#NerdsUnite: Live from NY its the application thats going to change relationships forever (Mirror.net)

It is with great joy, and great fear that I announce to all of you loverly people that Mirror.net is OFFICIALLY LIVE!!!!! 

What is Mirror.net you may ask ... WELLLLLLL I go over it pretty in depth over yonder, but basically it is the world's first relationship review application. From friends, to people that you've dated, hooked up with - anyone can leave a review on you (and multiple ones at that). 

Here look at this drawing ... 

Facebook shows your highlight reel, and you with your best foot forward. There's nothing wrong with that - that's Facebook's deal ... but it fails to provide an accurate idea of who you ACTUALLY are; Mirror solves that problem. Mirror is a collection of reviews from various people in your life joined together to give you a more accurate understanding of who someone is. 

People love love love to talk up a big game in social media (ESPECIALLY so called "social media experts"), but what Mirror does is provide you with a transparent look at the individual as told by their friends and previous lovers. 

Does all of this sound super scary? And fucking insane? YEP! That's what is SO FREAKING COOL ABOUT IT!!!

I've spent the last two years (and really more than that if you count my time working for one of the founders of Myspace on his project LiveVideo) as a lifecaster, and have grown an INSANE amount through the documentation of my life. I look back now at some posts and friggen CRINGE because there it is in black and white what I said ... but it wasn't what I meant. Your frame of consciousness is super difficult to understand when you are in it. Everything in life is perception, and everything in life is TRULY reflective of US and what we THINK we are seeing, and what bits and pieces we take from each story to call it "the truth." By having a website, and by putting so much of my life out there - I get called out for it. I may think I'm saying something in a certain way, but you guys will tell me to either tone it down, or if I'm being too hard on myself, you all will tell me to ease up. I can't BEGIN to tell you how much of that has changed me for good, and clearly this is also why I am so passionate about this space. 

Mirror is just this - but for everyone. You don't have to put "everything out there" like I do, but you will be able to appreciate the growth through transparency - WHICH IS FREAKING AMAZING!!! 

If people start leaving reviews for you, and over and over they are saying "Sarah was really great but she does this thing, and it really turned me off ..." You'll get a better idea of maybe why you are still single, or maybe why some of your previous relationships haven't gone the way that you thought they would. Seeing this on the internet is definitely going to be a bit shocking at first, but understand this, 90% of all reviews on Mirror are either positive or constructive.

They have not only a review algorithm to spot the nasty mcnastersons that are jaded or just flat out douchey, and there are also peeps in the office double checking all reviews by hand - so no matter what you're covered. BUT even if something gets posted and you disagree with it, or it's a flat out lie, you can dispute the review and either have them remove it entirely, or comment back on it. 

Alrite, so now that I've gone over more of that with you - I'd like to walk you all through how to read reviews on Mirror. 

First though, lemme get a song going .. 

<tangent> AHHH yes, Moby. Have I mentioned that I have a bald head fetish? I don't know what's wrong with me, but I would do really nasty, and naughty things to Pitbull. Maybe not Moby just because he's a little too skinny for my taste - but Pitbull and other bald headed wonders ... mmmm. I don't know where this love came from, but I'm going to go with it. If anyone knows Pit, btw and can hook a sistah up, lmk ... I'll make sure too I leave a sexAbility review of him on Mirror as well. HAHAHAA!! </tangent> 

Anywho, so if you guys go to Mirror.net, this is the screen you are greeted with ... 

To navigate use your keyboard and scroll either down, or to the left and right to refresh the carousel. 

Pretty cool, eh? 

These are all ACTUAL people that have ACTUALLY been reviewed btw. Mirror already has a database of thousands of people (freaking INSANE since they just launched) - so again, these are all actual people that have been reviewed by either lovers or friends. 

You have three options when it comes to reading the reviews:

1) Anything with a green icon reading FREE, you can read without signing up.

So feel free right now to go and click on some. It's cool, I'll just totes sit here and twiddle my thumbs. Doop dee doo ... lah dee dah. 

2) You can also select one with the red locked icon ... 

But to read these reviews, you have to create an account (KEEP YOUR USERNAME ANONYMOUS BTW!!!!!! DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT USE A USERNAME SOMEONE CAN IDENTIFY YOU WITH!! THAT DEFEATS THE FRIGGEN PURPOSE OF IT!!), and you have to write at least three reviews, and have them get approved. (Again, this site isn't about trashing people, but rather providing a transparent look at someone). 

