The Luxe Chronicles

Here's To You Facebook Users!

To all those Facebook users out there (especially women who drive 62% of activity on the site) who freely share links, stream music, read the news, play virtual games, click on Facebook’s “like” buttons, express political views, meticulously update your relationship status, upload family pictures and other deeply personal information about yourselves, congratulations! You are about to collectively make Facebook, its founder Mark Zuckerberg, his early investors and key executives of his company very wealthy. Or, more accurately, you're about to make them wealthier still.

Digital Privacy: The 'David v. Goliath' Effect.

Are you tracking me?

The belief that the steady erosion of our online privacy is the inevitable by-product of digital progress is probably one of the biggest obstacles to protecting our privacy. It undermines efforts to educate end users about the perils of privacy erosion by suggesting that there is little anyone, including lawmakers, can actually do to stop it. In actual fact, privacy erosion is neither inevitable nor irreversible (at least not entirely).

Social Media: Re-Living History One Tweet At A Time.

I must admit, while I don't love all social media platforms, I do have a particular affection for Twitter. Beyond it's accessibility and ease of use, I especially love how it enables you to become a witness to events unfolding half a world away. Whether the Arab Spring or the community clean-up efforts following last August's riots across London, Twitter allows you to engage and take part, either actively as participants or passively as witnesses, in events as they take place.

Social Media Purchases: What Price Convenience?

Few things in life are free and nowhere is this more true than on the Internet. Search engines, social media platforms and countless "free" sites all exact a form of payment from end users although most end users remain alarmingly unaware of just what price they're paying. Take for instance the "convenience" of making purchases via Facebook.

It's Been Quite A Week ...

The events of the past week have left me feeling rather pensive. The death of Steve Jobs while expected still felt like a very unpleasant jolt. Another death, that of civil rights leader and legal scholar Derrick Bell was equally sad. They died the same day and while both men were iconoclasts, their manner could not have been more different. Neither was content to stand by and let tired ideas go unchallenged but whereas Jobs was a bully, Professor Bell was a mild-mannered, dignified gentleman. He was no less a rebel than Jobs and in a strange way, his voice resonated just as loudly throughout academemic circles as Jobs' did throughout Silicon Valley. We are all poorer today for their passing. Requiescat in pace.

Sincerely,

The Luxe Chronicles

Think Different!

I work on an iMac, the details of both my personal and professional life are coordinated via my iPhone, my entire music library is stored on my iPod and I rarely leave home without my iPad. Like so many people, Apple products are at the center of my digital life and that of my family's.

Carine Roitfeld: "There Is a Very Fine Line Between Accepting a Gift and Being Bought."

Unless you live deep within the caves of Afghanistan with little or no communication with the outside world, you no doubt are aware that "Irreverent", the tribute book dedicated to former Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld penned by Olivier Zahm (Purple Magazine) is set to drop just in time for Paris Fashion Week. Ms. Roitfeld is therefore currently doing a series of press interviews for the book including one in which she graciously sat down with a group of French fashion bloggers.

Social Media: Mr. Zuckerberg Goes To Washington.

First came the heavyweight lobbyist in the form of Joel Kaplan, former deputy chief of staff under George W. Bush and the man known throughout Washington as responsible for successfully shepherding the highly invasive Patriot Act through Congress. Now comes the PAC (Political Action Committee) which will funnel political donations to various political candidates who might be persuaded to help them advance their policy interests. This is no coincidence.

Why Do These Things Keep Happening on "Planet Fashion"?

"Didn't know or didn't care?! "

When the industry's lead magazine is not publishing surreal profiles of dicators' wives extolling their fashion-forward credentials and idyllic lifestyles, dictators' daughters are being given coveted spots on the New York Fashion Week schedule ... It begs the question: Why do these things keep happening on "Planet Fashion"?

Digital Privacy: Please Scan/Rob/Stalk Me!

By now, most of my regular readers have probably concluded (correctly) that I love technology almost as much as I love shoes. Mind you, I don't love technology in of itself the way I love shoes but I do love what technology enables me to do. Thanks to technology, I can save precious time by working more efficiently and eliminating hassles. I can stay in touch with my loved ones regardless of my geographical location and I can even connect and exchange with complete strangers with whom I share an interest or passion. In short, I believe in the tremendous power of technology. The problem is that I don't always believe in the good intentions of the purveyors of that technology.