Alienated or Connected

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the internet went out?

This weekend I took a trip to the Vineyard with my longtime girlfriend and something similar happened.  We were on the remote part of the island, so I couldn't get data, and the wifi was so weak I would pretty much have to be sitting on top of it to get any sort of connection.  It was horrible.

The trip itself was awesome, beaches, shopping... the works; never a dull moment.  Still something felt like it was missing without any sort of E-connection to the outside world.  I would carry my iPhone with me everywhere I went with vain hopes of getting some sort of a bar or two so I could access the Internet.  Occasionally I would get a bar, raising my hopes.  Maybe I could get an e-mail, check facebook for a bit or even send a picture via flickr.  But no.

Even on the beach, while watching the clouds drift my mind would be drifting with them, wondering what was going on in the world of Twitter.  Did one of my tweets get retweeted?  Could I be a Twitter superstar and not even know it?  Not to mention I lost a few foursquare mayorships.

It's sad I know, however it raises an interesting discussion about the nature of being plugged in.

Am I alienated or connected?

Here is a picture of a cat with a watermellon... on a beach:

Social media why?

Why do people use social media websites?  Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, MySpace, Google+, Foursquare, the list goes on.

I am not only guilty using all of the sites above, but do so regularly.  WHY!? I have no idea.  Is is some latent desire to have more communication?  Do I want to be noticed and become famous somehow?  Do I think that people out there actually care what I have do say?

The answers are: no, no and no.  So then why?

Aside from Twitter I generally know all of the people that I communicate with on the other social platforms, so I can scratch out famous.  My friends already don't care what I have to say anyhow, and I have no desire to be famous.

The only other possible explanation I can think of is content.  To share videos and websites, but even that still it makes no sense, if that was the case why not just use one social media website; surely facebook would suffice.

Maybe social media is a niche hobby.  Some people collect stamps, some people are into cars or beer, others are into social media.  Discovering it, using it, finding the latest and greatest.

I don't know I can't really think of any other reasons, but why not?

Here is a picture of a cat: