What's going on...

First, please sing the title post to yourself to get into a good mood.

Second, last post aside, I've been feeling friendlier towards the internet the last couple of days (mostly because my dead laptop has been turned into a laptop connected to a large screen combined with "Game of Thrones" on HBO Go).

But, more important (yes, even more than the April 1st premier of the second season of Game of Thrones), I've been trying to compile some posts, which I will be posting soon!

For now, however, I will leave you with this little article on what David Carr has labeled Hashtag Activism, which is an appropriate title for the kind of activism my generation is all about. If you click on the wonderful link, you'll get to see Carr talk about how digital support for various causes may not be akin to protesting out on the streets, but how that little click may lead to some good. Or, that little click may lead a movie, like "Bully," which the MPAA gave an R rating, to a $5 million opening...

Behind the screen

     When I was younger, the internet was a smaller place. Everyone connected through AOL, and you had to set up a time so that you could have a chat with friends. It was a simpler time....

     Now, every single time I go on facebook, I can log into their chat service and check if anyone's online to talk to. Interestingly enough, that means I chat less often that I did when I was 11. In many ways, I feel that I've deviated from my peers when it comes to remaining connected online. My phone is not smart. The high tech gadget I wanted for Christmas was a Kindle. Tablets seem like fun, but I'm not pining after one. Hell, my laptop screen broke, and instead of asking for a new laptop, I've connected Hector to an external monitor we had a home (although how I'm getting it back to campus has not yet been discussed). I stay connected via text, but even then, my circle of friends is limited to those people I see in person everyday, every couple of weeks, or those who are blood-related to me. I've removed people from by facebook newsfeed, but I've yet to sever my facebook friendship with them because I think that's very dramatic. And my online reserve has a source that I've just been thinking about.
    You see, I think too much connectedness online is ruining the real bonds we can develop with people. Every time I see a Cisco commercial that talks about the human connection, I cannot help but roll my eyes. Humans can connect online. There is not doubt about that. I can join any variety of communities online, from facebook groups to tech forums to RPG communities. People can build genuine connections online, I've no doubt of that, but I worry about how younger people, people who are suckling at the teat of social networks long before they need to, treat one another.
     I'm about to get personal, so look away if it makes your eyes burn, but I've browsed through tumblr pages and seen what people have written to one another. On that website, I've discovered hilarious GIFs, but I've also seen the very darkest side of the internet. Anonymous comments that simply read "Why don't you kill yourself already?" and "The world would be a better place without you." I've seen anonymous comments calling people sluts, whores, useless, worthless, ugly, and other vile things that I don't want to share. When you've seen that written on anyone's page, I would like to think any sane person would be revolted. Now imagine having that written about a relative of yours or a dear friend. I can tell you from personal experience that it's upsetting. Because who do you turn to when that happens? You can write a comment defending that person, which is honestly more likely to result in you being called worthless as well. You can try to report a user to tumblr, which is not as simple as it should be in my opinion (they ought to take a note from youtube which immediately removes comments that users flag as inappropriate), but that doesn't change the fact that out there, behind some screen somewhere, is a living, breathing person who sat down and typed out "I hope you kill yourself" and sent that message to another person. This is what disturbs me. This silent bullying that is seen by the user, and then maybe promptly deleted. Because that message, once seen, cannot be unseen. I'm glad my internet, the one I grew up with, was a safe one for me. I chatted with friends on AIM Fridays at 7. There's was no blogging site like tumblr onto which I stumbled. No one ever sent me a message telling me I was worthless. No one ever threatened me online. No one ever went out of their way to share how much they hated my existence. I don't know what has happened that anyone thinks this is acceptable behavior today. I really don't know, and that scares me.
     I was going to look up some facts and figures and try to work them into this post, but I think the most important fact I can end this post with is this: Behind every screen is a living breathing person. Technology may be changing how we interact, but it is never an excuse to be hateful. It is never an excuse to hide behind anonymity and try to deliberately hurt someone else.

RLS

I'm starting to believe that Restless Leg Syndrome may actually exist, but it just may be the prospect of spending 8 hours in a computer lab surrounded by anxious peers attempting to finish up studying for everything in the universe...so, in attempts to make this a happier experience for all, here is a wonderful clip of Community, one of my favorite shows on air (returning March 15th!)




Enjoy!

Alexander Helios, a.k.a. Kindle Baby

 

     It took me some time to finally find a name for my Kindle. I had settled on Benedict, but then my family reminded me that Benedict Arnold is still a phrase that people use. I could have lived with my Kindle being synonymous with a traitor (I had a strong inkling that my Kindle would remain loyal to me), but finally I found a perfect name: Alexander Helios, after one of Cleopatra's children. It's my small way of honoring her, but to make a long story short, while Alexander Helios remained unnamed, I started calling him (most of my electronics are male, by the way) Kindle Baby. Not a very masculine name, but it happened. However, my relationship with ebooks began more than a year before I finally held a Kindle in my hands. Here's how it went:

He looks like a silly clown, doesn't he?

