Even TED’s A-Twitter About The Twemendous Possibili-Tweets
[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 2, 2009 by admin in Technology
Monday, March 2nd, 2009And You Can Twote Me on That
In spite of Twitter’s ten-fold growth in 2008, a lot of perfectly well-adjusted and otherwise hip people (including myself) have yet to integrate the service into their life in a significant way. If you’re not familiar with what Twitter actually is, the TED presentation by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams featured here here will give you a good overview. Even if you are familiar with Twitter, you may not be aware of Twitter’s effect on ancient history, or more recently, Hitler. And even more recently (and more seriously) you might not be aware of some of the the amazing tools at your disposal, like Twitterfall, where you can mindlessly watch tweets scroll by, or better yet, intelligently customize what you see. Or Tweetoclock, which lets you type in a Twitter username to find out when it’s best to tweet them. And if you’re using Twitter aggressively for marketing purposes, you’ll need Tweetsum, which uses sophisticated algorithms to generate a DBI (Douche Bag Index) to help you manage followers. My personal prediction (but I never saw Reality TV lasting this long, so ignore me!) is that Twitter, as it’s currently used, will become quite popular, but have a short life cycle. Or, as Evan Williams suggests, do something completely unexpected because users find a new use for it. And you can Twote me on that, to use some twerminology I just Twopyrighted. And regarding the buzz going around that Twitter has no viable business model? One of their key venture capitalists is just laughing.
This Twit Won’t Twitter
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on February 5, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Thursday, February 5th, 2009I’ve created sample accounts on over thirty social networking sites as research for clients, which is why I’ve watched the recent explosion on Facebook of users over forty with considerable amusement*. I remember well the feeling I got when, as an 18-year-old, I went from being so far on the fringe of pop culture that [...]
I’ve created sample accounts on over thirty social networking sites as research for clients, which is why I’ve watched the recent explosion on Facebook of users over forty with considerable amusement*. I remember well the feeling I got when, as an 18-year-old, I went from being so far on the fringe of pop culture that there wasn’t a name for it, to suddenly being called “Punk” by “normal” people. Just about as soon as I got used to the idea that maybe I WAS punk, everyone suddenly started taking the worst aspects of whatever I was and basing whole music genres and movies on it. Before I knew it, my friends and I had gotten normal just to avoid the creepy older people that were mimicking us. This must be a little bit like what it feels like to be an 18-24 year old MySpace or FaceBook user the past few years. First they had to watch the oldsters creep in on MySpace, pimping out their pages like high-schoolers. Recently MySpace feels like 4am at a 30-year high school reunion; only the socially inept and drunk late-comers are still hanging around. Facebook should be suffering a similar fate by mid-year, leaving kids to Twitter desperately in a difficult economy. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see new text message pricing plans that gouge these users. I for one don’t see myself opening my mobile device up to this kind of shenanigans, causing the return of the nearly-extinct fail whale (pictured here). Maybe I’ll take up knitting and join Ravelry. Any suggestions for where to go with my social networking addiction?
*Confession: I’ve used Facebook addictively the last few weeks myself.
Fear of Facebook
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on November 8, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, November 8th, 2008It’s not that I don’t love the virtual you, I just prefer the real one…
Someone please absolve me of my FaceGuilt. As an addictive person who works on a computer a lot (am I addicted?) and is very social and very networked (Malcolm Gladwell