These are crazy times we all live in…especially our online lives. For those of us who pay attention to things like Facebook and now the “in” craze, Twitter, the explosion of the online social mediums is a bit mind boggling. In light of a conversation I had today with our Church Communications Team (it was after-hours – sorry James, you missed out) regarding a future look at Facebook and then to observe all the Twitter buzz regarding the push to reach 1 million followers first (a battle between CNN and Ashton Kutcher – a silly contest but revealing on so many levels)…it’s fascinating to think about how new all this stuff is – relatively.
Things move so fast that it’s easy to lose perspective on the advancing time. If you’re anything like me, my life is so connected to my iPhone that if you were to talk about a time in history called “Pre-iPhone”, I may just give you a raised eye-brow look of “are you crazy? The iPhone has always been.”
Believe it or not – when I entered college…the cellphone was a big brick that was super expensive and, according to many, indestructible. My freshman year in college? It was 14.4K dial-up access for the lucky few who had one of those cool modem “thingies”, let alone the cash to shell out for a big heavy desktop. In fact, while most entering college freshmen these days have to choose between Apple or Dell laptops – my great choice was between a word processor (purchased by mua) or frequent trips to the library to type up my papers. I splurged on the word processor but “lucked” out with a car accident that ended up helping me buy another car, pay off some school…and buy a not-so-sweet IBM PS2 desktop.
Man…just writing that previous paragraph makes me feel old…
But that was only “mumble-mumble” years ago…seemingly a time from the dark ages when we actually hand-wrote our letters (true story) and still had rotary phones lying around. Lion and tigers and bears…oh my!
I hear the sound of “Memories” from Cats going through my head now…which reminds me. I need to check on the great Twitter race…the world is waiting with baited breath. Who will win?!
UPDATE: Ashton crossed the line in first place! Now we’re that much closer to world peace.
Speaking of Twitter – you can follow my daily ramblings and not-so-insightful insights at: http://twitter.com/jonhaarstad
Popularity: 18% [?]
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Jon,
I don't know how you showed up in my Twitter feed (unless you mentioned Pastor Ray or Pasto Joel), but it sounds as if I need to touch base with you about: "There's something incredibly rewarding about helping your friends achieve their dreams". (Sounds as if we may share that dream.)
In terms of technology, you are still pretty young. When I was playing with punch cards and main frame computers, portable phones, personal computers and two-way radios were the stuff of science fiction.
Jim Riddell
Jim – thanks for the comment. "Helping friends" has had it's share of joys and travails…but in the end – one of my greatest joys is seeing a friend achieve his/her goals…and for me, when/if I get a chance to play a small part in that achievement – getting recognition is the least of my desires. In fact, watching (and cheering) silently from the background tends to be way more fun.