Category Archives: Media & Culture

Where are they now?

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You know how some insanely popular rock group has a bunch of hits and then… just disappears. At least from the media mainstream. They didn’t get less talented overnight and, sure, tastes change but this always seemed odd to me. In reviewing blog posts from the early days of the web, I see something similar. Here are some of the people most influential (for me) from that era (in no particular order): Bruce Sterling, Chris Pirillo, Clay Shirky, David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Kevin Kelley, Jeff Jarvis, Seth Goden.

On second thought, I’ll bet the folks are still around but — like everyone else — have migrated to social media, abandoning their blogs. Perhaps the web they wrote about and — in some cases — predicted, disappeared/never happened.

Little Black Holes

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“Every time someone in a group of people deploys a screen, the whole group is affected. Each disengaged person in a crowd is like a little black hole, a dead zone for social energy, radiating a noticeable field of apathy towards the rest of the room and what’s happening there.”

— The Simple Joy of “No Phones Allowed”

“Social media is making the world a better place”

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I gave up Twitter two years ago, never did Facebook and said goodbye to Google+ recently. Social media seemed only slightly less afflictive than opioid addiction. But this post by Kevin Drum offers a glimmer of hope:

The internet boasts an immediacy that allows it to pack a bigger punch than any previous medium. But this is hardly something new. Newspapers packed a bigger punch than the gossipmonger who appeared in your village every few weeks. Radio was more powerful than newspapers. TV was more powerful than radio. And social media is more powerful than TV.

Broadly speaking, the world is not worse than it used to be. We simply see far more of its dark corners than we used to, and we see them in the most visceral possible way: live, in color, and with caustic commentary.

The money quote: “If you want to make things better, you first have to convince people that something bad is happening. Social media does that.”

Stickers

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I had some folks in China make me some stickers. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with them when I placed the order but I’ve found a couple of spots. I put one on the back of my phone case with the thought that if I misplaced the phone, a finder wouldn’t have anyway of contacting me (assuming they wanted to return the phone). I could have put an email address on the case but I figured I’d just give the website a plug.

I stuck another one on the “Smoker’s Friend” on the sidewalk outside my local coffee shop. Inevitably I’m sitting down wind of the smokers taking those last few desperate tokes before ditching their smoke. Sort of a 21st century Kilroy Was Here.