Facebook Security Alert

Attention Facebook Securtiy Alert

Tip for New Facebook Settings

Why Are they Doing it?

So with all of the facebook security and privacy issues, you would wonder why would they just now be making these crucial privacy changes? The answer is that it took Zuckerbergs own facebook account to be hacked into by someone. It is funny that it takes a facebooks staff account to be hacked into to finally wake someone up. This post is served as a little reminder to reset your account settings in the privacy section. I personally love to check facebook a lot and have lots of times where I am I just check it out of pure boredom. I want to know that when I am getting on my computer to check facebook, hackers cannot interupt. Keeping a virus free computer is so crucial in maintaining a "healthy" computer. After you make these final and most needed changes...Happy Facebooking.

It turns out that facebook has reset their account settings. They just announced last wednesday that Facebook will be making changes to their server for the better. The facebook staff will be making changes that allow the user to more customize privacy settings and allow for more control over information. Although they are making these changes, it resets peoples privacy settings meaning you need to back in there and reset your settings. It explains that if you are on facebook to look up at the address bar. if you see http:// and not https/ that means that you operating with unsecure settings and need to change it immediately. Continuing to operate with the unsecure settings is opening yourself up for hackers and viral damage to your pc. It astonnishes me how many people go through the timelife of their computers with no security or firewalls or anythings. They are not realizing that the machine they are using has lots of

It will also allow for you to click the "recommended" tab that switches the privacy settings to the ones that facebook suggests

Whats the Point?

The point is that we need to protect ourselves as soon as possible.The point is that you need to go ahead and make a change to your facebook settings now. You heard it here first on The Rebel Report Blog

Look up and check to see if you are secure.

This post was lurking around facebook and I would highly suggest it :......

ATTENTION! FB has automatically set itself to the Non-Secure browsing! While on FB, look at your URL address (the very top box on your screen.) If you see "http:" instead of "https:" then you DO NOT have a secure session & can be hacked. Go to Account - Account Settings - Account Security - click Change. Check the box labeled "......Secure Browsing" - Click Save. Copy & Re-post!!

Keeping a virus free computer is crucial for top performance

get on it and be safe out there kids....

susceptibilities and all it takes to protect is a few simple programs and procedures to avoid. These computers we are using are for sure not cheap and we need to protect our expensive machines.

YouTube: the social media god

The other day in my dorm I was hanging out on my Facebook and I came across a movie preview that I had been waiting for on someone’s wall. The movie had just released its first trailer only minutes before and I was no watching it on a friend’s wall, who does not go to school here, and a dozen other people had already “liked” it on her wall. So what did I do? I copy and pasted it to my wall and I got some views and credits for having good taste in movies. It’s not so much the movie that struck me, it was the fact that this video was literally on YouTube for about an hour and it was already on the movie’s fan page, and all over people’s walls.
Which leads me to my topic. Why is YouTube so mainstream (and by mainstream I mean why on earth is it A) so addictive, B) so widely used, and C) so full of useless and useful information)? Upon finding the movie trailer I craved my latest music obsession: Skinny Love by Bon Iver. It was found in less than thirty seconds, which is a plus and leads to YouTube addictions, and after about five times of listening to it I walked up to my friends room and we began watching “Drinking Out of Cups” (if you are not sure what that is, I am not going to explain it due to naughty language). The phenomenon of this video still has my friends saying to each other “Yeah Right Mr. Sea Horse” and “Not my chair, not my problem” so if you want something hilarious to watch, go watch that. The YouTube fascination gives kids our age something to look up to, because let’s be honest, the face that people are putting up videos of them dancing to Single Ladies in a leotard deserves some serious confidence points along with in-depth psycho-analysis.
Why do people use YouTube so much? Could it be to show all of their viewers how cool, funny, rhythmic, beautiful, or any other self-absorbing trait any human being posses? Yes, there are a few celebrities that made their way to stardom through YouTube but there are also those people who make their way to YouTube and are widely criticized (i.e. Rebecca Black’s “Friday”..I listened to it once and it gave me a migraine..and it was Friday. ) But bless that poor girls heart for standing up and deciding she wanted to be the next Justin Bieber, she shoots..she misses! Go back to school honey. I have seen videos of gangs, girl fights, drunken stammers..actually, anything relating to alcohol in general, dance routines, football plays, you name it, it exists on YouTube. Why is YouTube used so much? Well I have come to decide that the idiotic, beautiful, and thrilling videos people post all around the world give the people around ourselves something to relate with. My friend showed me a video of two old lovers, separated for 64 years and they reunite after their spouses die. We could not stop crying. My friend and I shared that moment of watching that man talk to the camera woman about how she “don’t know love” and we could not stop talking about it. So, in a nutshell, YouTube seems to help people relate to each other.
Finally, why is there so much stuff on YouTube? Well, it’s really simple. Because they can and because people want to watch inmates in another country dance to Thriller (perfectly, if I might add). People love to see people succeed and sadly, people love to watch people fail or embarrass themselves. People use YouTube to promote a cause, their fame, their company, anything. It’s the idea of promotion worldwide. They have different sections for entertainment, news and media, sports, sciences, and most viewed. YouTube is here to help people know more about our social world and it is helping us realize what else there is to expect in the years to come.

