Monthly Archive for June, 2009

This Revolution is Different Because We Say It Is

Published on June 26, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Technology is, as always, changing the way we live in ways none of us could ever predict. Whether you think this is the Biblical end of times or not, it’s hard to look at the events of the world around us and not wonder “What in the blue blazes is going on?”

People can order television packages for more a month than some people in other countries make in a year, then use Hulu and never watch TV. Cell phones turned into smartphones turned into Blackberries turned into iPhones which are turning into EverythingPhones. Computers are now being considered alongside women’s handbags as accessories. People in Iran have turned a niche service into a crucial communication and news tool, without prompt or reward. All of this happening in a time when politics is king and people care more about personal issues and desires than the welfare of a nation.

What else is new?

Haven’t we seen this before? With the telegraph during the Civil War? Newspapers with the Spanish-American War? With film during WWI? Television during Vietnam? There is nothing new under the sun.

The differences between this technological transformation are the perception of the “future” and the involvement of everyone. 50 years ago, everyone thought that the year 2000 would include jet packs, robot nannies and time travel. 1984 was 25 years ago. We’re ready for our jet packs, but they aren’t happening. So, people are using the Internet to create virtual jet-packs – devices that allow people to go anywhere, talk to anyone and see anything.

This revolution will be more intense than the ones before it, simply because we WANT it more. People are ready for the future. It’s no longer “hip” to be online, it’s almost a necessity. Facebook is not a college-kid distraction anymore, it’s a virtual Grand Central Station for all things social.

Just because everyone isn’t doing it well and it’s not there yet doesn’t mean it won’t be there soon. The people and organizations (churches definitely included) who recognize this, start doing it well and build a foothold in the New Social Revolution will be MUCH better off when the tipping point is past and the world is connected in ways never before imagined.

This revolution is happening because we want it more.

If you want to reach more people, go where the people want to be.

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#amIdoingitwrong

Published on June 15, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I know that I’ve been spending a lot of time on this church-sponsered blog talking about decidedly selfish and non-church related things. Twitter, social media, my own self…all things that most church blogs don’t (and shouldn’t, in my opinion) touch with a 10-ft. pole. I tend to obsess about stuff and not focus on other, more important things (BIG shock to those who know me). I’ve also had to deal with low self-esteem and self-doubt, which certainly doesn’t help much when I’m thrust into a bigger role than what I feel comfortable in.

(FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED REAL LIFE, FEEL FREE TO IGNORE THIS POST. ODDS ARE YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT I’M GOING THROUGH)

One person can not serve two masters. It’s an obvious statement, yet one I’ve never really felt highlighted by the lifestyle and choices I’ve been making until recently. To further my education and to start getting ready for real life situations, I’ve started following PR and social media experts on Twitter. It started harmlessly enough, I added some PR blogs to my Google Reader based off of suggestions and the general biggies, then started following them on Twitter. Then I started following their friends on Twitter. Then I signed up for social networks with no intention to do anything except follow one or two PR professionals. Then I felt pressed to redo my whole Twitter page because I felt like people wouldn’t even look at me twice unless I had a spiffy design.

All the while, I’m reading all these blogs and posts and articles and reports and presentations and books and ohmygoodnesswillthemadnessneverend, and seeing all these things and requirements and new services that I must sign up for if I ever want to have a career.

I’m a college senior, yet I feel so incredibly young. I’ve surrounded myself with multi-year veterans of the field I am currently planning on entering, and a symptom of that is the feeling of absolute cluelessness. Granted, I have no experience other than what I’m going through now, and I won’t have any until, at the earliest, the school year through Cardinal Comm.

All this is pressing on my mind and soul….and distracting me from life. Time I could be spending with God, with Rachel, my family, my friends, is being spent on search engine optimization and the implications of the Facebook land grab. Instead of jumping in the pool, I’m jumping into Google Reader.

Fixing my priorities is a definate must, obviously, and I have to give MAD props to my Bible study (Sundays @6 at the Eastland Mall Starbucks…be warned, it’s intense) for pulling me, quite forcefully, out of the haze. Still…I’m just a college kid still. None of my schoolmates are anywhere are bad as I am, at least outwardly.

When is it acceptable to stop acting like a student and start acting like something else?

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Mashup

Published on June 5, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

If you haven’t explored the world of mashup music – you’re really missing out. In a VERY brief nutshell, Mashups are made when a DJ or a computer musician takes the music from one song and the a capella voices from another and lines them up to create a new song. The best mashups can make you think that the original songs don’t sound as good as the new creation. It’s kind of a slap in the face of the original artist, and completely illegal if pursued on the commercial market because of our wonderful music industry’s view on creativity at times.

Yet, it’s how I feel about myself. I am a mashup, on many different levels. I feel like (mainly from the words of others) someone took skills from three different professions and plopped them right inside me. I don’t fit in one peghole. I don’t have 12900 followers on Twitter hanging on my every tweet (heck, I don’t even have 100 yet), and yet people are asking my advice on tweeting. I don’t have a Ph.D in theology or anything, yet people still ask for advice. It’s a weird life, but it’s a life I know I can use to the best of my abilities.

I think this proves there is a God, but what do I know about THAT discussion, other than it tends to drift away from a God-centered discussion to pointless philsophic bullfighting when done by most people my age.

I know that the key to success is to use the best traits you have as well as possible. For me, I’m still sifting through all the mashed-up stuff trying to find what’s best for me from God.

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Bold realization

Published on June 1, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

This Sunday, I spent a grand total of SIX hours researching and learning more about social media. I downloaded presentations, joined networks related to other networks and spent hours reading about stuff I never thought would interest me. Somewhere between signing up for Twitter directories, following experts and adding blog upon blog to my Reader account, something hit me like a truck:

I’ve become a nerd. Not just any kind of nerd, but a VERY scary nerd – the nerd that is nerdy for no reason.

I mean, why social media? I’m a college student. I’ve taken a grand total of 1 PR class, and most of my experience in the field revolves around design more than anything else. I should be out having fun and making money. I’m in a fraternity. I listen to and play music. I have a girlfriend. Yet, somehow, I sat in my room transfixed by the Internet.

I still am refusing to believe that the Internet is THAT powerful, if only for the sake of my journalism friends that will have their worlds turned upside down any moment now. I don’t have a brand to manage, I don’t work for a corporation desperate to be followed, I have no Fan Pages to send messages to. I’m just reading and learning. Why?

I think it’s because that I know, eventually, this stuff is going to matter. The toys of today become the tools of tomorrow (well, except if you’re Myspace). Facebook, when I was entering college, was just on the brink of opening up to non-collegiate people. Now, well, it’s everywhere. I remember first hearing about Twitter from  when the Ball State Daily News used it to cover a trial and thinking it was a joke.

Right now, I fell like a total geek. Hopefully, I’ll learn enough that, in the future, all the time and energy (debatable) I’ve spent on how to use social media will pay off.

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