All's Ferin Love and Identity

Online I'm known as Ferin.

I've been using that nickname for so long now (and it's so close to my actual name) that I don't ever think to separate the two in my mind. Is the me that blogs the same me that speaks and acts? Most of the time I'd say so, but since I've had very few friends in life that both see me in the day to day and online... I have no objective opinion to be sure.

 

Well, that picture is definitely not of me! At least the location is true?

 When I first read A Rape in Cyberspace I thought that the women who felt violated by another MOO user were reacting a bit in the extreme - and yet the young girl who took her life over a fake MySpace account had my complete sympathy. It's easy to say that someone older should take the Internet with a grain of salt, but who are we to judge the openness of others?

I have done roleplaying for so long now that distancing myself from my character has become second nature. Understanding the drama that surrounds online identity crisis and "what's right and wrong here?" seems simple. But then... today I was reminded of one character I played for a brief period of time in my life. I had a fake Twitter account I used to play with others on the site, and before I knew it?

I was using the fake twitter more than my own. My thoughts, my feelings were being channeled through this fictional person, and when something bad happened to that character that I wasn't expecting? I cried.

The Internet is so much a part of our daily lives now that it might as well be a true extension of reality, hyperbole and dramatics and hurt feelings along with it. If we don't have a moral code for our online behavior, what kind of message are we sending to the generations growing up with Internet access 24/7?

be different.

Creating an advertising campaign for cellphones targeted toward tweens should have been easy enough to manage. In theory, the magic equation would be --

1 boy with a Bieber haircut + 1 girl in an iCarly t-shirt - any sense of financial obligation = SUCCESS!

When two of those options are taken away... then what do you do? CURSE YOU, COPYRIGHT!
Luckily, with a great partner, a little imagination, and hours spent surfing Creative Commons -- an ad campaign was born!

BE _____. Keeping the slogan simple and tying it to both the image used and the idea of the phone skins seemed to really work out for us.  We had a playful font for the phone name and an easy to read font for the rest of the text. Each ad was bright and eye-catching, but not too busy. 

What could have been improved? There were a number of simple changes that might have made this campaign stronger. Adding a website address to find out more info about the phone might have been useful considering the lack of information given in the actual ads. Maybe making the ad targeted toward preteen boys brighter to match the other two ads would have helped make the campaign a cohesive whole.                                                                                                                                                                                   We could have used more animal-themed skins for our peacock feathers. There was also the mention of the phone 'floating' in the third ad, so there might have been a way to use the phone on the page that would have suited all three ads instead of just the first two.

Overall, the ad campaign seemed to be successful in theme and execution. I had a blast seeing what ideas the other teams came up with for this project! The assignment was certainly challenging, but I loved getting a chance to flex some Photoshop skills and think outside the box.

An Exception to the Rule

I was a preteen girl back when one of the best things about the music industry was the excitement of a new music video release. I'd rush home from school to make sure I didn't miss TRL, a music video Top 10 program on MTV, and cheered on my favorite bands for the number one spot. I never realized how many degrading images of women I was absorbing in a mere hour's time.

Seeing video after video I recognized in the Dreamworlds 3 documentary really opened my eyes to what I'd either missed or forgotten. Suddenly I remembered how disappointed I was when Jewel was suddenly shaking her hips in a skimpy outfit instead of playing guitar just because she was now endorsed by a brand of razor. I thought--

 "Oh yeah! When I was young, you either had to be Jennifer Love Hewitt lusted after by all of LFO, or... Jennifer Love Hewitt saved by Enrique Iglesias in the desert!"

miss_rogue @ flickr

I remembered this monstrosity. Not only did the video for "Dontcha" fall right into the pattern of objectifying women, it wanted the men to pay attention. It asked them to fantasize and to use the women in the video as objects because they were better than the reality of any girlfriend.

Last night I set out on a quest to find a video that defied the odds, because more disheartening to me than the treatment of women in men's entertainment was the seeming compliance of female performers. It was in this search that I stumbled upon a pattern. Women who played instruments - guitar and piano most common - were the ones most often allowed to tell a story from their own point of view. 

Maybe it was already believed that women would be the target audiences for this genre of music, or maybe the fact that a story was built into the song itself spared them from falling into the 'lack of creativity' that other videos show. Either way, it was something to get hopeful about, something that showed that there is a light at the end of a loooooong tunnel of booty shaking babes.

Here was one exception I thoroughly enjoyed. A woman telling a story about her own exception, and keeping her clothes on in the process.

If only she were a natural redhead too!

What Could Have Been A Berry Successful Campaign

When looking through the Forbes.Com Article about Social Media campaigns, I was shocked to discover that a good number of those considered the 'best' were things I hadn't seen before. This is likely a side effect of infrequent use of sites like Facebook and Twitter, which are quickly becoming the sole form of communication for my age group.

And yet... I do have accounts, I do fall victim to popular youtube videos, and to suggest that I've never seen the Old Spice commercials with Isaiah Mustafa would be an outright lie.