Facebook Creepers Are Weird!!

Facebook creepers are so much more common than people think. They are everywhere you turn. People send you friend request just because they know someone you know and 99% of the time everyone accepts them. What they don't know is a lot of the people they add are creepers. A creeper on Facebook will start out by sending you a message in your inbox or they will send you an instant message. They start off asking you your name and how old you are, or they ask you where you live and are you in high school or college. That's a no-no and should throw up a huge stop sign in your head, you should go and block them, but most people don't because they like to have all the friends they have. Then most creepers proceed to go and comment on your pictures and tell you how gorgeous or hot you are, and they will sometimes ask you for your number. Most FB creepers are the weird guys or girls you wouldn't ever talk too. Facebook creepers can be guys or girls, but most of the people I have talked with have had a guy FB creeper. I also know a few who have had girls creep on their page. From experience girls usually become creepers when they get out of a relationship with a guy, and they will creep on his page to see if he is with other girls or talking to another person. Girls are really jealous and even though they arent with that guy they don't want other girls to be with them either. Guys who creep on girls pages usually don't know the girl they are stalking. Most guys I have asked say they met the girl at a party or on the square and they want to check her out and see if she is single or in a relationship. I think that is harmless creeping just to check on a person, but some people take creeping to far. That's when you should delete them and block them from your friends. That is also why you don't put your number on FB. Creepers can be cut off, you just have to know what to do and nip it in the bud.

What does Facebook (and Twitter) have that Xanga didn't?

