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The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth: Tech Talk Tuesday

The net is where the big kids play. If you’re ready to dive in the deep end and have a play at the social media party; grow a set. Yes, ladies, that goes for you too.

Today I’ll just highlight four facets of Social Media and let you draw your own conclusions. I’m hopeful that you’ll leave some comments and spark a lively discussion.

Own It.

Yesterday a blogger wrote about being disgusted by one woman nursing another woman’s baby, I believe the title of the post was “Rent a Boob”. Well, it was a good post, it was controversial and (as expected) there was a discussion about it on Twitter and on the blogs.

My understanding is that the woman who was acting as a wetnurse was too easily identified. Unfortunately, the post is down. I would have enjoyed directing your attention to the post, as it’s the only one I’d seen over there that would have caught my eye.

The post was taken down. She says she was threatened. Rather than a tome, I’ll give you the bullet points:

  • Don’t delete your posts, if you can’t stand behind your words, I don’t want to read them
  • Try to change names, places and faces if you think someone might be hurt by your words
  • If you’re in a room with a blogger, tell them that you’d prefer they not talk about you, most will respect your wishes
  • If you are afraid of a little controversy then go to lolcats or get off the web

You Can own it and enjoy it.

Recently Marcus Brown sent a change of email address email to 150 Bloggers and Social Media Personalities. He did not BCC. It was a disaster.

150 self promoters were all CC’ing each tother in an attempt to send funds to Nigeria, lengthen their penis’ or get twitter followers. It was comedy for nerds.

Most importantly I get email from Jason Calcanis, I felt a little special (and not in the short bus way). Marcus Brown sent an apology email a few hours later, and all was forgiven. Through it all I discovered his very funny site, and now I’m sharing it with you. He was genuine and apologetic. It happens, I hope folks find a way to laugh with me when I have a faux pas.

Larger corporations could learn a lot from this. Although I firmly believe that Motrin needed a scolding, I don’t think that Skittles or Nickelodeon need to be punished. They just need to decide if they’re marketing to children or to adults. Either decision is fine, just make a decision.

Enjoy it.

Be a nerd, know it, love it, enjoy it and smile. I’m pretty sure that Woz had his fair share of wedgies in Junior High School. Last night he was on Dancing With The Stars strutting his stuff with a mostly naked dancer clinging to him.

Woz’ joy translates and there is now a viral campaign, Vote Woz!

Say Thank You.

When I head out for an LA Tech Event I put on a little makeup with the hopes of meeting Wm. Marc Salsberry. Why Wm Marc? Two reasons, he’s a serial entrepreneur and it’s super fun to talk to him, and because he’s a kick ass photographer.

I want to be recognized from site to site, so I use the same photograph on Twitter, Facebook and in my comments. My new photograph is a Wm Marc photo. If you’re lucky, you’ll get in front of his lens too. He’s Los Angeles’ treasure and he’s too self effacing to admit it.

So thank you Wm Marc, for this.

just-me
Check out all my tech tips here, and if you have a tech question do leave it in the comments. I’m always looking to address the topics you want to discuss.

10 thoughts on “The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth: Tech Talk Tuesday”

  1. You know, I don’t always agree with you (though I do more often than not) but the way you own everything you do and say is why I come back to this blog and follow you on Twitter. It’s probably the quality I admire most in anybody who carries it. Your advice here should be taken in all aspects of life. And I love that your opinion on the BF issue was not about the actual incident but about sticking by your words no matter what. I walk away from reading this post feeling a little tougher & with my chin just a little bit higher.
    And for the record Woz rules.

  2. I didn’t read the post of the comments. So this may not pertain to that particular kerfluffle.

    However, I frequently see that people complain that they are being “threatened” when that’s not the case. What’s happening is that someone is disagreeing with their opinion. That’s not a threat. Sure, they may use foul language, or call you fat (I get that one a lot, it’s like Godwin’s Law for ChickBloggers.)

