All my Yesterdays

There's nothing like a silent retreat to cleanse one from all ones obsessions.  In October I spent a week in the wilderness, not completely silent, but all but cut off from the outside world.

Weaning myself and entering into the solitude of my own thoughts, I realised that maybe, just maybe, all the connectivity is actually creating a disconnect.  I have all the opinion I want, 24 hours a day, on Twitter and Facebook, but spend little time forming thoughts of my own.

Humans are the only creature that use a 'net to escape (not recognizing they can be just as trapped in their daily surfing as a dolphin behind a Japanese trawler).

It isn't going away, but for me, here is yesterday's social media:

Twitter - too much.  The name is appropriate, and I like Twitter.  If I could have only one media, it would be Twitter.  Yet the endless self-promotion renders every tweet and link suspect.  If you have to filter for the inevitable come-on it loses its usefulness.

Blogs like this one.  Enough already.  Very few are any good.  If the writer sticks to one area of interest, genuinely imparts original thought based on solid research, and writes with the intent to serve, it's a good blog.  If you read my blog at all you'll immediately recognise that I wouldn't include this it in a list of good blogs.  This thing bounces all over the place!  Cars, management tips, sales opinion, restaurant reviews...what the hell?  But if you like it, hey...there's no accounting for taste.

Dailies are so yesterday.   Does anybody really care what anyone thinks on a daily basis?  This crap about referencing individuals on Twitter  to drive readers to your daily and then to your site is such a colossal fail, it's right up there with writing names on a grain of rice at the county fair.

Newsletters..see dailies.  Sorry, they serve only to promote, not to inform.  Oh, yours is to inform?  My mistake.  I'll do business with you.  The day you recommend your competitor, or publish an unbiased piece that drives me to your competitor I'll read your newsletter.  Heck, I'll recommend it.

Facebook and LinkedIn still serve to keep us current and connected with the person, professionally and personally.  They go off the tracks when users post the same update on both plus Twitter, or when every update is a sales pitch.

We know what yesterday held, how it helped us, and how it's held us back.  Let's get busy on tomorrow.

http://deaconjeremy.blogspot.com/2011/12/all-my-tomorrows.html