Stowe Boyd | Posted on Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 12:51AM The Rule of High School
Seth seems unmoved by Twitter, or maybe doesn't like the 'cool kids' that seem to jam its hallways.
[via Seth's Blog: The Rule of High School]
Any sufficiently overheated industry will eventually resemble high school. High school is filled with insecurity, social climbing, backbiting, false friends, faux achievements, high drama and not much content. Much of this insecurity comes from a market that doesn't make good judgments, that doesn't understand how to reliably choose between alternatives. So it turns into a popularity contest.
[...]
Or Twitter, which is high school but only 140 characters at a time.
I confess that as I have been slowly disconnecting from the San Francisco tech scene over the past months, a sizable slice of what is filtering through to me about that world -- I don't have very good filters in place -- does have a high school feel to it. (Right now, all the revelers in Las Vegas at the Blog World event, for example. Yet another tech Mardi Gras, which is what SxSW is, or at least has become.)
My answer -- as always -- is to refresh the mix on Twitter. If someone spends too much time blabbing about pro Football, or the inscrutability of their offspring, or how wonderful their soulmate is -- Zap! I drop them. It causes them no pain, and they can keep on arguing with their closest friends about the big game, or Mad Men, or karaoke. Since I was not participating in the first place, why would they care?
But they do, just like Seth's comments would suggest.
As I recently said in my Twitter bio, 'I have given up on balance. I am going for depth instead.' Part of that desire for depth leads me to periodically shaking the twitter tree. It probably makes me less popular, but I am going for depth.
Reader Comments (1)
I wonder, is it because the geeks finally get to be considered 'cool' so they're going to take their turn at the game of life? Maybe, but what I know. it's a painful time I never wanted to re-live. I wasn't a cool kid, still am not though I know I am as likely to have a relevant thought as anyone else.
FYI, I don't think we follow each other but I do pay attention to your blog. When you write, from my perspective it makes sense, but I'm not hurt that you don't follow me. If you're saying something I should hear, I will. The same can not be said in return but I really don't care. I can admire people having no expectations of them at all.
Balance is a perception. You can find a balance in anything if you want to. Conversation, reciprocation that is the great equalizer. At some point we all just get too old to give a damn about what anyone else thinks. It's what you think that matters. To you.