Participant Observation, Volume 1

New feature on the blog. It's the anthropologist in me. Miscellaneous observations from the field of Media, New Media, whatever.

1. People have widely adopted Twitter lingo for use on blogs. When responding to comments, instead of saying "Kristen, Your comment was awesome," they now type "@ Kristen, Your comment was awesome". There's a linguistic difference between the two, if you really think about it. The first scenario is a salutation, whereby you address your comment to me.  The second one is you, hurling your comment at me like it's a baseball. Instead of talking to each other online, we're now talking @ each other.

2. The last 5 out of 6 House Hunters episodes I've seen involved house-hunting husbands avidly marking out territory that might work as a "Man's Room".  Is this a new societal trend? Men are the new women. Forget about sewing rooms. Dudes need rooms to play with their comic books and "record their music". Rooms to indulge their shattered dreams, or, barring that, have their friends over to play poker and watch football. This is a big thing. I see a New York Times article on the horizon. (Times, please credit me for scooping this for you.)

3. 9 out of 10 House Hunters episodes involve couples looking for places where their dogs can run around. Is this because people are transitioning to having dogs instead of having babies? 

4. Twitter has been great for the makers of TinyURL.