Lots of social media out there now these days. Most of it good. Some, not really worth my time. While some may provide a needed distraction. Others, offer us a detour down a long road of catchy boards to leave us probably saying to someone at some point “Well I don’t recall what I was doing when I clicked that link, Mr. “Nosey”!!!” (sarcasm)
So let’s just talk about the good shall we. On second thought, let’s at least start with the good and try to minimize the bad and the ugly. That sounds better. Let us go with that.
- Social connections. More connected to more people. More often. But how connected and with what? Well, the people I’m connected to are really people. So that’s always good. My immediate circle I could chat, text, call, video call, or see them in person anytime they want. Permitted they want to. I live like 115 miles away from some family. Do they really need to be there? Ever heard of the phrase, “too close for comfort”. For me, it can be a welcome retreat from reality sometimes. But it’s actually both that and a way to keep in touch and reach out and touch someone every now and then. For me, just using Cisco, Google+, or Skype for now is social networking in a way. Especially if it’s something I would normally do.
- Video: It’s nearly ruin’t (ruined) me from television. Which is good. I don’t watch as much or not at all other than a YouTube or RuTube or whatever tube they got now in the Ukrane or something. I don’t know, they’re just cool sites I find out there. The good thing is that I get more media from more sources but served up in less time. I’ll gladly watch a 30 second add about a talking gecko to get a 5 minute tape of what I’d have to spend 30 minutes or at least 10 to get after the ‘no wait weather’ part of the Hutch forecast. Gotta get that Hutch forecast. Well, I still can because they put it on their website. So there you go. Hutch crisis averted.
- Media clearance: I have more control over what I see on my computer than what comes through most other forms. Heck, I’ll take Windows 8 Pro off my Dell right now if you don’t give me free Netflix for the rest of my…. I’m sorry, it’s just that… I’m… so…greedy. I actually could probably load Ubuntu on this right now but I can do the same in a Hyper-V or VMWare virtual machine. The good thing about those last two incoherent, rambling sentences, was that now I actually have more time to do that stuff. Both with the learning how to do (via the web) and connecting with social media. But now that I can choose what I want to watch or read then it’s easy. And it helps me find new, better learning or information sources that may even allow me to learn more in less time even further. But it kind of gets neurotic like this paragraph so let’s move on.
- To Tweet or to Facebook, ah (screwdriver) ta heck wit it, let’s just Instagram it. I actually got into public social media through Twitter even though I had a Facebook account before my Twitter account I never used it. I did get a tablet before going on twitter though, a Surface Pro. Not my #1 recommendation for affordable tablet. It was approx. $1,030.00 USD but I still got it because it was the 128GB hard drive SDD (solid state drive) and Office 365 Home Premium subscription that I use quite a bit with Office 2013 and 20GB SkyDrive and Skype minutes. Plus I’m not working at the moment which has been really good cause I can catch up on technology that I wasn’t really focused on at my last job. I’ll mainly use Twitter as my main board. I link this WordPress blog to it under the tagline. I’m also now active on Facebook, finally after like four years of trashing it I get to now play hypocrite to the critical acclaim it has always brought me. But I think I’ve only touched like 10% of it and don’t do business on it…..yet. That’s kind of a joke but not really. The 10% is real but the yet. Well, you’ll just have to keep tuning in for that. I’m also on LinkedIn which is probably the best thing out there for professionals trying to network. That’s social media at about it’s best if you have a desire to network and at least see what they’re talking about. Lots of good discussion groups out there. I actively participate either in a group discussion or commenting about an article. I can post external articles there on LinkedIn provided the external webpage has some kind of button on the page (syndication) to get it in.
- RSS Feeds. Yes, syndication. There’s that word. That, in my opinion, if you’re on Windows and use Outlook, is what you must use. For me, it has reduced my Twitter dependence to nil. But also I still use Twitter and tweet more than ever now with RSS because I still use Twitter as my big board and just post the goods that I get through RSS subscriptions. For those who don’t know what RSS feeds are, if you ever see the orange, it almost looks like a WiFi icon, squarish but beveled (rounded edges) in shape, that’s the RSS icon. It’ll usually be next to the Twitter and Facebook or YouTube tags (icons) on the webpage. Those are the ‘syndicated’ sources. Basically, allowing you to redeceminate (forward) for reuse, as long as you don’t hack it up (modify it or misuse it in anyway). Kind of like the major league baseball thing they put in commercials. I’d love to tell you but I’d need to get permission from them first. Some of that is also a joke but not really.
Okay, now let’s get to the bad, shall we. C’mon, you know you want it.
- Spam: It’s like a spam sandwich on a whole wheat rye bread roll or something. Social medial still has tons of spam, but also scams. Phishing scams. People go ph(fishing) looking to catch the “big one” and you know what? They don’t tell fish tales. You get it? OK, stupid yes. But it has me on high alert for scams and suspicious websites or activity or content on those websites or what’s being marketed to me. Well, that’ mostly good if you’re running a business but in my personal life it leads to paranoia. Like either you’re being watched or exploited. Or, both.
