I'm not hating on the Nerd Girls - I think education is a fabulous thing. I hate the idea that the thing that's supposedly amazing is that they like lipstick and high heels and things that "typical" girls like. Which may be more a function of how the Newsweek writers wrote them (and I think I even say this in my post) rather than who they are.
The whole idea of the NERD GIRLS arose because of a lack of females in the engineering community. The founder is a female professor who felt that she had to overcome to reach the same levels of success that she saw her male counterparts encounter with less [whatever] - typical story in any field.
The point then, that you can extrapolate, is that the NERD GIRLS are meant to be an outreach program. The image of the NERD GIRLS you see has little to do with the actual program, an image created by studios and photographers to sell an image to the bright lights and flashy colors media machine.
The NERD GIRLS are meant to show that girls who tend to shy away from science at a young age because of the stigmas attached to the 'Nerd/Geek/Whatha veyou' community which dictate that you cannot be both 'wanted/beautifuf ul/recognized/pop ular' and also study hard and use your brain for something other than color matching and body painting.
The NERD GIRLS are a good thing. Did they sell out the name a little by doing a super upbeat photoshoot/video shoot, sure. Will there be any negative side-effect as many of you have suggested, absolutely not. This will not cause girls to forget that they are smart. This will not cause girls who are smart to long for beauty any more than every magazine and tv show you've ever heard of already does. Hating (if i may use a colloquialism) on the NERD GIRLS seems to be nit-picking minor aspects of how you 'wouldn't have done this or that' and much less about constructively criticizing a group that is seeking to promote the value of education. So you're against education? Now I understand your point of view...
Love the site! That was the best smack in the jewels since "Man hit by Football in Groin" won an Academy Award. I enjoyed the science lesson as "pain receptors" let the body know to elevate pulse heart rate, etc... Maybe next time they'll show us how the amazing human body will shut down to protect itself when hit repeatedly in the head with a shovel. Sport truly is a sweet science.
You make a very valid (but terrifying) point. You gotta pick your battles. Plus I read an article about Travolta and it referenced a movie called Staying Alive, where Johnny played an oiled up half-shirted dancer. I'm guessing that had Bill & Ted by a decade (excluding any time travel scenarios).
Faceoff! Facebook Hug/Kiss/Spank Apps: Creepy or Not?
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a touchy-feely person. I come from an ethnic family; we hug, we kiss on the cheek, we punch you in the shoulder because we like you.
At SlackDad's 50th birthday party, he greeted my then-boyfriend with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
Your dad...kissed me, my boyfriend told me, horrified.
It's not like he used tongue, I responded.
(We didn't last much longer after that.)
I understand that not everyone is comfortable with physical affection, even at its most platonic, and I respect that. I try to gauge my goodbyes appropriately, even sometimes asking are you a hugger? Yeah, it sounds dorky, but I think that sounding dorky is better than making someone uncomfortable.
But there's one display of physical affection that I despise at its very core.
5. Quit Facebook. If I'm standing next to you, and you're checking to see if you have any vampire bites from girls you went to camp with, something's wrong.
While Vampire/Zombie/Werewolf invites are mildly annoying, I file them in the realm of different strokes for different folks. I'm not a LARPer either, but I understand the appeal.
But kiss/hug/spank applications are one of those things that seem innocent on the surface but are actually more insidiously creepy. Yes, we're "just online" and "it's not the real world" but remember that those lines are progressively becoming blurred. This relates to what I wrote in a previous post. But instead of is this a story I would tell in person? ask yourself two things:
1. Would I do this in person? 2. Would the person in question be receptive to it?
Sure, it seems harmless. It's just a click and a few words on a screen, but years later, I don't want my junior high crush (I didn't have a junior high boyfriend, I was a nerd!) sending me a spanking through email. Because then I have to actually think about Junior High Crush Who No Longer Looks Like a Young Simon LeBon actually spanking me. The biggest hope I had for that unrequited relationship was dancing an awkward box step in the Hadley Jr. High gym to Alphaville's "Forever Young." (I didn't learn about S&M until a year or so later when I hit up the teeny "sexuality" in the nonfiction books at Glen Ellyn's Public Library. Once again, I was a nerd.)
I beg of you: don't collect spankings and kisses on Facebook like some perverted scavenger.
Instead, develop those online relationships so you can hug, kiss and spank in person.
It's time to turn the floor over to you.
Facebook Hug/Kiss/Spank Apps: Creepy or Not?
The results of last week's Faceoff! Whorebots vs. Spammers can be found here!
Facebook is so incredibly confusing to me. I hate pretty much all the apps, except for the Geography game. I also hate when people I went to high school with "friend" me, and then never talk to me. JUST LIKE BACK THEN! It might have something to do with the fact that when anyone friends me and it asks how I know them, I say, "We are related", and "We hooked up." Cracks me up every time.
So maybe not a purely geek concern, but something my friends and I had to worry about when applying for jobs. It may be all well and good to have fun on facebook with biting/poking/scandalizing/whatever, but think about what future employers in your field might say if - and when - they see it. I'm guessing some won't care, but some will REALLY give second thoughts to you if they find out certain things online.
