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Candace Chipman
04/15/11
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mlweiland
03/15/11
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Art Slatkin
03/19/11
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jraymond
03/09/11
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Embrace Wonder
03/30/11
July 24, 2012
I have steered clear talking about Twitter since it seemed to arrive fully blown overnight, and I figured it would disappear just as fast.
I've been wrong before.
Twitter, for those that don’t, is a free service for friends, family, and co–workers to stay connected every second of the day through the exchange of quick, frequent messages of 140 characters or less, in real time.
A virtual fishbowl, as some have described it.
So you can’t have a cup of coffee, without someone tweeting, “What are you doing?” which is the only question Twitter asks. And that message can appear in every communication device you own.
Professional athletes and show biz folks are using it to share every minute detail of what they're doing to hundreds of thousands of virtual strangers, who apparently are interested.
Then there's Facebook, where all the people we have avoided over the last 20 years, have been given access and encouragement to come back into our lives.
But then how you can dislike something that has given rise to whole new careers: Twitter addiction and Facebook addiction specialists.
A recent study from Pew Internet and American Life Project has revealed that even 20-somethings can occasionally be overwhelmed by technology.
So if you wish that your phone didn't ring sometimes, you're not alone.
(Of course you don’t have to answer it. I’m working on it.)
In the early days of communication, nobody knew where anybody was.
Communication came by word of mouth:
“I think Freddie, was here, and he left.”
Six hours later Freddie shows up with an excuse where he was.
Forget long distance communication, it was impossible.
As a result, a slow and unreliable mail system came into being. People who sent letters and parcels wondered when or if what they sent got to the person they were sending it to.
The town crier read community announcements until the newspaper came along.
Now, with Twitter, instant messaging, email and cell phones, it’s impossible to stay unconnected.
George Bernard Shaw said, “The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”
A little birdie doesn't have to tell me that we’ll have a lively discussion. And we always know we can communicate here at the Eye.
Tags: Twitter, Facebook, Twitter Addiction, Facebook Addiction
still thinking about today...
Submitted by:
Joshua
04/14/11
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shutterbugsam
04/13/11
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King Solomon
04/14/11
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huberdlh
03/12/11
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crystalchip
03/23/11
An oft-seen scene:
A couple, seated at a table in a restaurant.
Each has a hand-held, high-tech device.
Each tweets.
Each e-mails.
Each ignores the other.
What they do not do is talk.
Not to anyone on the phone.
Not to each other.
Actual talking seems taboo.
They energetically engage in silent social networking.
With those who are not there.
Silence, then, is golden, golden.
Must be.
Otherwise, why would they be spending valuable time, good money doing it?
It seems like thats all I hear these days... Facebook this and facebook that. I think almost everyone I know is on facebook. We go to a family dinner and there are my sister-in-laws and their significant others and they are ALL on their i-phones, updating facebook. It's like their phones are a permanent part of their arm.
I don't use facebook or twitter and I am happy to stay that way.
Whatever happened to manners? When our family sat down to eat, it was 'No reading at the table' - I think it is downright rude to be messing with an i-phone during a meal - especially a family meal. Is your Facebook or your Twitter really more important? It's rude, disrespectful, dismissive of the efforts of your host/ess and does not represent you as having the coolest 'phone thing, it just shows you up as an ignorant, ill mannered air-head. Those things have an "app" that says "OFF" - and the thing stores messages for you future enjoyment. Why can't people learn to use it?
Lotlot, kids would text each other even in the same room....and I have been guilty of texting to fellow diner when I wanted to say something without others knowing! ..
I have a facebook profile. I started it to keep an eye on my kid and it was easier to join them then fight them. It has been useful and there is a common understanding us "oldies" look out for each other. For eg. once I had to leave my 14 year old alone for 2 nights when I was on an interstate assignment. A friend text me to alert that said son had posted on his Facebook that he was alone...I was able to immediately put safeguards on.
It is also so much easier to share stories, photos etc .especially as my family and friends are spread around the globe. I keep a tight lid on security though and have "layers", so, some photos are shared only with family. I also keep my professional life separate on LinkedIn. When I get friend requests from strangers, I would suggest we connect on Linkedin as my Facebook is for friends and family.
I often get involved in things only because I want to know how it's done! So I also have a Youtube channel! It's quite incredible to see where the hits are coming from; some places are so off the map for me. After a number of "hits", I received an invite from Youtube enquiring if I would like to monetise my videos...so now I know how and why these things work!
But I will NOT twitter....I cannot imagine anything more boring than that. But, I have used Twitter - when I want to follow a piece of news closely.
Did anyone notice the "tags" at the end of the article? Is this new feature permanent?
