times. You are what you blog, so live with it.

Of course, someday we may skip this step altogether (the card-exchanging, old-school ritual).

Hug a journalist today; he/she’s no blog-ebrity.

/ Susan Scrupski / Leave a comment

 

Media_httpfarm3static_pafdc

RichardatDell, posited a few things today in general about blogging. One of which was the difference between bloggers and journalists.

Richard’s post inspired Chris Brogan to ask tonight on Twitter, “Do you make much of the difference between bloggers and journalists? http://tinyurl.com/2dv5xw” This is an area I feel particularly passionate about and felt compelled to blog about tonight.

You see, I matured professionally surrounded by ace journalists in the 90s. My journalist “friends” were all reporters at the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, Newsweek, USAToday, etc. All mainstream print media. For the longest time, I subscribed to the Columbia Journalism Review. Because I was a writer myself, I had a healthy respect for the tenets of journalism, although I had never been fortunate enough to have been schooled properly in journalism fundamentals.

Technically, I started blogging in 1999 by posting daily tidbits and scoops on the tech sector I was tracking. My private access “blog” was widely read by financial analysts, execs, and industry insiders. I remember having a long lunch conversation with a veteran New York Times reporter and friend about how the Internet was going to turn his world upside down. We had a great chat that day; I will never forget it. I told him he couldn’t beat me on “fast” or “free.” But, the 1.0 Internet was an arrogant era; I would have a much different conversation with him today.

A few months ago I was IM-chatting with my friend Anne Zelenka about this blogger-journalist conundrum. Ironically, I had mentioned to her that Jeff Jarvis, the blogger, is self-described as an “American journalist” on Wikipedia, but even Richard would agree (I hope) that once a journalist becomes part of a story, it sort of invalidates their objectivity and credibility as Jarvis did with the Dell Hell spectacle. So, Jarvis is a blogger, but not a journalist, IMO. As we were chatting, Anne told me she had published a scoop for GigaOm on the Teqlo demise, but felt sad all day when one of the founders commented on the story.

Reporting the news (with its instantaneous results) is changing our worldview overnight, but I firmly believe we need both bloggers and journalists to keep us informed. In short, the difference between bloggers and journalists is, well, vanity as far as I can see. You won’t find many journalists checking their stats on tweeterboard or racking up friends on Facebook. They’re comfortable to be invisible, maybe a little surly. But mon Dieu! We need them more now than we ever have. Who is going to get to the truth of the greatest issues of our day, stripped of ego, self-aggrandizement and promotion?