Digital Suicide

Have you ever feel bogged down by your digital social life?  Do you want to regain control of your life and meet your real neighbours again?  Well, worry no more!  Introducing (drum roll, please), the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine!!

Since when has assisted suicide become legal?  Only if it’s digital suicide, ridding you of your Web 2.0 life.  The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine guarantees satisfaction.  You just need to give it your username and password, and it will commit digital suicide for you.  So far, it works on four social networks: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  According to the website, this is what it will do for you:

Facebook

logging into your account

changing your password and your profile picture

excluding your account from public search

removing all email notifications

removing all your friends

removing all groups you were member of

removing all your wall posts (beta)

joining the group "Social Network Suiciders"

logging out

Myspace

logging into your account

removing all your friends

leaving a status message that you've comitted suicide

logging out

LinkedIn

logging into your account

changing your password and your profile picture

removing all your business connections

logging out

Twitter

logging into your account

changing your password and your profile picture

removing all people you follow

removing all your followers

removing all your tweets

logging out

And you can watch this process happen in real-time if you have the Adobe flash plug-in.   Pretty neat, eh? 

This is a pretty cool concept, but it is pretty ironic.  The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine offers to disconnect you from the digital Web 2.0 world faster than you would be able to otherwise if you manually deleted all of your contacts.  It removes you from all the online communities so you can connect with your real network of friends.  But if you explore the site further, you will come across the Testimonials page.  Here, you can see a picture of the person who has committed digital suicide, the number of friends they lost, the number of tweets they lost, and their last words to the online world.  But isn’t this just another community, itself?  Here we see a group of people who have gathered together around a common belief.  They may not be interacting with each other, but they have come together for a common cause and their legacy remains here. 

I also found it ironic that these people, who no longer want to be a part of the Web 2.0, will use a Web 2.0 innovation to commit suicide.  Wouldn’t it be easier to just close the browser and go outside?  Maybe these people are just trolling, but this Web 2.0 Suicide Machine is a really cool concept and an excellent example of how social media mixes itself with real life.  

Personally, I don’t see myself using the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine anytime soon.  I’m a social media enthusiast.  I love stalking on Facebook, looking at people’s wall-to-wall, checking out their pictures and picture comments.  Sometimes, I even find myself recognizing people that I have seen on Facebook in real life, that I have never actually met in real life before.  Despite my odd behaviour with Facebook, I think that I will be able to tear myself away from Facebook and the Internet if I had to.  But for the people with less self-control, I would recommend the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine and therapy in real life.  

You can check out the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine here.  Happy dying!

Love,

Bonnie and Clyde, signing out one last time.

Hot Chicks and Computer Clicks

What is the internet’s obsession with boobs?  Everyone has them.  Or had, in some cases.  Some are big, some are small, but we all have them.  So why is the internet so obsessed with seeing a girl’s boobs?  Yes, I’m talking about you, hotforwords, MissHannahMinx, and lacigreen. 

The three ladies have several things in common:

they are all YouTubers with several thousand subscribers

they make (or try to make) informative videos that teach people about their interests

they have huge boobs

Now, I’m not trying to say that having huge boobs is a bad thing, but I have a problem with the people who leave comments such as the following: 

These women are trying to educate the world about words, Japanese culture, and sex, but the content of their video are taken away by their massive breasts, braless and swinging wildly under their low cut, suggestive shirts. Lacigreen’s latest video addresses this topic with a feminist stance.  If you find her body distracting, then why should she have to change it to suit your tastes? 

Now, I’m not sure what hotforwords or MissHannahMinx’s stance is on showing their body, but they sure look like they enjoy the attention.  Hotforwords, for example, often dresses up as the naughty, sexy school teacher, to much of the delight of her male fans.  She represents the epitome of male desire: to dominate a women in a position of power.  MissHannahMinx, on the other hand, often uses a high camera angle that looks down on her breasts.  As I sit here watching their videos, I can’t help but wonder if people are actually interested in what they have to say.  I mean, do people actually want to know the origin of the word “oleaginous”, or know what is “minxy” or kawaii to a American girl infatuated with Japanese culture?  

There is no doubt that sex and boobs sells.  Even LisaNova suggested it in the debut video for TheStation (aired August 8, 2009):

          ShaneDawsonTV: We can start a YouTube channel!

          KassemG: Who’s gonna watch it if everybody’s dead?

          ShaneDawsonTV: Then that will automatically make us #1!

          KassemG: You’re pale... but smart.

          ShaneDawsonTV: Thanks.

          DaveDays: We have a camera!

          ShayCarl: I have cute kids!

          ShaneDawsonTV: I have emo hair!

          LisaNova: I’ve got big tits!

          Sxephil: Perfect.

                       
                                    (Zombies Take Over YouTube!!!!!!, 1:48 - 2:05)

Boobs is what will get you seen on YouTube.  All you need is a camera, cute kids, emo hair, or “big tits”.  That says something about our culture, doesn’t it?  Is that really all you need to become an Internet celebrity?  You don’t need any talent or any skills?  You just have to be able to sell your body and entertain the sexually explicit thoughts in the audience’s mind?  I guess this world is not ready to accept intelligent women on the Interwebs without objectifying them. 

I guess Avenue Q was right - the Internet is for porn.

Signing out,

Bonnie and Clyde, always watching out for the latest viral video. 

Watsonator

Skynet may be closer than we think.

Enter Watson, a supercomputer built by IBM.  He uses a huge network of logarithms and digital information such as databases, news articles, and dictionaries, to analyze questions given to him to solve.  He was put to the test on the game show Jeopardy! against two of the show’s best competitors, Brad Rutter, who won the most money on the show, and Ken Jennings, the record holder for the longest championship streak. 

I thought he was pretty impressive, until I saw the following clip on Youtube.  For the category “U.S. Cities”, the announcer asked, “Its largest airport is named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle”, Watson answered, “What is Toronto?????”.   Check it out:

As a fellow human, I was smug.  Both Brad and Ken answered correctly with confidence, whereas Watson the supercomputer, wasn’t so super after all.  HA!  You would expect Watson to be totally epic and godly.  I mean, he’s built by IBM!  A multinational technology company that’s been around for a hundred years with a pretty good reputation as America’s leading technology-geek-whatcha-ma-call-its. 

Personally, I’m glad that Watson made the mistake.  That means he’s not perfect and the cognitive abilities of the human brain are superior.  For now, anyway.  I’m sure the people at IBM are working to perfect Watson.  I hope they are Terminator geeks, and won’t make Watson too powerful, or else the machine will be commanding us. 

Love,

Bonnie and Clyde, swooning over John Connor <3

PS.  If you want to watch IBM's response to Watson's wrong answer, click here.

Where Should I Post My Picture?

With all the social media sites and photo-sharing sites available to us, have you ever wondered, "where should I post my picture?"  Thanks to the following flowchart from Wired, you can wonder no more!  Enjoy.

(Click to enlarge and see full picture)

Source: Wired


Love,
Bonnie and Clyde, looking at you look at pictures.

If People Had Acted Like They Do On Facebook...

For your viewing pleasure.

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/people-acted-facebook/

Stalking you on Facebook,
Bonnie and Clyde