what's up?

the medium is the message

Today, I could write 3 posts. hmm… let’s do the Monday jogging pondering again. Yesterday, I did my jogging the other way round, starting there where I usually end, and jogged sort of uphill. Mostly I was thinking about my answer to Mandy’s lovely letter. It was a strenuous but great jog that brightened my day, after a slow morning with not enough sleep after a Saturday night/Sunday morning clubbing night. I remembered my déjà vu that I had on my way to the party. I read Max Küng’s column in the Tages-Anzeiger Magazin, how he got almost hit by a stupid car (driver), wondering why men behave like that and rather kill innocent human beings than getting to work 20 seconds later, and how he dealt with it; quite a funny column, ending with a chain saw in X-mas wish list. On my way to the club my bike was almost hit by a car, a near miss, followed by yelling, on both sides and a new item on my X-mas wish list: I want a chain saw. A bike transportable one. A To-Go-Chain-Saw for every day.
Thus, I jogged and for no particular reason Phil came to my mind; maybe because folks threatening me with their cars make me freak out. Phil alway said “Andy, you are a freak”, because I sort of did not always behave properly and the American way when living in College Station, Texas. Like: folks asking “how are you?” getting a true answer. Sort of “Oh, I am really worried about my body fat today”. Or: “I feel like a dayfly after 18 hours flying around”).
Today, 15 years later, you get all this and much more on facebook and twitter. I read a few articles lately about facebook et al, one dealing with the typology. What type of facebook/twitter user are you? (I am the mission me-and my-venture- type)  There are the Kellogg’s users, telling you that they got up (message 1) and that they do not know what to get for breakfast (message 2) and that they go for Kellogg’s flakes (message 3) and that they worry about their body fat (message 4). There are philosophers, like “I hate shadow if it is between me and the sun.” And then there are the weirdo’s. And the folks who do not have anything to say. That’s why they put picture online.
I remembered (still jogging) another article, dealing with the social media and whether they really change things. I have not made my mind up. The article said basically that not much has changed, folks used to consume TV time, now they consume bandwidth and watch content that others put up. Sometimes they put up stuff but it is mostly mission “me”. In the end it is a software guided consumption of content and bandwidth; not much more going on there.
In another article folks came to the conclusion that the paradigm change is the tailspin of information flow control. Kellogg’s is not under control anymore of who writes what when. Folks out there set the agenda.
But I haven’t made my mind up. What I see is a growing number of people producing content. But I feel that with every new sender the existing senders become less visible. And, in comparison to 5 years ago, the depth and intensity of the discussions is becoming shallow. You cannot discuss by pushing a “like” button. I am sort of skeptic about social media. The medium is the message. And I worry about the message if the medium is facebook and twitter only.

But then, I realized sort of out of breath, that Mr. T. doesexactly the same thing. I may not talk about my Kellogg’s decisions but I talk about me jogging . As I have said: I have not made my mind up.  But I want this chain saw.

Today’s picture: Inspired by Silvia’s wish, a kiwi, sliced and scanned. I am in production mode today, thus I may not have much time to join the discussion…