Our Most Basic Human Desires

Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams was a recent guest on Charlie Rose. During the talk, Williams offers that the Internet has evolved over time to "more efficiently tap the most basic human desires." 

Among those desires, he says, "the desire to connect with other people socially is a big one." 

I'm not so sure what is social about sitting alone at a computer (see photo above). Even when people gather socially nowadays, often they feel the need to start showing each other videos and clips on youtube, pretty much grinding any genuine conversation to a halt. That ain't sociable!

As I get more entrenched in social networking and the phenomenon of social media, I actually feel like less of a social creature. I spend more hours per week than I care to sitting at my laptop and the computers at school. Poor time management is partly to blame. I really need to develop a system for how much time I spend online. But I also feel a lot of pressure to keep up with the onslaught of information that comes from Twitter, facebook, the blogs I follow, and email.

I can scarcely remember the period in my adult life when I didn't "need" to be in arm's reach of a computer all the time. I vaguely recall reading a lot more books, watching more movies (something I feel I haven't had the time to do much these days), playing more sports, going for more walks, hanging out with more friends, even talking on the phone more. It's all of these things that I miss and that I need to reconnect with. Information overload is really doing a number on me at the moment. With spring on its way, and school soon finished, I am determined not to let the Internet use me anymore. Time is too valuable. 

Twitter's Evan Williams on Charlie Rose:

Recycling Photo Exhibit Makes Big Splash

Pardon the radio silence as of late. I'd been busy preparing for the launch of my photo show. The opening of "Your Recycling: Where Does It Go?" last Thursday was a resounding success (imho).

Ongoing (till Mar. 6) at the OnWard Gallery in Red River College's Princess Street Campus, the opening reception had about 75 attendees. CTV news and CBC Radio 1 both came down to interview little ol' me. I spoke to the crowd about the project and what I had learned. Jim Fogg, the GM of the Manitoba Public Stewardship Corporation, was kind enough to address the audience. He put on a clinic about recycling and a very engaging Q&A session followed. 

This morning I was live on CJOB Radio's wake-up show talking about the project. The media attention has been exciting, and all thanks to a well-crafted media advisory that I carpet-bombed the local news outlets with last week (thanks BB & MLL!). I've experienced first-hand the power of good PR! This gives me hope for my future. Thank you to everybody who attended and all the well-wishers from afar. The evening would have meant nothing without you.