It is the same!--For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Morning LOT, HAZE, SPRINGF, MBAILEY, & PAOLOS......................I do nothing as, alas & alack, I am an Amish.....................
Technology as supposed to simplify our lives and make us carefree, instead it seems that we have become technology's prisoner.....
I'm with mbailey!!!
Paolos did you say mutate???
paolos ~
Please, no inscrutable Shelley quotes before breakfast… or after lunch.
Thank you.
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
Was that a retweet?
We are, as usual when it comes to technology, focusing on the most egregious public examples of crude excess.
Overlooked are the millions of examples of time and miles saved, worry and mistakes avoided in both private and business applications.
In simpler times, some were too loud and intrusive in their public discourse, nobody blamed the power of speech.
I remember when I first picked up a copy of the J. Peterman catalogue. It made me feel like I stepped back in time, where people took pride in all things in life, quality built clothing, the fine craftsmanship of travel luggage, and carefully selected acessories. All this harkens back to a day when time moved slower, people had an inclination to sit down with a friend and catch up personally while sitting under a big leafy oak tree on a park bench. Total strangers even said hello. Taking or making time for other is something I will always cherish, and the manner in which I choose to communicate with those people is equally important. The lifestyle that is J. Peterman is something that I hold in high regard because of these very temets. I feel like a real man when I slow down and appreciate life.
So, Shelley guarantees that the enduring element in life is change...and to that I have to agree...We get comfortable with a certain lifestyle, and then BLAM, along comes new technology or some drastic change in our lives to change it....It seems we either bend and change with it, or we break and get left behind. ( I still prefer a map to the GPS, but then that is so old school!)
Just think of all the changes since some of us were kids in the 50's....microwaves, ice and water in the door of the refrigerator, smooth top stoves, TV with color and HD all controlled by a remote device, CD's, DVD's, then there are all the phones, I-This or I-Thats, GPS, satellite info, drones, highway electronic signs to tell what is ahead, cars with backup screens, voice activated controls on loads of things.....and on and on.....It is truly culture shock for those of us in our 60s and 70's and beyond!
If you can adapt, you find the changes to be enjoyable and helpful, as Spring Fragrance has noted. If not, you gradually feel disconnected and maybe a bit paranoid. I don't tweet, but I check FaceBook every day or so to see how some friends are, and what is new in their worlds. I have been contacted by some former students, and found a few that I held in special regard. I has been gratifying to see them grown with their own families and so successful, after having last seen them at 16-18 and just barely on their way. Some that I spent time and energy on, writing recommendations for scholarships and filling out rec forms for college, have now earned PhD's and are themselves teaching.
Yes, Spring, I did notice the tags and looked at those....one thing leads to another, and it is apparently addicting to some....Like this page is......(?)
I am with Hazel and Lotlot on the poor manners of those who use the technology at meals, instead of talking face to face with family and friends. My rule for granddaughter is no I-phone at the table, just as my parents had no books at the table, as stated above. (However, this week as she is with me and away from her mom, she has been able to "face time" and see her mom as they caught up on each other's activities, although mom was 6 hr.s away.)
Tools of communication a sign of the times: With family and friends scattered across the Americas and Europe, 21st Century technology has freed-up the lines of communication, not of my own choosing, I have given in to social media! Facebook line feeds, wall posts, mass texts and/or a one line blips have allowed me to "keep in touch." Then there is the problem with communication alignment styles, hoping that your facebook quote, pic or note, email priority submission, twitter shout-out, is reciprocated. Note: I relish in the extroverts who write via post mail, air mail, and chatty phone calls....got my number?
Posted picture: yellow Austin Healey and a red Studebaker fron the Vintage Grand Prix in Pittsburgh.
I like Facebook, although I call it Facelift, as there are so many on it who are far older than the original intended group looking for dates at Harvard. It is as MOOSE said, very nice to catch up with old friends and acquaintances and it is a way to express oneself without, shall we say, going off-topic. I am extremely technilogically challenged--I have yet to be able to post a pic here or a Youtube but its easy on Facebook.
I too as SPRING F said began just to keep track of my kids, both of whom lived 1000s of miles away.
I don't Twitter. My phone is not smart. If you bring a phone to my table or pull it out in a restaurant You will see a side of me you won't like. Unacceptable.
...that the only immutable is mutability. Watch the ocean....
Again, yet again, I'm too ignorant to comment: I don't Twitter, Flutter, Facebook, Mutter, Smitter.... You get the idea. I was slow to embrace the computer, and I write, for heaven's sake!
It's mechanical things that intimidate. When we discussed ATMs I confessed I've never used one; I go into the bank (or, on a bad-hair day if I don't have on a hat, use the driveup window). One more personal connection removed from our lives.
