Admit it: you wouldn’t mind surfing Facebook, Myspace and Livejournal all day and then writing a doorstopper about socialization in the digital age for your doctoral dissertation, earning you a hefty degree and no discernably marketable job skills to go with it. That’s what we call uni, folks.

In the geekiest venture since the invention of fantasy sports, Internet nerds researched and wrote about Internet nerds, and all of them got together and had a party this past week at Stanford University. As far as we can discern from the report, the public forum on “New Media in the Everyday Lives of Youth” has the following to tell us about our screensucking, l33tsp33k-ing ways: read more »

Has anyone seen all the crap Mark Zuckerberg’s been slipping past general notice lately? Facebook has been so slow recently–probably as a result of the all new, definitely not redundant in any way, “Facebook Chat“– that we didn’t even want to link to it at all.  Also, we have this crazy hunch that you already know how to find it.

“Facebook Chat” is only the absolute most recent of the new “developments.” Other slick additions include the “People You May Know” feature, (which you can find wedged inconspicuously between “Birthdays” and “Invite Your Friends”) and something that allows your friends to actually recommend that you friend people they’re friends with. Thanks to these new features you can finally shoot that excruciatingly hot girl or guy you vaguely knew in high school a friend request without letting on that you’ve been stalking them for months.

Because, you know, if the almighty Facebook says we should be friends, who are we to argue? We’ve got a (virtual) connection. Do you feel it, baby? It’s in the Air(Bears) …

Facebook [Website]
Facebook Chat: Now We’re Talking [Facebook Blog]

While ASUC candidates gear up to stuff as many flyers in your hands as possible next month, it might behoove you to discover what sort of defenses Facebook can offer you. Yes, Facebook. You’ll see what we mean.

We’re an equal opportunity offender (emphasis on “offender”), so let’s start off with a group against both the major parties of ASUC.

* I heard that SA and CS hold satanic orgies fully catered by Rachael Ray: We hear each orgy is prepared and savored in just 30 minutes. Plus, the EVOO doubles as a free-for-all lubrication.

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Facebook recently revealed even more ways for you to identify yourself on the site, this time by political party. The Facebook Blog explains why the site made the switch from labels to parties:

since terms like “liberal” or “conservative” don’t necessarily mean the same thing in every country, we’ve switched to a global listing of national political parties.

So if you’ve always wanted to declare your affiliation with the Liberal and Centre Union of Lithuania, you can! Of course, the new system also has its pitfalls.

First, the party-based system leaves out people who identify as liberal or conservative or even center and who don’t align themselves to specific parties. But oh wait! Facebook’s got your back. You can now write in your political affiliations. For Berkeley, that’s opening a whole other can of worms. We won’t even feign surprise over a “Soy Products” political leaning.

Political Views [Facebook Blog]

You, being the erudite, technologically-savvy UC Berkeley student you are, already knew that every time you take that “How good a lover are you?” quiz survey on Facebook, you’re actually contributing to the generation of tens of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue on the net. But did you know that some of that money may be going to the bespectacled, weedy computer science major who’s just gotten onto the 52L, lurched down the aisle, and unloaded the several tons worth of textbooks strapped to his back onto the row of plastic blue seats across from you? Yeah. We didn’t, either.

Ankur Nagpal, who interviewed with BusinessWeek last week, is that man. Boy. 19-year-old. In between classes, the guy develops widgets–facebook widgets. The Clog would like to observe that widget is such a cute word for such a terror-mongering, profile-cluttering, headache-inducing, “Goddamn stop sending me those Oregon Trail invitations before I drown you with your @&(*#*!* oxen” spam magnet. This does not include the Lolcats application–we’ll always love us some Lolcats applications.

Oh, yeah–where were we? After fighting off Mojo Jojo’s agents of evil and beating out Muhammad Yunus by singlehandedly bringing about an end to world hunger, Nagpal goes on to sell his widgets to networks like Social Media Networks for anywhere between a couple hundred dollars to $40,000. read more »

We Cloggers love Scrabulous. We proclaimed our love for the game long ago.

So the news that our favorite Facebook application might be shut down was not easy to swallow.

Hasbro wants Scrabulous to end because it too closely resembles the company’s board game Scrabble.

