WHY NOT?

They are doing in it a sort of Twitter form… where the user administrator updates the FB group followers on many things using “status updates”.

While browsing the page, I saw tons of useful things.

1. Address/Phone number

2. Operating hours

3. “FREE SNACKS” updates

4. Discussions (like e-books vs print books)

5. Speaker/Poetry reading updates

6. Lecture updates

7. “Good luck” on Finals wishes

8. and Much, much more!!

I only know that UCR Libraries has a Facebook page because I saw a flier on the circulation desk during my overnight stay in Science.  I think it’s been up and going since last quarter, but I’m guessing that their fliers are fairly new, and that  they are trying to get more student Fans.

Right now, they have 291 Fans… but I’m willing to bet that this number will continue to  grow higher by the day. They want people to join, and they offer such incentives like “Free snacks” for a certain number of students who reach the circulation desk first.. and of course the only way to know when to go is if you are updated by being their Fan on Facebook.

Hey- I heard free snacks.…. Count me in    [ LIKE!]

Good luck on finals, everyone <3

]]> http://joycesapphirelu.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/ucr-libraries-now-on-facebook/feed/ 0 joycesapphirelu Picture 1 http://joycesapphirelu.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/benefit-at-the-barn-crit-3/ http://joycesapphirelu.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/benefit-at-the-barn-crit-3/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:34:11 +0000 joycesapphirelu http://joycesapphirelu.wordpress.com/?p=105 ]]> So since I started my wordpress blog with an event for my Crit#1 (Inland Empire Strikes Back), I thought it would be nice to finish with Crit#3 with another event that I attended :

A few Fridays ago Amanda, Ernesto and I went to the Barn for Kurt Sparkuhl’s benefit concert. His MCS 164 (Critical Pedagogy) group decided to gear their final project towards raising money for the cause, Kids On Computers. Their Digital Links Benefit Concert was a great turn-out. They raised ~$140 (I think) and I’m pretty sure they said that it was enough to ship two computers to one of the designated locations.

I felt really good about attending because I feel like I made a difference… well….more or less. Although I did not donate as much money as I could/should have (let’s just say I was in the $5-$10 range)… I still believe that every bit counts. But also just being there showed our support as well!!

I think that this benefit concert is extremely blog -worthy because they not only USED technology to get their word out (Facebook, WordPress, Ning), but the charity is actually based on MAKING TECHNOLOGY available for kids around the world. We are in a stage of our lives where technology pretty much rules everything (besides $MONEY$ of course). I mean, we can’t even step foot outside our houses without our cellphones/PDAs/iPODs in hand! It’s absolutely ridiculous! However what is even MORE ridiculous, is that SO many kids in the world don’t even know what an iPOD is! They have no access to computers, while we learn and live off of computers..

Why is Kids On Computers Important? – By providing underprivileged children and schools with working computers, children gain access to important skills that will increase their socioeconomic mobility when they finish school. In addition, they gain access to electronic sources of learning such as e-books and educational games and software. By participating in the event, you will help children in need gain access to a brighter future all over the world.

I think that if there is any charity/cause that students were to organize a Benefit Concert for, this was the best choice for sure. Technology is such an amazing tool, however we do not realize that SO many people do not have access to them. We throw out our “old/out-dated” computers and opt for the newest MacBook Pro’s, without thinking of the consequences: E-Waste being one, and the fact that it can be donated being the other.

I can honestly say that I have thrown away 2 broken MacBooks and 1 old Dell PC… However if I had known that so many children are without such privileges, I definitely would have donated them ( and also NOT contributed to our E-Waste problem… I know, shame on me   )

But overall, I did have a great time. There was good food, good music, and good company… and all for a good cause! It always makes me feel good to learn something from students. I definitely learned a world of information just based on this benefit concert, and I’m very glad that I could attend! It was awesome to see how their group approached local bands to come play for the benefit concert as well. Their music was awesome, as well as their fans.

I bet these have been FLYING off the shelves of bookstores.

real good use of space, guys!

Visit our wordpress website to watch An Unbiased Story. A variety of different links are available for your viewing pleasure

Seven lies we tell ourselves about social networking.

Everybody loves to complain about Facebook. But I’ve been wading through all the nonstop commentary over the last few weeks and I’ve made a startling discovery. Everybody also lies about why they use Facebook. After exhaustive research, here are the Seven Lies You Tell Yourself About Facebook.

