Archive for ‘Internet culture’

Are paper books dead?

By Monica Brand, 4 January, 2010, 12 Comments

I do. I don’t know how long it will take. You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author’s world. That’s not going to go away; that’s going to thrive. But the physical book really has had a 500-year run. . . But no technology, not even one as elegant as the book, lasts forever.

That’s Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, mastermind behind that eReader gadget known as Kindle answering the question posed by Newsweek magazine: Do you think that the ink-on-paper book will eventually go away?

Now I ask you -

Will the traditional paper book cease to exist?

Is technology that powerful?

Are we so addicted to our electronics that the eBook will send the paper book into extinction?

And do we care?

image: scrapetv.com

I won! I won! Ok, I’m calm now

By Monica Brand, 15 December, 2009, 4 Comments

I won!

O, happy day! A Sony Pocket Reader! I’ve been fantasizing of how awesome a Kindle would be, but at the price tag of almost $300, it’s a not happening right now. I had to read the post at 5 Minutes for Books twice to make sure I wasn’t dreaming – I was that shocked and excited. A Sony Pocket Reader! I can’t wait to try it out. Woohoo!

Have you won anything lately from a blog, Twitter or other another place in the online world? Let’s jump up and down together.

Focus elsewhere

By Monica Brand, 11 July, 2009, No Comment

Not a break from blogkeeping, just social media. Have fun in the Land of Constant Communication. I’ll be back…

Yesterday afternoon

By Monica Brand, 5 May, 2009, 3 Comments

For those of you not in the know – I called 911 yesterday afternoon because I thought I was having a heart attack. Welcome to 40, eh? Sheesh, I’m feeling old.

I’ll give a more detailed update later as to what happened, but for right now, I’ll leave you with this:

Twitter is the fastest way to communicate with a ton of people. Many thanks to everyone who responded to my call for prayer – you guys are the best. I wish I could reach though the computer and give you all a huge hug.

Blog book tour: Flickering Pixels (How technology shapes your faith) by Shane Hipps

By Monica Brand, 20 April, 2009, No Comment

A snip from Flickering Pixels (How technology shapes your faith) by Shane Hipps:

The Internet is a lot of things, but it is emphatically not a neutral aid. Digital social networking inoculates people against the desire to be physically present with others in real social networks — networks like a church or a meal in someone’s home. Being together becomes nice but nonessential.

What say ye, readers? Agree or disagree? Let’s discuss.

Twitter is the new blog

By Monica Brand, 13 April, 2009, 3 Comments

I really believe that; Twitter is now the most popular way for online women to communicate to a large audience.

As you know, I took an extended leave from Twitter and Facebook from late February to April 9. Not clicking over to Facebook was easy; Twitter I missed terribly. A few times I thought of breaking fast and jumping back in. The chatter, the direct messages, seeing that @ reply in the stream is a real kick in the pants.

And I was lonely. Giving up Twitter, it was like I wasn’t part of the blogging community anymore. I was still here blogging, leaving comments and reading other blogs, but I wasn’t part of the larger group, because they were all still giving their attention to Twitter (imagine that!). All my traffic coming from Twitter, dropped to almost nil. I missed that too. It reminded me of being a newbie, trying to find readers and build up traffic.

It wasn’t that long ago when we would visit blogs to meet each other, now we visit Twitter to meet virtually.

Not only that, but when one of us – and I’m talking moms who blog - is hurt, suffering or wronged, Twitter takes up the cause. Remember Motrin Moms? Currently, twitter moms are raising money for the March of Dimes in memory of the daughter of a mom blogger. You can do that with a blog, but with Twitter, and the amazing hash tag, it’s so much easier.

So I’m back on Twitter, but this time with a better approach. For one, I’m not going back to that compulsion to constantly send tweets out regarding little snippets of life. I enjoy the word pictures of what people are doing, that’s why I like to tweet that too, but I feel a need to tip the balance toward helpful information. Links folks can use, learn and grow in knowledge.

If you follow me, you may have noticed I’ve been sending out links about women and children in crisis. The more I read about poverty, it’s connection to human trafficking and the sex trade… sad stuff there. That’s the new purpose to my tweets – getting the message out about these precious lives worth far more than the 140 characters I dedicate to them.

Blogs won’t die. But they are no longer the dominate means of social interaction for women on the web.

What do you think? Am I completely crazy or wicked smart? You have up to 140 characters to explain your opinion. Kidding – Twitter humor, of course.

Paper Bridges