As technology and social networking mature and adapt to various societies today, we almost always forget about the old networks immediately as the newest one comes along. Popularity of one social network is usually overshadowed by a newer more visually pleasing social network. As I was sitting on my computer one day looking at my facebook and tweeting on my iPhone, I thought to myself what ever happened to Xanga? Ahh yes, Xanga, the poetically written blog accompanied by the latest indie song you have playing as your background music, and the website where one blogger could visit random blogger's blogs for hours and hours. The personality of your xanga directly represented you, the blogger, or so one would think. Can you personalize your Facebook? Maybe. But I don't know how quite yet. On a Xanga page, you would have your list of viewers where you could tally up how many times this person had viewed your page. The majority of the time you had to accept the person to FOLLOW you (hence the reference to Twitter). You would seem like a cool blogger if people you kind of knew where following you. By kind of knowing someone I'll use the example..Timmy, the boy that you went to the same church with and lived 25 minutes away from. Although this FRIEND REQUEST (Facebook reference, you're welcome) seems to sound like Facebook in a way, Xanga just told you that the person was following your blog and they did not have any safety precautions to it. But safety a few years ago wasn't really the issue to young budding teens who were as obsessed with Xanga as they were with Instant Messaging. Once you think about it you do realize that yes, it was that long ago. So why was Xanga so hot and then suddenly so not? Well, to back up my hypothesis on Facebook being far better than Xanga, I set up my own Xanga account (again) to see why no one really uses Xanga anymore. First off, registering for your Xanga is-to say the least- a complicated order. When your favorite book, food, tv show, movie, place, color, where you attend school, and your religion are all optional on Facebook, Xanga made me feel like I was applying for an eHarmony subscription. Secondly, uploading pictures onto Facebook is idiot-proof. I can even upload them from my smart phone. It is just user friendly. Xanga on the other hand requires the use of PhotoBucket. I wasn't sure how to use it before when I was 13 and, sure enough I still am clueless when it comes to uploading pictures onto Xanga. Thirdly (and the most important) is that I really find the most important thing about having a social networking profile (or two) is the safelty of the network you are working with. Xanga was about as vulnerable to the internet as MySpace, which freaked me out the whopping one month I had a MySpace and I deleted it. You can have tons of random people from all over the world commenting on your posts- some of which are just weird. Facebook lets it's users ask and send requests for everything, even if it's a virus floating around Facebook. And as for Twitter, its a Xanga that allows 250 words and icons, pictures, and no one cares about what is on your profile. From my personal experiences a good quote will usually work. To top it off you can follow celebrities and see what they are up to. So, overall...what happened to Xanga is that people found better ways to blog, keep up and in touch with friends, and protect themselves better than Xanga allowed them to.

Having One Of Those Days? Blog About It.

Have you ever been so frustrated with someone or something and wanted to express your feelings about it, but did not want to be the person who complained about everything on your Facebook or Twitter? Well I was that person after one of the girls in my sorority broke my nose two weeks ago while practicing for derby days. I was so mad and did not feel any better after calling my mom and talking to her about it for an hour. I knew my president was my friend on Facebook and followed me on Twitter so I could not put anything about my sister on either one of those accounts. So as I was thinking about my blog topic, I stumbled across Tumblr. Which for those of you who live under a social network rock and don’t know what Tumblr is, click here http://www.tumblr.com/ . I realized, duh Sloan you can obviously blog about it and you won’t get in trouble about it, because 99.9% of your sorority will not think to look on a blog.

As soon as I finished registering online, I started reading other people’s blogs and was instantly hooked. Tumblr is unlike any Social Network I use. Facebook is full of kids and people I graduated high school with. I really don’t want those people to read about my thoughts. I also found that there are so many ways to use Tumblr. According to the Tumblr website “The average Tumblr user creates 14 original posts each month, and reblogs 3. Half of those posts are photos. The rest are split between text, links, quotes, music, and video.” Which in my opinion is awesome, because you can read other people's blogs that are interested in the same things as you are. Also if you stumble across a blog that is extremely boring to you, you don’t have to read it.

When you create your profile, you have so many options of themes to choose from. Also, if you are unlike me and are very creative and artistic you can create an original theme. I unfortunately have a very hard time drawing so I chose one that was pre-made. Unlike Facebook and Twitter you can have your own domain name so that if your friends who don’t have Tumblr want to read your blogs, you can send them the link to your Tumblr page by using your domain name. I made mine easy so that it wasn’t hard for my not so smart friends to find me (www.sloan1234.tumblr.com). My favorite part of Tumblr is that there is an app for that,duh. I just bought an Iphone three weeks ago and it never leaves my hands so having a Tumblr app makes it really easy to update my blog. So when I’m sitting in class and my teacher says something that I don’t agree with or when they say something funny, I can obviously update it to Facebook, Twitter and now Tumblr. I also forgot to mention something that I feel like everyone would like about Tumblr, whether you live under a rock or you are president of ASB, Tumblr is free. You don’t pay for storage, bandwidth or even the advance features like the full theme source codes and group blogs. Next time you are having one of those days where you just need to let it all out, blog about it.