Once you've created your account, and written three reviews of someone (which I will go over the writing a review process in a separate post), the red lock is lifted and you can feel free to browse around at all of the awesomeness that is Mirror. 

3) You can search for someone by name, location, email, and or phone number.  

To search for someone on Mirror, you just have to go to the top of the page, and in the search box type in their info. (Again, either name, location, email, or phone number.) Here, let's type in my name ... 

Well looky looky, there I be! 

Mirror already has thousands of reviews, but if you have yet to be reviewed you can select the "NOTIFY ME OF REVIEWS" option to stay up to date on what people are saying about you. 

FYI, when you click my picture it gives you a red icon, so again, to read my review you're still going to have to create an account and write three reviews ... but it's there. 

There you go, nerds - that is the very basic intro to Mirror.net. I'll be updating you guys tomorrow on how you actually write reviews, and will be documenting my adventures using Mirror (like when I was in NY and actually went out on a date with a guy I found. HAHA!! Remember, Mirror isn't a dating service - but if I have an awesome review of someone, why not cyber stalk them and ask 'em out? IT TOTALLY WORKED!!!).

This site is going to be freaking huge, and it's crazy how responsible this is going to make us all as people. You can't hide being a douche anymore - someone, somewhere may just leave an honest review of you!! mwahahahahaha 

Oh and if I haven't mentioned this, the founders and the entire team at Mirror are all really really really ridicously good looking. I mean, it's nuts actually ... I kinda don't know what to do with myself ... ::takes deep breath, but realizes I can't:: Hold on, I'm getting verklempt. Here talk amongst yourselves ... 

Topic: Would Vegas be what it is today if Americans hadn't been restricted from traveling to Havana. 

#thatisall

Want to learn more about Mirror? Check out this post & don't forget to read some reviews yourself over yonder!! 

The evolution of the #myspace in the mirror photo

I am FASCINATED by not only social media, but particularly our photographic documentation of life through it. (Clearly, I post and talk about said fascination morning, noon and night. One would think it gets old ... but it DOESN'T! BAHHHH!!! SUCKAASSSSSS!!!)

Alrite, remember the in the mirror myspace picture?

I can't get enough of it. I feel like it says so much about who we are as people.

I started using Myspace in 2005 as all of my collegiate friends back east started getting on Facebook; I didn't want to be left out. As anyone from back then remembered, or if you just saw the movie, in the early days of social media, you had to have a college ID address to create a Facebook account. Tangent: I have a theory as well, that myspace was so synonymous with being "ghetto" because in fact lesser educated people were among the early adopters. Think about that for a second ...

When social sites were first established, one of the first things we all did when we created our pages, was to select a default picture. K ... cool ... but remember this was back in 2005, pre every.single.person. in the world having a digital camera (or camera phone); the last time we took a picture we actually liked, we were at Grandma Betty's BBQ in Poughkeepsie. Might cramp our style if we're trying to get laid. Dude, chicks dig plaid pants. No joke ... schmexy.

People weren't taking pictures nearly as often as they do now. Period end of sentence. Anyone who owns a mac has photobooth, but let's again - face facts that not everyone can afford a mac. What were people to do? Take pictures of themselves in the mirror.

Super, easy, efficient way to capture a photo. Not everyone was capable of setting a timer, running back, and making sure they were still in the picture and not looking like a total dweeb.

Makes sense, and totally spurred a cultural phenomenon.

YouTube exploded with tutorials on how to successfully take a Myspace picture:

Wait, kid. are you kidding me? TURN OFF THE FLASH ON THE CAMERA, HOLD IT AS STEADY AS POSSIBLE, AND CLICK SNAP. Omg. Wow, I just made all of you dumber by subjecting you to that video. I am so sorry, that was horrible.

How many times did he call himself a genius too? Wow. Insane.

HAHA, but wait actually - kinda funny. I never thought about doing it that way. Pretty clever, but also way too complicated. People are stupid, mate. No really - people are phenomenally predictable and incredibly dumb. There's no way that many people would have put that much effort into taking a picture when they can just turn off the flash so that the light doesn't block out their image.

K ... back we go ... Myspace's Tom even jumped on board, and switched his iconic default to keep up with the cool kids in 2007 from this:

to this ...

Note the flash ... and Tom, dude - clean the mirror.

