Social Media Class - Comm 3307

Most of you chose the extra credit to devise a new breaching experiment and I thought they were great. Here are a few of my favorites:

Call Me Maybe: Since we recently discussed how many of my generation feel uncomfortable speaking over the phone to our friends and acquaintances, my experiment calls for the student to go out, meet someone new (at a party, for instance), and get his/her cell phone number. Then, like the song suggests, call (don’t text!) the person at least 3 days later and see what happens! Write down your observations: how you feel, how the person responds, any and all results, etc.

Overly Interested Pinterester (inspired by Betsy): On Pinterest, break a social norm by leaving comments and questions on pins. Do not limit to recipe or DIY pins - leave comments on “fashion inspiration” pins and pretty landscapes. Try to leave completely unrelated comments as well, on as many pins as possible. Try for celebrities, publications, and “nobodies” alike. Gauge reactions.

Status Oversharer: A social media breaching experiment could be using Facebook to constantly update our status! I believe that this would be similar to the Oversharer experiment but instead of being on a one-to-one person platform, the reach would extend to all our “friends.” It is not typically a norm to update your status often and I feel a better platform for that would be Twitter. It would be hysterical to see how people from different aspects of our own life would react.

Lone SNSer: Join a new social media site you are not currently on. Invite a number of friends to a less popular SNS (like Orkut, Google +). See how many people join the trend and get on the new SNS. Or, go back to an older SNS that is less popular now (Friendster, MySpace). Report results.

The Great De-Friender: Post a status on Facebook saying “I have too many friends on here, time to weed some out!” Proceed to defriend your five closest friends. Record the results. For best results, leave status up for a few days before defriending.Alice’s note: I don’t think anyone would do this one- it’s a bit of a nuclear option!

Facebook “Like” Terrorist: On Facebook, the “Like” button is used as a way to indicate your interests as well as express approval for a friend’s content. On a friend’s wall, “like” all of their content within a two month period. Explain their reaction to your overvalidation of them.

The Mistaken Omegler: Go on Omegle.com (a chat-based website that anonymously connects you with a stranger- similar to ChatRoulette) and start a conversation by asking a random person’s name (e.g. “Jen?”). See if the person responds, and regardless of the response, start up a conversation as if you actually know the person and are chatting with him/her through a personal IM screenname. Needless to say,when I have done this in the past, people become VERY confused. Sometimes people play along, othertimes people point out that you are on Omegle instead of, say, MSN, and sometimes you get lucky and actually talk to someone with the name you are looking for, which is always fun and leads to demanding questions such as “who is this?!.

Email Shortener: Use email as if it had only the affordance of a text message - meaning you are limited to 160 characters. Compose the email in the same structure as a text message (more informal, don’t include a signature or a greeting).

Borrowing a Phone: With the lack of payphones nowadays, when your phone dies you’re pretty much stuck. My experiment would be to ask a few strangers to borrow their phone to make a quick call. However, when finished with the call look at their pictures, go on Facebook (if it’s a smartphone), send a tweet, etc. and see their responses.

(A very similar suggestion) Ask to use a cellphone for an “emergency call.” I believe more people would be willing to allow cellphone use in this situation. Then I would call a friend up and talk about a fun party experience for as long as the person allowed. I would assess his expression and everyone else’s in the public space.

I Just Want to be Popular: Use your existing or make a new Facebook account and friend as many people as you can find from your class year at Fordham (mine: class of 2013). As people start to accept your requests, write a wall post on 30-50 of those people asking if they will sign your yearbook come graduation. Count how many people respond and explain the reactions. If noone answers, why did this happen?

Fan Favorites: Go to a celebrity’s Twitter page and respond to their fans’ tweets at them. So if @texas_peep tweets at Justin Bieber asking him what his favorite color is, or if she can have a lock of his hair, you reply with an answer or comment. Record their reactions.

Tweeps: Pick someone you have latent or weak ties with and tweet at them 10-15 times a day for 3 days. Another possibility is for 24 hours reply to every tweet they post with a comment back at them.

Would you choose any of these?