How to hide a birthday in the age of social media?

Aug 232008

body cake

Can’t do it. I have a birthday, so the cat is out of the freakin’ bag.

My friends have the information and they like to set up reminders. Innocently or not, they have fed the b-days to countless services. Oh, I’m complicit, too. I’ve fed the big day to sites that wanted to verify my age before poisoning my mind with adult matters. Haven’t I? Oh yes, I have.

Once Amazon, Plaxo and others get ahold of the date, they send out reminders to everyone, and I do mean everyone. The reminders beget action, which means that more reminders and wishes spread to Twitter. Soon, messages start appearing on Facebook. Not only is the cat out of the bag, but it’s multiplied like…like…tribbles (gah! am I showing my age?)

Age. Yes, there is the matter of number of years on this earth. I currently labor under the delusion that my age isn’t discernible from all this social media activity. That’s right, yeah…I blog like I’m 18. Yo, I twitter like I’m in my 20′s. If you see the analog version today, say how timeless I appear online.

It’s the least that you can do.

Posted by tammy at 8:00 am Online Life Comments Off Tagged with: , , , ,

Here Comes Everybody

Mar 272008

here comes everybody Here Comes Everybody starts off with a story of a stolen sidekick and how a group formed via commonly available social networking tools tracked down the thief, changed the NYPD’s approach to the problem, and subsequently got the property returned.

I remember when that particular story broke, and I remember visiting the site set-up to handle the hoopla. At the time, I couldn’t tell you why it had a larger significance. That’s what Clay Shirky does so well.

The upshot? The convenience of ubiquitous tools and the will to form spur-of-the-moment communities has changed society. Where we go from here and how we deal with the fall-out of new freedoms and shaken institutions is unclear, but the challenge is before us.

My biggest complaints about the book? That I lived through most of the examples and used most of the services that he wrote about, but didn’t get a book deal out of it. That, and it’s not written for me. I already know this stuff so I found it a little boring.

It’s a thoughtful observation on our changing times, and I recommend it if you’ve been completely unaware of recent shifts on the Internet. However, if you don’t want to buy the book (or borrow it from me), you can get a good deal of it from his presentation here.

[Available at Amazon]

Posted by tammy at 8:00 pm Books Comments Off Tagged with: , , ,

The problem with shopping and languages

Feb 122008

I thought of the perfect birthday gift today for a good friend. She’s interested in learning Spanish, has a natural curiosity about the ins and outs of colloquial terms, and has successfully learned a language on her own. She can sling slang in two countries so I thought I’d pick up a set of Pimsleur CDs or audio tapes so she could get started in another. Great idea, huh?

The problem is I have no way to shop for such a gift on-line. Why? She’s a native Japanese speaker and I wanted to get her a “Japanese – Spanish” set of learning materials.

Have you ever tried shopping for language aides?  Sites like Amazon, or even Pimsleur make the assumption that since you’re coming to the site via an English IP, then you must be looking for an “English – Other” set of tools. There’s no way to change the context of what I’m searching for to get rid of this underlying assumption. It’s frustrating.

In the past, I have purchased items from Amazon’s German site but that only works because I know what I’m looking for, because the interface between the two sites is similar, and because I can use Babelfish to figure out words I’m unfamiliar with. It didn’t work well in this case.

I don’t know of a brick and mortar store to consult, so I think this idea is toast. I’m back to square one for ideas! Ack!

Word Scramble!

Word Scramble!

Posted by tammy at 6:00 pm Online Life Comments Off Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
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