They're convenient and helpful but cell phones are driving Gen Y crazy (Image Via: Daveibsen.typepad.com)

During a summer vacation in 2007, Cristina Pansolini’s cell phone kicked the metaphoric bucket and with it went her ability to enjoy a stress-free trip. Sans cell phone, how would she make plans with friends? Would her boyfriend think she was ignoring his text messages? What if she needed to contact her family? Although Pansolini was back in cellular business a few days later, the now 21-year-old college senior winces at the thought of being without her beloved iPhone for even a moment. “The thing is my life, I don’t think I could function without it,” she says.

Like an arm or leg, the cell phone is a modern day appendage that millennials have come to depend on. With the ability to talk, text, send emails, and correspond over social media, cell phones are communication’s ‘round-the-clock nucleus and, simultaneously, society’s hopeless addiction. Lisa Merlo, a clinical psychologist at the University of Florida, told “Cellular-News” that cell phone users oftentimes feel anxious when they accidentally leave the device at home or are forced to turn it off. But why are Generation Y hearts so uneasy when their digital counterparts aren’t in hand?

Some psychologists believe cell phone enslavement is a symptom of insecurity. Whether using the device to actually communicate or to merely kill time, people turn to their gadgets to suppress feelings of loneliness and isolation. “Cell phones invite people into a world where everyone is always available and at each other’s disposal,” says practicing Manhattan psychologist and psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster. Current Pew statistics suggest that 96 percent of Generation Y members own a cell phone, a lofty figure that goes to show how solitary it is to be without one.

Craig Levan, a Manhattan event and party planner, recently experienced anxiety when his iPhone was stolen on the subway. In retrospect, Levan attributes his unease to feelings of seclusion and disconnect. “Having a cell phone makes you feel like you’re never alone because you always have the option to talk to someone if and when you need to,” he says.

Touching on classic psychoanalytic theory, Webster also suggests that anxiety prompted by a lost or broken phone could be due to self-consciousness. “Separation anxiety is an identity issue at its core,” she says. “People don’t feel well in themselves if they don’t have that object they identify with.” Pansolini agreed that her cell phone is an extension of herself and noted sentiments of vulnerability when it malfunctioned. “It’s kind of my security blanket or safety net,” she says. “I feel pretty insecure without it.”

Simpler reasons for cell-less concern err on the side of being temporarily disconnected from friends, family and work. Lisa Gitelman, a media technology historian at New York University, suggests that cell phone dependence is due largely to portability. “They’re mobile phones,” Gitelman says, “We depend on them because we can literally carry around communication.” For many, cell phones are chief way people socialize.  “My phone is how I make plans and find out about what my friends are up to,” says Omid Morshed, an NYU senior. As for Levan, stress surfaced because he wasn’t immediately accessible to colleagues at work.

So how do we put a lid on cellular apprehensions? Unfortunately, there isn’t really an end in sight. “Cell phone use is naturally addictive because it’s repetitive. This makes it hard to stop,” says Webster. With new devices constantly hitting shelves, cell phone dependence and its accompanying anxieties may simply be where things are headed. The temporary solution? Webster suggests taking a  step away from the bombardment of mediated living to let real life reclaim center stage.

In “The Social Network,” Mark Zuckerberg’s fictional girlfriend breaks up with him after he refuses to stop talking about himself at dinner. Miffed, Zuckerberg hastily retreats to his Harvard dorm, opens a beer, and posts about his latest personal problem on the Internet for everyone to see.

This opening scene of “The Social Network” the story of Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, i typifies a common attitude about such websites : outlets built for and by self-interested, whining Millennials.

Due largely to the writings of Jean Twenge, author “The Narcissism Epidemic” and “Generation Me,” the symbiotic relationship between rising rates of narcissistic behavior in Generation Y and sites like Facebook has been widely accepted.

A new study, however, challenges this presumed link between social networking and self-centeredness. With the lofty title, “Millennials, narcissism, and social networking: What narcissists do on social networking sites and why,” the study found no relationship between narcissism and how much time individuals spend on social networking sites or how often they post “status updates.”

And while the study’s authors—four professors from Appalachian State University and High Point University in High Point, North Carolina—admit social networking may appeal to narcissists, they assert it does not actually create narcissists. Instead, the experts agree with an argument posited by many Millenials: The narcissistic reputation results from the misperceptions of older generations. What looks like self-centeredness to many is actually a vital means of communication, self-expression, and professional advancement for Generation Y.