 Then of course, fast forward to 2009 - Facebook boomed in business due to the recession, the general ease (no HTML comments, music, and solid :15 second waiting time per profile), and because people frankly were looking for connections to the realness of it all after losing who they were as they once placed their value in their jobs, belongings - etc. But what happened to the in the mirror pictures? Why didn't they move on over to Facebook too? 

 When it comes to our social networking, we have a certain degree of social media responsibility. Myspace was a bit more public - still post yahoo chat, AIM ... but I felt like on Myspace I could be a bit more of a rockstar and have more of an alter ego. Myspace was where I wanted to go to be the person that I wanted to be versus accept who I am like I do on Facebook. Seriously, Facebook is way more incestuous. Pictures are tagged, mutual friends happen, high school friends find you - there's no escaping the Facebook web; and honestly, that's what made it so popular to begin with. It feels into its own viral-ness. PPUURRRRRR!!!

In the mirror pictures were instantly labeled douchey, and for a few years it looks like they were laid to rest for good. That was, of course, until Twitter came along, and photo services like twitpic, plixi, and uber-twitter started to happen.

Oh yes, they're back!

Albeit, this chica here is an adult entertainer ... for her personal brand, I'm sure this makes sense. But anyone who studies trends and influencers will tell you - these are the people we look to first. Porn and gamers. Well, porn, gamers, and high school kids - but I didn't want to post a picture of a high school kid for fear of parentals coming after me. STAYYY AWAYYYYYY!!!!! I'm not a creeper I promise!!

Think about it though ... twitter is way more public. I am very literally my own personal brand, I'm always shocked when my friends from like middle school find me on twitter. I was like, really? Are we besties on here now too? Feels kinda weird. Twitter to me is more about less of who I want to be, and actually even more of who I actually am, but not in a photographic sense. I feel a bit awkward posting pics of just myself on Twitter; I get more excited about posting random discoveries I've had throughout the day.

Click here to view my pics on WhoSay. I'd like to think they're sometimes funny ... but who am I kidding.

I never got into the whole myspace in the mirror pics. In fact, I even went through my entire myspace account prior to posting this just to confirm. HAHA! I was so not about to live in a glass house and throw stones. I think honestly, it had more to do with the fact that I've had a macbook pro since 2007, so no matter what I didn't really need to do the "in the picture thing."

Kinda got me thinking though this afternoon, are there ever any valid reasons to post an in the mirror picture? I took to twitter to find out.

After taking all of those suggestions into consideration, I have come up with the top 5 reasons one should EVER take a picture of themselves in a mirror. Ready? K ...

1. You are sexting back and forth with a sexy mate, and want to take it to the next level. Why not show some skin? Throw on some lingerie, or other equally naughty piece of loveliness, and snap a pic of yourself in the mirror displaying said loveliness.

(Just remember, don't put the face in the shot incase you ever become famous and they leak. Or if you do become famous - and have naked or nearly naked pictures, grab a friend who's an awesome photographer and have him or her take pics of you in an equally revealing way. You'll totally cockblock the ex by reducing the value of the picture. HAHAHAHA!!! SUCKA!)

2. You bought a new outfit, and are either so ferociously fashion forward - or are a walking, talking, what not to wear. Friends DEFINITELY need to be called in before bar hopping can commence. Snap the pic in the mirror, it's cool - just don't post it, cause that's not cool. 

3. You're about to have self portraits taken, and you need to know which smile is your best. Seriously! Senior pictures, class photos, work photos - this is the digital age, kiddies! Those things don't just end up in some book anymore, they are archived in google in perpetuity. Make sure that smile is good peoples!!!

4. You got a new haircut, and cannot see it from the back. Dude, I have totally done this before - even when it just came to testing out a new hairstyle. This one is a MUST, and a perfectly valid reason to take a pic of yourself in a mirror.

5. Artistic expression. There are definitely times in my life where I have found something really really really rad in a reflective surface and taken a picture of it. These can be pretty cool. Like dude, look at this one from a shoot I did in Florida ... pretty rad! 

Well, technically speaking - I was just checking my makeup at the time and he came up behind me to take the picture. Either way, a mirror was involved in the general composition, and in this case it was perfectly acceptable.

I think, er at least hope, you are all catching my drift in this. If you ever have to ask yourself "is this too douchey to post?" the answer is always - YES!!!!!!!!!!

Social sites will come, and go but remember - google images last forever.

#thatisall

Thanks guys for all the tweets for this post btw. You make my life. No really. Like I wanna make out with you now. Is that cool? K.

Click here to view the article in Fast Company