OnOffBeirut

recently Amer Tabsh (@arzleb) and I were featured on a local radio station, Radio Orient 88.7 FM, to answer questions about the good and the bad of facebook. it was a live show with live callers, on-air questions, and pre-recorded interview with local youth (these pre-recorded interviews were funny – make sure to listen to them below!)  (9min 30 sec, 11min 20 sec)

in general there were negative vibes to the supposed evils of facebook and how it is an example of decadence and loss of privacy.  it was intended as an awareness campaign for the uninitiated folks who are not well-vested in facebook.

i attempted to voice a couple of opinions amidst the overall negative vibes:

- decadence? facebook is a form of a digital expression of aspects that are already part and parcel of the society we live in.  any decadence displayed on facebook is not to be blamed on facebook and have us take pitch-forks to rule facebook out.  we need to take a closer look at society and its values and how these values (decadent or not) are expressed via this online communication tool.  (there are 3 billion photos per month uploaded to facebook, they can’t be all bad?)

- privacy? rule-of-thumb:  if you don’t want anyone to see your picture don’t post it on facebook.  privacy settings can only protect to a certain extent.  before posting a picture, ask yourself:  do you have any problems if ‘everyone’ (including the bots of Google) share this around on the Internet ?  if no, then post as you please.  Moreover, if you are concerned about others sharing pictures of you, don’t pose for a picture with friends who have historically been known to handle pictures with poor taste (or even pose for pictures when you have no idea who the camera is for)

- teaching? there was an overall appreciation for new media when they saw it taught in a university environment and accredited as part of the curriculum (maybe bursted a bubble of new media being completely evil?)

- games? (farmville, poker,…):  why don’t we look at the facebook gaming platform as an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to publish games on this platform ?  why do we settle for being consumers and not producers of content ?

observations:

• you can’t but get the feeling that radio broadcast is very old school !
• despite the easy access to radio signals, a lot of folks at work don’t have a radio.  some tried to listen to it online at www.radioorient.com.lb
• they had a computer screen in the studio that takes comments from listeners by sms to a local shortcode (1575?).  thought that was pretty kool until i noticed that the presenter never looked at it once and when i actually snuck a peek the application had actually crashed and no one cared much (screenshot)
• haven’t been in a soundproof room in a while and found it odd that i was in such a silent environment.  makes you think how busy our environment (even if it is quiet i gotta have VH1 or FashionTV playing music in the background
• the pre-recorded phone-ins were expressed in a way that can’t but make you smile and remind you about the different aspects of our society (9min 30sec, 11min 20sec)
• tried to live tweet from within the radio studio (ignoring their claim of radio interference of a mobile phone).  alas the soundproof walls were very thick leading to dropping signal on mobile phone.

Recording of the Live Interview [ARABIC]

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Radio Station: Radio Orient:  www.radioorient.com.lb ; +9611365454

Program: Stops (or ‘Ma7attat’)

Presenter: Hadi Joubali (hadijoubali@yahoo.com)

Program Facebook Group: look for Mahatat

This post is tagged Amer Tabsh, Facebook, Hadi Joubali, Radio Station