The 2008 Obama Presidential campaign made history. Not only was Obama the first African American to be elected president, but he was also the first presidential candidate to effectively use social media as a major campaign strategy. It’s easy to forget, given how ubiquitous social media is today, that in 2008 sending out voting reminders [...]
In spite of Facebook’s prominence in the social media ecosystem, Twitter is becoming a central source for breaking news. From natural disasters to political campaigning, Twitter delivers real time messaging that have a sense of immediacy. But the characteristics of Twitter also open the doors to a new type of performance art for creative, slightly-bent, [...]
The Sandy Hook tragedy has created an avalanche of response across social media. The senseless violence has so outraged and shocked people that is has turned observers into advocates and supporters. Whether it’s showing support, lobbying for gun control, promoting mental health initiatives or calling for school lockdowns, people who don’t normally speak up are [...]
Many people have the image of video games as socially isolating, if not psychologically addicting. Yet, like my friend Kristin Brandt demonstrated when she joined her son in the online game Wizard101 (see part 1), video games can connect families and friends across time and distances. In my last post, The Positive Side of Video [...]
Video games have been at the forefront of interactive media and continue to be a significant part of the participatory media environment. The thought of a video game still may strike horror into the hearts of many, but video games are just a digital manifestation of a very basic human behavior: play. Playing is where [...]
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