Stupid questions: No such thing now, but maybe in a few decades

A month ago, Conan O'Brien had comedian Pete Holmes on his show, and Holmes touched on something that had been knocking around my mind at the time. The whole segment is pretty good, but I'm referring specifically to the bit he launches into at the 3:50ish mark below:

For those with smartphones, be they iTelephones or otherwise: Do you ever find yourself, like Holmes, pondering a question about some known facet of our our world, mundane or obscure? Or asking it of someone else? If you're like me, you then catch yourself and think, "Why do we ask these questions anymore?!"

Five years ago, being away from your desktop computer, or sans laptop, was excuse enough to pose questions beginning with "What is ..." or "How do you ..." or "Where is ..." Now, though, it seems almost a waste of breathe.

I suppose we're in a transitional period in our digital culture as we become accustomed to having these devices, and thus answers, at our immediate disposal.

Do you think these types of questions will even be uttered 50 years from now? What about 10 years from now? Now THAT'S one answer I can't look up on my smartphone yet.

Magazines and newspapers: In defense of pre-packaged content delivery systems

One of the most irksome statements in any discussion of the future of magazines or newspapers is when someone asserts: "Well, anything I want to know about, I can find online. Why pay for something that is old news by the time it gets to me?"

This point of view is woefully ignorant. Either that or I'm fiercely jealous of these people's supposed ability to wrangle all the information worth knowing and consume it, daily, in a time-efficient manner.

I'm leaning toward woefully ignorant. Unless these people have absolutely no societal obligations or commitments, how can anyone possibly expect to keep up with the deluge of information crashing against our consciousness at every second?

Even during the days or weeks when I let myself get swept away by that flood, and find my productivity dropping as I follow links shared via Twitter, click on related stories or just other interesting articles on a site, check out new blogs, participate in discussion via comments, etc., I always find something in a newspaper or favorite magazine that I wouldn't have discovered (or bothered to click on) through my online channels.

Pre-packaged convenience

That's the benefit of pre-packaged content in print or in app form: the ability to refer to a trusted brand to provided information on topics a person missed, or on something they wouldn't have looked into on their own.

I don't presume to think I have the time to be up on every current event or development. Nor do I want to close myself off to discovering some new topic of interest because I assume everything worth knowing will be found online for free.

I don't understand how anyone else could.

Maybe it's because I grew up in the final glory days of print and the infancy of digital, but the other benefit of pre-packaged content delivery systems is that the form factor is more likely to get me to read something I might not initially consider of interest. Sometimes all it takes is an eye-catching visual presentation.

This far into the life of the World Wide Web, media sites are slop. They're awful to navigate. They're awful to look at. This is a blanket statement because I think it's true across the board.

So the win in presentation, usability, and navigation still goes to the pre-packaged form.

Do you think this is reason enough for people to pay for certain brands they value, or am I an old-media grump?

My editor's heart skips beats when I see typos in my tweets

I love to write. I don't profess to be great at it. When I was in grad school, though, I learned that I love to edit, too. From picking out smaller grammatical mistakes, to hammering overly-complex sentences out into something smooth, to the broader goal of shaping a piece in its entirety, the editor's hat was one I found comfortable.

Sadly, so much of what's written these days only gets a cursory glance from an editor. Therefore, the onus on a writer is to be as critical a self-editor as possible. I speak from both sides of the desk.

Errors, when I notice them, bother me. Especially when the errors are mine. One of my biggest gripes with social media tools like Twitter and Facebook is that you can't edit a tweet or wall post after the fact. If you notice an error, you need to post a follow-up tweet/post (inelegant), delete it and tweet/post again (which can be confusing to your followers if several hours or days go by before you catch the mistake), or live with it (too painful for my editor's heart).

All of this to say that, after a string of typos in a few tweets I sent into the ether in the last 24 hours, I feel much better after this tweet:

 

In reference to the errors in these two tweets: 

So am I nuts, or does anyone else go batty when they notice errors in their social media missives? What do you think best practice is for dealing with them: correcting them as I did above, or just letting it lay if it's a simple typo (and not, say, a broken link)?

Cisco flips the bird to Flip video cameras

That's right, hoard them while you can. Soon those Flip cameras will be artifacts of a
bygone era in our digital culture. (Photo by Scott Beale/ Laughing Squid,
obtained from the Flickr Creative Commons)

Back in January, I wrote a post that called attention to the dangers of free web tools no longer being free. As with many of my entries here, it was written from my perspective as a former online editor in a newsroom that — as part of a larger corporate effort — was experimenting with free online tools to better do its job in the new, cost-restrictive news ecology.

As an outside observer now, it's a trend I've noticed in other media outfits, to varying degrees. Another trend is the adoption of the Flip video camera, though this was happening long before our newsroom was equipped with the snazzy little devices.

Flip cameras have, in a sense, become synonymous with "digital journalism." The difference between them and free online tools is that Flips actually cost money.

The recent news that Cisco is killing the Flip line, without seeking a buyer, is the other side of the coin I examined in that January post. Of course it happens all the time, but sometimes even the paid tools go poof! and disappear.

While I guess it's surprising Cisco isn't looking to sell the Flip line off, maybe it makes sense. I'm all about standalone devices for certain functions (I'm thinking audio player: I'd rather have a dedicated mp3 player strapped to my sweaty arm than bring my phone into the gym), but the target market for Flip cameras is, I think it safe to say, the casual videographer, who is looking for ease of use and the ability to make simple edits.

In other words, journalists (who, like said casual videographer, may be new and unfamiliar with video recording and editing). Even the most-tech savvy of beat reporters needs something she can make a quick-and-dirty video with.

Those people's needs can be met with a smartphone these days. And there's no reason for reporters NOT to be equipped with smartphones these days.

It'll be interesting to see if other product lines that competed with Flip dry up, too, especially as more point-and-shoot digital cameras, and even SLRs, are released with video-recording capabilities.

Do standalone devices (even mp3 players) have any future in our material culture? 

Can we delete some of this overused Internet jargon? Please?

The Internet can be dumb. Firm a believer as I am that something funny one time will be funny the 500th time, the same is conversely true for stupid or annoying jargon. If it's irritating once, it will be irritating after it's been circulated ad nauseum.

The Internet is a very good medium for accomplishing just that.

Here are some suggested entries for phrases I find overused and now lacking any of the pizazz or originality they may once have exhibited. What are your suggestions?

1. 'Nuff said.
2. I'm just sayin'.
3. Nom
4. The ______ is dead, long live the ______! (Frequently used in headlines).
5. Winning!

Does the Google Gmail Motion gag herald interfaces to come?

Did you hear about Google's Gmail Motion? Sure, it's an April Fool's gag, but this is elegant, subtle humor. If the Internet has improved anything, it's April Fool's Day.

"To send a message: lick a stamp and place it down." Priceless.

Still, how long do you think before we ARE interfacing with our devices like this, be they "desktop" or mobile? The Nintendo Wii, the Microsoft Kinect: I think these are obvious heralds for more widespread, multipurpose, intuitive ways of engaging our devices and interacting with the digital world.

Think "Minority Report," minus the gloves, giant glass memory cards, and wooden balls. Or does that just seem too weird?