A Question of Perspective

Be annoyed with me. Or don’t. Whatever.

I’m tired of the amount of energy it takes to get value out of it.
Hash tags are overused. Not everything can go viral.
I’ve met some good people, but it’s NOT like a cocktail party, where I’d likely want to talk to about 50% of the people there (if I’m at the right party)… it’s hard to find the right party on Twitter.
Most of the people I’ve followed, I’ve unfollowed because they are boring, offensive, or just plain irritating.
Twitter SPAM sucks worse than regular SPAM, because when I get the email that someone is following me, I have to click to see what they are all about.
Not everyone can be a Guru. To those of you who are self-proclaimed Social Media Gurus: WTF? Who isn’t one these days? Want to talk to someone who actually knows what the hell they’re talking about? Follow @embolden.
As Penelope Trunk notes in a recent blog post: Self-centered people are more likely to waste your time. Those who claim that it’s not about them… the self-proclaimed super-users of the Twitter world… they just want you to read their blog posts. Their Tweets are self-indulgent and annoying.
The more time I spend meeting people on Twitter, the less time I spend outside. Or reading. Or at the gym. Or walking George. It’s more of a time suck than this blog and Facebook combined, because it’s a pain in the ass to get it to a place that there is any ROI.
Follow me! Follow me! Follow me!… Stop it! Don’t follow me just so I will follow you!
I do care what you had for lunch today, I really do. No really, I do. But only if I know you and it was AWESOME. Otherwise, could you please shut up about it?

3 Comments »

Posted in Geeky Shit, Perspectives

Tags: lists twitter

SitRep: Unplugged

June 11th, 2009 3 Comments »

Multitasking in the Park by CarbonNYC

Why, why, why, you ask?

Why put down the CrackBerry?

Why unplug for a whole 2 days?

Instead of answering you in the comments, you get a whole post in reply.

And away we go…

Top 5 reasons to put it down and walk away:

Anything I need, other than food, water, hygiene, extracurricular activities, sleep, shelter, and Megan, I have to get away from sometimes.
As my fearless leader pointed out on her trip to the White House: Do I experience it or do I shoot it (with a camera)? I don’t want to spend so much time with my Tweeps and FB friends that I forget what real live humans are like. Especially since I only know like 3 of them here in CO and the others are so damn nice… I don’t want to ALWAYS be the asshole with the BlackBerry in my hand.
Megan’s schedule stinks. We don’t have any days off together. Now, I work from home, so that means we see each other WAY more than we would if I didn’t or if, let’s say, she were in the military. But what we don’t get is a whole day together to go on a day trip, or a weekend trip or just do a project around the house together. Ever. Unless one of us takes a day off. So when one of us does, as I did, take a couple of days to focus on her and us, I don’t want to be all distracted by my information addiction.
I communicate a LOT. With people I’ve known since Kindergarten to people I’ve never even met in real life. I communicate via email, text, phone, Twitter, FB, this blog… sometimes, I want to communicate with the person standing in front of me. It’s hard to peek around the BB I’m holding up in front of my face.
The world didn’t blow up without me. I know, I’m VERY important. But it didn’t. All of my clients continued to function, FB probably didn’t even note my absence, and the earth, miraculously, continued to spin.

Good enough for you? No? Yes?

3 Comments »

Posted in Communication, Geeky Shit

Tags: BlackBerry technology unplugged

Unplugged

June 8th, 2009 6 Comments »

blackberry-curve-8320-bluetooth-smartphone

I love my BlackBerry.

Tomorrow and Wednesday, I’m going to try going unplugged.

I’m a little nervous.

I am an email addict.

Facebook beckons.

I just don’t know how it’s going to go.

I’ve done it before, both times by mistake, sort of. The first time, I took the thing with me to the wilderness of Maine, only to find that I had no service for the entire 3 days… I returned to hundreds of emails.

The second time, I forgot my charger on a trip to Ogunquit, Maine… so I had to shut it off so it would actually be functional if I needed to actually make a call on it… again, hundreds of emails come Monday morning.

Now, you might think that this is how it should be… people shouldn’t do work all weekend.

But it makes me feel better to have it with me, to know if something major is happening with one of my clients or my colleagues, and the thing is damn handy with that little camera on the back of it. Who knows how many missed photo opportunities there will be without it in my pocket?

And that little Facebook application? VERY handy for entertaining one’s self when in line somewhere… or sitting in the car waiting for Megan to come out of Starbucks… those kinds of things.

Now, I understand that it’s not, nor should it be: love me, love my BlackBerry, and I’ve gotten more than a few eyeballs from just about everyone I know for my overzealous usage.

So here we go, straight into my discomfort zone. I may get a severe case of the DTs.

Or, *gasp*, I may find that I rather enjoy not being connected 24/7… and then whatever will that mean?