The H Line

Quirk

FakeTV - Simulates the light effects of a television to deter would-be burglars. Yes, it’s a gimmick, but it’s a brilliant gimmick. Signifying human presence via the simulated residue of the technology we use… There are so many places to go with this concept. Fascinating. [via BoingBoing Gadgets]

Blogs
Harvard Business’ Umair Haque- Whether I agree with him or not is almost irrelevant. I can’t help but admire intelligent people who are as (please excuse the phrase) balls-out as this guy. He called Facebook evil and discussed his rationale for it at length — twice.

Photoshop Disasters - Borked ads by lazy designers.

Articles
“The Affairs of Men: The Trouble With Sex and Marriage” - Ultimately, this NYMag piece is neither terribly original nor conclusive, but it’s still worth reading and contemplating. My favorite quote comes at the end: “A relationship is a myth you create with each other.” True of relationships of all kinds, parent-to-child more than anything.

Exhibits
The New Normal @ Artists Space through June 2

An exploration of privacy, with works by: Sophie Calle, Mohamed Camara, Hasan Elahi, Eyebeam R & D/Jonah Peretti & Michael Frumin, Kota Ezawa, Miranda July & Harrell Fletcher, Guthrie Lonergan, Jill Magid, Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, Trevor Paglen, Corinna Schnitt, Thomson & Craighead, Sharif Waked

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H Elsewhere

“Adventures in WeeWorld: Part One of One” - My brief excursion through a teen-oriented virtual community.

The Fourth Wall - A short interview with Amy Arbus about her upcoming book, along with a gallery of select photos

Dear Ms. Heather Rasley,

Thank you for joining the Share-a-Lot program here at MyFavies.com. Your enrollment has made you a SuperFavie member! We hope you’ve enjoyed the great deals that we’re offering this week, like 10% off a $300 purchase at Forever17!

By opting into the Share-a-Lot program, you are also automatically registered with the National InfoShare Database, managed by the U.S. Citizen Information Alliance (CIA). Through this exciting new partnership, your preferences and activity within the MyFavies community will help determine nearly every aspect of American life! From Fox News programming to Congressional decisions, it’s all informed by you! Just by telling us the stuff you like!

We would also like to notify you of a recent finding regarding your account.

It’s come to our attention that your gender was incorrectly stated as male when you created your profile here on MyFavies.com. Our ProfilePerfection team was in the process of fixing the error when a team member intercepted a message between you and Member 406042 (your friend Katie Andrews, who you met in Paris during your study abroad in 2000). In this message, you indicated that the gender specification error was made intentionally, and that you thought it would be “kind of funny.”

We here at MyFavies are all about fun. You don’t take two-hour ping-pong breaks followed by after-work Guitar Hero competitions if you’re boring! But we also stand by our Live to Share™ motto. We encourage you to remain honest in your profile description so we can provide you with special discounts and other free goodies that are all about the real you!

Because your gender was incorrectly stated as male, the banner you saw at the top of your profile page at 02:47:10 EST on November 3, 2007 depicted Member 34262 (your friend Carl Tigman, who you met in Mrs. Black’s seventh grade class) holding up a bottle of Heineken and proclaiming, “This shit got me laid last night!” This quote was taken from a message that he sent to Member 3251 (Chris Lars, his roommate at Yale University in 2002) as part of the QuoteMe!™ program.

Chris and 120 other members benefited from purchasing Heineken the next weekend as a result of this targeted message. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself by searching for the tag combination “Heine + Laid” in the FaviesGalleries!

Now that the error has been corrected, the next time you visit your profile page you will see a banner depicting Member 3261 (Rachael Michelson, who is in your ExtendedFavies network) wearing a tiara and proclaiming, “[Disney’s] Enchanted, like, totally made me happy! You gotta see it!” She left this message in the FavieBook of your mutual friend, Member 3261 (Janelle Thompson, who you met at a party in summer 2004).

According to status updates and the LocateMe!™ information shared by our users, more than 60 members of your ExtendedFavies have had similar emotional experiences while watching Disney’s Enchanted, which is playing at the Crossfade Cinema, just six blocks from your apartment at 342 Crab Apple Lane.

We also see that your EverythingEver survey is only 40% complete. Completing the survey and correcting any further errors in your account information will help optimize your experience on MyFavies – and, thanks to our CIA partnership, in your daily American life!

So remember, our top members (displayed under OurFavies on the homepage) are those who provide us with the most detailed, accurate information. With a complete, honest profile and survey, you could be OurFavie, too!

Best,
The MyFavies Team
www.MyFavies.com

• Once upon a time, Facebook was a social network for college students.
• Then it was a social network for college students with a previously-unheard-of amount of transparency between users.
• Then it was a social network for college students and everyone else with a previously-unheard-of amount of transparency between users.
• Then it was a social network with ubiquitous advertising for college students and everyone else with a previously-unheard-of amount of transparency between users.

Now I’m not sure it even qualifies as a social network at all.

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I know all of this because I was among the founding members of my college’s Facebook network. In fact, we had to petition Facebook to add our school, because at that time it was limited to larger, more well-known institutions.

Because our four-year student body consisted of about 600 students, it’s not an exaggeration when I say that that there was a campus-wide feeling of celebration when we were finally granted an official network. Within a week, a significant percentage of the student population had joined and made good use of this new social tool.

This first iteration of Facebook had a feeling of intimacy and protection not afforded by MySpace (new kid on the block, then) or Friendster (the falling star). My classmates and I frolicked freely in the playground Facebook set forth for us, knowing that the information we shared would only be visible to those with whom we had real-life connections. Inside jokes relating to organizations and goings-on around campus abounded. It was almost as if our little liberal arts utopia had been transposed straight to the internet.

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Then the developments I outlined above came about, and something changed. Suddenly, the community we had created online was no longer analogous to the intimate kind of community we shared in real life, on campus. Slowly, we were opened up to each other and to others, in a way we hadn’t quite expected. Some of us protested, some of us didn’t care, but we could all agree that our privacy was being whittled away.

Now it’s being hacked off.

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To understand what I mean, check out this excerpt from a recent AP article:

In announcing the initiative, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook has begun transforming itself from an online hangout into an online business district. Companies can now create their own pages on Facebook for free and tailor their pitches to the activities of users’ friends.

For example, if a friend has booked a vacation on Travelocity, the online travel agency will be able to display the friend’s photo as part of a “social ad” to entice the user to buy flights and hotel stays. Advertisers can similarly have their pitches appear when friends review restaurants and buy books or DVDs.

(many more via this Google search)

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Today, I almost bought a Dreamhost account for the express purpose of messing around with the Facebook API. In fact, I was checking my bank account to make sure it was doable moments before reading that article. But at this point, I don’t want to invest money and labor in something that would tacitly support what is swiftly becoming an unsavory environment for social interaction.

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I have more to add, but must be off for now. So I’ll just leave you with this question:

Is Facebook now just a marketing research tool masquerading as a social network?