Books, Twitter and getting the message out

[#1]

l'll be perfectly honest, here, ande,  I dislike blogs [except for this purpose of my vent].  They only make statements. Who says what to whom, is a mystery, lost in cyber flipping text -.no real discussions evolve.  Who knows, maybe that's the object, and purpose?!

And I'm lucky if I can get a text message off, without a cramp in a finger fouling up the messy language that falls short of a full sentence...just to say hi to one of my kids, and a hi back comes with a vibration!  The telephone is outmoded, the mailbox is full of useless advertisements, no letters to be had, and to hold a hard plastic piece of what-in-my-hand-is-this?, to read a novel/story...sorry, I live in the dark ages of real paper flippers.  Twittering is for the birds!  

From a two-word-sentences-S**k-kind-of-person!

Kathy S.

[#2]

I just signed up for twitter a few days ago, and while I think it's ok I probably won't spend a horrible amount of time on it.  When I do check it will always be from the computer not my cell.  I actually just canceled my cell service and got a land line instead because I'm sick of texting, getting calls when I'm in a store that could have waited until I got home, and a myriad of other reasons.  I will never trade in books for a kindle.  Not unless they can get a kindle to smell and feel like a real book.  I still prefer CDs and DVDs over downloads.  I buy the paper newspaper not the online version.  I don't have facebook or myspace and never will (knock on wood).   The Barnes and Noble book clubs is the only online community I belong too.  No other chatting, gaming, or connecting with people I will never meet.  All of this and I'm only 32.  I almost feel our lives our getting to electronic, too impersonal.  I don't know if this all makes me a fuddy duddy, but there you go.

[#3]

I have been thinking about Blogs this morning because for the past week our media has been reporting on 'Smeargate' - the outcome of the revelations of a political blogger, Guido Fawkes, who hacked into a Downing Street staffer's emails which gossiped about leading members of the Opposition.  I then looked up the online FreeDictionary definition of BLOG because, never having participated in this modern phenonema, I was not even sure what a Blog was.  The primary definition is given as Web Log but IMO the secondary one seemed more appropriate: Big Load of Gossip!  I also thought about a recent Guardian article called 'Merchants of Bile' which noted how much abuse was circulating on internet blogs and I decided this was not a phenonema I wished to be part of. 

 

However, I thought again and wondered if some Blogs will become the equivalent of Samuel Pepys' Diaries  or Jane Austen's letters?   Should I therefore pay more heed to them?  Then I listened to a radio broadcast which read out some extracts from Blogs, which included intellectual gems like 'Put the wheelie bin out this morning.' and 'What shall I have for lunch?' So I began to worry about the work of future social historians who might have to sift through the plethora of blogjunk on the internet to find something useful for their forthcoming tomes.  Already there is a dearth of diaries and letters because people are no longer penning their thoughts on paper and are deleting their emails. So are rambling, inconsequential Blogs going be an important literary source for future historians? At least when people had to physically write their thoughts down they were (perhaps) less likely to scribble rubbish because of the time and effort it took and were even likely to worry about the paper it might waste when paper was expensive.  How will future researcher's find their equivalent of diaries and letters, what search engines and filters will they use?  Will they search Unabashedly Bookish looking for gems on modern authors and light upon a ghoulish entry on Sylvia Plath's son before finding Monty's excellent review of Forever Wars?  Will what Ryan and Kathy write about Wordsmithonia become as important as the contribution of B&N authors?  And will sitting before a computer screen to do your research ever be as pleasant as sitting in the Reading Room of the British Library?

My breakfast mull over Blogs brought me to the conclusion that as there are likely to be far more 'Put the wheelie bin out this morning' entries than Monty reviews, I will not clutter my mind by reading Blogs and that if I am reincarnated (perish the thought!) I will not become a social historian! 

[#4]

I'm mostly in agreement with you guys, except fot the Kindle part ( It really is great Ryan and I still buy paperbooks)

My favorite thing about twitter is changing the picture of my puppy and from that learning how to crop photos. I despise facebook and myspace. People that I am friends with and see on a daily basis, will forget to tell me things because they updated on their facebook and assume I already know. And recently I noticed that an old friend of mine was on Facebook. We used to be great friends through school, college, after college. we talked less once her second kid came along, but we'd email. Then that dwindled and I only hear from her with the family photo christmas card. Yet she's on facebook looking to reconnect!! I was so mad.

I hate texting, it takes me forever so I don't do it. One great thing about technology is caller ID and avoiding phone calls from computer generated voices.

Ironically because of facebook and my friends being busy staying in touch with non-friends, I end up being closer to my online friends here at B&N. I am really glad that I have you guys!!

[#5]

And C, thanks for reminding me, I have to take the "wheelie bin" out tomorrow,lol!

[#6]

Deb,

I am right there with you

[#7]

Well, I am glad to see there are still regular people out there.  LOL!  I too do avoid the cell phone texting.  It is so much easier and faster to talk. (for me anyway). 

I have been using the twitter a little lately, part of me says I should be familiar with what is available out there and take advantage of it.  But mostly it is for info on books and to keep in touch with only a few people.  I still like to have the person to person interaction.  The computer talking just can't replace that, yet here I am doing it.  I do enjoy my friends I have around me in person and I have come to enjoy the friends I have made because of the twitter and internet.

It is so true, that friend I have in person have also become internet friends.  It seems to be the way to stay in touch anymore.?