Always in Motion

Click each image above to see the detailed Facebook privacy settings discussed below.

Vara, Vauhini. “It’s Hard to Hide From Your ‘Friends.’” Wall Street Journal. 30 Jan. 2008: D1.

Wall Street Journal web site

Vauhini Vara’s article discusses three new loss-of-privacy situations in which you may unknowingly be a participant.

1. Facebook now lets your online friends view your purchases from participating online vendors’ sites, whether or not you are aware of it.

2. Google, Inc. news service sends lists of articles you’ve read to your friends and acquaintances, whether or not you know it.

3. Sears Holdings Corp. used to let anyone in the world know about anyone else’s Sears purchases with a simple, open online search. So many people complained about this “feature” that it was removed from the site.

The only situation that applied to me was Facebook. As soon as I finished Vauhini Vara’s article, YOU KNOW I scurried off to my computer to see what my Facebook settings were. Sure enough, my settings were wide open — the default behavior. However, no one knew about my purchases yet and, thanks to this article, no one will because I changed them. I never, ever noticed the “External Websites” privacy setting in Facebook until I read through this article.

All of these social networking “features” were implemented without users’ knowledge.

I really recommend that you read this article and doublecheck YOUR settings.

Read Vauhini Vara’s full article.

Saranow, Jennifer. “The Cut-and-Paste Personality.” Wall Street Journal. 16 Feb. 2008: W1.
Wall Street Journal web site

On online dating web sites such as Match.com and PlentyOfFish.com, some folks are cutting and pasting others’ witty and attractive “About Me” profiles rather than crafting their own. This is in an attempt to more effectively “market themselves” to whomever they want to date.

There are a few colorful stories in this article about people who got caught, mostly when they actually went on dates and their in-person conversations contrasted sharply with their online descriptions.

I also learned from this article that now people can hire dating coaches.

And there’s a book out called Online Dating for Dummies.

Read Jennifer Saranow’s full Wall Street Journal article.

Dillon, Sam. “Online Schooling Grows, Setting Off a Debate.” New York Times. 1 Feb. 2008: A1.

In this article Sam Dillon writes that half a million American children are now taking classes online.

Some of the online schools, such as the Florida Virtual School, offer courses that only supplement regular schooling. Others, like the Wisconsin Virtual Academy, provide full-time education.

Online schools are raising some controversy because they are publicly financed. They are not considered home schooling.

Read the full article at NYTimes.com.

Carey, Benedict. “You Remind Me of Me.” New York Times. 12 Feb. 2008: D1.

This New York Times article discusses how teams of psychologists around the world have been measuring social interaction involved in developing rapport.

When we bond with people we are getting to know and like, we often subconsciously mimic them. If they cross their legs, a few minutes later we cross our legs. If they speak loudly, we speak loudly. We may even pick up on each other’s accents.

Benedict Carey’s article delves into how there are subtleties to mimicry. Just copying the other person’s behavior doesn’t automatically build rapport. It has to be done in the right way.

His article also describes how Dr. Jeremy Bilenson at Stanford University (Virtual Human Interaction Lab) tested mimicry with a computer-generated avatar, moderating how “in sync” the avatar was with human subjects.

Benedict Carey writes about how Robin Tanner and Tanya Chartrand, psychologists at Duke, performed tests that could be correlated to sales and marketing. Mimicry could improve your bottom line. (Tanner, Robin, et al., “Of Chameleons and Consumption: The Impact of Mimicry on Choice and Preferences,” Journal of Consumer Research, 27 Aug. 2007)

He also relates some of Dr. Jean Decety’s work (Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Chicago) on human empathy to mimicry.

Read Benedict Carey’s very interesting article at NYTimes.com.