I kid.. but I do think that people are simply “missing the boat” on these things and don’t quite understand why.. probably the same way your parents didn’t understand some newfangled thing you were doing when you were young.
You have to realize that the majority of people using these services are from the cellphone/internet generation – instant and ubiquitous information is what they’ve come to expect. Most teenagers see email as “an ancient technology” the way us email users now see fax machines. They don’t know life without cellphones and the Internets. SMS/IM/Social Networking is how this new generation communicates. You can bag on it all you want, but like it or not, it’s here to stay and will only grow even more in the coming years.
As for privacy, there are fine-grained controls for that, so if you have issues with privacy, take the bull by the horns and do your due diligence.
I personally love this new world. It’s fascinating to me. It’s like being in a bar with my friends all day long, talking about the stupid shit friends talk about. Sure, like with everything there is stupid useless shit that you see as a result of new technology. But it also opens tons of doors for improving quality of life and making your life more efficient. A few examples:
Local establishments. For example, I’m following quite a few of my favorite restaurants on Twitter, and they post daily specials. So I get personalized potential dining choices delivered directly to me without the need to visit a website or make a phone call. If something strikes my fancy, I head to the restaurant. This is huge for them — free, instant, targeted advertising to potentially millions of eyeballs. And from my side, if they ever get too spammy, I simply stop following them or block their updates. I’m curious what kind of response they get and whether it’s from everyday people, or just technophiles like myself. I know that personally, my patronage of places has increased due to these services. And it’s not just from direct posts by the business, but also from feedback/reviews posted by friends. If I see a status update from a friend that says, “Just ate at XXX, best food in SD.” I’m more than likely to try that place.
Another example – local music venue. Every day they tweet who is playing, the price, and sometimes a ‘password’ that the first X people can say to get in for free. How cool is that? Just two nights ago my wife and I used the password and saved ourselves $30 on the cover charge. You’re not going to find that anywhere else. I’ve gone to multiple shows recently because of this, whereas before my show going had dropped off because I was too lazy or too forgetful to check their calendar.
I follow some of my favorite television shows, and they let me know what tonights episode will be about. I follow my favorite breweries and they tell me about new brews they will be releasing soon. I follow Balboa Park and they tell me about all the activities happening in the park, most of which I didn’t even knew existed before! They also post interesting little historical factoids about the park. Same with the Zoo. To me, if you are a business and are not leveraging these new technologies, you are going to be left behind.
And how cool is it that I can follow the Mars Rover or an astronaut in the Space Station and get daily updates on what it/they are doing literally worlds away?
Not to mention the friend/family connectivity. I talk to many old friends and family that I normally would never be talking to without these technologies. Cousin have a birthday party next week or your wife pregnant? Post it on Facebook instead of having to make 20+ phone calls to each member of the family. Just had a baby but half your family lives on the other side of the country? Post some photos that they can check out at their leisure.
So really, from these examples you can see that I’ve leveraged this new technology to create a personalized newspaper/announcement system that is tailored to my exact needs and wants. These are just a few examples of some of the fascinating new ways these new methods of communication are and will continue to affect our lives.
I remember when cellphones first started coming out on a mass scale, all the holdouts would say things like, “why would I need one of those? Why would I want someone to be able to contact me at all times?” I was one of these people. But then I finally made the jump and got a cellphone and it has improved my quality of life significantly. It’s one of those, “how in the world did we survive without them?” types of technology. So is SMS/Twitter/Facebook/etc. Like all new things in life, they may be confusing or dumb at first, but if you just jump in head first you’ll find that it’s hard to go back.