Facebook: The Anti Social Network

Do you remember when you made your first Facebook account? I'll be honest, it's not the clearest memory I have, but I'm willing to bet that I was as happy as a dog with a new chew toy. Facebook revolutionized the social aspect of our lives. No longer do we have to resort to gossip or talking directly to friends to stay updated on everyone's lives. That knowledge is now just a few clicks away. As Facebook continues to grow, however, this revolution is beginning to hurt many aspects of the average user's life.

Yea, it's much easier to communicate and catch up on Facebook than in real life right? That is what makes it so great right? Both of these points are true, and are responsible for the ever growing phenomenon that is Facebook. Yet, both of these points have changed the relationships we hold with our friends and family. It's obvious that face to face conversations and real time interactions are much more intimate than a Facebook chat or wall post. Although many of us undoubtedly know this, we still make little to no attempts to meet up with each other and share personal time. I mean, honestly, why should we? Facebooking is so much easier and can be done from the comfort of your own home and requires little effort, so social outings with those that you are closest with have ceased to exist.

If you really think about it, Facebook lacks many of the key components of human interaction. Personally, my Facebook chats, wall posts, and inbox messages are much different than how I would react in a real time conversation. They all lack emotional expressions, and instead of being forced to quickly think of a response like in real time, I am able to think about what I want to say, weigh the consequences, and decide upon the best response. This isn't how humans were meant to interact! A Facebook conversation isn't a real conversation; it is an empty shell of a conversation lacking the main aspect that allows attachment to develop between individuals, emotion.

Robin Dunbar wrote an article for the New York Times about the decline of friendships without face to face interaction. You can find the page here, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/opinion/26dunbar.html?_r=l&nl=todaysheadlines, but essentially Dunbar states that the average human is only capable of maintaining around 150 meaningful relationships, and that our emotional attachment declines with any given person by about 15 percent every year if we don't have face to face contact. The average user has more "friends" than the maximum possibility of 150, which shows that we allow random strangers into our lives (if you don't believe me, look through your friends list and see how many people you know well enough to consider a friend). Also, since Facebook allows us to cut real time interactions with some of our closer acquaintances while still being able to communicate with them, we are under the illusion that these people are still some of our closest friends. This sounds pretty anti-social to me.

Now I'm not saying everyone should go out and delete their Facebook accounts right away, far from it. I support Facebook and what it does for us. What I am saying is that we should not fall prey to the illusion Facebook offers us. It is not the equivalent of real human interaction, but a replacemen. So maybe you should call up that old friend sometime, go out to lunch or just simply meet up to spend some time with them. If not, who knows, you just might lose their friendship.

The 10 Most Innovative Web Companies

The web has completely changed how people interact, how business is done and basically the day-to-day life. To be influential in this economy, it is almost imperative to operate an efficient and consumer-friendly website. If you expect to be a top company without a website, you are bound to be missing a large percentage of the market share. These top 10 companies have created websites that have taken off at extraordinary paces and have many other companies following in their footsteps.

1. Twitter

In 2009, when Twitter began, they had around 20 million users and today they have more than 200 million! When the company first began, they were unsure of how they were going to collect money. They allowed users to sign up for free with no extra charges added. When the economy began to take an upturn, Twitter created ads that companies could buy that would cost them around $100,000 to purchase.

2. Google

Google has seemed to stay at the top of their game ever since they entered the web economy. They have been ever expanding ever since creating the Google website with all different things that users can "play" with. With all of these applications that users were freely allowed to use and view, it was also unsure for Google how they were actually going to make their money in the beginning. Google then created AdSense and AdWords for companies to be able to advertise and show up in their search results. In addition, Google also created Google Instant which has a 98% adoption rate. There are approximately 2 million searches a second and 3 billion per day.

3. Zynga

Zynga is the company that created the FarmVille game for Facebook. With their 400 million dollar return from the game, they decided to create CityVille which was released in January. After only a month, CityVille had 100 million users, making it the number one app on Facebook. Presently, the Zynga companies net worth is estimated to be $7 to $9 billion. At the rate that this company is going, they can only see the bright future ahead.

