Author: ashleywollam

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Creating (and Destroying) Realities

At thirteen years of age and living just four-doors apart from each other, Sarah Drew and Megan Meier were your typical girl friends in your typical Missouri town living their typical teenage lives. Megan and Sarah even experienced a typical falling-out, when chats about boys turned into name-calling, bickering and, eventually, silence.

If only that had been the end of their typical friendship. Instead, in the summer of 2006, Sarah’s mother, Lori Drew, got involved. Aged forty-seven at the time, Lori created a MySpace profile for a fictional boy, Josh Evans. She sought out and “friended” Megan Meier online “in an attempt to woo [Megan] and extract information from her to determine if she had been spreading gossip about [her] daughter.” [1] For weeks, Lori Drew, her daughter, and a co-worker fabricated a romantic relationship with Meier until, in October 2006, things got ugly. Attacking Megan’s self-esteem, “Josh Evans” wrote “I don’t want to be friends with you anymore because you’re not nice to your friends.”[2] Shortly after Megan replied, asking what he meant, she realized that “Evans” had publicly posted messages she had written to him, where they could be viewed by all of her friends at school. As a result, these “friends” began posting bulletins making fun of Megan. Continue reading “Creating (and Destroying) Realities”

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Mobile (banking+politics+connecing)=?

You may have noticed a good deal of hullabaloo in the press about the advent of Mobile Banking: the new technology enabling consumers to control their financial assets from their mobile phone (texting to transfer funds, schedule a payment, check balances, et cetera).

As exciting as that is, banking is not the only activity people engage in on-the-go. ABI research reports that 46% of those who use social networks have also accessed a social network through their mobile phone (70% of those had visited MySpace  and 67% had visited Facebook). Interestingly, when asked why they had logged in via their mobile, 50% acknowledged checking for comments and messages, while 45% logged in to make status updates – that is, projecting what they were doing or feeling to their online audience. Continue reading “Mobile (banking+politics+connecing)=?”

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Self-efficacy as the secret ingredient to effective leadership?

(Review of “A Leadership Self-Efficacy Taxonomy and Its Relation to Effective Leadership.”)

What makes that crucial difference between a leader and an effective leader? One study out this month[1] suggests that the key is leadership self-efficacy, which the authors perceive to be

“a person’s judgment that he or she can successfully exert leadership by setting direction for the work group, building relationships with followers in order to gain commitment to change goals, and working with them to overcome obstacles to change.”[2]

This study is predicated on the observation that Continue reading “Self-efficacy as the secret ingredient to effective leadership?”

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Who Should You Vote For – and Why?

It’s high time to address two of our biggest distractions as voters.

When Obama remarked that Sarah Palin “is a great story,” he accomplished two, somewhat contradictory things. On one hand, he dismissed the legitimacy of McCain’s running mate by recasting Palin’s allure as totally insubstantial (i.e., Sarah Palin is nothing more than a “great story”) and, on the other hand, he surreptitiously recognized that the only ingredient which seems to matter in public elections (or in any public deliberation) is the narrative embodied by the person (or subject).

In the September 13 issue of Newsweek, Sharon Begley brings attention to this exchange and the role narratives play in powering the political machine of each presidential candidate.

Continue reading “Who Should You Vote For – and Why?”

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Stained-Glass Window with a View: One Ohio Church Takes on the World

During my morning commute, I heard a news story about an Ohio Church which inspired a mixed feeling of amusement, pride, and dismay.

A Blacklick, Ohio church has updated the sign on their property to read: “I kissed a girl and I liked it. Then I went to hell.” (Read about it here). An interesting adaptation to Katy Perry’s song, which ruled the charts this summer (personally, I’m not a big fan).

A breakdown of my feelings:

Amusement: I think this is hilarious.

Pride: I’m proud that a church is making an effort to “get with the times” by integrating music into its message.

Dismay: I’m appalled by the harsh viewpoint this espouses and by the fact that the pastor responsible for the sign, Rev. Dave Allison, says “the sign is intended as a loving warning to teens.” Call me the odd-ball out, but I fail to see how threats of hell can in any fashion be categorized as “loving.”

The ants go marching on…

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“Naked on the Internet” – Not so revealing

I just finished Audacia Ray’s Naked on the Internet, and I admit to having mixed feelings about it.

Naked on the Internet, by Audacia Ray
Naked on the Internet, by Audacia Ray

Having an interest in any form of cultural criticism, I remember my excitement upon seeing the book when browsing at my local bookstore. I read the back flap and was sold. I imagined that I knew very little about how women used the internet and so exploring at least one dimension of their use — where sexuality is concerned — might prove interesting as well as educational. This book especially seemed a propos on the heels of my reading Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, which in large part was dedicated to the Internet’s effect(s) on our society.  Ray’s book was certainly educational, though it failed to maintain my interest throughout its entirety (which, for a male heterosexual reader, doesn’t seem too surprising).

Naked on the Internet is groundbreaking, in that Ray provides an introduction to a topic which scholarship has almost completely ignored. Her book accomplishes something phenomenal in that she doesn’t just cover this topic; rather, she maps out all of this topic’s hidden recesses and then undresses it completely, exposing these recesses for her readers’ perusal. Without a doubt, Ray has filled Naked with more information and more diverse perspectives than I expected. Nevertheless, her work suffers, in my opinion, from two major flaws.

Continue reading ““Naked on the Internet” – Not so revealing”

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Emptying Pews Cry For Leadership

Religion is losing its hold on our lives. This realization is inescapable, given the marked decline in the number of people attending church services. In 1996 the Barna Research Group released a report which illustrated church attendance was declining steadily and that churches were losing “entire segments of the population: men, singles, empty nesters…” In 2006, Keith Barltrop wagged a cautionary finger towards a 2004 ecumenical survey which showed that 73% of those surveyed believed that the “clergy failed to prepare congregations for the challenges to their faith that the culture of our times throws up.” In that same year AgapePress covered a study which concluded that only about 20% of Americans go to a church on Sunday, which is a much lower figure than previously anticipated. More recently, Rebecca Ryan of the Carolina Reporter quoted a poll which “suggests that 30% of Americans are either changing their religion or abandoning it [sic] all together.”

Based on these striking figures, the obvious question is: why are pews emptying? Are people losing faith in their god(s)? In their priests? In their fellow humans? Or could it be that congregations’ demands are becoming more sophisticated, and that churches simply are not measuring up to these advancing standards. As I explain below, my perspective leads me to believe that there is a direct correlation between the leadership provided through the church and the level of interest congregations display in attending services.

Continue reading “Emptying Pews Cry For Leadership”

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Social Networking Sites: A Business Pangea?

One-in-five Americans now use one or more Social Networking Sites (SNS), according to a Pew Research Center for the People & the Press report, and many SNS are finding the 35-years-and-older crowd to be their fastest growing demographic, as James Challenger of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc observes about Facebook. (While, ironically, more and more teens are becoming more cautious when approaching SNS, with more than 75% holding significant concerns about security on SNS and almost 25% not joining one for security reasons, according to Lee Cheshire). These recent trends paint a rather unlikely portrait of the current state of SNS and, even more unexpectedly, are forcing businesses to grapple with what their policy concerning employees’ use of SNS should be

As Robin Gareiss of Network World observes, SNS such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace present a swath of opportunities and hurdles for employers. Contrary to what you might expect, many companies are taking the issue of SNS head on. Gareiss notes that “about 26% of businesses use [SNS], and another 28% are evaluating or planning to use them” while another “46% of companies [have] no plans” for SNS.

What’s the position of your organization?

Continue reading “Social Networking Sites: A Business Pangea?”