So you thought it was going to be so hard

So for the past two classes I've taught about social media (theory and practice?) - there's been outright rebellion. What? No paper? How do you mean? Are you serious? What are the guidelines? What are we supposed to do. But my dear students, you excel, far beyond any kind of comprehension I can expect.

You do such amazing jobs showing how YOUR interests intersect with the theories we've discussed, and in some cases, create fascinating intersections that can be shared with audiences that then take them up and reuse them. Case in point: Ms. Stephanie Linka. Her video on Caine's Arcade and its Spreadability was used at the Caine's Arcade Foundation meeting in Los Angeles. @henryjenkins tweeted her and his research group took this up. The filmmaker that discovered Caine favorited my tweet - sharing her video more.

This is spreadability in action. Here's the video.
How Caine Won the Internet from Stephanie Linka on Vimeo.

Then there's Andrew Clark's ridiculous Texts from Hilary - Texting Cats mashup - which created a bit of a stir among my Twitter followers (and Henry) when he tweeted it out. I told Andrew that his final grade depended on his response to all of this, but I was kind of just kidding. Though not quite as shareable, you can see this 25-point exchange between two memes. As Andrew put it:

This semester we discussed what makes a meme: how memes are not self-replicating, but are constantly changing as they pass from person to person, through culture, as each individual adds value to the original meme. Successful memes - such as LOLCatz - are those that can be used for a wide variety of purposes while still maintaining their most basic structure. To illustrate this point, I adapted two popular memes - Texting Cat and Texting Hillary Clinton - to suit a purpose that adds value to me and you while still keeping the memes basic DNA. What if Texting Cat and Texting Hillary Clinton had a conversation about memes, according to Henry Jenkins? 

Chris Watts' Tumblr really took apart the first "social olympics" and did a great job looking at core theories from the class, thinking about how and why the IOC might have made some miscalculations with their social media strategy. One of his critiques is this:

One of these guidelies related directly to “Domain Names/URLs/Page Naming.” The verbatim language from the document is: Domain names and URLs including the word “Olympic” or “Olympics” or any similar words related thereto (or any foreign language equivalents thereof) are not allowed unless approved by the IOC beforehand. For example, www.[myname]olympic.com would not be permitted while www.[myname].com/olympic would be allowed, but only during the Period of the Olympic Games during which these Guidelines are applicable. 

Similarly, participants and other accredited persons may not create stand-alone Olympic-themed websites, application or any other feature to host coverage of the Olympic Games. This seems like am almost imposible task to regular and an incredibly bold move by the IOC to regulate how the the word “Olympic” can be used.

Matt Maschino's project takes a look at the problem with Wikipedia -- that it is having trouble attracting new editors. While the site is fantastic at being sticky, and even spreadable, he argues Wikipedia is actually in danger...he definitely goes through much of the course's reading, offering a good intro for anyone interested in these theorists to learn more. Here's one of the cartoons he used to describe why one might not want to have a "like" button, or track one's browsing history, but why Wikipedia is so sticky.

Then, Courtney McKay took on the subject of whether social media could be addictive, posing the question to her friends:



She talked about the day-to-day issues we experience with social media, and for this project, she took on the subject of addiction.

And I have to say, Lynn Evans has just gone nuts this semester with her night at the movies blog. It started small, but it has turned into -well now she has a PINTEREST board for her movie obsession... She's been starting to amuse us - and tell us more about movies - through personalized videos and criticism. This blog is truly an amazing blog about a personal interest that I hope she continues because she's made to be a movie critic. And she gets convergence culture. Check out this pic.

It's not every day that Ms. Piggy comes to your wedding. (P.S. Lynn, you look fantastic!) And here's everything with the links. Do follow them. You will be stoked.

Lynette Evans Social Media Final Project

View more PowerPoint from Evansle2

HK does a brilliant takedown of what stays on FB doesn't well, stay on FB.... she gathers some pretty insane details, using sources such as the Wall Street Journal to tell us about some of the serious ways in which Facebook keeps track of our behavior. More disturbing is the lasting effects that what we do on Facebook can suddenly become part of whether we are hired or fired.