Shaun Davenport, an associate professor at High Point University and one of the paper’s three authors, believes his and his colleagues’ relatively young ages for academics (all under 40, unlike Jean Twenge) uniquely allowed them to challenge the stereotypes associated with Generation Y and social networking.

“Social networking is so transparent in some ways—you put yourself out there,” said Davenport. “With the older generation that isn’t as comfortable with that openness, they could perceive that as narcissistic because [Millennials] want to be open and have more shallow relationships.”

Indeed, the paper concludes, “While previous generations accomplished this via letter, telephone, or email, the Millennials may simply prefer to connect and communicate via SNSs. Thus, this may not be a sign of pathology, but a product of the times.”

For many, Facebook and similar sites are the easiest way to keep in contact with friends, It’s an update to the phone book, says Matt Vanek, 19, a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, adding that making personal information available to so-called “friends” is not self-aggrandizing, just functional.

“When I didn’t know my lab partner’s name after three sessions I tracked him down on Facebook,” said Vanek.

Yet, according to Twenge’s survey data, it is not the type of behavior that makes Generation Y unique, but the numbers. In one highly publicized study, Twenge found that 57 percent of Millennials agreed that their peers used social networking sites for “self-promotion, narcissism, and attention-seeking.”

Wes Davenport and his colleagues, however, argue that, while such behavior might be narcissistic, it does not make the majority of Millennials narcissists. Their research delineates between clinically diagnosed narcissists and subclinical narcissism, “a personality trait that normal, healthy individuals possess to varying degrees.”

Twenge asked if social media was used for attention seeking and self-promotion. 37 percent “agreed somewhat,” while 20 percent “agreed strongly.” To extrapolate these results as proof that 57 percent of Millennials are clinical narcissists—a classification that applies to just one percent of the world’s population—is a stretch, at least for Davenport and his colleagues.

Even Twenge’s use of “self-promotion” as a synonym for “narcissism” betrays a bigger misunderstanding. For some Millennials, the ability to self-promote on social networking sites has become a professional necessity for networking and making other work-related connections.

Indeed, as Davenport concludes, social networking only makes it easier for people to behave in certain ways, not more likely to do so. Social media can help either a budding narcissist or sports reporter, but it will make you neither.

“It’s a lot easier to be a narcissist on social networking sites than via telegram,” he said with a laugh.

Illustration from The Express Tribune

Type ‘petition’ into Facebook’s search bar and what comes up is a slew of results: pages, groups, apps, all having to do with social activism. There are Facebook petitions to raise awareness of animal cruelty and petitions for women’s rights—petitions that fight to keep ABC soap operas on the air and petitions against Facebook petitions.

The creation of websites like Change.org, that specialize in organizing petitions on the web, are a sign of the popularity of petition-making that reaches outside of the realm of Facebook. With over 5 million members, Change.org is the biggest and most influential petition-promoting site on the web. Boasting a team of over 98 organizers, campaign directors, software engineers and strategists, Change.org calls itself an ‘organizing platform’ for citizen activists.

Sarah Parsons, Change.org’s Sustainable Food Editor, explains that technology has changed the face of social activism. “It makes sense, that since people communicate online now that activism should be online as well,” Parson says in a phone interview. While social movements before the age of new media depended on the physical congregation of people to protest a cause, technology has created a method of protesting that relies on mouse clicks and virtual signatures.

In a phone interview, Zachary Dominitz, Change.org’s Director of Partnerships, compares the web to the telephone and suggests that although the Internet has changed the way that people communicate, it is still a tool for communication—just a better tool. “There’s nothing to match the speed of the Internet,” Dominitz says. He explains that members of Generation Y are used to using the Internet to reach out to one another. Sites like Facebook and Twitter allow people all over the world to connect instantly. Dominitz says that the reason that online petitions have reached such popularity is due to sites like Facebook that allow individuals to engage in online communities. He says that online petition making gives people the ability to make a difference in the world. “You can put up an idea on Change.org and if its shared amongst a bunch of people, it can be something powerful.”

However, in an age where it has become easy to join causes online, activism means something different—one click and you support gay rights, one click and you support women’s rights. But what does this clicking mean? Has social media made activism a “slacker’s” activity in which people who want to make a difference can do so without having to even leave their computers?

