Siri? Personality or robot?

“It is only too typical that the content of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium.” – Marshall McLuhan 

Reflection:

Garth and I considered many options of how we can make a short film or blog on our perception of media, audience and space. We then developed a concept around the idea of Siri, the personality of the iphone S series that conducts most tasks of the iphone with voice control so you don’t have to touch your phone. No personal history was attached to the idea, but there was definitely an aspect of curiosity that encouraged us to take on the task and learn as much about Siri as we could. The idea played out really well and we believe we have created a piece that reflects the curiosities we expressed when brain storming the idea. Our goal was to create a piece that would express similar expressions to what we felt in terms of Siri. We wanted to exploit the remarkable things that Siri can do, but also hinder the things that she can’t do. We then used this storyline to relate to Marshall McLuhan’s theory of medium is the message. In this theory McLuhan warns us that we are too often distracted by the content of a medium, which blinds our appreciation for the powerful nature of the medium itself.

We think we achieved everything that we sought out to when we started this project; we discussed many options and ended on our final idea, which we then stretched into the short film that we successfully made.

When we finalized our idea of the aspects of how helpful/unhelpful Siri is, we researched things that Siri can and can’t do. Based off this we conducted primary research and tested out theories with Siri ourselves. Some of the pros were that everything we tested with Siri brought enjoyment and we learnt so much about what she can and cannot do. Cons would be that all the information on Siri was quite repetitive. We think that in some aspects we could have developed the idea further and with more resources we could have expanded the concept, but we embraced the learning curve and even with knowing how far we could go, we already know we have come so far from the first couple of ideas. Unforeseen positives included how much fun we had in the making part of the project and I think we both learned a lot about each other in the process. I also think we learnt a lot about Siri and her purposes and how powerful she is as a technological personality. Our genders weren’t an aspect that influenced the ideas or making of the project as Garth is male and I’m female. We both delegated roles respective to our strengths, not to gender, culture or social class and I think our roles evenly distributed amongst the tasks effectively enough to develop our project in an efficient, timely, stress free manner. Garth and I both starred in the project and took on respective roles in the film to showcase Siri’s positives and negatives. We both shared filming and acting roles, whilst Garth did the editing from his camera onto his laptop. I configured the main generalized idea of using Siri as our base and Garth generously expanded the idea to relate it fluently to MCluhan’s theory. I constructed the reflection while Garth continued editing the film, and when we both finished each piece, we went over and edited each other’s work. I feel like sharing the roles made our work together a little lighter, but depending on each other definitely encouraged us to work harder to develop a stronger piece as neither of us wanted to let the other person down.

Another platform would not have conveyed the idea we wanted to portray properly, so I strongly believe that we made the best decision in making a short film.

From this experience we can the thrill of making a short film that was humorous, relatable and informative, whilst also a little philosophical. It related to what we already know in that we discovered that Siri does more than we thought and since we started we have both started using Siri to more of her potential that we did prior to starting the project. Both of us discovered that our acting abilities are definitely rusty in the making of the film, but both of us really enjoyed stepping out of our comfort zones and putting the final pieces together. Our strengths and weaknesses complimented each other as something that one of us was not as confident in the other was confident in and vice versa.

We think that learning about Siri will encourage us to develop our “relationship” with her and actually use her to her full potential, and hopefully encourage others to do the same.

 This project was satisfying to complete and we both learned individually and as partners and really bounced off each other with ideas and as supporting roles. Professionally, I think this project has developed our skills greatly in terms of teamwork, meeting deadlines, encouraging each other and time management.

 

By Garth Burley and Alexandra Hall

 

References:

1. McLuhan, Marshall. Medium Is The Message. 1st ed. 1964. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.
2. Bolluyt, Jess. “55 Questions To Ask Siri For A Hilarious Response”. The Cheat Sheet. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.
3. “Ios – Siri – Apple (AU)”. Apple.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

 

Netflix or Privacy?

Regulation in the media is becoming more of a focal point in regards to every day life. It is the standing point of family time in front of the TV and plays a major role in children’s education and in the work place. The Government regulates everything that we can watch and read on the Television, on the Internet and in the Newspapers.

A prime example of media regulation is Netflix Australia.

Before Netflix Australia came into play this year, we can all admit that we tried to use the American version, that is, before the Netflix CEO cracked down and started blocking VPN users from accessing any content from the Netflix library, as a way to enforce national licensing restrictions.

The VPN crackdown virtually just allows people to only view content from their countries own catalogue of movies and TV shows. The blocking of some content on Netflix in certain countries counts as a form of censorship because it bans certain content from being viewed, and in some cases the content being banned is for a particular reason, such as the cultural or religious components of the country. The blocking of certain content allows the countries with those censorships to monitor the content that is being viewed.

You see, Netflix has region-based contracts with producers to air their shows or movies. So, for example, Breaking Bad might be licensed on Netflix USA but not on Netflix UK. If a Netflix UK subscriber wants to watch the show, they would need to use a VPN or a SmartDNS to fool Netflix into thinking they are currently in the U.S.

However, people believe that the Netflix crackdown on VPN’s will ultimately fail, and here’s why.

VPN servers aren’t located on the main retail networks like Cox, Comcast, AT&T or Google Fiber. They tend to be based in expansive data centres on rented servers, where they use a specialist ISP that can cope with high-traffic applications, and don’t have any of the traffic-shaping measures that are present on residential Internet connections. Just by looking at where the inbound connection is coming from on residential Internet connections, Netflix should be able to block VPN connections.

There are clues that can identify you as a VPN user such as continuously switching from Netflix US to UK, in which case they will target your server.
There’s no doubt that Netflix will be successful in blocking most of the VPN users and servers around the world, given that they’re almost 20 years old and have some deep pockets, and some incredibly bright engineers on staff, but there will always be somebody, somewhere that will be able to defeat these blocks.

I think that the regulations put in place with Netflix Australia is purely based on the licensing of the shows region and their allowance to let it be viewed in different countries, however restrictions of media within countries like China is all propaganda. I think, despite what restrictions we do have, we should consider ourselves incredibly privileged to have what media outlets we do have, and to have the abilities to openly view most content from around the world. We are not being forced fed information from just one point of view or from one source. We are lucky enough to hear arguments or to have gathered information from multiple sources that give us the opportunity to make our own informed decisions on what we would like to believe.

This is definitely gives me a sense of meaning and place in my world, and my country. It gives me a sense of belonging, which I think is really important for such a small country as ours. It is important that every individual is given the opportunity to hear and understand all the facts so that we can all make the right decisions in life.

 

References:

1. 2016.Which VPN’s still work with Netflix?. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/vpns-still-work-netflix/. [Accessed 26 September 2016].
2. Logic Lounge. (2016). Netflix starts blocking VPN’s. [Online Video]. 18 January 2016. Available from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRJoUqL31bU. [Accessed: 27 September 2016].

So Goldfish are the smarter species?

In my short 21 years of life, I’ve had people (teachers, family, friends and work colleagues) ask if I’m partially deaf. My answer is always no.

And for what reason you might ask? Well, I always have to have someone repeat what he or she has said to me. After a few years of schooling, it became very clear that my hearing was perfect, what I actually had trouble with was maintaining my attention. Even to this day, for minor tasks where I only have to keep focused for a few seconds, I find myself drifting off into la la land and having to ask someone to repeat themselves to me.

Recent studies in Canada have shown that humans have dropped 4 seconds of attention span since the year 2000, (when phones started to become popular), from 12 seconds to eight, where as gold fish have maintained a solid 9 seconds of attention.

I am the perfect candidate for any form of attention span testing, as it is quite clear when I have entered my own personal bubble. Since starting university, I have culled down how much personal reading time I have, due to constantly having company and a beach on my door step (let’s not forget my all important uni work either). When I do have some down time and I choose to read a bit, I’ve noticed in myself that I might have read a whole page or two, before I realise that I haven’t actually read anything. I’m reading the words but not absorbing the story, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what happened on those pages. And I wouldn’t be able to tell you if it’s because I’m not enjoying the book, or if I’m just not able to turn off my brain to the things happening around me.

A perfect example of an attention span test would be to have a number of colours written onto different slides in a PowerPoint presentation, maybe 50. Let’s say we choose the colours: red, blue, yellow and green. The first four times these words appear the colours of the words are respective. The following times the words appear they must be coloured differently, so the word green might appear but the letters are coloured yellow. The person looking at the cards must say the word, not the colour and they have to say the words as fast as they can. How many words they get right measures their attention span.

 

I measured this test on 3 participants, two boys, Garth and Gabe, and one girl, Emma.

Both Garth and Gabe are Journalist students at UOW and Emma is studying Medical Biotechnology.

When I tested Garth, we performed the test in his room. Out of 50 he got 36 correct.

Gabe got 34 out of 50, and I tested him in the Grevillea study rooms at Campus East.

Emma got a whopping 43 out of 50, and I tested her in my room.

 

The measure of attention span is important because “So sustained attention underpins control over behaviour and emotions and subsequent academic success” according to a recent study, indicated in an article, published by The Conversation.

Personally, I don’t believe that the length of our attention spans should determine how intelligent we are. It is very evident that people have very fond interests in different things and I think that success comes from loving what you do. Your attention won’t stay focused on something you don’t like. Nobody is really the best at something that they aren’t passionate about. I think attention is placed on areas that the individual feels is relatable to them, and no amount of testing can determine someone’s passion, therefore their attention and success to something.

 

References:

1. The Telegraph. 2015. Humans have shorter attention span than goldfish, thanks to smartphones. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/12/humans-have-shorter-attention-span-than-goldfish-thanks-to-smart/. [Accessed 23 September 2016].
2. Ask Metafilter. 2011. Do professionals have a way of measuring attention span?. [ONLINE] Available at:http://ask.metafilter.com/196254/Do-professionals-have-a-way-of-measuring-attention-span. [Accessed 23 September 2016].
3. 2012. The$New$Mul*+screen$World:$$ Understanding+Cross.pla1orm+Consumer+Behavior. [ONLINE] Available at: https://ssl.gstatic.com/think/docs/the-new-multi-screen-world-study_research-studies.pdf. [Accessed 23 September 2016].
4. The Conversation. 2016. What does our attention span mean?. [ONLINE] Available at:http://theconversation.com/what-does-our-attention-span-mean-52897. [Accessed 23 September 2016].

Netflix or Facebook? Why not both?

 

Every day, journalists, bloggers, media presenters and students alike are put in a position where the ethical components of their jobs are challenged. This week, in our BCM240 class, we were collectively sent out onto the grounds and given the task to photograph someone on a mobile device in a public place. We were then asked to explain how we managed the ethics of this photography appropriately.

Ethics in writing is stretched and it can be difficult to find the line in the ethical guidelines of the code of conduct.

The code of conduct for Private Media Journalists includes:

• “Report and interpret honestly, striving for accuracy, fairness and disclosure of all essential facts. Do not suppress relevant available facts, or give distorting emphasis. Give a fair opportunity for reply.
• Do not place unnecessary emphasis on personal characteristics, including race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation, family relationships, religious belief, or physical or intellectual disability.
• Aim to attribute information to its source. Where a source seeks anonymity, do not agree without first considering the source’s motives and any alternative attributable source where possible. Where confidences are accepted, respect them in all circumstances.
• Do not allow personal interest, or any belief, commitment, payment, gift or benefit, to undermine your accuracy, fairness or independence. Journalists and contributors will disclose share holdings where relevant.
• Disclose conflicts of interest that affect, or could be seen to affect, the accuracy, fairness or independence of your journalism. Do not improperly use a journalistic position for personal gain.
• Do not allow advertising or other commercial considerations to undermine accuracy, fairness or independence.
• Ensure disclosure of any direct or indirect payment made for interviews or information.
• Use fair, responsible and honest means to obtain material. Identify yourself and your employer before obtaining any interview for publication or broadcast. Never exploit a person’s vulnerability or ignorance of media practice.
• Present pictures and sound that are true and accurate. Any manipulation likely to mislead should be disclosed.
• Do not plagiarise.
• Respect private grief and personal privacy. Journalists have the right to resist compulsion to intrude.
• Fairly correct errors.”

 

The photo that I captured, pictured above, is more than I expected to achieve in the short amount of time we had outside. Not only did I get four people in the same photo avidly using technology, but the subject closest to us was watching Netflix, as well as scrolling through Facebook.

Why is technology used to pass time? Why do we need to have it when we are at a place of education?

Personally, I use my technology in the same manner as these people. I use it to shut out the world around me and use the personal space to be taken to another land where I don’t have to reflect on myself or anyone else in that moment.

Why not read a book?

In my case, I would get way too distracted to sit in a crowded and noisy area and try to read. My mind would wonder and I would end up reading down the page whilst not actually digesting the words. I prefer to put a pair of earphones in my ears and be by myself and watch Netflix like the man at the front of the photo. That way I can turn my brain off for a few moments.

Before I took this photo, I asked each of the four people centred in the photo for their permission to use the photo in my blog piece. I followed the ethics code of conduct and respected their privacy to have their picture published in my media blog. They all politely agreed and respectively went back to their technology and media outlets so that I could take the photo.

Now that it’s been brought to my attention, I found that, despite being shocked by the magnitude of people who publicly use technology, I also consistently use my phone when I walk around too. I always have it in my hand, and I feel quite bare without having it within immediate access.

 

References:

1. Private Media. 2015. Codes of Conduct. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.privatemedia.com.au/code-of-conduct/. [Accessed 14 September 2016].

To watch or not to watch?

Going to the cinemas in our day and age, especially for where I stand in society as a University student, isn’t exactly what it used to be. 10 years ago our parents were taking us to the movies to see children’s films, and it was a treat that only benefited us. I always got a chocolate choc top, and mum and I would share medium popcorn and lemonade. Obviously being young at this stage mum would pay, so all expenses were covered, as well as organising what movie, what time, and how we were going to get there.

Now, going to the movies is a very different story. Living 300 kilometres away from home and from mum, if I want to go to the movies I have to find friends to go with or go alone. That also means funding the movie, snacks, travel expenses and organising a time that is suitable for myself and the other people that I might go to the movies with.

These can all be categorised with Torsten Hagerstrand‘s three constraints:

 

• Capability constraints. These are limits on human movement due to physical or biological factors such as the need to sleep or to eat, access to mobility tools and the availability of temporal and financial resources for conducting activities and making trips (Hagerstrand 1970, cited in Schonfelder & Azhausen 2010, p.38).

• Coupling constraints. These are restrictions on the autonomous allocation of time due to the need to coordinate with institutional logistics (schedules or given locations) or interactions with other individuals (appointments or meetings) (Hagerstrand 1970, cited in Schonfelder & Azhausen 2010, p.38).

• Authority constraints. These are limits on when activities can or cannot take place, or where they must or must not be located, imposed by external parties. For example, mandatory closing hours is a potential constraint on individual behaviour (Hagerstrand 1970, cited in Schonfelder & Azhausen 2010, p.39).

 

 

I interviewed my dad for his first movie experience as mum could only generalise a few movie experiences here and there.

 

“Do you have a stand out memory of going to the movies at all? And if so, can you tell me about it?”, I asked.

“First movie I ever saw was “The Guns of Navarone”. It’s a fictional World War Two movie made in 1961. I would have been four or five and mum took a few of my friends and I to see it at Hornsby for my fifth birthday. I’ve seen it a few times since, it’s a good movie.”

“So it was a good movie experience?”

“Oh it was definitely a good movie experience. No doubt about that.”

“Do you remember if you got snacks, or drinks?”

“No, no memory of that. I just remember the hype of it. There was only a few of us but it was just all very exciting.”

“Wouldn’t that movie have been a bit inappropriate for your age group?”

“Yeah, probably. But that wasn’t a thing back then. Nobody cared. We all turned out all right though. At least I like to think we did.”

For this occasion to work out perfectly, like dad said it did, the three Hagerstrand constraints had to have worked together perfectly. Capability constraints were clearly met by having a vehicle and the physical ability to meet at the cinema or go together. They collaborated a time offered by the cinema for a viewing, and a cinema to watch the movie at and together made the time to do so therefore the coupling constraints and the authority constraints were all met to make the experience a positive one.

Dad always gets quite nostalgic thinking about his childhood and he gets lost in a lot of memory when I ask him about these topics. It’s always a great pleasure learning about his past in the form of these tasks, and he takes great pride in the way he presents the stories to me for this particular reason.

 

References:

1. Jan-Peter Hoste. 2012. Constraints. [ONLINE] Available at: http://geography.ruhosting.nl/geography/index.php?title=Constraints. [Accessed 14 September 2016].
2. Schonfelder, S & Axhausen KW 2010, ‘Time, Space and Travel Analysis: An Overview’, in S Schonfelder & KW Axhausen (eds), Urban Rhythms and Travel Behaviour: Spatial and Temporal Phenomena of Daily Travel, Ashgate Publishing Company, Surrey, p.29-48

The Internet

 

The Internet. Everyone has it right? Well, everyone that I know has it, even if it is slower than a herd of snails travelling through peanut butter. And the speed of snails barely starts to describe how slow Internet has been for me my whole life.

