Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Social Discussion

If you look at social media through the normal lens, the 'user profile' glasses, it all kind of looks the same. One of the things writers do is swap out the lenses. So what are the alternatives?

I thought maybe a chicken farm, or maybe an egg farm. I have no idea if or how much difference might be between those, but to use some marketing terms, I put Google in the 'free range' category, while Facebook is more like 'caged'. I'm not sure about Twitter... game hens maybe.

But now I think these social media sites are about conversation. Maybe you want a debate, with rules or such, or maybe you want to hang with friends and be in the now. And I think that's why users get upset when the rules of conversation change.

The whole point of social media is participation, and there are rules. You have 'like' or 'follow' before anything happens. You converse by those rules, and then they change, just a little bit, and it's no longer the same conversation. That can be very annoying.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Govern

Government actions matter less then their willingness to admit them.

Executing an innocent man is wrong, mistake or not. Maintaining a secret prison is worse, no matter how comfortable the prisoners.

Bombing an innocent village is wrong, no matter the reason. Covering it up is worse.

If my government is keeping secrets from me, do I have real representation? What does taxation without representation mean? How much say does that give me? How can I know which secrets should be kept if I don't know what they are?

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Royal Balance

The Seelie Court would say, "May the divine winds carry you to paradise."

The Unseelie Court would say, "May you suffer a painful accident and die."

Those two statements mean the same thing, but Unseelie only say it when they mean it and are willing to make arrangements. Seelie would never admit such a thing had ever crossed their minds--would you like an apple?

Or maybe it's the other way around. You can never tell with faeries--at least not until someone's heart has been ripped out.

Both courts would say, "The thing about humans is you can always find another side to be on."