Like most of us, I Skype, email, message, and text daily. My friends and I around the world use all these methods to keep in touch, and for whatever reason, when communicating via these channels we get a bit crazy. If you looked up some of our Skype chat histories or email exchanges you’d consider us fit for a psych ward.
It seems chatting via the above methods loosens our inhibitions. And it is also extremely fun. One person sends an r-rated email out to five or six people, then an hour later you have 30 emails in your inbox with hilarious – albeit ridiculously childish – responses. It happens fast and it is all very reckless.
Last week when I was in Düsseldorf I wanted to go from Golzheimer Platz to Nordpark /Aquazoo. Aparently an easy task for a savvy city rat like myself. After living in some many countries with very different subway systems, I was expecting to simply follow the map and get there. However this is what I encountered:
At a first glance I thought to myself “this is the wrong train”. To my surprise it was indeed the right one. In case you are wondering what’s wrong with this picture, I would ask you to look at it again.
It’s nice to see the good Facebook commentary between friends. Someone puts up a posting, and if people respond, it is almost exclusively positive in tone. At least in my circle.
But around the web it is not always the same. Sometimes the viciousness makes you pause and ask yourself where it all comes from. Below are a few examples I came across in my surfing over the past days:
From TMZ: John Mayer Undergoes Throat Surgery Comment: Karma… azzwipe. For throwing Jessica Simpson under the bus. CHOKE ON IT PAL.
“Mankind Is No Island” by Jason van Genderen. The winner of the 2008 shortfilm fest Tropfest NY, entirely shot using a mobile phone in NY and Sydney. If you are wondering what does this have to do with Advertising? the answer is: absolutely nothing… I just want to point out that it is after all possible to create entire movies using a mobile phone.
I am a creature of habit. I need to stick closely to my daily routine in order not to feel lost. When I don’t manage this I get cranky, and for the past two days I have been forced out of my routine by BlackBerry’s network failure.
Every night before dozing off I lie in bed and read my RSS feeds on my phone. It is about a one hour routine, during which I take in a good 30 or so stories. It’s been a pattern for a while now, and it makes me feel like I got all I needed to in order to keep up with the latest from my industry and prepare for the next day at work.