I was raised on a little hobby farm with my mum 20 kilometres outside of Orange, NSW in a no serviced area. That meant no mobile reception, and bare minimum of Internet as the only supplier for our area allowed a maximum of 50 gigs a month for $100, and as you can imagine that got used up pretty fast having three of us under the same roof.

With what we had though, we had the privilege of having TiVo in the home, which was a real pleasure for how basic my household was.

My dad, on the other hand, lives in Cairns/Papua New Guinea. When in Cairns he has unlimited NBN Internet, when in Papua New Guinea, he has unlimited free Internet supplied by the hotels that his workplace set him up with. This means he got to be connected to the Internet more than my mum, my brother or myself ever got to be. Being so connected, despite never really being in one place for more than a week, my dad got to have Netflix and Foxtel.

When I spoke to my dad about his extensive access to the Internet, he said that he doesn’t “have any need for it” and the only reason he has it is because he CAN have it. The only other reason he would use the Internet is to keep in contact with my brother and myself, his banking and random information for thought.

My mother is entirely different. Her dream is to be able to work from home and have some sort of Internet business that means she doesn’t need an office, and she wouldn’t have to leave the home 9-5 every day. Her life revolves around her horses and her dogs which makes leaving them at home alone every day a difficult task. Every week she has a new plan to use the Internet as her gateway to freedom. This week, however, she told me about her newest lead. She and her new partner are going to create an online site that sells booties for dogs that live in cold climates, particularly Canada. For this she would need a very fast, reliable Internet source, which was not supplied at our previous home. For this reason she relocated to a small house in town with NBN access.

This is how much Internet access affects some individuals. My mother felt she needed to move house in order to live a fully functioning lifestyle.

Something that I also found interesting was that she mentioned that my brother is a lot happier and they fight less. When I asked why she said “I’m not yelling at him to stop using all the Internet download now. It doesn’t matter how much he uses.”

The difference between my mum and dad is that a lot of my mums life revolves around the Internet, whether she likes to believe it or not. My dad, on the other hand, uses it for the necessities, the bare minimum to get through and his life wouldn’t be much different with or without it. Every day he says he finds something “interesting and new” that you can do on the Internet that astounds him, but finds no reason to follow up with using it.

My life, however, is very different from both of my parents. Internet is my gateway to knowledge. Without it, fellow students, peers, lecturers, tutors and professors would have no way to get through to students. My whole degree is based off social media and blogging through the Internet, and books don’t have all the information required for us to follow up on the most recent events that we use in our class discussions.

At the end of the day, I think that the Internet is, not a human right, but a human privilege that we are all so lucky in our time and day to have access to almost everywhere at any time. Our access to it has become something that we rely heavily upon, which in our generation is necessary. I really believe that having good, fast, reliable Internet is our gateway to knowing as much as we can, as soon as we can. For most of us, our degrees are fully reliant on our access to the Internet.

Nostalgia in Television #BCM240

This week I called up my dad for a chat, something we don’t get to do very often with his job as a pilot, and that he’s always in a different country or state in Australia. It’s hard to keep track of his whereabouts let alone keep in touch regularly. But as we got chatting, we started to talk about some of his earliest memories of T.V. My dad was born in 1956 in Newcastle; the year Australian television was released.

 

“Where did you live when you were a kid?”

“I grew up in Newcastle.”

“And who lived with you?

“Just mum, dad and my sister Janey. We had a small family home, nothing to special.”

What do you remember about the television in your house?

“I remember it being a large box thing, and it was only black and white, no colour. Something you’ve probably never seen, Sash.”

 

At this point my dad sounded very nostalgic, and I could tell he was delving into some memories he hadn’t thought of in quite a while.

 

“What kind of room was it in? Was it formal or relaxed? What was on or around the television?”

“It was in the lounge room. No, the family room we called it. Yeah, the family room. It was definitely relaxed, but there were rules, like we weren’t allowed to sit to close to the T.V. because mum said our eyes would turn square. We were made to sit as far away from the T.V. as possible. And we were only allowed to watch certain amounts, I guess she thought that too much T.V. would hurt our brains or something.”

 

“Was there more than one television in the house?”

