The biggest danger of the real-time web is that you can't keep it full
with auto posts of your location, what you're eating and drinking or
who you are with. You need to create content for your channels. When
you do this, you actually engage yourself. Or do you?
No one can deny or minimize Apple's exemplary knack of getting
attention and maintaining it, manipulating it to the benefit of their
product releases. The iPad is only the latest example, since the
iPhone and iPod. The real time nature of the Internet, itself a fairly
recent concept, has made it clear that the majority of those who speak
out on on iPad have in their DNA an Apple Fanboy gene or an Apply h8r
gene.
I watched some of last night's iPhone 4 preview keynote "live" blogged
by Engadget. It didn't give me chills or make me feel smug about
Android, so my gene isn't one of the previously mentioned. There were
some details about what the release would bring, many were
interesting. One of the most interesting was the mobile iAd model.
This may prove to to be the most important development of all in
iPhone 4. Since no one clicks on banners anymore, a change was needed
and this one looks to be a big concept in advertising. One that people
like Hulu will probably be looking at, too.
My own point of this post is simpler. Watching the reactions on
Twitter and the live chat during the keynote, I realized how few
people actually think about the intellectual stimulus the brain
receives and rely on knee-jerk reactions to everything that Apple does
whether they are haters or fanboys.
On a larger scale, the quality of life of the world in general will
not change much in the wake of any Apple decision or even if Apple
disappeared completely. On the other hand, the same kinds of
reactions, mostly reflexive knee jerk to President Obama's attempts -
like them or hate them - are far more important. What happens in the
United States does have a strong effect on the quality of life, not
only there, but in much of the world. Life or death decisions aren't
based on the reflectivity index of the iPad's screen, but a lot
decisions that are made in Washington have a life or death effect all
over the world.The issues are more complex than how to move from one
app to the next in new multitasting iPhone OS 4.
To Apple fanboys, Apple haters, Obama supporters and Obama
denigraters, I have one request and only one. Think. Don't parrot,
think. Analyze what you see and hear. Take it in, don't skim, don't
scan, actually let it into your brain and give it a few CPU cycles.
Come to a conclusion, don't rush to judgment and especially, don't
prematurely feed your channel with "content" just because it needs to
be fed. This is as true of Twitter as it is of your blog.
Examine the input, consider the source. Even if you trust the source,
it can still be wrong. In a world where more and more of the
follower-followee model thrives, use the brain you have developed over
all those years to examine, analyze, process, debunk, filter out
noise, prejudice, vested interests, subjective unhappiness or euphoria
of the source of your information. Play with it, throw it around in
the mind that separates you from both machines and lower species of
animals.
Look at the issue at hand: is there a chance the result of an action
(like Universal Health) while not friendly to me personally, might
make a difference to many others in the world? If I could alleviate
suffering of a large number of fellow humans, would I pay a little
more tax? And is this compatible with paying AT&T thousands over a
couple of years, bitching about their service, but not giving a crap
about real suffering?
