Every Tool Has A Use

To my son Tommy,

I have somehow managed to categorize and compartmentalize my social presence.  With the amount of competing social medias online, I suppose it was only a matter of time.  It is the same theory as owning a bunch of cordless phones and their bases.  We have four.  You wouldn't line them all up in the same room.  Instead you spread them out, one in the kitchen, one in the living room, one in the bedroom, and (with our family and your mom's crohn's disease) one in the john.  Each phone can do the same thing but we have spread their duties to cover more area in our house and make life easier for us.  Somehow your mom can end up with three or four phones in one place, but for the most part each one has a specific location for a specific purpose.

This is similar to what my online life has become.  I use Blogger, of course, to write you these letters.  I use Facebook to follow family and friends.  I use LinkedIn for work updates and professional stuff.  I use Google+ profile but I haven't found it's niche use yet.  I kind of think of it like a backup quarterback for Facebook.  There are other tools out there that I use (like Yelp to look up restaurants when I can find an honest review and we have spare money to go out) or have used (Is myspace still around?) for various things and to various degrees and there are yet others I haven't started using but the most interesting tool as of late is Twitter.

I find myself using Twitter for news and increasingly to follow along with local issues and follow along with local news.  They recently had an award ceremony for local tweeters and bloggers and such called the Mobbies.  When the results were posted, I ended up with a treasure trove of people to follow on Twitter.  I never thought an online tool would increase how connected I can feel to my city, yet here I am hanging on tweets of bearded local reporters and watchdog agitators.  It feels good to be at least informed if not enlightened even if it is a bit of escapism from current struggles.

I wonder, when you read this, if these names of the sites and tools will have lasted or if you will have to go looking for them in a history book or wiki or whatever the tool du jour is.  I also wonder how many people are compartmentalizing their online life like me or if this is just some sort of geekly OCD.  If you find yourself with lots of social media tools (or lots of cordless phones in the house for that matter) remember to diversify and not throw all your eggs in one basket.  It may actually seem counter intuitive that you can simplify your life using multiple tools for specific purposes when each and any of the tools could probably handle and satisfy all areas.  Logic would normally suggest, if that is the case, to simplify by only picking one tool.  But in this ever changing age, where tools come and go and depend on the success of their IPO, being well versed in all your options gives you some peace of mind.  It also spreads the burden and allows you to choose which online area of your life you want to spend time.  One of the best things about spreading out your activities among sites, you feel less guilty about taking a break from one or all and you feel less overwhelmed when you decide to resume.  And always remember, it goes without saying too often, that these are just tools to life and the majority of your time should be spent outside of these tools, living real life with real people in real interactions.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo

Thread Necromancy

To my son Tommy,

There is an annoying but interesting problem of the digital age which is often referred to as "thread necromancy".  People comment in the moment about all types of things.  In the context of the times these comments make sense.  Everyone joins in and a lively discussion ensues and everyone understands the contemporary references and meanings and then the conversation runs its due course and ends.  But nothing in the internet is ever really gone and sure enough a couple months or years later someone will comment, or add more to the conversation, effectively raising this topic or conversation from the dead.

I used to think this was unique to the gaming world and forums but have been seeing this more and more in social media.  Catch all photo albums like the iOS photo album on Facebook, are some of the major culprits.  People comment on the photo album instead of the individual photos sometimes not even commenting about the photos themselves but using the opportunity to talk about something else time specific..  At the time of the original upload, the comments are appropriate and understood in context of the time.  Flash forward a couple months and you upload the next batch of photos to that same catch all photo album.

With the past comments intact and the laziness of me not starting a new album every upload, throw in some people that are technologically challenged but eager to engage and join the conversation, and the results can be quite humorous.  My own iOS photos on my Facebook has about five dozen pictures and span all types of topics from Easter to summer vacation.  If you don't look at the dates of each photo or comment, you might be led to believe that we dyed Easter eggs at OCNJ during our vacation while cutting down bamboo and gardening with your Grandmom Roro until your mom finally could eat some bad hospital food.  The photos in this album define non-sequitur.  It reminds me of going through my high school yearbook and trying to figure out what all those inside jokes and acronyms meant.  What can be done?

I say embrace it and laugh.  Explaining it to everyone might confuse more people, so just roll with it.  I am currently watching (and snickering) as a friend on Facebook gets birthday wishes because a comment thread on a catch-all photo album wished him happy birthday in January and the comment thread has recently been revived.  I thought of joining in and going as far as sending in a cake and candles to his office, but I am not sure if my sense of humor would hit home.

Though I hid the earlier comments on my own iOS album, I half considered un-hiding them and purposefully uploading pictures that diametrically opposed the poster's previous comments.  Halloween would be perfect for this! Someone may have commented "How Beautiful" or "How Cute" and I can add pictures of blood and gore decorations that would make others question the definition of beauty or at least the eye of the beholder/commenter.

For now, I think I will bring thread necromancy to a whole new level and go old school and find one of my old yearbooks and start grilling people as to what they meant by their cryptic signings.  Says right here, next to this unknown acronym they wrote, that they would never forget.  On a side note, hopefully one or two of my letters to you will be timeless and not too dependent on the context of this day and age.  Those words that transcend time and the popularity of present day are those words that are worth reading.  Even if you don't find those timeless words in my writings, or any of the famous authors I try to turn you onto, I know of one Good Book that exemplifies that sentiment.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo