From the monthly archives:

August 2010

Blogging and Creative Reinvention

August 24, 2010
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When I feel stale, I like to reinvent myself, which is what I have done. As you can see, I’ve redesigned the layout. I’m also going to be covering more subject matter: writing, teaching, exploring current events and pop culture, living outside of New York City, and navigating friendships and dating in the Internet age.

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Just Don’t Pee in the Twitter Pool

August 18, 2010
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Before I started using Twitter in 2008, I was also under the impression that “Twitter is hard”. For the most part, human beings like structure and direction. Twitter has neither of those things. Twitter is complicated because it’s truly the least complicated social networking tool. No one complains about Facebook.

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Tony Judt and the Life of the Mind

August 12, 2010
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Online, everyone lives the “life of the mind”. Our body hardly ever comes into play during social networking or online communication. Sure, you might use your finger to type. Do you ever feel like you’re so absorbed in what you’re reading or typing that you have to remind yourself that you are interacting with a computer?

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When Facebook Is the Elephant

August 10, 2010
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Lately, I’ve been trying something new: not friend-requesting people on Facebook soon after I meet them. I’ve been doing this especially with people I will be seeing on a regular basis, like coworkers, roommates, new friends, and men I want to date. I might look up the person’s profile, but that’s it.

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Forget Democracy, Try Twittarchy

August 5, 2010
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Does Twitter have its own set of rules and/or conventions? Can Twitter be a venue where anything goes, or do people who ignore the conventions eventually fall out of place? Must you act a certain way on Twitter in order for people to pay attention to you? Or is acting differently more desirable somehow?

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An S.O.S. via SMS

August 4, 2010
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I would never advocate tweeting a bad time, but I think Twitter can help when you feel trapped, especially if some of your Twitter followers respond with encouraging words. I try really hard not to share inappropriate details on Twitter and Facebook, but sometimes I feel like I’m going to explode.

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Faking a Sick Day Is Child’s Play

August 3, 2010
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Within the comments section on a blog I regularly read, I noticed that someone posted a link to a Wikipedia page about Münchausen by Internet, “a pattern of behavior in which Internet users seek attention by feigning illnesses in online venues such as chat rooms, message boards, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC).”

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