ON CONNECTIVITY

I recently took a nice, long and overdue break from online living and it was great - everything I hoped it would be and more.

Too much connectivity is neither healthy nor recommended. I come back with the intention to put technology in its place. It is to serve me. I do not have to serve technology. So I had my first real vacation in years and I can report that it was great- I am going to take more.

On that note I spent some time catching up on the latest news and happenings. Although I have given up on the e-mail backlog. During my time off I had a few frantic friends e-mail, twitter and they finally resorted to the phone. I admit it was lame not to tell anyone I was taking a break, but good to know after a time friends would send out a search party.

FOUR REASONS I STAY

I observed, during my catch-up reading a lot of people grumbling about Twitter down time and wanting to leave. Many complained the service was flaky and patchy. I will admit Twitter has its problems. I stick with Twitter through the good times and the growing pains, (not to mention writing and reading about the reactions) for four reasons.

• Free: It is free. Even though I would gladly pay for the service it continues to remain free.  
• Works: It serves my needs in experimental media. At this moment it does what I need.
• Community: My friends and colleagues use the service. Community is everything and I have developed some great friendships and business using Twitter.
• Fandom: Most importantly, and the most important reason- I am a fan and I am loyal. True fandom cannot be bought.

IT IS O.K. TO BE LOYAL

It troubles me how fickle people seem to be these days. They are happy to dump something because it isn’t perfect or a service is experiencing growing pains. Twitter started a really neat way of self reflection and more and more people showed up.

Of course we turned it into a new medium for conversation and communication because that is what people do. I think the laws of systematics are in effect. The more people that are present the more complex the system tends to become.

I admit at times it is a virtual “Tower of Babel”. However, new technology comes along to augment the service so communications can continue. It also continues to change how we interact and use the medium. I think it is exciting to be a part of this change. (Hat Tip to Sam Harrelson for introducing me to the service.)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT- BACK TO BASIC TWITTER

Since I am on the topic of going off-grid and the values of self-reflection let me give readers a useful exercise as a parting shot.

Twitter asks:   “What are you doing?”

Four very simple words. I thought about them quite a bit on my vacation. What am I doing with my life, my family, my job, my friends, my career or just what am I doing right now? Am I living in the moment? I know at the end I will wish I had those moments back… Life is so fleeting and so fast that I, and perhaps others, often forget to really live in the moment and enjoy just living.

SIMPLE QUESTION- EASY ANSWERS?

I also played with the inflection of the different words sounding out each word and adding stress as a sort of meditation or personal exercise.
Try it yourself and see how the question is changed.

WHAT are you doing?

What ARE you doing?

What are YOU doing?

What are you DOING?

It is intersting how a question’s intent can be changed by a minor alteration in emphasis. So I stick with Twitter. It asks a question, a very simple and very important question.

ADDENDUM: Update made for spacing and clarity.

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