"Shame on you, from your very first statement ("a real one, not online!"). It reminds me of people who used to walk up to me when I would be in a coffee shop. "Are you busy?" "I'm chatting with my friend in Chicago." "Oh, well then..." and they would sit down, as if their presence in "meatspace" gave them some greater rights or presence than my online conversation.
When you are chatting or IMing, you are talking with a REAL PERSON. The fact that it is using a computer and text makes them no less real. The fact that the internet allows conversations to happen outside of the constraints of "real-time" and with people across the globe does not, in my opinion, make those conversations any less valuable.
...The idea that a person living next door is inherently more interesting or more deserving of your attention than your friend in a London flat is, to me, ridiculous. I have heard people say "Well, you'll never actually meet the Londoner" to which I reply A) you don't know that; if I ever decide to go to London, I've got a place to crash, and 2) I already have met them, and we've become great friends by communicating.
...So I say, shame on you for implying that there is inherent virtue in lo-tek; I believe, and have always believed, that the value is in the clarity and expression of the ideas, regardless of the medium."
To be honest, I'm a little embarrassed and surprised at how emotional my response was. Especially as someone who has been bemoaning my need to return to my beloved moleskine. Her much more reasoned response clarifies the question, somewhat:
Online tools are great, and I'm glad we live in an age when we can develop extraordinary business and personal relationships online. However, is that to the exclusion of, for example, going for a walk on a beautiful Chicago spring day?
And therein lies the answer. Don't hesitate to use all the tools at your disposal, including the ones on the ends of your legs and stuck on either side of your nose.
But bring your digital camera along, so you can blog about it later.
Hello, and welcome to the new home of satorimedia. That is the name of a company started out in the early days of the web boom, that somehow never managed to latch onto that VC funding that caused so many other flashes-in-the-pan. Perhaps that's why I'm still around, though my job has changed at least as much as the web itself. Whereas I started it seeing myself sitting behind a desk, designing copy and running servers, instead I'm much more likely to be consulting with podcasters, running over slideshows with presenters, or teaching video design. Not that I don't still have a server, and design a website or two.
But I'm finding that I'm more about the message than the medium these days. I work as a media alchemist, transforming voice to digits and video to images. Which is why I responded, rather vehemently, to a question the lovely and talented Heidi Miller posted in her recent blog: "Are Luddites Bad?"
Specifically, I objected to the premise: "Do you think that drinking the social media Kool-Aid is keeping you from your "real" life in any way?" The main problem I had was this whole idea that the person that I was chatting with, IMing, or emailing was any less real than you, dear reader, sitting and looking at this blog.
Here is a portion of my response: