Social Media Day 2011

This past June 30th was Social Media Day, an initiative started by Mashable to bring people from the online world to the offline world. Many cities around the world organized their own independent meetups and I went to the one held in Vancouver. It was my first social media meetup/tweetup of any kind and it was pretty amazing seeing the people I interact on Twitter in the flesh. Before, I used to think that unless I knew them as friends, the people I tweet to will only exist in the Twitterverse and I won’t meet them in person. Well, now I know that’s not the case! I got to talk to other Tweeters and get to know them beyond the 140 characters. A lot of them are super-involved, are AIESECers, from SFU (only 3 UBC students that day), passionate about social media and, true to form, checked-in as soon as they arrived. All in all, it was a great night to see the online and offline mesh into the same social circle.

A few years back when Facebook was starting to get big, critics said that social media was making people less social because they spent all their time online and didn’t interact with people in real life. But last Thursday proved to me that this point isn’t true at all. Social media is taking the social aspect and putting it in another medium, and bringing the online to the offline and vice versa is possible. It just takes a bit of effort to be step out of the comfort of your smart phone and start the real life conversation with “I follow you on Twitter!”

I really look forward to going to another social media-esque event and it would be great to see you there too. If you’re going to stalk them (and me) on Twitter anyways, why not get the real experience?

(Picture: Mashable)

@SmartphoneAddiction I am an Addict

Currently: polishing my iPhone 4′s stainless steel band. Just kidding…for now

My name is Eric, and I am a smartphone addict. A more specific subtype would be an iPhone 4 addict. *imaginary claps from fellow addicts*

It started out as an innocent affair, like it always does. I began looking at any news of the new iPhone from the specificities about its retina display to speculations to why the white version wasn’t released along with the black one. Then there were discussions with friends in real life and on online about which is better: iOS or Android (both are good, but I was fiercely on the iOS team). There were the Apple store trips, the going-to-see-my-friends-only-because-they-had-iPhone-4s (and because, well, they’re my friends too in case they’re reading this), and debating with myself whether I should get a contract for a cheaper phone or without one. It got so bad that I dreamed of buying the iPhone during finals. My obsession infiltrated my day AND night life.

Finally, I bought my iPhone 4 at the Apple store at Oakridge Centre 1 hour after I had my last final. It was a fantastic way to start my winter vacation and under much speculation from my friends, I didn’t manage to drop it out of excitement on the first day.

That’s when I got hooked.

Social Media Stereotypes in Yearbook Photos

I am an English geeky, gossiping jock and class president.

One big oxymoron or breaking barriers?

The Smartphone Addiction

Currently: popping some baked cod into the oven. Cravings: 1, Eric: 0

You see them everywhere: smartphones. It’s like everyone has either an iPhone, Blackberry, or some sort of Android phone and they are staring at them while doing pretty much everything. People walk and Twitter. People Facebook during lectures. People check their inboxes at parties. Sports, dinner, hair cuts, washrooms (yes, I’ve heard the “pings” in washrooms”). You name a place and I bet that someone uses their phone there, however ridiculous the place. It’s an epidemic. Or pandemic. Don’t know the difference.

I don’t hate smartphones, hell, I’ve been wanting an iPhone 4 before it came out. Any smartphone is better than the one that I have right now, although I’ll give it credit for not breaking after the dozens of times I’ve dropped it, not because of being careless, but because it is so crappy that I don’t care about its condition or wellbeing.

The thing that bothers me is that people always have their phones on them, doing something so important that they can’t pay attention to the person they are having lunch with. I guess I’m a bit jealous.

The new Windows Phone 7 commercial sums it up quite nicely.

Exaggerated? Yes. Far from the truth? Not really.

I’m pretty sure that I’ll turn into a smartphone addict once (here’s hoping) I get an iPhone. But for now, I have a crappy phone that doesn’t let me customize my ringtone, forgets words I add into the dictionary and refuses to die. I’d take a picture of it, but my camera is pretty bad too (3.5 MP from 5 years ago). Here’s one from the internet so you know what I’m dealing with.

On a side note, Windows Phone 7 looks pretty good, a fresh take on smartphone operating systems. Not good enough for me to switch from iPhone 4 though. There are talks of iPhone 5 as early as January next year and the white iPhone before the end of the year. Don’t think it’ll happening but that’s not keeping me from crossing my fingers.