The term “slacktivism” has been used as early as 2001 in online conversations about new media in relation to activism. Although it is not certain where the term originated, it has been used as a critique of online petitioning, referring to a certain kind of person who signs online petitions without being actively involved. “So called ‘slacktivists’ take easy, social actions in support of a cause,” says Katya Anderson of Network for Good (a petitioning website) in an article for Mashable.com. “Signing a petition, liking a Facebook page or putting a pink ribbon on their avatar.”

However, a Georgetown University study made in 2010 found that people who get involved in online petitioning are more likely to donate money or volunteer in actual events than people who do not use social media for activism. Anthony De Rosa, Social Media Editor for Reuters, says that “slacktivism,” is an overrated term. “Social media has helped people take the next step from slacktivism to actual activism,” says De Rosa in an email. De Rosa explains that movements like the Arab Spring—that lead to revolutions in the Middle East this past year—and the current Occupy Wall Street movements use social media to spread their messages, however, they come from real off-line problems that effect people in their daily lives.

On November 1, Change.org announced their victory over Bank of America’s $5 debit card fee after over 300,000 people signed a petition asking the bank to eliminate the fee for all customers. The petition was created by an independent member of Change.org who also broadcasted her plea onto Facebook and Twitter. Dominitz says that Change.org depends on social networking sites so that people can use their connections to spread word of their cause with immediacy. He believes that online petitioning is a tool that goes hand in hand with why people reach out to one another online on sites like Facebook. “It’s looking for something that is larger than ourselves—making or signing a petition gives you a sense of being part of your world.”

http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2011/02/the_facebook_break_up_notifier.html

Too much information killed college student Katie Ulrich’s relationship. The NYU junior began to suspect her romance was on rocky ground when she and the new flame were not exactly simpatico: She dressed up for dates while he sported sweats; they’d make plans for a day’s outing to Coney Island and he changed his mind just before boarding the train.
Ulrich was willing to let the faux pas slip until an indie concert they planned to attend together. “He called to say he was not feeling well enough to go,” Ulrich said. “I decided not to go either, even though I already bought my ticket.”
That night when Ulrich checked her Facebook newsfeed, she saw her “sick” date’s status: He was going to the concert with a number of tagged friends. After that, “I was done seeing him,” Ulrich said.
Many people have experienced Facebook postings have ending a blossoming relationship. Through the constant status updates, location check-ins, and photo postings, Facebook puts a relationship in hyper speed.
With Facebook, the need for introductory conversations is eliminated. One can find all the information they need simply by friending a person and viewing the profile. A profile is a goldmine listing the entire history of a person’s life through pictures, postings, and status updates. The information overload creates problems for dating — no longer do people learn about each other through interpersonal relations, all it takes is some snooping on their Facebook profile.
NYU graduate student Kristin Buettner experienced an early ending to one romantic relationship thanks to Facebook. “I met a guy, and we started Facebook chatting, G-Chatting and texting all the time,” Buettner said. “He knew everything from what I was doing at work to what I was eating for lunch, and it killed the mystery.”
Buettner realized that while Facebook may seem like a practical replacement to developing a relationship with someone, it is completely artificial. “A computer can do a lot of things,” Buettner said. “But, it can’t replicate romantic chemistry!”
Buettner’s experience with information overload is why Laurie Davis, founder of eFlirt Expert, warns “Friending a match before your first date encourages snooping,” Davis said.
Yet, avoiding Facebook is not an option, says Davis. “The reality of today’s society is that nearly all of our lives are digital,” Davis said.
Facebook’s effects on relationships prompted “Your Tango,” a love advice blog to post an article detailing “Six Things You Do on Facebook That Turn Him Off.” Red flags include ex-bashing, overdoing the “duck lips” pose in profile pictures, too many status updates, hitting the “like” button once too often, having over a thousand friends, and playing online games like Mafia Wars or Farmville.
Facebook can also offer accessibility to a person’s family, perhaps not always the best idea. NYU junior Alexa Modungo decided to get even with her ex-boyfriend when he disrespected her: she found his mother on Facebook.
Modungo dated her ex-boyfriend for five years; they were childhood friends. Growing up in the New York City private school scene, Modungo said they cultivated a deep, intimate relationship. Although, his behavior showed otherwise, “He told me he cheated on me at his grandfather’s 80th birthday party, while I was sitting between his mother and him,” she said.
Modungo’s relationship reached a point where she could no longer tolerate her ex-boyfriend’s behavior. “I took it upon myself,” she said, “to send his mother Facebook messages explaining what a chauvinist she raised.”
Modungo sent 42 messages to be exact, and she blames Facebook to what she now admits was  an over-the-top reaction. “Facebook provides an alternate reality,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to say something on Facebook than in person.”
Modungo’s messages to her ex-boyfriend’s mother fall under what The Wall Street Journal’s Elizabeth Bernstein calls the hover parent (or friend) issue with Facebook. “Before social networking, when you broke up with someone it was easier to disconnect. Although, you could still drive by your ex’s house or call his phone and hang up, to try and check up on him,” Bernstein said. “Now you can spy on that person via Facebook, constantly monitoring his (or her) behavior and analyzing it.”

