I want to preface this blog by saying I've done absolutely no research, and the content of this post is limited solely to my humble (ok, not so humble) opinions. But in a feeble attempt to match one of Marc's rants, I have some views on how our society is making use of our new virtual communications world.
First, I like and find value in most of the tools available to me today. But there are exceptions. I pride myself on staying somewhat current with the available technologies. I have Facebook, iTunes, Linked-In, yahoo (email and fantasy basketball) and we (I have to include Holly in this last one) also have several on line accounts with virtual retailers and suppliers - everything from paying our car or electric bill to perusing eBay for the latest "deal". But I don't use any of these tools to the degree some others do. I would consider myself to be somewhere in the range of novice to moderate in terms of usage.
Nearly all of these tools offer some level of CONVENIENCE and FEATURES/BENEFITS that are the reasons why people use them. But like all good tools with various bells and whistles, sometimes they are utilized for purpose that they should not.
Napster was a classic example of music downloading gone awry. On line marketing represents a nuisance in some of these applications, and a royal pain in the a$$ in others. After all, who wants 12 emails a day from Pottery Barn announcing their latest sales. Not us!
But business and businesses are the only guilty parties when it comes to mis-use of such tools. Sometimes friends and families are the culprits. You all know what I mean. Those harmless little twits/tweets/emails that are forwarded with little or no personal touch. So, personal touch has also been automated, optimized, and outsourced - and to whom? I'm not sure, really. Who actually comes up with Power Points synchronized to Enya music (thanks Brad) with catching stories, poems and pictures to emit a particular closeness among friends and family.
I can't help but reference my Grandma Strempke here. She doesn't even like cards from her relatives that are just signed! No, she wants a personal note! She doesn't want to read what Hallmark came up with to share sentiment and love. She wants to hear it from her family and friends that sent her the lousy card! Now, I'm not always aligned with my Grandma Strempke's views of sending technology, innovation and advancement of the modern world to a screeching halt by relying on your postman, milkman and newspaper for staying connected to the big world around us ... but on this one she has a point!
And that point is simply ... it's only a personal touch if its personal. That means you wrote it, you created it, and you sent it. You can tweet/twit/facebook/email to your hearts content, but please ensure that the message includes what you thought, what you wrote, and what you wanted to share. Not someone else's recycled (albeit entertaining) message.
I'm sorry if I've offended anyone who has sent such a message. Admittedly, I've sent a few. But I'm rebelling against it and we'll see how long I can hold out. The only people I was intending to offend were the authors of these crappy forwards in the first place. One word of advice for them - GET A REAL JOB!
That's it, I'm out. Brothers? Your turn to speak out against further atrocities of our virtual world and our obsessions of mis-use.
No comments:
Post a Comment