Posted in Rants, Social Media, tagged Arab Spring, Instagram, New York Times, Rape, Sexual assault, SnapChat, steubenville, Steubenville Ohio, talking to your kids about sex, talking to your kids about the economy, Torrington, Victim blaming on April 8, 2013 | 9 Comments »
This white awareness ribbon is worn to raise consciousness of violence against women.
That social media and sex are intertwined is no surprise. What is surprising is how social media has become a weapon in sexual assaults of kids, tweens, and teens.
In Steubenville, Ohio, and in Torrington CT, and who knows how many other unreported places, social media is being used both during and after sexual assaults in shocking and disturbing ways.
In Stuebenville, the rapists (they’ve been convicted. I see no reason to mince words),not only committed the crime, but were so proud of it they shared it on their social media networks. The crime itself was horrific enough,but the fact that these rapists were so sure that what they were doing was perfectly acceptable behavior that posting it to Instagram seemed neither callous nor repugnant adds to that horror. How did we get to the point where 17 year old students are so morally bereft that sexually assaulting an unconscious girl seems appropriate fodder for sharing with friends? (more…)
Posted in Social Media, tagged Cyber-bullying, kidzvuz, Rebecca Levey on March 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
So it’s been nearly three years since we Rebecca Levey and I started working on KidzVuz, and nearly 18 months since we launched.
There’s a lot that surprises you when you start a website for kids. Like the fact that it means you’ll be working nights and weekends pretty much from the day you launch. Or the fact that having a tech start up isn’t all that different from having a baby. It’s fun getting it started, it’s painful getting it launched, it burps and spits up a lot in the beginning, and then – hopefully – it goes out in the world on its own. All grown up and ready for prime time.
But mostly, I learned a lot about and from the KidzVuz kids. For example, I had expected tons of videos about tech. After all, a video review website for kids would naturally attract tech-savvy – even tech obsessed kids, right? Wrong. Our number one category is…(drum roll please) BOOKS! Yep. Kids, reading and talking about it. I love that. (more…)
Posted in Social Media, Tech, tagged kids and virtual worlds, online safety for kids, safe sites for kids, talking to your kids about online safety on September 7, 2012 | 13 Comments »
My 12 year old daughter was recently approached inappropriately by an older man, and I couldn’t be happier.
Yup, you read that right.
Why would that make me happy? Because she was approached by a virtual man on a virtual dance floor in a virtual world. Only virtual harm done. (more…)
Posted in Rants, Social Media, Writing, tagged Blog, CE Week, Journalism, Journalist, Mom Bloggers, Techlicious on June 29, 2012 | 6 Comments »
Typewriter adler3 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today I went to CE Week here in New York. And here’s what I learned: I’m not journalist, and I’m fine with that.
For the second year in a row, the fabulous folks at Techlicious hosted a Media/Mom Blogger tour of the CE Week floor, highlighting various companies and products. Imagine it! Actual journalists and bloggers co-existing and seeing the SAME things without coming to blows!
We saw Power Bag – a back pack with its own built-in charger, a family tablet from Kurio that allows you total control of what and how much content your kids can see – and to program it for each kid.
We saw Woven, a free app that aggregates your photos from all those bazillions of different websites you use to store them – Facebook, Picassa, Shutterfly, etc. etc. etc — so you can see them all in one place. (Being able to share them from that one place would be nice — but for now at least, it’s just a viewer. Still handy.)
We got a look at the latest ipieces ipad/app based toys from venerable toy company Pressman. Their upcoming pool game looks pretty cool. We saw the new, incredibly well priced streaming soundbar from RCA ($99), which also allows for video streaming from internet providers like Hulu and Netflix for no extra charge.
We learned about the super cool Control4 HC_250 Controller, which basically turns your home into a smart home. Letting you control lights, temperature, even door locks and window shades with a remote, or from your smart phone.
Speaking of smartphones, we were treated to lunch at BLT Fish by HTC, who showed us a demo of their newest smart phone, the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE. Which has an awesome camera, a cool live widget system, and really, surprisingly good sound for a phone. The thing has beats. I’m a Windows Phone girl…but I could be convinced.
