What are they doing on their mobile phones for more than 2.5 hours per day??

What do mobile users do for over two and a half hours per day on their phones? It is not likely that it is to find out the the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow, or any other educational purpose. It is more likely that it is for accessing social media channels, managing personal finances or even to rally in support of a cause (hmmm...think Pedigree Adoption Drive!).

The numbers are impressive: 91% of mobile users go online to socialize (100 MILLION access Facebook from a mobile device) compared to only 79% on a desktop. Mobile users are 1.6 times more likely to manage finances and 1.4 times more likely to support a cause.

Why? Immediacy.

Read on for all the latest and fun stats on that person next to you feverishly engaged with their mobile...

Interesting stats.

MySpace Humiliated Me

To quote from HHH's entry on Monday, "I've been violated." I never did work up the courage to share my experience with you all. In a rage of boredom (can boredom really be raging?), I joined MySpace a year ago. I had already been a member of Facebook for three years, starting back in the day when it was exclusively for college students. Somehow, it just wasn't enough. I wanted more. Knowing full well I'd feel creepy and full of regret, I joined MySpace.

MySpace was tolerable for the few months I had it, but I got bored quickly. Bulletins were abused by certain friends of mine who solicited useless junk, friend requests from swingers in Idaho kept flying in (it felt dirty), top friends got jealous if they got demoted in rank. My lunch hours would consist of filling out useless survey bulletin posts with no relevance to life. At one point, I threw my hands up and purged my top friends' list. Among my top four friends were politicians, singers and maybe a few bigots just to show how ridiculous the notion was. I couldn't take it.

Over the course of my membership, my account got "phished" three times. The first two times, it was harmless but annoying, nonetheless. The third time, I had to find out through a group of people at work. I quote, "WHAT was that naked video you posted on my comment space?" WHAT!? OH MY GOD. I was mortified. And THAT...was when my scandalous, unwilling affair with MySpace ENDED. There's no looking back; we're done.

While Facebook's security has become a little looser these days in the vast social orb, I can still say that it's 100 times safer than MySpace.

So, without further adieu, I close with some MySpace etiquette.

Internet Speak in Essays? IDK! Common Sense?

Perhaps we shouldn't ROFLMAO about this one, because it's kind of sad. (Or can we!?) As of late, teachers are finding emoticons and acronyms, popular in instant messaging and emails, seeping their way into classroom assignments. The line between formal and informal writing is beginning to appear a bit hazy to a quarter of the teens surveyed in the study.

This issue allows for more forceful lesson-planning going forward. One research specialist declares, "It's a teachable moment...If you find that in a child's or student's writing, that's an opportunity to address the differences between formal and informal writing. They learn to make the distinction ... just as they learn not to use slang terms in formal writing."

What I see here is a lack of common sense. According to the laws of grammar, every sentence begins with a capital letter. Every sentence ends with a period. :-) is not a word, and esoteric (well, to some) acronyms are out of place in formal classroom assignments. Why can't this concept be grasped and applied accordingly? Some get it, some don't. And it seems the rest...just feign ignorance or give into laziness.

Thoughts?

South Korea's iPhone "Contender"...or is It?

Presenting my technological finding from last week's trip to Seoul, SK!

The 3-inch touchscreen LG LH2300 launched late March, and became readily available in the Korean market early this month. If it makes its way stateside, will it outperform the capabilities of our beloved iPhone?

As the article states, some of its primary features are:

-800×480 pixel widescreen resolution

-direct access to main internet portals

-3MP camera (auto-focus, face recognition, anti-shake)

-digital T.V.

-bluetooth 2.0 connectivity

It's still a bit early on to determine whether this breakthrough will triumph over Apple's brainchild, but let's be on the lookout for user reviews in the months to come and keep it on the brain.