Category Archive: Social

Posts about social media and society.

Mar 26 2012

Can Twitter Really Be Bought?

twitter activist image

This recent Businessweek article about the strategic purchasing options of Twitter has got me fuming, and it’s not just because I’m a Google guy. Barry Ritholtz, a widely followed financial analyst and blogger, argues thatĀ Apple should buy Twitter, primarily because doing so would add the crucial social component that Apple still lacks, despite its growing …

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Mar 21 2012

The Evolution of Jewelry…For Phones?

Leave it to the Japanese to make use of every available nook and cranny to make something cuter. It’s way beyond customizing the phone cover you already have – it’s inventing new jewelry that originally served no other purpose than adding character. Enter: the phone charm. Considering the human tendency to decorate *everything* (Bedazzled jeans, …

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Mar 10 2010

Sexuality: Are We Desperate To Be Labeled?

In the age of social media, our identity is all about labels.  Every social site is built around profiles, and every profile contains boxes and boxes and boxes of labels.  [What are your stats?  What are your interests?]  Does our love of public labels now extend to our previously private sexuality?  Or do gays and …

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Feb 21 2010

Warner Bros. Heralds Future of Video Rental

The Blockbuster closest to my house recently sold, shuttered, and gutted, grimly foreshadowing the end of the video-rental store era.  Like Sony Walkman cassette players (do my younger readers even know what these are?), VHS has all but vanished.  DVD and Blu-ray, too, are trembling before the inevitable growth of online video streaming.  Like a …

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Feb 16 2010

Harness the Power of Your Consumers

Buckets and buckets of posts have been written about the impact of mobile platforms and social networks on marketing and small businesses.  One fledgling area that is bound to explode, however, is the ability to let your users create the content you’re selling – on the fly.  Letting consumers do the work of marketing products …

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Feb 03 2010

Politics of Social Change, or Molasses in Winter

If ever I thought the entertainment industry was full of “hurry up and wait,” I have only to look at Capitol Hill.  Last week (Wednesday, January 28, to be exact) marked the end of the first stage of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal trial over Proposition 8 and its ban on same-sex marriage.  According to …

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