My blog used to be used as a ride organizer, but now there's this. It get's used almost weekly, however, I know there's way more impromptu rides going on. So, how does that work?
Well there's this new fangled thing called social media. These continuously updating sites let you post a little, but not a lot, on what's happening. I belong to them about as much as I belong to Husker Nation. I reside there, will watch what's going on with some interest, but rarely partake in any involvement.
I can never fit what I want to say into a meaningful Facebook post. And Twitter doesn't even let me begin a thought. If you'll notice, my blog text area is most of the page, or widescreen. I did this because I'm awfully wordy and didn't want my ramblings to take numerous scrollings like some people. (Sorry Brady, your's was the best example I could find. Please, keep up the entertaining posts. Love them.) Also, I figured most people would be posting widescreen youtube videos in the future. But then a weird thing happened.
"In the future" became social media where links are used rather than thoughts, and smaller is better. Even the screens used to view social media are smaller. Did the cell phone help create social media, or did social media push cell phone's into what they've become? Either way, I'm not sure I'm on board.
Bryan was recently faced with the question of how important social media is to him. He went with a pretty sensible phone by today's standards. I had mentioned in a response to an earlier post, if he wanted to avoid Android, he could go with a Blackberry via Virgin Mobile. I figured he'd like the idea of saving money monthly. I really don't know his situation, so I probably assumed wrong, but I like VMs prices - $25 a month (plus tax, so $27) for unlimited web/text and 300 minutes a month. When I got a bonus from work, I tried out their LG Optimus and tried to like it. Well, aside from liking the name a whole bunch, the battery lasted maybe 2 days. That was with turning everything off (GPS, Gmail Sync, Wifi, etc) aside from regular cell phone reception. I know this because there was an app that let me see all the currently running processes. Kinda cool, but worthless when you find out that searching for cell towers and running your OS only nets you 40 hours of battery life. So that went back to the store and I used the bonus to pay down some debt.
Maybe if I could afford any of it, I'd be singing a different tune. As it stands now, I'm almost offended at the idea of spending $70+ a month on a data enabled phone just to stay connected when most people have perfectly fine computers at their job and/or home. If interesting things happen between your job and your home, you can easily use your large screen and large keyboard to write a very well thought out blog posting.
I know I'm being particularly "fist shaky" about this subject (a term I learned from Miah in a Facebook conversation about fireworks) but I don't think I'll ever be a frequent poster to the social media anytime soon, if ever. So I have a jump start on being uncool to my kids, if I have any.
So, I am around, lurking in the shadows, following what's going on, but usually not commenting on (or "liking") it. Hopefully I'll pick up riding more sometime soon since I recently got a slight promotion at work and don't have to work weird hours anymore. I'm done by 4:30pm almost every day. Now I just have to remember how to ride fast. I rode with Mr. Miles this last weekend and was shown how utterly long it's been since I've ridden with any speed. Who know's maybe I'll show up to a WNW ride and ride with the C group. C group being me, by myself, just getting to Ft. Calhoun while others are getting back to the store.