4. Netflix

Netflix began by their mail-in DVD business. In order to block out the competition, Netflix began streaming services in the United States and in Canada. From 2010, it is estimated that Netflix profited approximately $2.2 billion in revenues. Netflix has more than 20 million subscribers which has in turn basically over-run BlockBuster.

5. Foursquare

Defending its competitive position, growing exponentially, and making check-ins a must-use marketing tool for major brands. Astronaut Douglas Wheelock earned the NASA Explorer Badge when he checked in while orbiting the Earth; a story that reflect Foursquare's meteoric rise. The company now hosts around 7.5 million users, a 50% increase from September 2010.

Most significantly, the company has steamed ahead in the face of growing competition from Gowalla, Google Latitude, Loopt, and especially Facebook Places. It launched a brand new version of the service in March, unveiled an innovative merchant platform, and has some half billion check-ins in the last year alone.

6. Tumblr

For turning stray thoughts into big business. The New York based almost Twitter except without the "how many characters you can use" restriction, is drawing around 30,000 new members each day. More impressively, around 4 billion page views per month. In November, it scored between $25 million and $30 million from investors, bringing its total past $40 million.

7. Crimson Hexagon

For developing a revolutionary way to monitor and measure Twitter chatter. Crimson Hexagon began at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science but has grown into the prime analytics tool for HP, Microsoft, and CNN, which use the website to gauge public perceptions.

The company monitors the Web, tracking and learning the specifics of what people are saying in social media in real-time. Beyond the positive-or-negative analysis of keyword and semantic searches and with as much as 97 percent accuracy.

8. Stocktwits

Created the CNBC of the digital age. On this site, live streams are pulled from Facebook and Twitter; recently acquired service Abnormal Returns culls the best financial news stories from the Internet; weekly Webinars and video market recaps are offered; and StockTwits.tv features original programming around the clock. In other words, StockTwits has become an indispensible real-time financial tool for the social media age. It also boasts more than 300,000 monthly unique hits.

9. Microsoft

Reinvented their search market competition with Bing, the only REAL Google challenger left. Thanks to strategic partnerships with Kayak, Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook, Bing has begun nipping away at Google's market share and kept competition from becoming a monopoly. Earlier this month, Bing became the second most-popular search engine worldwide.

10. Conaco Productions

Kept Conan relevant long after he was yanked off the air. Even after his unfortunate departure from NBC, Conan O'Brien kept his brand red-hot thanks to a squad of 8 full-time Team Coco Digital staffers running his social media like pros.

The millions of views on YouTube, hundreds of thousands of fans on Facebook, and millions of followers on Twitter. To hype his TBS show's November debut, Conan's team also started a 24-hour live webcast of the production, built fan pages on Flickr and Tumblr and launched a bright orange Conan blimp, which spotters could check into on Foursquare.

Facebook Etiquette

Facebook is a popular social network that was created by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends in 2004. Originally, it was created for college students, and one had to be invited in order to become a member of Facebook. Today it has evolved into a social network for old classmates, high school networks, college networks, family members, celebrities, businesses, etc. Facebook has many functions ranging from putting what is on your mind at the moment into a little box to messaging your long lost friend. Unfortunately, people have started to turn away from the basics of Facebook and started to use it for the wrong reasons.

Many people have refrained from using Facebook as much as they use to because they have become tired of logging on to see bullying, prolonged rants, drama, and the reoccurring “o, woe is me” type statuses. They feel better going to other social networks such as, Twitter. So I decided to come up with a list of suggestions that will serve as “Facebook Etiquette” to keep more users on Facebook.

• Make a status describing your mood, location, task/hobby, or state without giving too much information
• Have a positive vibe. DO NOT bully, make negative references, post inappropriate comments, etc.

• Be respectful. Only post pictures and videos that you would be fine with your parents and loved ones seeing.

• Use Facebook for what it is, a social network. Stay in contact with your friends, classmates, old teachers, family members, co-workers, etc. Do not hold conversations online because that is what texting and pop-up chats are for.
• DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT put your whole life on your profile and newsfeed. Use the privacy settings to maximum. They are there for a reason. Ex. Your birthday along with your location, mother’s maiden name, and email address is enough to access your bank account.

• Only accept friend requests from people that you know. Having mutual friends is not enough anymore. The account may even be spam or a Trojan virus.
• Be very careful with your log in information. Make your password very unique to ensure privacy.
• Do not choose the “keep me logged in” option on a public computer or on any computer other than your own to ensure that no one can hack your account.
• Only post what you are comfortable with or what you feel you can handle feedback on. Be prepared for comments and/or subliminal messages on an opinionated post, relationship status, check-in, video, etc.
• Avoid clicking on random links on your newsfeed. This leads to spam accounts or spam just being posted on your wall. I.e. those shoe advertisements and model pictures everyone has been seeing recently.

In clarification, these suggestions are not listed in any order of importance. There are strictly things that I have thought of and things that I have been wanting to state. Also, there are more tips, but I only decided to list ten to refrain from repeating something. To sum this all up, just please use Facebook for social purposes within ethical reasoning and not so much for entertainment purposes. Remember, Facebook can pretty much show who you are as a person, display every bit of your personal information, and tell your every move ONLY IF YOU ALLOW IT TO!

The Top Five Reasons to Justifiably Unfriend a Facebook Friend

Social networks like Facebook provide users with access to the personal lives of friends and acquaintances. Though this is helpful when attempting to recall the birthdays of forgettable individuals, one unfortunate consequence of social networks is that you may learn a little too much about the “quirky” girl who lived down the hall from you freshman year. She seemed perfectly nice back when you were stupid and amicable, but now that pictures of her obese cat incessantly bombard your Top News page, you begin to wonder why you ever clicked the “accept” button in the first place.

For a while, I vehemently denounced the “unfriending” of Facebook friends whom I have met. Recently, though, I realized the only time I would come close to communicating with several of these Facebook friends again would be via Facebook itself, so why worry about an improbable awkward confrontation with people who indirectly annoy me every single day? Why not easily rid myself of these social network pariahs?

I have outlined five situations in which it is appropriate to unfriend, well, basically anyone. Even your sister shouldn’t be your Facebook friend if she is partaking in any of these Facebook faux pas. You are better off without her.

1. Perhaps the most obvious of Facebook offenses, though nonetheless essential to this list, are statuses written by the most mundane people you know (or don’t know) which log their mediocre daily activities in explicit detail. These posts are enough to ruin the day of even a full-blown stalker. People who post these updates must be immediately revoked of Facebook friendship, preferably before you are reminded of how boring your own life is too.

2. People who repeatedly post spam. How many times do you have to click on “OMG YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT THIS GIRL DID TO JUSTIN BIEBER” to realize the link is not truly a portal to irresistible indulgence? Unfortunately, clicking will not take you to a deranged tween plummeting Biebz on the head with a shovel, screaming, “IF I CAN’T HAVE HIM, NO ONE WILL!” This technological Catch-22 will send the unsolicited link to your innocent friends, effectively introducing them to the same moral dilemma you just encountered: to click or not to click? It is the dumb people who repeatedly acquire Facebook spam, not Justin Bieber, who must have endured serious head trauma, and if not yet, will soon when I appear outside their doors with a shovel. Guess you shouldn’t put your address on the Internet, huh?!

3. Unfriend anyone who shows up at your house uninvited, wielding a lawn tool.

4. Friends who ceaselessly Facebook chat you though you have never had a genuine conversation with them, nor sought to have had a genuine conversation with them, must hit the road. If you feel guilty about removing a Facebook chat creeper, refer to the “suggest friend” tool and introduce him to your bestie, the cat hair-covered ex-dorm neighbor, keeping in mind that desperation and loneliness love company. (Fun fact: that was the original slogan for Facebook, note “random play.”)

