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MySpace put social networking on the map, the Facebook made social networking popular, and now Twitter might just make social networking relevant. Whoa wait a minute . . . Twitter relevant? . . . Really? Yes and now more than ever!
I’m constantly hearing questions and comments in the vain of “what’s the purpose of Twitter” or “I don’t care about the everyday miniscule happenings of people’s lives.” The latter comment refers to people’s incessant commentary like “Going to the bathroom now”, “Just got back from the bathroom”, and “I’m reading John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government while doing my business in the bathroom.”
While we all agree that useless information doesn’t add any substance to our ever expanding noggins, Twitter can provide real-time and uncensored broadcasts from the places where news happens. The Iranian election uprising marks only the most recent and obvious example of how Twitter is useful as a “Spread the Word” type of device. When Twitter broke the news about the Iranian election and its resulting riots and government censorship, CNN was busy broadcasting reruns of Larry King Live!
We can’t knock down the news networks for not covering these types of stories; it’s impossible for them to be anywhere at anytime (especially when cameras and cell phones get suddenly banned by a country’s government). Unfortunately for the TV networks, Twitter can provide news updates at anytime, from anywhere, and by anybody. We don’t fault the network, but we do notice the weakness.
Twitter becomes an outsourcing of the news from our field reporters to the everyday person on the street. Thomas Friedman speaks to the world’s everyday navigation toward globalization in The World is Flat. Since everyday people can now broadcast the news as it happens, Twitter has essentially flattened the reporting business by providing a more efficient way of spreading the word. The news networks that can collect, analyze, and rebroadcast the news coming in over social networking websites like Twitter will survive . . . the rest will become irrelevant and outdated.
Woah . . . all of a sudden Twitter has become relevant and we actually have to start questioning the relevancy of our TV news stations.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Monday Monday: What's On Your End Table 6.15.2009
If you’re like me, then you work 50 hours a week, read three books at once, get religiously hooked on good TV, and listen to several hours of podcasting every week.
For that reason, Monday Monday this time round is aptly dubbed: What’s on Your End Table. In a not so “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours kind of way”, I want to share what I’m reading, listening to, and watching in hopes that you might reciprocate with a couple of book, podcast, or television show recommendations. By the way, I don’t care if the TV show is on-air, in syndication, or only available through some other form of complex electronic media.
TV Shows
I started watching LOST in February, sped through the first 4.75 seasons, and watched the last few episodes live on ABC. As far as I can remember, LOST stands alone as the single greatest mystery show in television history. That comment should elicit one or two solid retorts from someone. Regardless, this show challenges the audience to grapple with the possibilities of legitimate science fiction. Although some things seem a little far fetched, the show has done nothing that can’t somehow be explained by science. LOST falls nicely into the Onion metaphor where you can just keep pulling back the layers. Each group of characters might be a different layer, each time period might be a layer, and each conflict might just be a single layer in the overall Onion. Just like an Onion, I’m weeping to get inside the show and learn the final conclusion next season
I’m on my second run of Babylon 5. I remember watching different shows on FOX back in the early 1990’s and seeing commercials for a weekly sci-fi show that looked way too over the top. Every commercial would end with “ON THE NEXT: BABYLON 5!” It took me 15 years to give the show a chance and it blew me away. Once you get past the 1993 graphics and begin to learn the back story of this adventure through space, you find another extraordinary tale with far more thought and better characterization than Star Trek had in all twenty-seven spin offs.
Books
It’s nearing the Fourth of July, so I have to read something patriotic or at least on the subject of Government. Last year, I read the John Adams book by David McCullough and fell flat on my face for our nation’s second president. This year, I’m challenging myself by re-reading John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government. I’m not sure what made me decide to put myself through this again as I didn’t particularly enjoy his writing when I read this treatise in college. In any event, everyone will be impressed when I can pull out a couple of John Locke quotes during my next political discussion.
Although I’m not reading A Time to Kill, I am listening to the audio book. I’ve read almost all of Grisham’s other books, but having already seen the movie, I didn’t feel that I would lose much by listening to this novel about small town Mississippi at the height of America’s civil rights movement. If anyone chooses to listen to the audio of this novel, I do recommend stopping it when going through the McDonald’s drive thru as Grisham uses the word “nigger” liberally throughout the book. If the McDonald’s cashier happens to be African American, she’ll be offended and you’ll be embarrassed (trust me . . . I know).
On July 17th, the boys over at Warner Brothers will delight us with the latest film based on my magical friend Harry Potter. In tribute, Maggie and I are attempting to re-read books 1-5 in anticipation of the new movie to be based on Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I’m currently reading book 1, and I’m roughly 130 pages in. My newest observation comes when Professor Quirrel tells Harry in their first conversation that he wants to find a book about Vampires from one of the stores in Daigon Alley. Well, as we know Voldemort has a parasite-host relationship with Professor Quirrel in which Voldemort uses Quirrel to help him find and drink the blood of Unicorns. The Unicorn blood acts as Voldemort’s life support and he can’t continue without it. It clearly makes sense why Professor Quirrell would be interested in blood sucking Vampires. In the words of Mr. Olivander, “Curious . . . Curious.”
