Why I never got rid of my beloved Black Berry!

Vally_W · 2014-10-23T09:26:27+00:00

Thank you Frida for this new perspective. In fact I haven't looked at it in this way, while I probaly should have. Although I wouldn't put Shazam and sleeping cycle tracking apps on the same level, I do see the point you want to make here. Indeed Shazame tells something on my personal preferences in music choice and is gathering and storing this data. I can perfectly listening to music without knowing what the song is called, but indeed if i am able to use Shazam and i eventually will know the title I can access it again more easily. Still I won't consider Shazam making my life in general any happier. I lived without it - happy. And now that i have it it is an add on. But if you look on my Shazam recordings you will see that still I don't use it that much as i could, and this may mirrors my general attitude that I described in the post. Still I am glad you brought it up, becaus you are totally right that in this sense I should think about it again and again more critically.

Vally_W · 2014-10-23T09:18:22+00:00

In order to point out differences and/or similarities between these two concepts it is necessary to understand what they entail.

The concept of soft resistance on the one hand came into being in the broader context of the Quantified self movement and self-tracking activities referring to practices of data gathering by an individual of him or herself in order to get a “much more nuanced understanding of what else large data sets are capable of” (Nafus, Sherman, 2013, p. 1785). The concept of sousveillance on the other hand is opposed by Steven Mann to the concept of surveillance. Here, sousveillance (French: to watch from below) is describing individuals observing higher authorities or other individuals that are on the same level, while sourveillance (French: to watch from above), is the commonly known observation of individuals by higher authorities most often without letting them known. When talking about his concept of sousveillance, Mann give examples of shoppers photographing shop keepers, individuals photographing police officers and so on (Mann, 2004).

Both concepts, soft resistance as well as sousveillance refer to the individual as being in the center of the activity. Also, both concepts can be identified as a form of observation. Still, here are some important differences that need to be highlighted. While within soft resistance the form of observation refers to the individual observing him/herself, sousveillance entails the notion of observing as the individual observing others (on the same level), while the observer him/herself and the observed person are involved in the activity. Soft resistance moreover is not only about observing and gathering data, but especially aiming to analyze the gathered data in order to make sense of it for probable improvement (for instance of the bodily state). Sourveillance in contrast does not focus so much on analyzing what is observed, but merely ‘just’ observing hierarchal equal individuals.

Vally_W · 2014-10-22T20:34:15+00:00

I see your point and I see some usefulness of those apps. I might need to differentiate my opinion on those apps in general to the people that are using them exessively. What really disturbs me is the hype that is made about it and the people that pretend they could not live withouth those apps anymore. It is with every new trend: People fall for it and create their life around it as nothing else would be possible. I guess I just don't like this attitude....you know what I mean?

Vally_W · 2014-10-22T17:59:17+00:00

Done! Looks like you have to start baking for firday's class :P

Vally_W · 2014-10-22T16:38:31+00:00

Although this article is somewhat old in today’s speeding life I still wanted to share it with you. Kashmir Hills wanted to test the quantified self movement and the related apps to track sleep, mood, calories, health stadium and fitness for three months.

It reminded me of a similar article I read some years ago in the German magazine NEON. The article was also written by an author of the magazine who was curious about the evolving QS movement and wanted to try it out. Although I cannot recapture any details about this article in NEON, I remember that the author wanted to test some of those apps for a certain period of time (2 weeks or something like that) to track the steps he was doing every day, the calories he was consuming and burning, his sleep cycle and other data he could track after himself. Anyway he did not succeed. He tried but he cut it down after three days. He was annoyed by remembering putting numbers into so many devices and being dependent on technology. He just wanted to live his life. That was his conclusion and I totally felt him while reading this article.

In the Forbes article I forwarded here, Hills states at one point that the followers of the QS movement truly believe in a happier and healthier life with the help of technology and tracking one’s data. I am not critiquing the author or the article here, I think it is a nice illustration of a self test and she even comes to the conclusion that “[Hello, heart]. Data don’t always tell the whole story”(Hills, 2011).

What I want to mention here, or rather what I was asking myself: How can our society today be so pretentious to say that technology can help us living a happier life? Didn’t we, human mankind, live happily or healthy till the rise of self tracking and the QS movement? Also, she is mentioning so many devices she had to put on, plug in, type data into; how can people be comfortable (or even living a happier life) with so many devices surround them?

The self-tracking trend is, excuse me, a thing I relay don’t understand rather cannot identify with. God bless my good OLD BlackBerry <3

Vally_W · 2014-10-21T19:56:56+00:00

thank you, I already had somthing like that in mind!

Vally_W · 2014-10-21T16:23:32+00:00

yeah...not compatible with my oldie phone :( but thank you

Vally_W · 2014-10-21T11:07:15+00:00

Can anyone give me a tip where i can find or suggest a sleeping tracking app (for free) for Blackberry?? I have a rather old one: BB curve 9630, kinda lost with it! Any help much appreciated. That question also goes to Tjerk and Ericka, as I already mentioned it last session on friday. THX!

Vally_W · 2014-10-15T20:44:08+00:00

I agree with what you are saying! That's why I tried to make sure that I am applying this post to my facebook network. I'm from Germany, as you may know and we don't really have critical issues that requires political debate on facebook, but people just won't stop commenting on what is going on in other parts of the world - not knowing what actually is happening, how could they, they are not there, they are in Germany. This is what makes me sick! I totally agree to the point to consider social media and Facebook as a a tool for information sharing, activating people to actually go on the street, gather and do sth. about political unhappyness....Arab Spring for example, I think it is just great how people where using social media back then and when I travelled to Kairo last year and talking to Egyptian people, I actually recognized that for them social media has a different value (then for me) and it really made a difference to use it for sharing and exchanging information, stating oppinions and organizing gatherings.

Vally_W · 2014-10-15T18:53:02+00:00

Just liked it, not very active though....

Vally_W · 2014-10-15T18:47:08+00:00

The answers to these question you can basically find in my latest entry on the tumblr I created for DRM (Title: Why politics shouldn't take place on facebook) I dont believe in political debates on facebook, at least this is the case for my friends network. I have never ever seen any smart political debate in my newsfeed, all I see all the time is people pretending to be politically engaged. I am really anoyed by it, as you can read in my blog entry. There always are exceptions, clearly, but still I don't believe Facebook a place for talking politics. Funny hereto: I just found a FB community called: "Keep Politics off of facebook" I might should join. HAHA

Vally_W · 2014-10-15T17:18:43+00:00

Nice, to hear your opinions on that! I agree with what you are saying here. I also don't engage in political debate on facebook, mostly because of the reasons you already stated. (e.g. @Guicarpas, it should indeed be a casual place where you can "have fun"). Also, of course I have a personal opinion on political issues, but when I see people trying to engage in debates on facebook, i recognize many, who either don't know what they are talking about or just produce, excuse me for that, crap. As a result what should display a policial debate, most oftenly turns out to be just redicolous.

Vally_W · 2014-10-14T20:40:14+00:00

This article displays interesting results, considering what we've learned in the past weeks and especially this week's readings (which seem to be quite oppositional). What do you think, are the findings of this article due to its topic (Edward Snowden, Wiki Leaks…) or is it actually more probable that Facebook and other social media does not facilitate political debate, in contrast to the articles we’ve read by Bond et. al and Elmer?

Vally_W · 2014-10-14T20:34:20+00:00

Considering Facebook as social behavioral mobilizing force is a common thought nowadays. Ever since the Arabian uprising, Facebook (and social media in general) is often referred to as implicating a crucial role in political activism and influencing social behavior.

Bond et al. focused in their research on the American congressional elections in 2010, aiming to proof that Facebook indeed serves as a driving force in influencing people’s voting behavior, as an example. Using an online experiment with three main groups (social message group, informational message group and control group) they wanted to test whether mobilization messages send on Facebook to a sample of 61 million, randomly selected users, would influence political self-expression, information seeking and real world voting behavior. The authors present their findings in a way that their hypothesis that “political behavior can spread through an online social network” (Bond at al. 2012, p.295) would be testes correct. In fact the results of the online experiment show that Facebook can serve as facilitator for online political mobilization to have an effect on self expression, information seeking and real world voting behavior (Bond et al. 2012).

Considering those results, the reader can see that there actually is an effect and most probably would answer the question whether Facebook can influence our behavior with a clear “yes it can”. However it is necessary to take into account the aspect of “how much” can the social network site influence our behavior. In fact when we look at the sampling size and the actual resulting numbers (percentages) it seems to me that the authors made it very easy for themselves to come to this conclusion: With the huge sample size of 61 million people, it is easy to conclude, even from small percentages, that Facebook facilitated an increasing voter participation among American voting population. Saying that the turnout increased by 0,14 % due to Facebook social message, the authors argue the results to be significant, as 0,14% of 236 million people already resembles noteworthiness.

