Does Facebook make you Beige?

I have two Facebook accounts, one is personal and the other is business. I know you can set up groups to keep things separate, but I neither trust Facebook or myself to set things up in such a way that I never have to worry about the two groups clashing.

Much simpler to set up two accounts.

My business feed is mostly about ranking websites in Google and using social media in a profitable way. Although you still get the, “bought a new at today, matches my hat”, type posts on the business side, it’s mostly good info.

But I just wrote a note to my personal feed about hyper mediation making people beige. Which is something you are more likely to find in Media Communications degree essay I know, and I’m sure it leaves some of my Facebook F&F wondering WTF.

The point is, you don’t get to see people’s lives, you only see the hyper mediated version that has any sharper corners sanded down by a high voltage Bosch power tool. You tend not to get any juicy bits.

Hence the beige.

Also, I am noticing a reduction in Facebook action from “normal” people. By normal I mean those that do not have to be chained to the altar of QWERTY 16 hours a day. The trend may be different with the generation who are growing up with http grafted on to their sub-consciousness who in a few years will have iPhone screens surgically grafted into the palms of their hands.

And if we try to go towards the more fruity parts of Facecbook and social media, we soon find ourselves neck deep in a foul smelling brown fluid, that has a strange viscous quality.

Maybe it’s best to stick with the beige.

But I think, it’s more important to unhook from the stream of hyper mediated human consciousness and let the grass grow a little.

Recently I nuked all of the people I follow on Twitter. Which is 99.9% business and strangely enough it’s led me to be more connected and communicating more with people. I suppose it has forced people to email, which persuades people to be more detailed than the regular 140 chars.

Honestly, it is fascinating stuff picking at the threads. You do have to step back though to see some of the detail.

Why it makes sense to throw away your Smartphone

On the wireless today I listened to how an architect had enough of being addicted to his £500 smartphone and just threw it in the bin.

He said it was affecting his attention span and causing him to constantly check emails, even when in conversation with a group of friends.

I absolutely have had the same desire, although I am not addicted to my iPhone, I do have the constant distant thought that I am always connected, always being tracked. I’m also way too stingy to through away my very expensive communication device.

What I would miss most is my bar code reader which scans barcodes and then searches the Internet for the same product and compares pricing. It’s amazing the price differential these days and makes buying on the Internet a more likely thing.

There is of course the slow movement, who I’m sure would give a free hug to anyone throwing their smartphone in the bin. But I see such an act more as an art form, or a form of expression. Something to highlight the absurdity of smartphones and social media.

After all, we did get to the Moon and back without one.

The Pain of being offered a Choice

The agony of looking out of one window, when you know could be looking out of another.

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