Does this blog make me look old?

One of the joys of taking classes at a community college in my thirties is that I get to annoy "Millenials" with all sorts of pseudo journalistic questions about their generation.

I'd like to think their answers help me stay relevant.

But sometimes, their answers just make me feel obsolete.

For example, this week I took a survey in my journalism class to find out how many of my young classmates read blogs (self-serving question, I know). The answer: none of them.

Oh, and Twitter is for "old people." And Ashton Kutcher.

That's what I get for asking self-serving questions.

Strangers no more: A new app that IDs faces

When I wrote this post a few days ago about our dwindling 15 minutes of anonymity on the internet, I almost included a bit on how the coupling of facial recognition technology and smartphone cameras will enable us one day to obliterate the anonymity and mystique of any stranger we encounter on the street. One day.

But that day is already almost here.

15 Minutes of Anonymity

They say the Defense Department invented the Internet, but I have an alternate theory: I think Al Gore made a wish on The Monkey's Paw, and one day we'll find out the ironic price to be paid for that granted wish.

Can there be an app for Serendipity?

I think of technology as the ultimate Enabler, in both the positive as well as the AA sense of that word. If you want to be a shut-in, no problem -- you can shop for groceries, earn a living, even socialize from the comfort of home without uttering a single face-to-face word. If you crave intimacy, but find the psychic price of IRL interaction too steep, there's a (porn) site for you. And if having hundreds of Facebook "friends" truly gives you a sense of connection... well, obviously you're in sync with the masses.

But here's the kind of enabler most of us need: the kind that helps Opportunity find our door, that lets us know when we're actually in the right place at the right time, that nudges us to chat up the adorable stranger on the subway platform now instead of posting to "Missed Connections" later.  Everyday another hundred+ people get onto our trains, or walk through our parks, or lounge at our spots. Some of those strangers could offer us a job, produce our screenplay, share our love of Lego art, end our loneliness -- whatever. Not likely, perhaps, but possible. Facebook, et. al, covers the people we do know -- what about all the people we don't but maybe could? With all this GPS tracking and whatnot, technology has the goods to be that enabler, doesn't it?

Well, if location-based social networks/apps like StreetSpark take off, maybe technology will one day meet my high expectations.

Dashboard Confessional

Last night I went trolling for more dashboard widgets, culminating in yet another episode of binge downloading.

Yes, dear reader, I'm a widgetwhore.

A "widgetwhore," as defined by Urban Dictionary:

"A Mac user (OSX 10.4+) who fills up the dashboard with widgets, of which many, or at least some, are unnecessary or ridiculous. Most common among new Mac users, particularly recently converted windoze users. Commonly, but not always, characterized by cuteness or bouncyness."

I'd say I'm a textbook case -- except for the cutesy/bouncy bit (all those cutesy icons I've downloaded onto my Mac don't count, right?). What fuels my addiction? Boredom? An empty, shallow existence? The delusion that somewhere, out there on the interwebs, is a widget for each and all of my heretofore unfulfilled (and bottomless) needs?

My down-the-time-hole project for today was to purge all unused widgets (Ooh! A goldfish aquarium!) and whittle my dashboard down to these seven six favorite and neither ridiculous nor unnecessary widgets that I use on a regular basis:

The Tao of Twitter

There are 23.7 million tweets per day, on average, mostly human in origin. But that could be changing, if this post on HuffPo is any indication.

Animals, beds, toilets, trees, shoes, chairs and even bathroom scales are increasingly invading the Twitterverse. Apparently oversharing, self-promotion and narcissistic solipsism are not traits exclusive to homo sapiens.

Love in the time of 140 characters or less

Will flittering be the new speed dating?

Imagine walking into a dimly lit, swank lounge packed with 300+ singles, everyone wearing a numbered tag and holding a mobile device. A giant Big Brother screen looms, displaying a live-feed stream of the flirty tweets (aka "flitters") pinging about amongst the crowd. You spot an enticing stranger, and with thumbs poised on mobile device you begin to compose in your head the perfect in-140-characters-or-less come-on to #157....