Do you feel like someone is watching you, even when you’re in a room alone? Well, maybe they are.

A recent Los Angeles Times article talked about the many ways that screens — a computer screen, a TV screen, a cell phone screen — is collecting (gathering) information about you.  Most of you already know that what you do on your personal computers is not always private (not seen or known by other people).  No matter (it doesn’t matter) which web search engine (such as Google, Bing) you use, what you search for, what you buy, how long you visit certain types of websites, and what you do on social networking websites (connecting with friends using a website, such as Facebook), all of that activity is a source of data (information in the form of numbers).

If you own a smartphone (a cell phone that can access the Internet, check email, and more), the phone company is keeping track of (watching and recording) where you are and where you go, so that it can find you if you get a telephone call, if you ask for driving instructions, or if you want a list of restaurants or stores near you.  If you use apps (computer programs downloaded onto cell phones and other devices to play games and to get specific services), these apps gather a lot of the same information that personal computers do.

Do you have cable television or satellite TV, where you get extra channels by paying a monthly fee?  If you do, you probably have a box next to your television that allows you to view those additional channels.  That box also allows the company providing you with the service to log (record) which shows you watch, which commercials (TV advertisements) you watch and don’t watch, and in some cases (with some companies; in some situations), even when you mute (turn off the sound for a short time) on your TV.

In many American supermarkets, you can join the store’s “club” for free and receive a plastic card that looks similar to a credit card. Each time you make a purchase in the store and show the card, you’ll get discounts (pay less than the price listed).  This is the supermarket’s way of encouraging you to visit their stores, and not other similar stores.  It is also their way of keeping track of your purchases.  Many large supermarket chains (companies with many stores in many locations) print coupons (discounts) on the back of your supermarket receipt (a small piece of paper you get, which shows your purchases), and those coupons are targeted (aimed specifically) to you because of the purchases you’ve made in the past.

Of course, companies that gather this kind of data say that they don’t watch individuals when they gather this data. Instead, they aggregate (combine) data to help improve their products and services.  However, in this age (period) of technology, it’s difficult to be truly private.

Do you feel as paranoid (having an unreasonable and strong feeling that you don’t trust others and that others are watching you) as I do now?  Good.  I don’t want to be the only one.

~ Lucy

P.S. I know that I talked about computer malware a couple of weeks ago, but I promise you I’m not trying to make you paranoid about using your computer!

Photo Credit:  Fernglas from Wikipedia

Almost everyone on the Internet has heard of Twitter, a micro-blogging (a mini or small blogging) service where you are able to send short, 140–characters–or–less messages to people who “follow” you on the service. (We talked about it briefly here.) You can follow people by using a web browser and going to www.twitter.com or by using a piece of software on your phone or computer. I first started using Twitter a few months after it began in 2006, although it really didn’t become popular until a few years later. Now, some people credit Twitter (say it caused or is responsible for) with helping spread both good news and bad about politics, culture, and even earthquakes.

Twitter, however, has its own particular language that you need to understand if you’re going to use it successfully. Everyone has a username (a screen name; a name that identifies you), but the special character @ is used before your username. So, for example, English as a Second Language Podcast has the username @eslpod.  When you use software for Twitter, clicking on a username will take you to that person’s page. Then you can read that person’s tweets (messages) if they are public, or request to follow that person so that you can read what they say.

A more interesting feature (characteristic) of Twitter is the use of the hashtag, a special character that looks like this: #. Similar to the tags that are used on regular blogs, a hashtag usually indicates a broader category or topic that the message is related to. So, for example, if I am writing about the city of Santa Monica, I would add to my tweet: #SantaMonica (notice that it is all spelled as one word). The advantage of this system is that when you click on something that has been “hashtag-ed,” you can see all the other messages on that same topic that have been tweeted.

Many people, however, have begun using hashtags to add humor (comedy) or additional commentary on their own messages. This often involves irony, where you say one thing but really mean another. If my tweet is, “Just saw a dog inside of a car with no owner,” I might add the hashtag: #ReallyBadIdea. The hashtag is what I really think about the situation, what some people referred to as meta-commentary or commentary about the commentary. Somewhat bizarrely (strangely; oddly), some people have begun to talk this way, using the word hashtag in front of words or phrases to provide a meta-commentary in real life. Earlier this year, a Canadian politician attacked the prime minister of Canada’s policies (ideas and actions) on crime, calling them “a hashtag fail.”

The ultimate (best or greatest example) in hashtag use is to cross the fingers of your hand together to form what looks like a hashtag before something that you say (see photo). I love Twitter, and I think hashtags are very useful, but I can’t see (I don’t think I will be) using them with my fingers.

~Jeff

P.S. Follow us on twitter at @eslpod.

