I have conducted a survey concerning the use of internet and familiarity with the true social media concept in Lebanon. Having asked different people from different age groups, I have realised that social media and the world of the internet affects each generation very differently.

“I don’t go out much, to be frank. Therefore social media is a way for me to stay up-to-date about almost anything.” Mary Maroun is a 50 year old owner of a small beauty parlor. She carries on, “that way, I can know what’s going on in the world. For instance, I like fashion but I rarely go downtown to check for new collections, and Lebanese TV always talks about things that I do not feel concerned about.” Upon entering her small parlor, a small TV is spotted behind her desk, as she holds a small pink laptop between the tips of her fingers.

Suzanne Hindi is a mother of three children, two of which are university students. “It is only recently that I have become familiar with facebook. My kids are travelling in no time, and I thought it  would be logical to properly start using means such as facebook in order to constantly stay in touch with them.” She clumsily clicks on her mouse, trying to reach the “close” button on the top right of the screen. Obviously, she is not a tech person at all, but maybe an aspiring one, who knows?

I have realized that most middle aged women in Lebanon make use of social media mainly to stay in touch with their relatives and loved ones. They are not specifically active nor do they contribute in expanding the concept that lies behind social media. Other purposes such as professional use come second.

Suzanne plans to buy a smartphone soon. “I really do not know how to use the internet on a phone, haven’t experience this yet. But I would like to.” At the time being, she only uses the internet on her laptop, and besides, still struggles to do so.

Carolione Feghaly is a 19 year old student at LAU.  Given the fact that she is majoring in journalism, Caroline is well aware of the huge impact of social media nowadays and the fact that it is taking over traditional media. Yet, she is not an avid user of facebook, nor is she interested to try out twitter or any other social media platform. ” I use facebook mainly to play games, for minor entertainment and nothing more. I believe there are more important things to do than post things on facebook. Moreover, I prefere living the traditonal way when it comes to media. Nothing bettter than reading a tangible newspaper.”

It is a little surprising to actually discover a good bunch of people like Caroline, aged between 18 and 25, who aren’t actually really avid users of the internet and social media.

Antoine Hindi is a 54 year old medical Doctor who is also aware of the impact social media has today, but who believes it isn’t really a helpful tool for his business. ” I do use the internet, even on my phone, only to stay in touch with people important in my life and business, and also to search for things, never for entertainment or to follow up people.”

I myself was never into social media until I took the LAU social class. Never thought I’d be a social media geek. Facebook was more than enough for me, and I struggled. Right now I find myself maintaining a blog, and updating my status and presence on many social media platforms

Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 97% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 247 reviews, Although the movie has gained some negative responses, especially from technology writers and at some point from Mark Zuckerberg himself. I personally think the story did fair justice to all the characters, and no one, to a certain extent, was depicted as “villain”.

It was a very fruitful week, we had the opportunity to gain some general knowledge about sites like facebook and old attempts of social networking sites such as Myspace or Hi5.  Will facebook be hitting a wall sooner or later? Doesn’t look like it, with all the effort that is being put every few months in upgrading the site with new applications, layouts, and options. A big chunk of our routinely habits goes out to facebook. On a social networking site that lured my grandma to get an account, I don’t think facebook is falling into the gutter anytime soon.

So I have been thinking about how brilliant Mark Zuckerberg is, as I contemplated myself using facebook just like any other person out of the 500 million on the site. Facebook is indeed a concept, a revolutionary headline in our history books. Cheers for more revolutionary things to come!

It took place at the West Hall, American University of Beirut. I was there of course, as part of the LAU social team to cover the event through tweeting and taking live footage.

What I actually realised: There are so many Lebanese bloggers out there, to my surprise really, which is promising and encouraging.

Topics around blogging were thoroughly and professionally discussed, such as ways to promote different blogs, types of blogs, or different blogging platforms as well as many facts and statistics concerning the blog evolution be it in Lebanon or around the world. The convention was extremely insightful and beneficial, although unfortunately, I arrived to AUB a little bit late, around 40 minutes before the first part of the convention was over. After an inviting and warm coffee break, the second half took place in another room of the west hall with some refreshing ideas from different bloggers with different concepts in mind.