“No, just the one. We weren’t the most well off. I remember friends having more than one T.V. But it never bothered us that we didn’t. I even remember when coloured T.V. came out, we didn’t have one of those T.V’s for years, but we got one eventually.”

 

“What memories do you have of watching television?”

“I remember watching man walk on the moon for the first time in black and white. I remember gran not believing it; “It’s not true, it’s just not true”, she’d say. I remember there was this Sunday night special every week, and Walt Disney would introduce a new movie and we’d all sit and watch it together. “

“What else?”

“I remember when we got a colour T.V., my favourite shows were M.A.S.H., The Jetsons, Get Smart and Hogan’s Heroes. They’re all being re-run now on T.V. so I get to watch them all again. I guess I only remember a few after T.V. came out really, I remember that the Queen visited Australia in 1956, and that was one of the first screenings in Australia ever, but that was the year I was born so my memories are from a few years later.”

 

“Is there any memory about television that you didn’t like?”

“I remember everyone used to remember the words and songs to those Western movies, kind of like how you remember the theme song to that show you like about geeks and nerds.”

“What, Jimmy Neutron?”

“No, no, not that one…”

“Ohhh, The Big Bang Theory you mean?”

“Yes! That one. You always sang along to that when it came on T.V.”
“Yeah, but you like that show don’t you? It’s one of the good ones.”

“Yeah it’s not bad I guess.”

 

When I look back and remember my favourite T.V. shows from when I was a bit younger, I would be thinking of the Saddle Club, and Cat Dog, Grizzly Tales for Gruesome kids and Hey Arnold, Arthur and The Wild Thornberry’s. Just as I believe that these shows shaped a huge part of my childhood, black and white T.V., and watching man walk on the moon for the first time shaped my dad’s childhood. We have such a developed interaction with media now a days that we don’t experience television the way our parents did.

My dad always say’s, “You really don’t know how lucky you are, kid.” but I think he doesn’t know how lucky he is to have experienced the rapid evolution of technology and media that he has.

Social Anxiety

Hello there,

 

Coming into another fresh semester of BCM, we were asked this week to introduce ourselves (yet again) but to do it in relation to where we are in media space.

What is media space you may ask? Media space is simply the concept of people, all over the world, being able to connect to one another through a virtual media platform in one place on the Internet.

Your virtual identity can be created in any way on any media platform. For the majority of us, Facebook is our virtual media platform.

To describe to you where I am in media space, I am going to tell a story about an anonymous fellow student and close friend of mine who, in this specific example, perfectly demonstrates a media anxiety about being in media space. A certain anxiety that (admittedly) most of us have felt about the Internet and Facebook in particular that consumes much of our day-to-day use of the space.

An article called The Anxiety of Facebook concurs that online profiles create stress in the outside world that is not necessarily related to the media platform.

This friend of mine has recently acquired a boyfriend and for a while there it was the chat of the town, and a lot of excruciating banter was and is being thrown about. They have now been together roughly three months but exclusively only about two or three weeks and putting the relationship on Facebook is now being brought up in conversation. When this girl was discussing it with me, she decided she wanted to change her profile picture to a photo of herself and her boyfriend together to ease the public into their now exclusive relationship. But it wasn’t that simple.

She had to pick the perfect photo, but the photo she wanted had been taken months ago at a festival and it didn’t seem fresh enough. I had t convince her otherwise.

Then she had to pick the perfect caption.

Then she had to ask his permission to do so.

She then decided she shouldn’t put a caption with it.

She had to confirm with him on this as well.

Then she had to upload it at the right time to get the most likes.

She then had to tag her boyfriend in it at an appropriate time so that all of his friends and family could like it.

This process took a few hours and I got a few messages asking to re-like the photo and put it in the news feed, to comment on the photo and put it in the news feed so that people would keep seeing it and liking it.

Much to her delight, she acquired 130 likes.

This process revolved around the stress of not acquiring enough likes on her profile picture that might condone people to think that she isn’t well liked in reality when we really shouldn’t allow our online virtual profile to define who we are, but it’s something every single one of us has fallen victim to at one point in time or another, and even more than once.

FILE: In this file photo the Facebook Inc. logo is reflected in the eyeglasses of a user in this arranged photo in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A Facebook IPO would provide funds to help the social-networking service maintain its expansion and fend off competition from Internet rivals such as Google Inc. and Twitter Inc. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images