Going public with ones life?
A dangerous thing the internet is…
Working in IT as i do (and as i have done for all of my working life) i have often leapt with open arms onto new technology. Often this took the form of buying into gadgetry, often at great expense, and often only for a short-lived buzz of excitement… Who remembers the Iomega Zip Drive? Or the Creative DAP Digital Music Player, or even the Philips Pronto (or Marantz RC7000) all-in-one programmable remote control? I do…I did buy these things (more or less as they came out)…I did use these things, even when they were not quite fit for purpose (the Iomega was restricted to its proprietry media cartridge system, the DAP had a mere 6gig of storage, and the Pronto was ludicrously difficult to program)…
Other times i have been slow to adopt (or conform as many of the younger generatation would see it). Having burnt my fingers on the Creative DAP, i studiously avoided joining the iPod generation until they brought out a unit with (what i considered to be) a sensible amount of storage. When they did bring out such version i had no further cause to delay (i am the proud owner of a 160gig iPod and have it chock-full of music – no photo’s just music).
Anyway, this brings me to the general gist of today’s rambling… Web 2.0… Specifically the cult of revealing ones life – full story and pics – to the general masses of the internet public.
I’m happy to say that, until very very recently, my only foray into this culture was by way of “Friends Reunited”. I have (and am proud to admit it) avoided the need to do “Myspace” or “Facebook” or (heaven forbid!) “Tweet”. I work all day with IT – mainly designing, writing and testing code in a variety of languages, and cannot think of any event during my working day that would warrant any form of continuous updating of my life to the general public. Who in their right mind would be interested in it anyway (other than my pay masters – and i suspect that if they saw a continuous stream of twitterings or other nonsense during the working day then they’d be inclined to worry about my delivery deadlines rather than how my day has gone).
However it would appear that the rest of the world moves on, and these things are ‘in’ and popular, and people now regard me as being eccentric for not joining in with the general “2.0″ fun…Even my family appear to be heading down this slippery slope. I know for a fact that both my Wife and Son are “face-booked” (my term, i’m sure there is a proper term but just humour me please:) ). Beyond my immediate family i am aware that others within the blood-line are busy filling their days with all this stuff.
Am I worried? No. In fact i’m reasonably happy to let this sort of thing slide by – i have other things to do with my life. However as a token gesture to it all i have succumed to blogging. The Coopers Consulting Solutions site is back in action (having spent the last 2 years as a static page) and i have a large collection of notes and other information that will eventually get back-ported onto here.
And i’m not just talking about blogging as a business tool either. I have also finally gotten round to setting up our home website with Word Press, and configured personal blogs for both Wife and Son, to do with as they please. I too may well join in the fun, although i’m more inclined to play the voice of the Rabbits, Cats or even the Chickens that we own, than actually convey any information about my own life.
So you see my problem?
On the one hand, i refuse to join the Web 2.0 generation fully and properly, and use the frequent line of “I don’t have the time to indulge”… and on the other hand here i am blogging away on a Saturday evening (whilst waiting for the WP set-up scripts for the family blogs to complete in the background).
Anyway, enough of this guff. Normal service will be resumed in due course, and the content of articles published here will revert back to business.
Thank you for your attention – no go away and get a life 