Tag Archives: technology

Why I’ve quit reading “social media blogs”

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I’ve spent the last year and a half reading and learning as much about social media as possible, going from a complete n00b with barely a Facebook profile to a recovering social media addict. I ravenously consumed blog posts about PR, communications and social media. But after awhile, a lot of the information begins to feel repetitive (and derivative). I get it at this point – it’s “about the conversation” and “engaging with people” and “being transparent.”

My reading habits have changed over the last month or so. I’m no longer looking for basic social media information or more social media Kool-Aid and so I’ve purged my Google Reader of feeds I haven’t been getting much value from. I’m reading fewer and fewer personal or individual PR bloggers and instead gleaning more insight from collaborative blogs or blogs at major media outlets. My goal is less about the nuts-and-bolts or “how to” of social media and PR 2.0 and more about understanding the big picture — trends and successes in media, social networking, and the Web, and looking at how all of it impacts the way we will continue to consume news and information.

Some blogs will always have a revered spot in my reader, because I’m always finding value and new ideas from them. However, a lot of what I’m reading now isn’t even necessarily PR-focused. I’m always open to discovering a post on someone’s blog that showcases great thinking or a new idea, and I still stumble across some of those via Twitter. But I’m being more discerning about which feeds make it into my RSS reader.

Here’s what’s been recently added to my reader or what I’ve refocused on lately:

Media Industry and Trends

Hyperlocal News

Social Media and PR 2.0 in Practice

Business and Technology Insight

It’s a lot of content, which wreaks havoc on my previous system of organizing Google Reader. I’m much better now about scanning headlines, using the “sort by magic” feature to see the best posts, and not agonizing anymore about trying to get to everything.

What sites are you finding value in these days? Share in the comments.

We’ve come a long way, baby

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My husband and I visited his parents last weekend and ended up discovering a stack of old photography magazines his mom had saved. The following gem is an excerpt from the American Photo March/April 1996 issue and was written as a computer review for readers looking to “buy a new machine designed for the online age.” Enjoy:

We chose the [IBM] Aptiva M71 ($2,999 list) for our Net-crusing system because its 133-megahertz Pentium processor took us to warp speed. Then we paired it with IBM’s nearly glare-free 17-inch G70 monitor ($879), souped it up with an extra 16 megabytes (MB) of RAM ($600) for a total of 32 MB (expansion is possible up to 128 MB), and plugged in Storm Technology’s EasyPhoto Reader, an inexpensive ($249) and ingenious print scanner. Everything else we could dream up– a fast 28,800-baud modem, a quadruple speed CD-Rom drive, a huge 1.6-gigabyte hard drive, stereo speakers, a microphone, and dozens of software titles, and of course a keyboard and mouse– came with the Aptiva M71…

…When combined with IBM’s G70 monitor, the Aptiva (which comes loaded with Windows 95) displays 16.7 million colors at 640×480 pixel screen resolution. That’s a treat for visiting Websites and a necessity for accurate digital retouching of photographs. (If you want a higher 1024×768 resolution, you get a still-impressive 64,000 colors).

So in 1996 you could drop about $4,700 for the machine described above, which would take you to “warp speed” with its 28.8 modem.

Last month, I bought a Dell Inspiron laptop for $550. It came with a 160 gigabyte (that would be GB) hard drive, 2.0 gigahertz processor,1.0 GB of RAM, a 1280×800 resolution screen that displays 16.7 million colors, and an 8x DVD-RW drive.

I like the future.