Podcasts
I might never have fallen for this form of media if not for LOST (see above). That television show has created so much interest that each episode has hundreds of podcasts dedicated to it. I follow the The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack. I enjoy both their analysis and their kind hearts as they raised over $12,000 for Autism speaks by doing a 25 hour podcast a couple of months ago. Needless to say, I think they earned my download through that single deed alone. From this show, I started listening to a couple of their other comedic shows relating to modern pop-culture.
I also listen to Buzz Out Loud and This Week in Tech. These two technology podcasts keep me up to date on what companies like Apple, RIM, Nintendo, Microsoft, and SONY are up to. Their content keeps me informed about the latest and greatest ways of staying in the loop.
I’m subscribed to Mad Money with Jim Cramer. “Welcome to Mad Money, Welcome to Cramerica!” He entertains me, and I find him extremely credible!
I am severely lacking a Sports Podcast. Scotty has suggested the BS report. Anyone else have a suggestion? I want something that covers all the high points in sports, but doesn’t get me lost down in the weeds. If someone breaks the toss across record, I want to know about it.
That’s it for me. Write to me or post a comment to this entry on my blog. I want to know “what’s on your end table.”
Ryan
For that reason, Monday Monday this time round is aptly dubbed: What’s on Your End Table. In a not so “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours kind of way”, I want to share what I’m reading, listening to, and watching in hopes that you might reciprocate with a couple of book, podcast, or television show recommendations. By the way, I don’t care if the TV show is on-air, in syndication, or only available through some other form of complex electronic media.
TV Shows
I started watching LOST in February, sped through the first 4.75 seasons, and watched the last few episodes live on ABC. As far as I can remember, LOST stands alone as the single greatest mystery show in television history. That comment should elicit one or two solid retorts from someone. Regardless, this show challenges the audience to grapple with the possibilities of legitimate science fiction. Although some things seem a little far fetched, the show has done nothing that can’t somehow be explained by science. LOST falls nicely into the Onion metaphor where you can just keep pulling back the layers. Each group of characters might be a different layer, each time period might be a layer, and each conflict might just be a single layer in the overall Onion. Just like an Onion, I’m weeping to get inside the show and learn the final conclusion next season
I’m on my second run of Babylon 5. I remember watching different shows on FOX back in the early 1990’s and seeing commercials for a weekly sci-fi show that looked way too over the top. Every commercial would end with “ON THE NEXT: BABYLON 5!” It took me 15 years to give the show a chance and it blew me away. Once you get past the 1993 graphics and begin to learn the back story of this adventure through space, you find another extraordinary tale with far more thought and better characterization than Star Trek had in all twenty-seven spin offs.
Books
It’s nearing the Fourth of July, so I have to read something patriotic or at least on the subject of Government. Last year, I read the John Adams book by David McCullough and fell flat on my face for our nation’s second president. This year, I’m challenging myself by re-reading John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government. I’m not sure what made me decide to put myself through this again as I didn’t particularly enjoy his writing when I read this treatise in college. In any event, everyone will be impressed when I can pull out a couple of John Locke quotes during my next political discussion.
Although I’m not reading A Time to Kill, I am listening to the audio book. I’ve read almost all of Grisham’s other books, but having already seen the movie, I didn’t feel that I would lose much by listening to this novel about small town Mississippi at the height of America’s civil rights movement. If anyone chooses to listen to the audio of this novel, I do recommend stopping it when going through the McDonald’s drive thru as Grisham uses the word “nigger” liberally throughout the book. If the McDonald’s cashier happens to be African American, she’ll be offended and you’ll be embarrassed (trust me . . . I know).
On July 17th, the boys over at Warner Brothers will delight us with the latest film based on my magical friend Harry Potter. In tribute, Maggie and I are attempting to re-read books 1-5 in anticipation of the new movie to be based on Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I’m currently reading book 1, and I’m roughly 130 pages in. My newest observation comes when Professor Quirrel tells Harry in their first conversation that he wants to find a book about Vampires from one of the stores in Daigon Alley. Well, as we know Voldemort has a parasite-host relationship with Professor Quirrel in which Voldemort uses Quirrel to help him find and drink the blood of Unicorns. The Unicorn blood acts as Voldemort’s life support and he can’t continue without it. It clearly makes sense why Professor Quirrell would be interested in blood sucking Vampires. In the words of Mr. Olivander, “Curious . . . Curious.”
Podcasts
I might never have fallen for this form of media if not for LOST (see above). That television show has created so much interest that each episode has hundreds of podcasts dedicated to it. I follow the The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack. I enjoy both their analysis and their kind hearts as they raised over $12,000 for Autism speaks by doing a 25 hour podcast a couple of months ago. Needless to say, I think they earned my download through that single deed alone. From this show, I started listening to a couple of their other comedic shows relating to modern pop-culture.
I also listen to Buzz Out Loud and This Week in Tech. These two technology podcasts keep me up to date on what companies like Apple, RIM, Nintendo, Microsoft, and SONY are up to. Their content keeps me informed about the latest and greatest ways of staying in the loop.
I’m subscribed to Mad Money with Jim Cramer. “Welcome to Mad Money, Welcome to Cramerica!” He entertains me, and I find him extremely credible!
I am severely lacking a Sports Podcast. Scotty has suggested the BS report. Anyone else have a suggestion? I want something that covers all the high points in sports, but doesn’t get me lost down in the weeds. If someone breaks the toss across record, I want to know about it.
That’s it for me. Write to me or post a comment to this entry on my blog. I want to know “what’s on your end table.”
Ryan
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