And we got swag. Lots of swag. Including the Control 4. Which I called super cool just a few sentences back.
So does saying it’s cool when I got one make me NOT a journalist? Nope. I’m NOT a journalist because I do not get paid. I do not get assignments. I do not have a journalism degree.
None of this is news to me. (more…)
Posted in Rants, Social Media, tagged Dave Barry, Infographic, Lifestyle bloggers, Mashble, Meg Whitman, Mom Bloggers, Mommy Bloggers, Nellie Bly, Sheryl Sandberg, The Rise of the Mommy Blogger on May 16, 2012 | 4 Comments »
This week, Mashable published an infographic called The Rise of the Mommy Blogger. And it was offensive on OH so many levels. And wrong. Just plain wrong.
Commissioned by H&R Block for reasons I can’t really fathom (maybe they think we’re all making the big bucks blogging and they wanted to let us know they care/want our business?), the Infographic – bright pink (strike one), featured a white, blond woman in a frilly apron, (strike 2), and defined anyone who has even READ a blog as a Mommy Blogger (you’re out!). One of the very first comments, by Dresden Plaid, points out one of these problems right away:
Could you have used a more offensive/obnoxious graphic to “illustrate” a Mommy Blogger? Blonde, white, in pink and an apron? …. these women are writers. The term “Mommy Blogger” is jaw droppingly backwards. These are women, who are mothers, who write, and sometimes they write about being a Mother. Packaging it in pink fluff is just a bummer.
The comment immediately following pretty much exemplifies the problem. And of course, it was written by RJ Silva, a man, at least judging by his avatar: (more…)
Posted in Social Media, tagged Blissdom, Blog, blogher, Cartoon Network, Digital Kids Conference, Mom 2.0 Summit, National Football League, NPD Group, Spin Master on April 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
BlogHer. Mom 2.0. Blissdom. All Mom bloggers know about the biggies. And I’m all for ‘em. You can network, you can learn. And often, you can meet brand reps and make real contacts. But when these conferences are really huge, you sometimes think you’re making real connections with brands…but you’re not. There are too many bloggers. Brands might send hired pretty faces – rather than real brand reps. And there are just SO many people. So many faces.
That’s why you should be going to the Digital Kids Conference. (more…)
Posted in Social Media, tagged Blog, Brand, Lebron James, PageRank, swag, Twitter, working with bloggers, working with brands on April 4, 2012 | 10 Comments »
Being a Blogger Isn't always a Party
Last week, my post about How Not to Work with Bloggers evidently hit a chord. I guess there are still plenty of brands out there that aren’t treating bloggers right. But in fairness – there are plenty of bloggers messing things up, too. So here’s the other side of the story: What Bloggers shouldn’t do when they work with brands.
1. Don’t just assume you’re getting free stuff. (more…)
Posted in Social Media, tagged Beccarama, Blogging Angels, C2C mom, Selfishmom, working iwth brands, working with blggers on March 21, 2012 | 24 Comments »
She's a bloggin' cowgirl.
Even in the Wild Wild West that is the Social Media Landscape, there are some rules. And I have no problem sharing a few of them. Some are pretty clear: don’t plagiarize. SelfishMom, Beccarama and I (Coast to Coast Mom couldn’t make it!) talked about the big plagiarism scandal that was all over the mom-blogosphere last week on our Blogging Angels Podcast. For once, we all agreed: don’t steal someone else’s words. It is wrong. That’s not really a tough one.
There are other Blogger rules of conduct to follow: don’t beg for votes, follows, or retweets, don’t take it personally if you are not invited to some event or another. Do write about, or furiously Tweet about events you do attend. Don’t work for free – but do define payment in whatever way works best for you. (Product, experience, exposure.. beccarama has a great post about it) Do offer link love. Don’t relentlessly promote your own posts on Twitter to the exclusion of all else. Do re-tweet, and tweet out other people’s posts you enjoy.
Basically, it’s all Golden Rule stuff: Do unto others. Simple.
For brands and marketing companies, not always so simple, as some of my recent experiences have proven. So here’s a short list of do’s and don’t for brands when working with bloggers. (more…)
