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Aug 26 / combsy

Goodbye Social Media?

Research on Iran. by Negar Mottahedeh Social M...

Image via Wikipedia

So I read this article by Leo Laporte a few days ago.

The gist…the social media sphere is nothing but a big echo chamber. You are yelling out what you think is important…but so is everybody else. In the end…none of it is really that valuable, he thinks blogs are better and microblogging (ie twitter, facebook…is worthless) *forgive me Leo if I over simplified it*

I have to say…I kind of agree with him in terms of twitter. Facebook is another matter…I’ll get to that in a second.

Twitter, for me at least, has become a news aggregater. I follow @breakingnews and @espn for example to get headlines and a gist (I like that word) of what is going on the world. I even use it to tell the twitterverse that I have a new blog post…but I have to say…no one ever clicks on the link to go to my blog via twitter. In fact Facebook is just behind google in terms of bringing traffic to my site. Twitter…is no where to be scene.

That may not be the case for a lot of blogs, in fact I think I am more of the exception…but for me (like Leo) it is kind of worthless in terms of generating traffic. The people who care about my blog are either searching for something via google or are my facebook friends. To me that is fine, in fact…I prefer it that way.

So what am I saying.

I think Twitter is great for news gathering.

I think Facebook is good for staying touch with friends in a whole new way.

I could do without either….but I don’t want to.

A few reasons to quit social media.

1. You are wasting a ton of time on meaningless data

2. You talk to your friends more on facebook than in real life (unless they live out of town)

3. You miss out experiencing real life events (because you are updating your status with how cool it is to be at that event)

A few reasons to stay with social media.

1. Instead of reading the newspaper or watching tv, you let the news come to you through twitter.

2. You can keep in touch with friends/family that don’t live near you.

3. You can plan and share events easily through facebook, that actually saves time.

You can live life either way, but for me I think I need a blend. Leo has strictly gone to his blog with pictures, updates, ect. I think he can do that. I am not a tech mogul though…so for my situation using social media to share things with friends/family is a-ok.

I don’t think social media is going away, if anything I think it will get less obtrusive and be easier to use.

Imagine taking a picture and having it automatically upload to twitter/facebook without a prompt. Or being able to just speak into your bluetooth to update your status. We are almost there folks, you can do these things with a little set up right now!

I still think it needs to be easier…simpler if you will…in order to be something that adds to your life instead of something that takes you out of life.

What are your thoughts? Am I alone in my thinking?

TWiT’s Leo Laporte loses faith in social media (thenextweb.com)
“Why Leo Laporte is disillusioned with social media” and related posts (therawfeed.com)
Would anyone notice if you left Twitter? (simplyzesty.com)

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Aug 16 / combsy

Focus: Part 2

Image by George Rex via Flickr

I have been working on a secret project for some time now. I believe around December or January it will be ready to go. The whole process however has had me thinking a lot about focus.

To me focus is everything. Nothing great, nothing worthy of time has ever been done without focus.

We live in a world that pulls our attention in billions of directions and I think it does it on purpose. Whether consciously or unconsciously most of the world’s powers (government & private) don’t want you to focus too much.

You see focus creates change. Focusing on goals creates revolutions, in politics and in technology…whatever really. A man or woman focused entirely on a single goal is extremely powerful, those in power fear that.

Now it doesn’t have to be a giant change. For instance, I have decided to focus on my marriage for a time until I think it is at a level both my wife and I are happy about. Not that we expect to become completely happy, but that we both feel a certain level of respect and love. Every night, instead of just laying there and reading our own individual books…I started reading to her. (Yes she read to me as well from her book) The conversation that it spurred was amazing…and our marriage is better for it. That amount of change…from just a little focus of time and energy on my wife…the ROI is astounding!

Other things that I have focused on recently have included:

1. Revenue growth in my territory (up quite a bit)

2. My weight (lost 15 lbs in 40 days)

3. My brain (Started reading the classics)

However.

I think my focus is still pulled in too many directions.

I read books about too many subjects. & watch too many things on netflix. For the most part…my life lacks a definite focus in terms of overall goals.

I give the excuse about being a “Renaissance man” , however, even though most of those guys studied lots of different topics, for the most part they had a main vocation that they channeled that knowledge into.

Painting, sculpture, philosophy…they usually had one vocation they worked on most passionately and then used the other information & knowledge they got from studying or experience to better their main focus.

So what does this all mean?

It means in order to be successful, in order to achieve, in order to bring home the golden fleece, or finish the good fight…one must have focus.

Any general knows that a bunch of haphazard attacks will do no good in the grand scheme of the battle. An army must have specific targets of interest that they know will bring home victory. Take the head of an army out and the body will fall so to say.

We live in a world that wants us to be machine gunners, just enough focus to keep the battle going. God, your family, your friends and neighbors though…they want you to be a sniper – bringing change quickly and efficiently.

Ask yourself some questions:

What is my main focus in life?

What areas of my life could I make better if I focused on them?

What areas of other peoples lives could I make better if I focused on them?

What is one thing I enjoy that if I focused on it I would make a better world?

Have answers yet? It is really hard to come up with some of these. It took me about a month or two to answer those questions. It was well worth it and I am still narrowing down those answers.

I think my secret project will in the end give you a good idea of my focus. But, you are just going to have to wait for that *smirk*