Internet

Good Idea, Wrong Place to Advertise It

by

This morning on the radio I heard a promotional advertisement for Feed the Pig.   I have heard things about this site before and decided to check it out.   It is outstanding.   They have calendars so you can see ways to save money throughout the year, and there are  many tips on how to pinch pennies.

Basically the concept is to teach people how to save, knock down their debt, and generally help them to not waste money  (things that many modern day Americans are horrible at).   I can’t really see a downside to this.   The site is sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs.   I am not sure why they put up the site, but I wholeheartedly support it.

I give the site a big thumbs up, but think I will give their choice of advertising venues a small thumbs down.   I was reminded this morning of  Feed the Pig  while listening to Bloomberg Radio on XM  on the way in to work, getting my business news for the day.  

**Quick aside:   I have three choices of business news to pick from on XM:   Fox Business, CNBC and Bloomberg.   I choose Bloomberg because it is just the facts, with interviews sprinkled in – and the interviews are with interesting and smart people.   In addition, the interviews are always respectful and low key even if people are disagreeing, unlike some of the other places where there are a bunch of idiots yelling and screaming at each other.   In other words, Bloomberg Radio seems more professional to me.**

I really don’t think that anyone who seeks out Bloomberg Radio doesn’t understand the simple concepts of saving and debt that Feed the Pig is trying to teach.   I just think that these are wasted advertising dollars.   A better target IMHO  would be radio stations, magazines  or TV networks that reach places where the people are perhaps not educated or are  unaware of the concepts that Feed the Pig is educating people on.

It is almost like putting ads up for scrap booking during an NFL football game.   Not the right demographic.

Cross posted at LITGM.

Quote of the Day

by

In most online conversations I’ve been involved with, you eventually come to a point where the people interested in an evolving, exploratory dialogue, in learning something new about themselves and others, in thinking aloud, in working through things, find themselves worn out by a kind of rhetorical infection inflicted by bad faith participants who are just there to affirm what they already know and attack everything that doesn’t conform to that knowledge. (Or by the classic “energy creatures” whose only objective is to satisfy their narcissism.) I used to think that was a function of the size of the room, that in a bigger discursive space, richer possibilities would present themselves. Now I don’t know…

–Timothy Burke

(via Megan McArdle)

You Don’t Say!

by

Seriously – they weren’t 16?   Great blog here  detailing the hacking.   The internet does appear to be forever, even in China.

“Psychopathology of Anonymous EFL China Teacher Forums”

by

A surprisingly interesting blog post:

The Psychology of Cyberspace
 
Dr. John Suler, a clinical psychologist, computer enthusiast and professor at Rider University in New Jersey has written prolifically about the psychology of cyberspace. In his book of the same name, he offers some very thought-provoking questions for us to consider1:
 

Does online anonymity and freedom of access encourage antisocial personalities?
 
Do narcissistic people use the access to numerous relationships as a means to gain an admiring audience?
 
Do people with dissociative personalities tend to isolate their cyberspace life from their face-to-face lives? Do they tend to engage in the creation of multiple and distinct online identities?
 
Are schizoid people attracted to the reduced intimacy resulting from online anonymity? Are they lurkers?
 
Do manic people take advantage of asynchronous communication as a means to send measured responses to others, or do they naturally prefer the terse, immediate, and spontaneous conversations of chat and IM?
 
Are compulsives generally drawn to computers & cyberspace for the control it gives them over their relationships and environment?
 
Do histrionic people enjoy the opportunities for theatrical displays that are possible in online groups, especially in environments that provide software tools for creative self-expression?

 
After five years of being a member of, as well as managing, a couple of EFL forums for foreign teachers in China, I’d say the answer to all these questions is a resounding yes. The problem, as I see it, is a multifaceted one.
 
As discussed in the aforementioned article, foreign teachers in China can accurately be thought of as an oppressed group who engage in negative behaviors towards each other that are collectively referred to as “horizontal violence.”2 These behaviors include but are not limited to devaluing, discouraging, scapegoating, backstabbing, sabotaging, cheating, exploiting, and conspiring. To varying degrees, depending on the particular individuals involved, these behaviors are tempered or constrained through face-to-face contacts and the eventual establishment of personal acquaintanceships. However, the anonymity that the Internet provides induces what researchers refer to as the “online disinhibition effect.”3 That is, in the absence of face-to-face contact and under the veil of anonymity, these aggressive behaviors become uninhibited and are unleashed—and clear evidence of this can be found not only among these forums’ registered members but among their moderators and administrators as well. To the degree that the “fellow patients” are running the “asylum,” so to speak, these forums can be (and typically are) very toxic environments, psychologically speaking.

Read the whole thing.

Good Karma

by

I got slagged like never before in my posts about copyright infringement here and here.   Eventually I came to the realization that I was wrong in my practice, no matter how hard I wanted to justify it.   It killed me, but I decided to stop watching the show through the illegal means.

Well, I see today that one of my favorite networks, Versus, is going to be airing the very show that I never thought I would get to see, Contender Asia.   They will call it Contender Muay Thai over here.   Unfortunately I  know who the eventual winner is,  from my normal surfing in the  Muay Thai and fighting forums.   Sometimes maybe there is good karma to be had.   I can’t wait.