How much time have you wasted on Facebook?

"How much time have you wasted on Facebook?" - this was and article coming from TIMES.

The question is more than relevant in era of social media.

To tell you the truth, in Russia the question would be "How much time have you wasted in Vkontakte?". And I would be more scared from my results.

Main reasons I am using Facebook is to communicate with my foreign friend. Friends mostly made with AIESEC. And with my AIESEC Russian friends living in Moscow. And to get the news.

Main reasons I am using Vkontakte is to promote my business. FOR YOU textile design and printing. There is a group where I am posting new goods, some stories, some pictures. Another reason is communication with diverse audience of my Russian friends (school friends from 4 schools I had fortune to study in), university friends, Russian AIESEC friends and all other friends I have. Also I am usually listening to my favorite playlist in Vkontakte and watching videos. Now not that often after they cleaned movies from Vk.  Content is more about social issues I am interested in, design, ecology, animals, events in St.Petersburg, new local spots.

On FB I have 967 friends, in VK - 929 and most part of them is not the same people (ok, some AIESEC friends are). 

Well, my result was equal to the vacations spent in a country called Facebook...

In Vkontakte it would be much more... Considering the fact, that I am listening to the music ofter and posting in my group.

Still rather scary. You should try too. Here is a link.

I think I am in Like with you

Social media changes our life completely.
Today, instead " I think I am in Love with you", it is possible to say "I think I am in Like with you". That's a new form of emotions, feelings and relations. 
Out of 767 friends on Facebook and 679 friends on Vkontakte, with whom of you I really share my reality, who of you devote yourself to our friendship? This list certainly will be shorter. Cause Facebook is mostly showing our network, and friends doesn't mean friends.
But what I noticed, new technologies doesn't really help me to be "a good friend". And I can say that I am very bad in virtual communication with my friends, in maintaining friend's relationships with you, friends. It's a pity. And I am sorry for this.
But really to maintain relations I should probably create my own communication strategy, and servicing plan, to service my friends on a regular basis and connect with friends more often. Cause friends are those who share your life somehow...
I found a video, where a girl is putting a tattoo made of her 200 friend's profiles on Facebook. It is amazing. Really, in honor to all those people who feel themselves as my friends, I devote you this video. I want to reveal some of my feeling to you. 

Friends will be Friends?!

How Technologies are Changing Economy?

   Technologies are changing the world. Nowadays costs to process information increased a lot. It is cheaper to produce product rather than to sell it (companies spend a lot of money to explore the market, to learn customer's preferences, to create selling brand, to promote, etc). 

   Economic theories taught us the curve of demand-supply, that customer choses product which is better and cheaper. Today is important which products customer buys, why and what kind of effect customer wants from it. 

   It is difficult to define the real quality of the product according to it's price, cause the price is build not standing on real utility, but marketing and branding. Bloggers --> communities --> on-line societies --> and soon --> clubs around interests, satisfy needs of users in qualified information and communications. All informational economy is working to create clubs. What is interesting, one single man needs not only 1 club, but several according to different faces of his personality. Subjective statements become products, valuable for members of the club, which at the same time is being build with this type of statements.

? Do you know, how many club's/ social network's/ communities are you  a member of ? [If it is possible, mention some of them in comments]. Personally, recently, I registered in www.artohousecooperations.com [art], www.heiaheia.com [sports] and www.orkut.com. 

   In the society, where the voice/ subjective statement of a single person becomes measurable (now you can check the value of your Twitter account), the new system of relations may survive?!

? Did you hear about thanksgiving relations system ? -->

Try then pay. 

Series of experiments were made, here is 2 of them:

1). Musicians from Radiohead, Nine Inch Nail and "Мумий Троль" (Russian rock band) and other bands share their music in the internet for free and ask their fans to pay the amount of money people think is giving the right value to the product.

2) In Freakonomics there is a story about the guy who became millionaire after leaving a box with muffins every morning in offices of different companies together with a box 'donations' and taking it away in the evening. 

The same experiments were made in different part of the world. [Of course there are situations and societies where it works 'more' or 'less', but it works. And it is not about donations. It is about paying for the certain product to certain seller].

   There is a new economics, economics of "the Rubbish civilization", where people produce so much informational rubbish, that costs to produce it became very low. Everyone can produce, but the quality is very different (from low to high, and as some books say, from 100 people only 13 have innovative thinking). 

   Leaving in the Rubbish civilization is possible to choose and to measure value and importance of a product by yourself. There is an alternative economy. And it exists?

• What do you think? 
• Are you ready to 'pay after consume'? 
• How much does your opinion costs? 
• How much you rely on opinion of your peers?

Here is some more links around these topics:

• Freakonomics by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics
• Some experiments [in Russian] http://www.the-village.ru/flows/money/posts/106335-economics
• Манифест новой экономики: вторая невидимая рука by adolgin.ru
• Criss Anderson [chef redactor Wired]  Free: The Future of a Radical Price