Is technology surpassing our human interaction?

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction.  The world will have a generation of idiots.”
– Einstein

Did Albert Einstein really say this?

Apparently it’s fake.  It’s misquoted all over, but as Einstein is seen as authoritative, it makes the quote infallible.  Read here …

Whoever created this quote needs to stand up and take a bow though!

I’m reminded of the day I walked into my daughter’s room, where she and her friend were sitting next to each other on their phones.  Jokingly, I said ‘oh are you having a conversation in Facebook?’.  Yes, came the reply, without even looking up.

I also remember the evening she was sitting on the couch with her boyfriend, not a word was spoken, both were seriously intent on their iPhone screens.

You see it when you go for dinner.  Where has the joy of conversation gone?  Cellphones should be banned at the table.

Yes, technology is already surpassing our human interaction.

What will the next generation be like?  Will they even have ‘real’ social skills?

I love technology and where it’s taking us, but we need to address these social issues.

What are your thoughts?

 

 

 

 

Conversations in gigatown

Now that gigatown is almost over, I find myself reflecting back on the mammoth effort it has been over the last year to get gigatownnsn to where it is now in the competition.

Some lighthearted moments while tweeting for #gigatownnsn, my gorgeous grandkids get in on the act!

Many interesting conversations were started in keeping with the hashtag, this one on virtual reality (VR).

Quizzes with wonderful prizes donated by local businesses.

The excitement when we started moving up the social media leaderboard! Only to be shattered when it was discovered we were being attacked by bots!

It was really cool meeting up with people I knew in real life who had joined the Twitter movement.

The final day dawned and things were getting desparate between the top towns as they went head to head.

And then the almost bitter sweet end, when it felt quite unreal to drop the hashtag.

 

Please note: the images of my grandchildren on this blog are copyright and may not be copied and/or used for any purpose.

 

Encouraging participation

Having a blog is a great way to express myself, and it’s been a useful tool for SCM501.  But what if noone is reading it? How do you encourage participation?

One way I have done this is by sharing my posts to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.  Every time I publish a post it automatically appears in these feeds. And encourages comments.

For example, my post on Developing a Strategic Marketing Plan piqued some interest over in Twitter and was favourited by 5 people.

I’ve also got an automatic message setup in Twitter that acknowledges those who follow me, and gives them my blog address to encourage them to visit and have a read.

I’m getting some participation over at Facebook. Many of my friends and family read my posts there and leave comments. The one below was in response to an open ended question (these are great to use for stimulating conversation).

Blogher.com is where NaBloPoMo originates from. National Blog Posting Month. I am taking part in this challenge to post once a day on my blog during November, and sharing these posts over at blogher.com. This is a great way to meet other bloggers, to view their posts and to like and follow their blogs. It also encourages participation from them as quite a few are following my blog and interacting with my posts.

I also have sharing buttons setup so my posts can be shared to different platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn. And I always reply to comments that are left on my posts, I’m very appreciative of people taking the time to stop by and leave a message.

I now have 40 followers and am following them all back as well as engaging with their blogs. Apart from common courtesy, this tells them that I am interested in their blog and will encourage them to keep up with mine.

What methods do you use on your blog to encourage participation?

 

Vote on the Gig Plan for Nelson

The Plans for Gig Success are out!

Dunedin, Gisborne, Nelson, Timaru and Wanaka. May the best town win, so long as that town is Nelson of course!

This is the final challenge and Nelson’s last chance to become GigaTown.  After a year of building a strong online (and offline) community and chasing the leaderboard so hard, we need this win!

Scroll down to read the infographics in the Nelson plan.  The Plan covers how Nelson will leverage giga when it becomes NZ’s first Smart Town.  This in turn will provide a working template for other towns to adopt when giga is pushed out to the rest of NZ.

Check out the Funding and Investment graphic, which uses a Monopoly board to get the messsage across, very cool.

I love the format of GigaNelson’s logo with the WiFi above the eye, very creative yet simple and effective.

Become part of the Gig Club!  Go here to read the plan and vote. 

Read earlier posts about gigatownnsn – an online community, the finals and the final challenge,

This blog post was automatically posted to Facebook, Twitter,  Google+ and LinkedIn to spread the word and encourage people to vote

 

Farewell SCM501

Today was the last day of course.  Goodbye SCM501.  It’s been fun knowing you …

The work hasn’t finished though.  Assignment 3 is due in on Monday and next Friday Assignment 1 (which is this Blog project) is due.  As I write this I know I still have so much to do on Assignment 3.  It consists of three parts, first a competitor analysis (which I’ve mostly knocked off), the social media plan (which I’ve started but nowhere near finished) and then the report (which shouldn’t take long to do).

This was the first delivery of this course at NMIT and possibly the first social media paper at tertiary level in NZ.  I would like to thank Clare Atkins for her wonderful style of teaching, Michelle Allwright who we only had for a week before she went off sick (she is an amazing marketing tutor and I was so looking forward to her wisdom – maybe next year) and to Aly Cook for filling in for Michelle and teaching us so much about the implementation of social media.

I have really enjoyed being an adult student, if only for a few hours each week.  It’s given me a chance to put my head into a completely different space each week.  I’m learning about a subject that I’m passionate about, Social Media.  I’m putting into place something I can use for my business, Travel HQ.  And  I’ve met some really cool people.  The class was small with about 12 students.  We are a very mixed bunch, from students to adults, all doing the course for our own different reasons.

There’s a lot of awesome memories, not least of all, my very first blog bog, read it here.  I remember writing this and having to think about what I was saying.  But now it feels very natural and the words just flow by themselves as my fingers tap away at the keys.

Most of all, I’m absolutely loving writing again.  I’m even considering studying next year!

Wish me luck on my assignment!