- Compensation for business only?: Yes that monetary thing where those people protest stuff and then get all uppity about how we run things. Aren’t they just the worst? Just kidding. That’s not the bad stuff but it may get to a mild form of that online with the monetization of things now. Things are more individualized now. That’s good for independence but for others it comes to isolation. The one good thing to avoid this from becoming ugly is that we’re evolving our policies at a national and global level, at least I hope we are. But that’s just my “vibe” of the “pulse”, like I have a clue. But seriously now, when I hear about someone posting a song or something on YouTube first thing I think is “get in line and audition like everyone else, honey”, bad thing is I’ll probably be eating my words after hearing the Grammy nominations in 3 years. It’s the chicken and the egg. I’m not sure whether to protest or get in line for tickets. Mainly, I think I’m a little jealous I didn’t think about posting a video on what I was going to do that day??? I don’t even want to get that part, don’t ask. Anyways, the only thing to avoid that from getting ugly (no pun intended) is like the fact that you can post stuff and make money off it. I just hope that doesn’t become the pervasive movement and you can’t go somewhere and work for an honest wage anymore, if that’s even possible. I like choice.
- Check out Kevin Spacey’s new lemonade stand, free cup for Netflix subscribers! That’s a joke, haven’t even seen the show on Netflix but that’s the point. Wasn’t that guy in Glen Garry Glen Ross and the Usual Suspects? What the heck’s he doing on Netflix. At least that one girl (they’re like 80 of them) is on Showtime now. What gives? Well, first I think women are taking over society (laugh, sigh). But seriously here, why is this on Netflix. I think they’re probably one of the best places to work for now if you’re in the high tech, programmer style level, at least from what I’ve heard, but that info is a little dated. That was before they up’d their prices. I only want the streaming movies. The only one I wanted to watch the last time almost made me want to stop watching movies. So what’s up with that lemonade stand comment from the beginning of another well crafted, yet again incoherent rant? It’s the fact that I thought when I saw Kevin Spacey had a show I thought “cool, may watch it”, then went “Wait, what? Why’s that guy on Netflix, you know he was in….” I mean I honestly felt like when you go to a lemonade stand and you buy the lemonade out of the kindness (shame) of your heart (shame II the sequel) and the good people (shamers) of your neighborhood. Basically I feel as if I’m being shamed into watching Netflix. I know, it’s sick. I know, but I’m getting better. At least I think so because I just realized that trial I signed up for I think expired………..
The ugly:
- LED 47″ is collecting dust. Not a big let down since it’s probably going to retain a longer life, but I have no scientific proof of that.
- Hulu’s pay for commercials campaign. Although I like Hulu, I just don’t get a return on investment (ROI). As much as I love Hulu and the concepts of on demand TV shows online, other networks are doing their own thing, TruTV for example. Hulu has so many shows that just redirect you to an external source. It’s more a media clearinghouse than anything if you ask me. The biggest complaint that I have is that whenever I tell someone how much I like it there’s always the people I talk to that say “you pay for commercials?”, then I get defensive. Then I go, wait, they got a point.
- Controversy! Scandal! Bad tweets! Drunk tweets! Stoned tweets! Angry tweets! angry birds. That last one’s not capitalized. Exactly! There are times where I wish some real angry birds would start a decent onto one of some of these tweeterers homes for some spring cleaning. But really, it’s not about the big celebs behaving badly (yes it is), it’s just the bombardment of negativity that rules the roost at times. But that’s easily taken care of by closing the IE or Chrome or Firefox window. For others you need to put like a breathalyzer on there computers or something. Better yet, just put it on to let them access twitter: “Take a deep breath. Ah-up, you didn’t exhale deep enough. Please try back later.” Fortunately, some forums now ‘drunk-proof’ (proof, ya get it) their forums by not allowing the ‘keep me logged in’ and/or block persistent cookies. Some organizations may want to consider that. Because having a website you can just login automatically to and leave comment to a discussion group (blog/forum) on your phone, not exactly what I’d call a technological “windfall” for those on wall street or the private sector.
- Ephemeral data: Meaning it’s only good for like a day, if that. Like I saw a pic of the “Biebs” (Justin Bieber) on twitter drinking a beer. That was useful for about 8 seconds while I forwarded it going, “what’s that he’s drinking, I wonder where he is?”, like I really care (oh really now). Just because it was trending on Twitter and everyone had there tweeterer pens out and tweeterering. But the point being, who the heck is going to care what that guy or anyone was doing on a Friday afternoon on some date in time where all these words I’m typing now will be about as useful as Twitter in a cold mine. Wait, I meant a canary. Twitter would probably be useful in a coal mine provided you get bars on your phone or you can string a line out the mineshaft. Any taker on that? Apple? Droid? WinPhone?
Aaron Paul Rykhus 