    But we get to CHOOSE what we put out there. No one is forcing us to blog. If you put up a picture of your kid (your choice) and someone makes fun of that picture it’s not a NICE thing, but it’s not a threat.

    “Don’t delete your posts, if you can’t stand behind your words, I don’t want to read them.”

    Exactly.

  3. I’m with Meghan on why you’re voice is so refreshing to hear. While I do disagree on the Nickelodeon thing (sometimes the only way to make the corp giants listen is with a loud roar), your message has been consistent and you stand firm on what you believe and for that we all thank you.

  4. I totally agree with you Jessica – if you’re going to write and post – own it. I recently posted a comment to Deepak Chopra on Twitter (@deepakchopra) telling him I was happy to see he was interacting with us. He (or perhaps his staff)responded with “thank you @marthavan”. My second tweet was to again compliment him, but added @zappos in the same text, which resulted in an immediate deletion of his reply to me. What’s with that? Jeez, I say stupid things all the time, but I own up to them and take full responsibility.

  5. I didn’t get to see the post in question, and now I’m very curious. Which is possibly the worst predicament to be in – being out of the loop, listening to everyone else weigh in and being completely unable.

    Either way, you’re right. If you’re going to have a controversial opinion, then own it. You can’t expect to post something like that and get only happy, shiny, “Great post!” comments.

  6. Oh Jessica! DAMMIT! :)

    Now that I got that out of my system, off to the races. The web…what a wonderful thing we weave, as it’s really the people on the web that make the web what it is.

    The thing that really encourages people is the ability to remain nameless or faceless unless TMZ has a camera stuck in a shirt somewhere chasing some celeb down…I could digress, but would rather not.

    Breast feeding…for those men out there who cower at it…get over it. Remember your Mom breast feeding you? Well I don’t and that’s a part of childhood I missed being one who got ill from that milk and had to resort to an expensive formula which at that time cost a bundle. And then of course my folks never really paid attention to the fact that I was lactose intolerant and could not get over why I was snorting like a bull all the time. Sheesh, the things people get pissed about.

    Okay, back to the breast feeding! If they could read my dribble now. LOL.

    Guys, it’s perfectly natural for women to breast feed. So when it happens in front of you, don’t shame it, and don’t be perverted about it, just know that the child is being fed and will grow up and could literally be the next President or Pope or even Saviour of the world.

    Ladies…am not sure why you gals gripe about another woman feeding a baby. That to me makes no sense. To my other side which is the spiritual side we do grasp this and are saddened that you feel the disconnect between the mother in you and the child that is being fed. Why not bless this act? Why judge it and cut short your own abundance? is this something shameful?

    We would think no. Is this jealousy on your part that it’s not you? This should not be, because since we are all connected that twinge in your breast that you feel when you see this act is your participation in the act along with this person.

    Think carefully about your next thought, touch your heart and connect with the one doing the feeding. If it’s for money…who cares, as that’s not the point, the point is the sharing of a universally connecting moment of one being of energy with another in a loving, tender moment that produces a connection and helps another. A direct transfer of abundance from one to the next and so on.

    I wish more of you looked at things as we do, from a limitless perfective vs. a limit-filled perspective. Then you would see that this act is one of love vs. one of judgment, or shame.

    Lastly, for those who are always looking to strike fear into others for posting things, expressing viewpoints, etc., one would suggest that you look at whether or not that benefits your own stake in karma or whether it turns the tide against you. One never knows when the universe will take from one and award another based on the doing of good deeds. It may be in your interest to channel your bad thoughts into good ones and perpetuate your own abundance instead of trying to take from another. :)

    We wish all who read this and benefit from it many blessings.

    Michael
    ([email protected] if anyone feels a need to email direct communications)

  7. I have to agree with Meghan and Jennifer, this is why I love you. When I lived with guys I learned the hard way that if “I can’t take it I shouldn’t dish it out” because they will be on my back if I decide to start something. That is just how the guys I hung out with acted. And it definitely helped to build a tough skin for me. Anytime you put something up whether it be a photograph, literature, etc. you are going to get criticism, I thought most people would know that or do they not do that in art classes anymore? I remember when I was majoring in architecture our teachers would literally shred our plans apart, but for good reason because it would make us think and help us improve. I think people need to either takes things with a grain of salt or take an experience and learn from it.

    And the whole breastfeeding another woman’s child, people need to get over it. I mean seriously you would think we are living in Victorian Europe with the way people are acting nowadays. Boobs are there to nurture our young and if one woman wants to help another, good on her. I do not see why everyone needs to be so sensitive about everything. As The Slackmistress said, “No one is forcing us to blog.”

    And I love that picture of you.

  8. Breastfeeding demolishes the idea that women are sex toys. Americans really hate taking women out of their rightful places as objects.

    I agree about owning what you write. I still have trouble with people who troll and poke sticks whether it be for fun or just because they are wired that way. Having a different opinion is one thing but hysterical ranting has no place in a discussion.

    You should never delete a post. Close the comments if they are getting out of line, but don’t delete. Deleting is capitulation.

  9. Okay, I agree about the deleting part. I saw the blacklash at the breastfeeding mom’s post. I never did get to see the original which was frustrating since it was difficult to see both sides of the issue.

    From reading comments, I had understood (and I could be totally incorrect) that the original post took issue with the idea that one mom let another mom breastfeed her baby having just met her hours before.

    If that was the issue, I can relate to that.

    How many of us would let our children eat a homemade treat acquired while trick or treating from someone we don’t know in our neighborhood?

    How many of us trust our neighbors, but still check the candy?

    Those are people we know and still we don’t let our children consume food from people we don’t know.

    Yet somehow when the issue gets twisted in with breastfeeding, then the popular thought on the mommy blogging sets twists away from that principle of safety over trust and it become the rally cry for breastfeeding and sisterhood.

    I understood (and I still could be wrong since I didn’t get to read the original) that the concern is that the mom was a little blase with the safety of her child not knowing if the proxy breastfeeding mom took recreational drugs that could affect the milk, drank coffee/coke that might have been in the milk, could be ill with the flu, or yes, I heard people even insinuated sexually transmitted diseases. I won’t go there. The proxy mom through her blog seems fine and upstanding. It’s more that we don’t know and the mom didn’t know her.

    Really, my concern is not the act which was very altruistic, but the immediate trust because perhaps (again don’t know–please don’t hurt me : ) ) this blogger was a pretty big time blogger. I mean I might love Julia Roberts, but I wouldn’t trust her to breatfeed my baby because I simply don’t know her. Now, if my baby was starving, like the Salma Hayek story? Of course. starvation merits the risk. Awesome.

    Or if the mother died like this sad story and friends wanted to help out:

    http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/03/26/women-cross-nurse-motherless-infant/

    Praise hallelujah. That said, this was a situation where the baby’s mom had milk and the only reason the proxy mom breastfed first mom’s baby was for comfort because she was engorged from not bringing a breast pump to a blogging conference. I’ve so been there–my wedding night actually. Heh.

    I know it’s uncomfortable, but as the mother of the baby, I would still choose my baby’s safety over helping out another mother. I will still throw away my neighbor I don’t really know’s brownies and risk hurting her feelings over trusting my children’s well-being.

    That is what I took away from it. Trust over safety.

    As for the threatening. I don’t know because I didn’t see it and I lost a lot of respect for that blogger because of her delete. I never delete. I am still angry at my self for editing posts earlier this year about my family’s religion and what I perceived as bigoted response to prop. 8 when my blog was discovered by my sisters. In the end? They are still not talking to me and I now feel a bit too restrained.

    heh. I know. I know. Me? Restrained.

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