(Gee, it kind of does, doesn’t it?)
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We love (and hate) Facebook. And while the Clog is technically part of the media, we certainly aren’t any of the news outlets chatting about Mark Zuckerberg.

This week, the Chron featured our favorite Zuckerberg as a “Face of Business 2007,” noting that despite lower membership than rival MySpace, the Facebook enterprise has certainly grown and appeared in the news the most in the last year.

On principle it seems we shouldn’t give the Harvard dropout any more attention than he deserves. After all, Zuckerberg sold out to Microsoft, opened up Facebook to any stalker with an e-mail address, and launched the utter failure that was the Beacon advertising program (and we already wrote about that). However, this time of year the streets of Berkeley are barren and Stanford’s gone medieval.

While we wait for something more exciting to happen, maybe we’ll collect more Facebook friends (or not) or pore over Google Analytics. Unless, of course, you have better ideas (not including listening to Hubert Dreyfus).

Faces of Business 2007: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook [SF Gate]
Stanford professor’s Palo Alto choir keeps Gregorian chant alive [SF Gate]

Researchers say that you can have too many Facebook friends. There’s a thin line between popularity and insecurity, and once you’ve reached 800 cataloged bosom buddies, you’ve gone overboard.

Dubbed “Facebook whales,” these behemoths are perceived to be insecure once they reach the magic number. Eight hundred, though, seems awfully low for us. Isn’t even, say, 500 a bit much?

Nick O’Neill from AllFacebook says it must be a young thing. His younger cousin “has over 1,000 friends though and is still in college.” Hmm … any relation to Ilana Nankin?

Image Photoshopped by Christine Borden
Facebook whales: 800 is ‘too many friends’ [Guardian Tech blog]
How Many Friends Is Too Many? [AllFacebook]

We may have pissed and moaned about the most annoying (or addictive) additions to the Facebook interface, but it seems creator Mark Zuckerberg is actually giving in these days.

After activist group MoveOn.org received about 70,000 signatures on its petition against marketing program “Beacon,” Zuckerberg apologized for what upset consumers called an egregious invasion of privacy. The contested program alerted a user’s entire network every time that user purchased an item from or visited one of Facebook’s partner corporations.

But Mark’s most recent and exciting change? Removing the “is” from status messages.

We know, we know. Now the Clog’s new Facebook profile can reflect our true feelings. Or at least avoid the ever-so-cumbersome two-letter verb.

Sound familiar? Let’s review other Facebook faux-pas of note:
read more »

With the help of ABC News, Facebook now boasts a Politics Pulse to get the kids involved in the 2008 race. Today we highlight the top two candidates on Facebook for the Democrats and Republicans.

For the college-aged Republicans, Ron Paul steals the show, with almost 44,000 supporters on the site–that’s 34 percent of all the Republican supporters. The good ol’ doctor introduces himself with pride:

As a specialist in obstetrics/gynecology, I have delivered more than 4,000 babies.

Already he’s one-upped all those baby-kissing candidates. He delivers that baby, spanks it and then kisses it too.

In this particular demographic, Mitt Romney falls behind Ron Paul with over 22,000 supporters. He holds only 17 percent of the Republican interest, though that’s not from lack of trying. Romney currently lists “A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Edit Remix)” by Elvis Presley under his iLike application. That’s the way to America’s youth!

Even outside of party lines, Facebook shows Barack Obama as No. 1 among the college kids. Obama flaunts over 170,000 supporters (58 percent of Facebook Democrats). His profile is the most fleshed-out among his opponents, and it’s apparent he took the time to think out the details. As his favorite books, he notes:

* “The Bible,” to prove he’s got “values”
* “Lincoln’s Collected Writings,” to align himself with an honored president
* “Song of Solomon,” written by Toni Morrison–also supported by the most powerful force in America, a.k.a Oprah

Hillary Clinton comes in second as a Democratic candidate. Over 55,000 Facebookers support her, and she claims 19 percent of all Democratic supporters. Her profile is rather dull, but her wall makes up for whatever she lacks:

“Hillary doesn’t need Oprah. She has experience,” one wall-poster notes.
“I agree…Oprah doesn’t have anything on Hillary,” another one replies.

Do we hear a “Booyakasha”? Or is going against Oprah blasphemy?

US Politics [Facebook]