The dark side of technology withdrawal
Brad Huddleston observes,
I can’t tell you how many times, after giving a talk, a parent has come up to me and said something like, “You just described my child to a tee.”The only thing I do is give a list of the general symptoms of digital addiction with explanations. Here’s the list:
- anger
- aggression
- anxiety
- depression
- irritability
- attention deficits
- emotional numbness
There are more, but in my experience, these are the most common. I convey to my audiences that most of us experience at least some of these symptoms simply because of our daily stresses. What I’m talking about is an exacerbation of these symptoms brought on by addiction.Anger and aggression are at the top of the list for a reason. These two are the ones I hear about most often, and they can turn horrid. For example, 17-year-old Daniel Petric from Ohio made national news for shooting his parents after they took the violent video game Halo 3 away from him.[i] His mother died, and his father was injured. If you don't think it can get that extreme in your home, think again. Daniel's conviction was in 2009.[ii] Video game technology has and continues to advance at a mind-numbing pace, and the brain clearly cannot handle the ever-growing levels of stimulation.
Facebook Page vs. Group: Which Should I Use?
I recently responded to a question regarding the differences between Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups. I use both extensively and thought I would share some of my preferences when making the decision whether to start a Page or a Group.
When to Use a Facebook Page
When we first started developing for the web back in the 90s, most referred to a website as a "web page." In truth, a web page was usually little more than a personal home page that was under the umbrella of a larger domain. For example, your "home page" might have a url like http://www.myisp.com/publicweb/~myaccountname.
Ahh. The good old days. Try saying that url to a friend or family member in hopes they will find your website!
Like a "web page," a Facebook Page is a single entity that is part of a much bigger community on Facebook. Your Facebook Page is essentially open to anyone who wants to view the page, and by liking it, they can join the community and begin posting pictures, links, articles, or comments. There's some control from an admin perspective, but essentially, you must think of a Facebook Page as an open community focused on a topic, person, or organization.
Examples of Facebook Pages include:
- Churches & Nonprofits
- Schools, Colleges & Universities
- Businesses
- Causes (save the whales, etc.)
- Political campaigns
- Celebrities (actors, musicians, etc.)
- Media (CNN, NBC, KCCI-TV)
- Blogs (ThePioneerWoman.com, MichaelHyatt.com)
Facebook Pages may have a few "likes" or fans, or may have several hundred thousand (or millions).
The key question to ask when making a decision between a Page or Group is what kind of control do I want to have over my audience? If your open to having everyone and their friend be a part of your community, then a Page is the correct choice. Secondly, is the focus of your Page an idea, organization, person, etc., or is the purpose to facilitate communication to a select group.
When to Use a Facebook Group
Facebook Groups are an excellent choice for someone who wants to use Facebook as a means of communicating to a select group of people.
For example, if you are on a college faculty, your college will likely have a Facebook Page for the college, but you would need to use a Facebook Group for your individual classes. Moreover, the only people part of your Facebook Group would be your current students. You may choose, therefore, to create a Facebook Group for each section of a class you teach for each term you teach the class. Your Facebook Group may only have a handful of members.
Here are the advantages of a Facebook Group:
- Complete control over membership by the Group admin
- The ability to post documents
- The ability to control what the public can see (open, closed, secret)
Most Facebook Groups will have a small number of members.
Recommended Instructional Applications for a Facebook Group
As stated above, Facebook Groups work very well with a blended or flipped classroom situation, in which you want to push a portion of your teaching onto the web. Here's how I use a Facebook Group for instruction:
- Link to articles of interest and request comment
- Create simple polls and surveys
- Link to videos or other media
- Upload documents or other classroom support material
- Link to Google Docs for reference or collaboration
- Respond to questions or comments
- Maintain a calendar of events
- Post announcements and updated class information
How do you use a Facebook Page or Group in your setting?
How to Backup Your Twitter Stream
Our twitter stream provides a unique insight into what’s happening in life. For some, their twitter stream is filled with minute details like the fact that you are having your first cup of coffee for the day (Breakfast Blend) and that the temperature outside is 22 degrees. For others, it proves to be a log of your reading trends and interesting facts that come across your information stream.
I fall into the last category.
This morning the idea hit me that I should find a way to archive my twitter stream and post it on my website. Not that it will be of any great significance in years to come, but it may prove interesting.