How Amazon got me hooked...
     My first ebook, purchased via Amazon, and delivered to my Kindle for PC, took place in March of 2010. It started with free ebooks that I had seen on Project Gutenberg (famous for digitizing public domain books). From there, I started to scour the interwebs for free ebooks. I ran across various sites which I would constantly visit. The recently discontinued online-novels.blogspot.com became a most viewed website for me. I would check that website every day. On holidays, I could expect to find a surge in authors offering their books for free online. I started out finding original ebooks published on Scribd.com, smashwords.com, and amazon.com. I have a Nook for PC, Adobe Digital Editions, and my Kindle for PC to place all those books. As I continued to find free ebooks, I started to "buy" more and more Kindle ebooks. The checkout was easy, and I could change the size of the display (something which epubs complicated by maintaining the original format of an actual book). I inverted the color scheme so I could read white text on a black screen. Highlighting made the few coursebooks I owned much more amusing to read. However, the listing of the Best Sellers in Kindle eBooks (that it, the "Top 100 Free"), really sealed the deal for me. Not only did they list them, but I knew Amazon was more likely to carry ebooks that had been vetted. Amazon provided the quality control I had been lacking on other sites. Whereas on Scribd or Smashwords I had found some questionable content, Amazon ebooks were higher quality and much more flexible than other formats.Thus, my Kindle library grew large with freebies. Some ebooks were short hour long reads, and others were seven hour long reading fests. However, when I hit 150 items, I seriously considered getting an actual Kindle. There was only one problem - technology can be expensive.

Kindle Fears!
     I DO NOT like to pay more than I have to for some things. My Kindle Library containing almost exclusively free ebooks is proof of that. So, you can imagine the dilemma I was faced with: Buy a Kindle in the early months of 2011, or hold out for the inevitable "new" Kindle, which I was positive was going to be cheaper.
     I chose to wait. That meant, my laptop Hector (named after the prince of Troy) was my main source of literary entertainment. I did not mind, but as more and more people bought Kindles, I started seeing them everywhere. On the T, on the coach bus to NY, in Penn Station, on the LIRR....everywhere, EXCEPT in my hands!
     And then, it happened! Right before Christmas. the Kindle 3 came out, and I knew, barring complications, I would be getting a Kindle for Christmas. I sent Santa an email (Did you know he has a google account?), and sure enough, early on the morning of the 25th of December, I held a shiny new gadget in my hands. The world was a different place. The sun was brighter and our 60'' flat-screen was brighter. If that was not enough, my hometown library had recently announced something that made my Kindle just a bit more wonderful: they were going to let me borrow ebooks!

The lending library, or as close to bliss as is possible
     Five books at a time. An email address, my library card, and an internet connection gave me access to the public libraries in the surrounding area. Here, I discovered trilogies, quartets, and series that have yet to be finished. Not as many academic books as I expected, but a great collection of entertaining books! Hours of time were spent reading all sorts of mindless drivel, but I was able to do so on my tiny (when compared to Hector) Kindle. It was when I decided to borrow the Millenium Trilogy (Stieg Larsson), instead of  buying it ($5.99 was the lowest price I saw on the first book in the trilogy) that I started to wonder about how much money I had avoided paying by my consumption of free ebooks.
   
Sorry self-publishing authors! 
     I was a bit proud of myself (and continue to be), but I also began to think of how different the publishing industry had become in a few years. The books I was buying on Smashwords and Scribd were freebies usually published by amateur writers. With these new technologies, more books were certainly available. If I were struggling to establish myself as an author, would I be handing out books for free? What if I had a publisher? Would he (the faceless publisher) agree to handing out ebooks for free? And as soon as I started asking myself that, I realized how my free ebooks had led me to spending actual money on Amazon...

Mo' Money...for Amazon
     They got me. They got me good. Amazon lured me in with those free ebooks. Here I was, feeling guilty about being cheap, when I remembered just how much money they had swindled from me (strong wording, but that was my gut reaction). For every, "first in the series" book I had bought for free, Amazon had suggested a sequel, or even the entire series. Then, Amazon had the audacity to suggest books in the same genre (which they knew I would want to buy!!! Especially after I couldn't find them from my library!). Of course, in the same genre means another multi-book series. Before you know it, I've dropped more money than I should have.
     But, it wasn't just Amazon's sinister recommendations. It was also them flinging books at me for $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99. I'll admit. I had my vulnerable moments when I paid the $2.99 after having read the free preview (which goes to show you how important the beginning of any composition is). I pined over the third book in a series (which held steady at $8.64 until my sister took pity on me and suggested an Amazon gift card from Santa could be the solution). Even now, I'm cyberstalking, not my peers, but Amazon ebook prices. Logically I know I could buy a cheaper hardcover from the Amazon marketplace, but when I'm holding my Kindle, and I have the first FOUR books in a series on that Kindle, wanting the fifth and sixth book in a digital format is nothing new. Those two books (respectively $9.99 and $11.99) will be bought soon (most likely a rainy day scenario), but for now, I look at them longingly online. Of course, Amazon knows me well enough to send me friendly reminders every month telling me that they still have those two books in stock...