Thoughts on Facebook

As of late, there’s been all sorts of stuff flying around the internet about Facebook. Some thought-provoking insights, some less thought-driven stuff.

My thoughts:

- FB is attempting to be everything to everyone. As not everyone wants/will want the same thing, there will always be someone(s) left unhappy.

- No matter how much people complain, user numbers continue to grow. If numbers are increasing for FB regardless of what it does/doesn’t do, who cares what people want? Especially if there is always going to be someone left unhappy, anyway?

- People complain about FB privacy, but what about all of those other terms of use we’ve all agreed to? Gmail, Yahoo, Target.com, Twitter, Flickr, online banking, amazon.com – why aren’t we all up in arms about all these other binding contracts we’ve committed ourselves to?

Finding Inspiration Outside the Ad Industry

Part 1: Alot of what we do in the advertising industry is to pinpoint the sweet spot mashup of meaningful storytelling and effective communication. (Strategic) advertising people are always up for thinking outside the box and finding inspiration in anything (if you look at it the right way).

Part 2: My good friend Ashly shared a post the other day which honestly, after each sentence, I found myself thinking: Yes! Exactly! Whomever wrote this is so freaking smart! Holla! Amen!

…you get the point.

The premise of the post: (directed at ad. people) ” . . . if we’re looking for ‘interesting’, then we should look beyond the industry magazines, trend company websites, planner blogs and specialist conferences . . . “

And an excerpt:

” . . . If you’re in adland – especially a planner – it appears the definition revolves around being able to quote the words or actions of someone respected in the industry that you’ve just seen or read about.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with that – especially when it sparks off your own thoughts or actions [because let's face it, doing things others find interesting is better than simply being known for knowing/repeating interesting things] – however what’s started to bother me is there appears to be some people in our industry who have created an elitist view of who – or what – can be classified as interesting … discarding anyone or anything if they’ve not appeared in Wired, TEDTalks or PSFK or worked in adland [as long as it's at one of the 'cool' agencies] or a highly regarded ‘intellectual’ industry/category.

Interesting isn’t purely about the views and actions of the celebrated or the elite, it does – and should – include things that come from the masses … those people we walk past every single day without giving them so much as a second glance . . . “

That’s good stuff right there.

Part 3: I attended the Austin Poetry Slam Slam Bowl 2011 this past week at the 29th Street Ballroom and it was awesome. bomb.com. baller. inspiring. yadda yadda.

The people who got up there were all phenomenal…I was blown away by the wordplay, presentation, ability to communicate & captivate an audience. As the wordplay is so intricate & presentation generally doesn’t follow typical speech patterns, poetry forces you to A: Think about what the poet is communicating via the poem on a deeper level and B. Listen alot closer, as the patterns frequently do not follow the conversational patterns our ears have been trained to hear.

Part 4: So to bring this full circle, though the poets I heard are (most likely) not “in the industry”, I’ve got to say, I was more inspired by them and their work/thoughts/ideas, than I have been in a long time by reading/watching industry blogs/books/talks.

Some of my favorites from the slam:

Hyper Micro Thoughts

I’m in the process of making my way though Linchpin, a book by Seth Godin (a thought-leader and entrepreneur I have quite a bit of respect for).

SOOO anyway, I’ve had quite a few “a-ha!” moments throughout the book – felt compelled to share the latest. What say you?

I like the part about long-term results of hyper-micro decision making. We live in a world made for speed…attention to detail doesn’t seem to have much value to many in my generation and attention spans appear to be at an all-time low. What has been the root of this? Digital stuff? Social media? The Internet? Basic evolution? Is hyper-micro decision making good or bad? Neutral? Who cares? Will there be some sort of tipping point or will things just continue to evolve into who knows what?

So many thoughts sparked from such a small paragraph. Perhaps this is why I have trouble sleeping more than 4 hrs a night…

You’ll Comment On My Facebook

…but not my blog. Even when I post the same exact thing on my blog (click prior link) and my Facebook:

As you can see, I had 16 ‘likes’ and about 256 comments on my Facebook, but zip, zilch, nada on the same thing posted to my blog.

I’ve always been interested in the influence, convergence and interaction between humans and technology. Why do we do certain things on one social web platform but won’t do the same on the other? Is it because everything is right there in the newsfeed on Facebook, whereas one would have to make a concerted effort to seek out a blog? (unless they are using some sort of RSS reader…)

Here are some general trends I’ve noticed over the years:

Blog commenting = I took the time to find/follow/comment on your post. Blog comments are usually a compliment, unless they tell you whatever you posted was complete garbage…then perhaps this isn’t as complimentary. I’ve been lucky to avoid the “your post is complete garbage” comments – usually people just don’t comment at all. Even though I know people look at it. Which is slightly creepy, slash, slightly interesting.

Liking/retweeting = I might/might not have actually read what you posted, but there’s something about your post that makes me what to like or share it. I can’t actually comment on it because that would take time and/or commitment. Plus, chances are, I most likely did not fully read/look at what you posted anyway.

Here are the posting patterns I have seen from my posts:

Facebook: People will comment/like my posts, both online and offline (in person)

Twitter: People will comment/retweet my stuff online but NOT offline

Blog: People will generally NOT comment on my posts online, but WILL COMMENT offline

Hmmmm.

Isn’t human online/offline behavior perplexing?

Antisocial Phone Tricks

I re-watched Renny Gleeson’s TED talk last night – the whole thing is good, but this one little snippet struck a chord:

“…when you’re standing with someone, and you’re on your mobile device, effectively what you’re saying to them is,”You are not as important as, literally, almost anything that could come to me through this device.”

Got me thinking. Re-evaluating a bit. What do you think?

[ted id="511" lang="eng"]