A recent New York Times video got my mother interested in reQall, a to-do list/reminder/calendar thingy with many interesting features, notably the fact that you can add items with your voice. Of course, because speech-to-text technology still isn’t 100% accurate, hilarity could occasionally ensue:
>From: reQall >Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 11:53:24 +0000 >To: <Withheld so you won't spam my mom> >Subject: Added: Look at Joe's gold in the Swiss Bank.... > >Added to reQall: >Look at Joe's gold in the Swiss Bank.That’s not exactly what I said. I said ‘look at Joe’s goals in the system.’ Whatever…
The botched transcription touches on the suspicious. If you decide to hop on reQall, make sure you don’t slur your words reminding yourself to “show up at” your son’s football game. An innocent mistake by the system could cause a suicide bomber panic at Giants stadium.
Unfriending The Internet: Confessions of an Antisocial Networker, and Why You Might Be One Too
CC Photo by heartbeaz on Flickr
As 2009 draws to a close, I will remember it as the end of my 5-year love affair of giving a crap what my friends are posting on the Internet.
The idea of “social networking” exploded in the second half of this past decade, with MySpace becoming a household name, and everyone and their mother (quite literally) having a Facebook profile. It was extremely appealing: never stay out of touch with all of your friends, because they’re sharing their whole life with you, even if you can’t be there in person. I got caught up in the craze like all of us, but I soon discovered that, to me, at least, full-blown social networking was a passing fad. Perhaps I overestimated just how much I cared about every mundane detail of my friends’ lives. And considering all of the initial skepticism about Twitter, I’m probably not the only one.
Let me tell you my story, and how I came to this conclusion:
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