I saw this video on YouTube and I loved it, so I’m sharing it here. There’s something really interesting about trying to connect a senior population to modern technology.
I’m going to look into this documentary to see if there is a way that I can watch it. I think it looks interesting!
Before I began writing this entry, I wanted to reach out to a few of my long-time online friends just to shoot the breeze. I wanted to ask them how work was going, how their side projects were coming along, if there was a project that we could collaborate on, etc. This is what the internet used to exist of when programs like ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger were running wild on everyone’s desktops. In 2014, we don’t have that any more. Sure, we have Facebook Messenger and Gmail Chat, but they’re both extensions of different social media websites. They’re not designed for one-on-one interaction between individuals in a private, friendly setting.
Frankly, the internet in 2014 kind of sucks.
While I don’t think that we need to go back to the days of the Prodigy internet message boards or the original America Online, I do think that as we’ve moved further down the path of “Social Media Life” we’ve actually removed much of the interaction that we used to have with our online friends. Even as close as 10 years ago I could log-on to the internet and have my Yahoo Messenger load up as well as my AOL Instant Messenger and immediately engage in any number of one-on-one conversations with both my “real life” friends and my internet friends. And the conversations weren’t useless or the type of silly drivel that you read on these humor websites. No, we were making connections and having real conversations. It was fun!
Today, everything seems to need to be filtered through a Facebook or other social media-like portal and I don’t like it. I want to be able to log-on and talk to the folks who originally made the internet fun for me. I also want to be able to pick these people’s brains in a more readily available manner than sending a message into a seemingly black social media hole. There’s no connection in that method of communication.
Unfortunately, though, I don’t think that we’re ever going to get back to that level of meaningful one-on-one interaction on the internet. I think we’re stuck in a mess that doesn’t allow people to grow real friendships through shared online interactions. And given the friends that I’ve made through these online interactions, I think that’s a real shame for future generations of internet users.
Over the last few years, I’ve written several posts about the dwindling functionality and, ultimately, usefulness of certain social media platforms. For example, some three years ago I noted that I closed down my MySpace and LinkedIn accounts. And here we are – three years later – and I have no intention of opening up either of those accounts again. Sure, a lot of people tell me to reopen my LinkedIn account so I can shore up certain professional contacts in a worst case scenario (i.e. if I need to find employment quickly), but I have no interest in maintaining a presence on that platform at this time.
Which brings me to one of the two social media platforms where I do maintain accounts: Facebook.
Facebook seems to have become "Happy Birthday-book"
I’m sure that most of the folks reading this entry have a Facebook account – it seems like most people on the planet have a Facebook account these days. And, if you’re like me, then you’ve noticed something weird about Facebook in the last few years. No, it’s not the fact that Facebook seems to constantly change their layout without the consent (or considered happiness) of their users. And no, it’s not the fact that spam-loving companies have found a way to breach even Facebook’s strong security measures. Instead, if you’re like me you’ve noticed that Facebook has been reduced to a single phrase for most people…
“Happy Birthday, buddy!”
I can’t tell you how many of my Facebook friends only interact with me on my birthday. And, admittedly, there are scores of my Facebook friends who I only interact with on their birthdays. Over the last year, I’ve made a conscious effort to not send happy birthday greetings to people who I wouldn’t go out of my way to call or text with the same message. Sometimes, I find that there are social strictures that require me to send someone a happy birthday note. Other times, there are folks who I would go out of my way to say happy birthday to if I saw them during the day, but I refrain from doing so online because it seems somewhat weird.
But more than any other observation about the oodles of birthday messages that are flung around Facebook, the most pressing observation is just how weird the whole exercise is for everyone. I mean let’s be honest – how many different ways can you say, “Happy Birthday, [INSERT NAME HERE]! Enjoy!” or something similar each year to the same person before it gets redundant, repetitive, and just bizarre? With some of my Facebook friends I’ll go in and check what I wrote on their wall the prior year and most of the time the message that I’m crafting for the new happy birthday message is eerily similar.
The whole thing is just bizarre to me. However, the weirdness factor aside I have no plans to get rid of my Facebook page. The truth is that Facebook is too ingrained in our society today and we are all too reliant on that particular social media platform. So, while I may be a little exasperated with the happy birthday messages that I see on there every single day, I think it’s just part of the platform that we’re going to have to accept.
By the way, my birthday is next Tuesday, January 31st… and I’ve grown to expect many birthday greetings on my Facebook wall!
You know, when I think about it – the last week and a half has been absolutely amazing for this world. Welcome back to JerseySmarts.com. Though I have been – and continue to be – swamped with an ever-growing pile of work, I wanted to take a few minutes to write about why the last week and a half has been such a happy time for this planet.
This has been a pretty happy place for the last week and a half.
About a week and a half ago, nearly a one-third of the planet’s population began celebrating the Easter Triduum. The Easter Triduum is the three day period leading up to Easter Sunday and the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly something for believers like me (and some 2.1 billion other believers in Christ) to celebrate.
On the first of two personal notes in this entry, one of the young men that I advised when he was an undergraduate in Sigma Pi Fraternity became a member of the Roman Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil mass. For him – and those of us who know him – this was also a reason for celebration.
