Facebook vs Myspace

I know this debate was settled long ago for most, but I actually do prefer MySpace for some reason. Today though I decided that it might be officially dead. As the well wishing for the earth making it another 365 days pours in through my Facebook, I have not heard even a peep from the MySpace.

Twitter

I have gone on record several times saying how I don't really have any interest in Twitter. I can see why some people do find some value in it, but it has simply never been for me. Now I have a few reasons for this that may or may not put me in the company of old men screaming for kids to get off of their lawn*, but it's a risk I am willing to take.

1) Most of the "famous" people who tweet that I have interest in re-post all of their tweets on their websites or write columns about the more interesting ones. I don't really see a reason to go out of my way to get content through yet another medium that I am possible going to get anyways.

2) I don't want to follow my friends on Twitter because I want to have something to talk to them about when I actually see them. Now I am aware that people don't tweet every single thought they have or event they have, but I would much rather just get the info from them while drinking a cold beverage. Also I have like maybe 4 topics I am willing to talk about or even know anything about.

3) When not at work I am just not that into using a computer. I enjoy feeling slightly detached from them as if my life does not have to completely revolve around them. Not saying being plugged in and connected is bad, but it just isn't for me.

Now, there are actually was something that made me think about all of these silly thoughts. It wasn't more proof of my secret desire to be Luddite. Far from it in fact. I was listening to a podcast featuring one of my favorite writers Jonah Keri. He and the shows host Dan Levy were talking about how Twitter can impact writers and various other public personalities. I will never make any bones about that. Twitter is a great way for one to reach out to their fans and to grow their audience. However what caught my attention is something that was said and then re-iterated in the blog below the cast.

Dan said, "I follow more than 1000 people. One of them is Casey. But I’m not reading his tweets. I can’t tell you the last time something he wrote even caught my attention in the stream."

Now the Casey he mentions is this guy. Whether or not what he is doing is valid or not is a whole other conversation. What I want to bring up is the idea of subscribing to that many people on Twitter if your not even going to see most of it? I mean at some point it's all just noise right? I don't get the benefit of any of it. What's the point in following all these people if you are never actually reading anything they say? I mean I am one of the biggest suckers for brand loyalty you are ever going to meet. I pretty much only buy Steve Madden shoes. I would kill for a Cervelo bike, but at the end of the day I make an effort to seek out these things. Maybe I am strange, but I would rather spend time going through a bunch of websites about this stuff that leads me to even more info. I dunno...maybe I am just an old man yelling at the kids to get off my lawn, but can't we find a better way?


*I mean I am sure that they just put down new Bermuda grass and lord knows it's hard for that stuff to grow.

A link

Safeguy just passed this article along to me. I find it odd that I feel this urgent need to run off and post a blog about something that certainly is encourging us to all take a moment and slow down. However, I know me and I know my life as it is today. If I do not do this now, there is a good chance I won't do this at all.

I often talk about my distain for technology. That is of course a tounge and check sort of way of saying how we should be careful of annointing false gods, or even worse losing any sort of physical connection to those around us.

Just a question

I have been wondering a good bit lately about the place of social networking and blogs in our current culture. It seems to me that more and more everyone is becoming more self involved. Though I don't really think self involved is the best way to put it. It seems like people feel this weird compulsion to document nearly everything they do in one place or another, as if everything we do is important and some how urgent.

Now I am not arguing against the poetry of day to day life or how beauty can be found in the smallest thing. Far from it. In fact I am not exactly arguing against anything per se. What I am wondering about is whether all of this documentation of every single moment of ones life is really a good thing. I mean see people constantly breaking out their smart phones and checking face book for status updates. Stuff like this has really kind of been an on going problem since mobile communication came along. I call it the, "Always looking for the better party syndrome." In the past you were just out with who you were out with and that was kind of it. I mean you may run into your friends out somewhere and forum a larger group or switch to a different group, but I just believe that had to be more rare then it is now.

I dunno...maybe I am crazy. After what is a blog if not a rambling of my thoughts as if they are important.*

I'll save you the time. They are not important in the slightest