With all the talk of Twitter and Facebook slowly taking over the world, we’ve all seemed to forget about MySpace. Many of us don’t even equate MySpace with social networking as we once did. It seems as though MySpace is now just a place for musicians and advertisements.

During the past six months, MySpace activity has dropped significantly. According to Mashable.com, MySpace’s U.S. traffic dropped from 55.6 million unique visitors in August to 50.2 million in September. Wow. That’s more than five million users in one month.

MySpace is in a downward, accelerating spiral. It’s losing millions and millions of dollars for News Corp., not to mention three executives and countless staff layoffs the past few months. MySpace is losing users like, whoa.

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Social media can seem overwhelming. Trying to keep up with what your friends are doing on Facebook, following experts on Twitter and reading up on blogs can be time-consuming. Once you’ve exposed yourself to the social sphere and are just as addicted as everyone else, it’s important to strike a balance between work and social life.

This is a challenge that many brands across the social networking world face every day. How do I make my page stand out among the millions of others? How do I get individuals to visit my page, and keep coming back?

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I saw this video online, got chills. The statistics are profound. Left me speechless.

Welcome to the new world…

We all know it. We’ve all been there.

We’re going through Facebook friends, seeing what everyone is up to, and, of course, seeing who from high school you know is engaged, getting married, single, pregnant, already a mommy, whatever. It’s an addiction, really. Or maybe it’s just the nosy in me.

Sidenote: Holy crap to all the friends I knew in high school that have kids and are getting married/are engaged… Congrats, I guess. But wow. I’m getting old.

Anyway.

I’m perusing my newsfeed and come across more than a handful of people that were listed as in “complicated” relationships. I’ve never understood the meaning of a “complicated” relationship. You’re either in a relationship, or you’re not. And if you’re in one of those transitional, in-between stages, you just don’t publicize that.

Anyway, here’s something I found online that was relatively amusing.

For women…

For men…

Go ahead. Overanalyze THAT.

I’m remotely embarrassed to say I participated in one of those stupid little Facebook quizzes. However, my (unplanned) answers were quite interesting… Check ‘em out.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Put your iPod or other music player on shuffle.

2. For each question, press the NEXT button to get your answer.

3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?

Got Money – Lil’ Wayne

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?

Are You Happy Now – Michelle Branch

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

Take My Time – Mission 19

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?

Heartbeat – Twista

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?

I Will Remain – Mission 19

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

Never Had a Friend Like Me – 2pac

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN?

Universally Speaking – Red Hot Chili Peppers

WHAT IS 2+2

Ashes – Pepper

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

What Would You Do – City High

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Karma – Alicia Keys

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

Like A Boy - Ciara

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Unfold – Jason Mraz

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

Drive Slow – Kanye West

WHAT WILL YOU/DID YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?

Out Loud - Dispatch

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

Nobody Does It Better – Carly Simon

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

I Go Back – Kenny Chesney

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

Bend to Squares – Death Cab for Cutie

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

Back Then – Mike Jones

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?

You’ll Never Find Another Love – Michael Buble

HOW WILL YOU DIE?

Breathing - Lifehouse

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?

Hanging By A Moment - Lifehouse

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?

Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?

Caring is Creepy – Garden State

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?

I Will Be Right Here Waiting For You – Richard Marx

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?

On Your Own – Nick Lachey

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – The Rolling Stones

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?

In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?

Halfway Home – Jason Mraz

Weird huh? Try it. You might be as surprised as I was…

It was recently announced that Facebook is making significant changes in the ways application developers have access to Facebook user data. According to PCWorld and InsideFacebook, Facebook is changing the privacy features over the next year as a result of a meeting with the Canadian government. The meeting included recommendations from Canada regarding the distribution and acquiring of information by Facebook applications. In response, Facebook will increase the publicity of its privacy features and tighten privacy controls. So, how does this affect application developers?

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Be prepared for a rant.

As some of you may know, I recently (last night) dropped my precious iPhone down an elevator shaft. I know. Crazy. But it’s the truth. Probably one of the oddest things that has ever happened to me.

Here’s the story.

I returned home after dinner to change clothes before going to a comedy show. Upon arriving at my building, UPS delivered a package for me. I took the package (medium-sized but relatively awkwardly shaped). Then I checked my mail and picked up three letters (probably bills). So, picture this. Purse over my right shoulder, box under my left arm, phone on top of box (I know, I know. Red flag), mail in right hand, keys in right hand, opening my old-fashioned elevator with the sliding gate, and *POOF* my phone falls. Not only does my phone fall, but it falls at the precise angle in which it slides into the small (one inch) space between my elevator and the floor. Of course, I look down, awestruck. Did that really just happen??? Yes. I heard it land. Nothing like watching your “life” slip through the crack. (Ok, that’s a tad over-dramatic, but if you know me, you know my life is in my phone).