1. I Only Friend People I Really Know: Stop pretending you have standards; you will friend anyone. You would accept Bernie Madoff if he asked. You want your friend count to be sky-high. That’s why I accept all sorts of people I haven’t seen in 20 years and couldn’t pick out of a line-up. I refuseto have one less friend than my arch nemesis from college. I will not tolerate a lower count than my annoying colleague who sucks her teeth in meetings whenever I say anything. Admit it, you’re no better than I am—how many of your “friends” would you invite to your house? (Article continued below…)

2. Facebook Made Me Do It: Facebook didn’t make you tell all 1,384 of your friends that you once had chlamydia. Facebook didn’t hold your hand onto the mouse and force you to type: “Josh is in favor of slapping geese and women,” as one of your “25 random things” and it certainly didn’t waterboard you into asking everyone what their slave name is. Psychiatrists call this “externalizing blame.” It’s a way to lay-off shame and self-loathing onto somebody (or something) else so you can feel better about yourself. I once wrote, “Raina is feeling like the cat’s meow,” and hated Facebook for days because of it. I know now that it was nobody else’s fault but my own.

3. Wall-to-Wall Flirting Isn’t Cheating: Just because it’s called “social networking” with “friends” doesn’t make hard-core online flirting OK. Do not try and tell me that you were surprised when your boyfriend left you after he read your pornographic wall-to-wall with his cousin. Also: stop sending your assistant cute virtual gifts. Virtual gifting counts. In fact, it’s probably not appropriate for you to be “friending” her or the cute summer intern in the first place. Same thing goes for wall-to-wall stalking the love of your 7th grade life. Online harassment is just as bad as the bricks and mortar kind.

4. I Use Facebook to Keep in Touch With People: No, the truth is you’re nosy. Admit it. You scour the profiles of other people for the same reason I do. You want to know their business. Facebook isn’t addictive—your desire to know what other people are up to is addictive. The over-sharing thrills you. I know I’m hooked. Don’t you hunt through your friends’ walls looking for any scrap of information that will produce that warm tingly schadenfreude feeling?

Facebook is our own personal reality show and our friends are the stars. What else besides “American Idol” or “Project Runway” allows you to be so judgmental while wearing pajamas? If people stopped revealing ridiculous stuff about themselves in their status updates, “Rock of Love” would be your “guilty pleasure” instead. You know you’re dying to discover your college roommate lives in a trailer in his mom’s backyard. I literally cried from joy when I saw that an ex-boyfriend was sporting a comb-over.

5. I’m Soooo Over Facebook: Come on. You love Facebook for exactly the reasons you pretend to hate it … it’s the Big Thing. And we’re not falling for that ironic distancing pose you’ve been adopting lately. We know you spend hours looking for former girlfriends or that guy who you loved from freshman psych but didn’t have the courage to talk to. I tried to act all Margaret Meadish when I first joined Facebook (“It’s a classic example of mass hysteria inspired by our collective need to be famous. Blah, blah, blah.”) But everybody knew I wasn’t on there doing social anthropology. I was on there because I wanted to snicker at that girl I went to elementary school with who reports every single one of the eight pomegranate martinis she drinks every night.

6. And I am Soooo Not Competitive: We don’t just want more friends than everybody else; we also want the highest score in Word Twist and the most virtual Easter Eggs. I recently spent nearly 24 hours playing Scramble on Facebook until I had a higher score than my friend Dough Dough. Why? Because I knew Facebook would send him a note that said; “Raina has beaten your personal high score on Scramble.” When he commented on his complete and total defeat, I just said; “I didn’t know Facebook would tell you that. OMG! LOL!” We love Facebook because it allows you to gloat to your heart’s content and hide that self-satisfied smirk on your face behind the wall of the Internet. By the way, if you have a Scramble score higher than 147, don’t even think about friending me.

7. Facebook is My Friend: No, it’s a business (albeit one that has yet to make money). Everyone knows casinos hide the exits and pump oxygen into the air to keep you gambling and get all your money. Facebook is doing the same thing but with avatars and Food Flings. They want to trap you behind their dotcom walls so they can attract advertisers. Think about it. If Facebook really loved you, they wouldn’t run those “5 Friends HATE you!” banners on the top of Scramble. And have you ever had a friend try to take ownership of all the posts and baby pictures you sent them for who knows what reason? Nor has a “friend” ever taunted me with ads that implied Obama owed me $12,000 in personal-stimulus money.

