My Blue Notebook

Well, I think you could say that I've officially started reading.  Kind of exciting.  Kind of boring.  I want to get to the part where I go, "Eureka!"  I suppose that should happen eventually.  In the meantime, I'm finding a commonality already - there's a lot of psychology in cyberpsychology and not a lot of cyber.  Everyone who is involved in this seems grounded in general philosophy or mental health, but I've only found one person approaching this from a technical (computer sciences) perspective.  That's rather odd.  And it's an opportunity.  Maybe there's something I can bring to the mix that hasn't been contributed up until this point?

Peer-reviewed studies and/or legitimate scholars...

• Judith Donath
  Researcher of Sociable Media, Harvard University & MIT
  See: Signals in Social Supernets
• John Suler
  Professor of Psychology, Rider University
  See: The Psychology of Cyberspace
  See: Psychological Aspects of Cyberspace: Theory, Research, Applications
• Clay Shirky
  Associate Professor of Interactive Telecommunications, New York University
  See: Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators
• Monica Whitty
  Professor of Contemporary Media, University of Leicester
  See: Truth, Lies, and Trust on the Internet
  See: Additional Publications
• Steve Brown
  Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology, University of Leicester
• Norman H. Holland
  Retired Professor of Psychology, University of Florida
  See: The Internet Regression
• Maria Azua
  IBM Executive, Author & Inventor
  See: The Social Factor

Characteristics and definitions...

• Define: Actor-network-theory (ANT)
• Review: The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Possible hypotheses and/or topics...

• What effect does the online disinhibition effect have on a distributed workforce?
• Patterns for high-quality online collaboration: compensating for shifts in cyberpsychology.

Society and internet research hubs...

• MIT: Sociable Media Group
• Harvard: Berkman Center for Internet & Society
• IBM Social Computing Group

Keywords: online disinhibition effect, cyber-bullying, cyberpsychology, distributed development, online collaboration, corporate culture

I had completely forgotten about the Berkman Center!  They ran one of the more intelligent dioramas within Second Life.  Holy cow...that was at least three years ago.  Babies really do put you into some kind of academic Twilight Zone.  In any event, I'm finding that there are people who are truly interested in this sphere of knowledge, but there does seem to be a hole somewhere in between them.  At this point, it's like trying to photograph a black hole with "Fisher-Price" camera.  I need to kick this up a notch.

Before I got pregnant, I lived in blissful ignorance.  I never looked at the ingredients of any personal care, cosmetics, or packaged foods.  I never asked where anything came from and relied on pricing alone to tell me which products were "good" (or at least better).  I even used Herbal Essences because it smelled so good.  When I got pregnant, I began taking a closer look at everything.  Since I had a naïve view of what the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could and could not do, and since I knew that cosmetics were completely ignored by them, I began my enlightenment with make-up.

I'm really starting to hate being enlightened.  I used to go into the drug store and see all the pretty lipsticks: reds and browns, glossy and matte.  All the tubes were lined up in an orderly repetition, punctuated with photographs of beautiful actresses (or supermodels).  It was bliss.  And I was an idiot.  They all contain lead!  No, really.  Every tube contains lead.  It's like we're living in the 1600's!  There was lead in cosmetics back then, too.  Do you know what happened?  Women suffered from physical and mental disabilities.  So did their children.  A kiss on the cheek, a chubby hand on mom's face, or a sip of breastmilk from inadvertantly powdered flesh...

The youngest children most likely picked lead up while nursing, Nakashima and his colleagues surmise. Little did the samurai mamas know, their quest for beauty may have stunted their babes' development. Judging by the ones who didn't make it to adulthood, the authors suggest that many surviving samurai children during the Edo period probably suffered from severe intellectual impairment. Read more...

I tried the "Physician's Formula" organic line while I was pregnant, but their foundation leaves much to be desired.  So I kind of fell away from make-up, save the once-a-year special occasion, until last November.  Now I mix Physician's Formula organic pressed powder and mascara with Cover Girl Tru-Blend foundation and Burt's Bees moisturizers and lipstick.  My "iffy" products are a Revlon eyeliner and Almay eyeshadow.  At first glance, the ingredients seem less-than-horrible, but it's just impossible to find an easy, safe version!  I wish there were better choices, besides choosing nothing at all.  Think I'm crazy?  Watch The Story of Cosmetics: