Skip to main content

It's All About Me

I broke no early ground in the social networking scene. In fact, my arrival at the party was rather late. It seems these new tools need to be relevant before they're used. For me, it took moving to Maryland before I stared a blog. Well, it was a Yahoo Group in June '04 and is now the blog at which you are reading.

Next, came the MySpace page. At the time, I was also collecting hundreds of friends for the WUSA MySpace page. My problem with MySpace is it's become such a haven for mindless applications, cheap profile skins, and peeps tryin' to hook up. I try to keep the page updated but only at a minimal effort.


So, when FaceBook opened to the general public after being regulated to only college students, I pounced on setting up a profile. Facebook's cleaner format, faster loading pages, and overall superior product has kept me updating my profile there.

Now, I'm Twittering. This is clearly a stretch for me. If keeping this blog updated and adding whatnots to the Facebook profile wasn't difficult enough, the value of spitting out one or two line quips about what I'm doing or thinking seems a bit self-promoting. Of course, I finally caved a couple months ago and have been enjoying it.

Whereas a Facebook or MySpace page might allow people to see galleries, videos, and other tidbits about oneself, Twitter allows people following you a glimpse into your personality. Plus, since it updates the status on Facebook, this allows for some great comments from one's non-Twitter friends. I've felt it all a bit
narcissistic at times, however, these tools do really seem to bridge the gap between being able to chat with someone on the phone or in person. Plus, if you rarely (if ever) have a chance to catch up with an old buddy or office mate, these updates keep the connection current.

So, the experiment continues. But one has to think, with all this time spent on a computer or with a smart phone, how much time do we really spent "with" people verses machines? Hmmmm....

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

See You Around, Mike

Three weeks ago, I attended the memorial service of a dear Brother in Christ. Sunday, June 10, would've been his 56th birthday. I miss my friend. But what's sad is that I didn't miss Mike until he was gone. At least in the middle of the odd month, but definitely by the last week of it, Mike would always reach out to me with a request. It was usually to load a certain worship music video or some game show music. Sometimes, he needed some specific slides created or sound effects. Mike put a lot of thought into preparing the lessons. For certain lessons, Mike asked the kids to write something that was bothering them or something that was a sin. Then he had them take hammer and nail to that card and attach it to an old rugged cross. Mike often brought in props to physically connect the Bible stories to the kids. For example, when he dressed as an innkeeper and walked in a wheelbarrow full of fresh cow manure. He was adding the smell of a barn to the lesson just to help

May We Never Forget

On this 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I'm posting below a story I wrote on the 10th anniversary. These are my reflections on that day.  Looking at the first paragraph, it's interesting how times change. No one has asked me questions of where I was or what I was doing. I'm not sure if many of us have forgotten but more likely we're so very distracted. We've navigated almost two years of a pandemic that's taken and changed so many lives. We've navigated political and cultural changes poorly and emotionally to the point of creating more divisions.  We are not the country we were the weeks and months after 9/11. The bipartisan efforts then were refreshing. The amount of American flags flying proudly and in solidarity was inspiring. Today, it seems many despise their own country and its flag. But even this is not new. While she has stumbled over the years and will continue to do so - America will always be the most amazing country in the world. It

Reverse Discrimination of Christmas

With Christmas slowly fading from your memory, did you find yourself this year taking a stand for Christmas? I'm not talking about stealing the stand beneath the Christmas tree. Perhaps you missed it but 2009 was the year of sticking it to retailers who refused to display or say "Merry Christmas!" Boycotting secular businesses because they aren't promoting Christmas: righteous or ridiculous? I'll vote for both.