5. Remove anyone whose profile picture is of a famous person and not of herself, as the photo is telling sign of a serious illness, a rare case of body dimorphic disorder. Instead of hallucinating that she is deformed, this friend believes she resembles Megan Fox when actually more akin to Rosie O’Donnell. Do the right thing in this situation and pity the diseased. Unfriend her so she can become accustomed to the rejection and disappointment which is her destiny. Or you could take the more subtle approach and simply comment, “HAHAHAHA” on the picture.

When asked if you are sure you want to unfriend, answer with a resounding click of the "yes" button, and savor the feeling of freedom. Reassure yourself afterwords that you are still cool, even if you now have merely 1659 friends instead of 1660. If this doesn’t work, don’t worry; there are still millions of potential fake friends on the Internet. And if all else fails, refriend the cat girl. She serves as a reminder of what you truly relish about Facebook: laughing at people who appear even worse off than yourself.

Add Don't Follow

How many time a day do you hear a sentence that started with “Well I was on Facebook and I..”? If you are a college student you hear this at least twenty times a day. If you are like me, you have had a Facebook ever since you were in high school. Not many times do you hear “Well I saw on Twitter..”. If you were to take a poll at this moment around the Ole Miss campus about which Social Network students would prefer, I would guarantee the majority of the students would pick Facebook. In my opinion the main reason I would chose Facebook over Twitter any day is for the multiple ways you can “stalk” your friends. On Facebook you can view your friend’s interests, favorite television shows, favorite music, their religious preferences, political preferences and where they are from. When you want to get to know someone better you would more than likely look at their Facebook page rather than their Twitter page, which only shows what that certain person is thinking or doing at that moment.

Twitter to me just is a bunch of people updating their status’s, which all of my friends already do on Facebook. The only upside to Twitter is that you can “follow” your favorite celebrities and get to find out what they are thinking and/or doing at that moment. Unlike Facebook, on Twitter there is no way to instantly “chat” with your friends that are online. The only way to communicate with them via Twitter is to “tweet” at them and hope they see it in time to respond. Also the only pictures of the person whose profile you want to look at is the pictures they have as their profile picture or the ones they choose to tweet at the moment. Twitter only allows you to upload one picture at a time, you can never have photo albums like you can on Facebook.

Another main reason that Facebook is better than Twitter is that on Facebook you can send messages to multiple times at once. In my sorority that is how we communicate to our chapter and get out important messages that need to be read immediately. We all know sorority girls are more likely to check their Facebook rather than their Ole Miss webmail.

I was on Twitter the other day, and I wanted to leave my roommate who is in Washington D.C. doing an internship this semester a video telling her that i miss her. I went on Caroline’s profile and searched for about ten minutes trying to find the upload video/picture button, but to my surprise there was not one. So I had to log off and log onto Facebook just to upload a video onto her profile. You would think that Twitter would want to competed with Facebook by having more options to choose from, but they do not. For people like me who like to know a lot about their friends, Facebook is the way to go. So don’t “follow” people just because it is cool at the moment, but keep “adding” to your profile on Facebook.

Facebook vs. Twitter

I recently created a Twitter account about three weeks ago mainly because all my friends were going on and on about how awesome it was. Honestly, I don't see anything awesome about it. How can I tell someone about myself in just a short amount of sentences. I tried to create my biography for my Twitter profile and it told me that the biography was too long. Really? I feel that I am a pretty awesome girl for my biography just to be only five to ten sentences long. Face book gives me a chance to share much more information about myself and my personality and show who I really am. It gives me a chance to show my friends and family the fun and somewhat wild side of me. Another reason why I feel that Face book is better than Twitter is because I value the time I spend connecting with my friends especially now since I'm attending a college that is two hours away from my hometown. Since I started Face book, I don't even use my email or instant messaging anymore. Although Face book can ruin relationships it can also build relationships. Once again I can use the example of me being away from home as an example. My relationship with my friends from back home has actually grown stronger because we write on each other's wall from time to time and we in-box each other to get the update on our crazy lives.

What will the computer replace next?

