Mmm hopefully nice people don't always finish last

Interesting predicament... and I'm not so sure how I'm suppose to feel. Recently, my team at work went down from 5 people to 2, so now it is just myself and my boss and one of the ACDs is also gone. I also recently found out my boss (the one that is still here) had a falling out with the ACD that just left - and I think she's quite content that he is gone. The other ACD had arranged for a party at Remy's tonight for the ACD that left and surprise surprise my boss is left off the guest list. But so am I? What gives? The ACD that is still here, I feel likes me very much, she is always asking me to do things for her and she even says she trusts me and that I'm great. So what's the deal? Seriously. I hope it is not as shallow as my boss. Because if it is... well... looks like I need to find another industry to love because this one is getting a little too shallow for me. It's kind of upsetting... I'm not sure how to handle it, and I've tried to bring it up with my boss but that's really going no where and she's just avoiding. Oh well, whatever.

It's just that.. this ACD that is still here, I've done SOO much for her and even stuff I didn't need to do. I'm almost to the point of ridiculously nice to her and I don't even need to be. I'm helpful, I listen to her and not to mention, I just.... ya, I don't get it. And it makes me feel all the effort I put in to help her out is complete and utter crap. Seriously. Crap. So am I suppose to keep being so helpful and nice to her? Probably... but you can sure bet that everytime I am nice to her, in the back of my mind, I will be weary. I hate when people make me feel so down on life and on others. I hate that I need to always be cautious of things like that.

Ok that's my rant.. that's it... that was my 5 mins to wallow and now I'm discarding and proceeding.

-A

My Atticus Under-30 Essay Entry

Privacy 2.0: The Private Life of Social Networking

Alice has started working on her Atticus entry. 12:53pm via Twitter.com

Alice is brainstorming subjects for Atticus. Privacy and social networking in the time of participatory politics? 12:55pm via Twitter.com:

Fifty years ago, the television brought a new dimension to political communications when John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon appeared on a national televised debate. Over the radio, Nixon sounded sharp, smart and knowledgeable – the obvious winner to most radio listeners. However on television, audiences were mesmerized by the sight of Kennedy, a young, dashing presidential candidate from Massachusetts, who looked directly at the camera – captivating his audience with his confident body language. It was Kennedy who won the Presidential election in 1961.

Today, nearly 50 years after this revolutionary debate, another milestone has been reached with the inauguration of the United States President Barack Obama – the first inauguration to be viewed by millions through the use of online video streaming. As the internet continues to expand in capabilities, users are given increasingly more tools to contribute, collaborate and engage in conversations, debates and policy initiatives that are changing the way we communicate – with each other and with our government. No longer do you have to wait for the six o’clock news. Just log onto Twitter, Facebook or Friendster for the latest news, as posted by users on their statuses. Better yet, log onto BBC, CNN and CBC for updates throughout the day. You can even elect to send them to your Blackberry.

“Faster, more efficient, more functional!” the consumers cried out. The market answered their call with a single device that acts as a cellphone/radio/TV/internet device/camera/barcode scanner packed into an attractive, portable accessory. Our need to be faster, more efficient and more functional characterizes the direction of our technological evolution. Furthermore, our desire for efficiency and convenience has bred technological convergence. With the ability to update and purchase items online with our multifunctional gadgets, we have allowed ourselves to consciously and subconsciously disperse our personal information. From small actions such as updating Twitter to entering your credit card number, this information is logged and data is generated. In fact, our need to feel connected and contribute to larger conversations, in synergy with technological convergence, will subconsciously evolve the way we perceive and value our privacy. The price of connectivity is your privacy.

Fifty years from now, advertising will have completely switched from mass and target audience marketing to personalized advertising, specific to an individual’s exact needs. What factors push us in this particular direction? Large changes start with the smallest of decisions. Social networking will encourage us to share our every thought and insight. As we become infatuated with convenient methods of connectivity, we will continue to update our blogs, update our statuses and share each other’s thoughts with greater frequency – distributing our ideas and influencing a large audience with little to no effort. To maintain this new status quo, our seemingly innocent infatuation with connectivity and technology will become a necessity. Connectivity makes us feel as though we are part of something bigger than ourselves in a world of individualism. No one has 1,049 friends in the analog world, but on Facebook, we do. As our need becomes more urgent and technology converges to make it even easier to connect, a paradigm shift will occur adjusting the way we perceive connectivity. Our dependence on connectivity will make it easy for us to hand over private information because we are consistency rewarded with efficiency and increased methods of personalization.

As newspaper advertising sales continue to fall, and technological convergence facilitates new modes of personalized advertising, we will begin to see less need for various media outlets. Digital media will be the only media, not only because of its ease but also because of the environmental implications of print advertising. Moreover, digital media will become more advanced giving way to unprecedented, measurable methods of studying the individual consumer – from tracking purchases to websites visited. Under the shroud of “faster, more efficient and increased functionality,” we’ll entrust our personal information to the unknown; trading privacy for efficiency for the sake of convenience. We already see the beginnings of this with Facebook and its ability to partner with various websites to create personalized advertising. Evolving from online to government applications, digital identity cards are the next wave of accessibility and convenience. But as social networking encourages us to stay connected and technologies converge for accessibility and convenience’s sake, we may start to see our personal electronic devices become our personal identity. One small handheld device will be everything you need. So the question becomes: how much of your privacy are you willing to give up for the sake of feeling connected and efficient?

An onslaught of technological convergence, personal advertising and digital identity issues will change the face of privacy and how we view it over the next 50 years. Advertising will change to suit the needs of a new generation for which connectivity is the fuel for progress measured in megabytes. Tailored, efficient, effective and multifunctional technology will identify who you are, what you like and what you buy.

Alice is sending you a friend request. 2:30pm via Twitter.com.