I can't stop The March of Time (anybody else remember that, before the movie?), and wouldn't;
the problem lies not with everyone else, but within me. I believe it's simply a matter of being born too late. (Else why am I attracted to The Owner's Manual? Why respond to Mr. P's subtle notice in The New Yorker all those years ago?) On the other hand, having a son who teaches at a university in Japan makes me delight in email; more delighted, still, to have Skype; I'm as much a mix as anyone. There are times...there are times to revel in all our gadgets: two writing projects that involved people in three parts of the country went smoothly as glass, and I could not have accomplished those without
machines.
But what a joy it is to write letters, and to receive them. I can't imagine going without that pleasure, and felt only sadness (for the students) on reading that in some states, cursive writing is no longer taught. I can email a friend in England, but I more enjoy writing; that he writes back says something
(a successful composer, conductor, he uses every modern aid in making recordings).
We use what we like or need, and lay aside the rest; I may never learn to Twitter.
HAZEL--Congrats!!
my worry is like that of being spyed upon: with 900million,or so, souls,hanging many personal items on the electronic clothes line for all to see, there will be a prize for those clever enough to sneak into your private space and steal your 'lucky socks'....paranoid? I don't think so; more like here is an opportunity for some enterprizing skull duggery. And I mean waaay far more subtle than "I have found your name amongst my Ancestors, and there are untold riches waiting for you in a secret account, I am your Humble Servant, and would like to know more about you,as I can then send these monies to your personal bank...."
When I tweeted, I was naughty and provocative: "Gunfire died down for the moment… sirens."
I am still waiting for the comeback of smoke signals. And you do not have to worry about disturbed while sleeping.
As far as the privacy issue goes, I do regard the entire internet as a postcard--I do not post anything that is private. My mother always said "never put anything on paper that you would not like read in court" but I sure enjoy answering cooking questions and showing off my granddaughter. GEORGE I am already very fond of you but you clinched it telling me via computer that you do not indulge in the March of Time! You are sooo right about letters....they are treasures (now called Snail Mail).
Haze, i'm with you about familly dinner time. If you can't spare thatl slice of time to turn out the rest of the world and tune in your family, warts and all, to realy talk and laugh......well it could be a fine ritual and means of understanding each other.
Some of our happiest moments were spent at our little apartment kitchen table and well as sone pkate throwing argments that were usualky resolved before ater-diner coffee
Agree with you CD. And your mom. If you put it out there,it's for the whole world to see and comment upon and take you to task about - don't kid yourself that anything is private on Facebook, including the messages...I googled me and despite privacy promises, I find my words from years back when I was young and dumb and on other message boards, and ten years later, on google , there they are.....Luckily I didn't "share" a whole lot about myself back then - it was early internet (for me) and when we wanted to "talk" we ditched the message board and phoned each other. Luckily none of us were stalkers or worse....I have a like-hate-take it or leave it feeling about Facebook - ........................I joined because of Cuukoo, it was easier for her to just go to one website on her computer when she was sick, the meds made it hard for her to think her way around to lots of sites, so I opened a FB account and we could "talk" and fool around there. AND now with her gone, I'm still there, but not using it too much of late...a summer break from the World of Sharing. But yes, CHEFDEB, back to what you said, it's true, it's so true.
Society, as a whole, is retreating behind walls, whether real or "cloud." We have chosen to withdraw from the dangers of the inner cities, the crudeness of others, the rudity of the "younger" generations...only to find we have opened door on our lives better left closed. I do not endorse Facebook, as it takes away my privacy; I do not Twittwer, as there is no one I need to contact that quickly for whom I cannot use A.G. Bell's device (although, yes, I do have a cell...for safety reasons); I only text when I have something to say before I forget and do not wish to disturb whatever the recipient is doing at the moment; and yes, I ignore calls whenever I like.
I still brave it outside, beyond my doors, and into the world. I hope to teach by example what friendliness, courtesy, and kindness are. There is a reason I am still in this world (after many times coming close to leaving) and I believe part of it is this.
Call me old fashioned, call me what you will! I'm NOT over the hill (just because I am not a Technonut)!
Park and Stoney...... Did the high octane storm hit you folks too?
The wind had my giant/ancient maples whiping around like young saplings.
My sweet corn had a rough time of it. As the local farmers would say when asked how their crops fared in the storm, they would respond ' the wheat?.......it was fooked flat last night'
Stoney.......the Dempster is still wearing cubbie blue. Got my fingers crossed. He 's an official part of the story of Cubdom i think.