A gadget is a small, often electronic device (machine) such as a cellphone or calculator. Gender usually refers to whether someone is a man or a woman. As things, gadgets are neither male nor female, but there is definitely a difference in how males and females use them.

According to a new study, women use e-readers like Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader much more than men, with 61% of all e-reader users being women.  Men, on the other hand, like tablets such as the iPad; 57% of all tablet users are men.  Why this difference?

One article speculated (guessed) that women enjoy to read more than men, while men want something more powerful to use, something that can also be used for games or other applications (software programs; uses).

There are also differences in age when it comes to (relating to) gadget use.  More than half of all e-reader owners are over 45 years old.  Tablets are also increasingly popular among the over-45 set (people in a certain category), while their popularity with younger users appears to be decreasing.

I don’t know the answer to this one.  If you own an e-reader or tablet, why did you choose one and not the other? Why are e-readers and tablets becoming more popular among older users?

~Jeff

Photo credit: 1st Gen iPad, Wikipedia Fair Use

If you’re a regular user of the search engine Google, you’re probably familiar with Google’s doodles. Normally, a doodle is a picture you draw or something you write when you’re not really paying attention, maybe while you’re bored in a class or a meeting, or talking to someone on the phone. Google’s doodles are a little different. They are creative versions of the Google logo (word and/or picture that represents a company).

The doodles began when the founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, left the office in Northern California to attend the Burning Man festival in the state of Nevada.  (The Burning Man festival is one of the topics of this week’s English Cafe 305).  Before they left, they put up on the website a version of the Google logo with the symbol (picture representing something) of the festival behind it, with a note that said “Be back later.”  From that point on, someone going to the Google homepage on a holiday or a noteworthy (worth remembering) date might find a special version of the Google logo made for just that occasion. Last year, Google produced 271 doodles, often commemorating (remembering and showing respect for) the birthdays of important people, inventions (new things someone has created), movies, children’s shows, and of course, holidays.

Until recently, I didn’t know that many of the doodles were localized, intended just for a particular country or region.  Take a look at past doodles and you’ll see doodles created for many occasions and for many events and countries.  Some of them are quite amazingly creative (using original ideas; using the imagination), like the Pac-Man and Tetris doodles honoring the old video games that actually allowed you play.  If you like this type of creative design work, perhaps you could aspire to (wish for; hope one day to get) a job at Google.  There is now an entire branch (section; department) at the company with several full-time designers and engineers who create new doodles.

Looking at doodles past and present, do you have any favorites?

~ Lucy

Graphic Credit: “Pacman10-hp.png” from Wikipedia

Like a lot of other smartphones nowadays, my phone has a camera. When I take a picture, there is a sound that is made that is just like the sound the cameras of my youth (when I was young)  made – a long clicking sound.  In the old days, before the explosion (rapid increase) of electronic devices (small machines), there were lots of sounds made by the physical movement of a machine’s parts.  When you took a picture, there was a sound made by the shutter (an internal part of the camera) as it opened and closed rapidly.  It wasn’t something added to the camera; it wasn’t extra.  It was just a sound the machine made due to (because of) the way it was built.

Digital cameras don’t make any sound, or at least, they don’t need to.  But the makers of digital cameras add the sound you used to hear.  Why?  Mostly because that is what people are used to hearing, what they associate with taking a picture. And we are slow to change.  We want to feel comfortable with the new technology, so keeping some of the old sounds, shapes, and the “look” of previous technology has become quite common.  When you move from one page to another on an iPad, you see something that looks like a paper page turning.  For most of us, that’s what reading a book feels like, and we want to keep that experience even when it is no longer necessary.

This process of keeping some of the old to help people transition (move from one place to another) to new technology is itself old.  When we moved from a system of transportation provided by horses to the steam engines of the 19th century, the amount of power was called “horsepower,” since that was what people were familiar with.  And we continue to use that term in English, even though most of us have probably never ridden a horse and have no idea how much power could be provided by, say (for example), 140 horses.

There are many examples of this way of designing technology – think of “folders” on your computer, or putting things in the “trash” to delete them.  Can you think of others?  Are there sounds that you don’t hear anymore that you wish you did?

~Jeff

Photo credit: Canon PowerShot A95, Wikipedia CC

One of the greatest honors a scientist can receive is to have some concept or idea named after him or her, such as Newton’s Laws of Motion. An even higher honor is to have your own number – some scientifically meaningful number that bears (has; uses) your name.  In chemistry, we have Avagadro’s number for the number of molecules in a mole (and, no, I won’t explain high school chemistry to you because I don’t remember it myself).

