Jul 16th, 2010
Tech talk
Around the end of June, my tech life changed dramatically in two ways.
First, I became the owner of an iPhone 3G. Jan bought this two years ago and has used it pretty much nonstop every since. (We joke that it is his “auxiliary brain.”) When the iPhone 4 came out last month, he preordered one; it arrived (and was immediately activated) the day before it would have been available in stores.
Then the 3G became mine. I’m not using it as a phone, though. My cell phone use doesn’t justify this expensive; it currently amounts to about 400 minutes per year–so I use T-Mobile’s prepaid 1000 minutes good for one year for $100 deal. So the old iPhone is functioning as an iPod Touch*, which means I have Internet access whenever I have a WiFi connection.
So what am I doing with the 3G? Mostly gaming. It’s very handy for playing an asynchronous Scrabble-like game with friends, as well as Carcassonne. (If Settlers of Catan ever comes out for the iPhone, I will probably disappear for a while…) I’m also having loads of fun with Plants versus Zombies, which is exactly what it sounds like (and available for many platforms, for non-iPhone users out there).
The other big change is that I have pretty much stopped using Facebook in the past few weeks. I ranted here about Facebook several months ago, but ultimately still found it a useful place to keep in touch with people. But lately, I find that reading Facebook just annoys me: too much passive-aggression, too many “let me say something vague and negative so lots of people will ask me ‘what’s wrong?'” status updates, too much inanity. I started hiding people from my feed, and when I realized that I was hiding most people, I knew it was time to go. Oh, and there’s also that whole thing about how Facebook completely ignores any privacy concerns and aggressive markets users’ information to other vendors. Yeah, that.
(I haven’t nuked my Facebook account–still on the fence about that–but I’ve removed most of my personal information from there.)
So, aside from the blogosphere, where am I hanging out these days online? Believe it or not, Twitter, where I’m First Things; you can find me here. I’ve been active there only for a couple of weeks now, and so far it’s been…interesting. More on that later, though.
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*What a lame name. Seriously, Steve Jobs: Apple has excelled in the design and marketing department for some time now. This was the best you guys could come up with?
9 Responses to “Tech talk”
I’m planning on staying Facebook and Twitter free. Pretty much at my limit – any additional social media would send me over the edge. :)
Twitter instead of Facebook? I daresay my tweets are even more annoying than my Facebook status updates. :)
Sorry you are abandoning Facebook for Twitter (which may mean I’ll have to get a Twitter account; I can be stubborn!). I think of Facebook as a place where you have to be pretty confident that you don’t care if the whole world knows what you post. I don’t know anyone besides myself who has fewer than 30 friends, though.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep reading your blog. I’m sorry your wallet took a hit thanks to Ticketmaster/LiveNation. Just read that LiveNation announced that it’s going to take a $40 million loss this year because of so many canceled concerts and tours. So maybe there’s justice in the world after all.
Oh, and I meant it is going to take a $40 million loss. Sorry for the typo.
@Chris: You do already read about, what, a GAZILLION blogs or something, right? :)
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@Frank: Um, now you have to tell me how to find you on Twitter!
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@Melinda: I don’t put anything online that I want to keep secret. I think part of my problem is that my “friends list” on Facebook includes many people (e.g., contacts from high school) who aren’t really friends. Maybe it’s time to prune that social tree…
Ohhh, I hate that passive aggressive Facebook stuff. I have one family member who does that all the time. At one point she was updating a few times a day with things like, “waiting anxiously for test results” and “feeling so worried” but then when people asked her what’s up she wouldn’t say. So why post it? Grrrr….
I’m addicted to Words with Friends too. My user name is Boots Boots.
@Jen: I’m hesitant to play against you, having seen your total pwnage on Facebook word games. :) But I’ll give it a try! I’ll send you a game invite once I find my iPhone. Which, since it’s not functioning as a phone, I can’t call to find it. It’s around here somewhere…
I love my iPod Touch-I have a Motorola Droid X for a cell phone. I think the Ipod really helped with the learning curve for the Droid. I have knitting apps on the iPod. I played Bejeweled on my palm, so it’s on the iPod. I am on Facebook, where I think I need to stay after writing an article for a library journal a few years back. My FB friends list is composed of has a lot of cousins, Saint Bernard people, librarians and knitters, LOL’ I am on Twitter-but I mostly repost Plurks there