Instant Insight
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Growing up, I waited for the mail to come like it was my job. It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to do, or that I became bored playing outside. No, I just liked getting the mail – and saying hello to Mr. James, the mailman almost every single day. Getting a letter in the mail was of upmost gratification. I felt special. I felt loved. Someone cared. Back then, we had numerous school pen-pals from different countries, friends from summer camp that kept in touch all year long and of course, my younger cousins would send me (lovely) artwork.
But it seems, those days of waiting for the red flag to go down are over. With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, our communication is now instant. A Facebook email or wall post, a tweet, or even a note sent over email — all delivered via our smartphones. Often times, we are so hurried we don’t take the time to sit down and read that note — let alone find the time to send one back. Other than magazines, bills and solicitations, Mr. James doesn’t bring any good news to the mailbox anymore. Well, other than birthday and holiday cards.
According to the US Postal Service, they will incur about $238 billion in losses over the next ten years if Congress doesn’t allow them to revamp their business model. Adjusting the mail service schedule — no more Saturday and maybe even Tuesday delivery, dissolving prepaid retiree health benefits and perhaps closing some post offices are among the thoughts proposed to Congress.
So let’s try something…go home tonight, blow off the dust to your old address book and open to a random page. Sit down, and write a letter. If we all start corresponding via snail mail again, there’s hope for Mr. James. Think about it…wouldn’t it be great to get a letter from a long lost friend?
Granted, you may need to Google them, or even Facebook them to see if they’ve moved, but the surprise of receiving a letter in the mail may be worth it — and it could help generate more business for the US Post Office!
Red flag down.
If you’re like me, in the first hour I used Google Wave, I thought…”eeh. Kinda cool, but I don’t need another thing to check, why not just integrate these features into Gmail? Well, I pretty much got my wish and more with Google Buzz. Now I’m not sure if it’s what I wanted. I think the integration of social media and multimedia-email-like-objects could be cool. I could talk about the potential positives with this new google product, but I think those are pretty easy to see, here are some potential aspects I don’t like:
(If you don’t know what google buzz is, here is a video. In short, its Facebook and Twitter meet gmail. It will be in every gmail account, whether you ask for it or not. (but you can turn it off if you want))
Social Integration
I don’t know if I want / need another digital social touch point. I already use Twitter and Facebook. I don’t see myself abandoning them anytime soon. So right now gmail serves a pretty specific purpose for me right now, it’s my email. I’m not totally keen on the idea of inviting the whole world into my inbox.
Privacy Concerns
If you’ve activated buzz you’ll notice it’s already set up people to follow. Ditto for others. This article put it best “The problem is that — by default — the people you follow and the people that follow you are made public to anyone who looks at your profile.
In other words, before you ever touch any settings in Google Buzz, someone could go into your profile and see who are the people you email and chat with most.”
Must Google run everything?
To me Google feels a bit like the robber-barrons of the 21st century. Right now I have 1) a gmail account 2) an igoogle account 3)p google blog 4)a google phone 5) a google voice account 6) a google reader account 7) a google checkout account 8 ) a google wave account 9) a google picture account (picasa) 10) it’s my interne browser, its also 11) my text and video chat client and of course, my 12) search engine. Thats 12 prety major things, and who knows what I forgot. Twitter, Facebook and Apple are among the few major players I still interact with that aren’t google. Do I think google is pure evil like some people do? No. But I feel like I should be cautious. If they do turn out to be pure evil I don’t want them to be in control of everything I come into contact with, no matter how convenient it is.
I’m pretty set in my ways. Right now I like my social media with my social media and my email with my email. Can I resist or will I be fully dragged into the Googlesphere. I guess only time will tell.
(This was originally posted at Digital Pivot before being reposted here and at my website, but I did write it)
