Great Viral Gimmick
Posted by R.E. Finch on July 3, 2008 at 10:47 am
This is making its way around the web. You can get your own, if you watch to the end:
Tags: getting known, gimmick, Viral
Conservatives Are Nicer People
Posted by R.E. Finch on June 16, 2008 at 1:41 pm
This article from Saturday’s London Daily Mail somewhat confirmed something I have been pondering over the past few weeks.
George Orwell once wrote that politics was closely related to social identity. ‘One sometimes gets the impression,’ he wrote in The Road To Wigan Pier, ‘that the mere words socialism and communism draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, nature-cure quack, pacifist and feminist in England’.
It all started when I forwarded to a cousin a bit of minutiae regarding statistical differences between behaviors of peoples of various cultures. The data fascinated me because I have done many analyses of precinct-level voting behavior. Past behavior is a great tool for predicting future behavior. Generally, people within a precinct share a greater level of “sameness” than they do with those in neighboring precincts; people self-differentiate themselves from others when they select a place to call home. This information is pretty much confirmed by various sections of the General Social Survey (GSS) to which the Mail’s article pointed as a source.
My cousin, a dyed in the wool egalitarian leftist, apparently was upset that I had the audacity to even read statistics that explore differences between peoples’ cultural traditions and how they might affect behavior. To him, it appears I have committed some some sort of thought-crime in pondering that people from various cultures might be different in any way at all. To him, all people of every culture and every nation are not only “equal,” they’re “identical;” it is an article that underlies his humanist faith. If people actually are different, and that difference is in any way based upon folkways, traditions, or anything handed down through the generations, then his whole set of assumptions about the way the world works might crumble. (Continued)
Tags: Conservatism, general social survey, london daily mail, Political Correctness, progressivism, sameness, traditionalism
Whither Twitter?
Posted by R.E. Finch on June 3, 2008 at 5:57 pm
For my readers who may be unaware, another phase of Internet-centered communications advances is upon us. As my good friend Jack Latona might say, they just aren’t widely distributed… yet. I’m urging those who don’t usually tune-in to the latest and greatest until after folks on the cutting edge stop bleeding to get familiar - now - with the ideas behind the terms “Web 2.0” and “Social Media.”
With that in mind, today I’m going to introduce you to Twitter. It is definitely within the realms of both of the aforementioned new-fangled terms. And it is something that I instinctively know will be some sort of “next big thing.” That’s the oddest truth about Twitter: nearly everyone who uses it for a while finds it indispensable but we can’t describe it well. Most users believe that Twitter (or something very much like it) will become as much a part of our daily lives as email, but we still can’t tell you precisely why that will be the case.
Even explaining what Twitter is presents challenges. OK, it’s a means of “microblogging,” as if that helps. Rather than bore you with technical jargon, I’ll point you to this because it’s a good start:
But that’s all the video is: A good start. By the way, the video is by the good folks at Common Craft. I’ll have to do a post about that great company later; they’re really embedded in the Web 2.0 wave. (Continued)
Tags: blog, communications, Communications tools, microblogging, Social Media, twitter, Web 2.0
Absolut-ly Lame
Posted by R.E. Finch on April 6, 2008 at 1:32 pm
There’s a serious kerfuffle in the Absolut brand thanks to a really bad marketing decision. It all centers on this advertisement:
These days, there is a substantial segment of America, perhaps a significant majority, for whom such imagery will be a cause for offense. This is now an official “crisis” and the mode of communication coming from the company should reflect that. Heck, Americans make up 40% of the market for their product. The folks at Absolut needed to take some serious steps to alleviate this situation. First, they needed to apologize profusely. Then they needed to find ways to make amends. There simply is no way to make this pig in a poke any more palatable. In this instance, with so much at stake, the only defense is surrender.
Instead, Absolut’s in-house shill machine went on the defensive. (Continued)
Left Brain, Right Brain Inside Out
Posted by R.E. Finch on March 21, 2008 at 2:38 pm
The video below is stunning. Thank you, Jill Bolte Taylor!
I cannot recall the last time… if there ever was a last time… I gained so much insight or experienced such an incredible multiplicity of revelation from witnessing a single presentation. I may have attended a sermon or two that came close to having its impact, but I doubt that any experience has ever educed from deep within so much insight about the human condition.
The following video will take up about 18 minutes of your life. It may change the way you look at the rest of it.
I’ve heard and read much about left-brain vs. right-brain thinking processes and how they may relate to individual learning processes. Jill’s talk made me realize far more clearly how human communication is a primarily left-brain affair. It now appears to me that, in fact, the human condition results from how much clarity people might find behind the veil brought down upon reality by left-brain noise. Jill makes it clear, at least for me, that people must get to know their right-brains a whole lot better; perhaps I can help some people do this. (Continued)
Tags: communications
