Sociomechanica

Jewel and FunnyOrDie.com teamed up to expose the shock and disbelief that results when someone actually sounds good at a karaoke bar. The result isn’t so much “funny-ha-ha” as it is “funny-odd.” And it’s worth asking whether something like this would have ever happened before social media, when there were no video sharing sites and [...]

Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration. I don’t love the “Like” button. Yet. I still need to wait it out to see what happens. What I don’t love is when I see things like this polluting my Facebook news profile: Bobby Sue Smith likes Telling FOX News to shut the hell up, Skittles, [...]

Names matter. Name your service something like “Yahoo” or “Google,” and you’ve made yourself fun to talk about. Pick a name that’s not as fun, and you’ve made it less likely that we’ll want to talk about you. That leads me to my Twitter problem. Ever since Twitter’s emergence, I’ve resisted it. I’ve said it’s [...]

Here’s a unique idea about jealousy and social media, from neuroscience blogger Jonah Leher:

“Because these online tools collapse the space between people – we can experience a kind of intimacy with perfect strangers, learning about their breakfast routines and airport delays – we bring ourselves into “competition” with a far larger group. We’re suddenly comparing ourselves with people we’ve never met, and never will. While this pseudo-closeness can be fun, I think it also comes with some anxiety inducing side-effects.” [...]

Infographics! I love them! That’s one of my favorite things about my subscription to Wired Magazine, and a reason Cool Infographics is a favorite blog of mine. Well, I just eat up all the great infographics that Mashable puts forward. So I think I’m going to hop on the trend that Leo started on here [...]

A friend of mine recently had a negative experience not necessarily caused by social media, but certainly amplified by it. In response, she decided to “delete herself”—her words—from the social media sphere, at least for a while. No Facebook. No Buzz. No Twitter. Nothing. She’s not alone. As social media matures, more people are wondering [...]

The other day I passed a restaurant sign—a permanent sign, no less—that said “Better than authentic.” Think of that for a second: “Better than authentic.” Is that possible? Furthermore, is it even desirable? The answer on both fronts, of course, is no. And here’s why. For years, many communicators—marketers, for the most part—sought to circumvent [...]

Oh, Mashable. You’re like the sage grandmother of the social media world. You’re always right, and we always listen to you. And sometimes, you get us into a SM frenzy. Although I am constantly singing the praises of being super-connected and available, there can be too much of a good thing. I have been there, [...]

One of the joys, I think, in maintaining a healthy level of sarcastic comments on the internet, is that not everybody understands it. Inevitably, if I make a sarcastic Facebook comment, someone takes it at face-value. And then, I can laugh maliciously even more, as can my fellow sarcasmers. We can share a little inside [...]

No, we’re not obsessed with Chat Roulette here at SocioMechanica. Well, Andy might be. Who knows what he does in his free time? But I’ve never used it. I don’t even have a web cam. This though is seriously clever and if I ever did use ChatRoulette, this is the guy I’d want to be [...]