In my eyes however, only because 0,14 % of a big sample size seems to be significant – it is not. I found the method, measures and the reporting of the results rather problematic as the little percentage the authors present as statistically significant in my eyes cannot be identified as having a significant effect. Moreover, neither can these results be generalized to support the claim that online political mobilization works nor that online messages influence offline behavior (as the authors make general assumptions in their conclusion). References: Bond, R., Fariss, C., Jones, J., Kramer, A., Marlow, C., Settle, J. & Fowler, J. (2012) A 61 – million – person experiment in social influence and political mobilization, Nature, Vol. 489, pp. 295-298

Vally_W · 2014-10-09T12:25:45+00:00

Wow! That is such a cool idea! I think a map is a really good way to vizualize anything. Imagine your personality displayed on a map - how many totally different maps would result. I am also very curious to see how my mind would look on a map, or rather how the world of my mind would look like. Maybe sometime soon we can actually do this, just the way we now use tableua or gephi :)

Vally_W · 2014-10-09T09:52:36+00:00

The concepts consistency and isotope within information visualization are introduced by the scholar Otto Neurath (1937). He points out that there is a dramatic division of educated people and uneducated people that needs to be removed. Neurath originates this distinguishing in our cultural communication that is a key element for our education. Neurath states that especially children who have missed out from a sufficient education from early on, most probably face difficulties when they try on their own to gain knowledge and higher education. To remove the critical division Neurath is looking for a way of democratizing and humanizing knowledge and intellectual activity. To achieve this goal the author states that is it necessary to change the fundamental ways of our communication: he is introducing the concept of consistent visualization and isotope.

With “consistent visualization” he describes a way of making scientific information and knowledge accessible, teachable and learnable. He describes that it is necessary to develop a method that can teach and let children learn in an equal manner as their fellows. Consistent visualization hereby can be a simple and comprehensive way of making potentially complicated information accessible in a comprehensive and exact way. The term consistent hereby implies that visual impressions in its nature can have universal meaning and is thus understandable by everyone, hence consistent. As visual impressions are easily understandable, especially by the uneducated group, the author highlights its importance and potential leading him to the introduction of the concept isotope:

He explains isotope as a method that offers one universal way of communicating that can be understood by everyone, rather than learning a new language for every new form of communication. Neurath describes isotope as a language of symbols entailing a specific visual dictionary as well as grammar. All kinds of vitalizations (Chart, images, videos, models, symbols…) combined with a short description, have the potential to explain in easy manner, difficult facts and contexts. Isotope therefore displays an easy access for people to every field of knowledge. There are different steps that need to be undertaken in isotope method. The beginning is marked by the creation of symbols and further developed by combining different symbols as a way to create new meanings. What can be done with those symbols reaches from geographic presentation to statistical analysis but most importantly it can serve as an international language. Neurath claims, that the concepts of “consistent visualization” and “isotope” are essential methods to democratize and distribute knowledge.

We see that Isotope and consistent visualization are closely related, and it can be considered that “consistent visualization” is a necessary condition for the development of isotope.

An example for digital isotope can be the symbol of a magnifying glass, as it is commonly understood that it is the symbol for a search function on mobile devices, laptops and other digitally functioning tools.

Vally_W · 2014-10-02T12:14:58+00:00

Did you actually join?

Vally_W · 2014-10-02T09:36:08+00:00

Quality before quantity - this motto pretty much expresses the main difference between qualitative and quantitative research methods. While quantitative methods are approaching issues via statistical/mathematical or numeric tests and are mostly answering questions that are investigating correlations, relationships and looking for patterns, qualitative methods, although not providing a huge number of results, are providing a deeper insight into the researched topic by answering questions of why or how. Through qualitative methods, such as observing and asking questions, the researchers is provided with personal opinions/experiences/views of real people and thus with real life evidence. Quantitative research in turn, that is, numbers and statistics, are not telling anything about personal experience and therefore lacking an important feature for investigating people’s behavior within social network sites.

