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  Geebo 10:01 am on October 31, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: halloween, HG Wells, Orson Welles, social media, War of the Worlds   

  What “War of the Worlds” can teach us about media 

  

  With it being Halloween, the day of tricks and treats, it’s worth revisiting one of the greatest tricks ever played on an unsuspecting American public. On the night before Halloween in 1938, then radio personality Orson Welles broadcasted an updated radio drama of H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel “War of the Worlds”.

  As the legend goes, Welles’ realistic broadcast that, was updated for 1938 audiences, was a little too realistic. Not only did it cause panic in the streets but it’s been claimed that mass hysteria followed. Some people allegedly even claimed that one of the ‘flying saucers’ landed on their property or that they had been attacked by Martians.

  Originally Welles claimed that it was an unintended accident for so much panic to come from his infamous broadcast. However in a 1965 interview with the BBC, Welles relates a tale where he was hosting a normal Sunday radio show with musical numbers when announcers broke in and announced that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Since it was Welles hosting the program the news wasn’t believed for several hours. He then said that he probably deserved that since the War of The Worlds broadcast was a protest of source.

  At the 12:00 minute mark Welles states that…

  I supposed we had it coming to us because in fact we weren’t so innocent as we meant to be. We were fed up with the way in which everything coming from this new magic box, the radio, was being swallowed. People do suspect what they read in the newspapers, but when the radio came , and I suppose now television, anything that came from that new machine was believed. So in a way our broadcast was an assault on the credibility of that machine. We wanted people to understand that they shouldn’t take any opinion predigested, and they shouldn’t swallow everything that came through the tap.

  Today we have all sorts of magic boxes that feed us information, probably more than either Wells or Welles could have imagined, yet still many of us believe everything that comes from these boxes the we accept as gospel whether they are true or not, usually from places like Facebook and Twitter.

  One has to wonder that if Orson Welles was alive today and tried his experiment with today’s culture would he have had the same success in fooling as many people as he did? I for one believe he would.

  Welles’ entire broadcast can be heard below…

   

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  Geebo 11:55 am on October 28, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: social media, Twitter ( 13 ), Vine   

  Will we see a world without Twitter? 

  

  When Twitter first started it was the hit of SXSW but only embraced by the technorati. It wasn’t until it was touted by users like Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey when it absolutely exploded into mainstream society. Since that time it’s been almost a necessity when it comes to breaking news and has even played a historical part in the Arab Spring. You would think that playing such a pivotal role in the media Twitter would be around forever, unfortunately it’s starting to look like the beginning of the end for Twitter.

  Yesterday, Twitter announced that they will be shuttering the 6 second video app Vine. Since the dawn of Snapchat you would think that Vine would be obsolete but it’s closing shows just yet another step in the downfall of Twitter.

  Not only has Twitter announced that they will be laying off 9 percent of its workforce, but they also shopped themselves around to companies like Disney and came away with no takers. All of these combined could make Twitter one of those memories we fondly look forward back to like a Rubik’s Cube or a pet rock. However, if Twitter were to go under it wouldn’t take long for another VC funded app to take its place. The question will be whether or not the new app will have a better business plan than Twitter’s.

   
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  Geebo 9:51 am on October 10, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Kim Kardashian, Safety ( 45 ), security ( 46 ), social media   

  What Kim Kardashian can teach you about social media security 

  

  One of the bigger entertainment stories last week was the armed robbery of reality TV presence Kim Kardashian. She was said to have been robbed of $10 million in jewelry while in her Paris hotel room. Some reports have alleged that the perpetrators may have used her ubiquitous presence on social media to plan the heist. The truth is that you don’t have to be famous to have your social media betray you like that.

  Apps like Twitter and Instagram are constantly trying to get you to post your location. If you’re out in public and away from home this can present a number of problems for your real world security. Mashable, has a great blog post about how to disable your location in several apps. Another safety issue is with check in apps that announce where you may be such as a restaurant or concert. Instead of checking in as soon as you get there you may want to wait until after you leave before checking in.

  The biggest security flaw that has come back to bite social media mavens is being on vacation. It’s become common place to announce your vacation plans on social media before documenting the entire trip. This has the potential to let one of your followers know that you may not be home for a while which has led to burglaries in the past.

  Instead of documenting every moment of your life on social media as it happens, maybe put some time aside at the end of the day to do more of a ‘day in review’ type of update. Your safety and security is not worth a handful of likes and emojis.

   
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  Geebo 12:22 pm on September 19, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: privacy ( 46 ), Safety ( 45 ), security ( 46 ), social media   

  When did we give up our privacy? 

  

  Tech blog Mashable recently posted a listicle entitled “6 ways you’re being too open online”. It has some good tips like not accessing sensitive information over public wifi and the mandatory tip about keeping strong passwords. One tip they share is one that not too many people seem to want to follow and that’s “Posting too freely on social media.”

  Services like Facebook and Instagram seem anathema to not only privacy advocates but they fly in the face of most if not all security protocols. Back in the days of the early web in the late 90s, most tech experts would say not to post any personal information online. Then somewhere in the mid 2000s with the advent of social media, we all started posting our personal information online so we could reconnect with old friends. Then it got to the point where we document our daily lives online with endless selfies and detailed descriptions of our daily minutia. It has become so accepted that we don’t even think twice about it anymore.

  A lot of the information that we share openly online can be used by bad actors to socially engineer their way into your personal accounts. Facebook tells everyone when your birthday is, and your birthday is often used an identifier to access your accounts. When you post pictures on Instagram of being at a party or on vacation people can tell when your home is left unprotected. Even posting pictures of your kids at their soccer game or whatever activity they enjoy can give predators information on how to approach your children.

  Have we become so narcissistic as a society the we crave likes and follows so much that we disregard our own safety? If so, maybe it’s time that we started re-thinking our safety priorities.