Signing up for Blendr is like signing up to enter shark-infested waters. Fill in your name, age, sex, sexual orientation and then click the ‘next’ button.

Now wait for the swarm.

Blendr is a social networking tool that uses Global Positioning Software (GPS) to connect users to each other in real-time. “Current social networks only connect users to people and places they already know,” Joel Simkhai, the C.E.O. and creator of the app, says in an email. “Blendr inspires users to discover fresh faces and places.”

Simkhai says that he decided to create Blendr due to requests from women wanting an app like Grindr. Grindr is Simkhai’s widely popular, all-male gay social networking app that he released in 2009. The app has come be to known as the gay hookup app (the Village Voice has called Grindr “The Gay’s Fave Hookup App,” and The Daily Beast calls it “addictive”) and has gained over 2.6 million users worldwide since its release.

Although Simkhai insists that Blendr was not created as a straight hookup app, the question remains, with the fame and success of Grindr, what are straight people going to use Blendr for?

At a glance, the Grindr and Blendr look very similar. User’s profiles on both apps are set up similarly in that they display what a person is “Looking For.” Some profiles say, “Looking For A Relationship,” others say, “Looking For Friends.” Within the first 15 minutes of opening my account on Blendr, I start receiving messages: “Hello gorgeous,” says Larry, 49 and NycDave85, 27, says, “Hey, you’re cute,” although my profile says, “In A Relationship” and “Looking To Chat.”

The difference between the two apps is that many women are not using Blendr to flirt with men. Clay Shirky, expert in new media and professor at New York University, suggests that perhaps the problem with Blendr’s approach lies in gender differences. Grindr works because homosexual flirting in public is taboo, and the app provides a safe place for gay social networking. In straight culture, flirting in public is acceptable and while women overtly flirting with men is seen as normal, men overtly flirting with women comes off as creepy.

“This is something that I’ve actually seen in my students,” Shirky explains. “The men always feel: if only the women knew that they were interested in them then surely they would reciprocate.” Shirky believes that Blendr is tailored towards men’s needs; men who use the app think that Blendr is a free-for-all site for finding potential dates, while women still don’t like strangers coming on to them.

Erin, 26, just recently moved to New York City and got a Blendr to try to make new friends. “I met up with a girl, and she was really nice,” Erin says on Blendr chat. “But it was too weird. There were just a lot of creepy guys trying to hookup with me.”

Laurel, 26, is an employee of the marketing company that works with Blendr. Through Blendr chat, Laurel admits that because of Grindr’s popularity, it is difficult to remove the dating aspect from Blendr. “I’ve also had guys try to flirt with me,” she says. “Men and women like to flirt.”

"Hipster Ariel" takes a silly stab at popular culture as one of the Web's most sought-after memes.

Ian Devaney’s Facebook default depicts a hand-sketched headshot of the 21-year-old musician. His photo choice is quite ordinary, save for the graphic of celebrity chef Paula Deen photoshopped atop his head.

Devaney’s Facebook photo is among thousands of memes posted on “Paula Deen Riding Things,” a Tumblr sensation that portrays the Food Network star “riding” a variety of random and unrelated objects. Each meme is generated and submitted online; funny modifications earn a re-post on the Tumblr site while the best clinch a feature on Memebase, a database that spotlights the Web’s most popular memes.