After a solemn, joyous Holy Week the world then began preparing for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Normally, I wouldn’t cite this as a reason for the world to celebrate. However, following the tragic, paparazzi-fueled death of his beloved mother Princess Diana, there were many people who saw this past Friday’s wedding as a sort of victory for civility. The Sun Newspaper (based out of the United Kingdom) estimated that up to 3 billion people might watch the wedding. I’ve read post-wedding viewership figures as high as 2 billion, so I don’t know the exact number of people who saw the wedding, but I’m sure that most folks out there either saw the wedding live or saw footage.
In any event, the adoring crowds in the United Kingdom reflected the joy and happiness that most people shared for the young bride and groom.
And on a personal note – this past Friday a good friend of mine got married. I was honored to be one of his groomsmen and the excitement of the wedding helped make this past weekend a really great one for me and the hundreds of people who are celebrating this wedding, too.
And then Sunday, May 1st came. For the more than 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, we celebrated the beatification of Pope John Paul II – now known as Blessed John Paul II. The beatification mass was viewed around the world as a man who many knew as a world leader took the final step before being declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Certainly a reason for celebration among the faithful Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church communities!
Of course the only way for such an amazing week and a half period to come to completion was with the announcement that the United States had located, stormed, and killed the most wanted terrorist in the world. And not only was I excited about the confirmation of Osama bin Laden being killed, but I was proud about the way the United States citizens celebrated the victory. I posted this message on Facebook late last night about our national celebration:
When certain countries on the other side of the world celebrate a big event, radical extremists come out in the streets and burn effigies of world leaders and flags of other nations.
When America celebrates the death of a global mass murderer, we have men, women, young, old, Republicans, Democrats, black, white, Hispanic, etc. all celebrating together chanting “USA! USA! USA!”
We win. Again.
Followers of freedom and believers in liberty have a big reason to celebrate this news. Congratulations go out to the men and women of our military and intelligence services on a job well done.
As I posted on Twitter last night – I feel like this week and a half period of happiness and celebration is the beginning of something great for this world. Let’s hope that the good times keep on coming and that we continue to receive good news (or the Good News, as it were) in the coming days, weeks, and months! Enjoy!
Just a brief background for this entry… I was born in Manhattan and moved to the northwest part of New Jersey when I was seven years old. I stayed up there until I left to go to college at Monmouth University in the fall of 1999 and, except for one summer, I’ve been living in the Monmouth County area of the Jersey Shore ever since. In other words, I live in a part of the world where when it comes to the NFL, you’re either a Giants fan or a Jets fan. Me? I’m a Giants fan. So that’s your background for this story.
From Garfield High School...
After the game, a Facebook page that purports itself to be Austin’s official page had this to say:
My passion for football began at Garfield.. not sure why yall are so upset that I repped them for once instead of Monmouth. Yall should know I love MU and always will.. But without Garfield and the support I received there, I woulda never made it to Monmouth. Kids need to know that high school is a time to find your talent or passion and run as far as you can with it.
Now, I’m not sure if this is Austin’s real Facebook page or not, but the blurb above makes sense in my world. Of course, before Austin posted this on his Facebook account, I commented about how hilarious I found the whole situation. In the comments following my blurb, I wrote the following:
[My Roommate] and I figured that thousands of MU alumni started laughing out loud when he said “Garfield High School” while dozens of MU employees and administrators were confused as to why someone would do that in the first place!
And this point is the crux of this entry. I guarantee that all of the idiot “yes men” ass kissers that I went to college with had no idea why Austin wouldn’t even consider announcing himself from Monmouth during that opening game. I also guarantee that some exorbitantly paid administrators at Monmouth who are so full of their own bullshit started to panic after hearing “Garfield High School” during what should have been the shining moment of their delusional impressions of my alma mater. The fact is that many of the folks working in the administration at Monmouth are out of touch with the student body. And when they need to get student opinions on issues and items, they choose their “yes men” and ass kissers to provide feedback for the general population. It’s useless.
Oh, and I speak for a super-majority of the current students and alumni from the school? How do I know that? Very simple. I looked at a copy of Monmouth University’s most recent results on the National Survey of Student Engagement. One of the questions asked, “How well do students get along with administrators and staff?”
The answer?
Some 35% of first year students find the administrative personnel and offices helpful, considerate, and flexible. Gah! If 35% of my clients thought that I was helpful, considerate, and flexible to their needs I’d get fired on the spot! Because if 35% think that you’re great, then 65% want to bang their head into the wall each time they deal with you!
Anyway, for the reason that Austin stated in his Facebook update and because of the results of the national survey – and for the many less-than-pleasant encounters I had with the administrators over there when I was an undergraduate – I’m glad that Austin said he was from Garfield High School instead of Monmouth University. It serves them right. There’s clearly a disconnect that the university isn’t addressing and, quite frankly, doesn’t seem to know how to address.
So for this Giants fan, my favorite Cowboy is Miles Austin. And that’s in light of the fact that Tony Romo and I are in the same fraternity (Sigma Pi Fraternity)!
