Facebook – The Orbital

Mark Zuckerberg and the Metaverse: science fiction or (virtual) reality?

31Oct

By Hannah ArmourNo Comments

News, Science & Technology

Mark Zuckerberg and the Metaverse: science fiction or (virtual) reality?

Mark Zuckerberg, no stranger to controversy, has announced a change in the branding of the parent organization of his media technologies empire. Facebook, originally designed as a social networking website where Harvard students would rate each other’s attractiveness, is now universally recognisable and impossible to escape. Its namesake company Facebook, Inc. is a social media giant owning Facebook (surprise, surprise), Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp. And now they will be attempting to digitally extend the physical world, through social media involving virtual and augmented reality - with a name change to Meta Platforms. Inc. to boot. This rebrand accompanies a series of recent public relations crises including the revelations brought by whistleblower Frances Haugen about Fac...

31Mar

By Rachel HainsNo Comments

Opinion

Deleting lad-culture from Campus

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the phrase ‘boys will be boys’ is long outdated. Ask anybody and you shall see the eye roll, and the exasperation on their faces at the idea that ‘lad culture’ is still an excusable and acceptable part of society. However, considering Warwick University’s recent decision to not expel members of a severely racist, misogynistic, paedophilic and sexually abusive group chat - this is clearly still a prominent issue. The Facebook group chat was first reported last summer by Warwick student newspaper The Boar. Three formal complaints were made and 98 screenshots of the group chat were submitted to the university as evidence. As a result, 11 students were temporarily suspended, however, four students have since had their suspension lifted. In a lette...

27Jul

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

The Cost of Social Media

The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal and the #DeleteFacebook trend that followed, have posed important questions about the price we pay for social media. What do we really pay in return for a social internet that is ‘free of charge’? Although we don’t pay with actual currency, an argument can be made that we pay with our data. But do the benefits of using social media outweigh the costs? Todd Rosenblum, a former secretary to the White House under Barack Obama, outlines how social media companies collect our personal data as a commodity in exchange for letting us use the social media platform and its services free of a monetary charge. The more we use the platform, the more details we provide and the more third-party advertisers pay for it. However, such a willing exchange of our person...

12Feb

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

Opinion

Residents Versus Students?

For those that haven’t yet joined Englefield Greenies, the Facebook Group for all residents of Englefield Green, it is the battlefront on which the war between students and residents is being waged. Daily occurrences of noise complaints regarding student houses, upset about lack of parking due to commuting students, and general animosity are rife. But do the Greenies have a point? What once was a traditional Victorian village has been overrun by a good chunk of our 9000 students and according to our 2013-2020 strategy that number is only set to rise. Is their disdain the result of years of poor treatment and a convenient discourse we have spun dismissing them as an intolerant community? Do all Greenies hate students? We spoke to some to get the real story. Time and time again on Engl...

6Feb

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

A Forecast for Social Media in 2018

As we welcome in the new year, it’s an important time to reflect on the previous one. Our ups and downs, our successes and our failures. One important thing to reflect on is our use of social media. Research shows that there were approximately 3 billion active users of social media, 2 billion of which were avid users of Facebook alone. It brings a large number of benefits and is clearly the most preferred form of communication these days. However, it’s important to know that social media comes with a lot of downsides too and so should be used with caution. Social media has many advantages. First and foremost, it gives us the ability to connect with people from all over the world, quickly and in real time. It helps us maintain strong relationships with friends and family and gives us the...

Residents Dissatisfied over Ashdene House

14Dec

By Michele TheilNo Comments

News

Residents Dissatisfied over Ashdene House

Ashdene House on St Jude’s Road, Englefield Green is being considered as new student accommodation flats. Planning application for the building to be demolished and then rebuilt as 29 student flats was registered a few weeks ago. Many residents in Englefield Green were not pleased with these proposals. In fact, at a public consultation on Oct 4 of this year, 89 people were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding the issue. 83% of the respondents did not want Ashdene House to be turned into student flats and would prefer it to be given over to social housing schemes. People in the popular Facebook group ‘Englefield Greenies’ have commented their stark objections to this student accommodation. One person said that “the green is fast becoming a campus”. Others spoke up about the noi...

27Oct

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Lifestyle

Disconnect To Reconnect

No one can deny that we, on the whole, are a social media obsessed generation. The average person has five social media accounts and spends an average of 1 hour and 40 minutes browsing these networks every day, according to the latest quarterly report from Global Web Index (GWI). After finding out about these staggering statistics, I decided to take a break from social media and delete all my apps for a month. These are some things that I learnt. My levels of procrastination decreased wonderfully and it was incredible. I was doing double the work in half the time. I felt amazing. Mostly because this all meant that I had more time to do what I loved with the extra minutes that I had left over. I was painting more, writing more and feeling much more satisfied and content knowing that I...

Money For Nothing, Clicks For Free: Could Facebook Make Blogging Profitable?

12Jun

By No Comments

Opinion

Money For Nothing, Clicks For Free: Could Facebook Make Blogging Profitable?

Danny Angove explores how Facebook could become a profitable blogging platform in the near future. Here’s a controversial opinion: in ten years’ time, most self-hosted blogs won’t exist. The evolution of social media sites into content-hosting platforms will, for the most part, render self-hosting unnecessary. Instead, bloggers will publish their content directly to - and have it hosted by - Facebook, Twitter, or whichever social media site they think fits them best. On the surface, this might not sound great for the majority of bloggers. What it does mean, though, is that some bloggers might actually make a bit of money from blogging. Now, it goes without saying that if a publisher chooses to publish their content on Facebook, the platform will place some adverts alongside their ...

7Jun

By Victoria ChapmanNo Comments

Lifestyle

The Politics Of Social Media

Victoria Chapman discusses how social media is used to engage people in current affairs and why it has become such an influence on modern day politics. A day doesn't go by where you don’t see a disgruntled socialist complaining about Theresa May’s cutbacks, or a Conservative supporter making yet another statement about Labour’s debt and denial. And whether you’re into politics or not, you have to agree it makes for an interesting debate on Facebook. But how exactly does social media have such an impact over politics? Everyone’s on social media now; politics can be accessed through every technological medium, allowing it to reach out to everyone rather than the select few. Anyone can get involved in a discussion or movement on Facebook, Twitter, you name it. Even Instagram had users ...

27Jan

By No Comments

Opinion

Viral Violence: a new kind of crime.

The twenty first century has been marked by developments in medicine, science and technology. Importantly, the last decade has seen a vast growth in social media platforms from Twitter to Facebook through to Instagram and Snapchat. The one thing they all have in common is the ability to be connected to lots of different people all around the world in real time. Social media can be a powerful thing. It can be used to create change, raise the profile of an issue, connect to others around the world and even just make life a bit more fun. Campaigns such as the Black Lives Matter movement gained much momentum and support through mediums such as Twitter and lead to the issue of inequality in the United States being put on the government’s agenda day after day. Social media has a lot of power ...