Category Archives: Social media

Anything regarding Facebook, Blogs, etc.

Birds tweet: Twitter is a cacophony

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Am I alone in thinking that Twitter has lost it?

Twitter is a great concept, but it is now sadly way past its sell by date. It has famously been likened to shouting into a darkened room. It has become a darkened room now inhabited by millions of others doing precisely the same thing. Cue a cacophony.

The tragedy of course is that within this dissonant din, there maybe some useful information. Finding it though is for me not worth the time-consuming trawl through the mass of noise.

Therefore whilst, I have mentions and direct messages forwarded to me by email – the rest, regrettably I find I have little choice but to ignore. I feel sure that I am missing out on information, though the cost of finding it is now just too high. And frankly life is just too short.

eXmas cards

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Over a billion (thousand million for us UK English pedants) greetings cards are sent out over Xmas. And so for the first time I have sent most of my Xmas cards electronically. I have used the Woodland Trust’s e-card service. The trusts exists to preserve woods so it seemed appropriate, and the cards looked nice, too.

I know there are some who use e-cards as an easy way to essentially spam their friends and contacts. This seems perverse to me. It robs the cards of all their value, there is neither effort nor meaning to them. And why send a pretty card wishing someone a nice holiday and yet do it in such a way as to hack them off!

So all my cards were individually addressed, the picture selected from those I liked and with an individual message included. Those who have received normal cards from me in the past will also know that it isn’t my writing in them anyway ;)  And since I assure you I do write the e-cards, it actually takes me longer to do e-cards. I like the environmentally friendliness. I just couldn’t resist the eXmas card pun either.

On the other hand I do feel obliged to write a semi-apologetic blog post!

Do let me know what you think of e-cards, I am curious to know.

Meanwhile have a Merry Xmas and a great New Year.

WordPress adds email

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Word Press has just made it easier to set up your whole website.(WordPress.com are the people who host this blog!)

At first I saw WordPress as purely a way to publish blogs. However, you can add pages of content that is not a blog, there are pages to send emails, without exposing your email address to spammers. For me the only thing missing was a way to get email. For example I couldn’t get an email address of  that ended …@noelg.net

WordPress have now changed that by fixing up with Google mail. I have just finished a site for a local charity, I suspect that the next one I build could very well be WordPress based. I almost want to build one just to see what is possible!

Facebook fear and friends

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I use Facebook a lot. I like it, it is useful. Useful for keeping in touch with friends too distant to meet often; useful for finding out little things that I may have otherwise missed – a great concert over this last weekend, for example. Useful as simply another form of social interaction, that complements all the existing ones – telephone, email, face to face conversation of course.

Naturally, I tell people this and suggest that they have a look themselves. At which point something really odd often happens. A look of real concern crosses their faces and I hear:

“Oh, no I won’t use Facebook”

Or something similar. So what is it about Facebook that seems to inspire such a reaction, such an aversion, such fear.

I have no idea. But I then I wouldn’t: I like it. I’d like it even more though if more of my friends used it. For all of the reasons above. But they won’t, of course. And would I change them? – No, of course not, they’re my friends and I like them just the way the are.

Blogging – or not

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Just saw this quote

“The least learned, for the most part, have been always most ready to write.”

It’s from Roger Ascham, a teacher to Queen Elizabeth I . Made me smile, thinking of some blogs I’ve recently seen. Also provides a good excuse for me not writing much ;)

Zen and the art of blogging

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Zen Habits is brilliant, perhaps even life changing. I recently found this Zen based site on improving your life, your mind, and almost anything else you wish to improve.

I love almost everything about it. The design of the site is clean and clear, and the author has relinquished the copyright on the site. Very Zen. I feel that is part of the attraction, there is a congruence, a feeling that what the site says and how it is built and run all follow the same theme. There are thousands of pages some recent articles include, 5 Ways to Spend Less Time at Work, Why Your Email Inbox Is NOT a Good To-do List, Why You (Almost) Never See a Fat Japanese (or, How I Lost 5 lbs. in Tokyo) and All the Advice on Happiness You’ll Ever Need in One Post

The list goes on. A fabulously popular blog and I can easily see why.

http://zenhabits.net/

Facebook

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I’ve avoided Facebook, for years. Scared off probably by tales of the possible dangers, or the thought that is was really for students. (Viz. those a little younger than I.)

When I asked a friend about an old work colleague, he amazed me by knowing where she was and how she was doing. “I see her on Facebook”, he blithely told me. So I signed up.

Having used it now for a few months I am a great fan. There is something so professional and yet so clear and intuitive about it. Moreover, I am now in regular contact with people I otherwise saw or heard from too infrequently. And the age thing: the fastest growth is in my age group. Total active membership is now passing 250 million, and it is now the largest single social networking site; looking at the rates of growth, 400 million should come up around this time next year.

I am not surprised already I am more inclined to use Facebook than email. It’s easier I guess. Whatever the reason, for me it is just becoming the default electronic communication medium.