Peter Lake---thought from yesterday you must live near me, but if you got storms (or any rain) I know you don't. Would SOMEONE turn on the sprinklers upstairs????
Just did a rain dance to ease Ginger's draught. We are still needing more rain in my neck of the woods. Hope it is not too little, too late,for the farmers.
I see a , yawn, nap inmy immediate future.
See ya'll on the flip side.
Why, PL, I do see some clouds! Dance harder! Dance faster!
Georgia ~
"We use what we like or need, and lay aside the rest."
You are so right. Don't blame the technology, blame the people who abuse it.
ChefDeb ~
So true about protecting our words.
Park4 ~
I miss cuckoo too.
Peter Lake ~
I was worrying about you when your area disappeared under brightly colored radar blobs.
It is nice here: 81°, hazy with light winds.
Good news about #46… keep your fingers crossed.
Vicki knocked it out of Cooperstown… no?
PeterLake, Stoney, ChefDeb, Park4, how often you keep me sane...others of you, too, but y'all come to mind. And that's something, in a week of horror the world around.
Well, I am decidedly antediluvian.....there really is no latent techno-pro in me at all. So....I will exist in a world that "improves" itself and speed itself up seemingly by the millisecond. Now, don't get me wrong.....I couldn't live without the things I was born into--electricity, telephones, published books are just a few that come to mind. And, I, unabashedly, embrace my Kindle--altho', I could most definitely live without it---it just makes reading so much easier......no more trips to the library, no more expensive books. And I do enjoy my very simple cell phone--altho', again, I could live without it......after all, I once did, didn't I? Yes, I enjoy e-mail, but I enjoy phone conversations and real letters so much more. I like the instant gratification of a quick look up on the internet for info, but I miss the encyclopedia trips and I rarely bring out the paper edition of the dictionary or thesaurus, using, instead, the quicker internet versions. So no FB or Twitter or Tweet or whatever for me. Life is complex enough without all that blather. And, lest we forget: Silence if golden sometimes.
I'm using Firefox so cannot cut/paste here, but there is a video on TEDtalks that is fitting for today. Here's the best I can do (hope I don't screw it up) tedtalks.com/talks/malte_spitz_your_phone_company_watching.html?utm__source=newsletter_weekly_2012_07-24&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm-medium=email...................................I'm sure there's an easier way, but...........as I said, I'm antediluvian.
PL: I don't know if it stormed here or not, but I think so because I remember our weather radio going off, i'm going to break that thing, it's got a siren on it, and my dearly beloved hung the little think on the bedpost on my side, right behind my head. So when it blows, I shoot out of bed like a bullet from a pistol, but once I stop shaking I can't remember why I'm up. And that's what happened last night: I shot out of bed, I looked outside, and all I saw was dark, and dearly beloved was still sleeping - so I went back to bed. And fell asleep. In the morning, or later, I don't know what time it was, I checked outside again and saw tree branches on the grass, and I figured maybe it rained last night...but I don't know how bad it was. STONEY, was it bad? by you? ........................ What time did it storm? That weather radio works, but like I said, one of these nights it's going out the window. I sure move fast though, didn't know I could still take off like that...;)
"the little THING" (line 3)
Almost said something snide here, but since I despise rudeness, I'll refrain.
So who all did get hit by storms? Are you all safe?
PARK.................your 1:57 nearly undid me when I read it. CUUKOO was a lovely woman and I know you two had an incredibly special bond. I feel quite lucky to have known her for a brief time....................
And you are correct, a bad storm can have me moving like an Olympic sprinter in no time........................
CHEFD..........................feeling a little sleepy & tad adrift........could ya, wouldja make some delicious little nibbles for the clubcar.......................something to make us smile and relax.................I know you could do it up right............................
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...............touting your kindness and manners while also letting us know you WERE going to say something rude is quite the confusing message and screams, "Look at ME!" Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...........................................
As technology advances I am sure there will be more and more of this and that. Like some others in the VIllage, I prefer paper and pencil, real mail and real conversations where I actually can HEAR the voice of the one I am communicating with. You cannot HEAR the voice of someone you are texting or computer-ing with. Old fashioned one on one face time is the best.Night all!!
Bebe.....what say you to a cheesecake cart in the clubcar. I hear the varieties are limitless!............my soul food is calng.
Cheesecake pops and cupcakes on the way...perfect for thesepia train as its hard to choose flavors...amaretto, bailey's, rum, Jim Beam, etc etc.....
Park4 ~
We got nothing. It is in the mid-seventies and nice right now but mid-nineties for tomorrow.
bebe ~
Yup.
A plane just went over distributing fireworks as it went. Something new.
Scrutable Shelley before your bedtime milk and cookies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5OIte2QX-c