When computer’s first came about, they were used for math calculations. Now the computer can basically do anything with the right program. Computers have become a source of constant gratification. From social networking and games to complex scientific equations and medical information the things that computers can do now have drastically change how we live. With the increase in technology, computers have begun to replace every area of information, communication, research, and entertainment that I have encountered.

The radio? Thats a thing of the past. I now use Itunes and Pandora to listen to my music. In my car I use an Ipod adaptor to listen to the songs I want to hear.

A filing cabinet? Takes up too much room in the office. I can now use various filing systems on my hard drive to electronically store documents without the space issue, I wont loose my documents as easily, plus I can save more trees.

A library? Why walk to JD Williams Library when there is a convenient online database available just a few clicks away on my computer? Saves me the time of finding the book on the shelves and looking through said book for the information. Instead I type in a few keywords in the search engine and I know exactly what page of which book I should use for my research paper. I can also store electronic versions of my favorite books as a PDF on my desktop without worrying about my pages being damaged (a personal pet peeve of mine).

A newspaper? Why get all that ink on your hands just to see how your favorite sports team lost last night’s game? With online news websites and search engines, there is no need to walk out the front door to grab the paper to get your news. Its fast and efficient.

A TV? Your favorite TV shows aren’t always in sync with your busy schedule. You do have a life you know. Network stations have their own websites, which stream the recent episodes of a certain series. You don’t even have to own a television to keep up with Glee!

Writing letters? Hand cramps are the worst kind of cramps out there. The many different ways to keep in touch with those I care about have nothing to do with a stamp. Email, twitter, facebook, youtube, instant messaging, skype, just to name a few are ways of communicating by way of the computer that I use everyday.

When you think about it, entire generations way of life has been completely erased with the development of computers and the internet. I wonder what the development of computer technology will replace about the way I live my life. What will I not need next?

NSFE - Not Safe For Employers

When applying for jobs now a days, employers are starting to use social networks in their background checks. And I'm sure you have a Facebook profile (at this point who doesn't?). So here are a few tips for censoring your profile.

1. Pictures

If you have pictures that aren't something you'd show your mother, then you'd probably would not want to post them. If they're already posted...you don't want to delete them, so change the settings of who can see the group of photos. Always check the "Friends Only" because if you select "Networks" then anyone in your networks can view them.

2. Spelling & Grammar

I know Facebook is a place where you shouldn't have to worry about what people think of you, but now that you're in college you should at least sound like you are. Therefore you should use correct grammar and not TyPe LiKe ThIs.

3. Status Updates

This could go one of two ways. First, if you post excessive status updates it makes you look like you have nothing better to do or that you are putting off what you should be doing. This also goes for irritating updates. Second, some people tell a little too much when hitting that post button. So if you have the habit of calling in sick, but taking a personal day...don't flaunt it. This also goes for dissing your workplace/employer/coworker on your status they could be in one of your networks. Also if you must join one of the many Facebook applications (i.e. Farmville), please turn off any notification status that it will place onto the news feed. No one cares if you found a sheep or a cow or whatever you do on that application.

4. Profile

This will be the first thing they see, so make it look plausible. I'm not saying you should make your interests be boring, but make it "G rated" so to speak. So drinking should probably not be included. Plus some future employers may make spec judgment just by looking at the types of music you like. You may even want to try adding some favorite books.

5. Friends

You have 1,324 friends. Do you really know that many people? Sometimes friending that many people is good for networking, but if you bumped into someone in a coffee shop you shouldn't just off and friend them. If you know them, then it's ok to friend them. Just having to many friends sounds like you're looking for attention. Lastly, if your employer decides to send you a friend request, by all means DON'T IGNORE IT. That is the worst possible thing you could do. Add them. If you don't want them to see certain things on your on your profile, then set them to "limited profile." That way they can only see the things you want them to.

If you don't want to change anything on your profile, then just make sure to change your privacy settings. You always want to set it to "Friends Only" over "Networks." And if you already have an employer that is a friend...make sure they are set to "limited profile." Also to keep your Facebook profile from popping up in the search engines, disable the public search.

With these tips you should be safe in the eyes of an employer.