the real-time web is turning you into a neuron

I thought about tweeting a condolence. I could possibly chime in on the debate regarding hate speech and Sarah Palin’s role in all of this. Or maybe I’d offer a contrarian view about the pace at which each of us seems to achieve a level of certainty on any given topic. I’ve got to tweet something, right? This is what we do. Read, react, repeat. Sure, I had only known who Gabrielle Giffords was for about twenty minutes, but why should having no background on a topic and knowing almost none of the details about an event prevent me from serving up a concrete viewpoint? - Dave Pell @ Tweetage Wasteland

He makes a good point. It isn't new, but it is important to remember. The more that sharing becomes prestigious and the more we learn to value ourselves based on any kind of metric of viewership the more urgent the desire to share becomes.

Keep in mind that our ability to process and introspect doesn't change with this urgency, only our need to share whatever processing and introspection we do. I've been thinking a lot about how to teach my 3yr old about delay of gratification. I know that's expecting a lot, today 30 yr old people have trouble with delaying gratification. Still, if we don't figure it out, we become slaves to our urgent need to share. We will only do whatever minor processing and introspection is necessary to create the least amount of novelty that we can justify sharing.

As this plays out long term we are reducing our role as living thinking human beings to a more limited role as only part of the 'thinking' experience. We each become a cog in a larger thinking machine in which each person performs only a very basic level of processing and it is only through our collective networking that the thinking machine can arrive at actual fully digested thoughts. We are becoming less significant, just one neuron in a larger global brain. (It sounds so b-movie sci-fi but that doesn't make it not true.)

Empower yourself

Many people are discussing whether social networking is good or bad for us.

That's the wrong question. The right question is: Are the technologies you are using empowering you?

The question becomes what do I get out of the technology I'm using? It isn't a selfish question, it's a matter of pragmatism.

Blogging is great when it: (1) Gives a platform to express your ideas (2) Provides a means to broadcast those ideas (3) Allows you to receive feedback on those ideas and finally (4) allows you to organize your thoughts so that you can eventually present them in a more structured format. [The last step happens when the blog becomes a book or a startup or a project.]

Twitter is great when it (1) lets you carry on a conversation that should be overheard by whoever else may be interested or (2) query your peers for information at a moments notice.

Facebook is great when it (1) lets you catch up with old friends or (2) plan family/friend outings, or (3) share interesting information with friends and family.

The downside of Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs is that we get addicted to the stimulus and the feedback loop closes in until we're so desperate for more feedback we lose the self control to develop our ideas, our thoughts and our resources.

It's so easy to end up posting redundant or rehashed pet peeves.

It's much harder to do original thinking, especially when all the information you're consuming is the same information everyone else is consuming, which is quickly trending to regurgitations of things you all have already written and read.

The question of whether the technology empowers you, or whether it handicaps you applies beyond social networks as well.

Email, mobile phones, skype, all of it. Use it when it empowers you, when you are the one benefiting.

Drop any technology that's holding you back or sucking up your time.

Dropbox is a great example of technology that empowers you, it stays almost invisible and makes sure that any changes to any of your files are applied across all of your computers wherever they may be. You aren't by any of your computers? Oh, well then your files are also available to you on the web, or on your iPhone or wherever. Get the idea?

Blogger really allows me to focus my ideas and get them out of my head, making room for more ideas and allowing for others to comment and give me feedback on my existing ideas.

Facebook hasn't been particularly useful except to remember people I had long ago forgotten, but if I'd forgotten them, perhaps I didn't need to remember them? Occasionally, I have to admit, I can find an email address or phone number on facebook that I'm missing.. but that's the most helpful it is.

Buzz is next to useless -- turns out most of my email contacts waste as much if not more time than me sharing idiocy.

Twitter is great, but it's difficult for people to learn and takes time to make a case for why it's useful. (It's the epitome of the long tail phenomenon.) Personally, the investment of time is too great to accomplish anything that would truly empower me, which is why, even though I understand its benefits, I invest very little energy in twitter.

"Tablet" computers don't generally empower someone anymore than any other computers empower someone. The iPad is something different - it does what I want it to do faster than a more powerful computer will do the same thing -- that's what I mean by empowering.

"Smart" phones give us portable access to the internet, which can be empowering if we aren't just feeding our own feedback loop addiction. It only empowers if it makes your life easier or better. No question that smart phones pre-iPad were not empowering, with the exception of the BlackBerry.

The point here is don't waste time and energy on paranoia about privacy, addiction, or trends, the point is: Use the technology that empowers you, junk all the rest.

iPad as a good omen for users

There is a sea change coming, at least in some subset of the user-aware development community. As of now people are examining the computer and computer software finally through the lens of "how confusing is this to the user?"

I don't know if everyone remembers, but the personal computer was only the first step in an inexorable journey to the internet and more recently the social web.

Every one of the realizations that are currently hitting the hardware and software markets of personal computing will hit the internet and social network markets as well, in a year or two max.

Twitter is about as popular as it's going to get, it's way too user-unfriendly. Heck, even facebook is a pain to use.

We are going to see the rise of insanely intuitive social networks in the near future, and if nobody pays any attention to users and interfaces that are actually useful Apple will be one of the few (if not the sole) attendees of that party as well.