communication. community. cognition.
…is the one that pulls you in to enjoy every morsel.
Will it sell product? Who knows? Who cares? As long as it isn’t a pain in the neck.
To be honest, that last panel reads more like a bad translation from some post-Soviet Slavic language:
Side note: Producer Hugh Padgham’s greatest contribution to The Police was convincing Sting to change the title of the song from “Perspicacity” to “Synchronicity.”
Facebook needs one simple button.
It seems that every few weeks now, we run across some article or other about the angst within the walls of Facebook, about how it can fix some problem or another.
I mean, when you blanket the globe, there are inevitably going to be kinks in the fabric you have to iron out. Smooth and pleasurable experiences keep people coming back for more, and the business model requires the site to be as sticky as possible. Everything from the tones and textures of the notifications, to the layout, to the names of the options you have — all are tested and re-tested to make the place as open and engaging as possible.
Even the algorithm.
[Read more…]
This is not an essay about American foreign policy.
This is not an essay about racism.
This is not an essay about what is proper in social discourse.
I will tend to ignore comments about the above, because this is instead about how the White House has made an Outhouse out of social media — and by extension, mainstream media.
I deactivated my Facebook account.
Just got too tired of people yelling at each other over misunderstandings, and failure-to-try-to-understand ings. Then I got weary of making them angry, by not siding with them quickly enough against the latest and greatest existential threat since at least 1:15 this afternoon.
I got exhausted, being a voice for reason and perspective in a wind tunnel that accelerates emotion and blows it back in your face.
I need a break.
If you need me for anything (and Lord knows you really don’t,) you know where to find me.
Try not to wallow in fear. It’s how they control you.
Obviously, I have been talking for much longer than that.
However, today marks five years being a spokesman for Alabama Power.
That’s an odd sort of thing to remember, as it did not involve a massive employment change, or promotion. If you’d like, you could consider it a “battlefield promotion” of sorts.
I was dubbed a company spokesperson at 11:32 a.m. – squarely between two enormous storm systems that struck Alabama on April 27, 2011.
I remember self-deploying to the office at 5 a.m., when I realized we had seven counties with tornado warnings, and 35,000 customers without service. I even stopped in a parking lot on the way, to avoid a coming gust front of more than 90 miles-an-hour.
The deadly wave hit around 3 that afternoon, and continued for hours. With my “promotion” in hand, I suddenly had more leeway with what I could tweet from the @AlabamaPower account, how I could engage, and how to use it to get intelligence. We assured whole neighborhoods, we got pictures directly from the heart of the carnage – and we also shared images of coming recovery and hope.
Who knows what I will be doing five years from now? Probably looking back at ten years after. Because it was that kind of day.
It is rather odd how the days that define us the most can remain so clear, vivid and detailed in our memory.
I will be doing more talking in the coming weeks.
And after more than eight sporadic years, I will be doing less talking here.
At some point, this site and archive will be coming down. It’s time to mothball these essays, and figure out what they are and what they mean and what value they might still hold.
Of all the acclaim, I was proudest of something my mother said: “I like how what you write there seems timeless.”
Maybe what passes for my wit and wisdom will retain some of that value, and I can salvage it into something else. A different project, different product, different format.
I have several presentations to wrap up this week, and some conference work. So I don’t know how much longer this Razr will stay sharp.
But it has been one hell of a ride, hasn’t it?
In my daily work, I end up on the receiving end of many solicitations. Often I am not the person they really want to reach, and more often than not what they are pitching has little relevance to my business or my industry.
Sometimes, those pitches are the source of very unintentional humor.
In this case, I will do my best to protect the less-than-innocent. If you have gotten the same pitch, you might recognize it. Please don’t out them in the comments, but I am very curious to see if you see what I found…