Robin Dunbar is an anthropologist (scientist who studies humans and cultures) who has attained (reached; accomplished; obtained) the honor of his own number.  Dunbar’s number is 147.8 (we’ll call it 150).  So what does it mean?  Basically, Dunbar hypothesizes (has a “guess” which can be supported by evidence) that the maximum number of friends the average human can have can be no greater than 150, more or less (approximately).  We can’t maintain (keep) meaningful relationships with more than 150 people at any one time in our lives.  That’s the limit of our “social network,” or the friends and family members we regularly interact (communicate) with.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network connecting people online, provides additional evidence in support of Dunbar’s Number.  Dunbar himself found that the average number of friends people have on Facebook is 120 to 130, which is about right when you consider that some in our social network (babies, for example) may not yet be on Facebook (we hope!).  Of course, there are people who have 5,000 “friends,” but these are not actually people they have any real friendship or emotional closeness to.

We should not think that having less than 150 people in our offline (not connected to the Internet) and online network means we are somehow unusual.  Dunbar’s number is a maximum (highest; top) number for the average human.  Personally, I’d rather have 10 good friends than 150 mediocre (not very good) ones.

~Jeff

Andy Borowitz is a humorist (a comedian; someone who tries to be funny). His website is filled with fake (invented; not real) news stories that are, depending on your political views, supposed to be funny (similar to The Onion).  In a recent article, Borowitz wrote that he often gets emails from people asking him for favors (something you do for someone else to help them). He always replies to these emails, even when the answer is “no.” After sending the email, he waits and typically gets…nothing. The person he emailed never writes back to say “thank you.”

Borowitz suggests that even if you are not really a polite person, you should at least try to be polite, even when it is “fake politeness.”  To be polite means to be nice, to communicate in a way that is not mean or rude.  Saying “thank you” when someone does something for you is usually considered polite.

I agree with Borowitz. I have often received emails from people I know (family members, friends, people I used to work with) asking me for information or for favors.  I usually give them the information or at least reply to their email in some way, but I almost never hear anything from them again.  Imagine walking up to someone, asking her a question, and then after she answers it, walking away without saying a word. Yet that is exactly what happens on email all the time.  I mean, how long does it take to type “Okay, thanks!”?

I know that many people think email is an informal way of communicating, and they perhaps don’t want to send the other person emails they consider unnecessary. But in my view (opinion), “thank you” is never unnecessary.

Let me be clear that the situation is generally NOT true for listeners of ESL Podcast! I almost always get a “thank you” back when people email me and I am able to help them, so please don’t interpret this as a complaint about you, our dear listeners!  I’m referring (talking about) other people…you know who you are.

~ Jeff

Photo from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, New Orleans. Wikipedia CC

Everybody knows about Internet dating. If you are single and want to meet someone for a romantic relationship, you spend hours writing a profile (brief information about you) and selecting the right picture to upload (transfer information using a computer) to the dating company’s website for others to see. Then, you spend even more hours looking at other online profiles and waiting for responses to your own.

But maybe you’re old-school (like to do things the old-fashioned way) and try to meet other singles in the traditional way by going out to places where singles might be and trying to talk to and meet people face to face.  Both Internet dating and trying to meet singles in person have their appeals (attractive points).  What if you could bring together the best of both worlds (the best parts of each method)?

Recently, a slew of (many) new dating companies are trying to do just (exactly) that.  One company allows you to have an online profile on its website and to direct people to it if you want to, keeping your contact information private until you want to release it. This company gives you cards with intriguing (interesting, with a little mystery) messages like this one:  “Look up. You might miss something.” Below this message are the words “find me,” a code (set of numbers or letters that give you access to something), and the address of a Website for singles.  When you visit the website and put in the code, you’ll see the profile of the person who gave you that card.

Another company with a similar service specializes in flirty (behaving in a way to attract other people, usually in an amusing way) messages such as:
- “I’m looking forward to our first date.”
- “I am totally (very much) cooler (better, more interesting) than your date.”
With these cards, when you see someone you like, perhaps someone in a crowd, all you need to do is to hand the card to this person and walk away. If that person is interested, he or she will check you out (find out more about you) online.

These services claim (say is the truth) that the benefit of these types of cards and websites is that meeting people on the street, at the grocery store, or at a bar is more natural than meeting them only online, and you can meet people who are not members of the same dating service.  Normally, they say, you may feel too shy to approach a stranger (person you don’t already know), but the card allows you to drop and run.  Doing this, they argue, you won’t have that familiar feeling of “what if,” wondering what would have happened if you had the courage to say “hello.”

Other new dating websites use new technology to bring singles together.  One company uses your cellphone’s global positioning system (GPS), which uses satellites (machines going around the Earth, sending and receiving electronic messages), to let singles know where to find a person they’ve seen on a dating website they’re interested in meeting at this very moment.