The word “meme,” coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976, represents the cultural equivalent of a biological gene and signifies transmission via mimetic imitation. Memes in everyday life include fashion trends, religious beliefs and regional jargon. But while memes are virtually any thing or idea that circulates among people, Internet memes are of their own technologically disseminated, socially conscious, comedic ilk.

What makes Internet memes worth the hype? Patrick Davison, a former script supervisor at KnowYourMeme.com, says Internet memes are popular because they reflect modern culture in a humorous manner. “We should think of memes as jokes about popular culture,” Davison says. “They’re funny because they’re relatable to other middle class situations. They give a stage to ‘dinner party funny.’”

Internet memes take everyday tensions and twist them to create relief, says New York University adjunct media professor Beza Merid. “Much of today’s comedy overturns order and expectation. Memes do just that,” says Merid, who focuses on stand up comedy in his Ph. D studies. Such witty and eccentric connection to popular culture is precisely why Devaney chose to make his Facebook profile picture a meme in the first place. “It’s funny and my friends can relate to it,” he says.

But Internet memes aren’t only popular because of their comical content; they’re also widely favored for their “bite-size” construct. “We live in a multi-tasking society fueled by constant stimulation,” says Merid. “Internet memes offer those small doses of entertainment to keep us satisfied.” Whether at the office or during class, people can easily open a new tab on their Internet browser, view a meme, have a laugh and get back to work.

Internet memes require a degree of creation in addition to mass facilitation. “They differentiate from other viral content because they involve production, adaptation, incorporation and imitation,” says Davison. “They can take the form of pictures, videos or text but an element of them must be changed with each variation.”

Davison credits social media for the overall popularity of Internet memes. “It speeds everything up and spreads everything out,” says Davison. While traditional memes like the age-old “Knock, Knock” joke had a slow, word-of-mouth evolution, Internet memes rapidly diffuse through Facebook, blogs and other amplifiers like BuzzFeed.com.

Davison argues that memes are measured by their notoriety. “The legitimacy of a meme is measured by how many peoples’ heads it gets into,” he says. Currently, KnowYourMeme.com boasts an archive of over 3,000 popular meme entries. “If it isn’t funny or relevant, nobody will forward the meme and it will die out,” Davison says.

Memes’ successful online presence has inspired advertisers to apply their witty, ever-morphing repetitiveness to promote commercial products. It isn’t surprising that Wieden + Kennedy struck advertising gold by imitating meme culture in their recent Old Spice campaign. After all, memes are the current cool kids.

This became reality for 26 students at the University of Central Florida. Last year their English professor, Mary Ann Murdoch, challenged her students to unplug and live a technology-free life for five days.

Only two of 26 students in Murdoch’s class were able to relinquish cell phones, iPods, portable CD players, text messaging, e-mail, computers, TVs, DVDs, and video games.

I crafted a similar technology-free experiment for myself. No texting. No web surfing. No social networks. No iPods, CD’s, TV, video games or personal e-mails. Just my phone for basic calls and my laptop for emergency school-related email and Microsoft Office programs. For one week.

Tech Diaries

Sunday Night 11:45pm –

The experiment was set to start at midnight. Before I unplugged from my comforting world of chargers and wires, I posted a disclaimer on all my social media profiles stating: Doing a social experiment for a class which involves me giving up most technology for a week.  If you wanna talk to me, call me or stop by my place! Starts tonight at midnight! Bets on if I can do it?

Technology Diet

My experiment warranted initial reactions of “Maybe I will send you a hand written letter bahahah”, “Good luck with that!” and “Well, guess I will talk to you in a week. L8r!” It seemed most of my friends thought my experiment was pointless.

“When I heard you were going a week without technology, I couldn’t believe it,” said Johns Hopkins University senior Kayla Culver. “I thought I could never do that.”

Monday

Slept in an extra two hours today. Wandered around my room not knowing what exactly I should be doing. Went to class and came back for another nap. Sooooo bored. Went to bed early. Perhaps I could get used to this !

“It is so funny that is your definition of boredom,” said Dian Schaffhauser, a business and technology writer for Campus Technology. “You had all this extra time to do stuff but you didn’t see value in that. Generation Y views technology as a necessity rather than an accessory; the baseline for what we need to get along has changed.”

Tuesday

Went into the bookstore to get a work study application for the spring semester. Asked the woman behind the counter for an application and she responded with “You can access our application online.” I politely asked if they had any in-store copies, she stared at me before bringing the supervisor over to solve this problem.

I repeated my question and the supervisor repeated I could access the information on line. I started to explain my experiment to them, but exasperated, I conceded defeat and walked out empty handed.

Wednesday

Had an interesting experience at the NYU library today. I figured since I can’t use the internet to look up information, the library will help me out. Dewey Decimal System, here I come! Unfortunately, I needed technology there more than I imagined.

In order to look up any books, I had to use the internet access tied to the NYU network database: Bobcat. I don’t know why I expected to use a card catalog (haven’t heard that world in a while).

Realizing I would need some assistance looking up information, I wandered over to a librarian and asked her if she could help me find a book. She looked at me and said, “You know, you can look it up online.”

No, duh. She looked at me like I was stupid. I informed her I couldn’t use the computer as per a class assignment. She huffed and puffed before agreeing to help me find the book.

Thursday

Hi, my name is Kelly and I have a problem. I’m addicted to technology. Having headaches and feeling nauseous today. Feel pretty heavy. I think I’m due for some Technology Rehab.

Friday

No one called to tell me that my Ultimate Frisbee scrimmage at Columbia University was cancelled. Rode all the way up there to meet a dark stadium and an empty field. Wasted $4.50 and two hours!

Saturday

Stepped outside today and slid my iPod headphones in my ears. Walked four blocks before realizing I ever put them in. That’s muscle memory for you! Reading and napping all day. Bo-ring!

Sunday

By far the easiest day of the whole experiment. Just counting the hours. Excited to feast on all the technology meals I missed this week!

First post experiment food? Facebook.

Importance of Technology to a Generation

Sure I shed a few electronic pounds on my technology diet. I read two decent books, reconnected with an old acquaintance and became a self-declared solitaire champion. But truthfully, I wasted more time without technology than I ever did with it. Without my iPod buds in my ears, I felt lost. Without my thumbs stomping across the letters on my cell phone, I felt lost. And without seeing the Lady Gaga video the second it premiered on MTV, I felt lost. So instead of trying to find a path out of this “lost-ness”, I slept it away.

For the past ten years, Los Angeles Times fashion critic Booth Moore has been covering fashion shows in New York, Paris, and Milan. But at fashion week in New York this year, she noticed that something was different. “Bloggers were the flavor of the month this season,” she says, noting the overwhelming presence of these hyper-intense fashion fans.

Known for their role behind computer screens, bloggers upgraded this year to front row seats at once-exclusive runway shows like Dolce & Gabbana and Rodarte. These trendsetting, influential, and style-conscious members of Gen Y seized the role of fashion editor, with the Internet as their stage.

The number of colorful blogs and fashion forums has exceeded ten thousand, providing some stiff competition for traditional fashion magazines like Vogue and Elle. Fashionistas rely on daily visits to these sites in order to keep up with the dynamic fashion industry.

“The Internet has really allowed for the democratization of fashion,” says Moore . “Now everyone can participate in the discussion of clothing and designers.”

Maneuvering buy amoxicillin online around the fashion and merchandising hierarchy has become easier. Small-town girls in the Midwest, like StyleRookie’s Tavi Gevinson and Sea of Shoes’ Jane Aldridge, comment on the latest fashion trends as they come down the runway, alongside Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

In addition, online streaming, whether via Twitter tweets, Facebook status updates, or You Tube videos, has proven powerful enough to disseminate the latest in fashion, faster than an experienced Barney’s shoe sale veteran can swipe the last pair of size 7-and-a-half Christian Louboutins.

“Online sources are fast and immediate,” says Robin Givhan, fashion editor at the Washington Post. “They offer instant gratification when it comes to news about the fashion industry.”

At fashion week this year, quick online blog posts proved to be the ultimate source of breaking news. Fashionologie, a forum created in 2005, provided access to Rodarte’s runway show as it took place. With minute-to-minute updates, readers caught a sneak-peak at the collection and the backstage commotion at the show.

Meanwhile, magazine subscribers must wait two months for their glossy “fashion bibles” to hit newsstands. By that time, anything newsworthy has already been discussed and the hot Marc Jacobs handbag is already sold out in stores worldwide.

Fashion editors have taken notice. In order to maintain their reign as the gods and goddesses of clothing and accessories, they have shifted their sights towards an online existence.

“It’s all about online presence,” says Christina Roperti, fashion assistant at Women’s Wear Daily (WWD). “Print media is no longer sufficient in satisfying today’s demand.”

Consequently, WWD has really stepped up its game. Staff members at the midtown office in Manhattan have paid increased attention to the daily trade publication’s website, and they Twitter now. At the Conde Nast building, Vogue’s own style.com has recently released an iPhone application. At the Los Angeles Times, Moore has familiarized herself with the online aspect of fashion journalism and its impact on her job.

In making the move online, magazines have gained the best of both worlds. In providing readers with the instant gratification they seek, they are also supplying expert information that is both trustworthy and influential. Voguettes such as Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington are paid the big bucks for their expertise and their involvement in the fashion world for over 25 years. Working their way up from entry-level positions, they have gained a long view of the industry. And right now, there are no bloggers with that kind of experience.

However, the invasion of the style bloggers has forced traditional fashion magazines to juggle a presence both online and in print. While media gurus claim that the future of print journalism is gloomy, fashion editors need not empty their Birkin bags just yet. Traditional fashion magazines are not doomed.

Although they lack the ability to present the breaking news of fashion trends and events, monthly issues of Harper’s Bazaar and InStyle still offer something unique. With feature articles and editorial spreads, magazines provide an in-depth look at how yesterday’s fashions will affect fashionistas tomorrow. Reading a magazine is a precious experience. Just ask any fashion design student.

“I don’t think the day will ever come when I give up my subscriptions and go strictly web,” says Emily DeTomaso, 21, a design student at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM). “Having the magazine in hand, flipping through page after page of glossy images and fashion delight is something that simply cannot be replaced.”

]]> http://genyu.net/2009/12/09/the-evolution-of-fashion-journalism/feed/ 2 http://genyu.net/2009/12/08/bears-helping-gen-y-gays-get-comfortable/ http://genyu.net/2009/12/08/bears-helping-gen-y-gays-get-comfortable/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:00:09 +0000 eddiee http://genyu.net/?p=299 Twelve-year-old Lorenzo Rodriguez’s cursor hung over a link labeled “Gay Bear Porn.” He had no idea that what he was about to see would end up defining part of his identity.

One click, and everything changed.

Though earlier Internet adventures had helped Rodriguez accept his attraction to men, he had never seen a gay image he could relate to until he discovered bear porn. “I was 12, chubby as hell,” he said, “I never knew any gay people, so all I had to go by was the skinny, hairless twinks in the porn I was watching early on,” he said. “I always thought that being gay meant being effeminate…my biggest fear was that if I told my parents I was gay, they’d make me wear a dress.”

Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Rodriguez, now 20, felt that since he didn’t fit the image of gay men he saw in the media, he would never be able to have a relationship with a man. “I thought I was the last person in the world anyone would want to have sex with. The bear thing completely changed my life,” he said.

So, what is a bear?

Defining the bear image is simple. The apocryphal bear is a large, hairy, bearded man, and often sports a belly and “blue-collar” accessories like flannel and work boots. He’s the ultimate representation of traditional masculinity and the ultimate foil to the ubiquitous mainstream image of the gay man as a young, thin, effeminate party boy, the so-called “twink.”

But such a general definition misses the point. In his introduction to The Bear Book, the first academic study of the bear phenomenon, sociologist Les Wright explained why it’s so difficult to define bears. “For some, [bears are defined by] an attitude. For some it’s an image, and for some it is parts of both, for some the absolute refusal to submit to categorization is the essence of being a bear,” he wrote.

Though they disagree on a strict definition of the term “bear”, experts and self-identified bears alike point to two essential elements that constitute bear culture: the bear image and the bear attitude. In the last decade, the growth of bear media on the Internet and the advent of online social networking is helping a new generation of young, net-savvy men find comfortable sexual identities.

Ray Kampf, author of The Bear Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Those Who Are Husky, Hairy, and Homosexual and Those Who Love ‘Em, describes the development of the bear attitude in the 1980s, as small social groups of generally larger, hairier, and older gay men formed in gay enclaves across the country. According to Kampf, these men simply wanted to be comfortable with their bodies and enjoy their sexuality. “It was just a group of men who enjoyed trivial pursuits and having sex together,” he wrote. “They were open to anyone who wanted to have a good time, regardless of what they looked like.”

