Facebook, twitter, pinterest...and everything else. the noise of the net
A few days ago, my mom asked me “how do I limit information and junk I see on facebook? It is getting worse. I just want to (insert need)”
I smiled, “mom, I don’t use the social media things. I realize they are interesting and help a lot of people stay connected, but the last time I did any social media was in 2003 with Friendster. I heard the CEO talking at SXSW and wondered, “what is all this?”
Upon inserting myself, connected to no one as a social experiment to see who would/could/wanted to learn more – I realized that the social media would be driving by algorithms and placement ad’s, random connections, and while I do enjoy my friend Shaun’s passion for computing – I don’t miss his every posting about where he was, what he was doing, what he was eating, etc. Thankfully he didn’t report his bowel movements.
“Sorry mom, I really can’t help you with facebook. I know there has to be settings that do what you want, but I just would have to look for them. Can you find someone locally to help you?”
I sat and listened to here vent about the information and the aged. I am really proud of my mom for wanting to learn all the time. My dad, he worked with high tech bleeding edge things when he worked, so he is bored with the Internet. The strengths and benefits of the Internet far outweigh the nonsense of the Internet for most of our lives.
“Is this all getting worse? This junk?” mom asked
“Yes, I am seeing more and more of it in my boxes, and even my business site linked in is turning more into a popularity contest each day. It is as if in the rush to generate revenue to justify the severe overvaluation of stock prices and need to keep the prices high – they are just pushing anything at the user.”
Then I went over the statistics of spam and junk mail on the web. They are really amazing statistics when you consider how much people actually wanting to do something non-spam can generate.
My solution has been to stick up one web site. Some people complain, “why are you not on twitter, facebook, pinterest or (insert any other site) that’s how I communicate.”
“That is fine for you – but I still send out real letters and stuck a website up that I didn’t want to. If someone wants to find me it is really easy.”
“But what about your branding ability of self?” inquired a marketing friend?
“The day I need to try to brand myself again into some “image,” please tell me to go stand in front of a train. I am too busy trying to work myself into who I probably was meant to be, not what others think I should be to brand only a part of myself.”
“But you are a brand! You need to build it up!” they replied
“No, I only need to build a better self. The truth is at the end of the day; few people really care what good happens to you. If something bad happens or you do something stupid, more will be come a critic than anything else.”
I know the internet is a good thing, but I think back to 1992 or 1993 when I used the first browser and thought “wow…imagine what will be possible soon!”
Today I just have to chuckle. “It’s all good. It is all good.”