You already do, so enjoythin.gs with the world

Another social bookmarking tool, enjoythin.gs aggregates your favorite media from Last.fm, Vimeo, Flickr, Tumblr and Twitter, as well as text and images from any site on the web. 

The concept is simple: drag the Enjoy This tool to your bookmark toolbar. Click Enjoy This once when you want to save an entire web page; click again on an image if that’s what you enjoy; highlight text first, then Enjoy This if you want to save a piece of text. Each medium shows up differently on your homepage. Note: I DID have to watch the video tutorial to figure out how to enjoy a single image. But now you won’t =).

Authorize enjoythin.gs to access your external accounts if you want to import media you favorite from those sites. I ended up disabling access to my Last.fm account because I’m pretty liberal with loving tracks, and while it looks like you should be able to listen to tracks on enjoythin.gs, it wasn’t working for me.

Need some inspiration to enjoy things? Much like StumbleUpon or Flickr Explore, you can access random items others enjoy from the enjoythin.gs homepage. And as is social media, you can comment on media others enjoy and friend users.

Its beautiful interface is simple and fun to use. For the visually inclined, it’s more appealing than delicious and allows for more detailed, customized favoriting than StumbleUpon. You can check out what I enjoy here: http://ronijean.enjoysthin.gs/.

New media can be potent, emobodied versions of unsettlement.

- Lisa Gitelman, Always Already New

No surprise here: mobile social network subscribers consume more mobile content

Keeping tabs on your Facebook and Myspace friends via your cell phone? You’re probably also playing games, watching video, emailing, listening to music and texting on your phone twice as much as the average mobile phone subscriber.

ABI Research attributed the findings to three possible reasons.

75 percent of social network subscribers surveyed were between the ages 18 and 29, while regular mobile subscribers ages were distributed normally between 14 and 59 years. The 18-29 age group is known to consume more mobile content than older moible phone users.

Avid users of online social networks are expected to be more tech-savvy. Their keen use of technology translates also to the mobile phone in most instances.

Outgoing links on my Facebook Newsfeed entertain me when I've run out of my own content to surf.

Finally and perhaps the only insightful conclusion in this whitepaper is social networks don’t just aggregate the activities of friends but links to content as well. Right now, I can access video clips, news stories and online games from my Facebook Newsfeed. And I’m more likely to follow the links since they’re coming from people I know and, sometimes, with interests similar to mine. And if I’m stuck on the bus with a capable phone, I’m even more likely to entertain myself with this mobile content.

As phone technology evolves, data plan rates fall and Internet on mobile phones become standard as text messaging, “the mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.“

Questions for discussion

At what point will the “mobile phone” turn into a data consumption device more than a voice communication tool? We’ve already added a video and still camera, mp3 player, countless applications and games. Are these current “extras” or “features” going to be central and perhaps more important to consumers (regular mobile consumers) in the future? I’d say they are already more important to me, but I’m a geek and totally dig being connected at all times.

Finally, what will it take for mobile subscribers, particularly demographics that don’t adopt technology quickly, to embrace the mobile phone as more than just a phone?

Wrong “time and place” for Facebook for Virgin Atlantic crew

Thirteen Virgin Atlantic crew members were fired after insulting the company and its passengers on a Facebook discussion page.

The employees used the social networking site to criticize company safety standards and called passengers “chavs.“

“There is a time and a place for Facebook. But there is no justification for it to be used as a sounding board for staff of any company to criticize the very passengers who ultimately pay their salaries,” a spokesman said.

Smart move on Virgin’s part to justify the firings because of the comments about its passengers and not the employees’ claims about the company.

I’d love to hear what the employees thought would come from their online comments. It’s unclear the exact venue of the discussion on Facebook — group page, wall posts, etc. But does it even matter? Shouldn’t they have known their comments would result in some sort of action by the airline?

Also posted at FlipTheMedia.com

Blogs are like, so, totally 2004, yo.

Don’t have a blog? Don’t bother starting one.

Go Twitter, Facebook or Flickr.

This from Wired Magazine correspondent Paul Boutin in a recent post.

“Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”

The time-cost factor isn’t his only argument for discouraging blogging. Professional blogging sites, he says, have hurt the singular model of blogs.

“Scroll down Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs and you’ll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones. Most are essentially online magazines: The Huffington Post. Engadget. TreeHugger. A stand-alone commentator can’t keep up with a team of pro writers cranking out up to 30 posts a day.”

I tend to agree with Mathew Wingram’s view on Boutin’s post:

“Facebook and Twitter are probably enough for many people. Not writing at all is enough for many people. But why does it have to be all or nothing?”

People use blogs, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook for all kinds of reasons. Each of us in MCDM have a blog to post social media-related thoughts and findings. I update my Facebook status like crazy because it keeps me connected to my homies in Kansas and beyond. I Flickr to show my mom what I’m experiencing in Seattle.

For a lot of bloggers, posting is an easy way to publish — the ONLY way we can publish — to be heard, to be seen. Do we all expect — or desire — to be at the top of Google search rankings? Sha, I’ll take it, if it happens. But it’s not my only aspiration. What happened to writing to inspire creativity, for yourself and others reading, even if it is just your classmates?

Also posted at FlipTheMedia.com

Best music find since Pandora

I’m tiring of Pandora. I love it, but sometimes I just wanna listen to an entire Atmosphere or LCD Soundsystem album from start to finish.

I’m sure it’s old news to many but I cannot sing Simplify Media’s praises enough. The simple and svelte download lets me connect to my friends’ music libraries (and them to mine). It happens with so long as the two sharing have an internet connection and are signed in to the software.

The program features a no-frills chat and lets you know what music from your collection your contacts are listening to.

Simplify works across platforms and, although I haven’t tried it yet, on the iPhone and iPod touch. Users are allowed to share/connect with up to 30 friends.

Add me: ronijean. Just ignore that Britney album …

Help NPR fact check tonight’s VP debate on Twitter

Got Twitter?

National Public Radio is calling on you to help fact check tonight’s vice presidential debate.

Use #factcheck in your Twitter feeds if you find any questionable claims from either candidate.

It’ll be hard to beat this debate, but I think this experiment might steal at least some of my attention away from the debate tonight.

Follow nprpolitics during the debate for updates as well.