Archive for the 'Raw Data' Category

Everything is a Competition: Library Edition

Published on December 23, 2008 in Raw Data. Comments Tags: , .

This older woman says, “I don’t think there’s anyone who loves the library more than I do.”

Clerk says, “I don’t know, there are a lot of people that really love the library.”

“But I come here every week.”

“Oh, there are some people who come here every day.”

Startled. “Oh. Well maybe they just come to read.”

“No, they’ll come one day, check out books, and then return the books the next day to get new ones.”

“Oh. Well, who has the time for that? I’d hate to see how clean their houses are!”

My Visit to Second Life

Published on December 21, 2008 in Raw Data. Comments Tags: .

It was very strange to visit Second Life, since they didn’t have voice capabilities built into the game when I last used it. I found several people using it as a conference call, and it was exciting to hear their voices and listen to their accents. It was also exciting to hear life bleed over into the game, such as when I could hear one woman talking to her kid in the background, speaking in an English accent, while she tried to help him with his “Batman game.”

One girl was complaining about a boy that wanted to make her his girlfriend. Something about taking heat from others based on what he would have written in his profile. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to be her boyfriend in Second Life or real life, but I figured it out when someone asked if he wanted to be her boyfriend in real life, and she said that she wasn’t about to discuss that, because that is the problem — people wanting to bring real life into Second Life. She did, however, mention that, as a “builder geek,” she is constantly looking at objects in the real world and wondering how many prims it would take to build them. Others joked about how their real lives were great — Second Life just made them better.

Besides that it was interesting to see that it was a common occurrence for them to have cross-language encounters, judging from their reaction to someone nearby speaking in another language.

Ah, one other thing. When I was hanging out with these people in Second Life the “builder geek” said that she liked my outfit — red shirt and black pants — and I explained that I had brought it over from real life.

Is Craigslist embarrassing?

Published on November 1, 2008 in Raw Data. Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I met someone on Craigslist, and they are embarrassed about telling people this, while I am not.

I understand that there is a stigma around it, but I think that this stigma is fading, and I want to do my part by “coming out” as having met someone this way to help the stigma fade further. I also think there are some generational differences with regards to meeting people this way, such that older people are more prone to be embarrassed than are younger people.

I did a quick poll of some friends over IM asking them:

Thoughts?

My friend says, “So-and-so agreed with me that its embarrassing to have met someone on Craigslist and tell your friends that part.”

And this is what they said:

M, 21: “Nah it’s just funny.”

M, 28: “I think most people would be. I don’t think I personally would be embarrassed though.”

F, 21: “Nope. Not embarrassed.”

F, 22: “I met my roommate on Craigslist, and I’m embarrassed. I lucked out, but there are some weirdos out there.”

F, 23: “Yes it is embarrassing. My fiancee and I met on LiveJournal and we never tell people that, because it sounds like we were two lonely, fat, antisocial nerds who found each other on the Internet. Not the best light in which to paint yourself.”

F, 28: “Yeah that’s embarrassing.”

F, 28: “I think its a tad more embarrassing than MySpace or Match.com, but the bf (22) says the order of embarrassment goes: MySpace, Craigslist, then Match.com type sites.”

F, 30: “Well, I agree with you. More and more people meet online and I laugh at people who are not savvy or smart enough to meet people online. I almost refuse to meet people elsewhere these days. I met this one shrink online once, and he told me that smarter populations use the Internet to meet because we know it’s easier to filter that way.”

F, 31: “I don’t think I’d be embarrassed, but i don’t embarrass all that easily. One could also be embarrassed, not because its Craigslist specifically, but because you had to advertise for friends. But I don’t think there’s much of a stigma to matchmaking sites anymore.”

NAKAHARA Masaya at Super-Deluxe

Published on July 10, 2008 in Raw Data. Comments Tags: .