Note: (this was REBLOGGED from Newsweek)

This was such a hot topic that even CNN covered this story!!! That’s how utterly ahh-mazing Facebook is (sarcastic, of course…)

But really though, did they REALLY expect an amazing turn out? Most of the Facebook population didn’t even know that there was a Quit Facebook Day planned! And even if they did… I highly doubt most (if any) would participate. I mean, I knew well in advance, but I already knew I wasn’t going to participate.

Anyway, so back to the topic at hand: Quit Facebook Day failed, and failed miserably. Only about 34,000 actually vowed to quit facebook… but many of those didn’t actually quit.In fact, CNN actualy polled their readers and with 10.000 votes on the topic, ~64% of them said they WOULDN’T be quitting. ~26% said they would (but I doubt they did)

So this whole debate over Facebook’s new privacy changes is honestly far from over- I mean people are always going to complain! However these concerns are no match for the usage of the actual service. Complain and stay a user at the same time. Why not?…

But all we have to do is keep in mind of what we put on the internet. Always be wary of internet predators. Okay maybe not all of us are ‘scared’ of hackers and identity thieves and such, but just be careful of your pictures…. the information you put up… etc. Always remember that the Internet is ‘free’. Anyone has access… which means any information you put out there (not just on Facebook) is game.

SO basically, the day came and went (rather quickly)… but Facebook users everywhere should remember to remember that privacy changes on the Facebook settings aren’t an opt-in. They are an opt-OUT.

This is a message on Facebook that one of my roommates sent me and her other friends in mid-May, making me aware of the new Facebook privacy changes. So all you readers out there, (all two of you.. one being me… hah) .. Here is how you make sure you can have the “most” privacy available.

there is a NEW PRIVACY setting called “Instant Personalization Pilot Program” that shares data with non-Facebook websites and it is automatically set to “Allow.”

Go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites > Instant Personalization > Edit Settings, and uncheck “Allow”.

Until next time…

Commit to quit FACEBOOK.

Controversy has been swarming the Internet around our beloved social networking site known as Facebook. With it’s “privacy policy” now longer than our own Constitution, many users have begun to delete their accounts in reaction. It now offers over 50 settings and 170 different options… umm can you say HEADACHE?

Dissatisfied users of Facebook are now teaming up to organize a coordinated mass exodus from this site by (ironically) using OTHER sns’s to do it. Their website asks all Facebook users to commit to quit Facebook at the end of the month on May 31, and to sign their Facebook name or their Twitter to their growing list of pledges.In addition there is even a Facebook Page devoted to this cause (even MORE ironic!)

It’s not just about all the new additions to Facebook that is causing users to “revolt” though… This cause also has a lot to do with users’ privacy and personal data. The starters of this cause feel that Facebook does not value US as users, but rather their ADVERTISERS. Facebook used to link users to the WWW to allow us to share information to whom we chose. However with all the new privacy platform changes, our information is even more so dramatically expanded and thrown out into the open. Targeted advertising is even more on point, since Facebook has taken a leaf out of Google’s book by targeting its ads based on our listed age, location, interests, etc. (The difference between Google and FB  is that Google selects ads based on certain keywords we search for. FB however, has a more focused approach that takes our “Interests” and our social connections (the groups we join, what we ‘Like’, etc)  to target us. Hmm.. Facebook seems like it’s trying to take control of the web away from Google… good luck with that.

Although quitting Facebook may sound extreme for a lot of people (those of YOU who check your account more than 5 times an hr…..) Quit Facebook Day offers an alternative to participate in their cause, like just letting go of Facebook-based connections (like groups and events) as well as your photos and videos.

I’m not sure if I’ll be participating in this. I’m not a complete Facebook whore, however I know that it is ultimately MY decision on what I put out there. This is not just Facebook… I need to be careful what I do on the Internet, on any website. Facebook users alike need to just know that the Internet has a life and a mind of it’s own; it is capable of SO much that we just cannot see or fathom. By just being Internet careful, I do not think that anyone needs to boycott Facebook. It’s pointless and it’s annoying.
I’m sorry, but if you aren’t satisfied, no one is asking you to keep your account. Keep in mind that your account is FREE OF CHARGE. You don’t have any RIGHT TO COMPLAIN… so just stop please

Moral? Just practice safe-browsing ! and don’t forget to always use protection……..