I Want My Life Back
If you don’t know what this means then you probably don’t have the problem (via).
The biggest time suck in my digital life right now is Twitter which has a tenancy to get worse with the more people you follow (and the more you are followed). While my inbox is usually manageable my Google Reader subscriptions (100 of them) also have the ability to sap my attention with endless interesting articles to read and follow up. Where it will end I don’t know…
During quiet moments I daydream about being a cave man.
What Are You Doing?
Whereas up until relatively recently the main lines of communication were Telephone, SMS, Email and IM to an extent (with snail mail for real old school types) the waters have been somewhat muddied in the past year with the advent of micro-blogging services like Twitter and so called “life streaming” services like FriendFeed, which aggregate content updates from across your accounts on different sites (e.g. as below).
Twitter and the like have often been criticised for contributing more background noise rather than useful content but since relocating to China I seem to have found an actual use for it. Where as all the aforementioned modes of communication are one-to-one for the most part, Twitter is one-to-many and visa versa many-to-one. It enables the broadcasting of short messages to a mass audience of “followers” (or just curious bystanders) without the expectation of a reply necessarily. When trying to keep in touch with people on the other side of the planet I have found this especially useful to avoid repeating myself to everyone who just wants to know “What are you doing?” (while trying to avoid mindless trivia).
In terms of consumption I especially enjoyed Twitter’s special coverage of the US election today where often the latest news updates were being “broadcasted” in a live stream even before the news networks could get the information out along with some interesting user commentary.
The medium is certainly in its infancy but will be interesting to see how it develops and what new ways of harnessing this collective voice are found. To get started why not see what’s happening — right now.
The Wanderer Returns
Jogyesa Temple (Seoul) – photo by xoxoryan.
When Arnie uttered the immortal words “I’ll be back” he meant it, as did I, so at rather short notice I’m taking a trip east again – I’ll be in Seoul the first week of March and Beijing the second which is all rather exciting but as usual quite a lot to plan in the few remaining days! This time I’ve managed to find some much more reasonable flights, meaning it will only take 14 hours to get to Seoul instead of 24 last time which just about killed me. Luckily I’m almost a seasoned pro at this malarkey so am a little more prepared for what to expect.
I’m especially looking forward to returning to Chinese soil and having another brief taste of the local colour and cuisine – even being stuck in a queue outside the Chinese embassy in London for two hours on a freezing cold morning didn’t dampen my spirits! It will be interesting to see how far Beijing has developed since last year given the mammoth rate of construction.
I had planned to blog while on the road during my last adventure but that didn’t quite work out as there are only so many hours in a day (and who wants to be stuck at a computer while on holiday anyway!). This time I thought I’d try something a a little less ambitious and will aim to provide updates on Twitter as a bit of an experiment.
Twittering On
I think others have already said enough about the iPhone but sufficed to say it’s living up to my expectations so far. Having phone/ email/ internet/ ipod/ calendar/ photos/ camera/ maps etc. all in one slick device is very very nice. Getting it on Friday evening was an interesting experience in itself. Surprisingly, having queued on Regents Street for about an hour and a half, it only took 15 mins to make the purchase from the time the doors opened amid the crowds of cheering Apple staff (perhaps a little much!). I quickly headed home, praying not to get mugged on the way, and activated it through iTunes – a process which was surprisingly simple (my old phone number transferred directly without any wait).
Photo © mrgeoffb
In the past I always thought micro-blogging tools like Twitter, Pownce or Jaiku were somewhat pointless but now that I have an always-on internet device I can see some merit them. When you’re on the move you don’t have time to make long posts so short updates (< 140 characters) are ideal. Now I just need to find something interesting to say… expect a few experiments to be on their way!