(토요모임) [Oct. 24, 2015] Saturday meeting topic

[*시에나*]

1. Is Peeple, 'Yelp, but for humans,' a good idea?

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/01/opinions/yang-peeple-app/

(CNN)—What if your value to the world could be summarized in a single rating of one to five stars, generated by the opinions of the people around you — a simple score that reflects your reputation, goodwill and general likeability?

It's a compelling idea — and a singularly terrible one: While there's certainly an upside to being able to know immediately whether someone is creepy or trustworthy with the click of button, the dangers of context-free judgment, translated into a dimensionless grade system, should be patently obvious.

And yet, according to the Washington Post, entrepreneurs Nicole McCullogh and Julia Cordray are poised to unleash an app called Peeple that gives anyone the ability to review anyone else, without their voluntary participation or even their knowledge.

It's "Yelp, but for humans," as Post columnist Caitlin Dewey aptly puts it — a tool that promises to bring the same knee-jerk assessments, slanted critiques, shady vendettas and corrosive ranting that Yelp and other crowdsourced review platforms bring to small business, products, travel, literature, film and television and basically everything else in our lives.

Yelping humans would seem to be the last frontier in the digital economy's quest to invade, disrupt and reductively simplify the relationships that make up what used to be referred to as "civilization."

Older folk may recall that back in the days before the Internet, we often decided who we wanted to interact with based on personal recommendations and mutual friendships. But the temptation to find faster and more standardized ways of judging people has always been there.

Those temptations frequently turned into reality. The Middle Ages had heraldry, the crests and symbols worn on shields and banners to proclaim one's ancestral background and individual worth. The Victorian Era had its social register, in which all the families and persons of prominence and good character were documented. Postwar America saw the rise of "Who's Who" lists. The 1970-80s gave birth to our still-feverish obsession with lists, records and statistics. And of course, our academic, professional and business worlds have always featured grades, test results, ranks and audits of our knowledge, skills and experience.

So Peeple isn't exactly a new idea — not even in the digital space. Back in 2008, Joe Fernandez and Binh Tran founded Klout, a service that assesses your "social influence" on a scale of 1 to 100 (with 100 being reserved for luminaries like Lady Gaga and Barack Obama). Though it originally tracked your activities on Twitter and other social networks to calculate its mysterious ranking, rather than directly asking your friends and acquaintances for their opinions, it later gave members the ability to tag one another with areas of influence, allowing you to accrue the status of the Web's most influential voice on meerkats or elbow macaroni or eyebrow lint.

App that lets girls anonymously rate guys

"This kind of thing has been tried many times before," says serial entrepreneur James Hong, founder of the early ranking website Hot or Not, which allowed people to anonymously rate self-portraits uploaded by its members, who could then see how attractive they were to total strangers. "Try searching for Unvarnished" — a service that encouraged people to provide anonymous ratings and reviews of bosses, co-workers and business relationships — "or Lulu, an app that's been doing this with scale for a while on the dating market," by providing women with a way of sharing reviews and ratings of guys with whom they've had romantic relationships.

All of these sites have run into similar problems.

There's the vast potential for abuse, either through concerted efforts at bullying or through the kind of logrolling and excessive praise that makes even positive online eval‎uations suspect. And there's the feeling of dehumanization that comes with the distillation of our identity into a single number. Like a FICO score for life!

For all of the minor potential benefits that might come from advance scouting of prospective acquaintances, there's something icky in general about services that turn the world into even more of a popularity contest than it already is. Imagine being subjected to the whims of that weird ex-boyfriend you broke up with, that former colleague with anger issues, or that high school classmate who still thinks you're in high school.

The Internet can be a social hell, full of anonymous slams and idiotic flamewars. But you always have the option of logging off. If Peeple has its way, the manic preschool reality of the digital world could be unleashed on meatspace. To paraphrase the wise sage Pogo, we will have met the trolls — and they'll be us.

Questions:

1. How do you feel if everyone you know can rate you on ‘Yelp for People’ whether you want them to or not? And do you think you can get good grades?

2. What are advantages and disadvantages of this app?

3. When you choose movies or restaurants, do you refer to others’ reviews and ratings?

4. Do you think grading systems in school are important to help improve children’s academic performance? Why or why not?

5. What do you think of the culture of rating people based on education, job, property, etc.?

2. The Simplest Way To Know If A Friend Is Worth Keeping

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-m-raab/reunited-with-old-friends_b_7882974.html

It has been said that people "come into your life for a reason, season, or a lifetime," but some are just seasonal lifetimes. It has also been said that you cannot make new old friends. True friendship is born by having shared experiences, and only time will tell if a friend stands the test of that time. So many things occur in life that separate old friends, rather than bring them together.

I've read that one of the biggest regrets of those facing death is not having kept in touch with old friends. Let's face it, the older we get, the faster time seems to go, so there's no time like the present to connect with old pals. Social media sites such as Facebook have made this easier and certainly more feasible. Admittedly, it's easier to find male friends on Facebook because name changes through marriage make locating females a little more complicated. Although I'm only on Facebook occasionally, I decided to insert my maiden name on my personal account, and I'm glad I did.

Some years ago while on Facebook, I spotted my old friend Tamar, who was using her maiden surname. She wrote on her page: "California dreaming for my 60th." I responded by saying that I lived in California and it would be great to see her. I really didn't think she'd follow up, but she did, and I'm thrilled to have spent some time with her on a recent weekend.

Ordinarily, Tamar's 60th birthday would have gone unnoticed by me, although every October 17 for the past 40 years I've thought about her, wondering where she was and what she was doing. Tamar and I met at the International Teen Camp in Lausanne, Switzerland, when I was 15 and she was 16. Our parents were trying to bring some culture into our lives and get us out of stiflingly hot New York. We were roommates and immediately clicked, as we found that we had common sensibilities and a similar sense of humor.

During that summer in Switzerland, The Beatles were the worldwide rage, although only those who spoke English fluently really understood what the lyrics meant. However, the international teens from all around the world chimed along when we'd sing.

It was 1969, the year of the first moon landing, and Tamar and I recently reminisced about the small TV up in the corner of the gymnasium where kids from around the world watched this monumental event. Not us. We were more interested in giggling and flirting with the cute boys from the Middle East. I share this information with a little bit of embarrassment, but at my age, honesty is the best policy.

What I realized during Tamar's recent visit is that the friends we make during our early years are the genuine ones. They're the ones we feel most comfortable with. They were privy to the important secrets of our youth, so they love us for who we are and not necessarily for what we've accomplished, what careers we've had, how successful our marriages were, and how many children we've birthed. We are loved for our inner core.

Last week when I was in Florida visiting my daughter, I saw Barbara, an old junior high school friend. Prior to last year, we hadn't seen one another in more than 40 years. I was amazed that we'd aged in a similar way, and it was as if no time had passed. We shared stories about old boyfriends and how strangely alike our family dynamics were.

The 1960s were the days when life was simpler -- there were no computers, cell phones or text messages. Basically, we only had TVs and transistor radios. Also, some of us had record players playing 33s and cassette players. When Tamar and I were in Switzerland, we didn't communicate with our parents for eight weeks. If they received a phone call from overseas, it meant that we'd either gotten in trouble or were ill. Communication was done the old-fashioned way--via those blue, folded airmail letters and postcards.

Back at home, my recreational activities included going to the local movie theater, ice skating, bowling, dancing, reading and listening to the music of the day. I wasn't allowed to watch television, which probably contributed to my passion for reading. (It's funny to see that now, my 85-year-old mother watches television all day long, but back then she treated it like a contaminated visitor in our home.)

My mother worked part-time as a receptionist in a doctor's office, and I remember having the only working mom in my neighborhood -- she was the only one who didn't wait for me in the kitchen with an apron and homemade cookies. It's not that she had to work -- my father held a good job as a store manager -- she just wanted to get out of the house a few hours a week to stimulate her brain. For the most part we went out to eat, although sometimes we ate Swanson TV dinners and Chinese takeout on our small aluminum kitchen table.

While I've made some good friends during my adult years, reminiscing about how we were during our teens was refreshing and fun for Tamar and me. What we've both come to learn is how little we've changed. She still saw me as a grown-up hippie, and I still saw her as a good communicator -- accepting and a bit conservative. I was able to locate a photo of her in her room in Switzerland, and there was a pillow on her bed that said "Do Not Enter." On another photo it said: "Dearest Diana: In the short time that we've known each other, you've showed [sic] me what it's really like to love. I can't remember what life was like before meeting you -- it could not have been any good. It really is true love. I love you. Tamar." Her words warmed my heart and made me aware that when we come into one another's lives, we have no idea of the impact we'll make.

This reminds me of a writing exercise I give my memoir students, which can be quite revealing. You might want to try it. I tell them: "Make believe you're on your deathbed and there's a line of people coming over to say good-bye. Those people have been chosen by you. Who would you choose, and why?"

Questions:

1. Do you agree that friends we make during our early years are the genuine ones? Why or why not?

2. How you ever found your old friends on social networking sites and contact them?

3. Do you think you have social skills? And how much important it is to have a social life?

4. Make believe you're on your deathbed and there's a line of people coming over to say good-bye. Those people have been chosen by you. Who would you choose, and why?

[Scarlet]

Englisholic 영어회화 모임(10/24) 장소관련 공지
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아트에스프레소 리모델링으로 장소를 잠정적으로 변경합니다.
토요일(7-9) ♥ 엔젤리너스 2층 ♥ 에서 진행합니다.

[세계일주]

아직 한번도 참석 안해서 궁금해서 그러는데 질문좀 드릴게요. 미팅은 어덯게 진행되나요? 토픽내용을 누가먼저 영어로 요약하고난후 토론하나요? 혹시 이해가안되는 부분이 잇으면 설명좀 해주고 영어로 토론하나요?

[Scarlet]

뭐 모임 진행방식에 그렇다할 특정틀이 있는 건 아닙니다. 다만 각 테이블별 리더들에 따라
간단히 요약후 질문을 진행하기도 하고요 바로 질문을 다루는 경우도 있기도 합니다.
그리고 모임 자체가 서로 논의하고 토론하는것 중심이므로 자체적인 준비를
어느정도 해오시는게 도움이 되실겁니다. 설명은 상황에 따라 리더의 특성에 따라 달라집니다.
전반적 프로세스를 이해하는 가장 좋은 방법은 모임에 한번 나오시는게 가장 빠른 방법이실듯해요. ㅋ
그럼 조만간 모임에서 뵈요 !~