building the future, one idea at a time...
Posts made in December, 2010
Interesting, my Twitter hiatus made no difference at all to my follower count
I guess that makes sense, if you're not tweeting, people don't see you. They're more likely to unfollow you for tweets they don't like than for not tweeting. It's useful to know, because I sometimes feel "Oh I haven't tweeted something for a while, I really should, so as not to let my followers down". The stats seem to suggest followers will not abandon you if you don't tweet, which is reassuring…
Read Morehttp://alexbowyer.posterous.com/the-november-project-observations-from-a-mont
experiences from a month without Facebook or Twitter
Read MoreThe November Project: Observations from a month away from Facebook and Twitter
Well, it’s December now, and that means it must be time for me to jump back onto Facebook and Twitter. But before I do, I wanted to gather my thoughts about the experience and share what I have learnt from it. I thought I’d do this in a form of a Q & A with myself.
What was it like?
Well for one thing, it was not as hard as I imagined it would be. I used a variety of techniques to physically block myself from Twitter and Facebook – but it turned out these were not necessary, willpower was sufficient. The closest I got was when other websites or apps tried to embed Facebook boxes or twitter feeds and I almost got tricked into clicking through. I suppose one telling thing is that now it’s the 5th of December and I haven’t rushed back on Facebook and Twitter yet, even though I could have five days ago. My main reason was I wanted to get this blog post written first, before I am “polluted” by going back on – but even so, I haven’t been in a great hurry. Another thing I noticed was several times when out and about and I had the urge to tweet or post to Facebook, it felt a little odd not to share that moment – but it wasn’t a big deal and the feeling soon subsided. Overall, the experience wasn’t hard at all.
Was it more relaxing being away from social media?
Definitely. The most amazing thing is I actually feel like time slowed down. That’s a pretty profound thing to say, but when I think back to the beginning of November, it seems like months ago.
Is the #turnred (RED) "AIDS-free generation by 2015" campaign lacking something?
As you may know, it was World AIDS Day yesterday, raising awareness of the global fight to eradicate the HIV/AIDS disease. I missed the day itself but was greeted by this popup today inviting me to “join RED” and help make the AIDS-free generation by 2015 a reality.
In case you’re not familiar, RED is an initiative whereby you buy a particular variant of your product in red with a special (RED) brand – everything from iPods to shoes, clothing, coffee and books – and the manufacturer donates a portion (typically about 20%) to the global fight against AIDS (and possibly other causes as well, I’m not sure). Which is great, and they are having huge successes, having raised $160 million in 5 years.
I wholeheartedly support the goal of eradicating AIDS, and I love the idea of making such a bold statement that “We can have the first AIDS-free generation by 2015”. But a number of things bugged me about this campaign.