We’ve watched a couple of episodes of The Virtual Revolution, presented by Aleks Krotoski. Neil is slightly cynical and scornful of what’s been said, but as my mum likes to say, stuff on the telly needs to be pitched at the lowest common denominator (hence the series Snog Marry Avoid?, which is an abomination). We spend a lot of time online and we’re a bit older, so I like to think we’re a bit wiser about the whole Ingterneck thing than the yoof today.
For starters, it was really refreshing (or super geeky) to watch a documentary on the Beeb and recognise the names of almost all the people being interviewed. It’s really amazing to think that the Web is 20 years old. I’ve been using it regularly for about 15 years!
This final episode about Homo Interneticus was very interesting, because I can’t imagine not knowing what life was like without being connected to a digital network 100% of the time, while 12-18 year olds can’t imagine their lives without the always-on nature of the web network. I do agree that if you spend a huge amount of time online, like I do, you’re in danger of forgetting that it’s only a tool that enhances our real lives. That’s what the yoof need to learn and understand.
What I’ve noticed that’s changed in me over the last five or six years is my already-short attention span is getting shorter. I continue to read books, which is probably the only thing that’s preventing me from having the memory of a brain-damaged goldfish, but I zip in and out of things much more quickly — as described in the interview above. I find the Internet invaluable when I’m researching something in depth (especially if it puts me in contact with an expert), but if I’m just browsing, I pick up a hell of a lot of shallow information.
(Plus I really liked the empirical proof that having lots of ‘friends’ on Facebook means bugger all because we still, in reality, have an upper limit of around 150.)
Via the Tezza, strange client requests in web design. I like the transparent colour request the best. I’m going to use it in my meeting tomorrow.
Democracy Live looks pretty cool, if that’s your sort of thing.
Aw. I like this story — while traditional newspapers are collapsing, small towns are finding ways to spread local news (with or without teh Ingterneck). I, for one, would love to help with our local community newsletter, but I’m not sure they’d want the help!
Hilarious, this piece about Goodreads. I generally find the signal to noise ratio so low that I ignore everything about it except the ability to keep an online reference of everything I’ve read since 2008.
Everybody and their grandmother seems to have a Twitter account these days.
That’s not a problem, what I find annoying is everyone who uses Twitter is tarred (and feathered?) with the same brush — Why would you want to tell everyone what you’re doing anyway? It’s so banal! It’s lame to talk about what you’re eating for breakfast. And so on.
I only follow people I know. The people I know don’t Tweet because they’re desperate for popularity. They don’t post five gazillion times a day about what they’re eating and thinking and if they’re scratching their bum (or balls). And if they do sometimes, it’s so infrequent it doesn’t matter. I have friends I haven’t seen in years, and this is a way for me to feel I’m still involved in their lives in some remote way.
And I only Tweet if I spot something interesting or have thought of something kinda bonkers that I want to share. And if strangers follow me because they hope I’ll follow them in return, sorry. To me, Twitter is a microblogging service. It’s not a lifestreaming app. My life is boring and filled with work, commuting by bus, and painting walls and ceilings.
… but my web host sent me invoices to renew my hosting that I never received so my account was suspended. But it’s fixed now (clearly).
In an attempt to make my Google Reader more realistic, I cut out almost all my news feeds, and was planning on posting short snippets of things I wanted to comment on. Now it’s late in the day and frankly I cannae be bothered to publish loads of short posts, so here’s one list. Imagine they’re four posts.
- Nurse suspended for offering to pray for patients (story 1, 2) is political correctness gone mad. As long as she wasn’t evangelising and forcibly dunking them then pronouncing them saved I don’t see what the harm is.
- I have received a flyer and e-mail from the Scottish SPCA about the RSPCA ‘stealing food from the mouths of Scottish animals‘. I’d rather volunteer my time but I ain’t got any.
- New .tel domain seems like a mad idea. Um, we already have Facebook and Plaxo and no one needs to be that contactable. Why not walk up to a hacker and give them our personally identifying information instead?
- Ah, protectionism rears its ugly head in a country where workers are too used to a cushy life. Yet more on this Total refinery hiring non-British EU workers. If the Brits were better workers they would be hired, because any company would want to get as much as possible for their money.
I’m shocked to report that Stephen Fry actually seems to get it. No, I’m not following him — I don’t know him.