I voted 'Creepy', which everyone did so far (plus, you pretty well biased the sample geekysmartypants) BUT getting poked is all the poking I'm getting. That doesn't make it alright, it's weird but what's really strange is somehow I'm being BOUGHT & SOLD in an app. Plus, I don't even remember signing up for it. What the F? Is this cause I'm (half) black...Oops, I didn't say that.
I'm not a facebooker and I rarely even log into my MySpace. But virtual spanking is not ok unless you've already had cybersex...IMHO. I'm curious about the vampire bites though...but I'm a vampire fiction nerd/geek.
Nina, if it's not incredibly wierd....do you have an address or P.O. Box I could have? I found a couple little trinkets online and I thought of you and Will and I would totally love to send them to you. I'm not a creepy stalker, I swear, just want to share the love. You know where to find me...twitter or my blog.
I know nothing about facebook, but, from the sound of it, I think it would lead me to actually want to smack people, not just send them a "spanking." I don't need MORE aggression-inducers in my life, thanks!
Facebook is mostly a way to keep my Flickr/Twitter/etc. feeds organized, and play Scrabulous (and sometimes get my ass kicked at Scramble by Slackmistress).
Most apps I just ignore, as they got tedious quickly. The Buy as a Pet thing is kind of goofy, although that's partly because it's silly to get in bidding wars with people. I have one friend who keeps buying an online friend of mine, largely because she wants to boost my money so I can buy *her* back from strange dudes who keep trading her back and forth.
All of it is terribly silly, and I can take it in small doses.
But when people *hug* or *buy a drink* or any of the silly *poke* things... it's always from people who would hug, or buy a drink, or do whatever the action is... in person.
Using such things as flirtation seems rather odd. If I don't know you well enough to be a dork in person, I'm unlikely to engage in online dork behavior.
I block all invites to those sorts of things that I get. I can't stand Facebook Apps, generally, especially the "sexy" ones. But, I'm extra-curmudgeonly.
2. Would the person in question be receptive to it?
That is the full measure of interaction, and a key to flirtation, in general: Try not to "joke" about something, unless you're as certain as can be that the other person isn't taking it some measure of seriously.
I got sick of those apps. I get tons and tons of "join the pirates" or "hug so-and-so back" or "take the quiz" requests every day, so I just started ignoring them. That is, when I log into Facebook because I don't see the point of wasting all that time on it. Most of the people I list as friends on Facebook are people I know (and know well) in real life, so anything off-kilter posted in my wall from them is expected.
The only issue I have with Facebook is friending people. I feel weird adding people from high school - kind of stalker-ish. It's not as bad when they add me first, and I don't mind as much when it's someone that I was close to , but I simply don't understand the point of "friending" everyone in my class when I wasn't friends with them to begin with.
I figure it they're out there, they're hoping to be found, y'know?
I somewhat agree on the "I wasn't friends with them in high school" issue. There were a couple of girls who friended me on Facebook who weren't exactly kind to me in high school, but they've been friendly to me so I just let it go. But then again, they sought me out rather than vice versa.
Another question to be pondered for a future blog post...?
I say hello and goodbye to girls/women with hugs. Very few guys do I ever hug.
It's just one of those things, I suppose.
As for Facebook, I'm not using it anymore, but I never really cared... anyone who would have spanked me is someone who would say that jokingly, but like you said, it's just a click and some text.
ya know it's funny...when I started up with FB, it seemed like everyone had the 10-second amusement discotrash discusses in the above comment, and it was like an avalanche of chain letters on steroids.
That said, I actually met a really awesome person via....a FB app ("Are you interested?"). But that's another story (with a quite happy ending as she is like so teh awesome and we met up in our old hometown recently!)
Will you get similar results as mine with zombie vampire apps. According to the Magic 8 ball, signs point to 'no'
I really don't even understand the appeal of facebook. You upload a bunch of pictures, people send you "flair" and write on your "wall"? I mean...honestly, I don't get it.
I like the nosiness of seeing where people I went to school with ended up and it's less "busy" than MySpace, but I basically use it to prove my superiority on the Scramble (aka boggle) playing field. ;)
Like everyone getting started on Facebook I found the apps to be amusing for oh about 10 seconds. It's gotten to where I am almost afraid to log in to the thing because someone is always trying to buy me as a pet or send me virtual thong panties. I have just started denying all requests. I don't mind some of the aps though, virtual drinks give me a giggle and I'm a sucker for LOL cats and growing gifts. Then again though I don't have a A TON of strangers on my FB either so maybe that's why receiving a growing gift of a rubber ducky doesn't bother me.
(actually if someone could hatch me a rubber duckie, that'd be pretty tight.)
I'm not anti-app, but when I read about people spanking people in my news feed....just...ew. I am NOT anti-spanking, but I like to choose the participants, ya know?
Remember when the Internet was a safe haven for the socially awkward? With the advent of social networking, we're expected to be honing our social skills online and off. Antisocialnetworking is a little bit of Nerdvana: a place to ask questions and wax poetic about the politics of dating and relating in a social networking world with your host and Nerd Yenta, the slackmistress.
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