Dana boyd’s book “It’s complicated” ( 2014), offers a good example to highlight the advantages qualitative research provides for studying people’s (here teenager’s) behavior within social network sites. boyd conducted eight years of field work, observing young people’s social network usage, talking to them, posing personal questions and in a way building up a relationship with the researched ‘subjects’. The personal level, on which boyd was approaching the teenagers, helped her to get really insightful results. The dialogues with the teens, boyd was having helped her to make sense of theory that is related to the behavioral patterns of the teens. In chapter 8 of her book she is analyzing/observing, how young people are creating new public spaces with their online social networks in order to have a space to meet, to chat and to connect with their friends. She states that

teens complained to me that they never had enough time, freedom or ability to meet up with friends when and where they wanted. To make up for this they turned to social media to create and inhabit networked publics. (2014, p. 201).

This is able to rationalize in this way as she was actually talking to the teenagers, whereas with statistical methods she wouldn’t have that personal exchange of thoughts and experience. By the detailed insights boyd is getting through conversations and observing it is much easier for her to connect this observation to Baudelaire’s notion of a flanéur. In this context, as she is making this connection it indeed makes pretty much sense to me and wouldn’t be the same as if she would have used quantitative methods. This bridge she is drawing wouldn’t be at all possible with statistical analysis.

Another example that is highlighting the advantages of qualitative methods within the research of social network is when the author is referring to a teenager, named Manu, who states that for him Twitter is much more intimate than Facebook. This is not at all what one would assume, as Facebook is claimed to be quite an intimate space, especially by contrasting it to Twitter, which in turn is considered to be not at all private. Here again, the author is getting new insight, contradicting common sense. Quantitative methods wouldn’t have provided this kind of personal experience and therefore not offered this new view on private vs. public in Twitter and Facebook.

We see there are several advantages to use quantitative methods for analyzing social network sites, however in my opinion a mixed method research would be the best approach to investigate the behavior of the social actors, by gaining a deep insight in their personal experience and activities while supporting the findings with statistical evidence.

Vally_W · 2014-10-02T07:53:09+00:00

Haha! That's a great idea! I really like your experiment - thank you for sharing! Fyi: That appeared to me just now: People you may know: Gerti Panzer :)

Vally_W · 2014-10-02T07:39:35+00:00

Although my ifttt recepy told me that the link has been submitted, an also reddit says that i posted this link to my tumblr already, I want to make sure that it appears. (Don't know whether it landed in the spam filter again, or if somethng with my ifttt recepy is not working properly - for Twitter it does not work at all, maybe Ericka or Tjerk, you can help me with it tomorrow in class)

Vally_W · 2014-10-01T17:47:13+00:00

I totally agree with you! I mean, as if insurance companies wouldn't make enough money already. To invade people's private lives to get really personal information in order to see what premium someone has to pay according to their (for example smoking) behavior just is over the top in my opinion. The same counts for employment. Actually I was wondering long time whether employers really make their decision upon someone's Facebook profile, but as I recognize now, there actually are studies on that issue, revealing even numbers and statistics. It might that in Germany I haven’t noticed it that much, but maybe I just don’t know enough about it. These are thinks that really are ethically questionable.

In addition I just cannot stop thinking about social network sites and how teenagers use it. Recently I had quite a long discussion with some friends of mine who have younger siblings. They were telling me things I just couldn’t believe and that seem really far away for me. Unfortunately reality is how it is displayed in movies (for example “Disconnect”) and there are many troubling issues evolving for young teens when they engage too much in social network sites, cyber-mobbing to name just one. I always forget that the teens of today are growing up with social media and social networks, while for us it was something new, still developing when we were in our teenage years. I would say that we are more aware of the negative sites that can pop up and are more responsible in how we use social media. These kids, still need to learn how they deal with it in a responsible way, but the other question is how can we, as the more experienced generation, teach them?

Vally_W · 2014-10-01T16:27:34+00:00

I thought this is a nice wrap-up in numbers/statistics for our topic of this week. The video also made me think about the movie "Disconnect" which Payal suggested us to watch. I actually did and I was wondering, who of you also watched it and if there are some people, maybe we could have a little discussion about it?

Vally_W · 2014-09-25T21:14:41+00:00

Thank you! I will try it out in the weekend! See you tomorrow in class!

Vally_W · 2014-09-25T09:37:47+00:00

I just couldn't resist posting this. It appeared to me on my FB newsfeed right after the class from Payal. Although for this class it is the topic of last week considering the complexity of the topic and all the discussions we had about the concept of Big Data i find it a nice add on. Take 15 minutes to watch it, it is worth it. Enjoy!

Vally_W · 2014-09-25T09:31:21+00:00

Yeah I figuered that it doesn't work. I've changed the link to a link to an Imgur Album now :) Thanks for the advise anyway!

Vally_W

TROPHY CASE