When our worldly knowledge is based around an ever-changing cycle of products, it means that our skills and perspective have a sort of expiration date–one that is often far shorter than an average professional career.

On my desk is a pocket watch, ticking quietly.  It is 123 years old, yet it works as well as the day it left the factory in Waltham, New York.  Its aesthetics are timeless–polished metal, glass, and delicate black-on-white roman numerals.  Though it is obsolete–its gentle discrepancies made unacceptable in a world of radio-controlled quartz movements–its value has remained largely constant over its long life.  After all, even if it were broken beyond repair, it contains 4oz. of coin silver (and a broken clock is right twice a day).

This watch, for me, throws into contrast our failure to bring past visions of ‘the future’ to life.  While our technology and products have become increasingly advanced, any sense of quality and value has started to come apart in the relentless product cycle.  This cycle–an insistence on new and better–has infected our media and minds as well.  In our movement further into the digital frontier, we have started to leave permanence behind in favor of freshness, depth in favor of convenience.  We are in danger of losing a certain fundamental sense of meaning.
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Some of you may recall my article about cybersquatters and higher ed from last year and the followup University Business article.

Now cybersquatters are invading higher ed’s social media presence by starting Facebook groups.  Fortunately, Brad Ward at squaredpeg has their number.  If you haven’t already seen it, go and read this article and protect your brand’s presence on Facebook before someone else takes control.

From ‘A Softer World’

From ‘A Softer World’

There is an argument made against privacy that says someone who isn’t engaged in criminal behavior has nothing to hide. This method of thinking allowed the US government to slowly sap away our civil liberties in the wake of the 9/11 attacks–many have just accepted that trading privacy for security is acceptable and used the “nothing to hide” argument to rationalize what was, essentially, a decision based on fear. However, limiting the government’s ability to intrude in our private lives is easy compared with attempting to control how personal information spreads on the internet via gossip. Rather than spies or wiretaps, gossip is often gathered by those we trust and spread online by people who don’t understand or appreciate the potential for the damage it can do. In reality, privacy is about much more than concealing wrongdoing.

Internet-based abuse (‘cyberbullying’) and privacy / relationship issues are still massively misunderstood. The complexities of online sociality are probably the biggest ‘generational divide’ between modern teens and adults. To help put it in perspective a bit, here are some numbers…

I HAVE A MYSPACE ACCOUNT!!1!