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Once hipsters start collecting social security, how will all those ironic t-shirts and QR code tattoos hold up? Will the future elderly tell their grandchildren about their nebulous community manager jobs and funny cat videos? This video stares 50 years into the future, when aging hipster remember the golden age of the Internet. More »
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Everybody seems to expect Facebook to die in the next few years. But there's a good chance it could outlast you. More »
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Social media can be problematic for professionals who don't want their bosses to see unflattering college party photos. But it's even worse for people whose livelihood literally depends on anonymity, like undercover cops. What happens if the gang you've infiltrated finds your grinning mug in Facebook photos from the police union annual picnic? More »
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Writer Joanne McNeil went on vacation earlier this year, but didn't want to lose touch with people she knows online. So she set up a chatbot to carry on her friendships without her. And the results were intriguingly weird. More »
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You can read a new piece by William Gibson and help donate to the Red Cross efforts in Japan at the same time, thanks to a new anthology that just went on sale at Amazon. More »
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Right now, you are reading a piece of social media. That means it's designed to be passed around on social networks - though it appears on io9.com, can easily be transplanted to Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and dozens of others. Or it can be converted to email or a text message you can pass along to people who've never heard of io9. That's the difference between traditional print media and social media - the former requires you to seek out a publication to get information, whereas the latter requires you to be part of a social network. Many argue that this is a form of media that has never existed before, and that it's about to change not just the gadgets we buy, but the very fabric of our culture - how we communicate who we are, and how we remember our history. More »
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My life is increasingly mediated by the internet, even more than it was in college. I'm blogging more, using OKCupid, and repping the shit out of my writing all over Facebook. I stay up late drinking and chat with people, which is what I also did when I was in middle school (without the drinking). It's in times like these that the lyrics of Gary Numan seem to speak to my lifestyle, one that I'm sure many share. More »
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Want more comments on your blog posts? A higher follower tally on Twitter? Then be prepared to resort to flaming to anger and upset people. That's the conclusion of a study into the role emotions play in online interaction. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5708671&view=rss&microfeed=true If only someone had been holding the Emperor accountable and publishing the truth, maybe Admiral Ackbar would have known it was a trap in advance. The #wookieleaks tag on Twitter is a work of pure awesomeness, including Ewok intelligent design and the lack of WMDs on Alderaan. Update: As ElSpanielo points out, there's also a #Wookieeleaks tag. [Thanks Franco!] More »
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If you only read one manifesto this week, you owe it to yourself to read Maureen Johnson's amazing rantifesto about people who try to turn themselves into Brands on the Internet. It's the funniest, most cheer-worthy thing I've read lately. More »
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Social-media nerds need to read more science fiction, says Web 2.0 blog Anthrogoggles. To get you started, they have a list of four must-read novels, including Vernor Vinge's Rainbow's End, and two William Gibson books. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5161203&view=rss&microfeed=true Countless laws have been proposed to protect kids online. But now a group of Harvard researchers has published a massive study of online dangers to kids, and apparently "other kids" tops the list. The study grew out of an agreement that social networking site MySpace made with the government last year to investigate possible dangers to children using social networks and similar services online. Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society coordinated the research efforts, bringing together scholars and representatives from companies like Yahoo and Google. More »
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The future of entertainment may not be in Hollywood, but in Massachusetts. The MIT Media Lab announced this week that it is launching the Center for Future Storytelling, a research program that will develop new storytelling technologies. The team envisions a future that includes robotic actors and improved motion capture, but also increased democratization and participation, so that stories are told not just by individuals, but by entire communities. More »
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The goal of most advertisers is, frankly, to bypass your rational brain and reach down into the murky depths of your limbic system to control your desires. And the Web has given advertisers powerful new mind-control tools, allowing them to generate fake "buzz" for products by implanting references to, say, Hewlett Packard on YouTube or Cisco on Wikipedia. The idea is to make people think that their "friends" online like a product and artificially jumpstart a word-of-mouth recommendation for the product. At a South by Southwest panel Friday about the worst viral media advertising, several marketers and critics gathered to discuss the most heinous and failed examples of ads that are turning our mediascape into a William Gibson or Philip K. Dick nightmare. Two ad campaigns stood out as the worst. More »
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