Tag Archive for 'Internet'

“I could never live in Canada — their Internet is crap.”

Published
by
Jason C. Romero
on November 28, 2008
in Footnotes
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Cory Doctorow posted about how he can’t live in Canada because the Internet there is crap, and it made me wonder how many migrants consider this when deciding where to live.

Interesting that the quality of an Internet connection can have an effect like this. Of course, it is quite a different example, but part of the reason I don’t like going back to my parents’ house is that they don’t have a broadband connection, or even dial-up for that matter.

Is Craigslist embarrassing?

Published
by
Jason C. Romero
on November 1, 2008
in Raw Data
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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.”

Daily Journal Entry #11821 05/11/08 Sun

Published
by
Jason C. Romero
on June 11, 2008
in Journal
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After the Internet, What is a Magazine?

The May 2008 Harper’s had a wonderful picture of an abandoned book depository in Detroit. It listed the web site and there are many more beautiful pictures of the book depository. The website also has a blog post addressing responses that people have had to the photos.

It’s so great how Harper’s, the other photos, and his commentary all fit together, made possible by the Internet. How does that change what we mean by “magazine,” when it has such an overlapping intertextual relationship with the Internet?

Minutiae

  • Woke up around 3 a.m. when there was loud thunder.
  • Worked on my last assignment — a proposal for East Asian youth.

Links

  • This NPR story about global warming has some WONDERFUL street reporting. You should listen just to hear the global warming “rap” that some kids made up on the spot.