After some quick searches, I landed on TweetBackup.com. It couldn’t be easier to begin. Simply enter your twitter account credentials and in a few minutes you have a complete backup of every tweet you have sent. In my case, my first tweet was on May 29, 2008. Interesting. Like all similar services, TweetBackup is limited to 3200 tweets, which is the maximum number allowed by Twitter’s API.
Here are a couple of things I wish I could do with my twitter stream that I haven’t found a way to accomplish (yet):
- I wish I could automatically update my archive page with the latest tweets using an RSS feed or something similar.
- I wish TweetBackup had an easy way to archive hashtags. It may be possible, but I haven’t found a way, yet.
How about you? Do you archive your twitter stream? Is it available on your website?
Good-bye SugarSync, Hello Dropbox
I am a long-time SugarSync user. Prior to my complete switch to Mac OS at home and work in late 2011, I relied exclusively on SugarSync for a couple of reasons:
- Dollar-for-dollar, SugarSync provides more storage than Dropbox. I subscribed to the $9.99 / month plan and received 60 GB of space. Dropbox only provides 50 GB of space for the same money.
- Prior to my complete switch to Apple products, I used a Mac at home, a Windows PC at work, an iPad and an Android phone. Early in the game, SugarSync simply played better in a multi platform environment.
In early April, we made the switch to iPhones at work, and this completed my transformation to an Apple environment. Now I use Macs at home and at work, an iPad, and an iPhone. At the risk of gushing, it is wonderful. :)
As I’ve learned more about the iPhone and about some of the cool apps that really make iOS the awesome operating system that it is (e.g. Instacast, TextExpander, 1Password, and Byword) I’ve also learned that iOS apps strongly favor Dropbox as the preferred method of syncing between devices. Yes, SugarSync provides an iOS app, but many of the in-app sync preferences only support Dropbox. Even support for Apple’s own iCloud falls far short of support for Dropbox.
So, I am in the process of transferring my files out of SugarSync and into Dropbox. Uploading over 40 GBs of data will take some time, so it will likely be a multi-day transition.
The question that begs to be asked is why not iCloud? Simple: even though iCloud has been released, it is still very early in its development, and there has not been a broad embrace of iCloud yet within the developer community. I believe iCloud will be a true contender in the cloud/sync arena by early- to mid-2013. Right now, however, iCloud is not ready for prime time.
How about you? Have you made the transitioned away from Dropbox to iCloud?
The New iPad 3: My First Impression
I stopped by the local Best Buy last Friday and picked up the latest edition of Apple's iPad. I think it is officially called the "new" iPad, but in my mind it is the iPad 3.I purchased the low-end iPad - the 16GB, Wi-Fi. My original was the 32GB, Wi-Fi. Prior to making the purchase, I checked my original iPad to see how much memory I had used. I had used only 8GB. I don't store videos or photographs iPad, so most of my usage comes from apps and resources for Logos Bible Software.Here are my initial impressions:* The retina display is nice, but unless you have an original iPad sitting next to the new iPad, I'm not sure you could see the difference. Part of this has to do with the fact that several of the apps I use have not upgraded yet to support the higher resolution of the new iPad.* The new iPad is clearly faster than my original iPad. I notice this when writing an email and attempting to add an email address into the "to:" field. On my original iPad, I could touch the field and type in the first letter or two of my contact, and it would take five seconds or more to autocomplete the address. With the new iPad, the autocomplete is almost instantaneous.* It could be my imagination, but it seems that the battery life is draining faster than it did with my original iPad. Clearly, my usage habits haven't changed in the last couple of days, but it seems the battery is draining faster. I started the day with a full charge this morning, and by mid-afternoon I am down to 75 percent. I would estimate I've used the iPad for a total of two hours so far today for mostly email, web browsing, and writing. I am using my bluetooth keyboard right now, but I've only had the bluetooth turned on for the past hour.* Again, it could be my imagination, but it seems like the new iPad is generating more heat than the orignial. I do have a different case with the new iPad, but I can't see how the case would make that much difference, especially when I have the iPad propt up for writing. If I touch the back of the device, it is clearly generating quite a bit of heat. Is this normal?So, my initial impression of the "new" iPad is mixed. Clearly, I appreciate the improved speed and retina display, but, if it is indeed true that the battery has less stamina and the device is generating a lot of heat, those will be major drawbacks for me.Is anyone else experiencing similar symptoms with the new iPad?