What do you think of these new types of dating services?  Would you consider using one?  Have you heard of other types of new or unusual dating services?

~ Lucy

*In the title: “A new spin on (something)” means a new way of doing or representing something that you’re already familiar with.

Romeo just before texting Juliet that things were over between the two of them.

One of my favorite Christmas carols (songs sung normally at Christmas time) contains (has) the words, “‘Tis the season to be jolly.” The word “‘Tis” is an old-fashioned (no longer used) way of abbreviating “it is.” To be jolly means to be happy, to be in a good mood. But according to a recent study of what people write on their Facebook pages, the holidays (the December celebrations of Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Day) are more likely to be a time for ending relationships rather than starting happy, new ones.

After looking at more than 3,000 Facebook pages over the period of one year, two journalists (news reporters) from the Wall Street Journal concluded that the most common times for breaking up (ending a romantic relationship) with your boyfriend or girlfriend are (1) the two weeks before Christmas, and (2) during early March, a time when many schools have a vacation period called Spring Break.

Why do so many people end their relationships during the two weeks before Christmas?  One reason may be that they don’t want to buy their ex-loved one (former boy/girlfriend) a present (gift). Of course, if someone breaks up with you because they don’t want to buy you a Christmas present, it was probably not a relationship that was going to last very long anyway. It may also be that people want to clear their consciences; that is, they may feel as though they’re not really committed to (serious about) the relationship and that continuing it would not be honest.  Fortunately for humankind (humanity; all men, women, and children), the least likely day for a romantic breakup is on Christmas Day itself. That, I suppose, would be considered too cruel (unkind; mean) – and besides (in addition), you’ve probably already spent the money on a present for him/her anyway.

The reasons for breaking up before Spring Break seem a little easier to guess. High school and college students typically go on “group vacations” to a beach or another popular vacation spot during this time, providing them with an excellent opportunity to meet a new, perhaps more exciting and better-looking romantic partner.

Here’s one more interesting fact from this informal study: for those born before 1975 (that is, those currently 35 or older), the overwhelming (large; significant) majority (74%) preferred to tell their boyfriend or girlfriend the bad news about the breakup in person (face-to-face). For those born after 1984 (currently 26 or younger), only 47% preferred to break up in person. For the new generation, 30% said they would break up by phone, and more than 20% said they would use email, Facebook, or instant messaging.

Now, I understand that young adults and teenagers (those 13-19 years old) use electronic media much more than my (older) generation.  But, come on, you under-26-year-olds!  Breaking up by email or during a chat session? Really?  Let’s have a little old-fashioned guts (courage; bravery), even if technology now allows you to hide behind your keyboard.

~Jeff

“Romeo and Juliet” by Frank Bernard Dicksee (1884), public domain image provided by Wikipedia

Oh, sure, you’ve heard of the iPhone, Apple’s smartphone (phones that have other functions, such as music and video players and web browsers). Millions have been sold, and it has singlehandedly (by itself, without any other help) changed the way people think about phones in terms of (with regards to) style and function. But have you heard of an even cooler (more attractive; more impressive) device (machine), one that makes sounds when you use it, that is a game and a phone all rolled into one (as part of one package, one thing)?  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my new rPhone™*:

Pretty cool, eh?  Of course, those of us of a certain age (that is, old) remember when the only kind of phone was the rPhone, with no tones (sounds) other than the dial tone (the sound you hear when you first pick up a phone, before dialing it).  (The “r” stands for “rotary,” which refers to the circle or wheel you turn with your fingers to make a call.)  You needed to use a little elbow grease (strength) to dial it, and instead of tones, you heard clicks, but it seemed to be sufficient for the first 50+ years of telephone service in the world.

I found my rPhone at an antiques store (where old furniture and other old items are sold) back in St. Paul when I was there in August.  It works great, even though it is probably 40 or 50 years old.  You use your fingers to dial it (it’s like a game!),  it requires no software updates or Internet access, and it never gets a virus (a kind of illness or a harmful computer problem).

I’ve started using it now for most of my calls, and if I need to use the keypad (the numbers 0-9, *, and #) with its tones, I just pick up my other phone on the same phone line.  I love it.  Why?  It takes several seconds to dial a number, slowing down my life just a little and giving me time to think about what I am going to say to the person I’m calling.  It is a little taste (sample) of the slower, calmer life of my youth.  And if the power goes out (the electricity is interrupted or stopped), the rPhone keeps on working – no batteries required.

Next up (the next thing) for me, a manual (non-electric) typewriter!

~Jeff

Photo: © Jeff McQuillan

* = The term rPhone is trademarked (™) by Jeff McQuillan (or should be).