Oakland University Dept. of Communication and Journalism
srauy@oakland.edu
I’m trying to keep abreast of this whole Carrier IQ kerfuffle and it struck me. What does this mean for a digital society? Isn’t this, yet another, form of micro-surveillance that seems to be a reoccurring theme in our present day and age? Is this a type of resistance that “new media” affords us? And, is this […]
I’ve never been a big fan of Richard Dawkins’s notion of memes. Yet, I’ve noticed that people have used this idea quite often on the Internet. At least, the word meme. Memes mean a very particular thing. Because of that, does the adoption of the idea of memes into everyday conversation on the Internet tell […]
Here’s an article on NPR’s website about Facebook’s new default “opt-in” policy. According to the article, Facebook is changing its default privacy setting from one where users must “opt-out”–manually increase their security settings– to make their profile private. With this new “opt-in” policy, Facebook profiles are public by default. Who you are, quite literally, is for sale. […]
I’ve been quite interested in the kerfuffle that Ubuntu has taken since the introduction of Unity. To put it mildly, it’s been controversial. Before I start with my observations, I should make a disclosure of why I am so interested in the commotion. First and foremost, you may have noticed that the fonts we use here at […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWTJvjLbPEc] Increasingly, smartphones have become an important way that we keep connected to the digital world. So, what does it mean when a smartphone is labeled as a “female” phone? Granted, HTC’s new smartphone, called Rhyme (available on Verizon), is never billed explicitly as a “female” phone. Yet, the online chatter surrounding the device suggests […]