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Should you buy an iPad? The sequel: 4 reasons to buy a 3G iPad

Jul 26, 2010 | ,

It’s only been a little over three months since I got the first iPad — a 64 GB WiFi-only model that I picked up the day they were released. But I’ll be honest. As much as I’ve enjoyed playing Mirror’s Edge, my WiFi iPad felt like a big toy. After spending even more money, upgrading to the 64 GB iPad with WiFi and 3G, let me tell you: that $129 is worth every penny.

The risks of risk management

Jul 23, 2010 | ,

Risk may not be something you always want to limit online. This post tells you how raising the stakes of your online participation — by posting under your own name, by giving your blog’s URL to your colleagues, by being more candid and authentic in what you say online — can increase the value of your online engagement.

Defining the impact of social media on social capital

Jul 22, 2010 |

What are your online friendships worth to the community you live in? That's the practical question that is implicitly raised by Jon Hickman's interesting and slightly perplexing post on Social capital & social media. Hickman writes: ...as academics start to...

Twitter and be gay

Jul 21, 2010 |

Leone Kraus has a fantastic article that covers the particular social media challenges for LGBT folks. As she points out, a guy who keeps his sexual orientation off-the-radar at work may find himself outed online if he's tagged in a Facebook photo taken at a gay...

7 practices to strengthen your online presence

Jul 19, 2010 | ,

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series 10 reasons to stop apologizing for your online life

True online presence offers opportunities for authentic experience, connection and discovery; opportunities for joy and fulfillment. Practices like meditation, yoga and day-to-day mindfulness help cultivate the capacity for offline presence, so that we live our lives more fully. Now that we live so much of our lives online, we need similar practices for our networked time so that we can integrate our online moments into a meaningful life rather than experiencing them as moments deducted from our “real” lives. Here are some practices that foster online presence.

What we look like when we plug in

Jul 14, 2010 |

We all see them. Perhaps we are among the guilty ones. We see them at restaurants: Families at dinner; each member plugged into his or her iPad, iPhone or iPod. We see them at work: Colleagues texting and checking statuses on social networking sites while...

Social media vs reality

Jul 12, 2010 |

There's been a lot of hand-wringing lately about how the Internet is impoverishing our minds, souls and relationships. But Matthew Gallion has written what may now be my favorite articulation of why we should worry about the web in his post on Social Media and the...