Luckily, I was on the first floor so it didn’t fall too terribly far. I have yet to determine whether or not it is in one piece. The elevator man has to come to the building, put a mechanism into the elevator to stop the 220 volts of electricity that controls the door so he can climb into the pit at the bottom and retrieve my poor phone. Damn it.

Best part of the story, I leave town in six hours for the whole weekend. Yay.

On a lighter note, I had a lovely evening. Aside from making the occasional joke of the fact that I dropped my phone down an elevator shaft, it was quite peaceful. Uninterrupted. Frankly, it was kind of nice not having my “lifeline” attached to my fingertips.

It’s interesting to me to think about what life was like without cell phones. It’s crazy to think that people only reached out to other people when they were at home (or at a payphone, I suppose). There were no phone calls in the car, no calls on the way to work, no calls from bars or parties or dinners, no calls at all, really. If you left your house, you could choose to be completely unreachable. Not tied to anything or anyone. Whoa different than life now.

Now, people are constantly connected. Between Facebook and Twitter and Skype and all the other instant messaging services out there, and text messages, and cell phones and, whew, I’m out of breath. You can be in contact constantly.

The sad thing is that it becomes an addiction. I need my phone. I need to check my texts and missed calls and emails and messages and everything! I literally feel naked without it.

Sometimes, I hate it. Sometimes I get so sick of my phone constantly buzzing or beeping that I want to throw it out the window. But the addiction prevails and I. Must. Check.

Maybe one day I’ll have the willpower to leave my phone at home for an afternoon. Just take some time with my camera and leave everyone behind. Maybe.

So, I’m sitting in front of my computer trying to write a paper. This paper is an analysis of the short story “What I Saw From Where I Stood” by Marisa Silver. It is a story about a woman, Dulcie, who lives in constant fear of things she cannot control in her life, and her husband, Charles, who puts up with her asinine fears up until he has an epiphany and must choose whether to stay in his marriage or leave.

The story is full of great opportunities for analysis. There are various ways to go about the analysis. For this class, American Short Stories (WRTG 3020), we are required to write a 7-8 page paper analyzing and arguing a thesis for our final paper. Seven to eight pages.

With micro-blogging sites taking over the Internet and bleeding into my everyday life, I am struggling to even reach a 3-4 page limit. We are taught, through current social media and media in general,  to be as concise as possible when trying to get our point across. For example, Twitter has a 140 character maximum for each Tweet. Facebook status updates are about the same.

In today’s society, we are encouraged to argue a point or make a statement very quickly. People won’t pay attention otherwise. Many newspaper readers skim headlines instead of reading the entire story. Working for a newspaper for the past three and a half years has taught me to make quick, catchy and succinct headlines.

This kind of writing was also prevalent when Instant Messaging took off. I remember, when AOL first came out, I would sit in front of my computer and instant message for hours. That may be a little different since I was having conversations, but it was still encouraged to make them short and to the point. Now that instant messaging is back and even on smartphones, it is even more crucial to be concise.

The age of text messaging brought along hundreds of abbreviations – g2g, brb, lol, wtf, to name a few. Now we don’t even spell out full words, we abbreviate them in order to make a point terse.

Despite the newfound ways to argue a point succinctly, professors still maintain page limits. This doesn’t entirely make sense to me.

If I can fully and completely argue and prove a thesis in two or three pages, why would a professor want to read seven or eight? In order to reach page limits, students fill their papers with fluff. Instead of saying, “Dulcie fears what she does not know,” a student will write, “Dulcie is afraid of many things in her life that she has no control over and does not know how they will turn out.” Which would you rather read? The first is short, concise and straight to the point. The second makes the same argument, just with several more words in order to lengthen and aid in reaching a page limit.

However, I can see where the profs are coming from. They think that if students don’t have page limits, they won’t prove their argument successfully. That’s valid. But this opens a door of opportunity for professors to advance with the times. Teach your students how to make a point succinctly. Teach them to prove a thesis with the same assertion, evidence, counterpoint system, only using fewer “to be” verbs and prepositions. Just that alone will cut down at least half a page of writing. Teach them how to make their point without adding a bunch of nonsensical sentences that don’t really add to the argument. See this as an opportunity.

People want brevity. Unless they’re reading a novel. But, school papers are not novels and they shouldn’t be.

So, professors, if you are tired of reading poorly written papers full of fluff, cut out the page limits and focus on teaching students to get their point across concisely, just like new social media advocates. I can almost guarantee every paper will be easier to grade and students will thrive.