What is it that makes social media such a successful outlet for product placement? I think the main factor is the fact that advertisements have found a way to become interactive, and the best way to get a person on board with your brand? Make them feel as if they have a say in it! Like stockholders, but without any monetary benefit.

I know that when Mountain Dew recently placed three new flavors in stores and asked consumers to vote, I was determined to try every single one. When a store didn't have one of the new three flavors in stock? I'd just buy the original. At the time I didn't even think of how easily they'd hooked me.

Thinking over this topic reminded me of what could have been a successful social media campaign and fell somewhat flat. When a commercial featuring a man in a funny outfit doing a dance and singing a tune aired on television for Starbursts - Berries and Cream flavor, all of my friends were talking about it. Whether they felt the commercial was hilarious, or just plain silly, it had captured their attention. Soon after, a video hit youtube showing exactly how to do the dance featured in the commercial.




If only they'd found some way to connect this with flash animation! Then we'd all be able to do the 'Little Lad Dance' without stepping away from our computers. Unfortunately, the campaign failed to recognize the main appeal of social media - tell everyone you know with the click of a button, not a flap of the tongue.

Ready, Set... Roleplay!

All right, so Jane Austen will forever be a huge bore.

Or, to be more fair, her works will always be there for the masses to form opinions on when forced to read or watch, and freedom of speech will allow those of us who enjoy her stories... to sit through a large number of complaints from the rest of the room.

Fair enough. But it doesn't make for a website project to be enthusiastic about when there are twenty five pages of content expected.

So, in the spirit of doing something far more personal and thrilling in a can-I-really-ruin-my-social-life-with-one-project sort of way, I've decided to throw a new concept out there in time for the PowerPoint requirement [and for my views on PowerPoint as a program see this blog post].

ROLEPLAYING.

While some gutter-minded folks out there might link this directly to the bedroom, I'm talking about everything but. Forums, blogs, online games, and cosplay to name just a few varieties.

"So you mean like... where you run around on quests and stuff?"

Eloquent words from my younger brother, but... not exactly. There's so much more to roleplaying than just collecting gold coins and saving the princess. While I've never played any online RPGs myself, I look forward to exploring the subculture they've created. I also want to look into the benefits of roleplaying - from the expansion of the imagination to the grammar skills acquired through shared writing.

Why read about Mr. Darcy when you can be Mr. Darcy!

... Right?

What's the Point?

With titles like Learning to Love PowerPoint and PowerPoint is Evil, I anticipated that these two articles would hold opposing views about the program in question.

I believe, however, that David Byrne and Edward Tufte ultimately reach the same conclusion. A PowerPoint presentation may be a convenient and effective communication tool, but its true quality depends on the content the presenter brings to the table.

Both articles seem to focus in on the key point of limitation. While PowerPoint makes everything simple - bullet point here, bouncing text there, rinse and repeat - for the presenter to organize information, it cannot make up for a lack of good subject matter, nor can it be relied on as the best method for sharing ideas 100% of the time.

Although at first glance the articles may seem contradictory, together they make a successful argument. While those people who choose to use PowerPoint as an aid should not feel as if they have to sacrifice creativity for program presets, they should also remember that more than just slides are available for reaching their audience.

The point: No limits... within reason.

Austentatious Ideas

How are the civilities and compliments of every day life to be related as they ought to be, unless noted down every evening in a journal?

One of my old college roommates used to shake her head or scoff at me whenever I suggested we watch a Jane Austen film for our weekly movie night.  The mere mention of Pride and Prejudice seemed to make her nauseous, no doubt related to resurfacing memories of high school literature courses.  I've been there.


I can admit that I usually don't admit to being a die-hard Austen fan myself. There are a combination of factors at play here.

➻ Actually reading Jane Austen's novels can be similar to pulling teeth (and my six-year-old self remembers having a tooth yanked out that wasn't ready to go, thank you!)

➻ Social structure of the Jane Austen Era makes me want to throw things.

➻ There's enough similarity between her work and modern-day romance novels for me to  fear I'm turning into my mother already.

BUT.

One day I managed to convince my roommate to watch Northanger Abbey with me, and soon enough we were sitting through all 3+ hours of  Sense and Sensibility. We laughed, we screamed at the heroine, we swooned over the men - I converted her to an Austen fan easily in just two weeks.

What makes the film adaptations so much better than the original work?

I often compare William Shakespeare to Disney's animated films ("He might not have come up with the story, but he knows how to make me like it!"), both genius in their own right. Andrew Davies is another person to add to that list. Every single screen adaptation of Jane Austen's work with his name attached is one I can claim is worth seeing.

If I could choose my ULTIMATE website project, it would be to compile a shrine to Mr. Davies list of Jane Austen BBC (and ITV) adaptations and what makes each unique. Choice of actors and actresses, adaptation of dialogue, and even set design could all be a part of the comparative process.

I am, however, aware of the various problems that could arise with such a topic. Not only external, but my own sad tendency to ramble like a rambling thing that rambles.

Failing a Jane Austen Adaptation site, I do seem to have quite a few photos I took of empty benches lying around my desktop. 

Could be an idea there.

I am simultaneously sitting as close to and as far away from a good idea as possible.

Hmn.