THE MEANDERWALKER

My friend Scott is a pretty discerning and opinionated guy, which is why I don’t mind sacrificing an hour or so in the morning to engage in a debate with him — while reading my e-mail, looking at my Facebook newsfeed, checking my Etsy transactions, and webclipping for my client (I’m good at multitasking in the morning, what can I say?). I mind even less when he begins it by acknowledging a blog post I wrote the previous day:

• Scott: i read your latest internet weblog entry with some interest.
• me: thank you
• Scott: because i’m thiiiiiis close to baleeting myspase.
• Scott: you can’t see, but my thumb and forefinger are about a half an inch apart.
• me: so deleting your myspace page is cool? but i meant it in a general way… i mean, youre still very active on facebook…
• Scott: oh sure, facebook is full of win. facebook has utility. myspace has none.
• me: yeah… but news from the ‘bleeding-edge’ is that having any of that stuff is going to be lame pretty soon
• Scott: unpossible.
• me: once all the lame-o’s catch on — which they have — it’s no longer cool
• Scott: can i still txt people?
• me: yeah.. but things are gonna get real analog… youll have to start writing letters. eventually, that is
• Scott: no wai. i have one device that lets me make calls, send emails, send txts, and do the facebook. you’re telling me that’s not cool?
• me: maybe, like, 5 years ago
• Scott: you’re 5 years ago!
• me: THE INTERNET IS 5 YEARS AGO
• Scott: noooooooooooo. we’re only just now figuring out how to use it!
• me: that’s just it!
• Scott: five years ago, we had no idea! it was all animated gifs and YTMND.
• me: EVERYONE is figuring out how to use it. MY MOM just learned the internet last week!
• Scott: but is she doing it right? and i’ll bet your mom’s a happenin’ lady. be nice to her.
• me: my mom does happen to be a happenin’ lady… however, she is not tech-savvy one bit. she also recently learned to text message, too. which, i’ll admit is nice because she doesn’t leave me voicemails that say “i have to tell you something, call me back” anymore
• Scott: this is an article i read yesterday that i think is closer to reality: http://www.slate.com/id/2177969/ (Ed note: this is a good article, you should read it — the title of this post came from it!)
  
• me: that article reminds me of how whenever i’m at my computer my mom will say “Who ya e-mailin’?”
• Scott: adorable.

The conversation went on like that for a while longer and we conclude that:

• Scott: i think we’re basically agreeing here, up to the point where the cool kids, the real cool ones, not the cool ones like you, ditch the facebook. facebook is about to asplode, we’re only starting to figure it out. facebook is now and forever.
• me: i think its hit a pinnacle. which means theres only one direction to go. i thought Friendster was now and forever. and then i thought MySpace was now and forever
• Scott: but friendster was useless! and myspace was useless!
• me: so now im skeptical is all
• Scott: facebook is doing it right! facebook is a piece of SOFTWARE.
• me: i agree with you that facebook is being strategic. more strategic than its predecessors at least. but i think my theory deals more with the cycle of cultural “coolness”

And that’s my only point in all of this. I love the internet — in fact, I want to go back to school to learn to use it better — and I think it’s an important component of modern life. But, I think we also have to consider it in the context of it being a cultural phenomenon and not put all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak. Investing so much time, effort, and money in the internet is not the way to go. Using it in combination with real-life, one-on-one relationships, in a strategic and moderate way is using it successfully. And that goes for everything from corporate marketing to your personal life.