May 22, 2008
The other day, I was biking up the Bathurst hill and I passed the Telus billboard advertising Facebook mobile on their phones for the upteenth time. Fun fact: Rogers was the first to advertise their Facebook mobile service, followed by Bell and Telus. 
The billboard reminded me of sign I saw on the window of the women’s clothing store Smart Set at the Eaton Centre earlier in the week. It had a Facebook logo and was advertising some new fashion cubes application, where you can compete with your friends about who has the best fashion, or something equally ridiculous. I was taken by the “Add Smart Set Fashion Cubes to your applications!” that was under the Facebook logo. I think that was the first time I’ve seen such technical language on the outside of a women’s clothing store. It’s still super gendered (compete with your friends to see who is the hottest), but really, is anyone surprised? I looked out for more Facebook logos as I walked through the mall, and not surprisingly there where two more at the Bell World and Rogers stores.
But that’s not all! At the end of April, I saw a presentation at CaseCamp about the success of TD Canada Trust’s Facebook app. That same night, Bryan Segal, VP at Comscore did a presentation about the insane popularity of social media in Canada. According to Comscore, Canada is the “most penetrated country” and “we view the most content and spend the most time interacting with social media.” In this context, its not really a surprise that Toronto is madly in love with Facebook.
So, this all got me thinking. A clothing store advertising it’s Facebook app, and a bank has one too? And there are so many extra Facebook shirts in Toronto that random bike riding junk collectors are wearing them? What I’m witnessing here in Toronto is so obvious that it’s invisible to me. It’s the first time a social web service, or anything from the internet really (besides when the web itself became big and we started seeing URLs all over the place… but that’s more a protocol and less a commercial service), has become so tightly integrated into so many aspects of mainstream life. For Torontonians, Facebook is becoming the mediator for so many everyday interactions, between people and between people and companies, and its being done at level of penetration we’ve never seen before.
Moar!
Rogers TV ad for Facebook mobile
My growing collection of photos of Facebook appearing in real life around Toronto
Tags: toronto, academic, facebook, thesis
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May 21, 2008
There was a rather ratty looking guy with crazy dirty hair carrying a desktop computer, three rods of something, a half exploded tv-like electronic device of some sort and two bags of miscellaneous parts, all while trying to ride a bike… and he was wearing a blue FACEBOOK SWEATSHIRT.
Tags: toronto, academic, facebook, thesis
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May 21, 2008
My ROFLCon documentary is airing this morning at 11:30 ET on CBC radio, and again Saturday at 4pm. It features Tron Guy, David Weinberger, Leslie Hall and Anil Dash. Yay!
It’s also up on the Spark blog for your on demand listening pleasure (skip to 17:51).
For my first ever time doing radio, I think it turned out pretty well! Nora Young was super nice and took the time to coach me through the voice stuff to make sure it sounded good. How lucky is that? She has a cult following for having such an amazing radio voice (well, that AND being brainy, obviously). Also a big thanks to Luke Walker for being my crew in Boston.
Tags: cbc, spark, roflcon, academic, thesis
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May 6, 2008
there’s this guy that i started talking to… well… he started talking to me, at bathurst station, and we talked all the way up to claxton on the #7 bus.
he isn’t on facebook (he told me) and when i tried to google stalk him, there were no results. except for this other guy with the same name who seems obsessed with parachutes.
i kinda love it. people adding you on facebook that you just met is like a commitment. i mean really, it turns the world into a small town. everyone is so easy to reach. they’re right there. i like the mystery and freedom of space and time.
i’m also so careful about what and who i write about on here now. not like the olden days when i was writing to the vast unknown expanse of THE INTERNET. but i know i can write this and he probably won’t read it (oh just watch him now! uhh hi;) ).
but it’s also weird because googling and facebooking is so habitual to me now. i need my backgroud info on people. and pictures. lots of pictures, like everyone gleefully puts up at facebook so we can all look at each other. i feel like that telepathic guy from heroes when he tries to listen to people’s thoughts when the haitian mind blocker dude is around. cuz yeah, my super power is without a doubt the internet, especially internet stalking >:]
(i’m tempted to start writing in all lowercase again. it’s so much prettier. and it just flooooows when i write this way)
Tags: stalking, friends, academic, facebook, thesis
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