Followups: Media Diets, the Hive Mind and Surfing on Eggshells
May 20, 2009 :: Joe LoongDoing a blog entry where you follow up on some of your earlier entries is basically the blog equivalent of a TV clip show, which is what you get when producers, faced with a writers’ strike (or otherwise run out of time, budget, or ideas), recycle footage from previous episodes, wrapped up in a usually-lame framing device.
Actually, followups on stories is one of those things that blogs and news on the Web should do a better job of handling. There have been a few attempts that I know of where news sites let you browse through the evolution of a story by linking back to earlier articles or previous versions. It’s pretty straightforward — you just need to link (fancy visualization and navigation tools are optional), but we seem to be focused on the now and the “what’s next” — not the past, especially when those past versions contain errors, or information that’s otherwise been superseded. (The software equivalent would be a changelog, or even a version history like you see in Wikipedia articles.)
Additionally, Web news should also do a better job on revisiting stories. It’s great when someone breaks a big story, but how often do we go back after one, three, six, or twelve months and see where things stand? (This one isn’t really a technology problem, it’s attitudinal — as in, “That’s been done,” or the feeling that we’ve moved on to the next new thing.)
Anyway, that was my lame framing device. Here are a few items I’m following up on:
* Teenagers on a forced media diet: The AP had a story last week about kids and teens faced with an unthinkable prospect: having to disconnect from cell phones and online social media for summer camp. It brought up some issues from my “Be Here Now” entry, but more importantly, and inexplicably, the story made me upset. Even a little angry. Not just because of a lingering dislike of the coddled kid / helicopter parent archetype, but because these young folks have no real conception of an unconnected existence. Not being able to go without moves technology from enhancement to reliance (a theme I touched on in my “Hive Mind” entry). And it’s not even their fault, they just don’t know anything else. Very troubling to me. Or maybe it’s just a vague jealousy.
Anyway, apparently they tend to get over it and focus on making lanyards and doing whatever else kids still do at summer camp. But it still makes me nervous.
* Speaking of dependence on the hive mind, I was dealing with my own choice paralysis yesterday. I needed to replace my stolen iPod nano, and Apple had a deal of refurbed iPods. My dilemma: replace the nano straight across, or upgrade to an iPod touch? I kept going around in circles, so finally I threw it to my Twitter & Facebook networks to help me decide.
Hearing other peoples opinions, conflicting as they were, helped me make up my own mind — else who knows how long I’d be spinning? (I went with the nano, but it’s kind of a hedge — we’ll see what new shiny things Apple releases in a few months).
* Lastly, the season finale of 24 is a vivid demonstration of my spitballing on appointment TV and first-run communities — namely, the fact that I’m about 6 or 7 episodes behind has me surfing on eggshells, making sure I avoid any discussions that might contain spoilers. And that’s no way to live. Which is why I think there’s still some residual value in appointment TV, even in the face of so many other ways to consume it on our own terms and timeline.
Anyway, I see a few themes I might want to expand on later, so in the meantime, leave a comment if anything I’ve mentioned merits a followup from you.
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