You can check my tweets (@ivanahindi), I was constantly tweeting headlines and important statements throughout my presence at the convention.

I would like to mention the bloggers who discussed their blogs, or at least the ones I witnessed while I was at the convention. They were all fantastic, as they all had something new to add, which resulted in a really rich and diverse session.

I am very happy the convention actually took place this year, as it was cancelled last year. I am hopeful for the next convention, and I do believe that the blogging platform in Lebanon will keep on growing and flourishing if we keep on promoting social media, especially that in a country like Lebanon, people really need to express themselves more freely and in a wider space than what’s given for them in order to  express themselves. I think blogging would definitely be the solution, in contrast to the traditional ways Lebanese media adapts until today, sadly.

Craving a ray of sunshine? In need of feel-good words offered with a 100% negative-free attitude every morning? Follow mich1mich on twitter. So here’s my version of how I met a worthwhile and beautiful person.

Her twitter name was written on the newsroom board by our professor on one of our very first attendances to social media class. Why is it? Well that being said, she was very recently nominated ” blogger of the week” , which is enough information for a small insight about what mich1mich does. I thought her name sounded too cute and perky for me not to follow her instantly anyway, so I did with pleasure, even though at the time, I felt a sense of unfamiliarity and disconnection from the whole twitter realm, and even though unfortunately, I did not get to see the person behind the amazing mich1mich hype earlier than now. A few days back actually. How? I accidentally found out we were both going up the elevator together, heading towards…Social Media class!

Shoulder length haircut, bangs, slim and petite figure, very perky looking: she is true to her web-brand, her image. Exactly how I imagined her to look like.

A smile for a smile gave me the opportunity to exchange a few words in the elevator, which let me find out she was the feel good person I follow on twitter, that one particular person who pleasantly floods her fellow tweeps with warm goodmornings everyday, and yes, she is absolutely famous for her classic goodmorning .

When we both arrived to class, and after she jokingly mentionned to everyone how our professor was running a little bit late, we all gathered around her to enjoy a small introduction about who she really is.

Ayman, our professor, would describe her as the Queen of social media class, given the fact that she was previously a very active and the most contrubuting element to the course. When Ayman arrived, mich1mich began to go into the details of her story. And must I say, we were all extremely absorbed to the extent that I am sure our faces looked funny. We were hooked, eager to listen about her career history and all the stages she went through to get to where she actually is right now. Her journey surely inspired each and everyone of us in class.

So what;s the MichCafe trend all about? Mich actually owns a very succesful blog that she seriously invest in everyday, and the minute she explained about how she does that, I felt like I wanted to go and embrace my blog, add things to it, personalize it and construct a brand of my own through my blog and also through twitter and other social media forms. MichCafe is self-explanatory already, Mich being very fond of cafes. Quoting her, she could ACTUALLY LIVE IN CAFES. Mich also adds anything that crosses her mind to her blog. She mentions that what inspires her the most usually is actually the window of her home in Dubai that gives a fantastic view to her colorful and cheerful garden.

We all love mich1mich

So, I have been using foresquare for a couple weeks now. It wasn’t until recently that I developed a distinctive interest in social media, and had I been asked a few months back about all this new media craze, I would have strongly refuted such personal-space invading social networking “tools” like foresquare and whatnot. Turns out I actually found foursquare’s concept to be pretty interesting, and on top of all may I say…Fun! I happened to be out on a Friday night in the company of my cousin (hola to Lul, she reads my blog!), when through her, I was incited to thoroughly discover an application that has actually kept me wondering for quite a while now, especially whenever I logged onto twitter to discover people tweeting via “ foresquare”. So I did register myself an account immediately to eagerly discover the concept of “checking in” to venues.  What actually make foresquare fun to use are the ideas of “badges” and “mayorships” that really challenge the user to stay active. You earn a mayorship and therefore become the mayor of any location you happen to check into more than any other user.

Badges are earned depending on your rate and quality of use. I myself have earned a few badges already, and whenever I did I felt just like a child who earned candy on Halloween. I’ve earned the “local” badge, since I’ve been at the same place three times in one week, the “adventurer” badge for checking into 10 different venues, or even the “school night” badge for actually checking in after 3am on a school night! Brilliant!