In a 2008 study on bear masculinity, researchers Eric Manley, Heidi Levitt, and Chad Mosher explained the appeal of the bear concept. “[the bear community is] a safe haven for gay men who may have felt forced to remain on the margins of gay and heterosexual cultures,” they wrote.

The bear image was born in the mid 1980s out of collective frustration with a rigid and oppressive mainstream gay culture that only accepted depictions of gay men as “twinks,” wrote Peter Hennen, author of Faeries, Bears, and Leathermen: Men in Community Queering the Masculine

With the advent of the Internet in the 1990s, the bear community expanded across the nation and around the world. “[The Internet] increased the visibility and cohesiveness of [the bear] community,” wrote Manley, Levitt, and Mosher. In The Bear Book II, Wright called bears “the first Internet-generated global community.”

Increasingly, the gay men of the Internet generation are embracing the self-accepting bear attitude, even if they don’t fit the bear image. In Netporn: DIY Web Culture and Sexual Politics, media professor Katrien Jacobs argued that the birth of online social networking has given them unprecedented abundance and variety of imagery on the web has “revolutioniz[ed] ” the way young would-be bears develop their sexual identities.

The bears’ more inclusive attitude towards masculinity gave Rodriguez the courage to explore his sexuality on the Internet. “The first thing I did at midnight, the day I turned 18, was join [gay social networking site] ManHunt,” he said.

As it turns out, exploration and experimentation can pay off. “I started hooking up with bears and I felt like God. For the first time, I felt ok being big, gay, and masculine – being myself.”

In the end, it seems that the bear community offers young gay men like Rodriguez the validation of knowing that no matter who you are or what you look like, someone, somewhere will find you attractive.

Now, thanks to the Internet, that someone is just one click away.

While Twitter captured some eccentric users like Simon, experts say that Twitter isn’t intended for Generation Y. “I think Twitter is targeting people over 25 years old,” said Daniel Brusilovsky, CEO of Teens in Tech Networks and a writer at TechCrunch.

Twitter functions as a site more effective for marketing a product and conducting business according to Brusilovsky. With some of the Top 100 Twitter users being Whole Foods, JetBlue and Dell Outlet (who garnered over 2 million in sales last year on Twitter alone), Twitter is more effective for industry news and professional purposes rather than a social network.

In June 2009, the Participatory Marketing Network (PMN) polled 200 Gen Y-ers about their social media habits. The study showed that while 99 percent of 18-24-year-olds have social network profiles, only 22 percent of them used Twitter.

Some Gen-Yers started an account to try Twitter before abandoning it shortly thereafter. NYU Junior Ariel Altschuler, 20, opened an account in April 2009, with his first ‘tweet’ reading, “I give in. Against my better judgment, I’m trying twitter.” Every few days, he posted his thoughts, upcoming events and even shared funny links. But a month later, he stopped. “I just stopped updating it. No reason – I just didn’t think about it anymore, unless one of my friends mentioned it.”

Twitter has yet to capture the attention garnered by Facebook. With an impressive 409 friends on Facebook, Altschuler seems like a popular guy. But compare that to his 22 followers on Twitter. And with only 22 people occasionally reading your ‘tweets,’ there is no need to invest as much time in upkeep.

While Gen Y worries that their friends won’t read their tweets, they also worry about strangers who might. “Facebook is a closed network,” Brusilovsky said. “It’s a network of people and friends that you trust to be connected to, to share information like your email address, AIM screen name, and phone number. You know who’s getting your status messages, because you either approved or added each person to your network.”

Brusilovsky, author of the TechCrunch.com article, “Why Teens Don’t Twitter”, believes that security issues have a lot to do with Gen Y’s hesitancy toward Twitter. “Twitter is the exact opposite. Anyone can follow your status updates. It’s a completely open network that makes teenagers feel unsafe about posting their content there. Who knows who will read it?”

For other young people who used Facebook since the beginning, there simply isn’t a need for Twitter. “I post things on Facebook for my friends to see,” said 20-year-old Alexandra Marchese, a junior at NYU. “Considering none of my friends are on Twitter, there is no guarantee anyone I know, or even care about, will read what I’m writing.”

Marchese decided against activating a Twitter account. “If Twitter came first, it might be a different story,” she said. “I have everything I need on Facebook. And for now, that’s not going to change.”