If I haven’t already beaten this horse to death, let me continue. Increasing the number of Twitter followers can be overwhelming. It has been compared to drinking from a fire hose and I can personally testify that there’s nobody there to adjust the pressure! Once you go over the 100 following threshold, you’re bound to encounter so many tweets that you just want to give up. After the initial guilt over skipping posts passes, you tend to look for information from people you personally know.
I use Tweetdeck on my laptop which provides a grouping feature that allows me to see posts from particular users. However, this makes it easy to miss interesting items from common sources and forces reliance on your trusted friends to re-tweet stuff you might have missed. While I do have a trusted cadre of people that do this, I certainly don’t want this to be my safety net.
There is also the issue of people who tweet anything and everything that pops into their minds. Let’s call them tweeter-mouths. Some of these people have the BriteKite application installed that tweets their current location. It surprises me that I’m not finding out when they’re in the toilet! Then there are the folks who take oral hygiene habits to extreme and tweet after every meal with a recap of their menu. While I am sometimes interested in where people are or what they have eaten, I really only want to know if these things are interesting. A trip to the gas station or McDonalds meal might be something that inquiring minds want to know but I avoid that rag for a reason. Add to this the tweeting, re-tweeting, and more re-tweeting of AllTop.com lists and my head is just about ready to explode!
Is this just a symptom of not being able to cope with new technology due to a generational gap? Is it possible that younger people are able to filter out noise better than me? I may be in denial but I refuse to believe that this is true. As I’m fond of saying, “acquiescence is approval” and I do not approve. I will continue my search for new techniques and potential allies in the war on blather. Can I get an amen from the congregation?
So That's Life? 
Emoticons in Motion
02/11/2009It’s funny how regular writing for this blog has put me into a reflective mood lately. And concentrating on my surroundings, what I like, and what I don’t like really gets the juices flowing.
As it directly applies to life in the technological world, it turns out that dealing with people online isn’t that much different than IRL (in real life). You still have to treat people with respect and this is even more important when you can’t see their faces to gauge a reaction or if you’re posting a Twitter item with a 140 character limit! When it comes right down to it, you have to be even more circumspect because an electronic message can be instantly forwarded to people you never intended as an audience
Armed with this realization, I decided to put down some thoughts that I could use as a daily guideline for my interactions with people:
Every day, be the best person that you can be for that day.
Devote yourself completely to what you do.
Good luck is made. Bad luck is just everyday life.
Don’t take anyone or anything for granted.
Every day, seek out one person and say or do something kind.
Don’t ever let your family down.
Never be afraid to admit mistakes. Apologize and move on.
Be aware of where you are and how you present yourself.
Try not to dwell on absolutes because they marginalize people.
Humor can make a grim situation easier and a happy occasion memorable.
Except on rare occasions, you are not the most important person in the room.
You don’t have to make a contribution to every conversation.
Speak clearly. It’s your job to make yourself understood.
In much the same way that writing this blog on a regular basis is sometimes difficult, I’ve found that applying these principles in my daily life is easier said than done. When you live in a world where communication is instant and many things are delivered to our door, remembering to utilize our own words often takes a back seat to more pressing issues. Maybe I should add this as my wallpaper or create a random email generator to send me one item each day.
Is anyone out there addressing this issue? If so, please drop a comment on what you are doing.
Posted in Blogroll, commentary, tech | Tagged blogging, discussion, lifestyle, Twitter Commentary | 3 Comments »