Tag: resolution

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Misc

New Year Resolution: Clean up social networking

I don’t do New Year resolutions. Honest. I mean, it’s just one more day and a public holiday to allow us to nurse our hangovers in peace, right? Still, I know plenty of people do them, but if you think you’re going to make yourself over, you’re in for a rude shock. Instead, I’m picking a few minor changes to make with realistic goals that I think will improve me overall.

There’s no doubt that social networking is both useful and fun. But it’s become a bit of a hodgepodge of interconnected services that overlap, never find wide-enough traction to be useful, or are just plain dangerous. I’m not going into another rant about what I do and don’t like — this is about personal preference. I am, however, going to clean up my act and start walking the walk.

fuckingloveFacebook

The big one. I’m going to spend January on a self-imposed exile from Facebook. Somehow in the last 12 months, it’s gone from photos of parties, weddings and babies to reshares from irrelevant celebrities (whose posts I suspect are largely ghost-written), and pages like “I fucking love fridays, like if you agree” (see to the right; I suspect are largely spam farms). All of a sudden, I discovered that I wanted to know what my friends had for lunch today. Wasn’t that the point? To stay in touch and keep up to date?

I also had a couple recent run-ins with the way FB handles privacy. While I’ll admit an amount of user error, the service actually makes it easy to screw things up. Rather than risk further stuff ups, I think that it’s definitely time for me to put up or shut up on this. However, before I jump ship there are things that I need to do.

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Categories
Tech

A different kind of resolution

Yesterday, I had an epiphany. Having returned to work after a very comfortable holiday at the beach, I decided I would take advantage of living in one of the best summer cities in the world and eat my lunch outside. The sky was blue, the sun was warm, and I browsed the net effortlessly on my iPod while I ate my satay sticks. And I realised: just because I’m outside, doesn’t mean I have to ditch my favourite toys.

For most of my life, I’ve been a technophile stuck indoors. That’s where computers and their users usually hang out. But the more I hang around the things, the more I realise that the really fun stuff happens outside. It’s like some of Intel’s original Centrino ads where the office worker spends the day  in the park. Fantastic stuff! I want to be that guy.

I have so many toys that let me move outside: the laptop, the iPod, the camera, the mobile. And there’s wireless and mobile internet pretty much ubiquitous in Sydney. So why aren’t I doing more with it all? It all just sits at home doing nothing when I’m not indoors.

So, along with all the usual self-improvement soul searching that happens in early January, I want to make this resolution: I will spend more time outside this year, and instead of using the “my toys are all for inside play” excuse, use them to enable me to go out.