For all reluctant people out there, you can choose not to “check – in” whenever you don’t feel comfortable about broadcasting your whereabouts, or you can even check in while hiding your whereabouts which is one way to tease all your friends on foursquare and keep them wondering.

Last but not least, I funnily had the feeling that foursquare could easily be a culinary application more than a location based one. People can give tips about certain restaurants, advice on what to order from menus, an idea about the ambiance of any certain place… I myself have added a few tips to my favorite restaurants. That way, whenever my friends are at any of my preferred locations, a small pop up screen would appear on their smartphones with my small tip on what to indulge in .

P.S: make sure to connect your foursquare to twitter, so that your actions can automatically be tweeted. You can connect it to facebook as well.

I will particularly be depicting the main female characters as shown through the series of visuals in the complex opening sequence of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona. I will also underline the importance of Bergman’s two main themes for this film: Psychoanalysis and existentialism.

I will be posting the outcome of my analysis in a few days so stay tuned :)

Octavia Nasr, former Lebanese CNN reporter gathered an audience earlier this noon as she highlighted the importance of social media. The assembly took place at the Lebanese American University.

“Hopefully your questions will make me think rather than react, as I am not in the business of smearing nor answering tabloids” speaks Nasr as she launches the lecture, nearly warning her audience about unwanted shockers.

Nasr frequently stressed on the importance of one’s presence on the new media platform. “I’m going to make a wish that next time I speak in this auditorium, everyone in the room will raise their hand when asked whether whom is active on social media today”.  Nasr takes out her blackberry phone and looks up for new “tweets”. A side smile on her face, she carries on “Anyone who follows me on Twitter or Facebook knows that I’m a huge advocate of social media.”

[Here is a slideshow of the event] show

Nasr also indicates the fact that twitter encloses the “crème de la crème” of people, regardless of “villains”. Those are people who would rather look for the news themselves, by searching and talking to people. “Those are the people whose voices are unfortunately unheard and ignored by the traditional media” speaks Nasr, as she includes the example of Lebanon being a country that is still blinded by traditional media.

In response to the fact that social media might never take the spotlight, Nasr argues that major networks went to Facebook and Twitter to guess the midterm’s elections in the United States. “If it’s going to die out why would they do that? Why is every politician now starting a page and starting to tweet?”

Nasr referred to “citizen journalism” when tackling the concept of “tweeting”, mentioning that though it does not make a person become a professional journalist, it gives him the opportunity to be on a certain mission.

Farther into the discussion was raised a question about activism on social media in China compared to one in the Middle East. Nasr indicated the huge limitations of freedom in China which shall abstain the country from any quick and effective response to social media, whereas activism on social media in the Middle East can be clearly detected.

Nasr underlines her leadership spirit as she reveals “there’s a reason why I say I want to be in the driver’s seat. With all the risks and pain it offers, it gives you control, and isn’t it a wonderful thing to be in control? Isn’t it also very interesting to make a name when you cover the war? It’s interesting to become a celebrity once you’ve covered one of the worst things that could happen in the world. To me, journalism is witnessing.”

Nasr concludes her speech by comparing the profession of a journalist to one of a doctor’s in the sense that it should perform regardless of any subjectivities.

For all those who read the post and are interested in the whole live coverage of the lecture, click on this link: http://www.lausocial.com/Live.html

Online fanatics were already in there, preparing their geer that consists of smartphones and their latest, sleek laptops. A few were armed with their big bulky cameras. All were ready to introduce their new concepts and ideas.

An hour later, the bar was practically full and the atmosphere was rather pleasant and warm. Music, drinks, chillax-ambiance, until we finally all turned to where the projector was placed. Introductions about diverse concepts and ideas were made by our fellow geeks: Gonabit, e-commerce, online web development and online purchasing, eastline marketing, social media and so many more interesting topics.

Of course, we were there as part of the LAU social class to cover the event through tweeting and picture uploading. If you like to explore what is new out there in the web scene, I strongly advice you to attend the geekfest next year.